All the Best Pots and Pans We’ve Ever Written About

According to the many experts I’ve interviewed over the years, stainless steel is the best material for a saucepan. It conducts heat evenly and is sensitive to variations, and is incredibly durable. And when it comes to stainless steel, you’ll see a lot of All-Clad on this list. The pots and pans should last you forever if you take care of them, and the brand is the undisputed favorite of chefs — both at home and in professional kitchens — because the products are so durable and thoughtfully designed.Recipe developerLili Dagandescribes All-Clad’s saucepan as a gateway piece into nicer cookware, saying, “It’s reliable and sturdy, and it will show your parents that you have decent taste.”Patch Troffer, chef and a recipe developer atRow 7 Seeds Co., is a fan of the pour lip, which allows liquid to flow “without any annoying drip,” he says. “I know it’s not a particularly riveting choice, but it will get the job done, always and forever.” I have one myself and can attest to its durability and reliability.

A note on size: This saucepan starts at 1.5 quarts, good for reheating soup and pasta sauce and making rice for one or two people. (The two-quart is pretty similar.) But you can also size up. The largest four-quart size is great for standard recipes that feed four people, and the three-quart is a nice middle ground (for example, I use it all the time for blanching vegetables for my household of two, where I need more water than my two-quart pot allows).

This saucepan from Cuisinart has the same makeup of the All-Clad above: a stainless-steel finish and aluminum core. But it’s markedly less expensive. Strategist senior editorWinnie Yanghas owned hers since 2017 and says “the quality is exceptional for the very reasonable price.” She uses it at least five times a week for cooking grains or heating soup and just sticks it in the dishwasher afterward for easy cleaning. Yang even influenced me to buy some pieces from this Cuisinart line, and I’ve been hugely impressed.

If you’re cooking larger quantities of food, like a risotto or seafood pasta, consider a saucier, which is slightly taller than your standard frying pan, with sloped sides. Chef Tony Cacace of Long Island City’sJackson’s Eaterybelieves it’s the most important pan you should own, “perfect for almost anything that has a longer cooking time but needs a gentle hand,” he says. “It will handle everything from oatmeal and black-rice porridge for breakfast to risotto for dinner and ice-cream bases for dessert.”

The appeal of cast iron is generally undeniable. The material can get really hot and retain that heat, go from stove to oven, and even has some nonstick properties if seasoned correctly. If you only had to cook with a single cast-iron skillet for the rest of your life, you’d be pretty okay: You can sear, sauté, braise, fry, and bake in it. (And if you’re unsure of how to make sure it stays in top shape, I wrote aguide to cleaning and maintaining it.)

As for this specific skillet, a recentinvestigation into the best modelsactually changed my opinion, as someone who happily owned a couple of Lodges for more than a decade, andled me to determine that many of the more expensive versions are actually worth the money. My personal favorite is from Yeti. It was smooth- and sleek-as-can-be the moment I unboxed it — and has stayed that way, without any effort at all. And while all cast iron is heavier than nonstick, stainless steel, and carbon steel, this model is lighter in weight than many cheaper options I tested. It comes in four sizes, from one with a six-inch interior diameter to one with a 12-inch interior diameter.

Lodge’s skillet — perhaps the most-known and most-beloved on the market — is just $20. The surface is a bit rougher than Yeti’s, and in my experience it takes more care to maintain a well-seasoned surface. But you truly can’t beat the price. Ten of my colleagues own and love theirs.AndAlon Shaya, a New Orleans-based chef and restaurateur; Daniel Cutler, co-owner and chef ofRonanin Los Angeles; andLani Halliday, founder and owner of Brutus Bakeshop, all sing its praises, too. (The size linked here for purchase on Amazon is the 10.25-inch. Lodge’s own website has many sizes, but I’ve listed the price for the skillet starting at eight inches, as anything smaller feels very particular and a bit novelty.)

Sometimes cast-iron pans can feelheavy.Carbon-steel pans, however, are much lighter — and otherwise behave similarly. (This is the material mostwoksare made out of, too, much more practical for maneuvering around the stove). This one is our favorite, with “Teflon-like nonstick performance, hefty heat retention for searing, and a comfortable, heat-resistant silicone handle,” says Strategist senior writerMichael Zhao. It also features subtly curved sides, which are helpful for flipping and ensuring ingredients don’t get stuck in the corners.

I’ve tested dozens ofnonstick pansat this point. While ones with conventional coatings do work well,concerns about microplasticsare becoming more and more top of mind — andreplacing yours with a ceramic model, if you care to, is an easy swap to make.Although in my experience they don’t workquiteas well across the board, and don’t last quite as long, either (I think you’ll find many other people have come to the same conclusion if you look around the internet), I tested seven ceramic nonstick versions and found four I think are totally good. This one from Made In is my personal favorite, but I also recommend modelsfromCaraway,GreenPan, andQuince. Honestly, performance from all of them was similar across the board, so which one you go with will come down to price and details. While Made In’s is the most expensive option, the design gives it an edge; I love the overall look, the shape and length of the handle, and the rolled lip.

Misen’s carbon-steel nonstick frying pan is neither PTFE-coated or ceramic-coated — and, I believe, is something of a breakthrough for the category. It’s made with an aluminum core for even heating (like many stainless-steel skillets) with an outer layer of carbon steel that has been “superheated” in a nitrogen-rich environment to create an “extra-hard, extra-smooth, and extra-durable” surface, as the brand describes it. Still, it’s lighter than standard carbon-steel pans.

As with nonstick pans, the surface releases food easily without needing to be seasoned (fat in the pan will help maintain this attribute over time, but that doesn’t require thecare and maintenance of carbon steel or cast iron). I’ve seared and sautéed all manner of foods on it, from crispy-skinned chicken thighs to fried potatoes, and they release easily — and turn out perfectly — every time. (The only thing I wouldn’t use it for is scrambled eggs, where I still prefer a nonstick skillet.) “There are no bits of char permanently stuck to it after months of use,” says Zhao, who has also been testing the pan.

For a stainless-steel skillet, I’m once again recommending All-Clad (no surprise).Matt Rodbard, food writer, editor, and cookbook author, notes that the handle is so “iconic” that if you flip through “most cookbooks of the last 20 years, you’ll spot it.” And Robert Guimond, the chef and owner of restaurantPublic Display of Affectionin Brooklyn, swears by his. “It’s durable and it’s beautiful,” he says. “I often find myself daydreaming about sautéing some gnocchi or scallops with it right after I’m done washing it.”

This is the Dutch oven I’ve owned for seven years — and the one most experts told me is their favorite. Although the Le Creuset model is a classic and popular choice, Staub offers a couple standout features. It has a black interior instead of Le Creuset’s white, so it “looks great with age and doesn’t discolor as easily,” says Colin Wyatt, executive chef atTwelvein Portland, Maine. Recipe developer and food writerGrace Elkus, as well as recipe developerTara O’Bradyare both fans of Staub’s darker color, too — specifically for baking bread since it helps bread get “that chestnut-brown shade, which lighter interiors aren’t able to achieve,” O’Brady says. The Staub also features a lid with concentric dimples on the bottom.Meherwan Irani, owner ofChai Paniin Asheville, North Carolina, and founder ofSpicewalla, likes that these indents promote even condensation inside the pot, saying that “when it’s in the oven for a long time, the Staub seems to keep meat particularly tender and prevents it from drying out in any spot.”

For a fraction of the price of a Staub or Le Creuset, Lodge’s enameled cast-ironDutch ovenis an affordable and well-made favorite of both Irani and Todd Pulsinelli, executive chef ofThe Chloein New Orleans. Both chefs say they’ve had theirs for about eight years and still use them all the time with Irani saying that the Dutch oven is “pretty damn near indestructible.” Although he acknowledges that the Staub looks a bit more refined, Irani says he appreciates that the Lodge comes in multiple colors.

A braiser is essentially a wide, lower-sided version of aDutch oven, and I find it to be one of the most useful and versatile pieces in my collection. (Sometimes you’ll see the name applied to stainless-steel pieces with a similar shape, but those aren’t quite as common.) It’s the ideal vessel for one-pot dishes that require searing or sautéing, followed by adding liquid of some kind — braised short ribs or risotto, for example, as well as one-pot meals like chicken and rice or saucy pastas. It’s helpful to have more perimeter coverage than you would get with askillet, both for splatter and, of course, to hold that liquid. But it’s also easier to maneuver the food around inside it than with a high-sided pot. The enameled cast iron heats evenly and can go from stove to oven. Even though this Staub braiser is a collaboration design, it’s consistently available and one of the best-looking versions out there. I like the square handles and the slightly domed lid, which has the brand’s signature texture to help disperse moisture evenly when closed.

If you already own Lodge’s skillet, consider adding its equally beloved cast-iron griddle. “[It] lives on top of our stove nonstop,” says Gracie Nguyen, the chef and owner ofEast Side Banh Miin Nashville. “Bacon, eggs, hash browns, handmade tortillas, pressed sandwiches, searing meat and fish. It gets so hot and cooks super-even.” While I have a flattop from a different company, I can attest to the joy of using this particular piece of cookware: It makes me feel like I’m running a diner, in the best way. One piece of advice, get yourself a heavygrill pressto go with it.

Joyce Chen is one of the most widely known and trusted names in this category according to all the pros I’ve talked to, and it’s no surprise: The company introduced flat-bottomed woks to American households, now the norm for what you see on the market here. (This is as opposed to rounded models that need a special burner to sit upright.) The one I have is made of carbon steel (as many others are, too), which means it’s super sensitive to heat fluctuations. This is what makes it so ideal for stir fries and fried rice: It gets blazing hot when the flame is strong but cools down when needed, or when new ingredients are added to the mix. (To paint the picture more vividly, it works beautifully when I want to get a quick sear on a protein and then add vegetables and reduce sauce without burning anything.) It’s not too heavy, but it sits on my stovetop sturdily all the same.

While you could use a shallow stockpot or Dutch oven (or even anelectric purpose-made cooker) for simmering broth at a hot-pot party, Strategist contributor Natasha Pickowicz saysthis double-chambered hot pot“is useful for vegan or vegetarian guests” because the divider keeps their broth separate from the meat eaters. It’ll serve three to four guests, Pickowicz says.

This Toiro donabe is a favorite of Jing Gao, the founder of Strategist-favorite brandFly by Jing, who says the manual method makes rice taste better. That’s because Toiro’s owner and donabe expert, Naoko Takei Moore, says, this model’s thicker shell provides even and steady heat distribution, while the double lid increases pressure and prevents overboiling. The rounded shape also allows for “the most ideal circulation of water and moisture and steam during cooking,” Takei Moore says. Whereas traditionally shaped donabes require paying more attention to heat levels, this version was designed to be as convenient as an electric model — simply set your flame high for 15 minutes, turn it off, and let it all sit for another 20 to steam. If you’re interested, Toiro also has some of the most stunning standard donabes (meaning, not rice-specific ones) around, whichyou can shop here.

Chef Brandon Jew ofMister Jiu’sandMamahuhuloves the Kamacco, which has been produced in Japan by Tsukamoto Pottery since 1864 and is half the price of the Toiro. “It has a double lid that helps concentrate steam to cook rice better,” Jew says. “The pot can go over a low flame on the stove, but recently I took it camping with me and was able to cook rice over an indirect campfire. It can be used for heating things up, like stews, and retains heat really well, so serving food in this vessel will keep food at the table hot longer as well.”

While some people might prefer to build their cookware collection in bits and pieces, if you’re shopping for an entire cookware set, it doesn’t get better than Made In’s, which allows you to choose from three different makeups that include pieces in various sizes, made of different materials. The smallest has a few essentials, the middle oneonlyfeatures stainless steel (but will have you supremely well covered with the assortment), and the largest features every pot and pan you will need to cook any meal you could possibly dream up.

While I won’t detail each and every one, Iwillsay that their stainless steel works phenomenally well (on par with All-Clad, in my opinion), as does their nonstick (again, on par with the Zwilling Madura).Andeach grouping features one piece I didn’t specifically call out earlier in this story: a fantastic stock pot. It fits a ton but isn’t too large for storage, is durable as can be without being heavy or cumbersome, and has comfortable handles.