Pots and Pans: Part One: Snip It #23

I love to cook, but I rarely have the chance to spend time in the kitchen. I venture into the cookery, a lot, but finding a good chunk of time, to really cook a good meal, is rare for me, during the school year. I only eat well, because my husband, a stay at home dad, is our chef. The first Saturday in months, that I had nothing to do, appeared last weekend. I was elated, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I took my son to get his band uniform altered and I cooked. I actually spent a few hours in my scullery, tinkering with recipes and honing my rusty, culinary skills.

As I rummaged through my pots and pans, choosing a saute' pan over a sauce pan, a skillet over a stock pot- it dawned on me. There are a lot of different pots and pans. Seriously. There are all of the aforementioned, but then add in: Wok's, griddles and braiser's, baking pans and dutch ovens, roasting pans and pressure cookers. If that's not enough, the materials they are forged from, are just as vast, each a different conductor. Copper, cast iron, aluminum, carbon steel and ceramic, non-stick or stainless steel. Depending on whether you are an amateur cook, or a chef, you look at these options differently.

If you are making a sauce, braising meat, or cooking pasta, there is a different tool, you would pull from the cabinet. In an industrial or restaurant kitchen, each pot or pan, has a specific purpose, they are only used, for that purpose. You would never see a Michelin Chef using a sauce pan, to fry bacon or a skillet to create a Bearnaise. But in a home kitchen, while preparing the evening meal, for your family, you use a roasting pan to bake the french fries, or a sauce pan to boil the pasta, no one is going to say anything.

It is all about perspective- options, choices and decisions, based on need and importance. This leads me to my topic for tomorrow: Pots and Pans: Part Two: How important is it, to always use the right pot, for the right job, in a classroom setting? Will the meal be ruined, if we change things up a bit? Is there any reason, we can't fry a good burger, in the oven, rather than on the grill. I guess it depends on taste and availability, of oven, grill, or stove top. Either way, you still get a burger.