Just prior to when you go shopping for a frying pan, in a specializing cookware shop or a department store, you assume it is going to make you helpless, you know the wide variety is going to shock you, that the variety will not make your decision easier, and for a moment you are quite jealous of your nonna for having an easy time because she only had a single fry pan (until you remember how difficult it was to clean that one pan and you are again motivated to go out shopping). There is a endless selection of shapes, material, coatings, and you need to also, remermber to keep in mind what YOU like, what YOUR uses are, what makes YOU comfortable in a kitchen, and what YOU can afford. Materials The basic fry pan ranges are in Stainless Steel, Cast (Iron or Aluminum- plain or Hard Anodized) and Copper, which is usually more costly. A good idea is the combination between a few materials- such as the three layer Stainless Steel cooking pieces where both outer layers are a hard, resistant Stainless Steel and the middle layer is a heat conducting efficient Copper or Aluminum. Since Aluminum is relatively cheap frying pands are usually economical, but note they will be relatively "soft" so they can bend it they fall or get hit, you can invest a bit more in Hard Anodized (an Electrolyzed Aluminum) that is significantly harder (yet still relatively economical) they all will have some non stick coating on it as cooking straight on Aluminum is not at all recommended. Aluminum is a good heat conductor (so it does cool quickly once removed from the heat source). A word about coatings- some are marketed as naturally manufactured and "Green" yet there have been comments saying they are much less efficient than older non-stick coat versions, in general if the coat is unscratched and pan is used according to manufacturer's instructions, my personal opinion is that you can use any non stick coat, but the environmental factor does sometimes mean the we make an effort today to promise a brighter tomorrow. Use non metallic tools on any coating you use and store carefully so the coat will not scratch and will last longer, but remember- a coat, no matter how good, is still an external coat, not the material itself, and it will at some point, wear off. Cast iron frying pans are very unique, and are, on the one hand, some of the most durable pans available, and when the entire pan is cast iron, it can easily be used in ovens. But on the other hand are very delicate and should be handled with care between uses (Rust, a big problem). They are optimal for a limited selection of recipes and cannot replace a simple general use frying pan for all the frying needs. Size Frying pans are available in any size between 10cm- 4 inch and 36cm- 14 inch, a general use fry pan should be about 26 cm - 10 inch, in diameter, that will handle a scrambled egg for 4 people and a few Bacon strips. Heating an oversized pan is comfortable but is costly as you waste energy heating a surface you will not use, also not using the entire surfaces might result in temperature differences on the surface hot spots. Handle and Knob Most pans do not have a lid, if one is important for you- consider getting a saut? pan that will have a lid but will probably be quite wider and deeper than other pans. A glass lid is comfortable for seeing the food but it limits the temperature of an oven the pan can be placed into, as do handle materials such as wood or Bakelite. If putting the pan in the oven is something you use often, consider a pan that has a lid and handle from the same materials as the body. A good selection would have 3 sizes of Aluminum coated pans, a cast iron medium sized pan, a bigger Stainless Steel saut? pan and a large wok. That would cover your basic needs.
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