![\"Essential](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2014-06-28-22.48.59-e1430692199189.jpg\")
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Think you need eleventy bajillion pots and pans in your house to make a meal?<\/p>\n
Hardly.<\/p>\n
For most people, three pots and pans are all you need if you\u2019re learning to cook, and will allow you to prepare 95% of the meals you\u2019ll ever need.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last time we took a look at what it takes to stock your kitchen, and how few things you really need.<\/p>\n Today we\u2019ll take a look at the backbone of your kitchen: cookware.<\/p>\n As we\u2019ll see, you only need a total of three<\/em> pots and pans for the vast majority of your cooking needs.<\/p>\n Without a doubt, the most important piece of cookware you can have is a big-ass pot, aka a Dutch oven.<\/p>\n Why?<\/em><\/p>\n Not only can a pot serve as a pan in a pinch, frying up meat and veggies, but the things that you make in a pot\u2013soups, stews, braises\u2013are exactly the types of meals you should be making if you\u2019re first learning how to cook.<\/p>\n For the most part, you\u2019ll be using this pot for low-and-slow cooking, so quality isn\u2019t as big a concern if you\u2019re strapped for cash.<\/p>\n The most important thing you\u2019re looking for here is a size of between 6\u20138 quarts (6\u20138 L). Smaller and you\u2019ll have a tough time making more than a couple servings, bigger and you\u2019ll make more food than you can eat in a week.<\/p>\n If you got a set of cookware from Target or Ikea when you first started living on your own, you probably have one of these already.<\/p>\n But if you\u2019re in the market for a big-ass pot, I suggest you skip the nonstick ones and go for the mack daddy of them all: the enameled cast-iron Dutch oven.<\/p>\n Dutch ovens (no, not that kind) are made of iron, which makes them hold heat really well and evenly.<\/p>\n The enameled coating allows you to slow cook acidic ingredients like tomatoes, and makes cleanup much easier as well.<\/p>\n A pan is the yang to the pot\u2019s yin.<\/strong><\/p>\n Where the pot is great for slow-cooking meats and veggies over low heat for long periods of time, melding all the flavors together, the pan is great for giving short blasts of heat and bringing out new flavors altogether.<\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re frying onions and peppers or searing a pork chop, a pan is an essential piece of cookware in any cook\u2019s arsenal.<\/p>\n The most important consideration here is size. You don\u2019t want one of those dinky pans, but rather something in the 10\u201c\u201312\u201d (25\u201330 cm) range.<\/p>\n Again, you probably have something like this from that el cheapo cookware set, but this is one time when I suggest that no matter what, you should upgrade your pan and buy a cast-iron skillet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Simply put, nothing sears like a skillet. Like a Dutch oven, a cast-iron skillet holds a tremendous amount of heat.<\/p>\n The chemical reactions of caramelization and the Maillard reaction are just way too difficult to pull off without a cast-iron skillet, and these are just the types of easy tricks that will allow you to become a kitchen hacking master<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oh, and there\u2019s another reason. Cast-iron skillets are ridiculously cheap.<\/p>\n I use (and recommend) the 10″ (25 cm) Lodge cast-iron skillet, and you can find it for about $20.<\/p>\n The big-ass pot and pan will do most of the heavy lifting in your kitchen, but I\u2019d still suggest you get a little pot to play a backup role.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll use this mostly for boiling smaller amounts of veggies, beans, and grains at first, but as you level up your kitchen skills you\u2019ll find it\u2019s great for more than just that.<\/p>\n Making sauces is what a saucepan was born to do, baby! And since I like to make stock in bulk and freeze it, a small pot is great for melting small amounts at a time.<\/p>\n Quality is even less important for a saucepan than with a big-ass pot or pan, so your old el cheapo<\/em> saucepan will do just fine here.<\/p>\n But<\/em>, if you\u2019d like to get something that will cook more evenly and last for decades, you\u2019ll want something made of stainless steel with a solid aluminum core.<\/p>\n Something in the ~1.5 quart (1.5 L) range will give you the most flexibility. And you\u2019re gonna want a lid.<\/p>\n If you are worried you don’t have enough cookware, go through the list above and buy one of each of the three listed pieces. For 95% of your needs, it’s all that’s necessary.<\/p>\n In the next article, we’ll go over the necessary knife and accessories. (Spoiler alert: you should never buy a full knife set.)<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think you need eleventy bajillion pots and pans in your house to make a meal? Hardly. For most people, three pots and pans are all you need if you\u2019re learning to cook, and will allow you to prepare 95% of the meals you\u2019ll ever need. Last time we took a look at what it takes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3342"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3353,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions\/3353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Dutch Oven<\/h2>\n
![\"Dutch](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2014-06-21-23.11.49-e1430692237557.jpg\")
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A Skillet<\/h2>\n
![\"Cast](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2014-06-21-23.11.12-e1430692287719.jpg\")
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A Saucepan<\/h2>\n
![\"Saucepot\"](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2014-06-21-23.10.43-e1430692318404.jpg\")
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