Discussion
I took home ec but didn't really grow up cooking, and it was always a bit of a mystery to me. Then 15 years ago I wound up at an intro home cooking seminar, and the presenter explained that a lot of folks wind up with tons of cookware they never use. A few basics can cover most recipes:
- 3-quart saucier
- 11-inch skillet
- 8-quart stockpot
- 2-quart saucepan
I wound up replacing my mess of thrift store pots and pans with those four items, and it turned out to be really good advice!
@aphyr Not to negate that at all, but it’s also always interesting to me how much that speaks to particular culinary traditions. I use my wok and rice cooker infinitely more than I use my stockpot. There are different tools for different habits of use!
@aphyr useful info for me as I just bought an induction stovetop and need to replace my pots
THIS IS A NOW SAUCIER APPRECIATION THREAD, BRACE FOR SHITPOSTING
"But Kyle," you say. "I'm making pancakes for me and my polycule! I need two skillets!" Yes, volume is important and you can't do that with just one skillet!
"I'm already using the pot for pasta and caramelizing onions in the skillet, where the fuck am I going to make the applesauce?" Oh yeah, been there!
"What if I want to heat up two cans of soup?" Yes! I too exist on lazy weeknights.
THE SAUCIER HAS YOU COVERED
The saucier has a reasonably-sized flat bottom, and shallower walls, so you can actually use it as a skillet in a pinch. At 3 quarts it's got enough volume for a pasta and stews. And of course it's intended for sauces: it's got a broad surface area for reducing, and a curved base which makes it easier to scrape stuff out before it burns.
It is also the perfect medium-sized thing that sits between the cute lil saucepan and the CHONKIN STOCKPOT
@aphyr A good saucier is a joy forever.
For those of you who have not been following the last four hundred years of cooking meta, and coincidentally also missed out on the last five years of Overwatch, the skillet is Tracer (DPS), the stockpot is Reinhardt (tank), and the lil saucepan is Mercy (healer).
The saucier is Moira. Technically healer, and probably better at it than everyone else, but deep in her heart she believes herself to be a DPS with nine hundred hit points, and if anyone on the team needs help, she's there to flex.
@aphyr the saucier is the most under rated pan.
@petrillic the people were ASTONISHED at his doctrine
@aphyr bah you don't need two skillets for your polycule's pancakes
that's what setting the oven to warm is for, cook them up, stick them in the oven, carry on
@aphyr
It's really funny. You basically need one skillet, a few pots, one really good knife, and one sort of 'whatever' knife (so you don't dull the good one too much), and that's like...it.
Sure it's fun to have other tools (a mixer for dough/etc, rice cookers are good, zester/graters are solid) but once you get the core things done, it's amazing how much it falls off.
@aphyr Yup. We mostly just use the 2, 5, and 12 qt pots and a few sizes of cast iron skillets. That pretty much covers our stovetop cooking needs.
(Although it's nice to have more just because then you can have two people cooking at once, or several projects going on.)
@aphyr relatable
here is a picture of me in home ec, after baking the only cake I have ever baked (from scratch even!!)
I keep telling myself I’ll take a cooking class but haven’t yet 🥲
I would add a Dutch oven just for the versatility of it in so many recipes. I pretty much use only that with a cast iron skillet and a stock pot these days.
If it's not my instant pot!
@pupatlas.bsky.social You know I have heard this many times about Dutch Ovens and have never gotten to actually work with one! It's on my list (after I recover from the expense of this year lol)
Install Fedizen
Get the full app experience
@aphyr preach! And you save tons space by sticking to the basics. Whisker > Mixer. Only need two _thin_ cutting boards (the lovely wooden ones are a pain to wash) and two knifes. The 'specialized' tool I keep around is the potato peeler. That one works so much better and it is small.