To help give you a running start, we’ve put together a guide to six of the most common pan materials, how to cook with them, what they’re best used for, and how to decide which one is right for you.

7 – Aluminum Frying Pans

Enamel Cookware Maintenance

So, Why Is There So Much Confusion in the Kitchen?

Copper is a great heat conductor, so copper frying pans heat up pretty quickly, but they lose heat just as fast. This prevents food from continuing to heat and burning up even after removing the source of heat. They're the exact opposite of cast iron. They're also not as resistant to high temperatures as cast iron and stainless steel. Anything above 450 degrees is a no-no.

Cooking Surface Applications: The spacious cooking surface of big black cast iron skillets allows for the preparation of large quantities of food, making them suitable for family meals, entertaining, and batch cooking. They can handle everything from searing steaks to cooking pancakes and deep-dish pizzas.

Stainless Steel Frying Pans

Sauté pans, in contrast, have sides that meet the bottom surface at a right angle. This defined edge leaves the entire bottom of the pan even and flat, making for a much larger surface area. As compared to skillets of the same diameter, a 12-inch sauté pan has 12 inches of usable cooking surface. The sauté pan’s tall sides allow it to hold a greater volume of liquid than a skillet and help prevent spillovers.