Best for: Delicate proteins like fish and seafood, melting sugar, making candy, and sauces.

The details: Copper frying pans are expensive, but they offer superb heat conductivity. That means they heat up quickly and cool down just as fast, giving you more control when you’re making something you have to monitor closely, like a caramel sauce. “They’re at the opposite end of the spectrum from cast iron,” Nitahara says. “Because it heats up and cools down quickly, you can bring a sauce right to the brink, then remove it from the heat before it breaks from the high heat.”

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.

    Lay your strips of bacon onto the preheated cooking surface in a single layer, ensuring that they are not overlapping. Allow the bacon weight press to start cooking for a brief moment before proceeding to the next step.

Most of these pans have a long handle, making it easy to move the pan on and off the stove. However, larger frying pans may include a smaller grab handle to carry the weight.

Aluminum is lightweight but strong and doesn't warp when exposed to high heat. Since they're such good conductors of heat, aluminum frying pans are great for frying and sautéing foods. The main drawback of aluminum is that it reacts with alkaline and acidic foods. This causes corrosion and leads to leaching of the metal into the food, which acquires a metallic taste.

Ironically, a skillet is actually far superior at sautéing food than a sauté pan. To properly sauté, small to medium-sized pieces of food are cooked rapidly in hot fat, with constant agitation. The sloping sides of a skillet allow you to easily shake the pan, performing the jump-flip maneuver that cooks like to show off with. It's more than just ego-padding, though. It's the most efficient way to redistribute the food in the pan, ensuring even cooking for all pieces.

The size of the pan defines its purpose to some extent. For example, a 6-inch skillet is suitable for frying an egg, while a larger pan is necessary for frying multiple eggs simultaneously or creating stir-fry or shallow fry dishes.