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.

A frying pan is the best nonstick cookware for quickly heating up. An oven-safe skillet is a great option if you like thicker and deeper cooking tools.

Once the bacon reaches your desired level of crispiness, remove it from the cooking surface using tongs and transfer it to a plate lined with paper towels to drain any excess grease. Allow the bacon to cool briefly before serving and enjoy the delicious results of your efforts.

Non-stick fry pans are a preferred choice when cooking on low heat as the external coating suffers damage when exposed to excessive heat. You could use non-stick pans for more delicate meals like crepes, eggs, pancakes and more. However, non-stick cookware cannot produce the searing effect, which means it excludes many of the more popular recipes.

Stainless steel cookware, being the workhorse of your kitchen, can be used for making pretty much anything, including steaks, pork, chicken, and braises.

A multi-ply frying pan with an aluminium core is recommended for the best results when cooking at high temperatures.