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A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for
frying Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat. Similar to sautéing, pan-fried foods are generally turned over once or twice during cooking to make sure that the food is well-made, using tongs or a spatula, while sautéed foods are cooked ...
, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle. A pan of similar dimensions, but with less flared, more vertical sides and often with a lid, is called a sauté pan. While a sauté pan can be used as a frying pan, it is designed for lower heat cooking.


History

Copper frying pans were used in ancient Mesopotamia. Frying pans were also known in ancient Greece where they were called ''tagēnon'' ( Greek: τάγηνον) and Rome, where they were called ''patella'' or ''sartago''. The word ''pan'' derives from the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''panna''. Before the introduction of the kitchen stove in the mid-19th century, a commonly used cast-iron cooking pan called a 'spider' had a handle and three legs used to stand up in the coals and ashes of the fire. Cooking pots and pans with legless, flat bottoms were designed when cooking stoves became popular; this period of the late 19th century saw the introduction of the flat cast-iron skillet.


Frying pan relatives

A versatile pan that combines the best of both the sauté pan and the frying pan has higher, sloping sides that are often slightly curved. This pan is called a ''sauteuse'' (literally a sauté pan in the female gender), an ''evasée'' (denoting a pan with sloping sides), or a ''fait-tout'' (literally "does everything"). Most professional kitchens have several of these utensils in varying sizes. A "rappie pan" is a pan used to make
rappie pie Rappie pie is a traditional Acadian dish from southwest Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick and areas of Prince Edward Island. It is sometimes referred to as rapure pie or râpure. Its name is derived from the French ''patates râpées'' meaning 'grated p ...
, an
Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...
potato dish. The pan is made from aluminum or
stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
.


Construction

Traditionally, frying pans were made of cast iron,
carbon steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...
or copper lined with tin, for their different qualities and properties. Copper pans are highly thermally conductive, making them useful for evenly sautéing. However, they are also highly reactive with most foods, so today a large number of copper pans are sold with a tin lining which can be replaced when it wears out. Cast iron pans are used because although they do not conduct heat very evenly, they do retain it quite well, making them useful for searing meats and vegetables. Carbon steel cookware is used because over time it can develop a highly nonstick patina of polymerized oil called seasoning useful for cooking protein that is prone to stick, such as fish and eggs. While all of these materials are still commonly used in professional kitchens, many modern materials have supplanted them in the consumer market. Nowadays, most frying pans are now made from metals such as aluminium or
stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
. The materials and construction method used in modern frying pans vary greatly and some typical materials include: * Aluminium or anodized aluminium * Cast iron * Copper *
Stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
* Clad stainless steel with an aluminium or copper core A coating is sometimes applied to the surface of the pan to make it
non-stick A non-stick surface is engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick cookware is a common application, where the non-stick coating allows food to brown without sticking to the pan. Non-stick is often used to refer ...
. Frying pans made from bare cast iron or carbon steel can also gain non-stick properties through
seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Ho ...
and use.


Variants


Non-stick

A process for bonding Teflon to chemically roughened aluminium was patented in France by Marc Gregoire in 1954. In 1956 he formed a company to market
non-stick A non-stick surface is engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick cookware is a common application, where the non-stick coating allows food to brown without sticking to the pan. Non-stick is often used to refer ...
cookware under the " Tefal" brand name. The durability of the early coatings was initially poor, but improvements in manufacturing have made these products a kitchen standard. The surface is not as tough as metal and the use of metal utensils (e.g.
spatulas A spatula is a broad, flat, flexible blade used to mix, spread and lift material including foods, drugs, plaster and paints. In medical applications, "spatula" may also be used synonymously with tongue depressor. The word ''spatula'' derives f ...
) can permanently mar the coating and degrade its non-stick property. For some cooking preparations a non-stick frying pan is inappropriate, especially for deglazing, where the residue of browning is to be incorporated in a later step such as a pan sauce. Since little or no residue can stick to the surface, the sauce will fail for lack of its primary flavouring agent. Non-stick frying pans featuring Teflon coatings may give off toxic fumes, as the coating decomposes when heated beyond approximately . Such temperatures can be reached within minutes on gas or electric ranges using high heat. "...a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736 °F in three minutes and 20 seconds..."


Electric

An electric frying pan or electric skillet incorporates an electric heating element into the frying pan itself and so can function independently off of a cooking stove. Accordingly, it has heat-insulated legs for standing on a countertop. (The legs usually attach to handles.) Electric frying pans are common in shapes that are unusual for 'unpowered' frying pans, notably square and rectangular. Most are designed with straighter sides than their stovetop cousins and include a lid. In this way they are a cross between a frying pan and a sauté pan. A modern electric skillet has an additional advantage over the stovetop version: heat regulation. The detachable power cord incorporates a thermostatic control for maintaining the desired temperature. With the perfection of the thermostatic control, the electric skillet became a popular kitchen appliance. Although it largely has been supplanted by the microwave oven, it is still in use in many kitchens.


See also

* Blackening (cooking) * Griddle * List of cooking vessels * Pan frying


References


External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Frying pans Cooking vessels