Kupferkasserolle Stielkasserolle 16 cm Casserole

A saucepan is one of the basic forms of cookware (not technically a pan), in the form of a round

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

vessel, typically deep, and wide enough to hold at least of water, with sizes typically ranging up to , and having a long

handle A handle is a part of, or an attachment to, an object that allows it to be grasped and object manipulation, manipulated by hand. The design of each type of handle involves substantial ergonomics, ergonomic issues, even where these are dealt wi ...

protruding from the vessel. The saucepan can be differentiated from the saucepot by the fact that "a saucepan is a cooking utensil with one handle; a saucepot is equipped with two side handles".Louise Jenison Peet, Mary S. Pickett, and Mildred G. Arnold, ''Household Equipment'' (1979), p. 120. Unlike cooking pans, a saucepan is usually not engineered to have

non-stick surface A non-stick surface is engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-sticking 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 ref ...

. This is so that it can be used in deglazing, a process by which food stuck to the surface of the pan from cooking is recooked with liquid and other ingredients to form a sauce.

History

A predecessor of the saucepan, preceding the wider use of metal cookware in the

late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, was the pipkin, an

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

cooking pot used for cooking over direct heat from coals or a wood fire. They were not held in direct flame which would crack the ceramic. It has a handle and many (though not all) examples had three feet. Late medieval and post-medieval pipkins had a hollow handle into which a stick might be inserted for manipulation. Examples exist unglazed, fully glazed, and glazed only on the interior. While often spheroidal, they were made with straight outwardly-sloping sides. In

early modern Europe Early modern Europe, also referred to as the post-medieval period, is the period of European history between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the mid 15th century to the late 18th century. Histori ...

, saucepans "had small iron trivets, or stands, so that they could be pushed into the hot ashes" for cooking.

Terminology

In French, the saucepan is called a "casserole", which may lead to confusion. As one cookbook explains: In some households, saucepans are called "pots", in contrast with wider forms of pans, although this confuses them with the traditional

cooking pot Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a Kitchen stove, stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considere ...

. Historically, a pot can be broadly defined as "any closed vessel manufactured for use in the cooking process", but in modern usage, a pot may typically be contrasted to a frying pan, compared to which a pot "is a deep vessel with a relatively heavy bottom and a lid.Colman Andrews, ''Country Cooking of Italy'' (2012), p. 13.

References

External links

{{wiktionary Cooking vessels