A Matching Set? Whatever For?
I’ve been shopping for pans.
Mostly, my pans are awesome. They were passed down from my husband’s great-grandmother. She bought them with Duncan Hines® stamps or something. The two big pans and the double boiler are great…but the saucepans…oh the saucepans…they’ve been the bane of my marriage. The sides are low and the smallest one fits a can of veggies perfectly, but the handle is so heavy that it won’t stay right on the burner unless you have it juuuust so on the burner. Otherwise you end up with a big veggie mess on your stove.
Now that we’re renovating the kitchen, one of the things on the list to buy are pans. I started looking at sets but there always seemed to be something wrong. Then it dawns on me that the only reason I want a set is because I think it’s the right thing to do. Not the right thing like helping a lost child or calling 911 if someone is getting beat up in an alley. The right thing like how you feel when you watch Martha Stewart and think, “Wow, if I had that serving platter I would have a really awesome dinner party!”
It shows itself on TLC a lot – people renovating and buying homes seem to be really focused on the best way to host a dinner party. Do these people really know enough people to have dinner parties? Is it a requirement if you are on a TLC show to prove you have enough friends to have a dinner party? How many people constitute a dinner party? If you invite one other couple over…is it a party? Do I have enough friends that I should consider them when I buy pans and kitchen supplies? Should I?
These are all the thoughts that go through my head as I try to decide between enameled cast-iron pans and stainless steel. Then, in a moment of clarity, I remember that pans are for cooking. (I know, amazing thought, right?) Pans exist ONLY to cook food. Sure they can also look pretty, but that is secondary to function.
So I decided to throw the idea of a set out the window. My saute pan (the heavy lifter in my kitchen – we even make popcorn in the saute pan!) needs to be stainless steel. I have two stainless steel pans that I can make pasta or soup in, and that’s fine. Do I really need a braiser? Maybe not, but I do need a pan that can go from the burner to the oven if I do want to braise something. That means no plastic knobs – which my Duncan Hines® pans all have. So I could go with a stainless pan – maybe even using the saute pan – or I could go with enameled cast iron for more even heating and less of a chance that there will be overspill on the sides of the pans when I make gravy or sauce from the drippings of the braised meat.
I know pans are kind of a boring topic – but when you buy them you keep them longer than most people keep a car and use them just as (if not more) often! That makes it an important decision – especially considering how much cooking I’ve been doing lately and plan to continue doing from here on out. Homecooked food is just so much better, and it seems to me that it takes just as long to cook as it does to order out and go pick it up. Either that or maybe I’m just brainwashed by Rachel Ray and her 30 Minute Meals.
Or maybe I’m just freaked out and paranoid because I’m hosting Thanksgiving this year and I want everything to be rock-star awesome.
Either way, the pans I get I may very well have until I die (if I buy good ones) so it’s important I make the right decision. Not just buy cool-looking or popular pans.
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