Aluminum is one of the most easily available natural elements, so aluminum frying pans are quite affordable. It is an excellent conductor of heat and heats up faster than stainless steel. In fact, aluminum is sometimes incorporated in stainless steel pans to improve their conductivity.

A chef who has spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen will know which skillet or frying pan to use for a specific meal. This article will explain the similarities and differences between a frying pan and a skillet.

Is a skillet better than a frying pan? Which one should I choose?

The sloped shape and light weight of skillets make them perfect for quick cooking and stir-fries.

Enameled Cast Iron Cookware Preventive Measures:

Do you need access to food with a spatula?At what temperature do you need to cook?What is the volume of the food you need to prepare?Do you need the dish to retain moisture inside?How fast do you need to cook the dish?

Carbon steel pans are just as suitable for high heat cooking as cast iron, but with a lighter, less bulky profile. Here are some distinct advantages of using this pan.

No, your should always clean your cast iron skillets by hand. A dishwasher will strip a cast iron skillet of its seasoning and cause it to rust.

Hard-anodized frying pans are made of aluminum which has been treated to make it hard and durable. They're also non-stick, but unlike the first two types of non-stick pans, they can take high temperatures without getting damaged. They're heavy and they don't get scratched when used with metallic utensils.

Most cookware-aficionados believe the confusion comes from the non-specific use of the generic words pots and pans. In addition to frying pans, there are saucepans, sheet pans, cake pans, bundt pans, roasting pans, and more. In a professional chef's kitchen, the word pan on its own usually refers to a Saute Pan – not a frying pan.

Best for: Almost any food that needs frying, browning, or searing. Because it’s ovenproof, stainless is also a good choice for foods that you start on the stovetop and then move to the oven to finish, like thick pork chops.

The details: Nitahara says that 95 percent of the pans used in the CIA’s teaching kitchens are stainless steel because they can take a lot of punishment. “The only time we don’t use them is on egg day, when we use nonstick,” he says. He adds that the shiny surface of a stainless pan makes it easy to see whether your food is browning.

In CR’s tests of stainless steel pans, we measure heating evenness by cooking pancakes, and we gauge how evenly a pan sautés by cooking potatoes until they’re tender. We also conduct a cleaning test to see how easy it is to remove cooked-on food. You’d think that all stainless pans would be about the same to clean, but our tests show that some require a lot more scrubbing than others.

Here are two recommended stainless steel pans from CR’s tests.

Carbon-steel pans are thinner and lighter than cast iron pans. They heat up quickly but lose heat just as fast. Like cast iron pans, they can also be seasoned to make them non-stick. They distribute heat evenly and are oven safe. Their main disadvantage is that they're prone to rust easily if not cared for properly.

Stainless steel frying pans are also induction-ready. This means that they can be used on an induction cooker, which uses magnetic energy to heat the pan directly.