Those who want a minimalist kitchen or who are on a budget often wonder if they can make do with just a casserole (aka French or Dutch Oven) or a stockpot (aka stock pot). If you could choose only one, which should you get?
Example of a stock pot:
Example of casserole/dutch oven:
THE SHORT ANSWER
It’s hard to go wrong with an 8-quart cladded stockpot. Boiling is reasonably efficient, without the longer ramp-up time typical of cast iron. Simmering and braising are good, and the amount of heat traveling up the sidewalls is at least as much as what you’d get from cast iron, because aluminum is a much more efficient heat conductor. And 8 quarts is easily maneuvered in the sink for cleaning, yet large enough to make soup for a family of four with plenty of leftovers.
I’d recommend the Cuisinart MCP66-24N MultiClad Pro Stainless 8-Quart Stockpot with Cover
A higher-end option is the Demeyere 5-Plus
If you are okay with stirring more often when cooking thick liquids, you can get a cheaper stainless steel stockpot with aluminum disc-base instead, like the Update International Supersteel 8-quart stockpot
If you often cook very acidic/salty foods for multiple hours at a time, supplement the stockpot with an affordable Lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven
Click here to go back to How to Choose Cookware.
THE LONG ANSWER
A pot is shaped like a cylinder (or something very close to a cylinder) with handles sticking out of the sides.
- A pot that is about 3-4 times wider than it is tall is often called a rondeau/low casserole and is shaped a lot like a sauté pan.
- A pot that is about 1.5-3 times wider than it is tall is often called a low stockpot, casserole (from the French word for “case”), French oven, or Dutch oven. (A French/Dutch Oven also has the requirement that the sidewalls contain good heat-conductive materials such as copper, aluminum, or cast iron, and not just a thin layer of stainless steel or other relatively poor heat conductor.)
- A stockpot is about as tall as it is wide.
There is a lot of variance among manufacturers regarding naming conventions, and some manufacturers call both their casseroles/low stockpots and stockpots the same name. But whatever you call these pots, they all serve to boil/steam, braise/simmer, poach, and deep fry. The depth of these pots allow them to more easily submerge food than pots that are wider in diameter, even if the wider pot holds just as many quarts.
If you can have only one pot, then get:
- A clad steel stockpot of a size appropriate for the number of people you cook for. (I find that 8 quarts is a great size for most households–it’s easy to clean in the sink, yet can produce a large batch of soup to feed up to 8 people, or more likely, up to 4 people with some leftovers. Most stockpots in family-size cookware sets are about 8 quarts in size.) You can boil water quickly, and yet still use it like a Dutch oven. If you want to artificially decrease the volume of the pot, just put a sheet of parchment paper underneath the lid and make sure the lid is heavy (or weighted). Condensation will now hit the parchment paper instead of the very top of the pot.
If you can afford two pots, consider getting the following complementary pieces:
- Get a stainless steel stockpot, either cladded or thin-walled with thick aluminum disc in the bottom, or a pressure cooker with thin stainless sidewalls and a thick aluminum disc in the bottom.
- The cladded stockpot is the most versatile, as it has heat-conductive sidewalls to help with thicker stews/chili/oatmeal or some recipes that do better with heat-conductive sidewalls.
- The next-most versatile is the thin-walled stockpot with thick aluminum disc in the base.
- A pressure cooker is least versatile, because it probably has plastic parts that can’t withstand high oven temperatures, making it only good for stovetop use.
- An enameled cast iron dutch oven such as a Le Creuset, Staub, or Lodge has heat conductive sidewalls and is almost immune to acidic and salty foods, so you can braise for hours and hours and not corrode or damage the pot. Stainless steel is tough but can corrode eventually under abuse (e.g., if you routinely store highly acidic foods in it for days at a time; also, 18/8 or 18/10 stainless steel is much more corrosion-resistant than cheaper grades of stainless like 18/0). And bare aluminum will chemically react much faster than stainless. However, I would not use the enameled Dutch oven on the stovetop for anything involving high heat, such as quickly boiling water. It takes longer to boil water in cast iron, compared to stainless steel stock pots (either disc-base or clad). Furthermore, it’s stressful for the enameled cast iron to be used on high heat, and you may prematurely fracture the enamel if you routinely boil water on the highest stove settings.
In summary, I’d recommend the Cuisinart MCP66-24N MultiClad Pro Stainless 8-Quart Stockpot with Cover
A higher-end option is the Demeyere 5-Plus
If you are okay with stirring more often when cooking thick liquids, you can get a cheaper stainless steel stockpot with aluminum disc-base instead, like the Update International Supersteel 8-quart stockpot
If you often cook very acidic/salty foods for multiple hours at a time, supplement the stockpot with an affordable Lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven
Click here to go back to How to Choose Cookware.