What’s on the Choosing Pans poster
A 6-row table: Material · Good at · Avoid.
The trade-offs are between conduction, reactivity and durability.
- Stainless steel — Searing, deglazing, sauces — Eggs, delicate fish
- Cast iron — Heat retention, searing — Long-simmered acids
- Non-stick — Eggs, pancakes, fish — High heat; metal utensils
- Carbon steel — Like cast iron, lighter — Acidic dishes
- Enamelled cast iron — Braising, everything — Very high heat
- Copper — Precise control — Cost; needs polishing
Non-stick coatings degrade above about 260°C and with metal utensils. Treat non-stick pans as consumables.
Questions about the Choosing Pans poster
- What’s on the Choosing Pans poster?
- A 6-row table: Material · Good at · Avoid. The trade-offs are between conduction, reactivity and durability. Stainless steel — Searing, deglazing, sauces — Eggs, delicate fish; Cast iron — Heat retention, searing — Long-simmered acids; Non-stick — Eggs, pancakes, fish — High heat; metal utensils; Carbon steel — Like cast iron, lighter — Acidic dishes; Enamelled cast iron — Braising, everything — Very high heat; Copper — Precise control — Cost; needs polishing. Non-stick coatings degrade above about 260°C and with metal utensils. Treat non-stick pans as consumables.
- Who is the Choosing Pans poster for?
- Choosing Pans belongs to the Kitchen section rather than to a school year, because food is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning equipment can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Choosing Pans poster?
- Match the pan to the job. No single material is good at everything. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Choosing Pans belongs on the wall where that food work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Choosing Pans?
- Blenders & Processors, Cast Iron and Cleaning Equipment sit alongside Choosing Pans in the Kitchen section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Blenders & ProcessorsCast IronCleaning Equipment
- Is the Choosing Pans poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Choosing Pans downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Kitchen section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Choosing Pans poster print at?
- Choosing Pans is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Choosing Pans loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Choosing Pans on the same wall.
Browse every Kitchen poster, or start from the full catalogue.