The Best Small Saucepan of 2023
Every kitchen needs one, to whip up a killer gravy or sauce.
Who doesn’t love pasta? It’s known widely as one of the world’s most popular dishes. Pasta is usually served with a complementary sauce. To make a sauce, you need cookware known as a saucepan. Saucepans have a long handle to make an easy grab for a sauce. It has tall sides, a lid, and also narrow bases so it can cook and heat your sauce thoroughly.
Saucepans are best to use for boiling or simmering because they can hold liquid or ingredients in big quantities. The size varies from one to eight quarts. You can choose it depending on how much food you prepare. You can use the saucepan to reduce sauces or gravy, boil water, pasta, rice, or vegetables, and also make soups. It is considered small if the saucepan is only sized between one to three quarts. Here’s a list of the best small saucepans only for you!
Everything We Recommend
1. Best Product
Tramontina Tri-ply Clad 2-Quart Covered Saucepan
2. Runner Up
Cuisinart MCP19-18N Multiclad Pro Triple Ply 2-Quart Skillet
3. Cost Effective
Farberware Classic Stainless Steel 2-Quart Covered Saucepan
4. Almost Made the Cut
All-Clad Stainless Steel Sauce Pan with Lid Cookware
1. Best Product
Who It’s For:
Tramontina is built for people who want a small versatile saucepan. This can be used to boil and cook any liquid and food. If you’re looking for a pan that can heat up fast and able to distribute the heat evenly without leaving hotspots, this tri-ply clad construction pan is made for you!
Why It’s Great:
The Tramontina tri-ply clad construction that’s made of 18/10 stainless steel, aluminum core, and magnetic stainless steel will save your cooking time! This saucepan has precision-cast riveted handles and a mirror-polished 18/10 stainless-steel lid. It is NSF-Certified to meet standards for cookware used in professional kitchens. This small saucepan is compatible with all cooktops, including induction. It’s dishwasher-safe and oven safe for up to 500°F or 260°C.
Potential Flaws:
Previous customers commented on how this pick does not have a bent lip, meaning pouring of any liquid was a little tricky. However, draining water without a drip is still possible with this pan - you just need a steady hand!
Other Features:
This delightful small saucepan from Tramontina has undeniable quality as proven by achieving 4.6 stars out of 5 stars from 3,215 previous users. Based on these feedback reviews, this pick received a 4.7 rating for sturdiness and 4.6 for heat distribution. For durability and comfort, this pan also received ratings of 4.5 and 4.4 respectively. If that still isn’t enough to convince you, check out the extremely generous price tag and think again!
2. Runner Up
Who It’s For:
The Cuisinart small saucepan is designed for kitcheners who want an easy-to-grip and cool-to-touch pan. This small saucepan has a lovely handle that stays cool during cooking. You don’t need to wrap your hands with a towel or oven mitt to touch it.
Why It’s Great:
The Cuisinart multi-clad small saucepan has a solid aluminum core made of 18/10 stainless steel materials. This construction makes the pan very strong and durable. It’s dishwasher-safe and oven-safe up to 550°F. Its two quarts saucepan weighs 3.5 pounds and can hold up to 1.89 liters capacity.
Potential Flaws:
The main flaw offered by previous users of this saucepan was the difficulty scrubbing and removing cooked oil from the corners. Also, they commented on the water spots and discoloration if this pan isn’t maintained carefully.
Other Features
With 1,891 ratings on Amazon.com, this pick received scores of 4.6 for heat distribution and versatility, with ratings of 4.5 for durability. What more could one ask for from this affordable, cool-to-touch little saucepan?
3. Cost Effective
Who It’s For:
The Farberware small saucepan is the ultimate cookware for people who are on a tight budget! The unique handle will boost your confidence when you’re cooking sauce or soup.
Why It’s Great:
The affordable Farberware saucepan has a material of stainless steel layered over a thick aluminum core for rapid heating. The pan exterior is mirror-finished. You can hang this beautiful saucepan in your kitchen as decoration. It has a snug-fitting metal lid with a bell shape and an easy-to-grip lid handle. The capacity of this saucepan is 2 quarts and its weight is 1.95 pounds with 1.89 liters capacity. It’s dishwasher-safe and oven safe up to 350°F.
Potential Flaws:
Customers noticed that Farberware’s small saucepan was very sensitive to strongly colored foods, such as purple cabbage, tomato paste, or beetroot. The surface was said to change color, especially in the areas where the flame came into contact with the pan. Residual scorch marks like these are often caused by a lack of heat distribution, and this tends to put off some customers.
Other Features:
With feedback from almost 13,000 global customers, it’s safe to say this cheap little saucepan is a favorite for those on a cooking budget! Why not try it out for yourself?
4. Almost Made the Cut
Who It’s For:
The All-Clad small saucepan is marketed for women or men who like to cook and need a durable high-quality premium small saucepan in their kitchen.
Why It’s Great:
This All-Clad small saucepan has deluxe features. The straight sides are useful to hold and limit evaporation. It is perfect for making sauces or heating liquids. The responsive aluminum core that’s bonded together with two layers of durable stainless steel all the way around creates maximum durability and fast heat distribution. Its riveted stainless-steel handles ensure a safe grip and add a bit of style with stainless steel lid to match. The two quarts saucepan can hold up to 1.9 liters capacity, and its maximum weight is 2.26 pounds. It is compatible with all cooktops including induction and oven. This saucepan is dishwasher-safe and broiler-safe up to 600°F.
Potential Flaws:
The main issue people have had with this pan is its price. The pick comes in at three times more expensive than our top pick, despite having the same tri-ply clad features. Another issue offered up was the U-Shaped handle tended to be sharper than expected by some customers.
Other Features:
Despite issues by some, this product still maintains excellent ratings. With a score of 5.0 for sturdiness, 4.8 stars for durability and heat distribution, and 4.6 stars for versatility. With 3,046 ratings, it’s safe to say people would recommend this product, provided you don’t mind the hefty price tag.
Who This Is For
The products here are advertised for anyone who loves cooking foods that require liquid, boiling or simmering water, reducing sauce or gravy, blanching vegetables, poaching eggs, making stews, steaming moist food, and also heating or warming leftover soup. A small saucepan can hold all of those jobs perfectly. It’s a very helpful cookware for everyday cooking tasks.
Saucepan vs pot
It may be a bit confusing trying to distinguish between saucepans and pots. The main difference between saucepans and pots lies in their usage. The saucepans that are used for cooking require high heat for browning, such as reducing, sauteing, searing, or frying.
On the other hand, pots are used for simmering and getting the ingredients to be completely browned on all sides. The sides of saucepans are shorter and more shallow than pots, which helps to cook food quicker. The taller sides of pots prevent rapid evaporation to make them suitable for slow cooking. Saucepans have one long handle to make it easier to move while pots have two loop handles to provide a firmer grip due to their typically bigger volume and heavy content in contrast to a saucepan.
Do I really need one?
A nonstick coating wears out over time and can be very toxic if you accidentally scratch off the coating with your metal utensil. Therefore, it’s safer if you switch your nonstick pan to a full-clad stainless steel small saucepan.
Why You Should Trust Us
We’ve been spending hours digging and observing reviews from previous customers to find the best quality small saucepans for cooking.
How We Picked
It’s not easy finding the perfect small saucepan, as it depends on your desired usage, but we’ve done our best to offer suggestions for all needs. We picked the best small saucepans based on their material, design, capacity, and price.
We made the decision to pick fully clad tri-ply stainless steel pans as they promise to be more durable and heat up quicker. Tri-ply clad has an aluminum core between two stainless steel layers.
An aluminum or anodized aluminum pan may be cheaper but aluminum is reactive to acidic foods, and anodized aluminum has a dark color which can make it difficult to see the browning process while cooking. Any nonstick coating pans don’t appear to last any longer than the uncoated stainless steel pans, and they also scratch easily, with high heat making them degrade over time even when you treat them well.
The capacity of a small saucepan is typically between one to three quarts, meaning it can hold around 28 ounces of liquid. For a task that requires a larger capacity, you can go with a size three quarts pan. We’ve found it’s naturally more convenient if you have multiple small saucepans of varying sizes.
The design of small saucepans is usually slightly curved and rounded. It will make the pan easier to clean and helps you to get a clean reach during whisking or stirring. We did our best to suggest pans with a cold-to-touch handle, so you can directly touch it without the need for an oven mitt.
We also picked saucepans with metal lids because, unlike glass lids, they won’t shatter if dropped or in reaction to the sudden heat. Lastly, we understand that the price should be reasonable when compared to the quality of the product, and have done what we can to offer a range of prices so you can be sure to find a perfect fit regardless of your budget!
How We Picked
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Material
The material used for small saucepans has to be an effective thermal conductor to allow the food to be evenly heated. It also has to be durable for long-term use. We make sure it’s compatible with metal utensils and dishwasher-safe.
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Capacity
Saucepans can come in many different sizes. For example, a small saucepan is between one to three quarts. The capacity of your saucepan depends on your needs and the food you have. It’s important to have a size saucepan for your desired use.
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Design
Small saucepans come with many designs for the body, handle, and lid. These designs should be ergonomic and easy to grip with a towel or oven mitt. A rounded corner design makes the pan easier to clean. If it has a bent lip, it will also make your pouring easier.
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Price
There’s nothing worse than buying an expensive small saucepan with low-quality material. Price is part of our consideration because the small saucepan we choose has to be worth the price.
Care and Maintenance
When cooking, ensure that you have enough fat or oil within the pan, and keep it moving around with a spoon so as not to scorch the steel.
Though all our picks are dishwasher-safe, we do recommend you wash them by hand.
When finished cooking with them, let them cool before putting them under cold water. This prevents any warping of the pans due to the temperature shock. Once cool, soak the pan in warm and soapy water. We recommend using a nylon scouring pad for tough cleaning sessions, though a sponge or soft cloth is usually enough for everyday use. Never use harsh chemicals or abrasive steel wool as this can damage the integrity of the pan. Once soaked, rinse the pan with warm water and dry immediately to prevent spotting.
If you have any burn marks, sprinkling a half cup of baking soda and water onto the mark, or soaking it with vinegar is said to loosen or remove the burnt excess. Non-abrasive nylon scrubbers and dish soap also help to work at the stains of burnt food.
When dry, we recommend changing your small pans from a pan rail or a pegboard. If you stack them in a cabinet, consider nesting them with a protector, or even a paper towel, to avoid scratching damage.
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