KITCHEN PANS - Fondue Pot to Grill Basket

Fondue is a Swiss dish of melted cheese served in a communal pot (caquelon) over a spirit lamp (rechaud), and eaten by dipping long-stemmed forks with bread into the cheese. It was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union in the 1930s and became popular in North America in the 1960s. Since the 1950s, the name "fondue" has been generalized to other dishes where a food is dipped into a communal pot of hot liquid: chocolate fondue, where pieces of fruit are dipped into a melted chocolate mixture, and fondue bourguignonne, where pieces of meat are cooked in hot oil. Cheese fondue consists of a blend of cheeses, wine and seasoning. To prepare the caquelon it is first rubbed with a cut garlic clove. White wine, cheese, and often kirsch are added and stirred until melted. A small amount of cornstarch or other starch is added to prevent separation. The mixture is stirred continuously as it heats in the caquelon. When it is ready, diners dip cubes of bread speared on a fondue fork into the mixture. A cheese fondue mixture should be kept warm enough to keep the fondue smooth and liquid but not so hot that it burns. If this temperature is held until the fondue is finished there will be a thin crust of toasted (not burnt) cheese at the bottom of the caquelon. This is called la religieuse (French for the nun). It has the texture of a cracker and is almost always lifted out and eaten.

A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically 200 to 300 mm (8 to 12 in) in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle. A pan of similar dimensions, but with vertical sides and often with a lid, is called a sauté pan or sauté. While a sauté pan can be used like a frying pan, it is designed for lower heat cooking methods such as sautéing. Copper frying pans were used in ancient Mesopotamia. Frying pans were also known in ancient Greece (where they were called téganon) and Rome (where they were called patella or sartago). Pan derives from the Old English panna. Before the introduction of the kitchen stove in the mid-19th century, a commonly used cast iron cooking pan called a spider had a handle and three legs used to stand up in the coals and ashes of the fire. Cooking pots and pans with legless, flat bottoms were designed when cooking stoves became popular; this period of the late 19th century saw the introduction of the flat cast iron skillet. A versatile pan that combines the best of both the sauté pan and the frying pan has higher, sloping sides that are often slightly curved. This pan is called a sauteuse (literally a sauté pan in the female gender), an evasée (denoting a pan with sloping sides), or a fait-tout (literally "does everything"). Most professional kitchens have several of these utensils in varying sizes. A grill pan is a frying pan, usually with very low sides, with a series of parallel ridges in the cooking surface or a removable metal grid. A grill pan cooks food with radiant heat (like a grill) on a stovetop. It is referred to as a "griddle pan" in British English. A "Rappie Pie pan" is a pan used to make rappie pie, an Acadian dish. The pan is made from Aluminum or Stainless Steel.

A grill basket is a type of metal basket used on barbecues of all types, and is especially helpful if you’re cooking food that would easily slip through the bars of a grill. There are many variants of the grill basket, some specific to a certain type of food, and others for more general use. They range in price and size, and you may need to give some consideration to the size of your grill and the foods you want to use the grill basket for prior to purchasing one. An open grill basket can come in numerous sizes. Some look like a flat colander with either straight or slanted sides that curve outward. The small holes in the basket allow a certain amount of juice to run off from what you’re cooking but don’t allow for most chopped foods to escape. These can be ideal if you like to grill small pieces of mixed vegetables. This type can also be a good choice if you’re grilling things like hotdogs and don’t want them to fall through the grill’s bars. Another advantage to this grill basket is that it can be easily cleaned (some are dishwasher safe) and makes a great grilling surface if you’re using an unclean public grill at a park or campground. Other types of grill baskets are baskets that enclose around the food. These usually have grill bars instead of colander like holes, and they may feature handles for easier turning. Some are specially adapted to hold foods like corn or hot dogs, which may not make them very useful for other items. They’re also not the best choice for finely chopped vegetables or meat, since the bars may still be wide enough apart for small ingredients to slip through. Many find that the enclosed grill baskets, especially with heat safe handles are great for turning food without squeezing juices out of it. The food won’t stick to the grill, since it sits in the basket instead, and you don’t have to deal with tongs or turners that can sometimes cause food to slip. If you’re looking for a really juicy steak, and want to conserve as much of the meat juices as possible, the enclosed grill basket may just be the perfect choice for you. Those with handles may be a bit pricier, but they may be worth the cost since you’ll be saving yourself the agony of the occasional burned fingers.