If you strip a Southern kitchen down to its absolute core, you will usually find three vessels doing almost all of the heavy lifting: a skillet, a Dutch oven, and a stockpot. Everything else is supporting cast. Because these three pieces get used so constantly, choosing them well matters far more than it might for a piece of equipment you reach for once a year. This guide walks through what to actually look for in each one, so you can invest wisely rather than guessing.
The Skillet: Your Everyday Workhorse
A skillet is used for more different tasks than perhaps any other piece of cookware, searing meat, frying chicken, baking cornbread, scrambling eggs, and toasting spices, sometimes all in the same week. For Southern cooking specifically, cast iron is the traditional and still the most practical choice, thanks to its heat retention and the natural nonstick surface it develops with use.
When choosing a skillet, size matters more than people initially think. A ten-inch skillet suits small households and everyday cooking, while a twelve-inch skillet gives you the room to fry a full batch of chicken or bake a generous pan of cornbread without crowding. Look for one with a relatively smooth cooking surface, a helper handle on the opposite side from the main handle for easier lifting when full, and enough weight to feel substantial without being unmanageable for your own strength.
- Ten-inch skillet, for everyday cooking and smaller households
- Twelve-inch skillet, for larger batches and family-sized meals
- Look for a helper handle and a reasonably smooth cooking surface
The Dutch Oven: Built for Slow, Even Cooking
A Dutch oven exists to do one thing extremely well: hold steady, even heat over a long cooking time. This makes it the natural home for braises, pots of beans, smothered meats, and stews that need hours rather than minutes to come together. Whether enameled or bare cast iron, look for thick walls and a heavy, well-fitting lid, since that tight seal is what traps moisture and lets tough cuts of meat turn tender over low heat.
Size depends on your household, but a five to seven-quart Dutch oven suits most families comfortably, large enough for a full pot of greens or a batch of gumbo, without being so large that it becomes unwieldy to lift and clean.
Get your free ebook — the secret to a stress-free Sunday Supper, sent straight to your inbox.The Stockpot: For Big Batches and Bigger Gatherings
A stockpot earns its place for jobs that need volume more than they need slow, even heat retention: boiling pasta, blanching greens before freezing, simmering a big batch of stock from bones and vegetable scraps, or cooking a large pot of gumbo for a crowd. Unlike a Dutch oven, a stockpot does not need to be quite as heavy or thick-walled, since its main job is holding a large volume of liquid rather than distributing dry heat evenly.
An eight-quart stockpot handles most everyday needs, while a twelve-quart or larger pot is worth having if you frequently cook for a crowd or like to make big batches of stock to freeze. Look for sturdy handles on both sides, since a full stockpot is genuinely heavy, and a lid that fits snugly for those times you want to simmer something gently rather than at a rolling boil.
- Eight-quart stockpot, for everyday big-batch cooking
- Twelve-quart or larger, for stock-making and cooking for a crowd
- Sturdy double handles are essential once the pot is full
Buying Once and Buying Well
All three of these pieces, chosen thoughtfully and cared for properly, are the kind of cookware you buy once and use for the rest of your life, possibly passing them down afterward. It is worth spending a bit more for genuinely well-made pieces here rather than cutting corners, since these three pots will be the ones you reach for almost every single time you cook. Everything else in the kitchen is, in a real sense, optional by comparison.
