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Whatever meals tend to be on your weekly rotation, you can’t go without a trusty set of saucepans. Whether it’s speedy porridge in the morning or a massive batch of chilli to feed a big household throughout the week, if it needs to go on the hob, only the best saucepan sets will do.
Opt for an inadequate set of saucepans and you’ll know it soon enough. Faults in our cookware could be anything from time-worn scratches and rust to chips and hot spots, all of which can begin to take the joy and flavour out of our favourite dishes. Luckily, there are saucepan sets to suit every kind of home chef.
But what to consider before you buy? For starters, space is key. Many saucepan sets will stack up in a neat-ish nest (though not with lids), but it’s worth considering just what kind of pans you need – or want – in your kit.
The classic three-piecer will usually include a 16cm, 18cm and 20cm saucepan that will take you from boiling an egg and warming milk to a pan big enough to cook pasta for three to four people. Bigger pan sets often include a 14cm milk pan, a 24cm frying pan, and further to that pans such as stock pots, shallow casserole dishes or an extra, bigger frying pan.
It’s essential to find a saucepan set that’s suited to your hob – manufacturers will always make a point of specifying the hobs that are most compatible. Gas hobs will suit any pan, while ceramic hobs aren’t compatible with stainless steel or copper. For testing, we worked on an induction hob with which all the sets below are designed to be compatible. If you do have an induction hob, be mindful that pure aluminium and copper-based pans are not a good match.
How we tested the best saucepan sets
We put all our pans through the same cook-offs: porridge for smaller pans, basic vegetable boiling for the middle-sized pans, and pasta and small vats of chilli for larger saucepans – while frying pans saw to our fried eggs and brunches.
We drilled down on the differences in raw materials and weigh up the pros and cons of stainless steel, non-stick aluminium and hard-anodised pans, which all bring something different to the stovetop.
We were also looking for pans that cooked our food quickly and evenly with little or no hot spots or burning at the base, keen to test the popular non-stick properties that today come as standard – and just how easily would they clean up after use.
The best saucepan sets for 2024 are:
- Best saucepan set overall – Ninja Foodie zerostick vivid three-piece saucepan set: £119.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best budget saucepan set – Tala performance classic five-piece cookware set: £94.94, Hartsofstur.com
- Best sustainable saucepan set – Prestige Earth pan three-piece non-stick saucepan set: £150,
- Best for cutting-edge technology – Hexclad 13-piece hybrid cookware saucepan set: £729.99,
