Types of Pots and Pans: Skillet, Saucepan, Stockpot and Wok

The cookware on a well-stocked stove: the skillet or frying pan, the saucepan for sauces and boiling, the sauté pan with straight sides, the tall stockpot for soups, the wide braiser and the heavy Dutch oven for slow cooking, the casserole dish, the roaster for the oven, the flat griddle for pancakes and the wok of Chinese cooking.

Three words read backwards, braiser, casserole and Dutch, and two are diagonal: saute and stockpot.

Types of Pots & Pans Vocabulary: 10 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down, and diagonally; 4 of the 10 read backwards. The longest word is Casserole, with 9 letters.

Braiser: A wide, heavy pan with a lid for browning food and then cooking it slowly in a little liquid.
Casserole: A deep dish for baking and serving food in the oven, and the dish cooked in it.
Dutch: A Dutch oven, a heavy cast-iron pot with a tight lid for slow cooking, stews and bread.
Griddle: A flat, heavy pan or plate for pancakes, eggs and grilled sandwiches.
Roaster: A deep pan, often with a rack, for roasting meat in the oven.
Saucepan: A deep pan with a long handle for sauces, boiling and heating liquids.
Saute: A sauté pan, with straight sides and a wide base, for frying food quickly in a little fat.
Skillet: A frying pan with sloped sides, often made of cast iron.
Stockpot: A tall, deep pot for stocks, soups and pasta.
Wok: A large, round-bottomed pan used for stir-frying in Chinese cooking.

How to Solve the Types of Pots & Pans Word Search

"Wok" is only three letters, with the only W, and runs upward. "Saucepan" and "saute" both start with SAU: saucepan reads normally across, saute is diagonal. Look for the doubles: SS in "casserole", DD in "griddle" and LL in "skillet".

Cookware Lessons for Culinary Class

Match each pot or pan to a dish: pancakes, stir-fry, soup, stew.
Compare a skillet and a sauté pan: why are their sides different?
Ask students what each pan is usually made of: cast iron, steel, copper or nonstick.