How different types of cookware affect the cooking and baking process, and how to pick the perfect pot for your culinary task.

Admit it — you have piles of dog-eared pages from Family Table full of appetizing photos of sweet and savory dishes just waiting to be...

But don’t put on your apron yet — before you invest any more time, energy, and expensive ingredients in your culinary prep, I’m here to help you make sure that you’ve got the right tool for the job. Not all pots and pans are created equal, and if you read on, you’ll learn some things that can help you achieve amazing results with your cooking and baking.

Cast Iron, Copper, or Ceramic — What’s Your Cooking Style?

Let’s start with the bottom line: A well-stocked kitchen should have a mix of pots and pans, with both non-stick and stainless steel bottoms for various cooking tasks. Non-stick surfaces are great for quick and easy cooking and clean-up, but they fall short when you need to brown or braise your food. Before buying pots, think about what you cook the most and make the selection that suits you.

Consumer Reports is a great resource for learning about the various materials and terminology used in cookware, and I’ve shared the basics below.

Stainless steel: Classic, durable, no reaction with food, uniform heating, good for browning, easy to take care of, sometimes hard to clean stuck foods.

Non-stick: Releases food easily, less or no oil needed, very easy to clean, care needed so it doesn’t get scratched, doesn’t brown food well.

Enameled cast iron: Sears and browns food beautifully, goes from stove to oven to table, retains heat, doesn’t react with acidic foods, doesn’t corrode, very heavy, can chip.

Uncoated cast iron: Very durable, can withstand extreme temperatures, tough to clean, not dishwasher safe, requires regular seasoning for maintenance, susceptible to rust.

Carbon steel and blue steel: A favorite of pros, very durable, high performance, ideal for omelet and crepe pans, needs hand-washing with soft brush, and requires seasoning to maintain.

Copper: Even cooking (heats and cools quickly), look for heavier gauge for better durability (one-sixteenth to oneeighth of an inch), high price tag, dents easily, reactive if unlined, may require periodic copper cleaner, hand-wash only.

Aluminum: Lightweight, strong, priced right, excellent heat conduction, prone to staining, can affect the color and taste of certain foods and sauces if not anodized.

If you’re starting to get overwhelmed by the choices, I’ve got good news. The chefs at Fine Cooking magazine were polled, and the two pieces they couldn’t live without (and the ones you likely want to invest in) are a large anodized aluminum stock pot for soups, sauces, and steaming, and a high-sided stainless steel or aluminum sauté pan with a lid for frying, braising, deglazing, and more.

To take it a step closer to home, I ran a poll among the incredible chefs and uber-busy women of Family Table, and found that their answers were in line with the Fine Cooking chefs, with the addition of an inexpensive but durable large, nonstick frying pan for dairy, a heavy grill pan, and a Dutch oven.