As well as its classic contemporary look, stainless steel cookware performs well due to its superior heat conduction. Highly durable and long-lasting, stainless steel pans do an excellent job at producing deliciously browned food and searing meat at high temperatures. While it’s true that they require somewhat more upkeep than other types of cookware to ensure they continue to perform optimally, but if you’re okay with giving your frypan a good scrub after cooking, then you can expect it to last you well over a decade.

    If you're cooking for a larger group or preparing large batches of food, a large or extra-large cast iron skillet is the best choice.  These griddles offer plenty of room to cook multiple portions at once, making them perfect for dishes like stir-fries, burritos, and even deep-dish pizza.  Large Cast Iron skillets and Extra Large Cast Iron Skillet size and ability to retain heat make them a great choice for outdoor cooking, whether on a grill or over an open fire.

French skillets can also have non-stick coatings like frying pans, but this is less common due to their straight edges.

The details: These pans solve the frustration of food sticking, and they require little oil for cooking. Plus they’re lightweight, easy to clean, and affordable. But they can’t take the high heat of a cast-iron or stainless steel frying pan. “You’re not going to get much of a sear in a nonstick pan,” says Cindy Fisher, who conducted Consumer Reports’ cookware tests.

And they don’t last as long as cast-iron, stainless, or copper frying pans. “Nonstick is going to wear out the fastest,” Nitahara says. “The nonstick coating is fragile, and once you scratch it, it’s hard to flip an egg.”

In our tests of nonstick pans, we cook four eggs in quick succession. An excellent rating means all four eggs easily slid out of the pan. A poor rating indicates that some egg residue was left behind. To test nonstick durability, we rub the pan with steel wool for 2,000 strokes or until the coating has worn through.

Both skillets and frypans can be made from various materials such as cast iron and stainless steel. What sets them apart is that frypans are usually made from stainless steel, aluminium, copper, and ceramic.