What To Consider When Selecting A Pot For Making Soup

Like many multi-purpose kitchen gadgets that are easily overlooked, soup pots are more useful than anyone might think. Premier cookware manufacturer Le Creuset says aside from making soups and stocks from scratch, a good soup pot can also be used to cook pasta, as well as make sauces, stews, and preserve your favorite fruits. It can even be used as a steamer to cook seafood and vegetables. But like other gadgets, a soup pot's versatility depends on a few factors, which means a soup pot that works for one home cook may not be the right option for another, making it important for you to pick the best cookware to meet your needs.

That sentiment is echoed by noted food writer J. Kenji López-Alt, who points out in Serious Eats that the gadgets and cooking essentials that you might consider to be a kitchen essential is likely to evolve, not just because product lines change but because your cooking style changes too. And his list of essentials involving pots and pans, López-Alt lists a soup stock pot, which he stresses must be roomy enough to handle large jobs — and by large, he means something big enough "to cook at least four to five pounds of pasta."

While most kitchen sets offer a six-quart soup pot, JES Restaurant Equipment points out a larger pot, which can hold about 12 quarts of liquid, would be a good cookware to have, especially since a larger pot can hold bigger, chunkier ingredients and will see less of a chance of spilling over. Unfortunately, as Made in Cookware also points out, you also need to consider if your kitchen storage and stovetop can accommodate that size before making that purchase.

Another factor to consider is the need. Professional supplier JES Restaurant Equipment says it is easy to buy big soup pots since they come in a range of sizes that go from a minimum of 6 quarts to more than 20 quarts. But if you don't entertain or don't cook for a crowd, this also means you may never need a 20-quart pot big enough to cook 4 to 5 pounds of pasta, per Eataly. Other factors to consider include the type of material a pot is made with, which will determine how durable it is. And because no searing or sautéing is done in a stock pot, J. Kenji López-Alt suggests it only needs to be heavy-duty enough to keep whatever is at the bottom from burning, per Serious Eats.