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Commercial Casserole Pans

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Casserole pans are the deep, lidded pans a kitchen braises in. A casserole pan goes on the stove to sear, into the oven to cook slowly, and in many venues straight onto the table.

Material decides what the pan is good at. Cast iron and enamelled cast iron hold heat hardest and give the most even, slow cook, which is the whole point of a braise. Stainless is lighter, faster to respond and easier to deglaze in. Aluminium-cored stainless sits between the two.

Size is the thing kitchens get wrong. A braise needs the meat in a single layer with the liquid coming part way up; a pan that is too deep for the batch steams rather than braises, and one that is too shallow boils dry.

Casseroles sit in the commercial cookware range with commercial cast iron cookware and commercial sauce pans, and the oven they go into is in commercial ovens.

Sizing a pan to the batch you braise? The price guide lists the casseroles by capacity and material, so you can choose the big one and the smaller sides pans in one sitting.

These are the top FAQs for Commercial Casserole Pans

How many sizes does a kitchen need?

Usually two or three: a large one for the batch braise that goes on the menu all week, and a smaller one or two for sides and anything cooked to order.

Buy the big one first and buy it bigger than feels necessary. Splitting a braise across two pans gives you two slightly different results.

Cast iron or stainless?

Cast iron for anything long and slow. It takes a while to come up to temperature and then holds it through the oven cycle, which is exactly what a braise wants, and it will go from stove to oven to table.

Stainless for anything where you need to control the heat quickly or build a sauce in the pan. It is also much lighter, and a full cast iron casserole is a serious lift.

Does the lid need to be tight?

For a braise, yes. The lid is what keeps the moisture in the pan, and a loose lid means the liquid reduces away and the top of the meat dries out.

Some kitchens cover with foil under the lid for a longer cook. If you do that routinely, the cling wrap and foil line is a running cost worth counting.

Can a casserole pan go on an induction hob?

Only if the base is magnetic, which rules out plain aluminium and some stainless. Cast iron and most clad stainless work; check the induction rating on the product page before buying for an induction section.

This matters more than it used to, because commercial induction cooktops are now common and a pan that does not couple is simply dead weight.

Is enamelled cast iron worth the extra?

It saves seasoning and it does not react with wine, tomato or vinegar, which is most of what goes into a braise. That is a real advantage over bare cast iron for this particular job.

The trade-off is that enamel chips, usually at the rim, and a chipped pan has to be retired. Bare cast iron can be beaten up for years and re-seasoned.

How is it cleaned?

Deglaze while it is still warm, which does most of the work. Soaking a cold braising pan and then scouring it is slower and harder on the surface than lifting the fond out with liquid.

Enamel and bare cast iron are hand-wash items. Stainless casseroles generally take a machine cycle — check the product page before putting one through the commercial dishwasher.

Can I serve out of them?

That is half the appeal, and it is why handle design matters. A pan going to the table needs handles a server can hold with a cloth and a lid that will not slide off on the way.

Put it down on something. A cast iron sizzler base or a trivet protects the table, and anything else is a repair bill.