Reference tables
Quick answer
345 worked reference tables across 14 topics, every figure calculated from the same published material properties and manufacturer specifications the calculators use. Each page answers one specific combination rather than describing a topic in general.
345 worked tables, calculated rather than typed in, so they can never disagree with the calculators that use the same underlying data.
294 tablesPots and pans
- 49 tables
Pan size by portions and job
What diameter a given number of portions actually needs, worked from cooking surface area rather than rim diameter.
- 28 tables
What fits in each skillet size
The real flat cooking surface of every common skillet size, and how many portions it holds without crowding.
- 33 tables
Induction compatibility by material
Whether each material and piece type couples to an induction hob, and how to settle it with a magnet.
- 48 tables
Oven ceilings by coating and handle
The real oven limit for every combination of cooking surface and handle, which is always the lowest of the two.
- 40 tables
Pot capacity by job and household
The capacity each cooking job needs once headroom is accounted for, from pasta water to frying oil.
- 24 tables
What a kitchen needs by household and style
Which pieces earn their cupboard space for each household size and way of cooking.
- 9 tables
What is actually in a cookware set
How each advertised piece count decomposes into pans, lids and filler.
- 15 tables
Cookware material profiles
Conductivity, heat retention, induction, oven ceiling and what each material is genuinely best at.
- 28 tables
Cookware materials head to head
How two materials differ in conductivity, heat retention and response, with the numbers behind it.
- 20 tables
The right pan for each job
Which material, shape and size suits each common cooking task, and why the others fall short.
46 tablesKnives and boards
- 14 tables
Knife steel profiles
Published hardness and the real trade between edge retention, toughness and sharpening effort, one steel at a time.
- 20 tables
Knife steel head to head
Two steels compared on hardness, retention, toughness and how hard each is to bring back.
- 12 tables
Cutting board sizing and grain
Board size by blade length, and what each grain construction does to a knife edge.
5 tablesBakeware
- 5 tables
Sheet pan sizes and oven fit
The commercial sheet pan sizes, their real dimensions, and which of them fit a domestic oven.
Common questions
Why is each page so specific?
Because the useful answer almost always is. A page telling you what size pan four seared portions need is far more useful than a page about pan sizing in general, and there are genuinely that many combinations worth working through. Each page carries its own calculated table rather than a generic one repeated everywhere.
Where do the figures come from?
Published material properties such as thermal conductivity and density, manufacturer specifications such as published oven ceilings and Rockwell hardness, and physical relationships such as the area of a circle. Every page states whether it rests on a published standard or a kitchen convention, and no figure is estimated to fill a gap.
Do these agree with the calculators?
They cannot disagree. Both are generated from one data file of material properties and standards, so a change to a published figure updates the tables and the calculators together. That was a deliberate design choice, because the most common way a site like this goes wrong is a table and a tool drifting apart.
What is the most commonly needed table here?
Probably the oven ceilings, because a pan is only as oven safe as its lowest rated part and that is almost never the metal. A stainless pan with a silicone handle tops out around 400F even though the steel would take 600F, and an enamelled pot rated to 500F with a phenolic knob is limited to about 375F.