Straight to the Point
Our winning saucier is the Made In Stainless Clad 3-Quart Saucier. It’s responsive, balanced, and has a wide surface area for all sorts of cooking tasks. The Great Jones Saucy is a great-looking alternative.
Many cooks can get along fine in the kitchen with just a skillet and a saucepan. But step into a fancy, French-inflected fine dining kitchen (or expand your own culinary repertoire), and you’ll likely come across a saucier or two.
These shallow, slightly flared pots with rounded sides are often the pans of choice for cooks looking to stir risotto, whisk gravy, or slowly reduce demi-glace.But what exactly makes a good saucier? Do you need one? (As a collection of food professionals and people who just really love cooking, we think you do.) And, finally, what saucier should you buy? We put six top-tier sauciers through a variety of tests to find out what makes a great one—after cooking pastry cream, risotto, and pâte à choux dough, we confidently recommend three.
The Winners, at a Glance
The Best Saucier
Made In Stainless Clad Saucier
PHOTO: Made In
$169
$161 at Amazon
$129 at Made In Cookware
This saucier had the best balance of weight, ergonomics, and performance of all the models tested. It was ideal for stirring and simmering down for a quick reduction, thanks to the sloped sides and wide surface area.
The Best Saucier If You Care About Looks
Great Jones Saucy
View on Greatjonesgoods.com
The Saucy is a beautiful pot that scored high marks in heat responsiveness, ease of stirring, and cleaning. The spout on the side is easy to pour from, and the helper handle is roomy and comfortable.
The Best Small Saucier
All-Clad D3 Tri-Ply Stainless-Steel Saucier
PHOTO: Williams Sonoma
$160 at Williams Sonoma
Like many other All-Clad pans, this saucier heated up quickly, with minimal hot spots.
The Tests
We whisked pastry cream in all of the sauciers.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Pastry Cream Test: We made a batch of pastry cream in each saucier. Because pastry cream requires continual whisking and steady, even heat application, this test quickly revealed weak performers: We were looking for pans that had ample surface areas with no hot spots.
Risotto Test: Next, we used the sauciers to make risotto—another dish that calls for near-constant stirring. Would the rice stick to the bottom of the pan and scorch? Was there enough room in the pan to finish the batch with an aggressive toss with butter and cheese?
Pâte à Choux Test: Finally, we made choux pastry. Sauciers are the perfect pan for this French dough recipe, because their rounded sides allow the mixture to swoop around the pan without getting stuck.
Crusted-on choux dough is a nightmare to clean, and if we encountered any in the sauciers, we docked points.In This Article
Expand
The Winners, at a Glance
The Tests
What We Learned
The Criteria
Our Favorite Sauciers
The Competition
FAQs
Why We’re the Experts
A saucier, derived from the classical French brigade system, is a specialized cookware designed for preparing sauces. Named after the chef responsible for making sauces, this piece of equipment features rounded edges and shorter sides compared to a traditional saucepan. This design is crucial for tasks like whisking and stirring, as it allows for easy access to every part of the pot, preventing ingredients from getting stuck in corners.
The shorter sides of a saucier also offer two practical benefits. First, they facilitate more efficient evaporation, making it easier to reduce sauces like demi-glace. Second, the rounded sides enable tossing foods that require emulsification, such as spaghetti with pesto and starchy pasta water. Additionally, sauciers typically have heavier, more conductive bottoms and thinner walls, ensuring even heat distribution and retention.
When it comes to cookware, ‘cladding’ refers to the layers of metal within a pan. Tri- and five-ply sauciers boast three or five layers of metal, respectively, for optimal heat distribution. Alternating stainless steel and aluminum layers provide even heat conduction and durability. Most sauciers have at least three layers of cladding, with some high-end models featuring five or seven.
We found a balance between responsiveness and even heating in sauciers. Fast-heating pans, like the Made In Stainless Steel Saucier and Great Jones Saucy, reached target temperatures quickly, attributed to their cladding. The Made In saucier, with five layers, struck a sweet spot, cooking risotto quickly without scorching. In contrast, fewer layers mean faster temperature changes but risk uneven cooking.
Lightweight sauciers are the most comfortable to use. A saucier that cannot be picked up one-handed is considered too heavy for comfortable use.
No cook wants a flimsy, cheap pot or pan, but after our risotto test, we confirmed that sauciers on the lighter weight side were preferable. Finishing the dish requires confident, quick shakes and tosses of the pan, so the butter and cheese can emulsify. This is a one-handed job, and super heavy pans (due to more cladding or mostly stainless steel construction) were difficult to maneuver with finesse. The All-Clad 2-Quart D3 Stainless Steel Saucier is a good lightweight option (it weighs two pounds) because it’s a quart smaller than the rest of the competition—ideal for two.
Wide Surface Areas and Rounded Edges Made Stirring Easy Risotto requires lots of stirring, so a wide bottomed saucier is ideal. Sauciers have luxuriously large bottoms. That’s a big reason why they’re so good for sauces: The wide, shallow surface area helps sauces reduce quickly. We found this especially true in our choux pastry test. The most spacious pans gave the dough room to cook and form a cohesive mass. On that note, the rounded edges were equally important, as they gave our spoons and spatulas ample room to slide into every last spot. All of our winning pans had a base diameter of 6.5 inches. Perhaps surprisingly, the smallest pan we recommend (the two-quart All-Clad) boasted a roomy seven inches. Helper Handles Were Awesome Helper handles are ideal for lifting and pouring from a saucier. Two of our winning sauciers—the Made In and Great Jones—had looped helper handles on the opposite side of the long handle. While this wasn’t the only criterion for a great saucier (our third winner, the All-Clad, doesn’t have one), it made the pans much more useful. Sauciers are wide and can be heavy, so that additional handle is ideal for lifting and moving it around the kitchen. It also gives you greater control when pouring from the saucier—key when using it to make sauces or creams. The Criteria: What to Look for in a Saucier The best sauciers have a moderate amount of stainless steel and aluminum cladding—three to five layers are ideal. We preferred moderate-weight sauciers with helper handles that allowed us to confidently maneuver them around. Low sides, roomy cooking surface areas, and gradually sloping edges were crucial for the core functions of a saucier: whisking, simmering, and stirring. Our Favorite Sauciers The Best Saucier Made In Stainless Clad Saucier PHOTO: Made In $169 $161 at Amazon $129 at Made In Cookware What we liked: The Made In saucier was consistently a top performer in every test. The heat conduction was uniform, with few hot spots—even though it was the lightest pan we tested. The seven-inch base and 10-inch rim diameters made stirring comfortable. Speaking of comfort: The handle was the longest we tested, and there’s a secondary helper handle, too. Tossing risotto was practically effortless. Overall, this saucier feels just right. It’s well-balanced, roomy, smartly clad, and durable.Discover the best saucier pans for your kitchen with our in-depth reviews. We tested various models and found three standout options. Each pan has its unique features and benefits, making them ideal for different cooking tasks.
Our top pick is a versatile workhorse that excels in all stirring and simmering tasks. We were impressed with its moderate price for the quality it offers. Key specifications include a 3-quart capacity, 2 pounds 10 ounces weight, 5 layers of stainless steel and aluminum cladding, and a 7-inch base diameter. This pan is induction compatible, oven-safe up to 800F, and dishwasher-safe, though hand-washing is recommended. It comes with a lifetime warranty. The second choice, Great Jones Saucy, is a visually appealing option with measurements etched on the sides for precise cooking. It has a 3-quart capacity, weighs 3 pounds 0.5 ounces, and features an unspecified number of cladding layers. The base diameter is 6.5 inches, and it is induction compatible and oven-safe up to 500F. Cleaning is easy, but hand-washing is advised, and it comes with a limited warranty. Lastly, the All-Clad D3 Tri-Ply Stainless-Steel Saucier stands out for its small size and excellent performance. It has a 2-quart capacity, weighs 2 pounds, and features 3 layers of stainless steel and aluminum cladding. The base diameter is 7 inches, and it is induction compatible and oven-safe. This saucier is dishwasher-safe, but hand-washing is recommended for best results. Each of these saucier pans has its pros and cons, but they all share high-quality construction and performance. Choose the one that best fits your cooking needs and preferences.Discover the best saucier pans for your kitchen with our comprehensive review. We’ve tested various models to find the ones that offer the best performance, balance, and value. Our top pick is the Misen 3-Quart Saucier, which is well-constructed and sturdy, performing well across all tests. The handle is comfortable and balanced, with smooth stirring capabilities. However, weighing over three pounds, it feels hefty for a ‘smaller’ pan, and handles more like a saucepan than a saucier. Misen has also released 1.5- and 2-quart sauciers for those who prefer smaller sizes. Next, we have the Zwilling Demeyere Atlantis Saucier (3.5 quarts), which is appreciated for its large surface area. Stirring risotto is smooth, and heat conduction is the most uniform among all models tested. However, it weighs three pounds, 13 ounces, which could be challenging for some cooks without a helper handle. Priced at around $250, it is more than double the price of other winning models. The Breville Thermal Pro Stainless Steel Sauce Pan (4 quarts) is the heaviest saucier in the lineup, just under four pounds. It offers even heat conduction but is slow to cook food and not as responsive as the winners. It performs more like a Dutch oven, and it seems to be discontinued in the form we tested—an anodized nonstick option is now available. Understanding the Difference Between a Saucepan and a Saucier: A saucepan has taller walls, sharper corners, and a flatter bottom, while a saucier has shorter, slightly flared walls and rounded edges. Choosing the Right Size Saucier: For most cooking tasks, such as reheating four to six servings of soup, a two- to four-quart saucier is plenty big. If you need a larger saucier, our overall favorite, from Made In, also comes in a five-quart size. Why You Might Need a Saucier: If you value easy stirring, seamless whisking, and creating consistent, perfect sauces, and also want a versatile piece of cookware for soups, broths, purées, grains, and more, then a saucier is for you. It can do all a saucepan can and more. Expertise Behind the Review: Tim Chin, a professional cook and food writer with a degree in Classic Pastry Arts from the International Culinary Center, has been contributing to Serious Eats since 2020. Rochelle Bilow and Grace Kelly, both editors at Serious Eats, bring their experience from Bon Appétit, Cooking Light, and America’s Test Kitchen to this review. Methodology: Our team put sauciers through three tests to evaluate their ability to handle a variety of cooking tasks. Additional research was conducted by Grace Kelly, an Editor for Serious Eats with experience writing for various media outlets since 2015.
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