Your largest pot??

Question

What is your biggest size pot? What size pot do you use to make your soup - and what if your were doubling or tripling your soup?? The largest pot I own is a lightweight blue and white dotted "lobster" pot - not sure it was necessarily designated for that but it is the only thing I use it for - it is too lightweight for good cooking. So discounting that one the largest pot I have is my old 8 qt Farberware. I would love a larger pot. Last week I borrowed my neighbor's "corn" pot which is a heavier stainless one (no name - seems to have a disk on the bottom) and seems to be about 15 Qts. It is a great size for me when I need to make soup for a crowd. What are your suggestions?

Answer

24 quart Vollrath tri-ply stock pot. Easily fits 73 chicken carcasses should you need to make large quantities of stock.

Answer

My go to is a 16 qt. I have 1 8 qt, 2 12 qts, and a 32 qt sitting around in case I really feel like making tons of soup/stock/chili/gumbo. But that depends on how much room I have in the freezer and how much ice I have to cool stuff down. I rarely use the 32 qt any more.

I don't count my water bath canner for quart jars since it's too thin for anything other than canning. YMMV.

Answer

My largest is a ss 20 or 24 quart stock pot, I forget which and I'm too lazy to get it out and pour water into it by the quart so I can count. Then I have two smaller 12 quart stainless stock pots. Then several sizes below that in both stock pot format as well as Dutch ovens. I don't bother getting the big one out much anymore unless I'm cooking a whole cow. Or a neighbor's annoying lab that leaves greetings for me on my lawn. Damn dog.

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My big pots are lightweight. If I'm going to do serious stuff in that quantity, I do my browing and start roux (what's the plural of roux? rouxes?) in my Dutch oven and transfer it to the big pot after I've started adding liquid, and then continue it there. I've done this for decades and have never had scorching disasters. I cook in such quantities seldom enough that the serious cost of investing in a magnificent big pot is too extravagant fr me. Once a year for...oh, let's pick a figure out of the air, $100. Over 30 years, that brings the cost down. But 30 years ago, I was raising kids and had other, better uses. Now, when I could afford it, it seems superfluous. 

I did, however, rent one gigantic pot to cook a whole country ham after the kids left and I'd won one. Soaked it in the bleach-scrubbed bathtub for two days, and off I went.

How about going halves with a friend? Or just borrowing it from a friend for as-needed use in return for soup?

Answer

smilingal: "What is your biggest size pot?" If one puts aside the turkey roaster we use for 24-lb turkeys, our largest pot is 5 liters, about 5.25 quarts. http://www.kuhnrikon.com/products/pressure_cookers/pressure.php3?id=1 Except for canning, we never have seen any need for anything larger. I was amused the other day when another poster asked about recommendations for a frying pan for scrambled eggs, and most of the responses were for 12" and larger skillets. We use a 7" Descoware enameled cast iron frypan for scrambled eggs. I do not understand the bias for gigantism. 

"What size pot do you use to make your soup" Usually a smaller one than the 5 liter, but sometimes (when we put the carcass of the 24 lb turkey in after Thanksgiving) we use the 5 liter. It is perfectly adequate. We cook pasta for four to six in a 3 liter (3.2 quart) Demeyere mussel pot, never have seen the need for anything larger.

Answer

I routinely over fill an 8 quart stock pot with stew. Right now I'm looking for a couple larger stock pots as noted in my recent posts about "large stock pots". When I do stew, 8 quarts won't make it through the work week. I'm thinking about a 16 quart model now for stews and chilli's but, will probably opt a little larger for room to grow.

I have a 42 quart for brining Turkey's and similar things.

The Vollrath stock pots can be purchased for less the $100 for a good model (Tribute or Tri-Ply or Thick Aluminum) so, buying your own doesn't have to break the bank.

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I KNEW if I asked this question on this site I would get others to feel my need!
I think I will keep my eyes open for a great deal on a 15-20 qt pot but in the meantime, since it is few and far between that I would be cooking in this amount, I will continue to rely on my neighbors good graces --- and I was sorry to see that there was too little leftover soup for me to return to him with his pot.

Answer

Embarrassingly, the largest pot in my arsenal is an 80-quart, with strainer, that is typically used for crawfish boils. It runs on a propane stand that I situate below an eyelet embedded in my garage ceiling...then use a small block and tackle to pull out the strainer. 

I have used this behemoth to parboil chicken for an event I "catered".

Beyond that, I turn to my cheap SS 16 quart for beer and soup/stock making.

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Your blue and white dotted pot was likely made for canning, i.e. processing jars.

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I have a 16-qt. aluminum stockpot, which I don't use. Actually, it's the trash can next to my desk. It holds one of those plastic bags from the grocery store perfectly (I've been stocking up on those bags, btw, in view of their 'endangered species' status).

Among cookware I use, I have three "largest" pieces:

(1) My favorite, a 7.25 qt. Le Creuset round oven (Indigo), which I use for Bolognese, chili, and pot roast.

(2) A 7-qt./14" diameter sauteuse made by Calphalon. I bought it to make a chicken & garlic dish I found in a Troisgros Brothers cookbook 20+ years ago, and I can also use it for osso bucco (which I haven't made in a really long time). It takes up two burners on a normal stove, though.

(3) An 8-qt. All Clad "stockpot" (since this is wider than it is tall, why _does_ All Clad call it a stockpot?). I bought this thinking I'd use it instead of my LC, as it's much lighter, and I have arthritis, but the lid bubbles up when what I'm cooking hits the "slow bubble" state, so I still use my LC for practically everything. (All Clad really needs to do something about its lids. They just aren't the same quality as the pots.)

Answer

16 Qt. All Clad stock pot. I'm small, so that's about it for me as far as being able to lift it up off the range loaded with food. Big enough, and I love it.

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