If you have a big pot of stew to make, you may want to know what is the biggest saucepan you can buy.
Having a huge saucepan can be really useful if you cook for a lot of people, like batching out food, or if you entertain regularly and all your friends love your secret chilli recipe.
So, what is the largest saucepan you buy? Well, let’s find out.
The Biggest Saucepan You Can Buy
The biggest saucepan we can find readily available in the UK is 22 cm in diameter (from one edge to the other).
This can hold about 4.5 litres of water, stock, soup or chilli. It is important to note here that saucepans are defined by having one long handle and, occasionally, a smaller handle to help lift it onto the stove.
There are larger pots available than this, but in terms of saucepans, a 4.5-litre saucepan is the largest we could find.
Bigger Alternatives to Saucepans
If a 4.5-litre saucepan simply isn’t going to cut it for your next batch of soup, there are some alternatives to choose from.
If you do want a really big pot for batching dishes out, take a look at stock pots.
Stockpots come in a range of sizes, and 4.5 litres is actually quite small for a stock pot.
Basically, stockpot sizes start where saucepan sizes end. So, most stock pots are can hold at least 4.5 litres of liquid.
A quick trip around online cookware shops has shown 6.8-litre stock pots, 9 and 10-litre stock pots and even 34 and 113-litre stock pots (this one from Royal Catering).
113 litres of soup may be a bit overboard for most of us. These stock pots are usually used in kitchens, making a lot of meals per day. But hey, if you want to make 113 litres of soup, be our guest! In fact, if you have any soup leftover, our editor is always hungry!
If you do want a large pot for things like stews, chilis, making stock or soup, a stock pot is the best way to go. They are designed for making stock, of course.
This involves heating liquid for prolonged periods of time and getting as much flavour into the liquid as possible. So, these pots are ideal for making large quantities of lots of tasty dishes.
The Largest Saucepan Ever Made
We didn’t feel right finishing this saucepan article without telling you about the largest saucepan ever created.
The largest saucepan ever was made in Pakistan by Nestlé, and it was 4.26 metres in diameter. It stood at 2.13 metres in height and had a handle that was nearly 3 metres in length!
The Guinness World Record for the largest frying pan ever made goes to Edirne Belediyesi from Turkey. Coming in at 6.72 metres in diameter, it is enormous!
Conclusion
To summarise, the largest saucepans you can buy are usually 22 cm in diameter and have a capacity of 4.5 litres. However, you can buy stock pots that can be used for the same cooking tasks and are much bigger.
We hope this saucepan article has been helpful. Please explore Chef’s Pick for more saucepan-related content as well as a great deal more. We have everything you need to make your kitchen the heart of the home.
Scott is a writer and a passionate home chef. His passion for cooking began when he was 10 years old. Scott has been writing professionally for over five years now and loves to combine his passion for cooking with his day job.
