So you bought a new frying pan or got one gifted to you as a present. Excited to give it a try, you unboxed it, rinsed it under running water, then put it on your stove and turned up the heat.

Unless you’re a professional chef, no one at home expects to you cook like one. But they do expect you to cook well enough so that your food doesn’t taste as if it came out of a poorly-ran fast-food joint.

Many home cooks choose stainless steel cookware because it can be used to cook just about anything, can go on the stove or in the oven, and can safely be cleaned in the dishwasher.

So you came here wondering about the differences between a grill pan and a skillet? As usual, I’ve got you covered.

At the end of the day, cooking comes down to two things: the act of preparing delicious food for your family and the desire to make the experience as enjoyable for yourself as possible. So it only makes sense that you’d select cookware that helps you get there.

Try to think of a more American piece of cookware than the good ol’ cast iron skillet. Sturdy, versatile, and long-lasting, cast iron used to be the go-to choice for pans and pots throughout the 20th century.

The world of cooking is a vast one. There are so many materials and coatings for your pots and pans to choose from, each with its fair share of advantages and disadvantages.

Enameled pans and pots are essentially cast iron cooking vessels covered—on the inside and out—with vitreous enamel, a thick layer of melted glass that gets fused onto the metal through a particular process.

Most of us remember our mothers and grandmothers using a cast iron skillet for cooking. Except for smelly fish, you can prepare anything with success in a cast iron skillet.