Stock Pot Vs. Soup Pot: Best Cookware For Your Kitchen

This is not a fight between stock pots vs. soup pots since each cookware has its own purpose. Then, why do these two look-alike pots have different names? It’s the same question people who are new to kitchenware ask themselves.

Judging by the looks, both are for cooking large batches of food, both come with a similar design, and both seem to have the same material. What are the differences between them?

Let’s dive into this debate and see which cookware is better for you, or this should not be a debate in the first place.

Cooking Chicken Stock — Only experts can know everything about cookware, but it’s not hard to distinguish them.

What Is A Stock Pot, And What Is It Good For?

A stock pot is a large pot with a wide flat bottom and high sides. It comes with 2 handles on the sides and a lid with a top handle.

Stock pots are one of the most popular used cookware in the kitchen. Its large size gives it a lot of advantages over other cookware when it comes to making large batches of food in one go.

Whether making soup, stew, stock, pasta, or other dishes with great volume, a stock pot can give you the best result in a shorter amount of time than normal pots.

With the name “stock pot”, you can have a general idea about what a stock pot is good for. A stock pot is ideal for simmering a large liquid volume over long hours with meat, bone, and vegetables. Plus, people usually cook stock in big pots, hence the name. ⁽¹⁾

Vegetables In Pot — Despite its irregularly large size, stock pots are popular in kitchens worldwide.

Soup Pot – A Stock Pot’s Distant Relative

A soup pot is a must-have cookware in any kitchen due to its versatility. It’s good for making homemade soup and works great with other dishes such as pasta, braised meats, and steamed vegetables.

Soup is denser than stock, with the ingredients being the dish’s central part, unlike stock, which uses ingredients to create a soup base. Therefore, the bottoms of soup pots are wider in diameter than stock pots, but the sides are shorter.

Pans Pots Hanging — A soup pot fits better on your oven rack and doesn’t take up much space on your stovetop.

What Do Stock Pot And Soup Pot Have In Common?

Stock pots and soup pots have many things in common. Both of them are large enough to accommodate a lot of ingredients. They both come in various sizes, and their space can contain a large amount of liquid.

Their general shape is quite similar, with a wide diameter and tall sides. They both have a lid, a top handle, and handles on both sides.

Learn how to choose your best-suited cookware to save more money.

Watch this video: How To Choose Your Premium Cooking Pots

They also come with the same materials ranging from aluminum, iron-clad, copper, and ceramics. Both of them are usually non-stick and oven-safe.

Pots Cookware — Stock pot and soup pot can be used interchangeably in most cases.

Differences Between Stock Pots And Soup Pots

Although they have a similar look, they can be used interchangeably. Stock and soup pots have differences that can be vital in certain cooking scenarios.

A Comparison Between Stock Pot And Soup Pot

Now you know these two pots have some distinctions. Let’s look at this brief comparison table to see the differences more clearly.

Property	Stock pot	Soup pot
Base width	Narrow base	Wide base
Base structure	Thin base to conduct heat better	Thick base to retain heat and prevent burning
Sides	Tall sides	Shorter sides
Sizes	Large, even for home cooking	Various sizes, typically for home cooking
Material	Stainless steel, aluminum, iron-clad, ceramic, multi-clad, non-stick, cooper	Stainless steel, aluminum, iron-clad, ceramic, multi-clad, non-stick, cooper
Handle	Two handles on both sides	Two handles on both sides or one long handle
Preferred content	Soup base with a lot of liquid	Soup with dense ingredients
Heat conduction	Promote rapid boiling	Slower heat conduction, but better at retaining

Stock Pot’s Characteristics

A stock pot usually comes with unique characteristics that set it apart from other cookware. Here are some of the most prominent ones.

Size

The stock pot’s size may be the first criterion to classify a pot as a stock pot. Size is also what gives stock pots their name. Due to their dominance in size, stock pots are used in various scenarios, like cooking food for large groups of people in a short amount of time.

People measure the size of pots in quarts, the total amount of water a pot can contain. Stock pots come in different sizes; the largest ones can reach up to 74 quarts (70 liters)! But those giant stock pots are exclusive in commercial kitchens.

For household purposes, stock pots can come in 6-quart, 8-quart, 12-quart, and 16-quart. Bigger stock pots are for commercial and factory kitchens.

Broth With Carrots In Pot — Size is vital in deciding what kinds of stock pot you need.

Structure

The construction of a stock pot also gives it a unique look and use. The height of the stock pot outweighs the base and top diameter.

The smaller bottom enables users to save more space on the stove, and the heat can also conduct better and more evenly.

The tall side and narrow bottom of stock pots make the water inside evaporate at a lower rate than in a pot with more exposure to the air. For that particular design, a stock pot is good for long-simmering mixtures like stocks and soups.

Moreover, the handles of the stock pot are on opposite sides. They are usually cool-touch handles made from Bakelite, a high-quality insulator. They don’t absorb the heat from the pot and burn your hands. These additions are great for handling the pots.

Design Of Stock Pots — The design of stock pots is one factor that makes a brand stand out from others.

Material

Stock pots come with a handful of materials, but the most popular materials are aluminum and stainless steel, with stainless steel being the higher quality than the others.

Stainless steel is the most loved material when it comes to kitchenware. Whether they are pots, pans, or utensils, people trust stainless steel for its durability and corrosion resistance. It’s also more lightweight than materials like ceramics or iron-clad.

The heat conduction of stainless steel is not the best, but it’s a good heat conductor that can distribute the heat evenly throughout the pot. It’s also a non-stick material that prevents your foods from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Bone Broth Saucepan — Material is one of the most important aspects when buying new cookware.

Soup Pot’s Characteristics

Soup pots come with various designs and models, but all share some characteristics. Here are some unique features of soup pots.

Size

Soup pots come in sizes ranging from 4 quarts to as large as 20 quarts. Most soup pots are not as big as stock pots in a home cook scenario. Soup pots with shorter walls may save more space on your oven rack but will take up more space on your stove.

Broth Soup Pot — Soup pot’s size in a home cook is quite humble compared to a stock pot.

Structure

A soup pot has a wide round base with shorter sides than stock pots. Soup pots are designed to hold dense liquid content, unlike the large volumes of liquid of stock pots.

Soup pots have heavy and thick bases to conduct and retain heat consistently while preventing burning due to heat exposure for a long time. A soup pot has a lid, a top handle, and handles on both sides. Some smaller soup pots have a single long handle.

Material

Set Cookware On Table — The pot’s material can directly affect how you cook food.

Soup pots are made with many materials. The most common ones are copper, aluminum, cast iron, non-stick, stainless, and a combination of different materials.

Cast iron, copper, and stainless steel are high-quality materials at higher prices. On the other hand, aluminum is cheaper but has some downsides.

Aluminum is very lightweight and can’t sustain much damage. It is prone to dents and scratches. Aluminum is also a reactive metal that alters food taste with a metallic taste. ⁽²⁾

Get your understanding of non-stick cookware before getting one.

Watch this video: Why Retailers Lie About Non-Stick Cookware

Differences In Structure

The key differences lie in their structures and designs. Stock pots come with a narrow base since people don’t use it to hold a lot of ingredients, while soup pots have wider bases for dense contents.

Due to the size and tall sides of stock pots, they must conduct heat quickly and evenly to all the parts of the pots, thus the thin base. In a soup pot case, the main surface that heats up food is the base, so it needs to be thicker to retain heat better.

Regarding size, stock pots tend to be large and take up more storage space than soup pots, even for household purposes.

Stainless Steel Pot — The most prominent distinctions between stock pots and soups lie in their basic structure.

Differences In Features

Stock pots have double handles and are small on both sides, while there is a kind of soup pot with a long-extended handle. The double handles of stock pots also make it easier to hold them for straining.

Stock pot’s preferred content is stock, a soup base with lots of liquid and not many ingredients, while people usually use soup pots for cooking soups with denser content.

Regarding heat conduction, stock pots conduct heat better so that heat can distribute evenly on all surfaces, while the soup pot’s thick base concentrates the heat on the wide bottom to keep cooking up the food from the base.

Stock Pots And Soups — Unique features of stock and soup pots make them work best with different foods.

Stock Pot, Soup Pot vs. Dutch Oven

There is another look-alike of the stock pot and soup pot which is a Dutch oven. Most people find it hard to tell these three apart. Here are some notable differences for you to tell which is which.

Their shape is the most significant distinction between a Dutch oven and a stock pot. The shape of a Dutch oven is quite similar to a soup pot, but its sides are shorter, and the base is wider. It also has a thicker wall of seasoned cast iron with a tight-fitting lid.

Dutch ovens come in different shapes (cylinders and ovals), while stock pots are generally tall and cylindrical. Although Dutch ovens come in other materials, most Dutch ovens are made with cast iron and enameled exterior.

Some Dutch ovens can consist of cast aluminum and ceramics as the main material.

A Dutch oven is more suited for braises, bean dishes, and even bread baking, while stock pots and soup pots are good with soups, stocks, and brews.

Learn what your Dutch oven can do to assist in cooking!

Watch this video: 7 Ways to Use a Dutch Oven

Recommended Stock Pot And Soup Pot Brands

There are many brands in the market that can supply you with the best stock pots and soup pots to your liking. Here are some of my recommendations.

Le Creuset

Le Creuset is known for its colorful enameled pots. I mean, look at this 12-quart enameled stock pot design. Such a delicate and durable product!

These stock pots are good for heat distribution. If you want a different model, this 8-quart ceramic stock pot is also perfect for family use.

Cook N Home

This brand offers cookware at the best price out there. Check out this 8-quart stainless steel stock pot. The pot has a multi-layer base with an aluminum core for better heat conduction.

Alternatively, this 11-quart stock pot will give you more space for your stocks and stews.

Woll

Another popular brand for you to choose from. Check out this 7.9-quart soup pot with a non-stick coating aluminum pot. Super durable and easy to clean. This pot has a cast handle for safe lifting and handling without burning your hands.

Cuisinart

Cuisinart always brings you high-quality products at a reasonable price. This Cuisinart’s 6-quart nonstick-hard-anodized stock pot with great heat distribution and a non-stick cooking surface is a great addition to your collection.

Or opt for this 8-quart stock pot if you want to cook for more people.

All-Clad

All-Clad is famous for its durable cookware! I recommend going for this 4-quart ceramic with a steel-core soup pot. Its thick steel core heats steadily and evenly, which is good for slow cooking.

The ceramic finish makes it extra durable, resisting chips and scratches. You can choose a rose-quartz color 4-quart soup pot if you prefer a different color.

FAQs

You have learned a lot about stock pots and soup pots in the above article, but there are still some more FAQs to advance your knowledge.

Is it safe to cook soup in an aluminum pot?

Aluminum is a highly reactive metal that reacts to some foods and alters their flavors, especially with acidic foods such as tomatoes, vinegar, or citrus. Sometimes you can taste metallic in your foods after cooking with an aluminum pot.

It’s not dangerous to your health since the amount of aluminum that gets into your foods is minimal, but if you’re sensitive to taste, you will find the metallic flavor off-putting.

Can I use a soup pot as a pan?

There are upsides and downsides to using a soup pot in place of a pan. The relatively high wall of a soup pot sets it apart from the pan’s short sides. The high sides make it harder to flip food in a soup pot.

But frying inside a soup pot will prevent all the oil from splattering outside. However, I don’t recommend using a soup pot to replace a pan for good. You can use pots and pans interchangeably if the quantities of liquid you’re cooking are different.

Can you fry in a stock pot?

Yes, you can sometimes use a stock pot for frying or even deep frying. But like the above answer, a stock pot can’t replace a frying pan entirely.

A stock pot’s heat distribution is somewhat different from a pan specially designed for frying. The pan mainly concentrates heat in the middle, while a stock pot distributes the temperature evenly in the bottom and sides.

Can I put the soup pot in the oven?

Most soup pots made from metal or ceramic are safe in the oven. However, soup pots with a plastic handle on the sides or top handles on the lid are not oven-safe. The constant high heat in the oven may melt any kind of plastic.

Do I have to get rid of rusty pots?

Rust on cookware can harm your health and badly affect your food taste. The good news is that you don’t have to buy a new one since you can clean the rust by yourself.

You can use a rust removal solution and a soft brush. Wipe out all the rusty spots and return them to their original state. It’s better to prevent that in the first place by always washing your pots with soapy water and drying them out in the sun if possible.

All Your Cookware Deserve Appreciation!

Whether a stock pot, a soup pot, or a saucepan, they deserve your utmost appreciation and care. I believe your cookware and utensils have their own soul, and they manifest them into the foods you cook.

Learning to take care of them is the same as learning to take care of yourself and your diet. Treat them with care and keep them clean all the time. That’s the best thing you can do for them. Before closing this article, please share and comment for more helpful content!