I was in my forties before I knew that people didn’t call pots and pans “kettles”. Embarrassingly, I was writing a book with a cook as a hero and my editor gently pointed out to me that kettles are used for tea. Sometimes they’re used for things like rendering fat during the butchering process or making soap. They are not used in everyday cooking. That was news to me because I grew up cooking in kettles.
One of my favorites was the mush kettle, which was a one quart aluminum “pot” (as some people call it) with a handle. We cooked oatmeal, cream of wheat and Malto-Meal in the mush kettle. It was all mush. According to my husband, it’s actually hot cereal. Right.
The mush kettle wasn’t the only specialized kettle we had. There was also the rice kettle and the stew kettle, both stainless steal and the perfect size for the stated purposes. Sometimes we used the stew kettle for other things, such as soaking beans, but it was always the stew kettle. Oddly we didn’t have cast iron kettles, even though we had cast iron everything. Cast iron kettles are, of course, called Dutch ovens.
Speaking of cast iron, we had a lot of perfectly seasoned frying pans. (Occasionally called skillets in my house, but not
often.) We had enough of them that I think I took four when I moved out and no one seemed to notice. Yes, we used soap in our frying pans, but only after meat was cooked in them. If there was no meat, it was a wipe-clean situation. If we washed them in water, we put them on the stove to dry, hopefully remembering to stay nearby so as not to wonder about that nasty hot metal odor permeating house a few minutes later. If the pan was not red hot, there’d be a quick application of Crisco on a rag if mom or dad were in charge, and no Crisco if my brother or I were in charge . I still have my pans. They’re still perfectly seasoned and I use soap. I haven’t turned one red hot by forgetting it in the drying process in a long time, and have finally reached the level of maturity where I do wipe them with Crisco after washing.
Long story short, I occasionally use soap in my 100-year old cast iron and I still cook in kettles. Do you?
Jeannie Watt raises cattle in Montana and loves all things western. When she's not writing, Jeannie enjoys sewing, making mosaic mirrors, riding her horses and buying hay. Lots and lots of hay.
We called the cast iron ones kettles. They had a handle for hanging, but we never hung them. I remember using skillet for frying pan when I was a kid, regardless of stainless steel or cast iron.
I love the word skillet, but always said frying pan. I’d love to have a big hanging kettle, though, like you, I don’t know what I’d hang it from. 🙂
No, our family didn’t use the term kettle for any of our pots and pans. We did have a tea kettle; it was used to brew Red Rose tea (my Dad’s preference). If Mom had any cast iron frying pans, I don’t recall them. Those joined my cookware collection when I got married; my husband had a couple.
I still drink Red Rose tea. It’s my brand. 🙂
I have a tea kettle, but I generally call the other cookware pans, not pots. I guess it depends on where you were raised as to what things are called.
You’re right, Elaine. I’ve tried to call my cookware pans, because my husband looks at me sideways when I don’t.
I think it depends on where you grew up. For us, a kettle was what we boiled water in, a container with a top handle and spout. We usually called the big, cast-iron pot an iron pot and sometimes, a cauldron. Other cookware was either pots or frying pans, with cast-iron pans sometimes called a skillet.
Your right about it being where you grew up, Janice. My husband and I have totally different vocabularies at times.
This is all relative to when and where a person grows up = only kettle was for boiling water for tea (usually whistling one) lots of cast iron (best burgers with onions ever) and of course the old fashioned pressure cookers!
Amen to best burgers and onions in cast iron, Teresa!
growing up we had a couple tea kettles. the rest were pots and pans. thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Lori!
I have never been attached to a cast iron pot, frying pan or kettle. My husband insisted he wanted me to cook/fry in a cast iron skillet, so I bought one. Unfortunately, it had a small blemish, a little spot the size of a grain of sand, in the bottom of the pan and I could never get around it when attempting to turn the food in the pan. Needless to say, I did not keep the pan, and I did not try another one. Hence, my adventure in the cast iron world.
Great story, Judy! I can see where a little blemish could be difficult to work around. Scraping would be really hard.
Yes, any and all pots are kettles, frying pans are skillets, and we wash our cast iron (skillets,dutch ovens,pie pan,bread pans,) in soapy water.
Yay, Bridgette! I love hearing this!
I do not own a cast iron skillet, but I want one. My mother told me I can have one of hers. I call most of my pots and pans, pans. My kettles are teakettles that I boil water in to make tea. The only thing I don’t use soap on are my stone wear.
That’s interesting about no soap on your stoneware, Karijean. Cast iron is nice. It sometimes takes some getting used to, but I love mine.
We have a tea kettle and a couple of cast iron Dutch ovens.
We have seven cast iron frying pans in three or four sizes, plus two cast iron griddles that were gifts we’ve never used.
We wash our cast iron pans with soap and water, dry them on the stove. and have never had a problem.
Two of our pans are at least fifty years old, probably older since one had belonged to hubby’s grandma and the other to her mom.
We also have a set of stainless steel sauce pans.
Two of the cast iron pans get used daily. the others less often, but none gets special treatment. None have rusted.
Mary Ellen, your kitchen sounds just like my kitchen! 🙂
Yes I do I have a chili kettle that I just had out over the weekend to make chili. I also use it for any soups that I make. It is an 8 quart kettle that I call my chili kettle. Everything else I have is either a pot or a pan but the one chili kettle.
I’m glad you have a chili kettle! It sounds just as useful as a stew kettle.
I love my cast iron skillets. I have several different sizes . I wash them in soap and dry them.
I’m glad to find so many soap people after seeing all the warnings on the internet about NEVER washing cast iron with soap. You just have to know how to do it.
We had a cast iron kettle/pot/whatever just the one in the first picture in your post. It now belongs to my oldest nephew. It had belonged to one of my great-uncle’s on my paternal side. I still have all of mom’s cast iron skillets, and I use one of them some. We always put ours in the oven to dry. I did that the other day when I used the one I keep out, and then when I needed the oven the next day, I saw I’d forgotten to take it out. At least I remembered not to grab it with my bare hand, since I was putting something in the preheated oven!
Hi, we have cast iron skillets and pots, my husband likes cooking and baking in them, but I dont. My husband has done alot of the cooking and baking since he retired, he loves to cook and bake, he will ask me to make him tacos and other foods that he is not so good at. He also uses the least amount of pans when he cooks, even though he doesnt wash the dishes, which I am more than happy to do, washing dishes has never been bothersome to me, so most of the time he cooks and I wash the dishes and clean up. This is a very interesting about the kettle, I had no idea that a kettle was just for like teas, I also thought the big pot was called a cattle, now I new that the tea kettles were also called kettles. Have a great day. I enjoyed reading your post.
It’s interesting to learn about our differences.
I once had a tea kettle that I forgot was on the stove one day and it boiled dry. That was the end of my kettle.
I have several sized pots and pans, preferring my non-stick most of the time. I grew up with my dad using stainless steel, (he was a cook in the Navy), but I never liked it myself. My husband convinced me to start using cast iron frying pans, and I still do for certain things. We have so many OLD ones from my grandmother and his mom, but it’s so heavy! I’m a “no soap” kind of cast iron user, which seems unsanitary to me, but I rinse the heck out of them, finally pour boiling water over them, and dry them on the stove.
But no, where I was raised, the only kettles were tea kettles. Any that are deep are pots; shallow ones are pans.
We have a nest of cast iron skillets ranging from 6-14″ (I think that’s the largest–have to look! We have them sitting on the antique range next to our modern gas stove and oven). A few smaller ones are floating about but not in the nest. We have used most of them at one time or another. The collection of cast iron tea kettles we use for display (modern coffee maker and microwave for the occasional cuppa). A few of the larger pots and kettles get used but rarely (mostly just us, and I boil pasta in stainless). But we do seem to have a collection. Lovely even heat for omelets! I keep the two I use most on the stove at all times.
(A friend from West Virginia referred to her frying pans as “spiders.”)
Oh, and YES I wash with soap if there is anything but grease (butter, olive oil, etc.), which I wipe out with a papertowel. But, if washed, it is immediately SEASONED with olive oil before being stored with a paper towel on top (and between pans) to keep the grease clean.
That’s the way to do it, Elissa. You must have beautiful cast iron.
I’ve never heard of spiders, but I like it. Very unusual. It sounds like you have a wonderful variety of cast iron. I bet that 14 inch skillet is a two-hander when lifted.
I didn’t know that about kettles. Lol
I didn’t know about pots and pans, lol.
We always called a pot with a bail (like a bucket) a kettle. Without a bail, it was a Dutch oven. I have every imaginable size of iron skillets, griddles and individual mini ramekin type skillets, passed down from generations, that I use. Never use soap on them but rinse, wipe out, oil and dry on stove. If they aren’t skillets, they are pots. If I don’t use the cast iron, I only ever use my Ninja Foodi. Impossible to make fantastic fried potatoes and onions in anything other than an iron skillet!!! 😉
I never knew that about bails. Very interesting. There’s nothing like cast iron that’s come down through the family. You’re very fortunate!
I call that a cast iron pot
We do have a big lard kettle. I’ve discovered rendering lard in my 6 quart electric kettle is much easier than trying to control the fire under the lard kettle. It may take smaller batches and more of them but I get better results and I can do it in the kitchen instead of outside. My grandmother called her frying pan a spider. I use both skillet and frying pan to describe mine. If I cook meat in my cast iron I do use soap but a lot of foods I use boiling water or wipe salt in them with a dry paper towel. Always dry them in the oven or on the stove if I’ve cleaned with water. My well seasoned pans are as good as nonstick cookware. Like someone said you just have to get used to them. My cast iron Dutch Oven has an unusual history. My father-in-law bought it at a farm auction for 25 cents. It was full of a collection of nails, nuts and bolts. For years it sat at the bottom of their basement stairs. I brought it home and scrubbed and scrubbed until it was clean and then did several rounds of seasoning it. It has become my go to pot for deep fat frying.
The only thing we called a kettle was the tea kettle for boiling water. I don’t remember any cast iron at our house. My husband, on the other hand, was very familiar with them and has chastised me several times for washing them in soap and water. He always preseasons them. We have a few dutch ovens, acquired for Girl and Boy Scout outings. There are a variety of sizes of frying pans/skillets, and two sizes of griddles. Except tor the griddles, I don’t use the cast iron that often. They are too heave for me. I have a few cornbread molds in different designs. We have two of the large cauldrons used for apple butter, etc, but both were used for planters before we got them so are no longer any good for cooking. I
Interesting. I use a tea kettle. Don’t like heating water in microwave. Rnjoyed