Pots & Pans
Buy and sell pots and pans in Panama.
Nearly every Panamanian kitchen owns at least one wide, shallow metal frying pot, the one that turns out Sunday’s twice-fried green plantain and, if the oven gives up, the Christmas ham. Next to it work the frying pans, stockpots, saucepans and full cookware sets that handle the rest of the week, new and pre-owned. With cookware the material counts for more than the number of pieces: a clad steel pot or an iron skillet can outlive its first owner, while a coated pan is used up in a few years, and that difference is where a fair second-hand price comes from.
The shallow frying pot and the pans built for hot oil:
wide, low and usually aluminium, the Panamanian frying pot comes in every size and gets used for almost everything, but frying is where it earns its keep. Green plantain goes into the oil twice, stuffed cassava fritters need oil deep enough to float in, and breakfast fried dough only puffs while the oil stays hot, so a heavy pot of that kind, a Lodge cast-iron skillet or a carbon-steel wok does this job better than anything coated. Nonstick belongs with eggs, tortillas and fish fillets over a medium flame; frying on high heat again and again is what wears the coating out fastest. The platter that carries the plantain to the table is in serveware.
Clad steel, disc bottoms and enamelled cast iron:
a stainless pot is only as good as the aluminium hidden inside it. Fully clad, or tri-ply, pans carry that core right up the walls, so a stew heats evenly and does not catch at the sides. Cheaper sets bond a thick disc to the base alone: plenty for boiling cassava, less forgiving with anything that simmers for an hour. Enamelled cast iron from Le Creuset or Staub is the pot for a slow shredded-beef stew: heavy, happy in the oven and never in need of seasoning, though the enamel will not survive a fall onto tiles. If a pot is headed for the oven, look at the handles first, because plastic and wood limit the heat; a roast is better off in a tin from baking.
A tri-ply set against a carbon-steel wok:
a full tri-ply stainless set from a mainstream brand such as Tramontina runs around $150 to $200 new, and since there is no coating to wear through, a complete used set with every lid and clean, flat bases keeps a solid share of that. Missing lids and an odd pan that does not match cost it more than scuffs on the outside. A carbon-steel wok costs around $35 new, and what a used one offers at that price is its seasoning: if it is already dark and even, it spares you weeks of breaking it in.
Pitted steel, rusted iron and chipped enamel:
rainbow tints and chalky white spots on stainless steel are cosmetic and lift off with vinegar. What does matter on a disc-bottom pot is the seam where the disc meets the body: a gap, a bulge or a disc that sounds loose when tapped means the layers have parted, and it will scorch. On cast iron, orange surface rust scrubs off and the pan reseasons as good as new, but a hairline crack, often from cold water poured into a hot pan, ends its life. Look inside every enamelled pot: a chip showing black iron underneath will keep spreading. Le Creuset and Staub are both copied, and genuine pieces have the maker’s name and size cast into the base rather than printed on. On an old aluminium frying pot, dents in the walls do no harm; check instead that the handles are still tight.
A frying pot or a Lodge skillet, listed by material and size:
say what it is made of before anything else, clad or disc-bottom steel, cast iron, enamel, aluminium or nonstick, because that decides what a buyer will pay. Give the diameter across the top of each piece, list the lids, and for a set name the pieces rather than the total, since many sets count ladles and spatulas as pieces. Photograph the inside bottom in daylight and the maker’s stamp underneath. Own up to any chip. Someone coming in from Santiago for an enamelled pot will lift the lid and run a finger round the inside rim, where chips hide, so wrap it in a towel with the lid on: enamel chips in the car more often than in the kitchen.