The history of the stockpot is not as old as one might think. Cooking vessels were a very slow but necessary part of humanity’s evolution. While early man used reeds, tortoise shells, mollusks, and animal stomachs to heat his food, the evolution to pottery was a slow process. The ceramic allowed the containment of food substances over low and slow heat. Ceramic cracks when overheated. Even modern ceramic is reserved for slow cooking. No open fires please! It wasn’t until the development of bronze and iron that metal pots became another option. A cauldron similar to modern pots was found in the medieval kitchen. A cauldron had a rounded bottom and a curved handle that hung over an open fire. Cauldrons or kettles were used to cook or boil liquids. Cauldrons fell out of favor when they became a symbol of witchcraft and the requirement of an open fire.
Stockpots are round, with a flat bottom and handles on both sides. A lid is a useful accessory. Rounded handles get hot during cooking, making them less useful than the side-top handles used on modern pots. Stockpots are made from a small range of modern metals. Metals useful for pots conduct heat well and are not chemically reactive. Food should not taste like a frying pan, nor should the qualities of metal be part of your diet. Metals that have been used over time are aluminum, copper, cast iron, stainless steel, carbon steel, enameled cast iron, enamel on steel, coated iron or copper and metal. with non-stick interiors.
While stainless steel has many great qualities, heat conduction is not one of them. A good stainless steel pot should have another, more heat-conducting metal at the base of the pot.
In construction, a stock pot is similar to a large sauce pot. A sauce pot is as tall vertically as the diameter of the bottom. Saucepans are measured by volume. The smaller the sauce pot, the more likely it is to have a single handle, a much longer handle. Regular pots are much larger with two handles on each side so you can use both hands to balance the weight of the pot. Common pots are also measured by volume, usually from 6 to 36 liters. The sides of a pot are at least as large as its diameter, allowing the broth to simmer for long periods of time. Stock is created by placing vegetables or meats in a large amount of water and simmering them for a long period of time. The reduction of the liquid creates a rich broth (vegetable or meat) to be used as a base for soups, stews, empanadas and sauces. Some meats do not lend themselves well to broth such as pork due to its fatty quality.
Some recommendations for a good broth are to start with cold water, add meat at a ratio of one part meat to two parts water, add meat before vegetables, simmer with bubbles just breaking the top (don’t boiling), and foam that rises to the top should be skimmed off and discarded.