This saucier made me question why I've made sauces in a traditional saucepan for so long — the smart design reduces liquids faster and easier

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• If you're making sauces, gravies, and other thick foods, using a saucier is preferable to a saucepan because it lets you stir, whisk, and reduce ingredients more efficiently.
• Kitchen cookware startup Made In's saucier ($99) is even more rounded in shape than a typical saucier and is perfect for serious home cooks looking to improve their sauce-making.
• Though the saucier used to be more of a professional kitchen mainstay, Made In's well-designed, durable, and accessibly priced saucier deserves a space in your own kitchen.
• See more: The best cookware sets

In every home cook's kitchen you're likely to find a saucepan, the small round cooking pot with tall sides that's used for making sauces and gravies or warming up liquids.

You're less likely to find a saucier, a similar type of pot that has a rounded bottom and slightly flared top. If you don't frequently make sauces, risottos, custards, and other types of foods that require frequent stirring or whisking, a saucier will just be another extraneous piece of cookware taking up space in your cabinet.

However, if you are a sauce enthusiast and are frustrated with the flaws of a traditional saucepan, you should consider investing in a saucier.

I tested Made In's saucier, the shape and design of which made me question why I've put up with making sauces in a traditional saucepan for so long

Made In is a made-in-America, direct-to-consumer kitchen company that first wowed us with its nonstick frying pan, and it makes a variety of other quality cookware essentials.

Its three-quart saucier, in particular, was designed based on customer feedback. Because Made In controls all of its production processes, it was able to make a more "curated" saucier that specifically addresses these customer needs.

Made In's saucier is more rounded in shape than a traditional saucier, making it even easier to stir ingredients around. It's also more flared in shape at the top to encourage better evaporation when you're reducing sauces and gravies.

I made a variety of sauces, including a chunky tomato sauce filled with vegetables and a creamy alfredo sauce, in the saucier and the processes were so much smoother thanks to the design of the pot

Because it doesn't have hard edges like a saucepan, ingredients didn't get stuck in tricky-to-reach places and I could stir everything in smooth, continuous motions. The handle is sturdy and made me feel supported as I turned the pot, and it also stayed cool throughout the cooking process.

Reducing sauces and gravies makes more sense in a saucier instead of a saucepan with tall sides because there's more surface area to let the liquid reduce and condense faster. As a busy person who likes cooking but has many other tasks to get through during the night, I liked that the saucier made cooking more efficient.

As with other Made In pieces I've tested, what especially impressed me was the value I was getting from this well-made cookware

The saucier has a five-ply stainless steel and aluminum construction (the extra layers make it more durable), is induction compatible, and is dishwasher- and oven-safe. A three-quart All-Clad saucier has nearly all the same specifications — it's actually only three-ply — and is sold for twice the price. With a lid, Made In's saucer is $99, while All-Clad's is usually somewhere around $210 on Amazon and other major retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond.

Savings like this combined with a product that was carefully designed for the actual cooking task in mind only further convinced me that Made In is a kitchen company you should be watching.

Read the original article on Business Insider