To Find the Best Stockpots, I Watched 8 Pots of Water Boil (Literally)

Making homemade stock is undoubtedly a project—one worth tackling, in our opinion, as long as you have the right equipment for the job. Enter: the stockpot. With a thick metal base and tall sides, a stockpot is designed to hold large quantities of liquid (anywhere from eight to 16 quarts), making it the ideal vessel for big batches of stock or broth. But this large pot comes in handy for a variety of other tasks, too. Hosting a seafood boil? You’re going to need a pot big enough to contain those crustaceans. Making big batches of soups, stews, sauces, or pasta? A stockpot it is.

Like other stainless steel pans, a stockpot will last a lifetime if cared for properly. It’ll also take up a good deal of space in your cabinet, so it’s worth picking a pot that pulls its weight. What sets a great stockpot apart from the rest? I tested eight of them to find out.

The Winners at a Glance

The Best Stockpot

Cuisinart 12-Quart MultiClad Pro Stainless Stock Pot With Cover

$140 at Amazon View on Cuisinart.com

The Cuisinart stockpot is slightly shorter and wider than its tall, narrow competitors. This makes it very easy to reach in with a spatula and stir food as it cooks. A few extra details set this pot apart: The handles are ridged, creating a natural resting place for your fingers, and wide enough to hold comfortably with oven mitts. Even though it’s the heaviest stockpot I tested, the tapered rim and even weight distribution made it easy and balanced to pour from. It cooked mirepoix evenly, developing a nice fond and caramelization on the veg. The 12-quart capacity makes this pot a great choice for vats of chicken stock, matzo ball soup, or tomato sauce.

The Best Budget Stockpot

Vigor 12-Quart Aluminum Clad Stainless Steel Stockpot

View on Webstaurant Store

Like the Cuisinart model, the Vigor is shorter and wider than other stockpots, making it easy to cook in. The real selling point for this pot is its extra-wide handles, which provide maximum leverage—essential when transporting a big pot of boiling water—and minimize the chance of splash-back when pouring. The aluminum-clad base didn’t yield quite as much browning on mirepoix, but it cooked evenly without any scorching. I think the Vigor stockpot is an excellent, budget-friendly option for the home cook who occasionally takes on big-batch projects.

The Best Smaller Stockpot

Misen 8-Quart Stainless Steel Stockpot

$189 at Amazon View on Misen.com

This eight-quart stockpot might be smaller than its competitors, but with five-ply cladding and extra-thick walls, it’s sturdier than most. The flat handles make it fine to carry with bare hands or oven mitts, and it’s well balanced and easy to tip, even when full of hot liquid. The pot is warp-resistant and oven-safe up to 800°F (so, basically indestructible). If you tend to cook in smaller batches—or simply don’t have the space to store a bulkier 12-quart stockpot—this compact option is a great pick.

The Tests

• Handling Tests: I filled each stockpot with cold water and picked it up with bare hands, kitchen towels, and oven mitts to see how comfortable its handles were. I then walked laps around my kitchen to gauge how easy it was to carry when full. 
• Boiling Test: I filled each stockpot with a measured amount of water (nine quarts for the 12- to 16-quart stockpots, and six quarts for the eight-quart stockpots), placed it on an induction burner set to high, and timed how long it took the water to reach a rolling boil.
• Browning Test: I placed each stockpot on an induction burner set to medium-high and added olive oil and a mirepoix of diced carrots, onions, and celery to assess how well the pot browned the vegetables without burning them. I checked the color of the mirepoix and the fond development at three, five, nine, and 12 minutes.
• Cleanup Test: I hand-washed each stockpot with warm, soapy water to see how easily it cleaned up. 

What We Learned

All Stockpots Boiled Water Quickly and Were Easy to Clean 

A stockpot’s main job is to bring liquid to a simmer and maintain even heat throughout cooking. All of the 12-quart stockpots I tested boiled water quickly, averaging between 40 and 50 minutes. The smaller stockpots did so even faster. Ultimately, all the pots performed reasonably well in this test. And since the stockpots I tested were made from stainless steel, they were also all fairly easy to clean with warm, soapy water and a sponge. 

Short and Wide Was Better Than Tall and Narrow

Overall, I preferred stockpots with short and wide dimensions like the Cuisinart 12-Quart MultiClad Stockpot (15.5 by 11.5 by 9.1 inches) over tall and narrow models like the Cook N Home 12-Quart Steel Stockpot (10 by 15 by 8.5 inches). While they might not fit as well on every stovetop, the shorter, wider pots were much easier to stir and pour from. 

Wider Handles Made It Easier to Carry a Heavy Stockpot

When you’re walking across the kitchen with a pot that’s filled to the brim with boiling-hot liquid, stability and comfort are key. I found pots with wide, flat, riveted handles were the most comfortable to carry. Handles spaced at least one inch away from the pot wall, like those on the Vigor, were best. Narrower handles left less room for my fingers to wrap around, with my knuckles nearly brushing up against the pot’s exterior walls. The narrow-handled pots were even more difficult to carry with oven mitts or kitchen towels.

Did Expensive Stockpots Perform Better? Not Necessarily

Stockpots can vary dramatically in price and the ones we tested ranged from $48 to $360. Ultimately, I found that a higher price tag didn’t often translate to better performance. In fact, in my browning test, the most expensive pot I tested (All-Clad’s 12-Quart Tri-Ply Stockpot) showed more sticking and scorching than some budget models. 

Unlike with a stainless-steel skillet where your priority is achieving a nice sear, a stockpot’s main job is to hold a large quantity of liquid and let it bubble away in peace. Since speed and even heating aren’t as important, technical specs like cladding don’t make as much of a difference. My testing confirmed that while pricier, fully-clad stockpots did yield nice caramelization on the mirepoix, so did ones that cost a fraction of the price. 

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Stockpot

A stockpot’s large capacity means it can hold many quarts of water, a whole chicken carcass, and all the miscellaneous veg you salvaged from the crisper drawer of your fridge. (Speaking from experience, wrangling all of that into your five-quart Dutch oven is a recipe for disaster.) If you want to make homemade stock, it’s worth investing in a good stockpot. But what sets a good stockpot apart from the rest?

First, a good stockpot is easy to carry. Picking a pot that you can hold comfortably—with bare hands, kitchen towels, or oven mitts—minimizes the chance of splashing or spillage, which can become dangerous once you’re contending with hot liquid. Circling back on that “hot liquid” point, a stockpot should be easy to pour from—a tapered rim is a particularly helpful feature here. While searing isn’t the top priority, a stockpot should still brown evenly, creating nice caramelization and fond without sticking or scorching.

Our Favorite Stockpots

The Best Stockpot

Cuisinart 12-Quart MultiClad Pro Stainless Stock Pot With Cover

$140 at Amazon View on Cuisinart.com

What we liked: This three-ply pot is wider than most of its tall, narrow competitors, making it easier to stir food as it cooks. Thanks to the smooth, tapered rim, it’s also nice to pour from with minimal splashing. Its wide, riveted handles make it easy to carry and it browned mirepoix evenly without scorching. Given its solid performance in all categories, this pot was an easy all-around winner pick.

What we didn’t like: The handles have a pronounced ridge on the inside, so it was less comfortable to carry with bare hands. Given its wider construction, it was clunkier to wash than the narrower models. It’s also heavier than the other stockpots I tested.

Key Specs

• Induction-friendly: Yes
• Materials: 3-ply 18/10 stainless steel with aluminum core
• Weight: 9 pounds
• Capacity: 12 quarts
• Dimensions: 15.5 x 11.5 x 9.1 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Best Budget Stockpot

Vigor 12-Quart Aluminum Clad Stainless Steel Stockpot

View on Webstaurant Store

What we liked: The handles on this pot are very wide, which makes it comfortable to hold (elbows out, folks!) and minimizes the risk of splashing. It’s also over a pound lighter than the Cuisinart stockpot, so carrying it around the kitchen was no problem. It cooked mirepoix evenly and the bottom of the pot didn’t scorch at all during cooking. Best of all: The Vigor’s less than $50.

What we didn’t like: Since the pot has an aluminum base, rather than multi-ply steel, it didn’t develop much fond or browning on the mirepoix. The handles are rounded and a bit thin, which results in less stability when carrying the pot—but in my opinion, the wide body makes up for this.

Key Specs

• Induction-friendly: Yes
• Materials: 18-22 gauge stainless steel body with 4mm aluminum-clad bottom
• Weight: 7.61 pounds
• Capacity: 12 quarts
• Dimensions: 11.5 x 13.75 x 7.25 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Best Smaller Stockpot

Misen 8-Quart Stainless Steel Stockpot

$189 at Amazon View on Misen.com

What we liked: This pot is shorter and squatter than our other top picks, so it will fit easily on most stovetops. The flat handles are very comfortable to hold and wide enough to grip easily. Because of its smaller size, it boiled water faster than its competitors, taking just about 30 minutes (compared to 40 to 50 minutes). With a sturdy, five-ply construction, it distributed heat evenly, achieving particularly nice caramelization on the mirepoix.

What we didn’t like: The pot is a bit heavy, especially considering its smaller size. The handles got hot during cooking, so you’ll want to use towels or oven mitts when handling.

Key Specs

• Induction-friendly: Yes
• Materials: 5-ply stainless steel and aluminum
• Weight: 5.2 pounds
• Capacity: 8 quarts
• Dimensions: 10 x 13.6 x 6.5 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Competition

Also Good

• Tramontina 16-Quart Stainless Steel Stockpot: This larger pot performed well in the browning test, caramelizing the mirepoix without any scorching or sticking. But its handles are narrow and riveted upward, making it awkward to carry and harder to pour from. That said, if you want a larger, 16-quart stockpot, this was a previous winner.
• All-Clad 12-Quart Tri-Ply Stockpot: While it was lighter in weight than other stockpots, the narrow handles made it more difficult to grip with towels or oven mitts. In the browning test, it scorched the vegetables more than other pots. That said, several Serious Eats editors own this stockpot and praise its durable construction and longevity. 

We Wouldn’t Recommend 

• Cook N Home 12-Quart Steel Stockpot: This budget-friendly stockpot is very lightweight (just 5.5 pounds—nearly four pounds lighter than my winner) and, with silicone-wrapped handles, it was comfortable to hold with bare hands. Its major con was its dimensions: It’s tall and narrow, requiring you to reach deep into the pot to stir. It also got too hot too quickly, smoking for nearly the entire duration of the browning test.
• Goldilocks 8-Quart Stockpot: Though this pot is advertised as “induction-ready,” it didn’t register as compatible with two different induction cooktops. As a result, it was disqualified from the boiling and browning tests.
• Great Jones Big Deal: Though aesthetically beautiful, this stockpot was the least practical to use, with uncomfortable, oversized, rounded handles that overheated during cooking. The bottom of the pot scorched dramatically in the browning test.

FAQs

What size stockpot should I get?

A 12-quart stockpot is a suitable size for most home cooks. It’s big enough to cook large batches of broth, soup, or tomato sauce, but not so large as to take up all your cabinet space. If you’re cooking vats of bone broth every week, a 16-quart stockpot might be better. If you’re working with a smaller space, consider an eight-quart stockpot; this smaller size is more versatile (it can stand in for a Dutch oven) and easy to use as an everyday pot.

What’s the difference between a stockpot and a Dutch oven? 

Size, shape, and material. Stockpots generally have a larger capacity than Dutch ovens, holding eight to 16 quarts of liquid as opposed to the six to eight quarts that fit in a Dutch oven. Stockpots tend to be tall and narrow, fitting easily on most stovetop burners, whereas Dutch ovens can be oval and wide (though we don’t recommend these). Most Dutch ovens have a cast iron core and enamel coating, which means they take longer to heat up but retain heat for longer. Stainless steel stockpots are quicker to heat and cool.

How do I clean my stockpot?

Warm, soapy water and a non-abrasive sponge will do the trick. If the bottom of the pot is really scorched, make a 50:50 solution of water and vinegar, add it to the pot, and bring it to a boil. Drain and repeat if necessary. Dry your stainless steel cookware with a microfiber towel to avoid hard water stains.

Why We’re The Experts

• Zoe Denenberg is a chef and food writer.
• She spends her summers in Alaska, where she works as the executive chef at a backcountry lodge.
• For this review, she tested eight stockpots in three different trials, assessing their effectiveness at boiling water and browning mirepoix, and how comfortable they were to carry.