Saut pans fry, or saut, like skillets, but they have a greater capacity to accommodate dishes like ragouts and stews. Chicken breasts or veal cutlets will not brown if crowded into a skillet that is too small. On the other hand, says Mary Risley, owner of Tante Marie's Cooking School in San Francisco, meat fried in batches in a smaller skillet develops better color and flavor than if cooked all at once. If Risley only had one skillet, she would choose a 9-inch saut pan. Though size matters, the type of metal is most important.
Copper is the best conductor of heat, meaning it heats up the fastest and cooks the most evenly.
On a 100-point conductivity scale used by cookware manufacturers, copper is the metal that rates highest for cooking, at 94 points. However, copper is expensive. Copper skillets lined on the inside with tin are less expensive , and tin is a better heat conductor than stainless steel. But tin-lined pans need to be resurfaced periodically, depending on how frequently they are used . Whether it's lined with tin or stainless steel, the copper surface on skillets is also a pain to polish .