What cookware set piece counts actually include

A pan is something you can put on a burner with food in it. A lid covers a pan; a steamer or pasta insert only works inside another pot. Utensils, pan protectors and racks can be useful, but none of them gives you another pan to cook in.

Our set contents table sorts every set into pans, lids and extras before it shows which cooking jobs they cover. That way a steamer insert never passes for a stockpot, a lid never passes for a pan, and two sets with similar names are easy to tell apart.

All-Clad's Essentials ten-piece is six pans, three lids and a multipurpose insert, and the product page adds silicone trivets on top. GreenPan's Reserve Pro ten-piece is five pans, three lids and two utensils, with pan protectors included as well. Extras pictured beside a set aren't always part of its piece count.

Caraway's twelve-piece stainless set is four pans, three lids and five storage pieces. Those four pans still cover four everyday jobs, which matters more than having six pans that overlap.

A lid that fits several pans counts once. Staub's four-piece stackable set is three pans and one lid that fits them all, and its ridged grill pan won't do a flat skillet's job. Lodge's Double Dutch lid works as a shallow pan too, but it's still one piece.

Check the full model name before you buy. One collection can come as two different ten-piece sets, with different saucepans or casseroles inside. We list each version separately, and where a maker's own pages disagree about what's in the box, the product page says so.