Keeping these important considerations in mind will help you make a purchase

For a small side, you may wish to use something as small as a 1/9 size pan. Understanding these pan sizing options, you should carefully consider what foods and how much of each food you are planning to serve, and then section out the steam table accordingly. The depth of a pan is also important to consider in advance. If you are planning on having a small amount of olives as a side, for example, it would not be helpful to have a full size or even a half size pan. These can be purchased in the same sizes as the steam table pans, and slid into the pan to create a separate holding space for the food.

Keeping these important considerations in mind will help you make a purchase that you and your staff can be confident in. Deeper pans, of course, allow for better table space efficiency by taking advantage of vertical space, but they’re not appropriate for every food type or serving situation.

When shopping for your pans you may also wish to consider purchasing false bottoms for them, which are designed to keep foods separate from juices or moisture that might ruin the texture. With confidence in their tools, your staff will be able to serve customers the best, securing financial success for your restaurant.

There is another factor in play when considering size, however. A full size pan will fill one hole in a steam table completely, while all other pan sizes are fractions of a full size pan. Heavier gauge pans are ideal for higher heats and more heavy use, but not all restaurants will require such heavy duty pans. While all industry standard pans are constructed from stainless steel, there are actually a number of different thicknesses of steel, measured by gauge sizes. Most pans come in one of three depth measurements: 2 ½ inches, 4 inches, and 6 inches.

When choosing a new set of pans, the absolute first step is to determine your sizing needs. Fractional pans can be placed next to one another to fill up a full hole of a steam table.

After determining your sizing requirements, you should next think about the durability of the pans you will need. With success and customer satisfaction in mind, you can see how important even a seemingly minor detail like steam table pans can be!

Take depth options into consideration when shopping for pans, and when developing your steam table layout, so that you can make the most of potentially limited space. All pan sizes are derived from the industry standard “full size” table China Travel irons pan. Most pans fall into two gauge types, 22 gauge heavy duty pans and 24 gauge standard pans. A 1/2 size pan, for example, refers to handle steamers factory a pan that is precisely 1/2 the size of a full size pan; while a 1/6 size pan represents a pan that is a sixth of the size of a full size pan.