this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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Sure, but most of the time when you're doing high-heat cooking you're not using a lot of liquid so a pan with its shallow sides makes it easier to get a spatula or tongs in to move things around. The high sides are only useful when you want to heat a large volume of stuff. Typically that means you're using a water-based liquid (even something like a tomato sauce is mostly water based), so the heat will be at most 100C.
I suspect the British version of "pan" including what I'd call a pot must be from after North American English and British English diverged. The etymology of pan says that it has referred to a shallow thing since even before ancient Greek:
I guess the North American English dialects kept this meaning of a shallow thing, whereas British English focused on whether or not it goes on a burner (which apparently you call a hob).
I've heard differing interpretations even in england. According to my dad for example a pot is made of ceramic, so if it's made of stainless steel it's a pan.