Heat, mass and gauge: why a 6 mm kadai cooks differently from a 3 mm one
The single number that changes how a pan behaves is its thickness. Here is the physics, and where each gauge belongs.
Two kadais of the same diameter, same steel, same maker. One is 3 mm plate, the other 6 mm. They cost different amounts and they cook differently — and knowing why is the difference between buying the right one and buying twice.
Thermal mass, in plain terms
Thermal mass is how much heat a piece of metal can hold. Double the thickness and you roughly double the mass, which means:
- It takes longer to come up to temperature.
- It holds temperature far better when something cold goes into it.
- It evens out the hot spot directly above the burner.
That last point is the one that matters most in a commercial kitchen, because a commercial burner is a concentrated flame, not a diffuse heat source.
The recovery problem
Here is the situation every busy kitchen knows. The kadai is at frying temperature. A kilogram of cold, wet pakora batter goes in. The temperature crashes.
In a thin pan it crashes further and recovers slower, so the first batch absorbs oil and comes out heavy. In a heavy pan the stored heat in the metal buffers the drop, and the temperature comes back before the food has had time to go soggy.
This is why our deep kadai is offered in both 3 mm and 6 mm across the entire nineteen-size range, and why the milk kadai is made in 6 mm only — reducing milk is a job where any hot spot burns the sugars onto the metal.
Where each gauge belongs
| Gauge | Behaviour | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 mm | Light, fast, no heat storage | Prep and mixing, not heat — our parath |
| 2 mm | Even wall, holds shape at volume | Deep vessels like the jointless patila |
| 3 mm | Responsive, moderate buffer | General frying, quick-turnaround kadai work |
| 6 mm | Strong buffer, very even | Sustained frying, milk reduction, all-day service |
| 10 mm | Very high mass, slow to move | Griddle work — the parantha tawa |
The trade-off nobody mentions
Heavier is not automatically better. A 6 mm kadai is slower to heat, which costs fuel and time if you are doing short bursts of work and turning the burner off between them. It is also considerably heavier to lift when full — a 48-size deep kadai is 28 kg empty in 3 mm and 56 kg in 6 mm.
The right question is not "which is better" but "how long is this pan on the fire at a stretch". Continuous service justifies mass. Intermittent work does not.
Reading it off the chart
Every product page on this site publishes the full size chart, including weight per size. Weight is the most honest number on the sheet — it is the one specification that cannot be exaggerated, because it is a direct consequence of how much metal is actually there.
Specifying cookware for your kitchen?
Every product on this site publishes its full size chart — gauge, dimensions and weight for every size. If you would rather just describe the job, we will tell you what to order.
