Particularly if you are cooking with acidic ingredients, you might come across a recipe that calls for a nonreactive saucepan. But what is this? It is simply a saucepan made of stainless, glass or ceramic... namely a material that will not react with the acidic ingredients in the recipe.

So what would be considered a reactive saucepan? One made of aluminium or copper. So these types should definitely be avoided when cooking things such as tomato sauces.