The reason for long-handled pots years ago
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (366466)
Rockingham, Australia
October 18, 2025 5:14am CST
While in the Westonia Museum, I saw some saucepans with very long handles like the one in the left-hand image. I was wondering why the handles were so long but after seeing the open cooking range at Mangowine Homestead, I understood the reason.
It would take a lot of heat for a pot to come to the boil over an open fire like that in the other image. If the handle wasn’t long, you’d have great trouble getting a saucepan away from the heat.
14 people like this
14 responses
@garymarsh6 (23822)
• United Kingdom
18 Oct
Absolutely. They needed long handles to prevent you getting burnt by the open fire.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23822)
• United Kingdom
19 Oct
@JudyEv My wife had bought some pans that you have to use or rather l have to use a cloth to pick up as the handles get too hot. I think she has asbestos hands because she just picks them up.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Oct
@garymarsh6 Some handles get hotter than others - and some people are able to deal with the heat better.
@FourWalls (80660)
• United States
21 Oct
Yeah, who’d want to reach into that fire to grab the handle?? Even with “modern” conveniences, the stove, my dear mother of blessed memory taught me to have the handles pointinig OUT instead of inside, over the stove, because the heat from the stove would make the handles hotter.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (80660)
• United States
21 Oct
@JudyEv — there weren’t any toddlers in the house when my mom taught me that, but yes I definitely understand that thinking!!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct
@FourWalls I reckoned that would have been the case. 
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct
I really enjoy going through museums. I learn a lot from each and every one.
@GardenGerty (166660)
• United States
18 Oct
Form fits function and it gets you back a ways from the heat when trying to move the pan.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Oct
Exactly. I don't know why it took me so long to work it out! 
@BarBaraPrz (50850)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
18 Oct
That's why pot holders and oven mitts were invented. 
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (91383)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
18 Oct
Didn't they also do a lot of cooking in fireplaces?
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
18 Oct
What with gas burners and electric hotplates such long handles aren't really necessary nowadays. I can understand the reason for them now.
@JudyEv (366466)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Oct
Once we work out the reason it all makes more sense.
