Cook ware is any type utensil that is used for the process of cooking food. Cookware can come in any shape or size depending on the need of the moment. Some examples of cook ware are, sauce pans, woks, frying pans, baking utensils, steamers and cauldrons. Every culture since the beginning of time has used some form of cooking utensil to cook their food.

Back in the Stone Age meat was cooked on a open fire. The branches of trees were used to hold the meat on the fire while it roasted. So the tree branch or the stick was the first known cooking "utensil". Meat was cooked that way and there is no proof that any other food item was cooked that way. Cooking food like this continued until ancient humans discovered that cooking food in boiling water was also an option.

The earliest known boiling vessels were made out of animal shells and large woks carved out of stone. Animal shells were treated with mud on one side so that it could resist the heat of the fire and boil water at the same time. The ancient American Indians used carved stone to cook food. The Chinese had a crude boiling pot made out of bamboo and clay.

With the arrival of pottery all that changed. Pottery can be found in many ancient civilizations and ultimately it changed the way cooking was done forever. In order to make those pots waterproof they applied a glaze on them to make it water proof. This made such tasks as steaming much easier and quicker.

Nowadays we take for granted at the variety of utensils available for the ease of cooking. Just about every aspect of cooking is much easier now with the different designs available. One such utensil is the steamer basket, although the design has been around for eons, and was made out of bamboo. Today there are many variations and are usually made out metals like stainless steel or aluminum.