Questions & Answers about Dit is een goede pan om de pitten in te roosteren.
Why is the preposition in placed right before te roosteren instead of next to pan?
This is how Dutch translates 'a [noun] to [verb] [preposition]'. You use an om ... te infinitive clause. The preposition (in) links the action (roosteren) back to the noun (de pan). In this structure, the preposition gets 'stranded' and must sit immediately before te + infinitive.
Why is it om de pitten in te roosteren and not om in de pitten te roosteren?
If you said om in de pitten te roosteren, it would mean you are roasting something inside the seeds! Here, de pitten is the direct object (the things being roasted). The preposition in refers back to the pan. In an om ... te clause, the direct object comes first, pushing the stranded preposition in to the end, right before te roosteren.
Could I rephrase this sentence using waarin (in which) instead?
Yes, you could say: Dit is een goede pan waarin je de pitten kunt roosteren (This is a good pan in which you can roast the seeds). The om ... in te roosteren structure shown here is just a more concise way to say it, very similar to the English 'a pan to roast seeds in'.
Does pitten refer to any kind of seeds?