What 22 cooks actually recommend among carbon steel pans

if you do for some reason scratch the coating off your pan and leave a big gouge in it don't worry it's not the end of the world all you need to do a little secret here all you need to do is cook with it that's it as you cook with it the oils are going to polymerize back to the pan and rebuild up that scratch piece…

your pan is rusted that's it it's over pans ruined throw it out get a new one no all you need to do is give it a good cleaning scrub all that rust off heat it up re-season your pan and continue cooking with it that's it hand recovered

As we saw with the burgers, the carbon steel pan has certain traits that really make it a great all-around pan. It definitely has that nice heat retention and heat transfer of a cast iron pan. It has that nice release of a non-stick pan. This is a great all-around pan, does almost anything you want it to do, it's…

they're sort of hybrid skillets they kind of take all the best properties from a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet and combine it into this perfect skillet

biggest cons of carbon steel there really isn't any that's the beauty of carbon steel

honestly for me carbon steel skillets are my favorite skillets to use so i don't see very many cons to be honest

if i want to be practical if it was the end of the world and i can only have one skillet and it had to be something i can just set it and forget it yeah it would be a stainless steel skillet because it doesn't rust it does everything all the other skillets can do

um but it's not the end of the world so if i can only have one skill it would be a carbon steel skillet

Other secret of this pan is its ability to become naturally non-stick. So the smooth grain of this takes to seasoning a little faster than cast iron and it becomes very rapidly non-stick when you season it. And you can cook in it with just a little bit of fat, and food will just come right out. So if you're really…

Stainless steel or, in particular, a fully clad pan where there are layers of stainless steel, aluminum, and stainless steel is really known for its ability to make even, uniform heat. The aluminum transmits heat very quickly, stainless steel much more slowly. The stainless retains it so it spreads, and you get this…

In the carbon steel, I think we got the sort of Goldilocks moment. You get this really beautiful golden brown crust that is deeply brown, and nice, and crusty. Inside is nice and pink. And you really get this nice contrast between the brown crust and the cooked interior that is nice and juicy. So I thought it was a…

When we were done, there was almost nothing in the pan. It was just, I wipe it out, rinse it out, and we're good to go.

the more you cook in it, the more coating you're [music] building up, so we don't really worry about it.

All those things are no problem because if you ever do take some of the seasoning off, a little wipe of oil and a little heat brings it right back.

They're just amazingly durable. And rather than like non-stick pans that get less and less nonstick, these get more and more non-stick over time.

Potato peels, salt, and oil. An old, frugal, nearforgotten trick. And it's the finest way there is to start a carbon steel pan.

And if you've never owned one, go find a plain, cheap one and season it right.

Number three, a well-kept carbon steel pan is the cheapest lifetime non-stick there is.

oil and heat, and it lasts forever. My diner cooks wouldn't have touched a coated pan.

Scrub it down to bare metal with a good scour and season it fresh. It's near indestructible.

Skip the oil and it rusts. Do it and it lasts forever.

A carbon steel pan kept right doesn't wear out. It improves year after year, decade after decade, blacker and slicker all the while.

My diner cooked on the same pans for as long as I worked there and longer.

They truly do not wear out.

gimmick, no shine, just plain metal that gets better the harder you use it and the longer you keep it.

Lighter than cast iron, heats up fast and answers the flame the second you turn it.

It heats up much faster than cast iron and cools faster, too. So, preheating is quick.

Carbon steel comes up to heat fast. That speed and that control are exactly why the working kitchens love it.

Carbon steel responds the instant you turn the burner up or down.

A well-kept carbon steel pan, properly heated with a little fat, will let a fried egg slide around loose as anything. No sticking, no tearing, slicker than a non-stick, and with none of the flaking.

Number 21, carbon steel is lighter than cast iron, and that's a real gift as you get older.

i'm here to tell you that a cast iron skillet is going to be a really good skillet regardless of the surface finish

however i do agree that a smoother does mean a better cast iron skillet

now later on we're going to talk about carbon steel and carbon steel has a really smooth surface right out of the factory and it sears meat exceptionally well with an amazing non-stick coating

so let's talk about cast iron skillets that are made out of cast iron have some of the best properties and are famously known for getting a really good sear because cast iron is so densely packed it tends to retain heat really really well

cast iron doesn't necessarily get really piping hot for example stainless steel gets extremely hot and can shoot up to a really high temperature really fast

but where cast iron really shines is retaining that heat and once it gets up to that operating temperature that you're looking for it tends to retain an even temperature all around

but once you do figure it out once you get to know it a little bit better it's amazing you just have to kind of plan ahead

really once you do that you got a really good non-stick coating it's properly seasoned and you're really ready to go

now once you do develop a deep seasoning the risk of rust kind of diminishes over the years

but once a cast iron skillet is seasoned cleaning it is not the issue food just slides right off

it's a very small thing you have to do at the end of a cook that really goes a long way it's not an inconvenience at all

i feel like cast iron skillets don't tend to react as much as carbon steel skillets do

but once carbon steel and cast iron get their seasoning down i don't see them reacting anymore i've never had them react to where it completely stripped off the coating or anything like that

carbon steel skillets get hot really quickly they can really get up to high temperatures so that means they're going to sear food amazingly

they don't retain heat as well as cast iron skillets but that also means that they don't share any of those negatives

carbon steel skillets will react to temperature changes accordingly they will heat up and cool down much faster than cast iron skillets

food literally slides off of carbon steel skillets i've never had a mess with any of my carbon steel skillets when it comes time to clean them oftentimes i can just literally wipe the inside and i'm done

i usually put it back on the stove sanitize it put a drop of oil lubricate it store it away i never even have to use soap or water

eggs will literally slide right out of carbon steel skillet it's like foods ice skating on this thing

stainless steel skillets are the lightest out of the three skillets get really hot tremendously fast and they tend to cool down really quickly as well

biggest pro stainless steel skeleton is they do not rust so you don't have to worry about having to dry them or doing any special treatments after to completely dry them off and keep them from oxidating

now you'll see a lot of videos out there where people will tell you no they won't and that's true if you follow the fundamentals and you make sure that they heat up properly before throwing your food in there and you make sure you have enough fat cooking oil or grease or whatever it is that you're using yes food won't…

they're really light they heat up quickly they sear amazingly they're very easy to clean and they create fun for amazing sauces

For acidic foods, stainless steel and enameled cast iron are better options since there's no seasoning to damage and those materials are non-reactive.

But you don't need to do it often and after you do it once, you realize how easy it is.

In my experience, mild dish soap does no harm.

One of the biggest advantages of carbon steel is its durability. It won't crack or break if you drop it, which can happen with cast iron.

And there's no coating or enamel that can wear down or chip.

You can use metal utensils and even cut food in it, although I try to avoid that because the sharp edge will scratch the seasoning.

It’s one of the rare products that gets better with age. The more you use it, the better the seasoning develops.

The one major limitation with carbon steel pans is acidic foods. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of wine won’t hurt, but prolonged exposure to acidic foods, like tomato sauce, will strip the layer of seasoning right off the looking surface.

Bare cast iron pans have this same issue.

Carbon steel consists primarily of iron, which rusts when exposed to water and air.

The fact that you need to season carbon steel pans may seem like a major downside, and for some, it's a deal-breaker.

The two rules that I do highly recommend following are, one, don’t put carbon steel pans in the dishwasher. The hot water, steam, and dish detergent will ruin the seasoning.

And two, always dry your pans completely after washing them. Even a well-seasoned pan can rust if moisture is left on it for long periods.

if you notice tiny black bits on your food when you cook with carbon steel, or if you wipe the pan with a paper towel and the paper towel turns black, that's a sign that you need to deep clean your pan. Those black bits are either tiny pieces of the seasoning flaking, burnt food, or both.

The one thing you need to be cautious about is warping. If you expose it to drastic temperature changes, like rinsing it under cold water when it's piping hot, the metal can expand and contract unevenly, which leads to a wobbly, unusable pan.

most of the pans once we'd seasoned them were amazingly non-stick after one round of seasoning we saw fried eggs sliding around like a puck in air hockey

omelets rolling out in perfect golden Oblongs zero sticking

Tarts popped right out with very few exceptions looking glossy and intact

most of the time we weren't even tempted to scrub because nothing stuck we could practically just wipe them out with a paper towel after we were cooking

a smoking hot traditional Skillet does a perfectly acceptable job and a cast iron skillet is brilliant at Browning and Searing but we found the carbon steel pans trumped both of them

impressively deep even Browning in the best carbon steel pans easily on a par with cast iron

they're lighter and thinner so they heat up in almost half the time as cast iron

Our buying, seasoning, and maintenance guide for every chef's secret weapon, the carbon steel skillet.

I have my pan here from home. This is little Eddie. Eddie and I have gotten in a lot of fights over the years, and we always make up.

The difference is responsiveness. Carbon steel heats up fast and cools down fast, giving you precise temperature control.

they have the same sort of nonstick properties you know similar to cast-iron

but once they're preheated they cook they cook up swell

and also because temp is more sensitive to temperature change so as you turn down the heat you can see the change happen right away

but with carbon steel is really fast like usually lower temperature into half and then just leave it off a little bit wait for it to cool down and put it back and it's it's good

so if you love steak cooking any sealing any meat I think you can beat uh carbon steel here

Um the only downside of carbon steel that there ever has been is that it takes a bit of care. You know, you have to season it. You have to maintain that seasoning. Um if you accidentally leave it wet overnight, for example, it'll start to rust. And so those are issues that I've had with carbon steel.

So, one of the nice things about carbon steel also is that it's part of sort of what gives a walk that walk flavor. Like you cannot get walk that kind of smokiness out of a actual non-stick, you know, like a coated non-stick pan.

Um so, if you have a wok that has some polymers built up, you've probably noticed that it tends to flake off um a lot more easily than in a cast iron pan.

Scrub it down to bare metal, season it fresh, and it's good as the day it was made. Better even. My best pans came up secondhand.

This one matters more for carbon steel than cast iron because the seasoning's thinner.

It'll rust in an afternoon if you let it sit wet.

Carbon steel rusts easier than cast iron

So, give a new carbon steel pan a few weeks of frying bacon and searing before you ask it

You heat it up high till it just smokes. You let it cool. And you do it again three, four,

Rub the oil on, then wipe it back off till the pan looks near dry, like there's hardly any left.

This is where carbon steel beats cast iron for breakfast. Those gently sloped walls let you slide a spatula under an egg clean, roll an omelette, flip and toss what you're sautéing.

It's the metal of working kitchens the world over. So, when you learn to keep one carbon steel pan, you've learned to keep them all.

Like cast iron, carbon steel has no plastic to melt. So you can start something on the burner and finish it in the oven.

Carbon steel really isn't well suited for simmering acidic sauces.