Ease of Cleaning

but this coating does come with some other benefits too for one it's even less reactive than stainless steel which makes it a bit less sticky

and after I saw just how downright slippery it was with chicken thighs I tried out a few things I wouldn't usually turn to stainless steel for I had no problem frying or scrambling eggs or make tartatan in these bad boys

all that is to say there's no such thing as perfect cookware but I'll sell for excellent materials get to 10.

Honestly though we've mostly hand washed them because they just don't take much effort

but as always they don't hurt literally anything and they come off easily with Bar Keepers friends

Now, a simple task like the soup is a great exhibition of the full power of this blender.

And as you can see here, the results are a velvety smooth, perfect pureed soup.

Now, this is a good time to talk about the self-clean function, which a lot of blender companies market as a feature, and all it means is that you can add soapy water to a blender and run it, and it does a pretty good job of cleaning it.

Now, certain parts remain completely untouched, so you do need to wash the lip separately, but in general, the container as well as the base of the blender are quite easy to clean.

And despite this mixture getting incredibly thick and lava hot, it created the smoothest puree and the whole garlic which I added in the beginning completely disappeared.

I've made plenty of nut milk in the past and the Vitamix does exceptionally well.

I use about 500 g of roast peanuts and at low speeds once the nuts become hot enough and broken down enough they eventually become this beautiful crunchy peanut butter which turned out absolutely amazing.

The Vitamix 5200, however, is not like most other burgers. As long as you start on a low speed to break down all of those chunky bits and slowly turn things up to high and let it spin for about a minute, you are left with the creamiest smoothie or protein shake of your life with the bare minimum or even no bits at all…

Now, I've made blended frozen drinks with this in the past, like a margarita, and it handled it with ease.

But blending a lot of ice in this tall chamber seemed like a bit of a difficult task. For the most part, the ice at the bottom crushes perfectly. But the ice at the top remains chunky and very hard to blend, even with the temper.

And lastly, having a two horsepower blender is an incredible amount of power. But at max power, it's also incredibly noisy, especially with some thicker substances.

And this honestly does majority of tasks better in my humble opinion, but that's just me.

Because of that and the lightweight design, it's by far the easiest Dutch oven to pick up, wash, and store.

The lid has ridges that prevent a spoon from slipping off

the knob has a wide top and a thick stem, which makes it easy to grip and control

In my test, both knobs stayed cooler than most other brands, but the plastic knob barely heated up at all.

the plastic knob barely heated up at all

I love Le Creuset's color options, lightweight design, and large handles.

and then if there are moments where you get some food stuck on your pan it h for us so far they have scraped off very easily just with a silicone spatula or with a wooden spoon

all four ovens scored a perfect 10 out of 10 for heat retention and evenness of cooking

we found the Amazon oven to be the easiest to clean earning it a 10 out of 10

the L cruset Lodge and stove have a non-stick enamel finish over the interior and exterior of the pots Amazon does not have enamel but instead is pre-seasoned lay cruset and Lodge each scored Perfect 10 out of 10 however we did notice some veggies sticking to the bottom of both the stove and Amazon dutch ovens while…

while the lodge was a pretty quick cleanup there was some Browning we noticed from the oven that didn't come out when cleaning taking it down to a 7 out of 10

Now, that does not in any way make this pan a pain in the ass to clean. A bit of scrubbing, soap and water, maybe some Bar Keepers Friend, some baking soda make short work of any of the like build-up that comes at the bottom of this pan.

So, I guess it's still easier than a stainless steel pan that's got some food stuck onto it, but it's by no means as easy to clean as a nonstick pan.

Because of its nonstick enough qualities, it's really great for searing meat and the crust that you can get on this thing is absolutely beautiful.

And not only that, because there is no actual like nonstick coating that I have to worry about, I can take a blowtorch to this and sear the top of whatever I want. If I wanted to use open flame on this thing, I will do it with all confidence.

And because it is still just that much easier to clean, it has taken a lot of work from this guy as well.

It just fulfills that one sweet spot of being nonstick enough, easy enough to clean, dishwasher friendly, and extremely durable. There is a lot of convenience in that combination.

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.

I have it for many many many years I don't use it often as often as I use l let's say or Zing but still it it works

but the quality is much much much better it's hard to see here but it's much thicker it's more durable and the quoting is greater

I would say with this one I guess it's impossible to destroy it

I have it for many many many years and as you can see it's almost brand new shape

as you can see it's almost like new condition

but again it's normal because if you wash it and maybe you left it wet a little bit it can get it but you can clearly clean it so it's not a problem

You can see with Teflon just how non-reactive it is. Like that oil just kind of moves around like a melted T1000.

we can see with the Teflon style pan that there's actually pretty decent searing, relatively even all throughout.

So, this is the non-stick pan that I just seared a steak in. Clean up should be real, real easy. Just a little bit of soap and water. Not much effort at all. In fact, I can just use the uh the soft side of the sponge.

so when it comes to cleaning, nonstick is the easiest if you're going to do them by hand.

All right, so here we have them. This is our teflon pan. It seared really nicely actually. It took about 3 minutes to get this color on it. It's pretty crisp throughout. Slightly light over here, slightly darker over here, but that's a pretty good sear.

So, of the three, the titanium pro and the teflon both I think seared the best as far as salmon skin goes.

All right, I'm going to give this the old slide test here. So, without using a spatula or anything at all, I'm just going to shake the pan and see how that egg moves around. Immediate immediate release. Zero effort at all. Even just sort of the tiniest tilt sends it skittering across the surface. That is very, very…

And there we can see no sticking. Tiny bit of browning. Not the perfect omelette, but it came out of the pan really nicely, which is what we care about right now.

Um, and you can see that the edges are set, but the inside is still nice and custardy, the way an omelette should be.

okay so a quick clean up there of that Lodge pan and it's in great shape so I would do a quick post seasoning of this uh and then ready to go the next time

The way this pan seems to straddle the line between nonstick cast iron and stainless steel is pretty fascinating to me, I have to admit. It's definitely like a jack-of-all-trades situation, but in a weird way

This is currently my favorite pan to make goat curry out of. A process that requires you to sear meat, sweat out vegetables, and slow cook a very thick and burnable gravy for a long period of time.

I have actually made pan-fried dumplings in this with much success because of its shape and because of its durability.

Because at the end of the day, as far as like my everyday personal pan for rough cooking such as searing meats or making curries or things that just like require me to scrape the bottom of the pan without having to worry about it, but still being easier to clean than my cast iron and nonsticks, yeah.

For a home cook, if all you had was this pan and this pan, I'm pretty confident you can get most of your needs fulfilled, not including stock pots and Dutch ovens and all that stuff. But even then, this proves itself to be more versatile than you would initially expect.

And the best thing is it distributes heat quickly, efficiently, and evenly over the pan.

But often times they heat really inevenly, and they take a long time to preheat. This to me is perfectly balanced in that way.

Another reason, it creates flavor like fawns. It gets great sears on any piece of meat.

But guess what? Most of it won't end up on the food. You drain it on a paper towel. Really, it's not too much more.

Once it has seared properly enough, it will naturally release from the pan. You can already see the edge of this egg already lifting up off the pan.

just to prove the egg came off clean. Look at the underside of the egg. See that? No sticking, no ripping.

Cleaning this isn't going to be that hard. You take an abrasive pad to get this part off first. Clean it immediately. You're ready to go again.

And the beauty of this is if your pan is hot enough, really, your fish should move around the pan. You won't even really need to scrape it off.

You can see the skin is nice and crisp and dried out. You got a little bit of mayard on the flesh. It's not even sticking to it, even flesh side down, but I can feel the fish.

I've been sitting around medium, slightly above medium for this whole temperature. Right. If the pan looks like it's starting to get too hot, just drop the temperature a little bit. You can fluctuate it however you need. That is the key to using stainless.

And what will be left behind is little brown bits from the flour, stuck bits from the meat that are on the pan. That is your fond. There's tons of flavor in that. You don't want to throw it away.

You can scrape on the bottom to release any stuck bits. Scrape on the sides. Scrape that into there. Now, you can see all the stuck bits. That's all that like reduced intense chickeny flavor now giving flavor to this sauce.

So, my pan's not like ripping hot. It's warm, so it'll release a little easier, right? We're almost preparing this to delaze it, right? You're basically delazing in here.

And you'll notice that even just by doing that, if I rinse this bad boy out, I haven't even used soap yet. This is 90% of the way clean.

We have a pan that basically looks almost brand new. It's literally that simple. This applies to pretty much every single scenario I could possibly think of. The key is soap and water or proper stainless steel cleaner. That is it.

Leave it in there. Don't scrape it off because it's going to stick anyway, right? Just let it cool down naturally, and you could easily bring it back on once it stops smoking and turn it to medium heat. Eventually, it'll release.

So, you're going to fill this up with water about halfway up. Set it on your stove. Add one drop of dish soap. That was more than a drop. Set over medium high heat and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, let it boil for about 1, two, maybe 3 minutes until the residue comes off easily.

The beauty of stainless steel is there is almost no stain. It's stainless. No burned on bit. you can't clean off. You just need to know how.

Now, this is a still usable pan and that's fine. It happens. People make mistakes. But the more you do that to that pan, the more the pan is going to get more anded up, okay?

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

they're much lighter than a cast iron skillet but they're heavy and they develop an amazing nonstick coating

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

Cleaning is even easier. You can take a dry paper towel, wipe it out, it's completely clean like it's never been used.

things are going to sear better in the Caraway. They're going to turn out better.

It's going to be easier to manipulate heat and and maintain certain heat levels the more you spend.

I mean, the food comes out and it is beautiful and it tastes good, but it's just easy to use.

You can pick it up and just swirl your food around. The coating is so so effective.

So, the biggest difference between the Carote at $15 and the Caraway at $150 is the quality of the coating of the nonstick coating.

I cracked an egg into it immediately. Even as it was starting to adhere, it was smooth, it slid around no problem. I mean, the nonstick, it's it's so effective.

the second it cracked into the pan, the egg A looked beautiful, right? I mean, it just looked really nice in the pan. It looked like I was almost doing a professional shoot.

okay some Pros everything cooks very evenly the pan is evenly hot with kind of more regular cheap pans there might be like the center is really hot and then the sides aren't very hot

when it is ready to be flipped it will release which sounds so weird but it is true

making scrambled eggs is perfectly fine

another thing to note is you can cook with lower temperatures and I found that the food actually comes out better if I cook on a lower temperature than usual on the stove

Secondly, it makes the cookware 30 percent more efficient on induction cooktops. Induction cooktops only work with cookware that's made of magnetic materials. Steel is magnetic and since Atlantis pans have three layers of steel on the bottom, they work faster and more efficiently on induction.

Both collections retain heat well but due to its additional layers, thickness, and sheer weight, the Atlantis collection absorbs and retains heat better than Industry.

I repeated this test with several other pans and as you can see in the results Demeyere Atlantis retained heat better than every other pan after five minutes, and they tied with Made In after 10 minutes.

Atlantis cookware is more forgiving which makes it easier to cook with Because it's thicker and retains heat better, the temperature doesn't fluctuate as much while you're cooking and adding and removing ingredients. You won't burn your food if you accidentally turn the heat too high. It heats slowly and steadily.

Its thick 7-ply construction allows it to heat evenly and retain heat better than almost any other cookware.

The heat retention of the Demeyere industry pan wasn't as impressive but still above average.

Since industry pans are thinner, they heat faster but the temperature fluctuates quicker when you turn the knob or add ingredients. So you have to monitor your cooking more closely to make sure you don't overcook or burn something.

Although industry is one step down from Atlantis in terms of construction thickness and overall quality, it's still high-performing, premium cookware.

and the thing that's great with the matte fur is that the handle can go into whatever temperature into the oven we want

it now is kind of kind of turned like a golden orange color because it's oxidizing a little bit so it's very obvious that that pan is being exposed the raw metal is being exposed to the air

and now the new matte fur come without anything on them they're really nice and easy to clean

but this guy is definitely you know non-stick on there there's no doubt about that right

so looking at these two pans we've got that this was the first time that I ever cooked on them you know that you know nothing's really stuck on here

this guy here behaved a lot better in being at a preheat of 250 previously like I was saying I was at 250 preheat it looked like I got too hot I went down it got too cool and it wasn't a great result this guy's looking quite perfect at the moment sitting at 250

so that's a really nice result right there doing its thing induction burner gets a little bit mad when you do that this guy here same thing so great result okay so definitely that factor of that first cook with a new pan you know seedling that surface definitely helps so our second result here is really great

right now there is zero spinning from this is the one that was abused this is the one that was not and they are not spinning whatsoever

okay so clean and cool cool zero spinning so that is great that cheap what I think is kind of crappy induction cooktop I have been able to make spinners out of other carbon steel with that cooktop um it does make spinners these guys didn't that's a tremendous result so super stoked

so you know Matt fur I would give you know a big big thumbs up I think they're tremendous I love that they have non-vivided handles onto the pans the shape of them of course are ideal I really enjoy that they the handles don't have epoxy on them and they can easily just go straight into the oven they're great

These cast iron pans start out like traditional cast iron, but then they're coated in a glass like vitreous glaze that seals the pan from air and moisture that could cause rust

their enamel coating makes enamel cast iron pans virtually maintenance free. You never have to season them and you can soak, use soap and scrub as much as you'd like.

Okay, that is my buying guide for these wonderful lifetime pans.

Getting back to the non-stick surface, another added benefit is how easy they are to clean. I don't think anything can provide more proof about their ease of cleaning than their still like new appearance 18 months after their first use.

the more you use it the better it is going to become to you the slicker it's going to get the better finish it has

now what I have found that really helps these new skillets a whole lot deep fry you something in for you enough grease in there that you can fry something I cook me some deep fried chili rellenos in them I'll deep fry some fishing deep fry some potatoes in it really works good on seasoning easy to clean up that away…

they finish quicker and smoother than any of that other iron I ever used unless you get back to the Griswold in the Wagner so many years ago

There were some white marks that looked concerning at first, but it turned out to just be metal dust from the utensils transferring onto the pan. It wiped right off with no permanent damage.

Next, I took a serrated steak knife, attached two magnets weighing 130 g, and rubbed it across the pan 15 times, and there were still no scratches or damage.

After that, I put a heavyduty Scotch-Brite sponge green side down on the pan, placed the 5lb weight on top, and pushed it back and forth 20 times. Again, there was no damage.

After all that, I wanted to see if any of these tests affected the non-stick performance. So, I ran the same egg test again with a half teaspoon of oil and 2 grams of butter. And fortunately, the egg didn't stick at all.

After all three rounds, the Viking showed zero signs of pitting or corrosion.

But the Viking handled the worst case scenario without any damage at all.

The titanium surface doesn't scratch, and after 4 months of almost daily use, it performs exactly the same as day one.

The Viking wipes clean easily with no residue buildup, and because of that, the performance hasn't changed.

When you do need to season it, all you have to do is clean it, dry it, rub it with a thin layer of oil, and bake it in the oven. Although the baking portion takes an hour or so, the actual work you need to do takes less than 5 minutes. It’s not a big deal and it’s not difficult

But the reality is that seasoning isn't just oil; it's polymerized oil that's been bonded to the cast iron. It's hard and tough and as long as the dish soap doesn't contain lye or sodium hydroxide, a few drops won't hurt

I always recommend using a chainmail to clean cast iron, but if you cooked an especially messy meal and chainmail is not doing the trick, mild dish soap is okay

As you can see, the soap didn’t impact the seasoning at all

Cast iron develops non-stick properties over time with proper seasoning, but it's not totally non-stick like a Teflon-coated pan

But flavoring food with a small amount of acidic ingredients, such as a splash of wine, vinegar, or lemon juice, won't cause any issues

If you're not cooking highly acidic foods for a long time, like over 30 minutes, the seasoning should be fine

To prove this point, I squeezed a whole lemon into this cast iron pan and let it simmer for about 4 minutes. After removing the lemon juice and wiping the skillet, you can see that the seasoning wasn't affected at all

One of the reasons I love cast iron is that it retains heat exceptionally well

Once it's fully preheated, it retains heat well, so your food will cook evenly

That may be true, but in my experience, this step is completely unnecessary. If the skillet is well-seasoned and you dry it thoroughly, it shouldn’t rust, and you don't need to oil it after each use

carbon steel pans are made thinner and significantly lighter than cast iron while still being incredibly durable.

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.

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

This guy is conducting more heat. More heat's being pulled into it. So, it is a little bit of a hotter pan.

I had brought this down just cooking this on a one out of 10. So really, really gentle heat just to get a nice even fry.

Uh, but you know what it's done in such a short time I think is completely adequate.

Uh, but you know what it's done in such a short time I think is completely adequate.

So, I think it look great. Made in pan here. Little bit residue. Really nothing much. And residue, nothing on there.

It's got that that micro texture on it, which is a a purpose thing done by Maiden. They do several different finishings to the pan to give it a texture and then they season that to grab hold of that texture to make sure that it works incredibly well and that it stands up really well.

So, the seasoning that I've done from cooking has worked out great with a simple egg test.

But the heat is down on the maiden pan. But I would say that that pan is cooking a nice delicate crepe beautifully.

I am finding that using this seasoning that they've done and the the finish has worked out really really nicely. It's really even and it works beautifully. So I have no problem with how that pan has finished up. Like it's it's seasoning beautifully.

So, you know, the ease of maintenance to what they've done makes it great.

And I like this little thing. So, you can just hang them up. Very nice little hole.

Hands are nice. Not too heavy. Handles are really good. They feel fantastic in the hand.

But the weight is good.

I wipe this out just to blot off some of the grease. That's what you got left. That's not bad.

Not much in the pan. As you can see, I've wiped it out.

And because it's got like a kind of satin finish, there's no slip on it. So, I've got a really good grip.

i typically only get into non-stick if i'm in like a super big hurry and i just want to heat something up quickly and not have to clean it or worry about it and you can kind of do this at this point with this cast iron it's seasoned well enough that it's completely non-stick and uh i can cook some eggs and leave the…

Finally, we'll look at the titanium pro. Um, ignoring the part where because of the structure of the meat, it didn't touch the pan. We can see actually there's very very even browning all the way across the board. A nice crust on the edges and even browning here all the way to here between these three.

Um, so Titanium Pro, pretty easy to clean. It doesn't wipe out quite as easily as the nonstick does, but it wipes out a great deal easier than the cast iron or carbon steel.

And the Titanium Pro almost as easy as non-stick in the sink. Um, but it is also uh completely dishwasher safe.

Finally, this is the titanium propan. It looks to be of the three, I'd say, the evenest throughout. Again, we have one of these little spots where because of the way the fish was butchered, um, part of it didn't come in direct contact with the pan, so we won't really pay attention to that. But, if you look at the…

Um, and this one cooked faster than in the Teflon style pan, 2 and a half minutes. Again, because the material of the titanium pro, the steel in there acts as a bigger thermal battery, so you have more heat to give to the salmon once it goes into the plate.

Almost too slick. So, not quite as slick as the uh the non-stick. It still takes just a tiny bit of tilting to get it to slide around, but significantly more slick than the cast iron.

It's almost too nonstick. Get that side over. That actually ended up behaving very similarly to the nonstick.

You know, I know in my experience, like this one test, it showed it sliding out of there very, very easily.

Titanium Pro, it slid out nearly as easily.

Not perfect for omelets, but still this omelette came out really nicely. In fact, I think it came out a little bit better. More custardy in the center. Real tasty.

My view is I know this is non-toxic. I know I can cook anything in here and it's not going to give off into my food.

But even when I blackened the sides from oil splattering all over it, I can eventually scrape it out with this.

it can get off the stains that have maybe been on there for years because I had stains on these

What it's basically doing is it's elevating the ease in which it is to use a stainless steel pan.

it's a surface that's four times harder than the stainless steel beneath it.

Over the 7 years plus of talking about Nano Bond, I have yet to have anybody have it so where they couldn't get it clean and remove

So, for all of these reasons, we have Nanobond. No chemicals. Toxin-free.

With our pan and NanoBond, you can go all the way up to 1,050° F.

if you love the idea of using cast iron and the the heritage that comes with that then that is more of a choice and that's you know from the the hundreds of pans that i sell every year that is a choice that people are making

but it made the best tasting steak it was the second easiest to clean and in this category I would put it over all in second place

in terms of cleaning I'm going to give the extrema a close very very close second place I'm going to give the 360 cookware fourth place I'm going to give the cast iron third place and I'm going to give the carway ceramic coated first place

I was extremely surprised to see how easy it was to clean the extrema I was not expecting that

so the fully ceramic extrema is going to be the safest right nothing's going to leech there's no allergies or anything like that

I let the eggs cook for about a minute before touching them, and when I finally nudged them with a spatula, they moved freely with zero sticking. I also flipped the eggs with no issues.

I tested it again by making an omelet, and again, the egg cooked perfectly and didn't stick at all.

And even though some of the eggs stuck, cleaning the pan was easy - the stuck-on bits came right off with a quick rinse.

This pan is not only good with eggs, but it does a good job searing, too. I cooked burgers, steak, salmon, and chicken in this pan, and it browns well and cooks evenly.

A bonus of the textured surface is that it keeps oil in the center of the pan. You can still coat the entire surface by tilting the pan, but the oil doesn't immediately run to the edges and leave the center dry like it does with some non-stick pans.

Based on these tests, this pan has average heat conduction but above-average heat retention.

Performance-wise, I’m impressed.

But it's way less fussy than stainless steel, and, at least in my experience, it releases food better than a well-seasoned cast iron or carbon steel pan.

Plus, it's lighter than cast iron, and you don't need to season it.

And right behind it actually was the T-fal. I I didn't think it was that much different.

In a saucier, the great thing about it is that it has these really sloped rounded walls and there really aren't any corners in here. That means that the odds of something getting stuck here is basically zero.

With a sassier, those rounded edges mean that cleanup is really easy.

It's also much heavier and feels much more stable than the other two cheaper mixers.

The bowl and all three attachments are dishwasher safe, unlike the whisks included with the KitchenAid Classic and Artisan, which need to be handwashed.

It was also the quietest mixer at low, medium, and high speeds.

It did a great job with the whipped cream, but the cookies were disappointing.

The final cookie dough came out fine, but I wish the beater got closer to the walls of the bowl.

It did much better with the pizza dough. Unlike the Hamilton Beach, the dough hook grabbed the dough properly, the mixer was stable, and the head remained securely locked throughout the test.

The final dough and pizza came out great.

Cuisinart did a great job with the whipped cream and pizza dough, and it was actually more stable than the KitchenAid Classic and Artisan during kneading.

The head locks in both the raised and lowered positions, and the bowl is larger than the KitchenAid Classic's, and it has a handle, and all of the attachments are dishwasher safe.

Number two, the lid handle and helper handles are large. You can fit your entire hand around them for a firm grip.

The sidewalls of the frying pans have too shallow of a slope. This design, plus the flared rims, makes it easy to slide food onto a plate but it also makes it easier to spill and splatter.

Fortunately Made In made some updates and the rivets on the pans made today are much flatter.

I mentioned that I like the handle design but I need to call out the handle angle. Made In handles are almost even with the top of the pan. You can fit the pan in the oven with less space between racks but since the handle isn't angled upward like most, your hand is a little bit closer to the heat.

of course you know I am a big fan of of the mineral B pen they work extremely well

I wanted to test if HexClad could pan sear, so we set the Breville to 325° and placed the HexClad 8-in pan. I put down some butter, a bit of neutral oil, salted the top of a bone-in chicken thigh and let it go for 7 minutes. Here's what our chicken looked like at the flip. Lovely golden brown, just the kind of sear I…

Luckily, since we've been using these pans at home for 18 months, I have a clip of the pan in the oven showing that they're oven safe and can go from range to oven without any trouble.

After the chicken pan sear test, it's a great time to test how easy these pans are to clean. I started by simply rinsing it under cold water and here's what didn't come off with just cold water. To finish things up, I grabbed my Grill Rescue Forever Sponge with a little bit of Dawn dish soap, scrubbed for 15 seconds…

To further torture test the HexClad pan for cleaning, I grabbed a piece of American cheese out of the fridge and let it go for 4 minutes at 350°. I turned the Breville off, grabbed the ThermoWorks turner, and the cheese came right off. I don't think it's something any of us do with frequency at home, but I thought it…

we don't need any oil or butter down first. It's just batter straight into the pan with an easy flip after 60 seconds. I can fit about three 4-in pancakes into the 12-in pan comfortably, and there's room to turn them without making a mess.

I wanted to test the evenness of the pan when it's heating up. So, I took our FLIR camera and snagged a video of how the pan looks under thermal imaging. Before the sear test with the chicken thigh, I checked the pan with the camera and here's what it looks like on thermal. It's what I would expect, even heating…

When I first got my HexClad, I was cooking on gas and that's been no problem.

So, for those of you wondering, yes, these do work on induction burners. They have a stainless steel exterior and an aluminum core, which makes them compatible with induction technology.

It's uh nice and well-formed all the way around. And if you look at the bottom of the pan, it's the same deal. In fact, I'm going to try to get this so you don't get your eyeballs glared out right here. But, the surface of this is perfect. There's no discoloration anywhere. It looks pretty much like a brand new pan.

Hex patterns on the side. No problem there. No discoloration. No busted hexagons or anything. And then down on the surface here, you can see how even that looks. There's not any problems with this.

So again, you wouldn't think that this had anywhere near this kind of usage on it. It's still in perfect shape as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, this is ceramic, but I haven't seen enough data saying that it's not going to be bad for a ceramic coating, too. And even if there was data that said that, I still wouldn't put them in the dishwasher. I just hand wash them, hand dry them, and then they just stay perfect. It's not that difficult to do.

This one uh has a few scratches on here. It's not so bad. But again, this would still pass as a new pan, too.

we don't really have any imperfections, we don't have any scratches anywhere, there's no areas where that nonstick coating has come off. So, from a physical appearance standpoint, all of these pans look cosmetically perfect.

You can see that my rim is still nice and shiny.

I use them on my pans and I haven't seen any problems with it, but it is a lot more abrasive.

After 2 years of use, my Hexclad pans have held up really well.

And also when I clean them, I make sure I don't use anything overly abrasive.

I’ve used it to cook crispy bacon, brown and roast chicken, and fry chicken cutlets, and it performs similar to stainless steel. It heats up quickly, maintains a stable temperature and delivers consistent results.

The bacon came out perfectly crispy and the chicken seared nice and even.

I had no issues with eggs sticking as long as the surface was greased with plenty of oil or butter.

HexClad performed well, not only were the bubbles uniform across the cooking surface which indicates even heating, but it was one of the fastest pans to boil the water.

As you can see in the results, HexClad’s heat retention is above average and better than brands like Calphalon, Hestan, and All-Clad.

Another benefit I want to highlight is how easy Hexclad is to clean. It cleans up like a typical non-stick pan. Unless you really scorch it, a quick rinse with soap and water will do the trick.

releases food better than stainless steel.

And here's the result on a traditional non-stick pan. Exactly how it should be. Looks appetizing. barely sticks. Easy and pleasant to cook. And the cleanup is just as simple as always. No additional scrubbing needed.

Demeyere handles are rounded and smooth—probably the most comfortable of the three.

now we just ate our steaks we're doing cleanup here look at how much cleaner the fine axe is after just wiping it down with a quick paper towel so that's one benefit that we didn't realize until this stage so that's pretty big plus if you ask me

The skin on the chicken gets golden and crispy, salmon gets an even sear, and steak gets nice and charred.

But once it's hot, it retains heat really well.

If you compare Stargazer next to other brands you'll notice that the Stargazer cooking surface is significantly smoother. This is due to their proprietary two-step treatment that smoothes out the surface while creating enough texture for the seasoning to stick to.

Because of this foods like eggs and pancakes are much less likely to stick and it's easier to clean.

There are a few things I like about the bottom. First, there's no heat ring like you'll find on some cast iron skillets. It sits completely flat which helps it heat evenly on electric and induction cooktops.

it's a it's a marvelous tool it's easy to use it's easy to clean

But not all silicone spatulas are made the same. These are mine. And if you can't tell, they all share one [music] thing in common. They are a solid piece of silicone from top to bottom.

if you have a spatula that is entirely made of silicone from top to bottom, there's no seam for stuff to get wedged into.

But the true beauty of reusable towels is that they're more than just for wiping and [music] cleaning. They are incredibly versatile. Not only can you use them to clean up your prep or your counter [music] or your table, but they are my absolute go-to item when it comes to handling hot things.

And when you're using a towel, they are as thick or as thin as you want them to be. It makes it easy to grab onto whatever you have.

These were easy to clean, easy to season, they had great stick resistance, so that was a real benefit.

so the key with this one is it's super easy to cook with but we need to care for it very well so we can't exceed a certain temperature and we also have to clean it with a special sponge and make sure that we're not scratching it or chipping away any of the coating

so caraway's cookware has an aluminum base and that's going to help with the heat conduction

in terms of Versatility I'm going to put extrema in third place the 360 stainless Steel in second place the enameled cast iron in fourth place and the carway ceramic coated in first place

the carway ceramic coated was a quick cook and it had an okay sear it was the easiest to clean by far

and the carway ceramic coated was going to be the obvious first place because it's a non-stick surface Sur

HexClad cookware is oven-safe up to 500°F but it’s not safe to use under the broiler.

The only noticeable difference between the two pans is that the HexClad pan barely had any residue or discoloration from the oils. It took less than 30 seconds to clean.

Because HexClad’s cooking surface has non-stick coating beneath the steel hexagons, it releases food better than a traditional stainless steel pan.

This time, the eggs slid around both pans without any sticking.

Both heat up fast and evenly, both retain heat well, you can use both for just about any cooking technique and ingredient.

At first I thought HexClad was a gimmick, but after using it for several months, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well it cooks.

This cookware can sear better than most non-stick pans and releases food better than stainless steel.

there's the stargazer I got a wet paper towel you got usually it cleans up it's pretty slippery do this carefully pretty much just wipe it out

but as you can see it's booking a lot faster i thought it would um it is kind of doing the same behavior because you see it's right there there but overall to me that's pretty pretty good

i have seen some pants that are just like it's terrible like i have a visions glass skillet yeah they don't eat evenly at all so i thought i thought this is obviously a pretty decent result

all right so that is how it turned out um i don't know if a hotter pan would have helped out with that but it worked uh deglazing will most likely take all this off should be very easily but i would give that i mean i i'd give it a pass that's more technique and everything but it's the pan to be honest great

uh searing i've had no issues with it

uh clean has been easy

but they do easy to cook in easy cleanup

they have this enamel coating on them which are really easy to clean

what also really surprised me is that the cast iron was easier to clean than the stainless seal

I also like the helper handle. It’s big and has a nice wide opening.

Although they have some major differences, both pans are well-made, durable, high performing, and will last a really long time.

I keep it in a fish tub just because it's easy to locate and also store at the end of the night.

Another design feature that you get with Hestan is flat rivets. These are an upgrade over standard rivets that stick out and collect grease and grime, but the seams around them still can catch food, so they're not as easy to clean as pans without any rivets like Demeyere.

One more thing to note about the handles is their high angle. If you measure from the counter to the end of the handle, it's 4.5 inches high. Because of this, you need at least 5 inches of space to fit these pans between oven racks. While I like the higher-pitched handle because it gives you leverage when flipping or…

And you look at this pan and there's really just there's not much sticking. I could probably take a paper towel and just wipe this clean. In fact, let's see what happens if I actually do that. Oops. See what I mean? It's uh there's not much sticking to this at all.

skillet was easy to clean that night too and just getting some more good seasoning layer on there with that skillet

and number 10 skillet should hold a whole can of spam when it's sliced to the right thickness and the spam came out delicious too

skillet did a good job with it not burning either side of the natchez meat pies

if I cook my eggs correctly which I do there's no sticking and I don't even have to wash this thing out with water usually it just wipes right out with a paper towel

I enjoy putting vegetables in the blender and leaving the blender on high for a whole minute until it warms up close to body temperature at which point I can have a warm soup and enjoy that very much

although it's incredibly efficient at blending the Vitamix blender definitely pulls air into your food and and it aerates it which means that some of the oxygen sensitive nutrients are affected now if you eat the food right away we're really not talking about any issue at all because even chewing has that same effect…

for almost everything 801010 all you really ever need is just water now if water doesn't clean the Vitamix really well what I'll do is I'll fill the Vitamix half full with water and then put the top on put it on the base and turn it on with just water and mixing that water at high speed it just it just cleans it like…

if you put water in a Vitamix blender turn it on to high speed and walk away in a few minutes that water will be boiling hot and so you can actually boil clean the inside of your Vitamix

it just cleans it like crazy now you know if you put water in a blender or certainly in a Vitamix blender if you put water in a Vitamix blender turn it on to high speed and walk away in a few minutes that water will be boiling hot and so you can actually boil clean the inside of your Vitamix

Plastic cutting boards are lighter.

They're easy to care for, easier to wash in the sink.

the inside is rivet free so it doesn't trap any bits of food

and the carway is a good option for when hey things are really busy I don't want to have to deal with a lot of mess or cleanup I just want it in out of the kitchen be as efficient as possible

what I do is level up a little bit I like to use a mildly abrasive cleaner something like a bar Keeper's Friend

add some water and some white vinegar and let that sit 5 10 minutes or so

the cooking surface of the 12-in pan is 9.5 in across which is slightly larger than most Maiden has some steeper walls giving it a larger cooking surface so you get a little extra food that you can cook on your pan

I don't mind having these two little protrusions and as you can see there's not a whole lot of food that has gotten stuck in or around that area

once you have mastered the art of preheating your pan before you put food on it you can confidently cook most foods without any fear of stuck on food

if you do happen to burn food on your pan you can always soak it you can toss it in the dishwasher and in really extreme cases I've always found that baking soda and vinegar gets the job done

it actually cleaned a little easier than the old clad

but with a walk like that that's sort of easier to clean, easier like easier to maintain its seasoning, like for me the extra cost was worth it.

I I don't wash it all the time like inside we just rinse it we don't use soap all the time that's why it's still shiny

so everybody cleaned really really well so no problems there whatsoever

Cleaning stainless steel is actually easier than you think. First, wait until the pan cools down. Sticking a hot pan in cold water causes it to warp. You never want to do that. Once the pan is warm, but not scolding hot, add some water. Let it sit for a minute, then scrub with baking soda or barkeeper's friend for…

no you do not it's enameled cast iron so it doesn't need season

This Dutch oven performs fine in cooking tests but poorly in my controlled experiments.

The coating on my Hexclad pots and pans is chipping away. Like I said, I'm not aggressive with these. I'm not putting harsh cleaners on there. I'm not using like a wire mesh brush or anything on here. I'm just like boiling water. It's chipping off and getting into the food.

especially because the pots I only use to like boil water and like why are they chipping? It's been less than 2 years and they should not be chipping. This is totally unacceptable.

My second biggest complaint is that the exterior paint comes off very easily. The pan looks amazing when you first get it, but after about a month, you'll notice small chips in the paint, which get worse over time.

Also, when oil or food spills over the sides, it sticks to the exterior and pulls the paint off when you clean it. So, as good as Caraway looks online or when you first get it, don't expect that to last very long.

On a similar note, the interior also gets scratched and damaged relatively easily. You need to be really careful when cooking and cleaning. Avoid overheating, cooking with metal utensils, and cleaning in the dishwasher. There's a reason why you'll never see this type of cookware in a commercial kitchen; it's not the…

it cooks really inefficiently

their pain and about to clean because gunk gets all down in there

really the only thing they add to food is cosmetic there yeah

It also runs just that much more of a risk of holding onto whatever it is you're baking and kind of ruining it.

Once the oil is in the pan, I want to talk about heat control. This is where everybody makes big mistakes. All right? This is where people burn stuff. This is where people smoke out their houses.

And this is also where people get that sort of brown ring around the pan, which is fine, but it's just annoying to clean.

There's a thin layer of oil around here that's going to get hyper hyper hyper hot because the edges of this pan are thinner than the bottom, right?

You will have to use more oil or more fat when you're using stainless steel. That is the simple reality.

Obviously, the parts of the pan that didn't have any oil on it is where the egg stuck on the scramble.

This is what stops people from cooking with stainless steel. They see this happen and they're like, I'm got to throw the pan away. And a lot of people have thrown their pans away because of this.

Common mistakes that will ruin your life or maybe just your pan. Number one, cooking on too high of a heat.

Now if this was a steak or whatever and you wanted to delaze your pan, this fond no more. This is just char. So if you delaze this, it'd be bitter. It'd be blackened. It'd be gross.

Let me be honest with you. This hack still sucks to do, but it works really well.

if you try to move whatever meat you're cooking around too soon it will stick and break apart

the most difficult thing to cook on l cruset or any cast iron for that matter is over easy eggs or over medium eggs anytime you need to cook an egg and then flip it over to the other side it is extremely difficult

I followed all the hacks I found on YouTube I followed all the instructions from the L cruset website and I could not consistently make OV easy eggs easily

The lawsuit alleges that All-Clad advertised its cookware as "dishwasher safe," but when cleaned in the dishwasher, one or more of the bonded layers become thin and sharp.

Since its legal trouble, All-Clad now says its pans are not dishwasher safe.

the center of the old clay pan is 171 and the center of the costco pan is at 143. so the all plaid pan comes up to temperature faster than the costco pan

so at 5 minutes and 15 seconds this is pretty much boiling that is starting to boil the all-clad pan comes up to temperature faster

so i did manage to get them clean it took at least 15 minutes to clean each one it was really uncomfortable boiling them with the bar keepers friend really made the difference

I can feel the center is actually a little bit paler though. Um, again, that comes down to the evenness of the heating. So, the center of that cast iron pan because of the shape of the flame uh was actually cooler than the rest of the pan.

That said, you can do it without soap. Um, it takes a little bit more effort. You see your sponge gets really greasy.

Cast iron is the most difficult. Uh, requires the most work. It does require you also to make sure that you dry carefully and rub them with oil so they don't rust or pit.

Cast iron surprisingly seems to be actually fairing, I would say, the worst. If we let it go for the same amount of time at the same heat, a full 3 minutes, um, it gets a much darker sear. So, that can be advantageous if your goal is to get a really dark crust on something like a steak or a burger without, you know,…

So, I cooked the second piece of salmon, this time for 2 and 1/2 minutes. Um, this one also still came out a little bit darker and definitely much more uneven than the Teflon style pan. Again, that's because of the uneven heating of cast iron.

Tiny bit of sticking in the center there. Uh-oh, more sticking.

It also stuck quite a bit more to the cast iron than to the other pans.

And let's see, the texture also doesn't look quite as nice. Again, that's because, you know, cast iron retains a little bit too much heat for certain things. So, definitely for an omelette like this, you want to have sort of faster temperature control than you would get in cast iron.

Because cast iron pans are thicker than stainless steel, and cast iron has a lower thermal conductivity than the materials used as the core layers of stainless steel cookware, it heats slower.

If a cast iron skillet is too big for the burner, food in the middle will cook faster than the edges, as you can see with these chicken cutlets.

The water in the stainless steel pan started boiling after 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and the water in the cast iron pan started boiling after 3 minutes and 34 seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, stainless steel pans, especially good quality fully clad pans, retain heat well, but not at the same level as cast iron.

Also, cast iron tends to absorb the flavor of the food you cook. So fish and other pungent ingredients can linger in the skillet and impact your next meal if you don’t clean it thoroughly.

However, because it’s not coated and doesn't have a layer of seasoning baked into the surface, foods like eggs are more prone to sticking.

The one major problem with stainless steel cookware is food sticking. It’s easy to ruin eggs, and cleaning sticky stainless steel pots is no fun.

The rivets on the Made In pan I got years ago jet out further than most brands. It's hard to clean around the rivets so oil and food bits would often bake into the pan.

Still they don't offer flush rivets or rivetless options like several other brands.

If you're looking for lightweight pans, you'll be disappointed. Made In pans are built solid with thick heavy walls. The 12-inch fry pan weighs over three pounds.

Also, there's a small space where the handle bends that's extremely difficult to clean unless you scrub it with a toothbrush.

The 12-inch fry pan is $50, and for that price, you get much better performance and longevity with Tramontina Professional and Ninja NeverStick.

The one feature that annoys me about this Dutch oven is the metal accents on the handles - they look nice, but they're not completely flush with the cast iron part of the handle, so food can get trapped and be a pain to clean.

You can unscrew these metal pieces to clean them, but it's an extra unnecessary step.

The non-stick coating on the bottom makes HexClad pans a bit easier to clean. Henckels' all-steel bottom is more prone to staining and discoloration. You'll need to occasionally use a product like Bar Keepers Friend to restore the shine.

So, the handle is supposed to be stay cool. Closer to here is definitely hot. you will burn yourself. But up here at the minute, it is definitely cooler. Um, I'm not sure after a long extended use if I would say that that is a really stay cool handle. So, that's one potential little ding there.

the only time we've even had to apply any elbow grease was when one piece of the Todd egg stuck on due to that super hard coating

so both of them are guaranteed for life all clad is not guaranteed for wear and tear and normal use if you clean it with brillo or if it's stained

in all fairness look if i spend 400 on this i want it to be clean and i got to tell you it's really uncomfortable to be cleaning this thing it was a lot of work

their lifetime warranty only really covers manufacturer's defects like the rivets the handle breaking i don't know it won't cover wear and tear

and once it gets hot it gets really hot I had to get used to the fact that it gets really hot one time I almost burned myself so every time I'm cooking I'm always using like a dish towel to handle the lid and to also just handle the sides

but I won't say it's 100% nonstick like a nonstick pot nothing will ever work like a nonstick pot you just have to figure out the heat situation which I always use low to medium and never like high heat

Wow, this thing is insane. I could blend something from the other side of the kitchen.

you got to clean that thing either way and there's no way it's actually nonstick and then you're not even supposed to scratch it very hard.

So, what I say is I'll go with and also the nonstick stuff is not supposed to be very good for you.

it had the best sear but it was also the hardest to clean and it had the second best tasting steak

so with the extrema fully ceramic this is going to come in last place in terms of heat connectivity it Heats slowly and unevenly though it can retain its heat quite well once it gets hot

so the extrema fully ceramic pan took the longest to cook it had the worst sear

It was the slowest stainless steel pan to reach 400F and the second slowest to boil water.

It was also one of the loudest pans, with lots of buzzing and clicking.

The textured surface keeps oil under food and prevents sticking slightly, but it makes cleaning more difficult.

With cookies, the Classic and Artisan both mixed the dough well, but I still had to stop and scrape the bowl several times.

All three also handled the pizza dough well and produced excellent pizza, but the heads of the Classic and Artisan bounced a lot more during kneading, and their locking levers shifted away from the fully locked position, which caused them to bounce even more.

Besides that, this pan is incredibly heavy at almost 6 pounds, and there’s a gap between the pan and the handle where moisture and bacteria can get trapped.

so they also have their seasoning instructions that come they have these here little seasoning instructions I don't like them I think they suck

the eggs have moved out especially on the one on the induction has moved out a little bit it's rolled to the edge because of the convexness of it obviously so this it's got a Center High spot in the pan

so you know the results are definitely you know similar here had a little bit more sticking on the center of this one again that you got that high spot going on there you can see that right in the center uh you've got a little bit more even where all the oil went around the edge so I don't know that's a tiny bit of a…

there's definitely still that big hot spot that was created when I went up to 250 for too long uh preheating on the induction had that hot spot in the middle uh and before you know we had that noticeable convexed Edge where the oil was going down to the to the outer edge and we had the hot spots in both it seems

I've tested other non-stick alternatives that perform well, but over time, residue can build up on the surface and cause sticking if you don't keep it clean and smooth.

But when I heated it in a 400°ree oven to see how quickly the handle cooled, it was still too hot to touch after 15 minutes. And it wasn't any cooler than a regular cast iron handle.

And because the coil isn't removable, grease and moisture can collect underneath it around the cast iron shaft, and it's difficult to clean and dry.

there is more sort of temperature control um and adjustments uh necessary in walk cooking than there are in most styles of um western cooking.

it'll take a little bit more work to get the seasoning, you know, the initial seasoning done, the the black the the blackening um of the surface.

Um it'll just be, you know, slightly more difficult to clean and and uh and you can't do things like let it sit soaking in your sink overnight, etc.

I have in the past had a little bit more difficulty than in a traditional nonstick.

Again, a little bit too much color on there.

The titanium pro is not as non-stick as the Teflon, but it's better in most other respects.

So, if you want a really dark sear, um it's not going to get as dark a sear as a cast iron.

the other thing to note about the cast iron is that it does take special care so you need to clean it a certain way and you need to cook with it a certain way otherwise you're going to mess it up and it's going to be very very hard to clean

enameled cast iron has slightly lower conductivity than traditional cast iron because of the enamel coating

while pure stainless steel is not the best conductor of heat this Pan the 360 incorporates aluminum and copper which can speed up that heat distribution a lot faster

And when it comes to cleaning there are some differences here too. The same thing with the walls and and the corner means that you might really have to scrub.

But it does take an extra 2 minutes for your stainless steel pan to drop in temperature compared to nonstick. So if you're not patient enough with letting the pan cool, you're going to easily burn your food or dry out your sauce, kind of like how we did with the carbonara.

they do stick out slightly from the cooking surface. This creates tiny crevices where food can get stuck.

On the negative side, you can cook eggs on the surface, but not as easily, and they won't slide like they do on a smooth surface. You need a spatula to flip them, and cleaning can take a little more effort since food and oil can get into the grooves.

My one minor complaint about Lodge's rough surface is that when you dry it with a paper towel, tiny paper fibers get snagged and left behind. If you look closely you can see the fibers. You can easily wipe these off, but it can still be annoying.

I’ve used Lodge cast iron skillets for several years and they cook exactly how you expect cast iron to cook. They heat up slowly, but once preheated, they stay hot and maintain a consistent temperature.

On ProBond Forged, there's a gap between the handle and the rim that's tough to clean. On Luxe, that connection is tighter, so there's less of a gap to clean.

Now, was this as easy as it would have been in a fully nonstick pan with a chemical nonstick? I don't think so