Flavour Impact

okay so I'd say we're getting to a point here that uh we're looking good so the map for has really browned more evenly all the way across the results are what I'd like to see

so the muffler are spectacular buttery you know I just put in a little bit of salt we've got that caramelized texture to the outside and they're just just the right amount of of texture of fleshiness hard fleshiness I guess to the inside of the onion it's awesome um really really happy

this is such a splayed little guy in the uh in the matte fur there could be more condensed energy around the pan you'd think that would overcook it but still really moist

the lodge don't have any caramelization where the Matt fur is really tasty yeah really really tasty so there's a big taste difference between the matte fur and the lodge which is really surprising

if the mount fur had held its heat it was really hot when I put it into the water

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

the lodge was a little slower to heat while stove was almost instant

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.

Guess what? Stainless steel is induction safe. It is heat coil safe, although you might burn the bottom of the pan.

You don't have to do that with stainless steel. It's oven and dishwasher safe.

It's great for fish. It's great for vegetables. You can also cook gently in it.

you could easily just heat this pan back up. You don't even have to clean it yet, right? I've got tons of stuff in here. There's still flavor in this pan, right?

Searing, sautéing, developing a fond, and then removing the fond through delazing, making a sauce with that, putting it on top of our thing, and we have a final dish all with one pan.

so now it's time to turn these and just look at that crust absolutely gorgeous this is off the cast iron

now let's check the stainless steel also an absolutely beautiful crust i wasn't expecting it to be that good

you can hear that that's there's a lot of crust that formed on that stainless steel and same with the cast iron i don't know that there's really any difference in the crust here and it's the same on both sides like really really solid crust

it looks like on the cast iron pan we got a pretty good medium rare all the way through

in terms of overall evenness and doneness i'm gonna give that to the cast iron pan and frankly that's actually what i would have expected too with a cast iron pan you have the thermal capacity of that pan really absorbs a ton of energy into it as it's heating up on the grill and it just allows for a more even cooking…

so the taste test on the stainless steel steak absolutely incredible as well a slightly different level of doneness but still we've got that rich buttery beefy texture got the garlic the rosemary the saltiness this is just perfect

the crusts were almost identical it rendered the fat cap just as well

cast iron can fry cast iron can sear a really mean steak they can saute vegetables you can make pizza in cast iron you can bake in cast iron it will literally do everything pretty well

cast iron skillets are relatively cheap and propel you into that pro level category will make you into a better cook because they do have a learning curve but the learning curve is really all the fundamentals of cooking so once you've mastered cooking on a cast iron skillet you've basically mastered cooking

if you're looking to make sauces out of the fond fond is basically the leftover sticky bits that are left on stainless steel skillets you can make a sauce out of that by adding wine or a chicken or beef broth or whatever broth that you want to use

just like cast iron carbon steel can be used for almost anything i've made pizzas in it i've baked i've cooked and seared amazing steaks in it you can saute in it and you can even make sauces

stainless steel skillets can literally cook anything acidic foods meats proteins you can bacon them you can do anything you want with stainless steel skillets

but they do one thing extremely well and that's fond if you want to make an amazing sauce stainless steel skillets are for you

i tend to use mine mainly for italian dishes or something where i know i want to make a sauce right after and that's what stainless steel skillets are really good at

but i have gotten rid of all my cast iron skillets ironically i've given them away to friends and family that are that had just started cooking and how you know i've actually moved on to carbon steel

but it can make anything i mean a stainless steel skillet can make a great steak

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.

Because five ply has more cores than three ply, it spreads the heat evenly across the pan and retains it much better.

After another 30 seconds, I added some more water. And this time, it formed a ball that just kind of glided across the surface. That's when the pan becomes non-stick.

Then when you scrape underneath it, you're going to see that there's no sticking whatsoever. After flipping it, the underside had a beautiful golden crust and the top was perfectly cooked with a gooey center.

I used the same pan and I poured in the scrambled eggs. And again, zero stick. They came out fluffy and slightly undercooked, just the way that I like them.

One of the advantages of the thick aluminum core is that heat retention. When you add the room temperature steak to the pan, if it's a non-stick pan, the temperature is going to drop. But with this type of stainless steel pan, it doesn't dramatically drop.

Five ply construction means heat travels up the sides of the pan, too, so you get even browning all around, not just where it touches the bottom.

I didn't move it yet. What I wanted to do is just let that crust develop for about 30 seconds. Now, check this out. It released perfectly. Look at that color.

As far as the taste goes, this is one of the best tasting steaks I've had in a long time. The difference in flavor between a non-stick pan and this stainless steel pan is night and day for steak.

And I don't know how to fully describe this, but the food on the stainless steel pan just tastes cleaner. Like you don't get remnants of this stuff. It sounds a little bit silly, but there's a subtle difference. And you also get that browning and that gold crust with the food that makes it taste even better than if…

Plus, there's no PTFE. There's no PFOA, no ceramic coatings that can chip off into your food. Just stainless steel and aluminum. These are materials that have been used safely in kitchens for decades. If you've been concerned about the health effects of non-stick coatings, Heritage Steel eliminates those worries…

also the stainless steel material allows me to cook acidic ingredients without a metallic taste

Anolon was by far the fastest to heat, but that means it's also very easy to overheat.

When I preheated it slower, it worked fine.

Next, I cut the fat in half, using just a half teaspoon of oil and 2 g of butter. Again, all three pans handled it without sticking.

Then I tested pancakes with a light layer of butter. Misen and Anolon released cleanly, but Strata had some slight sticking.

Misen and Anolon were both impressively nonstick right out of the box, and they've stayed that way for months.

To be totally honest with you, this was one of the toughest reviews I've ever done because all three pans perform really well, and they're all priced pretty much the same.

First, I preheated each pan to 325°F, added exactly one teaspoon of oil and 5 g of butter, and cooked an egg. All three passed this test. The eggs slid around with no sticking.

The second thing is that, from my experience, once I realized how to use a stainless steel pan, the food comes out tastier. And I feel that in many cases, what I cook tastes better from most restaurants.

There is that level of crust that you can't do in pans that are not stainless steel pans or iron cast pans that give that special texture and umami, and it's amazing.

Another example is that just from the smell that comes out of the pan, I know the level of heat of the pan. I know it sounds weird, it sounds bad even, but trust me, it's that film that you can compare to any other pan.

it handles well in the oven the maximum temperature on my oven is 260 and that's the maximum that it can also handle

when I cook in these pots I can keep it on on the stove without like without any heat and my food is still really warm I really love that

and the fact that no steam whatsoever escapes this pot like the steam stays in there my chicken my beef is always so tender the beans that I boil in here are always so tender and the flavors are just logged in like nothing escapes this pot

even sometimes if I want to fry some eggs I definitely do fry them the non-stickiness works when the pot is really hot

And carbon steel does that really well. And compared to cast iron, it heats up faster, cools down faster, and it's also much lighter.

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.

I can tell you one difference between these two products is how the meat sticks this one easily moves around even after I've dropped it right after I've dropped it no matter how long it's been sitting there that's not going to be the case with stainless steel

the concept that it sort of self-releases when it's ready to flip so when this one's ready to flip it will let you know you see it's not moving around in there yet but once it does then we'll flip

one thing I am noticing about the cast iron skillet just a little bit is the oil tends to pull more around the exterior of the pan whereas this stays really centered the oil stays really centered on the interior of the pan

probably is some difference in how they are holding the heat inside of the pan I do think that is occurring this is a thicker pan thicker Skillet here

getting a lot more smoke over here from the cast iron pan but it's not burning

I would say that based upon exterior alone it looks like the cat siren did get a much better crust to it it is uh a a slightly more uniform across the entire steak

start over here on the stainless steel side it's a good steak it really is

so one of the main differences I'm noticing right away because it has a better crust it has a little bit better chew to it something that I consider a little bit more traditional I like that little bite you get on a well crusted steak

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

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

the 360 stainless steel pan it was the fastest to cook but it was a little bit sticky

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

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

next is going to be the stainless steel although the only thing with this one is like people who are sensitive to Nickel so that's something to keep in mind

one of the features that I like the most that not many people talk about is this tight fitting lid it's actually designed to circulate Steam and return moisture back to the food which I find makes the dishes more juicy and flavorful

The stainless steel pan, as is their want, left some fond. It stuck a little bit. There was a brown spot where the burger had cooked, and that's great if you're gonna make a pan sauce or whatever. It's not a non-stick pan. It has none of the traits of non-stick the way cast iron or very well-seasoned carbon steel have.

that's much easier in a walk because you're able to toss much more effectively in a walk and get the food really moving up into the air.

That's part of the flavor that that you get when you cook in a walk, by the way, is that sort of that that carbonized that polymerizer carbonized oil um uh getting into your food, the glazing and getting into your food.

Uh but once you're there, um you'll be able to cook anything in it.

it also allows you to get what's called wakay which is the um it's a sort of elusive thing but it's kind of the flavor of smokiness that you get when the oil vaporizes when you when you basically when you stir fry over a big open flame and the oil vaporizes and the flame leaps into the wok it gives it a sort of very…

The seasoning has been really baked in there and it has a wonderful, naturally nonstick capability when I'm stir-frying and cooking.

So, wok hei translates to the breath of the wok and it's what happens when this beautiful seasoning layer lets off its smoke and all its flavor

they're actually really famous in france and europe they're also really popular in american restaurants eight times out of ten you're probably going to see carbon steel skillets at your favorite restaurant

i can tell you that that's definitely changed in recent years a lot of people have been gravitating towards carbon steel skillets especially after they were initially exposed to cast iron

where antique cast iron skillets are sought after anti-carbon steel skillets are sought after in europe

anytime we went to a restaurant we saw stainless steel skillet they usually look like this

for example my wife she loves the stainless steel skillet at the end of her cook no matter how sticky her stainless steel skillet is she can just toss it in the sink and i'll eventually get to it so so the stainless steel skillet for her it's probably one of her favorite skillets

and she definitely loves the carbon steel skillets but i don't think she likes to do that extra step at the end you know completely drying them off and cleaning them

and you'll find a lot of restaurants using them where if you see an amazing sauce on the menu they probably made it on a stainless steel skillet

trust me i was a huge cast iron fan i know there's like a very devoted following

like on days when it's 0 de outside or let's say you live in an apartment community you can't have a grill yes I love the flavor the Smoky flavor that the grill provides but in in Li of that in absence of being able to do that going right to your stove top can be an excellent way to make an incredible steak right at…

so it can kind of accommodate a lot of browning here and it's spread out more a little i mean when you look at end to end here versus here this is lower and wider than your dutch oven so you're really going to get more surface area exposure which helps things evaporate and concentrate the flavor

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 certainly put lemon lime orange Grapefruit Tangerine Tangerine juice is just spectacular

Now, I'm not saying you can't make a good meal in the Cru pan for $14.99. That's not what I'm saying.

things slid around pretty easily in the Carote, but not even remotely close to how well it did in the Caraway.

its smooth enamel coating doesn't absorb flavors or odors ideal for preparing various dishes without lingering tastes

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

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.

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.

so what that translates to is if you want to make italian food or sauce heavy food cast iron skillets and carbon steel skillets aren't really the best for them

well because carbon steel skillets and cast iron skillets are so nonstick it's very rare that you're ever going to be able to have enough fond to make a sauce out of so that could be a big negative so if you're really into making sauces cast iron skillets and carbon steel skillets are not the right skillets for you

but it does stick you don't believe me try making scrambled eggs it can be done you have to put a lot of oil on there and it's a lot more work you have to be very mindful to temperatures

the the other difficult thing with induction of course is that it has things have to be induction friendly. So there has to be some kind of um steel involved in there. Something that's going to um work with that magnetic magnetic field. Um and you also generally have to have a pan that gets good contact.

The other problem that an induction burner can cause with wok cooking is that often times when you're cooking in a wok, you know, you're going to be doing a lot of sort of this tossing motion. So, often times your wok is actually not going to be in direct contact with the induction burner.

one of the first things that you have to do with especially the Cass IR is you're going to have to season it

the enamel cast iron pan had to be heated up in the oven before it also had an uneven sear

it was the second hardest to clean and in my opinion the worst tasting steak so I'm also going to put this one in the tide for last place

and then the next one is going to be the enamal cast iron because as I mentioned before the iron can leech into the food and for people who have issues with that that might be a problem

When using nonstick, we put them in the dishwasher and sometimes you can slightly taste the food that you previously cooked in it before, especially things like fish or even the detergent from the dishwasher.

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.

let's start with I'll go from brown to lightest the lodge definitely has the lightest finish to it

okay then moving on to the lodge hmm they're not caramelized so they're not as tasty as the matte fur but they're well cooked they're they're totally fine