Searing and Crust

This example of rendering down 12 oz, right, 12 oz of cured salt pork is probably the best example I can show you and as you can see, there's no fond, there's no sticking, there's no anything.

So, performance, I give this a 10 out of 10. Nonstick, 10 out of 10. Frying capabilities, 10 out of 10.

In terms of like, you know, cooking anything else in here, fish, chicken, steak, vegetables, you name it. Fried eggs, I've done a ton of those in the other pans that I have, the 12-in and the 10-in, and and also the 8-in frying pan.

By By that little hole right there also helps to distribute the heat. You know, that's why that's there.

And hey, presto. That is a very loose egg on a stainless steel pan.

I'm getting a nice crispy edge all around that egg.

How's the underc carriage look? Yeah, it's actually very nice. Little bit of browning. You got a little bit of crisp. The crisp is really nice.

So, I didn't actually take the pan heat above medium at all. I was kind of like low to medium the whole way pretty much. So, this thing definitely retains heat very well indeed, I must say. Like, there's still tons of heat in this. And this has been off the heat for about almost 10 minutes. So that's really good.

Now, let's see how the pan handles the butter. You can see it's foaming. Perfect temperature.

But look at the quality of that boneette. That slightly nutty color and flavor. It's just basting and holding absolutely beautifully.

Yep, came off. No problem whatsoever.

Yep, that is forming nice and crispy.

Even layer as well. Quite uniform.

And your butter isn't burnt even on a low to medium heat, which is pretty impressive.

but a five ply will do that also

cast iron if I'm going to seirus steak I'm probably going to do it in a cast iron pan

this cast iron I particularly love to use for frittatas it's the perfect depth it holds the heat really well and it Cooks the frittatas perfectly like a nice thick frittata so I do love that small 8 in

I love to use cast iron on open fire on the grill on the smoker there's really nothing better for open fire than cast iron and Searing a steak

but like I mentioned in the beginning of this video a very well-made 5 to S ply stainless steel pan will SE a steak very well also

I'd go with the big cast iron because it's so useful for so many things on the fire

I'd go with the big cast iron because it's so useful for so many things on the fire

Stainless steel is the ultimate all-purpose cookware. You can use it to sear meat and fish, saute vegetables, boil pasta, simmer sauces, and much more.

Stainless steel is also the best type of cookware for pan sauces. Since it's uncoated, cooking meat in a stainless steel pan creates fond, which is the brown stuck-on bits of concentrated meat flavor at the bottom of the pan.

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.

Um, so again, for at least for my needs, the Titanium Pro is my favorite because it sears nice and evenly. It sears faster. Uh, and I can use metal utensils in there.

But, in all other respects, uh the Titanium Pro, I think, comes out either equal with one of these two pans or on top, which is the reason why I got behind this company, behind our place, um and wanted to partner with them on this.

Um it's a brand new technology, and for me, it's been really been a game changer.

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.

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.

but what happens with stainless is that as they get better and better they start to behave a little bit more like cast iron they hold their heat incredibly well and they distribute their heat incredibly well

i can season of course in my cast iron pan where if i cook at the right temperature in my stainless steel and i use a lead enforced effect where i'm finding just the right sweet spot i can cook with a little bit of oil and things basically become nonstick

so using the cast iron pan being well seasoned it's more forgiving you can have it really well seasoned if it's a little cooler a little hotter a little variable in heat then it seems to allow you to have things that don't stick

the beauty with high-end stainless steel is the variability is wider so you have a bigger window of it being more of a perfect temperature within a high-end stainless steel aluminum core pan than you do in a cheat pan

it definitely can brown a little bit better over time things cook a little bit more thoroughly in cast iron somewhat when it comes to high-end cookware not not a massive difference

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

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

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…

When you place it on the heat, a copper pan heats up very quickly. And when the flame is turned down it cools fast too. This responsiveness to the stove's heat settings gives you excellent control, and it's what makes copper cookware a pleasure to use.

Our top-rated pans offered plenty of cooking space, Low flared sides, they just make it easier to reach under food with a spatula and they help moisture evaporate so food browns more quickly.

All right, I have to admit that while I loved cooking in copper skillets, their performance only slightly outpaced the pan we already recommend, which is the all-clad stainless 12 inch fry pan with lid.

Its superpower is that it can retain and conduct plenty of heat for deep browning of food.

like regular cast iron, these pans have excellent heat retention, so they'll sear, fry and braise well maintaining the heat you want without undesirable temperature dips as food is added or flipped

Though all of these are gonna sear a great steak.

A thick heavy pan has the mass and density to hold more heat than a thinner pan does, and once preheated will cook more evenly than a thinner and lighter pan

so in the first test onions to onions you know thoroughly cooked through good hot heat um you know really brown these onions up nicely there's lots of flavor developed really caramelize the brought out tons of the flavor of the onion still super juicy in the middle it's really held onto that moisture everything is in…

i found that the results in which i got out of the two pans were very similar i i the end cooking was was impossible to tell the difference

but what i found is that pretty much everything else that i was doing i was leaning towards a stargazer i was finding that the evenness of the heavier weight gave me even a more consistent finish and it slowed the process down even more so i could you know steam the lid on bring the heat way down and just let things…

I ran the same test with several other titanium pans and a stainless steel pan, and they all performed well, but Viking was the sickest.

I also cooked pancakes on each pan with a little butter. Viking passed this test easily, as did the other pans.

Without any butter, the pancake didn't stick to Viking, but it did stick a little bit to some of the others.

In terms of evenness, after 2 minutes on medium heat, the gap between the center and the outer edge was only 35°. The average gap for a pan like this is around 80°. Because of this, food browns evenly across the whole surface instead of darkening in the center and staying pale around the edges.

Beyond the numbers, the real world cooking experience has been excellent. It sears well. It cooks evenly edge to edge, and the temperature stays steady. It doesn't get too hot too fast and burn your food, and it doesn't lose heat the second you add something cold. It's a very easy pan to control and it's enjoyable to…

The non-stick performance is excellent.

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.

with the pro line the pan was able to maintain a very nice serious sizzling sound you know this maintaining the seer uh continuously throughout from start to finish

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

Um however, it has a really slick sort of non-stick surface that doesn't scratch out uh and is non-toxic.

So you can see how nice and non-stick that is. The eggs just really glide around there.

Uh, this walk you can get it, you know, you can get it to 900 degrees, 1,000°. Um, plenty of heat for searing and you're going to develop plenty of that walk.

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.

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

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

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.

They both have a wide cooking surface, but then that skillet has those low flaring sides that bow out like this. This is great for browning nicely and encouraging evaporation with those low sides.

So it cooked evenly and it adjusted fairly quickly when we changed heat settings on the stove.

Its generous cooking surface cooked plenty of food without crowding and it's low-flaring sides help evaporate steam so food browned deeply.

the $60 pan performed the same or better in actual cooking tests. You can’t tell the difference between two pieces of salmon cooked in each pan, and the cheaper pan actually did a better job searing pork chops.

the field turned out some nice cornbread, no sticking and a nice crust.

this field cranked out an absolutely delicious [music] grten with no sticking on the potatoes.

Butter potatoes. Those brown up pretty nicely and they did not stick. That's a good thing.

But the field did okay here and I think it helped with the browning that both the potatoes and the okra, they get moved around a little bit.

I think you did an okay job with bacon. Just a little bit of pulling on there, but the um the card says uh bacon can actually stick a little bit early on. So, with that in mind, I think it did uh just fine. I started it out in a room temperature pan, brought it up to heat, some early [music] flips, and mostly…

Um I mentioned that the pan doesn't have as much thermal mass as maybe some other cast irons or carbon steels for that matter, but I am still getting a good sear and browning here.

And here, summoning every bit of egg sliding mojo that I could muster, [music] I got a moderately decent sliding egg. It released even did okay on the flip. You know, cast iron skillets are not really known for flipping eggs, so the side walls are too tall, etc., etc., but it's still released on that second side, and…

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.

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.

Cast iron, for example, does take the high heat without complaint, holds it steady, builds a non-stick layer over time, and can last for generations.

On the positive side, it keeps oil and fat directly under the food instead of letting it run to the edges. Rendered fat stays under the meat and helps it brown more evenly.

The texture also creates small pockets of air that help reduce sticking.

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.

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.

The fish didn’t stick to the All-Clad pan, but there was some leftover staining that took about a minute to scrub off.

I think we did a pretty good job on this one

I started out on my big powerful burner and they got good browning on both sides

once I got that beeswax off of there though it could just fine

these pans they're very heavy they're solid you've got strong handles good quality

you can see how much coloration and seasoning has occurred just in that slight amount of cooking just in one day

cooking here in the demire produced an absolutely fantastic centerpiece for this delicious meal

there's a lot of steam and bubbling in this ground beef and I can drag a spatula through here and nothing is sticking once that moisture evaporates and steams away then we get some sizzling and crackling and Browning I thought the the Meijer did a nice job here

it looks like the pan is very even and perhaps more even than my cooktop

it's a thick heavy pan you can kind of maintain a sear when it comes to searing a steak

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 cast iron, we can see it's really nice and dark around the edges and really nice and crusty over here.

So I repeated this test this time allowing the pan to preheat long enough that the temperature was relatively evenly distributed. The heat was relatively evenly distributed over the entire surface of the pan so that we don't have that really distinct hot spot in the center. And that time you get this of all three.…

Cast iron did just fine as well.

Not quite as slick as the uh as the teflon, but it is pretty darn slick. Um, so cast iron, you know, when it's well seasoned and when it's preheated properly has very decent non-stick properties. Yeah, we definitely have to shift it a little bit more than the teflon to get it to slide around like that. But but slide…

So, ignoring the shape of this, it was relatively non-stick in there, we can look at the pan and we can see that we did leave bits of egg behind, you know, and I've definitely cooked in cast iron where it really has stuck quite badly before. Um, but this is a real old nice pan, so it uh it does a relatively good job.

Not a bad omelette by by any means.

the base of the pan is large enough to easily accommodate both pieces of chicken

the nice heavy lid creates a beautiful seal during the Browning process

look at the great color we're able to get from that pan

we got great color on the mushrooms

the Dome lid means there's extra space for all the ingredients we have in there and also room for air to circulate during the brazing process

when I use the Medford and then pick up a cast iron or stainless steel pan I can tell the difference it has more searing power it's heavier and all that everything that comes with cast iron

The All-Clad D3 is rated oven safe to 600°. The Tramontina caps at 500 with glass lids limited to 350. For high heat searing, broiling, and finishing in a hot oven, the D3 has more head room.

And holy cow, this thing is cooking very quickly, setting up very quickly. It's slid, but this is kind of one of those brown uh what I call internet eggs. [music] It slid, but it is kind of like shoe leather, and they wouldn't actually want to eat this egg.

Uh, normally I flip my steaks at two minutes when I do a hightemp sear on the stove top. So, I checked it at 2 minutes and actually I thought it could use a little bit more time. So, I put it back on that first side and gave it another minute. So, at 3 minutes I turned it and um, very nice browning and sear on there.…

And I'm going to say here that I can get an egg to slide now. The field, I mean, it's definitely come in. You can see the difference. It's darker and it's gotten better. But I am still waiting. I have yet to cook a truly delicious uh perfect fried egg in this guy after a month and a half of heavy seasoning and usage.

Hexplat handled the steak, too. However, it's a slightly different story. The moment the meat hit, the temperature dipped, then bounced back quickly when I turned up the burner. So, heat response is good.

it also offers that non-stick cooking surface and sheer power

I still have yet to ever be able to cook eggs in a hexcloud pan without them sticking. It's been 2 years and I, like I said, I'm not an incompetent chef. Like, I cook every single day. I make eggs every single day and I just cannot get them to like not stick. I don't care if I put two tablespoons of oil in there,…

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

with this industry with this much lighter industry however on the same heat setting it was sort of able to maintain that sound for the third first 30 seconds or so and it didn't even do that very well because the sound that i heard was kind of half sizzling half steaming and after about 30 seconds it just started to…

it's not a very heavy crust. It's a relatively light brown.

Um, first of all, it takes away some of the non-stick qualities.

um and relatively low temperature range.

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.

you cannot hear you cannot use more than 75 percent of the maximum power of your burner that means if you're a gas burner or induction is going from 1 till 10 you know like seven or a bit more than seven is going to be the maximum you can use and that gives for me a general feel of slowness

it will damage your pen and things go from you use the right amount of heat it's going to be a very slow kind of searing you need to take time

don't don't put the heat too high anyways if you do what's happening everything sticks Everything Burns so you go from a really nice control kind of heat and if you go out of the boundaries you burn everything everything start to stick

if you try to use these two let's say oh I'm gonna make a pasta sauce and you know really sear some mince mince meat or something like that the pan doesn't like it it burns it starts to color on the sides

and if you buy them this is going to be a big big learning curves I am still trying to understand some of these spans out here

color is not as good on that one same amount of time could be that there and probably is some difference in how they are holding the heat inside of the pan I do think that is occurring

color is not as good on this side my Ard reaction is not as good getting a lot less smoke over here getting a lot less smoke getting a lot more smoke over here from the cast iron pan but it's not burning

there's more of that Darkness on the cast iron Sak I just think it's more uniform across there's a little bit of blotchiness over here

now let's take a look at the other side well there you go that doesn't look good at all whereas over here on the cast iron skillet it looks much better

this side looks much more appetizing than this side which almost has like a SV type color to it

I wouldn't have noticed it was missing until I bit in to the cast iron steak piece

right when you bite into this one you do notice that one side is softer because it just doesn't have the

Oh yeah, that sizzle is nice. And then do one on this one, though. No sizzle. Oh, interesting.

These ones were done way faster. Like they're I put them to the side. This one I had to have cook at six. This one I had cook at four.

Give it a second. I think it was at 244 solid. And it's clearly dropping.

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

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

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.

because this pan is so thick and heavy it may not be quite as responsive as a little bit thinner pan and it may have taken a little bit longer for that change to take effect so I was cooking up around six or seven went back down to six or five and then I went down to four so a full three notches and these were still…

one of these high temperature tests I still prefer a good cast iron or a carbon steel for that task

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.