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J. Kenji López-Alt · 2025

Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Watch or listen to Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro in full, 31 minutes, published by J. Kenji López-Alt.

26 claims about 2 products extracted from Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro (J. Kenji López-Alt). Quotes are short and link back to the moment they were said; we publish no transcripts.

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0:00 supports J. Kenji López-Alt
It's got a nice smooth finish. Um, it's been well seasoned, which means that the oil has polymerized and given it a nice slick non-stick coating on the inside.

performance about Wagner cast iron pan Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites even heating, non-stick surface, searing and crust, surface finish

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.
1:00 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product
Um, so, because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan. So, I understand that it's going to be difficult for people to believe me when I just say that this pan uh, offers a lot of advantages over the other ones.

comparison about Our Place Titanium Pro Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

The titanium pro is not as non-stick as the Teflon, but it's better in most other respects.
4:01 objects J. Kenji López-Alt
Okay, so cast iron, very slow heat distribution. Um, there's no aluminum in there at all. Um, so because of that, we see these really distinct hot spots where the burners were. Um, so the burner is in a ring pattern, which means that we get this dark browning on the outside, but there's very little browning in the…

performance about Wagner cast iron pan Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites ease of cleaning (against), even heating (against), heat control (against), maintenance (against), non-stick surface (against), searing and crust (against)

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.
4:01 supports J. Kenji López-Alt
So, first, the Teflon style pan. Um, pretty even heating. Uh, so this is aluminum pan, which means that it should heat really well. Aluminum has really good heat distribution. We see it's browned and charred all the way from the edge. The center is slightly lighter than the edges are, um, but there's good browning all…

performance about Teflon-coated pan Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites ease of cleaning, even heating, heat control, non-stick surface, searing and crust

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.
5:01 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product
finally, let's take a look at the titanium pro. So, somewhere in the middle, I'd say. So, you can still see a little bit lighter on the center. Um, but between the edge and the center, it's pretty even browning. You can't really see where it was lying on the burner.

performance about Our Place Titanium Pro Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites dishwasher safe, ease of cleaning, even heating, heat control, heat retention, non-stick surface, searing and crust

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

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.
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.
5:31 objects J. Kenji López-Alt
one of the issues with Teflon is that uh if you heat it beyond that, if you heat it beyond 475, in fact some of the studies say even beyond 450, it can start to break down. So it's going to start producing um harmful fumes, fumes that can potentially cause cancer, um things that you don't really want to be breathing…

performance about Teflon-coated pan Passing on someone else's experience Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites heat resistance (against), non-stick surface (against), safety (against), searing and crust (against)

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.
9:33 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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best in class about Our Place Titanium Pro Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites even heating, heating speed, scratch resistance, searing and crust

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

10:03 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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recommendation about Our Place Titanium Pro Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

12:04 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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durability about Our Place Titanium Pro Owns it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites dishwasher safe, heat resistance, maintenance, scratch resistance, seasoning durability

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

12:34 objects J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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performance about Our Place Titanium Pro Owns it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites browning visibility (against), ease of cleaning (against), non-stick surface (against), searing and crust (against)

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

27:47 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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use-case fit about Our Place Titanium Pro Owns it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites shape and form

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

27:47 objects J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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handling about Our Place Titanium Pro Tested it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites shape and form (against)

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

29:48 supports J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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handling about Our Place Titanium Pro Owns it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

Cites weight

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.

30:18 notes J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product

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ownership about Our Place Titanium Pro Owns it Non-stick Pan Comparison: Teflon vs. Cast Iron vs. Our Place Titanium Pro

J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “because I've partnered with this company to produce this pan, um, it's essentially, you know, my my pan.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.