Still considering getting rid of the De Buyers, because of the seasoning coming off issue? I believe that was the reason last time.
Agree on splattering. Thing is: once you drop a pork chop in a smouldering hot pan, splatters will occur, no matter how flared your sides. So, in my view I just use whatever works best for me (and clean up afterwards). Or one should use a tall saute pan (rondeau) but then one is compromising on cooking performance imho.
Also agree that taller sides make a pan more versatile. Hence why my straight walled 24 cm saute pan is still my most used pan. I mostly use my frying pan for single pieces of protein.
I do prefer straight sides over any flare (like Proline, Paderno GG) though. But a lot of this is personal based on what one likes to cook!
Does anyone have the 20cm proline? I know it’s thinner than it’s larger brethren, but am contemplating getting something for when I sear single pieces of protein (like a 2”+ thick steak but with small footprint). Especially considering the prolines tend to be quite roomy for their size.
I remember someone (Claus?) saying something about how many people use cookware that’s too big for what they’re cooking, so that got me wondering if perhaps I should add a 20cm to my lineup of 24cm proline and Atlantis sauté and 28cm Fissler serving pan and low roaster.
I have a Falk stainless steel lined copper 20 cm saute pan, and I’ve been using it much more than I had anticipated when I bought it!
It’s quite an useful size, eg indeed for small proteins, or small batches of vegetables. If you cook for 2 people most of the time my guess is this size will come in very handy.
Fun fact: I had bought it to make pan sauces, like I saw on Masterchef lol. Made one once I think!
The Falk has a small flare, not as straight (90 degrees hard angle) as the Mauviel. I guess the shape would be more similar to a Proline.
Good point. The oil is going to polymerise somewhere - either the pan’s sides or instead the stove/floor/kitchen counter… At least the pan can go in the dishwasher!
I think the issue with the prolines is that the clad sides get quite hot because of the thickness of the aluminium in them. Whenever normal oil splatter from cooking in the centre of the pan hits them it then sits there and polymerizes on the hot surface. Had that oil gone over the sidewall annd landed on the cooktop instead I’m not sure it would polymerize as bad. I once finished a steak in the oven on my proline and that baked on the splatter so badly that I almost couldn’t get it off.
My wife gives me grief for even small amounts of oil splatter, so I try to combat it when possible - often by using a sauté pan to sear. I’ve always worried about the carnage I’d get from low sidewalls like the searing/pancake pan or no sidewalls like the plancha - might end up divorced
I have considered a 20cm sauté as well. Unfortunately, there isn’t one in the Atlantis series, so I’d have to branch out. With the prolines being relatively deep, I think that would work out fine as well.
I don’t own any 20 cm saute or frying pans in stainless. I have a Darto n20 though as well as a Skeppshult 18cm, and they have been enough for me whenever I have actually needed a pan like that for just frying something without liquids. I also have a shallow 20cm Fissler saucepan. It would make a great deal more sense for me to get a small stainless saute or frying pan compared to the Demeyere pancake/searing pan though :D. The splatter mess is not such a big issue on induction though, rather easy clean up.
I’ve been on the lookout and I was also disappointed that Atlantis didn’t have the saute in 20 cm size, I would gladly buy it if they did as my first option. Being how it is, I would mostly want the small pan from Falk now. The Falk frying pans have a big flat bottom area. I would probably get the saute pan first in 20 cm myself though. It’s just that I can about as well also use my Lagostina 24 cm frying pan for the same tasks I would use the smaller saute, unless my cooktop is crowded enough. Or even the Fissler shallow saucepan for some of the things.
In addition to foods where I use liquids, I also like the saute pans for foods where I like to shuffle the pan along the glass top for turning them. The Falks with their smooth bottoms are perfect for this. Perhaps I could get the small Falk saute one day if they have it on seconds sale or something.
The 20 cm and 28 cm is at my fathers condo right now (made some duck breasts in them for his friends this week) on his induction stovetop.
I haven’t measured but I would guesstimate the 24 cm and 28 cm to be equally thick and the 20 cm to be a bit thinner than its larger siblings (guesstimating galore - let’s say 4.0 mm versus 4.8 mm give or take….)
The 20 cm Proline has as big an effective cooking area as my De Buyer Mineral B Pro and De Buyer Inocuivre 24 cm pans. It’s nice for one big duck breast or two small chicken breasts or a medium sized thick steak.
The guy who made me realise I owned far too many large pans and not enough smaller sized pans was actually ‘Just Charlie’ back on the days on Chowhound.
Since that I’ve been buying a lot more 20 cm to 24 cm pans than 28 cm pans and up in size.
Can you expand on this smaller pan use? Did you realize you didn’t need as much cooking surface? Or was is something to do with the speed of heating up a small pan? Maybe something else?
When I started cooking in my teens and early 20’s I had no clue about pan material and using the correct pan size for the job. I thought a non stick 28 cm Scanpan could do it all perfectly.
I had to enter into my 40’s before I realised you can’t cook correctly, unless you use the correct pan size for the cooking job. I also found out you can’t use one pan for all tasks in the kitchen.
That’s why I today use an array of copper pans, PLY pans, ECI pots, carbon steel pans and non stick pans - they all have their place in my kitchen for different tasks.
An example - You want to sear a medium sized steak and you take your large 30 cm searing pan for the job. Here you risk overheating the oil you use for the searing job around the steak, since the oil will easily overheat, if left alone in the pan without anything on top of it so to speak. If you plan to add butter & garlic in the final stage of the searing process, this will create a bitter taste to the garlic, butter and the steak you’re searing, since you use a too large pan for the job. The pan will simply overheat in the areas where there are no steak. There’s a fine balance between using a too large pan and a correct size pan and I find that through experience and knowing what to look for in the taste of the steak, at some point you get a feel for how much space there should be between the steak and the pans side walls.
I typically go for 2-4 cm space between the steaks in a pan and the sidewalls - I feel this distance is the ideal distance, if I want a great sear on my steaks. More than 4 cm, and I risk over heating the pan, less distance than 2 cm and I risk steaming the steaks instead of searing them
Another example - You’re searing 3 large steaks in your 28 cm searing pan and there is hardly any room left in the pan with the 3 large steaks in the pan - they are practically touching eachother in the pan.
In this case, you’re using a too small pan - and the 3 steaks are touching eachother in the pan.
This means they will steam instead of searing and you risk getting 3 steaks, that are not really seared with the nice dark crust and more will have a pale look to them, which indicates the steam from the steaks have been trapped inside the pan instead of being released out of the pan.
If you trap steam inside a pan, the object you wish to sear will not really be seared, but have a more steamed pale look and you won’t get that delicious charred taste you should get from a correctly seared steak.
Thanks, @Claus - and credit to @JustCharlie for being the original source.
This thinking definitely resonates with me. I have burnt much oil (and butter) on the parts of pans that weren’t covered by the protein when searing on high heat - as well as baked on a tonne of splatter.
These days I am doing most of my cooking on the ControlFreak which probably solves part of this issue depending on the evenness of the pan.
Are there any other advantages of using correctly sized cookware rather than just always using the large ones we all use for bigger jobs and portions?
Yeah there is a definite advantage to using smaller pans when they are the right size pans for the job - at least on most home stovetops.
Smaller pans takes up less space on the stovetop and for obvious reasons will a less crowded stovetop make you work more efficiently.
A smaller pan will also heat up more evenly than larger pans, especially on most home stovetops where the problem almost never is that the burner is too large for the pan, but rather that the burner is too small.
I have a 24 cm tinned copper saute that is no less than 4 mm thick measured any place along its perimeter. I wish I could find more pans of all shapes and sizes made of this weight copper, but alas I am grateful to have a few of this thickness.
It is my favorite and most used pan. I think I understand the theory as to why lower sides might be more ideal for searing. However, in practice I don’t think I’m losing any meaningful performance when searing in this pan.
As for splatter, I use a stainless mesh splatter guard that seems to work fairly well to control the mess and also allow steam to escape. Anyone else use one of these?
I’ve used a splatter screen in the past, but now that I have an I suction range, the splatter doesn’t get cooked onto the glass top anymore, so it’s way easier to clean up. No worse than a countertop.
