Hi, Claus:
Sure. Steam dissipates pretty well in an oven, too, as long as the food inside isn’t overcrowded. You could probably do it in a stockpot, especially with a hood fan over it.
The real reasons to favor a short, flared sidewall for searing are: the sloped sides help prevent overcrowding, and aid in utensil access.
I agree.
I only did the steak sear in a sauter pan because I was curious to see if I could sear a steak in such a pan.
It worked out perfectly.
Ah, but what is the classic fry pan shape?
Is it flared, like a Lyonnaise (middle), is it gently curved like this looker from the Pot Shop of Boston (top), or does it have steep sides like many cast iron pans have (bottom)? Is it something else?
The pan from the Pot Shop of Boston looks like an old Wilton Armetale commemorative coin skillet that I have, but I don’t know when or why it came into my possession. Armetale is a cast aluminum alloy. I have never cooked with this skillet. Now I can’t, it’s not induction-capable, of course.
What a wonderful pan and how sad (hopefully offset and obscured by numerous happinesses) that you cannot use it. The Pot Shop Pan is aluminum. Aluminum actually seasons pretty well. There is a video of John Bennett knocking out lovely omelettes with one. I used to have a small CS pan dedicated to omelettes. I used butter and only wiped it clean, and man was it slippery! Then I learned you can use just about any pan to make a French omelette. The American omelette is more persnickety, but my diminishing appetite has eliminated them from my rotation. All I ever make are omelettes with fines herbes.
I love the shape and the handle. I’m a sucker for cooking/serving in stuff I find beautiful. I’m not sure any of it improves my skills, but it certainly improves my attitude.
This captures my sentiment exactly. I love cooking in vessels that I love to look at, touch, and hold.
Hi Tim,
All of them are classics.
Subjectively for me the French style with a flared sides is the classic frying pan shape, but the others are classics too
I agree.
But you can’t really put any kind of decent sear on a steak in an All-Clad without warping it.
Obviously “decent” is a subjective term, but I’m surprised that anyone would believe you cannot get a decent sear on a steak in an All Clad pan without warping it. I’ve put what I considered decent sears on steaks using Tramontina pans, perhaps my idea of decent needs adjusting! Are there pictures available of these steaks with sears that cannot be attained with an All Clad weightish pan?
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Well, I am probably using “decent” to include only what I could achieve in carbon steel, cast iron, or a Proline. It’s all relative to a restaurant kitchen. But yes, somewhat subjective. But don’t forget the “without warping” part. If you try to put anything more than a mediocre sear, using an all clad D3, there’s a good chance you are going to warp the pan. For me, that’s a dealbreaker on a piece of cookware that I otherwise might not need it all.
How does the Demeyere Proline series differ from the Atlantis series? I have few Atlantis pots and pans and find them to be very good.
I’m fairly skeptical there is a “good chance” you’ll warp on All Clad pan trying to put a good sear on a steak, it isn’t just me there are a ton of youtube videos of people searing steaks in All Clad (or Made In, or other similar quality pans) and I doubt they all end up with warped pans after every meal. Heating large surface area pans slowly goes a long way.
The Proline are the skillets in the Atlantis series.
I think Randall perhaps is exaggerating the warping part a bit, but I also think he has a valid point.
If you really want to put a hell of a sear on a steak in a frying pan, you do really need a thick bottom or there’s a good chance the pan might warp - and this goes for thin materials in general, whether it’s copper, carbon steel, cast iron or clad/ply.
I own a dozen pans from the somewhat thin 5-ply cookware line called Mauviel M’Cook - I believe it’s a bit thicker than All Clad D3 (but 5-ply is not by definition thicker than 3-ply, it depends on the thickness of each layer, for instance my Eva Trio and Zwilling Pro 3-ply pots and pans are as thick or even slightly thicker than my Mauviel M’Cook 5-ply pots)
I’ve warped two of my Mauviel M’Cook frying pans from heating them up empty to Leidenfrost temperature.
I’ve also warped a couple of the 2.5 mm thick Matfer carbon steel frying pans from heating them up empty to Leidenfrost temperature. All the warping was made on my fathers induction cooktop - I’ve yet to warp a pan on my gas cooktop.
I own three of the Demeyere Proline frying pans, the 20/24/28 cm sizes, and I have a hard time believing these pans will ever warp from over-heating them.
They are just too solidly built and too thick.
With that said I still sear steaks and meat in my Mauviel M’Cook 5-ply and my Zwilling Pro 3-ply frying pans and I can get a very fine sear on the meat using these thinner pans with no problems, just not quite the same searing result I get when I use my Demeyere Proline pans.
Material does play a big role. Cast aluminum and cast iron are far less likely to warp because there are usually no unrelieved stresses in the cold pan. Copperwares, even if they’re press-formed, are less prone to warpage than are carbon steel and clad pans of the same size and geometry.
Now you mention it. Your right, I have never experienced cast aluminium or cast iron warp.
I’m pretty sure cast iron has a tendency to crack before warping and that will require some serious abuse.
CI can warp, but it’s more of a quasi-melt/sag situation. As in, e.g., spending hours, unsupported, in a bed of live coals.
Exactly my point. It would take using it in a way closer to abuse then normal cooking.
