I also though about this, maybe it could be that way also indeed, but I was assuming the heat moving to the sidewalls might slow down getting the floor to leidenfrost. I would preheat probably on 6/9, with maybe a short time on 4 first if I was being cautious. Also interested if temperatures on the sidewalls would differ much as cooking continues Proline vs Lagostina.
These types of things would be fun to experiment with head to head, but my curiosity will probably not grow enough for the purchase. Though I would like to just own them too. Second hand market is probably non existent here in Finland indeed, I have tried to check already.
The Prolines would be a bit better sized for my current cooktop than my Falk pans. De Buyer PMs would be even better sized though (esp vs the Falk). It’s funny how the Falk 24 cm frypan has the same floor as a de Buyer 28 cm. That makes the larger 28 cm Falk a bit oversized for my current cooktop, but I like the 24 cm Falk a great deal, and I sure use the larger one also still. One day I’ll have a hob better suited for it.
Do you think the Proline would be more responsive vs Lagostina downwards? I for one would be interested if someone made a hybrid pan like you described, with a thicker clad body. I do like the comfort of some sidewall heat on the Lagostina already though.
It’s a balancing. There isn’t a tremendous difference in the total volume of aluminum to be heated. Yet there’s a pretty significant floor thickness difference. Visualize the ring directly above an induction coil… Which pan at 4/9 setting will reach 351F there first, the 4.8mm Proline or the >10mm hybrid? With enough initial heat input, the time difference won’t be great, but dialing back the heat may take more turns and time.
I don’t have the Langostina, but I do have the Mauviel 2.3mm frying pan and I still use my Prolines over that one (and I use my Falk more often than that Mauviel). The CS I gave away (as I’ve posted before). I went through a lot of frying pans.
I also like the Demeyere Industry Searing Pan — basically a chopped off proline with an Industry handle – this oddity was marketed for a while but for some foods, it does a great job with less weight. Great for meats but also for crepes and anything flat, where you want to flip it over.
That searing pan is interesting indeed, so a similar 4,8 mm thickness as in Proline, but lower sidewalls. This is something I probably would have found a way to still justify to my collection.
If we are, like I am, still talking about the Lagostina vs Proline. Then in the 28 cm size, Lagostina weighs about 600 grams less. It has about 75÷ of the weight of the Proline, or in other words, the Proline weighs 1,34x the Lagostinas weight. There might be more steel in the Proline though.
If the Proline bottom in the light of those stats is faster to heat into leidenfrost on a regular mediumish induction heat settings, then I think the sidewalls would be kind of slow to warm up in Proline. Or maybe that there is a rather large temperature gradient in the end anyway. In that case I would probably preheat it for longer in an attempt to help a bit with heat retention, and further aid also the evenness on the bottom for a steak. I typically do that with all my pans anyway, I don’t add the steak right away when I see the mercury ball, but wait for a bit still and maybe lift the pans also for a few times and wait for the heat to settle and spread the best it can.
We can differ on the meaning of “tremendous”. Guesstimate the likely total volume of aluminum of each and compare.
The Proline sidewalls are slow to reach a steady state BECAUSE that state requires moving heat into aluminum (and steel) that is 18 cm from center. The Accademia is likely faster to reach equilibrium, because the great % of its aluminum is in the disk, and what little there is in the walls. The clad is so thin, it sooner runs low on ability to move heat laterally.
Incidentally, both pans would take substantially longer to reach true equilibrium than most people think. And that’s not how most cooks cook.
Leidenfrost is usually assessed at the floor center. Given a certain power setting, which do you think will get there faster, a 4.8mm-thick one or an 11-12mm one?
Is it not? I see it online but then again I bought mine ages ago. It used to be available at a good price.
The version from Bestsale has the other handle, which is fine.
While the pan is named a searing pan, it really is just a multipurpose low-wall skillet (about 1 cm lower than the Mauviel) with many uses and lower weight despite its thickness. I’ve used from pan-frying dumplings to homemade tortillas to crepes to pupusas to the typical proteins
You should try to get the Demeyere Pawson frying pans I once owned - but they are discontinued, so hard to find.
They are the same thickness as the Proline, but with a frame that comes closer to the classic frying pan design of the De Buyer frying pans with lower flared side walls.
I still enjoy using my Proline pans for searing - and I’m still contemplating once again getting rid of my carbon steel pans and just use my Proline pans for searing and accept they’ll eventually look like cr_ap from high heat searing splashes.
By the way - I like a smoewhat low sided frying pan, but for me it can be too low sided, like for instance the Mauviel M250c frygin pans I owned a couple of years ago.
They are great pans, but I didn’t like the very low sides the M250c frying pans had.
Splatter does matter - and when I use a very low sided frying pan for high heat searing, it does make more splatter.
The Proline is what I would call a high sided frying pan, and it does in fact help a bit with catching more of the splatter, when searing and frying.
It may not matter to others, but I actually like a high sided frying pan, because of this.
It also makes the pan more versatile - I can actually use the Proline for blanching smaller amount of vegetables and boil small volumes of pasta - so all in all I like the design of the Proline pan.
This is from the Lagostina catalogue, on their French site. There it says 7 mm 5 ply. I would say that with the 7 mm they mean total thickness, since as a whole it is 5 ply in the bottom. I measured it a few times now and I never got less than 7. I got mostly 7,5 mm results, using the depth gauge of my digital calipers and a Hasegawa rubber board on top… there was and odd 8 mm result also. Of course the surface is not completely flat and the board is probably not completely straight either and I have no guarantee if the lips are completely in balanced straight state either etc. The pan is certainly thinner than Paderno GG 11114-28 however.
It also says there that the alu inside the cladding would be 1,2 mm. That could be true also if the cladding is 0,2.
The Lagostinas for example are high sided also. I like that when stirring and turning foods, I can be a bit more careless and they won’t as easily get flipped out from the pan. It’s nice for adding liquids also then and helps with splatter indeed too. On sleek low sided pans like my Skeppshults frying pans, I need to take a bit more care with certain foods, but I like the shape also and they are fantastic for crepes, eggs etc and allow easy access with spatulas. The taller sided pans are more convenient as a whole though.
Alexander spotted this from bestsale:
In case you missed it, this is as thick as Proline, but with low sides, so it’s lighter, and it’s also a bit smaller. I don’t yet have any 26 cm frying pans. I would use this for swedish pancakes sometimes instead of my cast iron and for toasting bread, tortillas, eggs etc and of course for anything that fits. I think this model probably doesn’t have closed rims though and I certainly don’t need it, but it could be nice to have a low sided stainless pan also.
So I’ll consider the pan… The Pawsons shape seems good, but I don’t really like how they look as a whole tbh.
