I have two Calphalon hard anodized 12-inch skillets that I got for free about 35 years ago (long story short, several rounds of rain-checks on BOGOs and the store manager eventually gifted them to me).
These are pretty heavy skillets, a bit under 4 pounds, and hold heat well. I’ve used them to sear steak and a few times to oil-sear heavy fish (like swordfish), but I’m not at all sure I’m getting the best use of them. For the most part they sit, unused, in a bottom cabinet drawer.
Tonight I made steak fajitas and seared the veggies (bell peppers, onion, green onion, garlic and ginger) and made an unholy mess of crusted released sugars in the pan. Undaunted, I next stir-fried the skirt steak atop the mess after plating out the veggies.
It was not fun to clean up, but boiling a few quarts of water serially and scraping the pan with a metal spatula did the trick, eventually.
So, what are these things really good for?
Do they excel at some use I’ve not tried?
Are they destined to be hard-to-clean garbage?
Help!
(Thanks in advance. Some of the above is tongue-in-cheek, of course.)