How even does carbon steel pans sear and is it important at all when searing ?

Yes to that oil bomblet scenario. Where is my fireproof suit when I need it? I’ve never done bacon in the oven, I’m going to try it next time I do bacon. One thing I can say in praise of my induction range is; the fat spatter bomblets may nail me, but nothing mercifully burns onto the glass cooktop.

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Hi Damiano,

Yeah everything gets dirty when you sear - but the lower the sides, the more dirty it gets in my experience.

I’ve also found a way to avoid more splatter than necessary.
Instead of adding oil to the pan, when I sear meat, I’ll brush both sides of the meat with oil and add salt & pepper and sear it in an empty pan without oil. This keeps the amount of oil splatter down.

The dish I made was just a simple fussili pasta dish with bacon, chilli, onions and pees.

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I bake bacon about half the time. Foil-lined rimmed baking sheet, 300-325F, very easy to do multiple strips at once. I don’t use a rack.

Are the drippings in good enough shape to save (giving away the part-Southern heritage here lol).?

Yes, the fat drains quite clear. There’s usually good fond left on the foil, too, but I’ve never tried using that.

Egg-cellent!

Ah okay, you brush the sides with oil but do not put oil in the pan. I’ve never tried that (I think) - I prefer just adding oil and cleaning up…

The chops in your pic - did you have any seasoning come off here? I see some tiny black spots but not sure if that’s just the crust or seasoning.

Haven’t been cooking much lately, what with the summer heat here. But your posts are making me long for searing pork chops myself! Maybe I’ll borrow the Lagostina Lagofusion from my sister and experiment a bit myself.

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I didn’t put any seasoning or marinade on the pork chops other than pepper & salt.
The black spots are either crust turning dark or seared black pepper.

The technique where you only brush the steak with oil really works well and in my opinion gives a better more direct sear on the steak and far less oil splatter on the stovetop.

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Made some Dover sole today (sole meuniere) using my De Buyer Carbone Plus. Really excellent performance, couldn’t wish for anything else. Used olive oil and butter, and then for the sauce the butter used (wasn’t burnt at all), some extra fresh butter, lemon juice, capers, parsley.

Four minutes on each side and then three minutes in the oven with pan and all.





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I get the same kind of results from Darto - which has the ‘Look Ma’ - no rivets’ advantage.

a well seasoned black iron pan is dang near PTFE non-stick…

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WoW - that dover sole looks excellently cooked/seared :ok_hand:

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Thanks! Yeah I thought it was fitting for your thread to show the pics - and underline my earlier points.

This is a big pan, 36 cm, but still I only used my third largest burner (full heat all the time). No special preheating, just up until leidenfrost. As this is delicate fish I cannot move it around all the time. I only turned them once at the four minute mark, and then once a minute or so toss/shake the pan over my stove. Fully nonstick as well as one can see from the almost clean pan after cooking.

Now I will just clean it with water and a scrubbie, put in a teaspoon of olive oil, spread it around, and store it away for next time…

The other pan in the first pic is my Mauviel copper 250, after having fried some potatoes. Again, almost a clean pan afterwards.

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Fish knife and fork! I’m the only person I know who even has sets :joy:. I’ve never seen fresh Dover sole in markets here; I love it, but I’ve only been able to get it in restaurants …

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That sole looks delicious.

If you used whole butter, even if you added OO, you would be getting smoke at about 350F which is at an average Leidenfrost Point. Not really searing, and not at all “screaming hot”, IMO.

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You are now the only other person I know with fish knives and fish forks! No one else is that crazy… :joy: :crazy_face:

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Why would you want to sear skinless delicate fish over a screaming hot fire? There is no skin to protect the fish, nor can it then properly caramelise. You will only tear apart expensive fish without any added benefit.

It’s different for a thick steak because the meat will have fat and sugars.

The beauty of carbon steel for this purpose is that the fish stays moist inside, but the outside will brown beautifully. And still the butter I had used for browning did not burn.

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I wouldn’t.

But the OP was about searing, and we spent a long time unsuccessfully discussing what you consider “screaming hot”. The best I could tell, that meant somewhere around Leidenfrost.

Still, your fried sole came out beautifully.

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Stainless and silver! All bases covered! All dinner guests puzzled! I think fish sets are much more common in Europe. I’ve never seen anyone use them here. Hence, my stainless ones are Degrenne and Fortessa, all made in Europe. My first silver set is 800 (coin silver) - vintage German, via eBay, and I also later found some sterling repousse patterns in what is referred to as Baltimore silver - although none of it has been manufactured in Baltimore (or the US) in decades. I use it even if the fish has no bones, which is inappropriate, but why not play with your food when you can?

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To be honest, here in Europe it’s also quite rare to see fish cutlery at people’s homes. I mean who is going to pay 50 euro for a knife and fork?! Well apart from me that is… :joy:

Your sets sound nice! Mine is silverplated stainless steel by Sambonet, Baguette. Dishwasher proof they say but it does mean you have to polish every week to keep them nice. Which of course I won’t do… :wink:

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I noticed the Sambonet Baguette. My Degrenne is very much the same design (I think we all had a discussion about Sambonet on Chowhound). Here are my German coin silver ones:

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