Has anyone tried these pans? Conceptually they’re a great idea, but do they stand up to their hype?
I am a carbon steel and cast iron user, except for eggs, my wife insists on using toxic non stick pans that she abuses and overheats. When our current generation of non stick pans finally give up the ghost, I was thinking about trying these.
So I am curious…
I don’t have these new ones, but I like our 3-pan nonstick set from Misen, as I do my chef’s knife.
Since you like carbon steel already, these Made In CS pans look and act like non stick without any extra effort.
We have them in the family for someone who can’t be bothered to treat the rest of the CS/CI appropriately, but they are really excellent pans even aside from that.
The shape is better than the shallow non-stick fry pans too.
Similar price.
The Made In carbon steel pans are my current go to skillets. I agree with you, they are great. I love mine.
Ah. She doesn’t like them?
The pans I got the same person in my family before they got these were Oxo professional non stick. Very nice, and if you need to replace them in a couple of years, not crazy. They go on sale too.
I was curious, but not enough to buy one. I wanted a new small non stick pan for eggs. I got a Demeyere Allu Pro Ceraforce ceramic pan a few days ago. I have an induction stove, and the pan works wonderfully. As for durability -shrug- I’m past my sell-by date, so that’s a big who cares. I’m not a big user of non-stick anyway.
I bought one of their 12" Carbon Nonstick frying pans when they first came out, it’s basically an aluminum core with an outer layer of carbon steel thats been nitrided. Much lighter than their standard carbon steel pans (which I also have in the 12" size). Nonstick properties right out of the box were amazing, but that didn’t last long which I chalk up to user error. I had heard they should be cleaned like any other carbon steel pan, in hot water only followed by re-oiling/heating to prevent rusting, but that resulted in a buildup of sticky residue. Due to the nitrided surface these can be cleaned aggressively with hot, soapy water and a mesh scrubie, since I’ve been doing that the nonstick properties have been coming back.
Are you happy with the pan overall?
On a continuum from a well seasoned traditional carbon steel pan to a brand new non stick aluminum pan…where would you place the Misen carbon nonstick?
To answer a question from above, I don’t know why my wife is hesitant to use the carbon steel pans. I think she likes the aluminum non stick pans for their ease of use and clean up, and won’t take the time to learn the nuances of carbon steel. She uses them for everything from eggs to browning meats.
Now that I know how to care for it I’m pretty happy with it. Not as nonstick as teflon, but should last a lot longer. Also oven safe up to 1100°f so it can go under the broiler which you can’t do with teflon pans. Better nonstick than the ceramic nonstick pans I’ve used.
So are you supposed to clean it aggressively and still oil it? Any idea why the nonstick properties wouldn’t come back after only a single aggressive cleaning, if the issue was the sticky residue? (Also: Did you try baking soda for that? That’s what I use for my ceramic pans and it does a great job without ripping off the coating.)
That makes me wonder how my (soon to be delivered) wok will work out. I pre-ordered a wok from Strata (their schtick is 3 layer laminate, SS bottom, alum sandwich, CS cooking surface, nitrided).
Guess I’l see how that works out and will report back here.
The general Strata pan I do like (again, SS bottom, alum sandwich, CI cook surface). I have the 12.5 inch and 10 inch, and they are work horses. Gave an extra “imperfect” to a daughter and she cooks the hell out of it.
Are all of the Strata pans nitrided, or is that just the wok? I have a 10.5" fry pan and just treat it like CS. It’s been great - but certainly not anything resembling “nonstick.”
I don’t think the Strata earlier pan were “nitrided”. Not that I even understand exactly what that means. I was just happy to have a nicely sloped and lower weight (v. e.g., my Matfer CI) that seasoned reasonably similar,
Well that makes at least two of us 
Looking forward to your review!
I looked up that Strata wok…it looked interesting.
let you know!
Also @a_m
Their current instructions are to clean in hot, soapy water, dry, heat the pan over medium heat for a minute then add a small amount (dime sized spot) of high temperature oil and wipe around the surface with paper towels until it looks like everything has been wiped away. I had initially used way too much oil and left too much of it on the pan which resulted in the sticky residue. Took a few aggressive cleans to get most of it off. Used the pan to make a skin on salmon fillet for Easter and had no sticking issues.
Cool. This reminds me awhile ago about this Strata pan, no? The idea i here is carbon steel to provide the nonstick, but having an aluminum core for better heat evenness, no? I think it is a good idea.
I mentioned above that I’ve got the somewhat similar Srata CS/Alum/SS fry pans (this one the surface of the CS is not said to be nitrided, and strata has SS base) and they took seasoning about the same as my other CS.
Their 12.5 inch wok is on the way and should be here tomorrow. For this one they say the CS surface is nitrided and somewhat less sticky, and less rust-prone:
*Nitrided carbon steel is heat-treated with nitrogen to harden the surface, making it more durable, rust-resistant, and a little less sticky in the beginning compared to plain carbon steel. Nitriding is not a coating, it’s a transformation of the steel’s surface by diffusing nitrogen into the steel.
*Just like traditional carbon steel, it will still build seasoning over time and become increasingly stick-resistant as you cook. Nitriding doesn’t make it “super nonstick” right out of the box, but it does make those first few cooks a little easier.
So it sounds a bit different than @Coogles’ experience with the Misen nitrided.
