Oooops I did it again LOL

Hi Charlie,

My current pan setup consist of some high quality non stick pans, 7-ply pans, 5-ply pans, ECI pots and a bunch of stainless steel lined copper pans.
I never quite understood what carbon steel pans excel at other than high heat searing to be honest and my 7-ply Demeyere pans are equally great at this, if not better.

I have no doubt you have far more of the “right pan for the job” choices than I do, but I am using my low edged carbon steel crepe pan for fried, scrambled, or rolled omelette eggs. A small amount of oil poured on the pan while it is heating, spread over the entire surface, and any excess being poured off has been the only seasoning it has had, other than a little added butter from time to time. Larger CS frypans are great for a wide variety of everyday foods like the humble vegetable burger or potstickers. Pretty much any can “can” be used for most jobs, and CS is no exception.

As regards drying on the stovetop or in the oven, I submit that it is very easy. Some things simply cannot be hand dried as thoroughly as needed, things like tinned molds and my beloved Mouli.

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Hi Tim,

I perfectly understand why carbon steel pans are so pouplar in professional kitchens and among avid home chefs.

I just want my pans to be clean and so does my wife and this means I far too often have to bother with carbon steel pans with a rusted bottom from either soaking or being left on a wet rag by my wife.

I cook in a way, where I cook my dinner then later on clean the pans or leave them until next day with a bit of soap in the pan.
This pattern does not go well hand in hand with carbon steel pans and since I already have pans, that perform better or at least as well as my carbon steel pans, I have decided that for me carbon steel pans just are not a type of pan that works well in my kitchen.

As said this does not mean carbon steel pans aren’t fantastic pans in many many other kitchens, professional as well as home kitchens.
They are just not for me any longer. They have been a PITA in my kitchen lately to be quite frank.

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That is ok. If regretting cookware is your biggest regret, then you are doing great.

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Very wise words, you are so right.

I actually don’t see carbon steel pans in restaurant kitchens. I used to see a lot of aluminum, but ply or stainless with a disc seem to be taking over. Versatility plus practicality plus durability plus low cost just makes really good sense.

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This describes CS pretty well, don’t you think?

Yes, but with slightly less versatility.

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In my time experimenting with my different carbon steel pans, one thing that I still find annoys me is the uneven heating carbon steel pans have, and I find it most apparent when I only heated the pan up to mid to mid-high heat.

Once I seared meat, I preheated the carbon steel pans so they were really hot and here I don’t notice the uneven heating, but once I made other kinds of foods in the pan where I didn’t want a screamingly hot pan, I began to notice the uneven heating.

For instance when searing potatoes. Here I use a hot pan, but not a screamingly hot, just a hot pan. Quite a bit of uneven heating here. Far better even heating, when I use my ceramic Demeyere Alu Pro non stick pan for the same job.

Another example - frittatta - quite a bit uneven heating here. Again my Demeyere Alu Pro and Mauviel M’Stone ceramic non stick pans did a far better more evenly heating job than my carbon steel pans.

Sauteing vegetables and mushrooms - here I use high heat, but still my De Buyer Inocuivre 2.0 stainless steel copper pans do a far superior job here compared to my carbon steel pans.

In short I find that carbon steel pans only excelled at one thing - high heat searing, when I compared to my other pans.

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Yeah. I like carbon steel and cast iron cookware quite a bit, but I agree. When it comes to heat distribution evenness, carbon steel cookware is not as even as copper. aluminum (which many Telfon cookware are based on aluminum) or stainless steel cladded (also tend to be aluminum base) cookware. What I like carbon steel cookware is that they are the only cookware which can provide nonstick property at high temperature, which I think why it still considered to be the best material for wok cooking.

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Agreed.

But I only rarely ever need the non stick ability, when I cook wok dishes, the exception being fried rice with eggs - and even here I’ve managed to use my Demeyere 7-ply Apollo wok with great succes.

There are probably many asian dishes I don’t know of, where a non stick ability at high heat is key, but so far I haven’t found these recipes (but I’m just a guy from Denmark trying to experiment a bit with the cuisines of the world)

Oh yes, I think you mentioned this before. This is great.

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This should not come as any surprise. How large were the pans that disappointed you, and what were you cooking on?

Blame it on the Auto-Chlor.

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It doesn’t really matter - but it was gas and induction, but I don’t want CS pans in my kitchen anymore since what I got are better alternatives and performers on the same stovetops and they don’t rust when exposed to water from soaking in detergent, and I have come to realise that is a key point for me.

There’s another reason why you don’t see carbon steel pans in professional kitchens as much as you would think - and when I finally see a carbon steel pan in a pro restaurant, it’s always used for high heat searing.

That reason is, that it takes more technique and skill to use a carbon steel pan than a typical non stick pan and in most cases the people working in restaurants and hotels where they serve variations of eggs for breakfast, are neither trained chefs nor do they like to have to deal with a carbon steel pan that’s not working 100% non stick, when they are stressed and need to put out a constant high level of food for the guests.

Non stick pans are just better, more efficient and performs better in a professional setting when it comes to making eggs and other delicate stuff on a professional constant level.

For the most part, I agree Claus.

My FIL recently got interested about pans, I bet mostly because of me. He cooks on a similarly sized AEG induction cooktop as we do. He had raised some concerns about nonstick pans not lasting and where does the coating go, etc. I suggested carbon steel, knowing its smooth out of the box and we relatively quickly settled on a de Buyer Pro 28 cm for him.

I told him before going in about the unevenness thing and needing to preheat carefully and so on, but needless to say he experienced it himself. He also appeared to not have had so good luck with the stickiness in the beginning. He had not seasoned the pan at all, but it had not rusted either, he had oiled it.

He then also wanted his first stainless pan after that, to have an evenly heating pan capable of handling acidic foods, liquids also. He wanted a fully dishwasher safe frying pan, that could go into the oven. Knowing their oven is similarly sized as ours, I recommended a Fissler Steelux Pro 28 cm, these have a short enough handle and had a good price at the time, a bit under 90 EUR on amazon.

When we visited there I noticed how the steel had blued all over the bottom and a bit into the curve. It had worked well for sure, but again he noted he needs a bit of learning on that pan with stickiness…

I made some steaks with a redwine sauce, burgers and chicken in those pans then showing how to use them properly. He sure appeared interested and liked the results. I’m keen if they keep using them, or if they have already purchased more non stick once we go for a visit next time. Fiskars makes decently thick PTFE and ceramic non-stick here in Finland.

Non stick pans are convenient to use, and I think it’s a bit hard to reason someone who is otherwise fine with nonstick and replacing them, into using mainly carbon steel and stainless. I have gone now some 3 years or so without non-stick and I’m not planning to buy them either, though I know they would be nicer to use for some foods.

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On that general subject, it is astounding how much Hobarts have evolved in half a century. Dang, they are simple and fast.

I think it was all over for you with the rust, and that the unevenness was an afterthought. If someone gave you a $$$ solid top/placque (rendering your CS pans perfectly even), you still’d want a divorce, yes?

Of course, the worst conductive material (CS), rendered into a thin pan, on the least even hob (induction) is going to be a challenge in terms of evenness.

Stickiness is a separate issue. Here, CS is actually pretty good and pretty easy, certainly less sticky and easier than SS. Don’t you agree?

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Hi Kaleo,

You’re right.
The unevenness of CS parts was an afterthought, because once I decided to get rid of my stash of CS pans I naturally begin to look for other reasons to get rid of them - being a cookware enthusiast and all.

You’re also right in that if they weren’t prone to rusting, I would’ve kept them and used them as my searing pans for high heat searing.

Still on my fathers mediocre induction stovetop the 4 CS pans I’ve given him (3 De Buyer Mineral B and one Darto N30) they actually perform pretty well for sautéing and searing jobs.

But compared to my other pans they just don’t quite make the cut.
However for people, who are not cookware enthusiast and just want a versatile, good performing rather affordable pan, CS pans are a great choice.

I’m at a stage now in my cooking journey where I honestly feel I can cook on any type of pan and get at least a decent result out of it.

I constantly see the Danish Masterchef contenders and the Masterchef hosts (who are some of our best chefs) use Eva Trio non stick frying pans to cook anything in, including searing all kinds of steaks at high heat and they still get a very decent crust and result out of it, so we also tend to exaggerate how poorly non stick pans are at searing steaks at high heat.

Is it dangerous to use non stick pans at high heat ? I’m not sure, it’s probably not advisable especially if you have birds in your household LOL

Is it dangerous to use non stick pans in general ? I’m not entirely sure, but we can all agree that the manufacturers of Teflon should have had a lot more control over how they managed their production facilities to avoid polluting the surroundings the way they have and did.

I do admit that I once in a while use my Demeyere Alu Pro non stick wok for fried rice at a pretty high heat, perhaps a too high heat not ideal for a ceramic non stick pan.
And I still don’t get the correct ‘wok hei’ like charred taste, but that’s not obtainable on 99% of most home stovetops anyway.

However I - as a rule - try to never use more than medium to low heat when using my non stick pans and sticking to that rule, non stick pans just work for me and not against me.

I sometimes felt carbon steel pans worked a bit against me - even though I knew the ups and downs with CS pans, sometimes they didn’t quite manage to do the job I expected of them.

Whether it was making a fried egg with bacon (not quite as evenly fried results as I get with my non stick ceramic pans), making a frittatta (a bit of sticking issues and not quite as evenly a cooking results as in my non stick pans) or I had to high speed high heat sauté a bunch of mushrooms and broccolini and the results didn’t quite live up to the same even result I get when I use one of my bimetal copper pans for the same job.

As said multiple times before, I perfectly understand the reason why people love their carbon steel pans and accept the - for them - minor shortcomings with them.

Unfortunately I’m also a guy who very often use balsamic vinegar and wine in my pan sauces, and like to reduce the pan sauces slowly at mid temperature for 8-10 minutes and that can easily partly strip even a solid seasoning in a CS pan, so also there it’s going to be a relief to use my Demeyere Proline frying pans.