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Just came across this on kickstarter: carbon steel cooking surface, aluminium layer, and stainless outer layer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stratapan/strata-the-worlds-first-clad-carbon-steel-pan
They’ve got some FLIR pics comparing its evenness to traditional carbon steel.
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I was late in seeing your comment and it looks like the KS campaign closed down a few days ago.
They have this comment about the 12-inch pan (which will follow the 10-inch, production wise)
- The minor adjustments made to the 12” pans are… height [increased] from 1.8” to 2”… diameter of … increased from 12.5” to 12.75”… weight will slightly increase from 3.1 lbs to approximately 3.3 lbs.
I’ve only got a Matfer 12-inch (nominal, cook surface only 8.75-inch diameter b/c Matfer’s typical conical sidewalls) CS pan and it weighs almost 5 pounds. Whereas this pan has a side shape/slope more similar to a traditional SS pan so it has an inch more (9.75) flatland diameter.
I’m thinking I’ll go ahead and order the 12 inch - it might be over-priced at $120 (wonder if they’re following Made In’s pricing) but, hey, I’ll only live once, and I like the concept and will happily trade ~ 25% more cooking surface for a pound and a half less weight.
Clarifying my comment above
Please report on how you like it.
Will do, but it’ll be a while before they get to the 12 inch - I think it said May was expected shipping time; I’m willing to wait (and risk them going under).
@kaleokahu and others, Strata is currently running a sale on scratch & dent & rusted, so I ordered another 12.75 inch and will clean up and give do daughter #3 (clean up - if rusted; if scratched or whatever, we’re both practical types and don’t care much about visuals).
I still have not done much in terms of testing out the 12.75 inch pan I got earlier, except cooking. I’m apparently abysmal at keeping the Thermoworks gun perpendicular and at the same height and get answers that don’t make sense as I go across the pan surface. E.g., it’s hotter by 50°F on middle and left sides, colder on right, but if I rotate the pan 180°F, then I read it as hot on middle and left (left again - this is what was previously the 50 degree colder reading right side). So obvs I ain’t doing it right, and it’s not the pan’s fault.
I haven’t done a flour scorch pattern yet, either.
What I HAVE done, is cook with the damned thing. Cooked a lot. I like it a lot. It blued up just great and seasons like anything else CS or CI that you season. I’ve used it for really high temp sears (steaks, lamb and pork chops) and it cleans up easily by boiling some water in it to release anything stuck, without affecting the seasoning.
I think the reason I like it so much is not performance, which is fine, but because it’s so much lighter than my CS or CI pans.
Mass matters for heat transfer, but it seems really decent to me when doing reverse-sear or other uses. Last night I took the diffuser off of my gas hob and turned it into blaster mode for wok-like cooking using the Strata pan, and got nice results on the beef lo mein ingredients in the usual series (30-50 seconds this, that, and the other, plus some flame jumping into the pan from time to time).
For me, it’s a good trade between weight and performance. I do think the price point is too high (even given the current sale, roughly $100 for the 12.75 inch), and hope it comes down in future. I don’t plan to buy any more of these after this second buy, unless the price comes down a lot. This is because my other 3 kids don’t really grok seasoned pan cooking, although I’m trying to get them interested. But for now, they’re using nonstick (2 of them) and the 3rd is at least getting better at plain stainless and starting to like it, esp for searing.
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