It's lightweight and responsive to heat, like stainless steel, and it's long-lasting and can develop a naturally nonstick surface with seasoning, like cast iron. A carbon steel skillet combines the benefits of both pans, making it a heavy-duty workhorse that's surprisingly slick and easy to clean.

Carbon Steel Pans for 2023, Tested and Reviewed The 6 Best Carbon Steel Pans for 2023, Tested and Reviewed

Generally safe for the oven, broiler and compatible with any heat source, this is quite a versatile piece of kitchenware. If the layer of seasoning heats unevenly, parts of the pan can be slicker and more protected than others. Though the pan comes pre-seasoned, it could benefit from additional seasoning—while it passed all three of our tests, we noticed some egg residue stuck to the pan. This is another reason we chose Matfer Bourgeat as the best overall skillet: welded handles means no rivets to collect gunk.While two pans can have the same diameter, one with taller walls will take a lot more content comfortably.

Carbon Steel Skillets of 2022, Tested by Pros 8 Best Carbon Steel Skillets of 2022, Tested by Pros

Bake for 15 minutes, wipe off excess oil, continue baking for 45 more minutes, then cool in the oven for an hour to let the oil polymerize. You can spend more on boutique carbon steel, but there's really no reason to unless you have the budget and fall in love with a design. The Matfer Bourgeat is an excellent traditional carbon steel skillet that will provide decades of durable use. Use a paper towel or dishtowel to spread the oil across the bottom and up the sides of the pan until it is barely shiny and mostly absorbed. Carbon steel, with it’s lower carbon content, is more malleable (bendable) than cast iron, which is why it can be manufactured with thin, lightweight walls.

This is due to "internal residual stresses" from the manufacturing process, which is hard to avoid in any carbon steel pan (i. Unlike stainless steel cookware, this type of cookware is not going to impress any house guests with its beauty. She particularly loves all types of fusion cooking, mixing the best of different food cultures to make interesting and unique dishes. Although carbon steel heats up quickly, it has decreased heat retention because of its thinner design—there’s less mass to hold and distribute heat. They're good for everything from frying eggs and making omelets to searing steaks and making stir fries.

Black Carbon Steel Paella Pan | Products | Matfer Bourgeat USA Black Carbon Steel Paella Pan | Products | Matfer Bourgeat USA

Start with bacon, burgers, and other things that produce enough fat for the food to release from the pan easily. Carbon steel cookware responds quickly to changes in temperature, giving you the ultimate control when cooking. We recommend choosing a neutral-flavored oil with a high smoke point for the initial seasoning process. Blued and blackened carbon steel pans can look very much like bare carbon steel (like the blackened Matfer-Bourgeat), or they can have a deep blue or black color (like the blued Northwest Skillet Company pan)--thus, color is not necessarily an indication of bluing or blackening.However, we didn't find the surface as slick as some of the others, and a good deal of residue stuck to the pan during our egg test. They are 100% carbon steel, which may leach iron, but this is completely safe unless you have a rare condition where your body produces too much iron.

Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Pan: Seasoning and Cooking Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Pan: Seasoning and Cooking

It may also depend on how you use the pan: if you like to toss it to flip your food, the lower handles are easier for most people. It delivered excellent browning in our steak test, and our tester noted that the slightly arced handle added balance and control when lifting and shaking the lightweight pan.We recommend a copper wire pad, as it will quickly remove the coating without scratching your pan surface. Rust occurs because carbon steel doesn’t contain enough chromium to form a corrosion-resistant layer, allowing oxygen to bond with the material, creating rust. A carbon steel pan that is well seasoned will last for many years with minimal maintenance or cleaning. Since carbon steel is more malleable than cast iron, it can be rolled into thin sheets during manufacturing, making the walls of the cookware thinner and lighter, while maintaining strength. She has been cooking professionally since 2017 and has tested kitchen appliances and gear for Family Circle as well as developed recipes and food content for Simply Recipes, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Oxo and Food52.