Some people are asking good questions about induction cooking. From what I understand, generally carbon steel, cast iron, and stainless steel* pans all work fine with induction (*but definitely check when it comes to stainless steel - it depends on what additional metal they're made with); nonstick pans are less likely to work. One quick trick is to use a magnet on the bottom of your pan; if it sticks, the pan is induction compatible.
@@SizeMichael Technically, you can season all pans (including non-stick). The amount and size of the pores determine the amount of work and effect you'll see.
The fact that the handles and outer surfaces of all these pans are _not_ pristinely clean makes the video much more realistic, and viewers far less guilty about _their_ pans looking like that. 😀
Don't forget that sour sauces can fairly easily etch away the seasoning from carbon steel/ cast iron pans. So when making tomato sauce is where i use my enameled cast iron or stainless steel pans.
Very good point. I love my carbon steel pan, but when it comes to the pan sauces, I'm always concerned that the sauce could strip my carefully developed seasoning. And braising only gets worse.
@@stevewebber707 generally with cast iron (at least for me) i try not to cook any liquids in it for more than an hour. With my dutch oven I can see some rust above the water line and it starts to develop a slight metalic taste in the food if I cook liquids much longer than that. really thick fatty liquids dont do it as bad, but tomatoe sauce and chili i try to keep to less than 45 minutes and thats with a very well seasoned pan.
You’re one of the first TH-cam channels that correctly talks about cast iron being a bad heat conductor. Everyone thinks it’s great at conducting heat, when it’s really good at retaining heat.
I would note that both Carbon Steel and Cast Iron require extra care to avoid rust, however carbon steel being smoother has made it easier for me to manage, there's always the option to just deep clean it and remove the seasoning to get to a "factory new" state, while cast iron doesn't really have this option because of the pores/grooves. Both aren't good for acidic foods though, like tomatoes. These don't just eat away at the seasoning, they can damage the pan, as both metals are not rust-proof like stainless steel is.
If you use the pan daily, you can sidestep the “extra care” part. Daily use should keep the pan well seasoned. Main downside even with use is you definitely shouldn’t leave water on it overnight. We do that sometimes with our stainless steel pans, especially if we got careless and let food get burned onto pan. As for sauces, stainless steel is probably better. Our cast iron pan at home is basically our designated morning egg dish. Great for making a sunny side up without it sticking to pan and breaking the yolk. You can make it on a stainless steel pan, but it is far more finicky, highly temperature dependent, needs far more oil, and the slightest imperfection or tiniest bit stuck food on the pan will make any subsequent sunny side ups impossible.
It's kinda sad how cast iron pan manufacturers just stopped machining their pans. Like what the heck, everybody agrees that a smooth finish is better, and the tools are not complicated at an industrial scale, so why'd they stop making flat surfaces?
The rougher surface is needed for the spray on seasoning to stick. They go through the large ovens hanging from a conveyor.
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@@morrismonet3554 The whole "factory seasoning" is just useless, let's face it. We all got to season our cast iron pans 2 or 3 times after having bought it, even if it is pre-seasoned. I'd much prefer having a smooth, machined pan and no factory seasoning.
Smooth pans are available. So are small electric sanders. LOL
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@@morrismonet3554 between you and me, sanding a pan at home is way less practical than if a factory were to do it. Not mentioning the cost of equipment, labor time, and potential user error.
As a south Indian, I can 100 percent vouch for the carbon steel pan, which is perfect for making evenly cooked crispy dosas! Once seasoned, I'd argue it's better than non-stick pans. Because to spread the dosa properly you need your pan to be a little sticky when the batter is wet. But once cooked, it comes off the pan, almost like magic! That is a property no non-stick coating can replicate.
Yes! I made eggs last night and had to switch from my non-stick to my carbon steel. I really like that little bit of stick when the egg hits the pan, but then when done it comes right up.
yes, if you buy a teflon as well as a carbon steel pan at the same time, after a few months, the CS pan will beat the teflon pan. teflon deteriorates rather quickly while the seasoning of the CS pan will just build up and get better with use
@@_simmac_ Yeah, it's honestly kind of insane to me. A good part of it is also learning the techniques to keep things from sticking, but I find it incredible that after I got through the very minor learning curve, I can easily make fish and eggs on my CS pan, or fry up eggs in my CS wok, and it basically doesn't stick at all. Between those two and my stainless pans, I will literally never have to buy another pan again lol
genuinely shocked that this didn't end up being a sponsored video, i was just waiting for the plug. definitely looking into getting one when my current non-stick gets bad enough
When you do, make sure to search around! There's loads of good cheap pans even outside of the heavily marketed ones by companies like deBuyer or Matfer or Made In. I got mine from a random company off Amazon I never see mentioned anywhere and it's fantastic, and the shape suits my fancy a lot more than most others I looked at.
As a mechanical engineer, listening to all the material properties I just can’t! Carbon steel or cast iron, they do tend to heat uneven, yes, especially on induction l. But! Plain steel has 5 times better heat conductivity over nickel chromium steel(stainless steel). And this is what you want! Combine the better heat conductivity with the better heat retention and you get awesome cooking experience. The hex clad stainless steel uses different layers of materials to gain fast heat response but has lower heat retention due to aluminum being less capable of this. Overall great video 😊
I'm from eastern France, I've been cooking with DeBuyer carbon steel pans for almost a decade now. The brand is from the Vosges, created mid 19th century.
Sanding down cast iron has been shown to complicate the seasoning process a bit. The surface imperfections allow for the oil polymerization to adhere better in many cases
Thanks for all of this super helpful knowledge on the world of kitchen pans! The carbon steel is currently in our shopping cart awaiting checkout 👀 We can’t get enough of the pan-tastic shoutout either. We hope food lovers everywhere can also learn some cool things about animals and nature over here at Animalogic! 🍳 🐼 ❤️
What about ceramic coated pans I've been using those for a while now and they work amazing on all front in my opinion. Really good at being non-stick, highly durable, heat resistant and no seasoning required.
Yeah I was waiting for that... They're great for a steak Also I have to disagree with the nonstick diss The temperatures where they are a risk would burn food so ppl tend to avoid those anyway And like ceramic coated pans they can last much longer exactly bc they don't regular maintenance Convenience makes cooking and cleaning easier, that allows for more practice, and ppl having more experience with proper use of tools (like learning to reduce the risk of nonstick pans) which is why nonstick and ceramic coated pans are just... better
I would love if you also talk about induction in videos like these. I know in some places like the US its still quite uncommon but its becoming more and more popular in more and more places. It is very much relevant enough to talk about
A good rule of thumb for induction is if its made of iron it will work. Induction is all about magnets inducing eddy currents inside the pan, which then generate heat by (I^2)R. The resistivity (material property that determines resistance the same way density determines mass) of copper and alluminum is about 1/10th that of iron, so on an equivalent induction stove copper and alluminum pans will only make 1/10th the heat. And obviously a nonconductive pan won't even generate eddy currents so it makes 0 heat. Again tldr; due to material properties if your pan is basically a hunk of iron it will work on induction because its conductive but not too conductive.
A thing to consider is that induction needs a certain thickness of material to work properly. So a thin carbon steel pan may not work on an induction stove. I remember some of them being a problem. Suggest asking at the store for compatibility with induction.
@@jasonreed7522 I think one thing I have heard / read is that the unevenness of induction cooktops can sometimes cause carbon steel pans to warp (since carbon steel pans are both thin and have poor heat conductivity), which is not great because induction cooktops require a good contact in order to work. I would imagine this may depend on the quality of the induction cooktop though, and how well they work if you turn the heat down.
as someone that tried to get on board the Cast Iron train and ended up donating my pan after I ruined the seasoning, the carbon steel wok I snagged at a thrift store blew me away right from day one. I'm definitely a convert to the Carbon Steel life.
Ceramic pans are the best nonstick pans. Mainly because they won’t kill my birds if I accidentally get them too hot, but they also tend to be more durable in my experience.
@@LuzuVlogsGamer I only really use my ceramic pans for eggs, and they’ve lasted years. Most things I can do in my carbon steel pan, so I don’t feel the need to use the ceramic pans that much
yeah carbon steel has been my favorite skillet for awhile now. it’s just so good for everything and it’s so easy to refresh the seasoning when i push it a little too far 🥰
It always makes me a bit sad when people cite the seasoning process as a reason they avoid CS. I feel like people care too much about it, the "hassle" of it is really overblown. I haven't done anything to mine in months and it still cooks better each time!
This will probably be lost to the rest of the comments, but I need to correct something you mention several times. The thermal conductivity property of the 2 alloys (cast "iron" and carbon steel) are relatively similar. They are not inherently dissimilar in this way. You do state the real reasons they are different but seem to confuse that aspect. Carbon steel is less brittle so it can be made thinner than the cast iron. The heat retention is a result of their mass and their thermal conductivity. And so in this case, the mass is the only significant factor. Following from this, the stainless steel pan would be a comparable material too, in terms of thermal conductivity. However more expensive to manufacture the alloy, and strong enough to be thinner. To summarise, you could make all of these pans as thick as the cast iron, and they would all behave very similarly in terms of heat transfer. As a mechanical engineer, I felt it right to correct this detail.
I got a carbonsteel pan about a year ago and now it's the only pan we use. In fact, we font even pull it off of the stovetop. I remember recently opening the drawer with all our old ceramic enamel and nonstick pans looking for something, and considering throwing them out.
1:04 I've had a non-stick pan for 2 decades of daily use without issue. The wear I see on your pan is usually from people using metal implements on the non-stick pan, scratching the coating off, which is potentially toxic.
Just so no innocent reader will buy into this: Even the MANUFACTURERS of these pans admit they wear out simply by being heated/used. High heat breaks them down very quickly and releases toxins from the PTFE coating. The channel Cook Culture has an excellent video that covers this.
@@Stevefor1776 According to the manufacturers the PTFE coating breaks down above 300°C (570°F). My stovetop doesn't even go that high, and if it did I still wouldn't as the maximum temperature you need to sear steaks is 230°C (450°F). Secondly when PTFE breaks down it doesn't look like as shown in the video, that damage is from scratching the coating with metal implements.
@@camfunme You need to do further research - you are poisoning yourself. I don't have a dog in this fight, do what you want. But if you believe that only the Chinese manufactures would sell their souls for a buck - well, Good Luck. If you dig deep enough you will find that all honest research states that repeated usage breaks down the plastic coating. You are well past your so-called "safe" period. Please check out Cook Culture, a channel run by a Canadian who has a cooking school and retail stores. He has done the research and has stopped selling ALL non-stick, losing a LOT of money in the process but having a clear conscience. As to your final point (one you made originally) I don't care what her pan LOOKS like - it may well have been damaged by misuse. I am concerned about the main issue, the dangers of using PTFE products. Bear in mind that the people who claim they are safe are the same ones who call something "safe" because it "only" causes cancer in 1 out of 1,200,000 people. And this product in the air and this product in our water and this product in a preservative... Accumulation. I am not a nut job. I am a 75 year old guy who started out not worrying about any of this kind of thing. But over the years, by simply paying attention, I have come to realize that we are constantly being fed b.s. and it is, indeed, "Buyer Beware" Good Luck.
You missed enameled iron pans. VERY expensive, have the heat retention of cast iron but they can be cleaned in ways cast iron can't... Cook fish or bacon in cast iron (or carbon steel) and it's likely the next thing you cook will have the essence of fish or bacon in the flavor. With enameled cast iron you can get the last food cooked OUT of the pan and use it for something else... My LeCruiset pan goes from fish to pancakes to caramelized maple syrup without any ghostly essences of the last meal I cooked in it. Pricey, yes, but worth the expense, given that one relatively nonstick pan does it all. AND it doesn't rust or need surface curing.
The information is presented very well- clear and accessible. I tried using a Darto carbon steel pan for roughly 10 months last year. I wanted to love it. I really did. I sold it recently for many reasons... for me, there simply is no carbon steel pan being made right now that has a comfortable handle. None. Many have rivet heads that gather gunk. I found the Darto to be too thin and because carbon steel is ductile, it did warp. The solution for me was Field cast iron- simply put, to move to the next smaller size down. I won't saute with it, but I find I like stainless steel better for that anyway.
@MinuteFood I burned my first 3 meals in the stainless steel pan, but the 4th didn't stick. I tried the carbon one twice so far and the first burned pretty bad and the second one was okay-ish with only a little bit of burn. The thing I like about the stainless steel one is, that cleaning is ridiculously easy !
Good discussion. I have all of the above and appreciate them all for their distinctive positive qualities. I have a carbon steel crepe pan that I use for eggs but never for crepes. I've found, though, that after trying many different oils the only one that keeps my eggs from sticking is butter. Which I love.
Legacy cast iron pans were very smooth. Modern companies both use cheaper manufacturing processes and apply a coating to their cast iron which gets the seasoning to stick better
I fully agree... I rarely use anything else. One of those is always on the stove. Doesn't make much sense to stow it away if it is in constant use. Only for acidic foods that have to stay in the pan for a while they don't excel. Just the material designation is misleading. "Carbon steel pans" are usually made from steel that *actually* is practically pure iron with just the trace elements that would otherwise be too expensive to remove, for no benefit to gain. Search for "DC04" for a typical material composition data sheet. That "Carbon Steel" with 1% of carbon (named C100 or 1095 in different naming standards) you mentioned here is used for knives, not good for pans. This is where the name makes sense. For pans: Better call them just "steel pans". (Engineer with a fascination for material science here...)
Europe is also about cast iron. Also the scourge of non-stick. Completely guessing here but it I think this might have to do with history. At least the Chinese, who were a major regional influence, were producing tons of steel as early as 1300's. Where as Europeans were pretty shit at it until the industrial revolution started. So we would've had to do with the lot more easily produced cast iron. Or copper if you were someone who could afford it, like royalty 😄 Again this is just a guess. Might also have to do with food culture. I mean you can't really make a usable wok out of cast iron but for making stew cast iron cookware is fucking great 😁 I haven't thought about this before but how the available materials for cookware have shaped culinary culture and vice versa is an interesting question to think about.
@@andyhaochizhang This is a common misconception but what we usually call iron is actually steel. Even the iron age should really be called the steel age 😂 Iron by itself is pretty useless because it's so brittle and oxidizes super easy. This is why cast iron pans are so heavy and why they need to be seasoned. Because they're actually made of iron, that is the carbon isn't alloyed in a way that would produce steel, so if they were thinner they'd break and if you leave an uncoated pan even slightly wet it'll rust really fast. The shiny stuff we usually call steel is stainless steel. Although all of these materials are mostly iron 😄 This didn't really have anything to do with your point but I think it's interesting nonetheless 😁
But carbon steel pans are the best. At least up to recently they have been the go to cookware for restaurant kitchens. They have almost all the benefits of cast iron while negating most of the downsides. Even searing a steak is just as easy to do with carbon steel as cast iron. You just need to heat it up properly. If you're using butter you've reached a good temperature when the liquid is done boiling in seconds. It's been a long time but I seem to recall 7 seconds being what I was taught 😄
Agree completely. Every time I use it I season my carbon steel wok by bringing it up to around 200°C (~400°Frankenstein), or when old oil residues just start to smoke, then swilling a tablespoonful of oil round it. That opens the pores & crevices and then fills them. I then turn it down a bit to cook: that way I can steam noodles in it without them sticking. Needless to say, detergent never gets near it.
I have 2 carbon steel pans and love them. Still use cast iron for many things, but for a replacement for stainless and Teflon, the lightweight carbon steel is perfect for me.
I do 80% of my skillet cooking in cast iron. I broke out my stainless pan today because I was making a pan sauce. I tend not to get a lot of use out of my carbon steel pan unless I am making something that I need to flip without a spatula. Carbon steel is good all around, but as noted, every type of pan it competes with is better than carbon steel when used for what they are best at. When I need to get a great sear, or transfer from the cooktop to the oven I use cast iron. When I want to create a fond for a sauce, I use stainless. When I want non-stick, my carbon steel doesn't compete with my antique Lodge, nor my non-stick omelet pans.
I’ve had that exact pan for years and it’s a work horse. Matfer Bourgeat black steel, if I’m assuming correctly. The only caveat is that’s it is difficult to keep the seasoning even on those things. Avoiding acidic ingredients is a given, but it’ll chip and flake off if you’re not searing meat or doing stir-fries on them regularly. I still use it far more often than any other pan in my kitchen
Hey, I do have a carbon steel pan! And it is fantastic! I think I may even have the same brand judging by handle shape. It's the one pan I feel should just live on the cooktop, because you can use it for basically everything. From eggs to steaks to reheating leftovers, it's great.
Yea I barely pick up any of my other skillets right now. I have a cast iron I never use because the CS does everything better. I have a few stainless skillets that I love, but I don't make much food that would be better in a stainless steel pan because I'm a college student without much time to make anything particularly elaborate. The only pan that gets more use in my kitchen is my wok (which is also carbon steel lol)
My go-to pan is a Darto n.25. I hate the grease-trap rivets on some carbon steel and stainless steel pans, I love that these guys are completely stamped so I don't have any excessively gross areas. They're a bit rougher looking out of the box than a De Buyer, Matfer Bourgeat, or even a lodge. It had very clearly machined edges that are a bit sharp, for example. I don't care. I sanded down the sides and gave them a chamfer and roughed up the whole cooking surface so seasoning would stick a bit better. Now it's my personal unique pan, with no rivets, and no equal anywhere on the planet, and that's super cool to me.
I'd love to get a Darto some day. I fully agree with you on rivets, though, it's why I went for a Ballarini. Basically the only rivetless one I could find in my budget with a shape I liked.
So, what's your opinion about enamel pans? Downside: pretty costly. Don't hold heat like cast iron Upside: the seasoning is sort of like glass, so unlike cast iron you can just dishwasher them, they're relatively non-stick by themselves, and they're pretty light. Also, it's a coating so most of them can be used on induction as well.
Fantastic for dutch ovens, too heavy and undurable for skillets imo. I also find even undamaged ceramic to be a bit sticky. But in a dutch oven the ceramic really only serves the purpose of keeping the iron from rusting and giving a white surface to monitor browning on, so it's a beautiful material for those. My Lodge dutch oven gets used for pretty much everything you can make in a pot.
1:28 Stainless steels have substantially lower thermal conductivity than carbon steel or cast iron. It also has effectively the same heat capacity. For a given pan design, a solid stainless steel pans will transfer heat slower. Stainless steel pans are aluminium core. Aluminium is the material that conducts the heat. SS is just the hard inert surface.
The risk of Teflon pans to human beings is basically none, but if you own birds, they’re the worst. When they get too hot, they off-gas volatile compounds that can kill a bird in minutes. So yes, ceramic pans are definitely way safer in that regard.
I love my carbon steel. In Europe it’s much more common than cast iron. Exactly for the reasons you mentioned. However, due to the type of dishes I generally make, stainless is my friend. I often make dishes that have to simmer for a while, like aubergine/eggplant involtini. In tomatoes. Or a dish where I make a pan sauce with some wine for example. Which are very acidic and wet and will eat into the seasoning, given enough time. Stainless and induction is fine if there’s a layer of iron inside to make it super magnetic. That’s why a good stainless steel pan should have 5 layers. The outer layers obviously stainless steel. Then underneath those aluminium or copper for conductivity. And in the middle iron to make it all induction compatible. Conversely, if you’re cooking on gas or ceramic, the iron actually harms the heat conductivity in the same way as a cast iron or carbon steel pan suffers from, but obviously to a lesser extent. Oh and the best thing is, I throw it in the dishwasher after every use. No problem.
can we get a definitive non-stick/teflon breakdown? I keep hearing things that contradict each other and I don't think I'd understand the material science.
Though if your weirded out by that sort of thing (though it's perfectly fine), my wock ends up being about 50% brown from rust, I find it gives it character and personally.
Is it rust or staining? Staining is super common in carbon steel pans. Actual rust would probably make cooking kind of hard since rusted surfaces are super brittle. All the food you cooked would probably be orange or brown and taste most of iron 😄 But I do agree with you, I really like the look of stained steel pans.
@@MaebhsUrbanity If the stain is not brown, your wok is developing a seasoning, and that's a good thing! After you use it, hit it with a squirt of cooking spray (PAM or the equivalent) and then wipe it out with a paper towel. It will shine ...and you will like it!
I loved the video. But there is a typo at minute 3:22 in the video. The stainless steal should be cheaper not lighter and the cast iron should be lighter not cheaper. Just a heads up! Great video!
I have that same pan... Its really good eventhough I tend to also gravitate to my cast iron... My stainless steel gets attention here and there.. But, its made me move on from garbage nonstick pans that I keep replacing every 6 months... And yes, when used properly and you take the time they are non-stick..
I want to love the carbon steel pan I got as an experiment. But I seasoned it as directed, used it once for something salty, and found that it had managed to develop spots of rust by the time I went to clean up after the meal. In order to make sure I'd gotten all the rust off, I ended up stripping the seasoning (with food-grade lye), then the rust, then immediately seasoning the pan again. And so far I've been too hesitant to try a second time.
Just a couple notes: Stainless steel is a much worse conductor of heat than cast iron... but the copper or aluminium core helps compensate for this by evening out the heat. This is why it does better than cast iron, which still has terrible heat conductivity and causes uneven heating without sufficient pre-heating. Carbon steel is great because it heats up quicker and can take the heat when thinned out. This is why it's used mostly for woks. If you can't get a good stainless pan, a carbon steel one is probably a good choice. But I can tell you that a seasoned stainless, with proper technique, can be just as non-stick. It's just a little more fragile. Also... the surface texture of modern CI pans may be rough. But this doesn't affect its non-stick capacity.
out of the 4 pans I have, 2 are carbon Steel woks, and really my favourite for responsiveness. However, my workhorse for general use is the cuated and cladded stainless steel bcause of its non reactiveness and easier care (I can leave food or sauced on it). I go to the woks anytime I need responsiveness. Now savin for copper-stainless pans to have it always both ways. pro tip if somethings stick to stainless you just make it a demiglaze or scrub it away.
I use ceramic coated non-stick and have ever since I moved out on my own because I have pet birds. Birds breathe very efficantly, but this makes them sensitive to airbourn pollutants, when living in a home where they can't fly away from them. So birds will die from "teflon poisoning" if you cook with it in thier air space and can't ventilate it REALLY WELL. I have a hard time finding anyone in the FoodTube world covering ceramic coated metal cookware. Probably because it isn't the best at any particular job and all the other options are better at one thing or another, but I think having just 1 in your home for eggs & tomatos & delicate fish instead of a teflon-based non-stick is likely better for all of us. The coating lasts a bit longer too! Though it will still wear off eventually in my experience. I only ever got the really cheap ones though. Save the big bucks for the stainless steel pans that I cook with most often.
Can you explain the 'bluing' of steel? A lot of pre-seasoned carbon steel pans are marketed as 'blued', I believe some fancy wristwatches have hands that are blued by heat for aesthetic purposes. What kind of chemical process is it and what variables do these manufacturers control to ensure consistent bluing across their products?
Just to share what little I know, it’s actually a heat treatment rather than a chemical one, and it quite literally makes the metal appear blue-ish. It’s partially for looks, and partially to add corrosion resistance. As for consistency, it would depend how good they are at heat control, since you have to get the metal hot enough, but not too hot.
There's some good info here: www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/9589-carbon-steel-versus-cast-iron (I don't personally own any blue steel pans)
I recently moved out and this video inspired me to leave the nonstick pans to my relatives and get myself a carbon steel pan. It has been the only pan I use for a month and I am truly shocked at how versatile it is. It is much easier to use than a cast-iron pan and it can do pretty much everything a nonstick pan can do while being far better at searing meat. The only problems I ran into are eggs having a tendency to stick if I don't control the temperature just right, but even if things do stick, I find it much easier to clean and re-season than my cast iron pan
I love the longevity of cast iron and the rustic aesthetic they evoke but I’ve been curious about carbon steel for a while. This video was super helpful
Carbon steel are super rugged as well. They're the go to pan in restaurant kitchens. Unless you're trying to break it I don't think you can wear down a carbon steel pan in a home kitchen. Super recommend. Thing that wasn't mentioned in this video is that they share the utility with cast iron pans that you can stick them in the oven. Although come to think of it some carbon steel pans might be a bit too large for civvie ovens. I guess that's a thing to consider when buying them. Although I do agree with you on the aesthetics of cast iron 😍
The thing is though. You CAN, make a pan steel/carbon steel or cast iron nearly as non stick as any teflon(ptfa), ceramic or other. By just seasoning the pan. IE "burning" multiple layers of oil to form a carbon robust non stick layer. Better with cast iron or carbon steel, with a removable thermal handle covering, so you can season and cook in oven, but have a pan you can use handle on hobs.
Is the stuff about conductivity right? My understanding was that how fast the pan changes temperature was mostly a function of its total heat capacity, and that conductivity was more related to distributing heat evenly (which might then be lost to the air depending on pan form). Hence chonky cast iron taking forever to heat up but retaining heat well. Its lower thermal conductivity would mostly make it more prone to hot/cold spots. Meanwhile, thin stainless steel has low heat capacity and thus changes temp quickly. Its copper/aluminum core is to help with heat distribution rather than rate of temp change.
Yeah heat capacity is definitely important, and that's what we were getting at with the discussion of thickness (despite being made of *basically* the same stuff as cast iron, carbon steel is thinner, therefore it holds less heat, and therefore is more responsive). But in hindsight, I think we could have been a bit clearer about that!
The instant I saw the thumbnail, I knew this would be about carbon steel pans. Several cooking content creators have covered carbon steel before. Personally, I reach for my well-cared-for non-stick pan the most. I've had it for years and years and it has had no noticeable degradation in its non-stick capacity. Cast iron's typical size, shape, and heft means it's basically never the right fit for anything I do, so my cast iron pans sit well-seasoned and wrapped in paper towel in an out-of-the-way cabinet. Maybe I'll find someone to give them to. I might give carbon steel a go one of these days, though...
i love carbon steel skillets, but since i have a nice set of well seasoned cast iron pans, that's what i use, and the thing about it is, while i'm a little tiny weak person, i manage to lift and even use the cast iron skillets to toss around the foods in it, i think of it as having a little bit of exercise, but the really cool thing about them is, that they cook eggs now, better than they ever have. they just keep on getting better and better over time, that's such a neat thing, and not something i can say about many other things, especially something that can get daily use, and abuse. i am not at all gentle with them, nor the cooking surface, metal to metal, no problem. just do not cook tomatoes or other acidic things and then be lazy about cleaning the skillet afterwards. i destroyed the best seasoning i've ever had that way 😞
stainless steel is also good at acidic foods like tomato sauce and also is more practical at making pan sauces and developing fonds on the bottom of the pan thank carbon steel or cast iron imo, and also recently matfer had to recall their pans because it was found out to be leeching arsenic and not all carbon steel is created equally some are more cast iron forward and some are more stainless steel forward if you get what i mean
So far I never really got warm with carbon steel. I've had three carbon steel pans and didn't really get along with any of them. I have to heat them up super slowly because if I don't they immediately warp (on an electric flat top, not induction), they heat up very unevenly and I just can't get the seasoning to stick. Even non-acidic things like cheese or just plain water sometimes strip off the seasoning. I've never had that issue with cast iron. Strata cookware has recently released a new pan that is essentially a stainless steel pan but with a carbon steel cooking surface. I heats up very quickly and evenly without warping. I've yet to see how well the seasoning sticks, but my first impression is good. For those who don't really like carbon steel for the same reasons as me, this might be worth trying out (Btw. before someone says I just got cheap thin carbon steel pans and that's why they warp and don't heat up evenly: Two out of the three were de Buyer Mineral Bs, which are by many considered to be among the best carbon steel pans you can currently buy).
How can you miss the amazing flavour carbon steel imparts to the food ! The smokiness it produces when foods are seared properly multiplies the taste 10x
The reason why cast iron takes longer to heat up and cool down is because of thermal mass rather than the conductivity of the metal. More mass takes more energy to heat up and vice versa. And carbon steel is called that way because of its crystalline structure where carbon is more uniformally distributed throughout the iron. As apposed to cast iron where it is mostly contifined to the grain boundaries thus making it brittle.
as i understand it, stainless steel itself is a lousy heat conductor just like carbon steel or cast iron, it takes a long time to heat up or cool down "stainless steel" pans like All-clad just have a center core of something super-conductive like aluminum or copper, that's what heats up fast and spreads the heat evenly
If anyone's looking for a certain brand of carbon steel, I got a Ballarini 11" pan from Amazon for a pretty good price, and it works great. De Buyer Mineral B is also a very popular one, but their handles have a coating so you can't season it in the oven.
1:46 A technicality, but steel is also made of iron and carbon. Just with less carbon than cast iron. Cast iron, carbon steel and regular steel are all different alloys made with the same two elements.
Get all three. I find that you can find uses for all three but actually dnt use cast iron as often anymore since getting a tri ply stainless steel pan & carbon steel pan. Never going back to non stick tho.
I love my carbon steel pan. Cast iron is great but my carbon steel is the go to pan I grab for anything. And it's great for eggs since the finish is very smooth.
Some people are asking good questions about induction cooking. From what I understand, generally carbon steel, cast iron, and stainless steel* pans all work fine with induction (*but definitely check when it comes to stainless steel - it depends on what additional metal they're made with); nonstick pans are less likely to work. One quick trick is to use a magnet on the bottom of your pan; if it sticks, the pan is induction compatible.
Isn't it also possible to season a stainless-steel pan?
@@SizeMichael Technically, you can season all pans (including non-stick). The amount and size of the pores determine the amount of work and effect you'll see.
@@TimesRyan I think I accidentally seasoned the bottom of a stainless-steel pot while deep-frying chicken in it, which is how I got the idea
@@SizeMichael Certainly! Even just every day cooking slowly adds seasoning. A ripping hot deep-fry will definitely do a good amount.
@@SizeMichael You can see in the video that the bottoms of my stainless steel pans get accidentally "seasoned" too :)
The fact that the handles and outer surfaces of all these pans are _not_ pristinely clean makes the video much more realistic, and viewers far less guilty about _their_ pans looking like that. 😀
Yes, you are definitely seeing a real home kitchen here :)
@@MinuteFood So, no studio in a warehouse and a crew of fifteen... 😀
Just don’t feel guilty lol
Don't forget that sour sauces can fairly easily etch away the seasoning from carbon steel/ cast iron pans. So when making tomato sauce is where i use my enameled cast iron or stainless steel pans.
Very good point.
I love my carbon steel pan, but when it comes to the pan sauces, I'm always concerned that the sauce could strip my carefully developed seasoning. And braising only gets worse.
@@stevewebber707 generally with cast iron (at least for me) i try not to cook any liquids in it for more than an hour. With my dutch oven I can see some rust above the water line and it starts to develop a slight metalic taste in the food if I cook liquids much longer than that.
really thick fatty liquids dont do it as bad, but tomatoe sauce and chili i try to keep to less than 45 minutes and thats with a very well seasoned pan.
@@mcgrawnelson4722 Is your dutch oven cast iron or enameled?
Does this mean I can't make shakshuka in one?
@@miladragon you can, and i have. Rust isnt poisonous or bad for your health in any way.
you just have to reseason the pan much more often when you do
You’re one of the first TH-cam channels that correctly talks about cast iron being a bad heat conductor. Everyone thinks it’s great at conducting heat, when it’s really good at retaining heat.
What are you watching?
I mean, it's a sister channel to minutephysics, is it not?
I would note that both Carbon Steel and Cast Iron require extra care to avoid rust, however carbon steel being smoother has made it easier for me to manage, there's always the option to just deep clean it and remove the seasoning to get to a "factory new" state, while cast iron doesn't really have this option because of the pores/grooves.
Both aren't good for acidic foods though, like tomatoes. These don't just eat away at the seasoning, they can damage the pan, as both metals are not rust-proof like stainless steel is.
If you use the pan daily, you can sidestep the “extra care” part. Daily use should keep the pan well seasoned. Main downside even with use is you definitely shouldn’t leave water on it overnight. We do that sometimes with our stainless steel pans, especially if we got careless and let food get burned onto pan. As for sauces, stainless steel is probably better.
Our cast iron pan at home is basically our designated morning egg dish. Great for making a sunny side up without it sticking to pan and breaking the yolk. You can make it on a stainless steel pan, but it is far more finicky, highly temperature dependent, needs far more oil, and the slightest imperfection or tiniest bit stuck food on the pan will make any subsequent sunny side ups impossible.
It's kinda sad how cast iron pan manufacturers just stopped machining their pans. Like what the heck, everybody agrees that a smooth finish is better, and the tools are not complicated at an industrial scale, so why'd they stop making flat surfaces?
Agreed! It's marketing hype and to save a step in the manufacturing process. "Pre-seasoned" is a joke.
The rougher surface is needed for the spray on seasoning to stick. They go through the large ovens hanging from a conveyor.
@@morrismonet3554 The whole "factory seasoning" is just useless, let's face it. We all got to season our cast iron pans 2 or 3 times after having bought it, even if it is pre-seasoned. I'd much prefer having a smooth, machined pan and no factory seasoning.
Smooth pans are available. So are small electric sanders. LOL
@@morrismonet3554 between you and me, sanding a pan at home is way less practical than if a factory were to do it. Not mentioning the cost of equipment, labor time, and potential user error.
As a south Indian, I can 100 percent vouch for the carbon steel pan, which is perfect for making evenly cooked crispy dosas! Once seasoned, I'd argue it's better than non-stick pans. Because to spread the dosa properly you need your pan to be a little sticky when the batter is wet. But once cooked, it comes off the pan, almost like magic! That is a property no non-stick coating can replicate.
Yes! I made eggs last night and had to switch from my non-stick to my carbon steel. I really like that little bit of stick when the egg hits the pan, but then when done it comes right up.
yes, if you buy a teflon as well as a carbon steel pan at the same time, after a few months, the CS pan will beat the teflon pan. teflon deteriorates rather quickly while the seasoning of the CS pan will just build up and get better with use
@@_simmac_ Yeah, it's honestly kind of insane to me. A good part of it is also learning the techniques to keep things from sticking, but I find it incredible that after I got through the very minor learning curve, I can easily make fish and eggs on my CS pan, or fry up eggs in my CS wok, and it basically doesn't stick at all. Between those two and my stainless pans, I will literally never have to buy another pan again lol
As someone who only makes bacon sandwiches, I dont know what I'm doing here 😅
@@_simmac_ Plus you can use any utensil you want on carbon steel.
genuinely shocked that this didn't end up being a sponsored video, i was just waiting for the plug. definitely looking into getting one when my current non-stick gets bad enough
When you do, make sure to search around! There's loads of good cheap pans even outside of the heavily marketed ones by companies like deBuyer or Matfer or Made In. I got mine from a random company off Amazon I never see mentioned anywhere and it's fantastic, and the shape suits my fancy a lot more than most others I looked at.
@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8 could you send me a link or the name of the pan you ended up getting please?
THEY ALREADY SAID EARLY ON ITS NOT SPONSORED
@@abc6568 The name was Ballarini, I think mine is 11"
@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8 thank you very much.
As a mechanical engineer, listening to all the material properties I just can’t!
Carbon steel or cast iron, they do tend to heat uneven, yes, especially on induction l. But! Plain steel has 5 times better heat conductivity over nickel chromium steel(stainless steel). And this is what you want! Combine the better heat conductivity with the better heat retention and you get awesome cooking experience. The hex clad stainless steel uses different layers of materials to gain fast heat response but has lower heat retention due to aluminum being less capable of this.
Overall great video 😊
Stainless steel pans are almost always made with a base of copper and aluminium which is what she refers to with conductivity and even distribution
I'm from eastern France, I've been cooking with DeBuyer carbon steel pans for almost a decade now. The brand is from the Vosges, created mid 19th century.
Love the pie chart graphic on the pan, very cute, very creative.
Thanks for the info!
Sanding down cast iron has been shown to complicate the seasoning process a bit. The surface imperfections allow for the oil polymerization to adhere better in many cases
Thanks for all of this super helpful knowledge on the world of kitchen pans! The carbon steel is currently in our shopping cart awaiting checkout 👀
We can’t get enough of the pan-tastic shoutout either. We hope food lovers everywhere can also learn some cool
things about animals and nature over here at Animalogic! 🍳 🐼 ❤️
This lady made her own hex clad pan with none of the expense lmao
What about ceramic coated pans I've been using those for a while now and they work amazing on all front in my opinion. Really good at being non-stick, highly durable, heat resistant and no seasoning required.
Yeah I was waiting for that...
They're great for a steak
Also I have to disagree with the nonstick diss
The temperatures where they are a risk would burn food so ppl tend to avoid those anyway
And like ceramic coated pans they can last much longer exactly bc they don't regular maintenance
Convenience makes cooking and cleaning easier, that allows for more practice, and ppl having more experience with proper use of tools (like learning to reduce the risk of nonstick pans) which is why nonstick and ceramic coated pans are just... better
the main concern surrounding the non stick is environmental impact of manufacturing and short life span @@joseSanchez-ej2oh
I would love if you also talk about induction in videos like these. I know in some places like the US its still quite uncommon but its becoming more and more popular in more and more places. It is very much relevant enough to talk about
A good rule of thumb for induction is if its made of iron it will work.
Induction is all about magnets inducing eddy currents inside the pan, which then generate heat by (I^2)R. The resistivity (material property that determines resistance the same way density determines mass) of copper and alluminum is about 1/10th that of iron, so on an equivalent induction stove copper and alluminum pans will only make 1/10th the heat. And obviously a nonconductive pan won't even generate eddy currents so it makes 0 heat.
Again tldr; due to material properties if your pan is basically a hunk of iron it will work on induction because its conductive but not too conductive.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking#Materials
@@jasonreed7522 so basically Laura, cast iron and carbon steel pans work great for induction because of their high iron content
A thing to consider is that induction needs a certain thickness of material to work properly. So a thin carbon steel pan may not work on an induction stove. I remember some of them being a problem. Suggest asking at the store for compatibility with induction.
@@jasonreed7522 I think one thing I have heard / read is that the unevenness of induction cooktops can sometimes cause carbon steel pans to warp (since carbon steel pans are both thin and have poor heat conductivity), which is not great because induction cooktops require a good contact in order to work. I would imagine this may depend on the quality of the induction cooktop though, and how well they work if you turn the heat down.
as someone that tried to get on board the Cast Iron train and ended up donating my pan after I ruined the seasoning, the carbon steel wok I snagged at a thrift store blew me away right from day one. I'm definitely a convert to the Carbon Steel life.
This is a bit of a strange comment because cast iron and carbon steel are both seasoned in the exact same way, via the polymerization of fats.
Can't you just reseason the cast iron? i mean i've seen people remove the rust from old cast iron pans they find, reseason and then use it just fine.
@@willowarkan2263 I just ragequit the whole idea lol
I'll try again in a couple years
Loved this video. The way that you communicate information is a complete cheff's kiss. Thanks!!
I love my carbon steel pan. It pretty much stays on my stovetop all of the time. Perfect for eggs.
Ceramic pans are the best nonstick pans. Mainly because they won’t kill my birds if I accidentally get them too hot, but they also tend to be more durable in my experience.
Yay but their coating wears of pretty fast and they are a bit more expensive in some places
@@LuzuVlogsGamer I only really use my ceramic pans for eggs, and they’ve lasted years. Most things I can do in my carbon steel pan, so I don’t feel the need to use the ceramic pans that much
yeah carbon steel has been my favorite skillet for awhile now. it’s just so good for everything and it’s so easy to refresh the seasoning when i push it a little too far 🥰
It always makes me a bit sad when people cite the seasoning process as a reason they avoid CS. I feel like people care too much about it, the "hassle" of it is really overblown. I haven't done anything to mine in months and it still cooks better each time!
This will probably be lost to the rest of the comments, but I need to correct something you mention several times. The thermal conductivity property of the 2 alloys (cast "iron" and carbon steel) are relatively similar. They are not inherently dissimilar in this way.
You do state the real reasons they are different but seem to confuse that aspect. Carbon steel is less brittle so it can be made thinner than the cast iron. The heat retention is a result of their mass and their thermal conductivity. And so in this case, the mass is the only significant factor.
Following from this, the stainless steel pan would be a comparable material too, in terms of thermal conductivity. However more expensive to manufacture the alloy, and strong enough to be thinner.
To summarise, you could make all of these pans as thick as the cast iron, and they would all behave very similarly in terms of heat transfer.
As a mechanical engineer, I felt it right to correct this detail.
I got a carbonsteel pan about a year ago and now it's the only pan we use. In fact, we font even pull it off of the stovetop. I remember recently opening the drawer with all our old ceramic enamel and nonstick pans looking for something, and considering throwing them out.
I think the Minute group may be one of the few channels I would trust to really check their product sponsors, on par with Tom Scott
Thanks!
1:04 I've had a non-stick pan for 2 decades of daily use without issue. The wear I see on your pan is usually from people using metal implements on the non-stick pan, scratching the coating off, which is potentially toxic.
Just so no innocent reader will buy into this: Even the MANUFACTURERS of these pans admit they wear out simply by being heated/used. High heat breaks them down very quickly and releases toxins from the PTFE coating. The channel Cook Culture has an excellent video that covers this.
@@Stevefor1776 According to the manufacturers the PTFE coating breaks down above 300°C (570°F). My stovetop doesn't even go that high, and if it did I still wouldn't as the maximum temperature you need to sear steaks is 230°C (450°F). Secondly when PTFE breaks down it doesn't look like as shown in the video, that damage is from scratching the coating with metal implements.
@@camfunme You need to do further research - you are poisoning yourself. I don't have a dog in this fight, do what you want. But if you believe that only the Chinese manufactures would sell their souls for a buck - well, Good Luck. If you dig deep enough you will find that all honest research states that repeated usage breaks down the plastic coating. You are well past your so-called "safe" period. Please check out Cook Culture, a channel run by a Canadian who has a cooking school and retail stores. He has done the research and has stopped selling ALL non-stick, losing a LOT of money in the process but having a clear conscience.
As to your final point (one you made originally) I don't care what her pan LOOKS like - it may well have been damaged by misuse. I am concerned about the main issue, the dangers of using PTFE products. Bear in mind that the people who claim they are safe are the same ones who call something "safe" because it "only" causes cancer in 1 out of 1,200,000 people. And this product in the air and this product in our water and this product in a preservative... Accumulation.
I am not a nut job. I am a 75 year old guy who started out not worrying about any of this kind of thing. But over the years, by simply paying attention, I have come to realize that we are constantly being fed b.s. and it is, indeed, "Buyer Beware"
Good Luck.
Thank you so much for talking about my favourite piece of cookware of all time!
You missed enameled iron pans. VERY expensive, have the heat retention of cast iron but they can be cleaned in ways cast iron can't...
Cook fish or bacon in cast iron (or carbon steel) and it's likely the next thing you cook will have the essence of fish or bacon in the flavor. With enameled cast iron you can get the last food cooked OUT of the pan and use it for something else...
My LeCruiset pan goes from fish to pancakes to caramelized maple syrup without any ghostly essences of the last meal I cooked in it.
Pricey, yes, but worth the expense, given that one relatively nonstick pan does it all.
AND it doesn't rust or need surface curing.
I love my Le Creuset, but it's definitely not like the love I have for my carbon steel! The weight and cost are two biggies for me.
0:19 "Awake but at what cost" same, same
I REALLY love your videos!!! You guys really help me cook... well😂
The information is presented very well- clear and accessible. I tried using a Darto carbon steel pan for roughly 10 months last year. I wanted to love it. I really did. I sold it recently for many reasons... for me, there simply is no carbon steel pan being made right now that has a comfortable handle. None. Many have rivet heads that gather gunk. I found the Darto to be too thin and because carbon steel is ductile, it did warp. The solution for me was Field cast iron- simply put, to move to the next smaller size down. I won't saute with it, but I find I like stainless steel better for that anyway.
okay, you convinced me. I just ordered a carbon steel one and a stainless steel with copper base. wish me luck fucking up my first meals with those
Come back and let us know how it goes!
@MinuteFood I burned my first 3 meals in the stainless steel pan, but the 4th didn't stick. I tried the carbon one twice so far and the first burned pretty bad and the second one was okay-ish with only a little bit of burn. The thing I like about the stainless steel one is, that cleaning is ridiculously easy !
Good discussion. I have all of the above and appreciate them all for their distinctive positive qualities. I have a carbon steel crepe pan that I use for eggs but never for crepes. I've found, though, that after trying many different oils the only one that keeps my eggs from sticking is butter. Which I love.
Legacy cast iron pans were very smooth. Modern companies both use cheaper manufacturing processes and apply a coating to their cast iron which gets the seasoning to stick better
old cast iron had thinner walls too, reducing the weight
@@YouzACoopa I have a machined cast iron wok that is as thin and light weight as carbon steel.
Your wallet saying no!😂😂 lmao, relatable
I fully agree... I rarely use anything else. One of those is always on the stove. Doesn't make much sense to stow it away if it is in constant use. Only for acidic foods that have to stay in the pan for a while they don't excel.
Just the material designation is misleading. "Carbon steel pans" are usually made from steel that *actually* is practically pure iron with just the trace elements that would otherwise be too expensive to remove, for no benefit to gain. Search for "DC04" for a typical material composition data sheet. That "Carbon Steel" with 1% of carbon (named C100 or 1095 in different naming standards) you mentioned here is used for knives, not good for pans. This is where the name makes sense. For pans: Better call them just "steel pans". (Engineer with a fascination for material science here...)
I think they're more popular outside of the US, which I think has a cast iron bias. Love mine.
Yeah. A lot of Asian families still use iron (aka carbon steel) cookware almost exclusively.
Europe is also about cast iron. Also the scourge of non-stick.
Completely guessing here but it I think this might have to do with history. At least the Chinese, who were a major regional influence, were producing tons of steel as early as 1300's. Where as Europeans were pretty shit at it until the industrial revolution started. So we would've had to do with the lot more easily produced cast iron. Or copper if you were someone who could afford it, like royalty 😄
Again this is just a guess. Might also have to do with food culture. I mean you can't really make a usable wok out of cast iron but for making stew cast iron cookware is fucking great 😁 I haven't thought about this before but how the available materials for cookware have shaped culinary culture and vice versa is an interesting question to think about.
@@andyhaochizhang This is a common misconception but what we usually call iron is actually steel. Even the iron age should really be called the steel age 😂 Iron by itself is pretty useless because it's so brittle and oxidizes super easy. This is why cast iron pans are so heavy and why they need to be seasoned. Because they're actually made of iron, that is the carbon isn't alloyed in a way that would produce steel, so if they were thinner they'd break and if you leave an uncoated pan even slightly wet it'll rust really fast.
The shiny stuff we usually call steel is stainless steel. Although all of these materials are mostly iron 😄
This didn't really have anything to do with your point but I think it's interesting nonetheless 😁
But carbon steel pans are the best. At least up to recently they have been the go to cookware for restaurant kitchens. They have almost all the benefits of cast iron while negating most of the downsides.
Even searing a steak is just as easy to do with carbon steel as cast iron. You just need to heat it up properly. If you're using butter you've reached a good temperature when the liquid is done boiling in seconds. It's been a long time but I seem to recall 7 seconds being what I was taught 😄
Have to commend you on the pan => panda segway. Great video as usual, thanks for sharing.
Agree completely. Every time I use it I season my carbon steel wok by bringing it up to around 200°C (~400°Frankenstein), or when old oil residues just start to smoke, then swilling a tablespoonful of oil round it. That opens the pores & crevices and then fills them. I then turn it down a bit to cook: that way I can steam noodles in it without them sticking. Needless to say, detergent never gets near it.
Yay!! You have a sponsor now, and OMG *you deserve it*. Your videos have been so informative, and such a delight to watch. Thank you so much for them!
(At least, I'm assuming Animalogic is a sponsor. If not, go you for shout-outs to your friends! You rock!)
Thanks to you I'm finally gonna buy one - Never quite understood these until now!
Thank you for this beautiful video. I feel like I'm finally starting to understand how pans work
0:36 that's a very agreeable price for a pan.
I have 2 carbon steel pans and love them. Still use cast iron for many things, but for a replacement for stainless and Teflon, the lightweight carbon steel is perfect for me.
I have 2 carbon steel woks in 2 sizes, don't love the handles, but cooking with it and cleaning them is so easy.
I do 80% of my skillet cooking in cast iron. I broke out my stainless pan today because I was making a pan sauce. I tend not to get a lot of use out of my carbon steel pan unless I am making something that I need to flip without a spatula. Carbon steel is good all around, but as noted, every type of pan it competes with is better than carbon steel when used for what they are best at. When I need to get a great sear, or transfer from the cooktop to the oven I use cast iron. When I want to create a fond for a sauce, I use stainless. When I want non-stick, my carbon steel doesn't compete with my antique Lodge, nor my non-stick omelet pans.
Im unapologetically in love with my cast iron pans.
I’ve had that exact pan for years and it’s a work horse. Matfer Bourgeat black steel, if I’m assuming correctly. The only caveat is that’s it is difficult to keep the seasoning even on those things. Avoiding acidic ingredients is a given, but it’ll chip and flake off if you’re not searing meat or doing stir-fries on them regularly. I still use it far more often than any other pan in my kitchen
Hey, I do have a carbon steel pan! And it is fantastic! I think I may even have the same brand judging by handle shape. It's the one pan I feel should just live on the cooktop, because you can use it for basically everything. From eggs to steaks to reheating leftovers, it's great.
Yea I barely pick up any of my other skillets right now. I have a cast iron I never use because the CS does everything better. I have a few stainless skillets that I love, but I don't make much food that would be better in a stainless steel pan because I'm a college student without much time to make anything particularly elaborate. The only pan that gets more use in my kitchen is my wok (which is also carbon steel lol)
My go-to pan is a Darto n.25. I hate the grease-trap rivets on some carbon steel and stainless steel pans, I love that these guys are completely stamped so I don't have any excessively gross areas. They're a bit rougher looking out of the box than a De Buyer, Matfer Bourgeat, or even a lodge. It had very clearly machined edges that are a bit sharp, for example. I don't care. I sanded down the sides and gave them a chamfer and roughed up the whole cooking surface so seasoning would stick a bit better. Now it's my personal unique pan, with no rivets, and no equal anywhere on the planet, and that's super cool to me.
I'd love to get a Darto some day. I fully agree with you on rivets, though, it's why I went for a Ballarini. Basically the only rivetless one I could find in my budget with a shape I liked.
So, what's your opinion about enamel pans?
Downside: pretty costly. Don't hold heat like cast iron
Upside: the seasoning is sort of like glass, so unlike cast iron you can just dishwasher them, they're relatively non-stick by themselves, and they're pretty light. Also, it's a coating so most of them can be used on induction as well.
Le creuset dutch oven is a beast. It's cast iron with an enamel coating.
Fantastic for dutch ovens, too heavy and undurable for skillets imo. I also find even undamaged ceramic to be a bit sticky. But in a dutch oven the ceramic really only serves the purpose of keeping the iron from rusting and giving a white surface to monitor browning on, so it's a beautiful material for those. My Lodge dutch oven gets used for pretty much everything you can make in a pot.
1:28
Stainless steels have substantially lower thermal conductivity than carbon steel or cast iron. It also has effectively the same heat capacity. For a given pan design, a solid stainless steel pans will transfer heat slower.
Stainless steel pans are aluminium core. Aluminium is the material that conducts the heat. SS is just the hard inert surface.
You can also 'season' stainless pans as well, l after all the seasoning is polymerised cooking oil.
0:36 ayyyyyy I see you, minute foods. 1312 indeed
As for the safety aspect: What about ceramic pans?
The risk of Teflon pans to human beings is basically none, but if you own birds, they’re the worst. When they get too hot, they off-gas volatile compounds that can kill a bird in minutes. So yes, ceramic pans are definitely way safer in that regard.
I love my carbon steel. In Europe it’s much more common than cast iron. Exactly for the reasons you mentioned. However, due to the type of dishes I generally make, stainless is my friend. I often make dishes that have to simmer for a while, like aubergine/eggplant involtini. In tomatoes. Or a dish where I make a pan sauce with some wine for example. Which are very acidic and wet and will eat into the seasoning, given enough time.
Stainless and induction is fine if there’s a layer of iron inside to make it super magnetic. That’s why a good stainless steel pan should have 5 layers. The outer layers obviously stainless steel. Then underneath those aluminium or copper for conductivity. And in the middle iron to make it all induction compatible. Conversely, if you’re cooking on gas or ceramic, the iron actually harms the heat conductivity in the same way as a cast iron or carbon steel pan suffers from, but obviously to a lesser extent.
Oh and the best thing is, I throw it in the dishwasher after every use. No problem.
can we get a definitive non-stick/teflon breakdown? I keep hearing things that contradict each other and I don't think I'd understand the material science.
They won’t hurt you, but they are terrible for the environment and will kill pet birds when they get too hot.
As with most things - when in doubt, avoid them !
0:43 nice price :)
My mom gave me a carbon steel cephalon pan with matching lid. I fell in love. Im traveling right now and i miss my pan.
0:37 Huh! Interesting price tag!
Though if your weirded out by that sort of thing (though it's perfectly fine), my wock ends up being about 50% brown from rust, I find it gives it character and personally.
Is it rust or staining? Staining is super common in carbon steel pans. Actual rust would probably make cooking kind of hard since rusted surfaces are super brittle. All the food you cooked would probably be orange or brown and taste most of iron 😄
But I do agree with you, I really like the look of stained steel pans.
@@mikkosaarinen3225 Yeah it's just staining I think.
@@MaebhsUrbanity If the stain is not brown, your wok is developing a seasoning, and that's a good thing! After you use it, hit it with a squirt of cooking spray (PAM or the equivalent) and then wipe it out with a paper towel. It will shine ...and you will like it!
A carbon steel frying pan and a Stainless Saute pan is the best setup.
Love carbon steel pans, they're so nice to work with
As soon as I saw the video title, I knew it was carbon steel. They are _really_ underappreciated.
I loved the video. But there is a typo at minute 3:22 in the video. The stainless steal should be cheaper not lighter and the cast iron should be lighter not cheaper. Just a heads up! Great video!
I have that same pan... Its really good eventhough I tend to also gravitate to my cast iron... My stainless steel gets attention here and there.. But, its made me move on from garbage nonstick pans that I keep replacing every 6 months... And yes, when used properly and you take the time they are non-stick..
I want to love the carbon steel pan I got as an experiment. But I seasoned it as directed, used it once for something salty, and found that it had managed to develop spots of rust by the time I went to clean up after the meal. In order to make sure I'd gotten all the rust off, I ended up stripping the seasoning (with food-grade lye), then the rust, then immediately seasoning the pan again. And so far I've been too hesitant to try a second time.
It’s ok if it rusts. It converts to blueing with use. Use it.
How do you season a pan? Do you ever wash it? How do you prevent the oil from getting onto other cookware without taking up a lot of space?
Just a couple notes: Stainless steel is a much worse conductor of heat than cast iron... but the copper or aluminium core helps compensate for this by evening out the heat. This is why it does better than cast iron, which still has terrible heat conductivity and causes uneven heating without sufficient pre-heating.
Carbon steel is great because it heats up quicker and can take the heat when thinned out. This is why it's used mostly for woks.
If you can't get a good stainless pan, a carbon steel one is probably a good choice. But I can tell you that a seasoned stainless, with proper technique, can be just as non-stick. It's just a little more fragile.
Also... the surface texture of modern CI pans may be rough. But this doesn't affect its non-stick capacity.
out of the 4 pans I have, 2 are carbon Steel woks, and really my favourite for responsiveness. However, my workhorse for general use is the cuated and cladded stainless steel bcause of its non reactiveness and easier care (I can leave food or sauced on it). I go to the woks anytime I need responsiveness. Now savin for copper-stainless pans to have it always both ways. pro tip if somethings stick to stainless you just make it a demiglaze or scrub it away.
I use ceramic coated non-stick and have ever since I moved out on my own because I have pet birds. Birds breathe very efficantly, but this makes them sensitive to airbourn pollutants, when living in a home where they can't fly away from them. So birds will die from "teflon poisoning" if you cook with it in thier air space and can't ventilate it REALLY WELL. I have a hard time finding anyone in the FoodTube world covering ceramic coated metal cookware. Probably because it isn't the best at any particular job and all the other options are better at one thing or another, but I think having just 1 in your home for eggs & tomatos & delicate fish instead of a teflon-based non-stick is likely better for all of us. The coating lasts a bit longer too! Though it will still wear off eventually in my experience. I only ever got the really cheap ones though. Save the big bucks for the stainless steel pans that I cook with most often.
Can you explain the 'bluing' of steel? A lot of pre-seasoned carbon steel pans are marketed as 'blued', I believe some fancy wristwatches have hands that are blued by heat for aesthetic purposes. What kind of chemical process is it and what variables do these manufacturers control to ensure consistent bluing across their products?
Just to share what little I know, it’s actually a heat treatment rather than a chemical one, and it quite literally makes the metal appear blue-ish. It’s partially for looks, and partially to add corrosion resistance. As for consistency, it would depend how good they are at heat control, since you have to get the metal hot enough, but not too hot.
@@ericeaton2386 Very interesting, thank you for sharing!
There's some good info here: www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/9589-carbon-steel-versus-cast-iron (I don't personally own any blue steel pans)
@@MinuteFood Thanks!
I blued my own wok with a concave induction stove. It was quite scary!
Love my carbon steel for eggs, but I won't do any acidic foods in it (e.g. red sauce). That's what my stainless steel pan is for!
I recently moved out and this video inspired me to leave the nonstick pans to my relatives and get myself a carbon steel pan. It has been the only pan I use for a month and I am truly shocked at how versatile it is. It is much easier to use than a cast-iron pan and it can do pretty much everything a nonstick pan can do while being far better at searing meat. The only problems I ran into are eggs having a tendency to stick if I don't control the temperature just right, but even if things do stick, I find it much easier to clean and re-season than my cast iron pan
I love the longevity of cast iron and the rustic aesthetic they evoke but I’ve been curious about carbon steel for a while. This video was super helpful
Carbon steel are super rugged as well. They're the go to pan in restaurant kitchens. Unless you're trying to break it I don't think you can wear down a carbon steel pan in a home kitchen. Super recommend. Thing that wasn't mentioned in this video is that they share the utility with cast iron pans that you can stick them in the oven. Although come to think of it some carbon steel pans might be a bit too large for civvie ovens. I guess that's a thing to consider when buying them.
Although I do agree with you on the aesthetics of cast iron 😍
It's the puns for me 😂
The thing is though. You CAN, make a pan steel/carbon steel or cast iron nearly as non stick as any teflon(ptfa), ceramic or other. By just seasoning the pan. IE "burning" multiple layers of oil to form a carbon robust non stick layer.
Better with cast iron or carbon steel, with a removable thermal handle covering, so you can season and cook in oven, but have a pan you can use handle on hobs.
Is the stuff about conductivity right? My understanding was that how fast the pan changes temperature was mostly a function of its total heat capacity, and that conductivity was more related to distributing heat evenly (which might then be lost to the air depending on pan form). Hence chonky cast iron taking forever to heat up but retaining heat well. Its lower thermal conductivity would mostly make it more prone to hot/cold spots. Meanwhile, thin stainless steel has low heat capacity and thus changes temp quickly. Its copper/aluminum core is to help with heat distribution rather than rate of temp change.
Yeah heat capacity is definitely important, and that's what we were getting at with the discussion of thickness (despite being made of *basically* the same stuff as cast iron, carbon steel is thinner, therefore it holds less heat, and therefore is more responsive). But in hindsight, I think we could have been a bit clearer about that!
I will look at them for my next skillet. Thanks!
So your favourite pan is basically a shallow wok since most woks are made with carbon steel xD
The instant I saw the thumbnail, I knew this would be about carbon steel pans. Several cooking content creators have covered carbon steel before. Personally, I reach for my well-cared-for non-stick pan the most. I've had it for years and years and it has had no noticeable degradation in its non-stick capacity. Cast iron's typical size, shape, and heft means it's basically never the right fit for anything I do, so my cast iron pans sit well-seasoned and wrapped in paper towel in an out-of-the-way cabinet. Maybe I'll find someone to give them to. I might give carbon steel a go one of these days, though...
Non-stick is great IF and only if they are treated properly.
This vid was about carbon steel, which are usually the same mass as non-stick cookware.
i love carbon steel skillets, but since i have a nice set of well seasoned cast iron pans, that's what i use, and the thing about it is, while i'm a little tiny weak person, i manage to lift and even use the cast iron skillets to toss around the foods in it, i think of it as having a little bit of exercise, but the really cool thing about them is, that they cook eggs now, better than they ever have. they just keep on getting better and better over time, that's such a neat thing, and not something i can say about many other things, especially something that can get daily use, and abuse. i am not at all gentle with them, nor the cooking surface, metal to metal, no problem.
just do not cook tomatoes or other acidic things and then be lazy about cleaning the skillet afterwards. i destroyed the best seasoning i've ever had that way 😞
stainless steel is also good at acidic foods like tomato sauce and also is more practical at making pan sauces and developing fonds on the bottom of the pan thank carbon steel or cast iron imo, and also recently matfer had to recall their pans because it was found out to be leeching arsenic and not all carbon steel is created equally some are more cast iron forward and some are more stainless steel forward if you get what i mean
So far I never really got warm with carbon steel. I've had three carbon steel pans and didn't really get along with any of them. I have to heat them up super slowly because if I don't they immediately warp (on an electric flat top, not induction), they heat up very unevenly and I just can't get the seasoning to stick. Even non-acidic things like cheese or just plain water sometimes strip off the seasoning. I've never had that issue with cast iron. Strata cookware has recently released a new pan that is essentially a stainless steel pan but with a carbon steel cooking surface. I heats up very quickly and evenly without warping. I've yet to see how well the seasoning sticks, but my first impression is good. For those who don't really like carbon steel for the same reasons as me, this might be worth trying out (Btw. before someone says I just got cheap thin carbon steel pans and that's why they warp and don't heat up evenly: Two out of the three were de Buyer Mineral Bs, which are by many considered to be among the best carbon steel pans you can currently buy).
Totally thought you were going to pan-der to some cookware comapny there
How can you miss the amazing flavour carbon steel imparts to the food ! The smokiness it produces when foods are seared properly multiplies the taste 10x
i am so happy to discover this channel, your vids are amazing.
these things sitting at like 100°C at my diswashing station always had me on edge
yeah carbon steel pans are the best I use them all the time in the restaurant
The reason why cast iron takes longer to heat up and cool down is because of thermal mass rather than the conductivity of the metal. More mass takes more energy to heat up and vice versa. And carbon steel is called that way because of its crystalline structure where carbon is more uniformally distributed throughout the iron. As apposed to cast iron where it is mostly contifined to the grain boundaries thus making it brittle.
DARTO carbon steel pans are both fantastic and surprisingly affordable. Would highly recommend
Was gonna be too lazy to watch the video as usual, but did it anyway - was super helpful actually! Learned a lot I didn't know!
as i understand it, stainless steel itself is a lousy heat conductor just like carbon steel or cast iron, it takes a long time to heat up or cool down
"stainless steel" pans like All-clad just have a center core of something super-conductive like aluminum or copper, that's what heats up fast and spreads the heat evenly
Are there particular brands of pans and pots that you really like? Would love a video on that.
If anyone's looking for a certain brand of carbon steel, I got a Ballarini 11" pan from Amazon for a pretty good price, and it works great. De Buyer Mineral B is also a very popular one, but their handles have a coating so you can't season it in the oven.
You just defined the traditional Mexican pan, E L C O M A L
1:46 A technicality, but steel is also made of iron and carbon. Just with less carbon than cast iron. Cast iron, carbon steel and regular steel are all different alloys made with the same two elements.
Get all three. I find that you can find uses for all three but actually dnt use cast iron as often anymore since getting a tri ply stainless steel pan & carbon steel pan. Never going back to non stick tho.
I recently got myself a nice nitrated carbon steel wok and I really love it. Definitely going to get a pan too.
I love my carbon steel pan. Cast iron is great but my carbon steel is the go to pan I grab for anything. And it's great for eggs since the finish is very smooth.
Great video! Carbon steel pans rule!