We went with the updated recommendation of Mauviel from ATK.

The Best Carbon-Steel Skillets of 2025 | America's Test Kitchen

How do you choose a carbon-steel skillet? We’ve tested top brands including Matfer Bourgeat, Made In, de Buyer, and more to find the best carbon-steel skillet for you.

(www.americastestkitchen.com)

Wow, that is one beautiful pan

Good call. Teflon is shit. Ceramics are worse. Ceramics on aluminum is the bloody worst.

I like Demeyere. They’re used in professional kitchens a lot, too.

Why did you replace the stainless All Clad?

A bit of a tangent, but for nonstick applications with stainless steel, you can add oil or butter, get it to smelting temperature, and then lightly wash it out (deglaze basically) and then add more oil or butter and cook at regular temperatures.

I use this method to make omelets and it’s nearly as nonstick as using a Teflon pan.

I can tell you after watching a lot of tests on YouTube that Made In carbon steel, one of the more expensive ones, is absolutely worthless.

I have a pair of volrath 12" that are used all the time, a de buyer crepe pan that does everything it needs to do (crepes) and a yosukata wok that gets more use than I expected. All are great. Some brands use really thin metal, which can warp with high heat and that’s less pleasant.

Following in case someone has recommendations for a carbon-steel wok that can be used on a glass stove and isn’t complete garbage.

Edit: I currently use a stainless-steel wok from WMF, which works well enough but has room for improvement.

What type of stove do you have/use for the yosukata wok?

Look into strata, very cool

Induction, ge cafe chs950p, the medium sized burner does a better job than the large one (better magnetic coupling, so more power in general)

The wok is an induction ready one, so it has a flatter bottom, but I’ve never cooked with a rounded wok, so I don’t know what I’m missing and prefer to keep it that way.

I’m quite happy with my Matfer Bourgeat carbon steel frying pan. It was the America’s Test Kitchen recommendation.

I have this one. I will say that their instructions for seasoning the pan really suck.

My instinct was to treat it like my cast iron, but since this was my first carbon steel pan (other than my wok which works differently), I decided to follow their process exactly.

If i remember right, it came coated in beeswax, which you have to melt off. It then tells you to basically have a pool of oil in it while you put it in a really hot oven. It just ended up with a really splotchy season. I’m hoping it smooths out over time, but it’s been a couple years at this point.

I keep debating stripping it off entirely and starting over like i would for cast iron, but that’s a whole undertaking.

I have a fancy one (mauviel), and i don’t really have any reason to think it’s any better than something 1/3 the price.

If you look at Mauviel vs something like Lodge, the design is pretty much identical, including the steel thickness. If you go from those thicker pans to something even cheaper, you can basically get 1/3 the price of even a Lodge.

For example, my Mauviel is $120, an equivalent Lodge is $40, and an equivalent Choice (restaurant supply store brand) is $12.

With thinner metal, maybe you wouldn’t want to really crank maximum heat on an empty pan like to sear a steak, but for most uses, I’m sure you’d be fine.

Dunno where you are but the carbon steel pans from De Buyer are very high quality and awesome, for a reasonable price in Europe.

I got tired of cleaning it. Most of the time the seasoned carbon steel just needs a wipe.

They’re all about the same, just look at the thickness of the pans when deciding which one to buy. A thinner (~2mm) one will be a lot more reactive to temperature changes whereas a (3mm+) pan will be a much better tool for searing. The differences aren’t drastic enough that you need more than one unless you enjoy collecting. Premium brands aren’t necessarily going to perform better than cheaper ones, but I don’t think this necessarily means that they aren’t worth it. These pans should last more than a lifetime (my oldest has been going strong for a decade now), so if you’d like to treat yourself and have the means to do so, I say go for it. Things to pay attention to when comparing brands would be the cooking surface diameter, slope on the side walls, handle design, and whether or not the pan is riveted for easier cleaning.

The two relatively popular exceptions to the rule of all carbon steel being about the same would be Strata and Misen’s Carbon Nonstick. Both are tri-ply pans with an aluminum mid layer, so they should be significantly lighter and more reactive than pans of similar thickness. Misen’s take comes with a treatment on the steel that supposedly makes it less prone to sticking and unreactive to acidic foods. I’ve never tried the Strata, and I’ve not had Misen’s pan long enough to speak to the longevity of the treatment, but I can say that it was definitely less sticky than untreated carbon steel pans out the box (though with proper preheating it’s not a huge deal). Acidic foods do still strip seasoning off of the pans, but the treated base layer doesn’t rust so you don’t have to be paranoid about cleaning (though I would say not to be paranoid no matter what pan you get). If you or someone that you know may struggle to handle heavier pans, both of these options are great.

If it’s a radiative stove, cooking on it will always suck. If it’s inductive, woks will be OK, but gas is king with woks. Or buy a countertop inductive wok thing.

No rivets. No regrets. Sold.