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.

Awww but YouTube is where they advertise… How could this be?!

Because they have to cover up all the bad reviews.

I will warn you that the wax coating they use for shipping is pretty tough to get off. I recommend super hot water and steel wool or a metal scrubbie.

But it doesn’t take much to build a seasoning on them. I just cooked oily foods the first couple times and try to do a light oiling after drying them. It holds pretty well and even when I’ve stripped them accidentally, it comes back within 1-2 uses. Hope you enjoy!

Heh makes sense

I have a couple of DeBuyer pans, they’re nice and not overly expensive.

So you heat them up, oil it, dump oil, hit with a bit of water, then oil again?

That sounds about right. You start on higher heat, that opens up the pan’s “pores”, it absorbs the oil or butter in those “pores”. Then you hit it with some water and briefly wash the pan out so you don’t have to have burnt butter or smelted oil in there (it may not be necessary for oil that doesn’t taste nasty after smelling, so things other than olive oil and butter). Then you add another smaller coating for flavor, and lower the temp and cook like you would on Teflon.

On my induction hot plate, I start it at 5.0, put a largish pad of butter in, wait for it to brown a bit. Hit it with water and wash the butter out. Then turn the hot plate to 4.0 and put a smaller pad of butter in.

I just fried an egg like this today for my burger (bigger story I don’t usually eat crap like this) and it was nearly like Teflon. I could flip the egg without a spatula if I wanted.