Carbon Steel Pan
Allow me to introduce my most recent acquisition, a 24 cm de Buyer carbon steel pan. No, its not pretty and shiny like when I first bought it, but I don’t care, I love, love, love this pan because of what it allows me to do. Its perfect for searing, sautéeing, and pan-roasting. The shape makes food flipping very easy, and the long handle doesn’t heat up too quickly. A lot of professional kitchens use carbon steel. There are a lot of good brands out there, Vollrath, Matfer Bourgeat, to name a few.
A carbon steel pan is like a lighter version of a cast iron skillet. They require about the same level of care. They must be seasoned before use (which explains the dark streaks made from oil, eventually the whole pan will be black), and after washing they should be dried immediately and then lightly oiled. Another similarity that carbon steel shares with cast iron is that it is highly reactive to acidic ingredients like wine or tomatoes, (unless extremely well-seasoned, so I’ve heard). That is a disadvantage, but if I’m going to make a tomato sauce I’d be using a stainless steel pot instead of a skillet anyway.
One advantage that carbon steel has over cast iron is that the surface is much more forgiving, I can scrub it with a brillo pad and soap, for instance. Carbon steel also heats faster, since it is so much lighter. And yeah, its a LOT lighter. I can flip foods in it without the aid of a utensil.
…which brings me to my favorite characteristic of this pan: its virtually nonstick. I can cook crêpes in this thing. Of course, it does need to be well-seasoned, which doesn’t take very long incidentally. I’ve had this pan for 2 weeks now and I was able to flip a fried egg in it this morning without any issue (with some butter, of course, no utensils used!):
Egg dropped into pan.
Egg flipped over.
Egg.
Pan after cooking.
Its so much better than a teflon pan, because one, I don’t have to worry about scratching the surface. I can use metal utensils on it. Two, I don’t have to worry about ingesting PTFE’s, or polytetrafluoroethylene (try putting that word on a menu.) Three, this pan will outlast any piece of teflon cookware, if properly taken care of, it lasts a lifetime, saving me money in the long run. Lastly, you know those little brown caramelized bits of food that stick to a pan when you sear meat or fish? That’s called a fond, which in French, means “base”. In short, fond = flavor. Carbon steel produces gorgeous fonds that teflon pans could never do. I can deglaze a carbon steel pan with some chicken stock and make a flavorful pan sauce with a fond. You won’t get the same result with teflon.
As for the seasoning on carbon steel, there are different methods. I prepped mine like this: Washed and scrubbed thoroughly with soap and hot water. Scoured again with a baking soda paste (just mix baking soda with water). Rinsed in hot water. Dried thoroughly. Poured in a couple tablespoons of oil, wiped it around the entire inside surface of the pan with a paper towel, placed it upside-down in oven (with a baking sheet on lower rack to catch any dripping oil,) cranked the oven to 300˚F, and let it rip for 1-2 hours. I then let it cool completely in the oven, washed it out again, dried it, and lightly oiled it.
Proper care: Always hand wash a carbon steel pan. Never put one in a dishwasher, never let one soak in water, and always dry immediately. It will rust otherwise. If it does rust, you can always thoroughly scrub it out again. Keep it lightly oiled when not-in-use, just wipe it out with a paper towel before cooking.
Note: I don’t work for De Buyer or any other brand; this is not meant to be an official endorsement or review of particular brands, I was not paid for this, I just happen to love carbon steel.
7 comments
Nice egg flip
Thanks, still got it, Kind of. Like riding a bicycle!
I have a couple carbon steel pans that I use for cooking eggs and making hash browns… And they’re perfect in that regard… when finished cooking, I just drop some salt in (as a cleaning agent) and wipe around and dump it in the sink/garbage… I don’t use any water in this process… However, I have found that when I have cooked other things… Like a hamburger for example and had to use water (no detergent) to clean them.. that they have lost a significant part of their season and require re-seasoning before I can get non-stick with an egg… Any tips there? The deglazing process you describe above would produce similar results I would think… Does deglazing with the chicken stock remove your seasoning? I would imagine wine would be worse.. (acid).. Nice page by the way.. How ’bout an updated photo of that pan with more use…
@John: Hi, John, thanks for visiting. A few questions: Are you scrubbing the pan too hard when you wash it? When I wash mine, I scrub gently with a soft sponge. And, how well-seasoned is your pan at this point? From what I understand a carbon steel pan isn’t fully seasoned until its entirely black, like tar, which means oil has filled all the pores in the metal and been bonded to the metal itself through the heating process. Once a pan is heavily seasoned, the seasoning shouldn’t come off. I used to work at a place where the carbon steel pans were seasoned to the point that they could be scrubbed with every use in soapy water, and placed back by the stoves dripping wet, no rust ever formed and no seasoning ever came off (that layer of bonded oil becomes the new surface if I’m not mistaken, its called the patina). We were even able to deglaze our pans with highly-acidic ingredients, like vinegar and wine, without any issue of stripping the seasoning or having the food taste like metal. The process just takes a long time, if I were you I would just continue as you are doing: if you wash the pan, dry it, oil it, and place in a warm oven for a few minutes to re-season. Cook with it as much as you can and avoid using anything acidic until your pan is fully-seasoned. Again, the whole process just requires patience. To address your de-glazing question: I did deglaze my pan the other night with some stock after cooking off some scallops (won’t be using anything highly acidic for a long time). It didn’t seem to remove any seasoning, or if it did, I didn’t notice. A few days later I was able to make an omelet in the same pan (with a little oil at the right temp, of course). The omelet came out fine. I hadn’t even re-seasoned the pan.
I hope this helps. As for an update picture, you read my mind. I’ll definitely be posting one when my pan has taken on a significant enough difference.
Hi there,
I’m very happy to have discovered your blog recently, I’ll be definitely looking forward to your new posts. The coincidence of me ending up on your blog was in fact a google search of de Buyer frying pans. I’m very strongly considering getting 1 small and 1 medium size of those pans when I travel to UK in 2 weeks, and I have to say that reading your blog about those pans made me very excited. It is time to retire from teflon pans!
I’m considering getting the De Buyer Blue Steel one though when I’ve checked de Buyer’s website there is also a Mineral line of those pans. Do you think there are big differences between them? I’ve found even a picture of a 5 years old De Buyer Blue Steel frying pan ( http://justcookit.blogspot.com/2009/06/top-ten-kitchen-gadgets.html) Its naturally darker steel so it gets black sooner I’d assume but getting the perfect patina will take several years in any case.
Ozgur: Hi, and thanks for visiting!
I’ve never heard of the mineral line before, although it looks interesting. As far as any difference in performance, I have no idea. From what I read, it looks like it should work the same. You might also want to check out the other brands I mentioned, by the way, they are reputed to be even better from what I’ve heard.
Hi. Thx 4 sharing pictures and tips. So thankful 4 the high resolution pictures. I was a litle scared of rusting but mine will be used a lot. Nice 2 know the normal color of an often used debuyer. Ur pics helped push 2 phone and order one. Been on the fence for a while. I’m tossing out a 3 yr old hard anodized alum fry pan. I can’t wait to get mine in the mail. I just bought mine today the 12″ one. Thanks again for sharing
http://www.broadwaypanhandler.com/broadway/product.asp?s_id=0&prod_name=DeBuyer+Carbone+Plus+Fry+Pans&pf_id=WorldCuisine_FryPans&dept_id=1125
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