Lodge 10" cast iron chef skillet clearance at Wally's $7

[One Drop]

For those who think new cast iron is rough and needs to be sanded smooth first, check out carbon steel pans.

Carbon steel pans cook like cast iron but are much much better. They are smoother right from the start and don’t require as much maintenance as CI. Plus they aren’t as heavy so it’s easier to move around.

I prefer cast iron for a few things, like corn bread and potato dishes, or times I need a good griddle like surface that stays how a long time to cook a bunch of things, but for pure searing and stovetop to oven finishing meats and I far prefer carbon steel.

They are by far the most used pans in restaurant kitchens in Europe, they are far more practical due to reduced weight and being more reactive to temperature changes due to being thinner. But I am more careful of the seasoning on them, I'll simmer things in cast iron for short periods but would never do so in a steel pan.

My latest triumph is recreating Smash burgers in my De Buyer Pan, I use a smaller steel pan to smash the meat into the surface of the larger one, super hot and painted with clarified butter, pushing down for ten seconds. I use a metal fish spatula to scrape the burger off for flipping, the crust is impossibly rich and the sear incredibly even and intense tasting (I crumble some beef stock into the SPOG seasoning).

Everything sears better on these and won't leave any black traces, not always the case for cast iron.

Both are infinitely better than Teflon pans, which always slightly steam things at the same time as searing them. I despise them with all of my being, even though I still use one once in a while for certain things.