DEFINITIVE PAN COMPARISON: Cast Iron V.S. Carbon Steel 

Love both carbon and cast iron. Got away from Teflon many years ago for obvious reasons. Started first with carbon steel pans. I love the carbon steel for pot stickers and eggs. Purchased a high end Cast iron about five years ago for searing, cornbread, frittata. Also have carbon steel wok. Kitchen toys. Always a joy!😊

I have a carbon steel wok I use for stir frying, 8" & 12" Ballerini carbon steel pans for sautees, eggs, quick frying, and a 12" cast iron pan for steaks & roasts. Love them all.

Have both. Love both.

Carbon steel was definitely a game changer for me. I have the time of my live when standing in the kitchen, preparing food mis en place with my Aogami Super Gyuto by Yu Kurosaki, sipping some IPA in between, listening to rock music and stir fry the food with high heat in my carbon steel Wok 🤘🏼😃

I got both kinds. I'm really loving my carbon steel pans more and more. I've got them seasoned perfectly. I even left one outside, full of water overnight. I finished cleaning it, and cooked eggs in it right away. Wipe-out clean surface after sliding my eggs around. Cast iron is a great pizza pan!

Excellent comparison. Your knowledge of culinary content combined with technical expertise and clear delivery is extremely helpful. It seems there is a need for both types of cookware in the kitchen. Appreciate the information.

alongside what you said about proper preheating and heat retention in terms of searing, Thomas Keller taught me about tempering your proteins, Pull it out of the fridge at least a half hour before you intend to sear and let it get to room tempurature. that will greatly decrease the tempurature drop when it hits the pan! love this video and I've been learning a lot about carbon steel/cast iron from you this evening! thank you!

I love my cast iron. I did buy a carbon steel wok, and it's nice, but I'm a cast iron guy. I have a dutch oven I use for deep frying, and an enamaled dutch oven for soups, sauces, etc. I bought more cast iron at thrift stores and got rid of the teflon and aluminum cookware.

Nice video. True, cast iron has more carbon than carbon steel, but it's important to put the numbers in perspective. The percentage varies, but the carbon to iron ratio for carbon steel is around .5 or 1 percent while that of cast iron is only around 2 or 3 percent. You could argue that there is hardly any difference at all or you could say one has twice as much as the other, and both statements would be correct. In any case, there is enough difference in carbon content to make a significant difference in properties particularly when it comes to formability. But other properties can be expected to be quite similar. The primary reason cast iron is thick is because of the way that it is produced. It is difficult to cast very thin parts. On the other hand, carbon steel pans are hand forged by heating and hammering or, in the case of less expensive pans, they can be spun or pressed. Carbon steel pans are thinner both because of the way they're made and because of the alloy of the metal. Thermal conductivity of carbon steel is actually slightly less good than cast iron, but as you might guess, since the chemical composition is so similar, the difference is small. Almost any other cooking pan alloy has higher, usually much higher, thermal conductivity than either cast iron or carbon steel. Carbon steel pans heat up more quickly because of the low thermal mass compared with the higher thermal mass of cast iron. In simple terms, the heavier piece of metal will have higher thermal mass compared with a lighter one if the metallurgical properties are very similar. Higher thermal mass means a pan heats up and cools down more slowly and that is because there is so much more metal in the heavy cast iron example rather than the chemical composition of the pans in question. Emissivity is simply a measure of an objects ability to emit infrared energy. Charts showing cast iron and carbon steel emissivity figures vary mostly because of the surface condition more than they do because of their chemical composition. In other words, is the surface polished, oxidized, molten, and so on. But consider the fact that both pans should be well seasoned with a similar surface coating so emissivity will be quite similar because emissivity is related to the surface more than the underlying metal alloy. However, we don't cook by suspending food over a hot pan and hope that the IR radiation does the job. We let gravity do it's work and keep the food in contact with the hot pan and it is that conductive heat which does the job. I don't consider emissivity to be a factor at all when it comes to comparing carbon steel to cast iron as far as actual cooking goes. However, if you're using one of those IR thermometers to measure the temperature of a pan, then a seasoned cast iron or carbon steel might indicate a difference when compared with a shiny stainless steel pan even though they're at the same temperature. Your bottom line assessment is in exact agreement with the way I view my array of carbon steel pans, cast iron pans, and my hand hammered woks. There is plenty of cross over, but having a choice to better suit the job at hand is nice. I also have quite a variety of enameled cast iron cookware which is ideal for brazing and stewing, especially with acidic foods.

Great video, learnt a lot. Sick knife collection

Great demos!!

Excellent video! I'm with you man. I have both carbon steel and cast iron pans in my kitchen. Lodge and Victoria cast iron, as well as Matfer, de Buyer, and a Cast-A-Way carbon steel. These days I mostly use the Matfer pans because they heat up fast, are well seasoned (I've had them a longer time) and they go in the oven for finishing thick steaks. I have two de Buyer crepe pans and one omelette pan. They're more for lighter stovetop cooking. The Cast-A-Way is a deeper pan (almost like cast iron) and it's great for dishes with lots of sauce and liquid.

Something to consider for cast-iron use is the Lodge Combo Cooker. The combo cooker is useful for camp or for ‘bachelor’ [smaller quantity] kitchens in its various configurations. In a single utensil, you get an ~10 inch cast-iron skillet with an ~3 qt. cast iron pot/ lid, or, a cast iron pot with a cast-iron skillet lid, allowing many forms of frying, stewing, and baking for one or two people. I have done my morning omelet/forearm workout in the skillet for decades [one tip to complete the set is to get yourself a stainless steel sheet metal pot lid to fit which, being lighter, avoids some of the extreme weightlifting workout involved in using the cast iron pot for a skillet cover - doable but HEAVY]. I like to saute/steam my omelet ingredients a bit [onions, cheese and ham…] under the sheet metal cover in preference. As to baking, [skillet down, pot up], bread, biscuits,and cornbread are a piece of cake. In camp, being nearly indestructible, the combo goes along on all but the backpack trips.

Both is for sure the way to go. But if i had to choose only one I’d go with the cast iron for the versatility.

Demeyer Stainless, Smithey Cast iron, and a Matfer Carbon steel pans are my favorites. No teflon or ceramic allowed in my kitchen we eat enough synthetics as is.

They make silicone sleeves for handle covers. However they tend to slide off if you don't have the best grip strength.

So Nathan what about making a Bolognese and so on as I hear the acid in tomatoes can really put a toll on seasoning. We have a bunch of enameled dutch ovens which we used for baking bread, and my GF got herself a cast iron pan for her birthday but I been really debating on getting carbon steel as I hate Teflon pans

Lol I love cast iron. Its all I ever use. Durability is why I love it. I'm excited to see what carbon steel is all about. Thank you for the video 🎉

Awesome demo - what's the knife type / length you are using looks great! - also what are those tongs your using? great video!

Gold single grill, Nathan? A man of culture I see hehe

also! could you maybe do a video of cooking eggs in carbon steel vs cast iron? I know myself and a lot of other people struggle with egg stickage in these pans... would love to see your tips and tricks!

Great comparo! I only have 1, a de Buyer 11" Mineral B Pro, and 3 various sizes of cast iron (1 is a Dutch oven) from Victoria. Both types are outstanding performers at every kind of cooking a person may do. The smooth cooking surface of the de Buyer is usually asking for a bit more work for seasoning and maintenance on my electric coil stove, but that is fine with me.

Nice comparison. The long hair and beard really fit you well 👌🏼

Love cast iron, want to get into carbon steel. Anyone have thoughts on pan vs wok?

Where are Smiths sold?

That's an induction cooker? Any good? Better for the environment?

The carbon steel pan looks very interesting.... what's the thickness of the pan? Does the thickness differ between the different sizes of their pans?

Cheaper cast-iron pans like lodge?

Carbon steel is my preferred

Definitely carbon steel for me, its lightweight and for fast pace cooking on the line is really get the job done..

Talk about some laid back music! I feel so calm right now, everything is gonna be alright. I did just eat two lories so.. that may be why.

What brand is the Japanese Carbon Steel you are using?

"That sounds like overhandling to me". For the Letterkenny fans out there.

See that carbon steel pan spin after he poured oil onto it😳😳😳. Warped 😢😢😢

What oil are you using?

id also add that if u have one stainless steel pan for tomatoe sauces or searing proteins and making pan sauces then thats REALLY all youd ever need. unless you also wanted a dutch oven or something for stews and such

Cast iron has 2.5 to over 4 percent carbon. It is saturated with nearly as much carbon as it can dissolve from the coke in the blast furnace. It also has 1 - 3 percent silicon. Whereas carbon steel has much lower levels of both ... No more than 0.6 percent silicon by definition and usually under 1 percent carbon so that it can be pressed and formed into pans. But in no case will non-iron elements comprise more than 1.6 percent in total.

Are we going to see a twin peaks x knifewear shirt? At least some stickers?

I’m gonna be honest. I know you are showing how to use these pans to their strengths, but I would have cooked the vegetables in the leftover fond from the steak. The pan was still hot and would’ve cooked the vegetables just fine. You just couldn’t flip the pan and would have to use a spatula like a pleb lol😂. Great job!

Its kinda like that: ci is american muscle car and cs is ferrari Imo best compromice is atleast 3mm thick carbon steel pan ,best from both worlds. It sear steake as good as ci.

this is nice if you can fortieth. But nice!

I have both, but a carbon steel pan actually only has advantages while cast iron has some disadvantages such as the hot handle being too short or the bottom being too rough. I would only recommend carbon steel, actually all professional chefs in Europe cook with carbon steel and not cast iron - that's probably saying something ^^ I also have a Fissler stainless steel pan that I can't do without, everything with sauces etc. is just cooked in her.

In my adulthood I've used almost exclusively cast iron. Got curious about carbon steel recently and ordered one. Stumbled upon this video while researching the topic. Thanks for the compare and contrast of the two. 👍

I have a pan problem. I keep buying them even though i already have more than i need😂😂

Those are black steel. Black steel and cast iron are different. You can fry chicken in either, but you have to be more careful with heat with black steel which can heat up and cool faster.

Has pour spouts, doesn’t use them😂

10:30 Everything looks cooler in slomo

Carbon steel has more carbon than cast iron, that’s what makes it steel.