The pan you don't have (but should) 

Some people are asking good questions about induction cooking. From what I understand, generally carbon steel, cast iron, and stainless steel* pans all work fine with induction (*but definitely check when it comes to stainless steel - it depends on what additional metal they're made with); nonstick pans are less likely to work. One quick trick is to use a magnet on the bottom of your pan; if it sticks, the pan is induction compatible.

The fact that the handles and outer surfaces of all these pans are _not_ pristinely clean makes the video much more realistic, and viewers far less guilty about _their_ pans looking like that. 😀

Don't forget that sour sauces can fairly easily etch away the seasoning from carbon steel/ cast iron pans. So when making tomato sauce is where i use my enameled cast iron or stainless steel pans.

You’re one of the first RU-vid channels that correctly talks about cast iron being a bad heat conductor. Everyone thinks it’s great at conducting heat, when it’s really good at retaining heat.

As a south Indian, I can 100 percent vouch for the carbon steel pan, which is perfect for making evenly cooked crispy dosas! Once seasoned, I'd argue it's better than non-stick pans. Because to spread the dosa properly you need your pan to be a little sticky when the batter is wet. But once cooked, it comes off the pan, almost like magic! That is a property no non-stick coating can replicate.

genuinely shocked that this didn't end up being a sponsored video, i was just waiting for the plug. definitely looking into getting one when my current non-stick gets bad enough

It's kinda sad how cast iron pan manufacturers just stopped machining their pans. Like what the heck, everybody agrees that a smooth finish is better, and the tools are not complicated at an industrial scale, so why'd they stop making flat surfaces?

I would note that both Carbon Steel and Cast Iron require extra care to avoid rust, however carbon steel being smoother has made it easier for me to manage, there's always the option to just deep clean it and remove the seasoning to get to a "factory new" state, while cast iron doesn't really have this option because of the pores/grooves. Both aren't good for acidic foods though, like tomatoes. These don't just eat away at the seasoning, they can damage the pan, as both metals are not rust-proof like stainless steel is.

Thanks for all of this super helpful knowledge on the world of kitchen pans! The carbon steel is currently in our shopping cart awaiting checkout 👀 We can’t get enough of the pan-tastic shoutout either. We hope food lovers everywhere can also learn some cool things about animals and nature over here at Animalogic! 🍳 🐼 ❤️

Love the pie chart graphic on the pan, very cute, very creative. Thanks for the info!

Loved this video. The way that you communicate information is a complete cheff's kiss. Thanks!!

Thank you so much for talking about my favourite piece of cookware of all time!

I'm from eastern France, I've been cooking with DeBuyer carbon steel pans for almost a decade now. The brand is from the Vosges, created mid 19th century.

Ceramic pans are the best nonstick pans. Mainly because they won’t kill my birds if I accidentally get them too hot, but they also tend to be more durable in my experience.

I REALLY love your videos!!! You guys really help me cook... well😂

Yay!! You have a sponsor now, and OMG *you deserve it*. Your videos have been so informative, and such a delight to watch. Thank you so much for them!

i am so happy to discover this channel, your vids are amazing.

Good discussion. I have all of the above and appreciate them all for their distinctive positive qualities. I have a carbon steel crepe pan that I use for eggs but never for crepes. I've found, though, that after trying many different oils the only one that keeps my eggs from sticking is butter. Which I love.

I think the Minute group may be one of the few channels I would trust to really check their product sponsors, on par with Tom Scott

Thank you for this beautiful video. I feel like I'm finally starting to understand how pans work

Thanks to you I'm finally gonna buy one - Never quite understood these until now!

I will look at them for my next skillet. Thanks!

I love my carbon steel pan. It pretty much stays on my stovetop all of the time. Perfect for eggs.

What about ceramic coated pans I've been using those for a while now and they work amazing on all front in my opinion. Really good at being non-stick, highly durable, heat resistant and no seasoning required.

Was gonna be too lazy to watch the video as usual, but did it anyway - was super helpful actually! Learned a lot I didn't know!

I have a beautiful smithy carbon steel pan that I never use. In my kitchen we basically use two pans, a stainless steel one (any thing that requires deglazing or involves acidic food), and a cast iron one (for frying, cooking eggs, pancakes, ect.) One thing worth mentioning is that cast iron pans can be machined smooth, I use a Stargazer cast iron pan that has a very smooth finish similar to that of a carbon steel pan.

Congratulations on another super insightful and interesting video! One of my non-stick pans started leaking the other day, and I've been putting off the purchase of a new one. Now I know what to look out for :)

yeah carbon steel has been my favorite skillet for awhile now. it’s just so good for everything and it’s so easy to refresh the seasoning when i push it a little too far 🥰

I would love if you also talk about induction in videos like these. I know in some places like the US its still quite uncommon but its becoming more and more popular in more and more places. It is very much relevant enough to talk about

I recently got myself a nice nitrated carbon steel wok and I really love it. Definitely going to get a pan too.

Sanding down cast iron has been shown to complicate the seasoning process a bit. The surface imperfections allow for the oil polymerization to adhere better in many cases

This will probably be lost to the rest of the comments, but I need to correct something you mention several times. The thermal conductivity property of the 2 alloys (cast "iron" and carbon steel) are relatively similar. They are not inherently dissimilar in this way. You do state the real reasons they are different but seem to confuse that aspect. Carbon steel is less brittle so it can be made thinner than the cast iron. The heat retention is a result of their mass and their thermal conductivity. And so in this case, the mass is the only significant factor. Following from this, the stainless steel pan would be a comparable material too, in terms of thermal conductivity. However more expensive to manufacture the alloy, and strong enough to be thinner. To summarise, you could make all of these pans as thick as the cast iron, and they would all behave very similarly in terms of heat transfer. As a mechanical engineer, I felt it right to correct this detail.

The information is presented very well- clear and accessible. I tried using a Darto carbon steel pan for roughly 10 months last year. I wanted to love it. I really did. I sold it recently for many reasons... for me, there simply is no carbon steel pan being made right now that has a comfortable handle. None. Many have rivet heads that gather gunk. I found the Darto to be too thin and because carbon steel is ductile, it did warp. The solution for me was Field cast iron- simply put, to move to the next smaller size down. I won't saute with it, but I find I like stainless steel better for that anyway.

I got a carbonsteel pan about a year ago and now it's the only pan we use. In fact, we font even pull it off of the stovetop. I remember recently opening the drawer with all our old ceramic enamel and nonstick pans looking for something, and considering throwing them out.

this is so interesting, thank you!

Loving these

can we get a definitive non-stick/teflon breakdown? I keep hearing things that contradict each other and I don't think I'd understand the material science.

What a wonderful pan that was, at the end.

I’ve had that exact pan for years and it’s a work horse. Matfer Bourgeat black steel, if I’m assuming correctly. The only caveat is that’s it is difficult to keep the seasoning even on those things. Avoiding acidic ingredients is a given, but it’ll chip and flake off if you’re not searing meat or doing stir-fries on them regularly. I still use it far more often than any other pan in my kitchen

Damn I just got this Video randomly recommended and gotta say what a good video. Well explained and nice cute animations :D

Have to commend you on the pan => panda segway. Great video as usual, thanks for sharing.

as someone that tried to get on board the Cast Iron train and ended up donating my pan after I ruined the seasoning, the carbon steel wok I snagged at a thrift store blew me away right from day one. I'm definitely a convert to the Carbon Steel life.

Love carbon steel pans, they're so nice to work with

Certified THICCC boy

The issue with cast iron pan is that not all households have an oven to perform the seasoning. In many countries, an oven is a luxury instead of kitchen staple.

Hey, I do have a carbon steel pan! And it is fantastic! I think I may even have the same brand judging by handle shape. It's the one pan I feel should just live on the cooktop, because you can use it for basically everything. From eggs to steaks to reheating leftovers, it's great.

A carbon steel frying pan and a Stainless Saute pan is the best setup.

Love these patronizing titles :D

"Panoply of Pans" is a delicious turn of phrase.

Agree completely. Every time I use it I season my carbon steel wok by bringing it up to around 200°C (~400°Frankenstein), or when old oil residues just start to smoke, then swilling a tablespoonful of oil round it. That opens the pores & crevices and then fills them. I then turn it down a bit to cook: that way I can steam noodles in it without them sticking. Needless to say, detergent never gets near it.

Nice! I just bought a new carbon steel pan for my parents because I love mine (and their teflon one was basically aluminum at the bottom and only the sides have a non stick coating)

I want to love the carbon steel pan I got as an experiment. But I seasoned it as directed, used it once for something salty, and found that it had managed to develop spots of rust by the time I went to clean up after the meal. In order to make sure I'd gotten all the rust off, I ended up stripping the seasoning (with food-grade lye), then the rust, then immediately seasoning the pan again. And so far I've been too hesitant to try a second time.

You missed enameled iron pans. VERY expensive, have the heat retention of cast iron but they can be cleaned in ways cast iron can't... Cook fish or bacon in cast iron (or carbon steel) and it's likely the next thing you cook will have the essence of fish or bacon in the flavor. With enameled cast iron you can get the last food cooked OUT of the pan and use it for something else... My LeCruiset pan goes from fish to pancakes to caramelized maple syrup without any ghostly essences of the last meal I cooked in it. Pricey, yes, but worth the expense, given that one relatively nonstick pan does it all. AND it doesn't rust or need surface curing.

Im unapologetically in love with my cast iron pans.

these things sitting at like 100°C at my diswashing station always had me on edge

Loved the video! Really cool storytelling elements! Would you mind me asking what you use to create the drawn overlays (eg at 0:50). They look so cool! 😊

Legacy cast iron pans were very smooth. Modern companies both use cheaper manufacturing processes and apply a coating to their cast iron which gets the seasoning to stick better

Thanks!

Great video. I personally use cast iron almost exclusively, and use stainless steel when I have to boil something, simmer for a long time or cook something super acidic

My go-to pan is a Darto n.25. I hate the grease-trap rivets on some carbon steel and stainless steel pans, I love that these guys are completely stamped so I don't have any excessively gross areas. They're a bit rougher looking out of the box than a De Buyer, Matfer Bourgeat, or even a lodge. It had very clearly machined edges that are a bit sharp, for example. I don't care. I sanded down the sides and gave them a chamfer and roughed up the whole cooking surface so seasoning would stick a bit better. Now it's my personal unique pan, with no rivets, and no equal anywhere on the planet, and that's super cool to me.

I recently moved out and this video inspired me to leave the nonstick pans to my relatives and get myself a carbon steel pan. It has been the only pan I use for a month and I am truly shocked at how versatile it is. It is much easier to use than a cast-iron pan and it can do pretty much everything a nonstick pan can do while being far better at searing meat. The only problems I ran into are eggs having a tendency to stick if I don't control the temperature just right, but even if things do stick, I find it much easier to clean and re-season than my cast iron pan

As soon as I saw the video title, I knew it was carbon steel. They are _really_ underappreciated.

My mom gave me a carbon steel cephalon pan with matching lid. I fell in love. Im traveling right now and i miss my pan.

0:19 "Awake but at what cost" same, same

I'm pretty sure I mostly have non stick, but I can't tell apart the onces I should use for induction and the ones I should not use for induction...

Your wallet saying no!😂😂 lmao, relatable

The instant I saw the thumbnail, I knew this would be about carbon steel pans. Several cooking content creators have covered carbon steel before. Personally, I reach for my well-cared-for non-stick pan the most. I've had it for years and years and it has had no noticeable degradation in its non-stick capacity. Cast iron's typical size, shape, and heft means it's basically never the right fit for anything I do, so my cast iron pans sit well-seasoned and wrapped in paper towel in an out-of-the-way cabinet. Maybe I'll find someone to give them to. I might give carbon steel a go one of these days, though...

I think they're more popular outside of the US, which I think has a cast iron bias. Love mine.

very true, my workhorse pan is a locally manufactured carbon steel with copperor aluminium (?) cladding and its awesome, sad one cannott get them at retail stores but have go to where restaurants buy them and they are often out of stock

I fully agree... I rarely use anything else. One of those is always on the stove. Doesn't make much sense to stow it away if it is in constant use. Only for acidic foods that have to stay in the pan for a while they don't excel. Just the material designation is misleading. "Carbon steel pans" are usually made from steel that *actually* is practically pure iron with just the trace elements that would otherwise be too expensive to remove, for no benefit to gain. Search for "DC04" for a typical material composition data sheet. That "Carbon Steel" with 1% of carbon (named C100 or 1095 in different naming standards) you mentioned here is used for knives, not good for pans. This is where the name makes sense. For pans: Better call them just "steel pans". (Engineer with a fascination for material science here...)

If anyone's looking for a certain brand of carbon steel, I got a Ballarini 11" pan from Amazon for a pretty good price, and it works great. De Buyer Mineral B is also a very popular one, but their handles have a coating so you can't season it in the oven.

I do 80% of my skillet cooking in cast iron. I broke out my stainless pan today because I was making a pan sauce. I tend not to get a lot of use out of my carbon steel pan unless I am making something that I need to flip without a spatula. Carbon steel is good all around, but as noted, every type of pan it competes with is better than carbon steel when used for what they are best at. When I need to get a great sear, or transfer from the cooktop to the oven I use cast iron. When I want to create a fond for a sauce, I use stainless. When I want non-stick, my carbon steel doesn't compete with my antique Lodge, nor my non-stick omelet pans.

Most of my pans are stainless steel, but I do have a carbon steel wok and love it.

Are there particular brands of pans and pots that you really like? Would love a video on that.

As a mechanical engineer, listening to all the material properties I just can’t! Carbon steel or cast iron, they do tend to heat uneven, yes, especially on induction l. But! Plain steel has 5 times better heat conductivity over nickel chromium steel(stainless steel). And this is what you want! Combine the better heat conductivity with the better heat retention and you get awesome cooking experience. The hex clad stainless steel uses different layers of materials to gain fast heat response but has lower heat retention due to aluminum being less capable of this. Overall great video 😊

Felt nice to already have this pan haha

How can you miss the amazing flavour carbon steel imparts to the food ! The smokiness it produces when foods are seared properly multiplies the taste 10x

0:43 nice price :)

I love your videos, and I love your pans, oops, puns!!

I have that same pan... Its really good eventhough I tend to also gravitate to my cast iron... My stainless steel gets attention here and there.. But, its made me move on from garbage nonstick pans that I keep replacing every 6 months... And yes, when used properly and you take the time they are non-stick..

out of the 4 pans I have, 2 are carbon Steel woks, and really my favourite for responsiveness. However, my workhorse for general use is the cuated and cladded stainless steel bcause of its non reactiveness and easier care (I can leave food or sauced on it). I go to the woks anytime I need responsiveness. Now savin for copper-stainless pans to have it always both ways. pro tip if somethings stick to stainless you just make it a demiglaze or scrub it away.

The reason why cast iron takes longer to heat up and cool down is because of thermal mass rather than the conductivity of the metal. More mass takes more energy to heat up and vice versa. And carbon steel is called that way because of its crystalline structure where carbon is more uniformally distributed throughout the iron. As apposed to cast iron where it is mostly contifined to the grain boundaries thus making it brittle.

It's the puns for me 😂

Carbon Steel is used a lot in Asian Woks. I have a carbon steel wok and it is great for my stir fries.

The thing is though. You CAN, make a pan steel/carbon steel or cast iron nearly as non stick as any teflon(ptfa), ceramic or other. By just seasoning the pan. IE "burning" multiple layers of oil to form a carbon robust non stick layer. Better with cast iron or carbon steel, with a removable thermal handle covering, so you can season and cook in oven, but have a pan you can use handle on hobs.

there are two other types that are a bit more niche I've always wondered about, aluminium and copper. they're both better heat conductors than stainless steel afaik but they require more particular care (in particular copper really does)

Fun pan puns, hun! ^_^

Awesome! Ditch that that non-stick pans!

The content we crave

Growing up, we would get new teflon pans every 2 years or so. The teflon would flake off and end up in the food we ate. Bought cast iron and steel pans as an adult, and still have them decades later.

Great presentation and evaluation. I bet you must be pretty proud of this video; you should be :D Cheers

You can also 'season' stainless pans as well, l after all the seasoning is polymerised cooking oil.

as i understand it, stainless steel itself is a lousy heat conductor just like carbon steel or cast iron, it takes a long time to heat up or cool down "stainless steel" pans like All-clad just have a center core of something super-conductive like aluminum or copper, that's what heats up fast and spreads the heat evenly

I've had my same 2 frying pans for 40+ years. A big cast iron and a small cast iron sadly, l'm at an age where their weight is becoming a problem and have been thinking of carbon steel so, l really appreciate this video. I have heard that they can be a nightmare as far as sticking goes though so, l'd really appreciate some tips on what to look for and how to season them.

Hello and thanks for this amazing content. I recently own a carbon steel pan. My question is, you avoid tomato juice at all costs? Because I did my research and decided to risk it and it almost "cleaned" my pan, I lost the 5-7 seasonings I just gathered in the first days just by preparing the tomato sauce for my pasta :)) Thanks

i have an emotional attachment to my cast iron pan

cool do you still have to go through all the treatment and maintenance that cast iron requires?

I love the longevity of cast iron and the rustic aesthetic they evoke but I’ve been curious about carbon steel for a while. This video was super helpful

My favorite is a heavy stainless steel pan (like one clad with thick copper), very responsive, decent at retaining heat, and most importantly, requires no maintenance. If you use enough oil it cooks eggs just fine too.

Does the choice depends on what kind of heating mechanism you have (piped natural gas vs propane vs. heating element vs. induction cooking)?