De Buyer steel frypans

[11.4]

I've used these pans for years, in preference in particular to cast iron. Hey, it's the same element and just finished better with better handles and design, and much more crack resistant if you put it down too hard.

Amazon is now carrying the Eiffel Tower version of these pans (same pan, just with the top-of-the-line cast stainless handle in the shape of the Eiffel tower) and the prices are crazy low. The 24 cm pan is $40 and the 28 cm has been $47. They also have the 20 cm and the small blini pan, all in the same style. This handle doesn't conduct heat to the hand like the little strip metal ones, plus it's the widest so it best resists torquing of the pan in your hand. Plus it's cool. If you've wanted to try a pan you cure, or wanted to get into steel pans in a bigger way, it's a good deal.

[ericpmoss]

Yup -- buy these pans! The Eiffel tower version is really pretty, and I like the handle. The normal handle works great for a hand in a towel, but this is great for bare hands.

[darkmother]

Ordered one. Excited to try it out. I use my cast iron pan almost every day, curious to see what carbon steel is like.

Thanks for the tip.

[caleb]

I wish they'd bring back the carbon steel pans with cast iron handles. I've searched all over for them without luck.

[Too Tall]

I wish they'd bring back the carbon steel pans with cast iron handles. I've searched all over for them without luck.

Don't overlook the upcoming sale here >> https://bluskilletironware.com/updates/

[ericpmoss]

Don't overlook the upcoming sale here >> https://bluskilletironware.com/updates/

Thanks for that! I do like the deBuyer pans (I have two), and for a commercial environment, they make far more sense than a BluSkillet. However, the BluSkillet French skillet I bought is the best frying pan I've ever used. Ever. Not sure why it would be, but it just is. I have to be more careful than I might with a $50 pan, but holy crap it's the pan for anyone that can justify (honestly or not) $300 for it. Don't take me too seriously, though -- I just got my insanely expensive Nakiri knife, and feel like it was totally worth it. It's so satisfying cutting 1/32" tomato slices just using the weight of the blade. Ahem -- I had a bowl of corn flakes for supper.

[caleb]

Thanks for that! I do like the deBuyer pans (I have two), and for a commercial environment, they make far more sense than a BluSkillet. However, the BluSkillet French skillet I bought is the best frying pan I've ever used. Ever. Not sure why it would be, but it just is. I have to be more careful than I might with a $50 pan, but holy crap it's the pan for anyone that can justify (honestly or not) $300 for it. Don't take me too seriously, though -- I just got my insanely expensive Nakiri knife, and feel like it was totally worth it. It's so satisfying cutting 1/32" tomato slices just using the weight of the blade. Ahem -- I had a bowl of corn flakes for supper.

This place is ground zero for enablement I tell you.

Seriously planning to finally pull the trigger on a big@ss copper rondeau today so that I'm equipped when the cooler weather comes. The $300 steel pans are one step too far! (For now.)

[kytyree]

Yes, too rich for my blood. I am very happy with the stainless Tremolina I just picked up and I've got a Lodge cast iron pan to break in as well.

[Cookietruck]

the debuyer carbon steel pans are awesome and i just treat mine like a cast iron pan.
i rarely use my older cast iron now that i have a debuyer as the sides are better for tossing stuff.

[11.4]

Trust Josh to feed the frenzy. I have a couple BluSkillet pans. Love them. Hate Josh.

Just so you all understand, there are about ten times the people wanting them than the number of pans available. Once they were just made on order and came in a couple weeks. Now there are only a couple mass purchase options a year and you have to take your chances. Prices are already ridiculous (but so are the prices on the frames we ride ... jeez). However, BluSkillet is ... and this is why I hate Josh ... an exercise in getting denied. Not denial. Denied. You put in an order for a thousand dollars in pans and after waiting, and waiting, and waiting, you get told they were all sold out. I don't mind paying for something, but when I can't have it, the graceful, mature, understanding, patient, loving, caring, and compassionate part of me simply disappears and the three-year-old comes out. Ever been there? So everyone, every last one of you, Josh included, just forget about BluSkillet. Then I might have a better chance this time. You don't want to see me if I get denied again.

[11.4]

I wish they'd bring back the carbon steel pans with cast iron handles. I've searched all over for them without luck.

They got crazy expensive, just a little less than the copper ones with cast iron handles.

I do have a matched set of four crepe pans in that design if you're interested. Treated but never used.

[darkmother]

Slight thread drift, but how do you season the carbon steel pans? Previously I seasoned my cast iron pan baked in the oven with many coats of flax oil at 500 F, but I doubt I will repeat that process, too smoky and hot.

Cook a bunch of bacon and call it good?

[Too Tall]

Slight thread drift, but how do you season the carbon steel pans? Previously I seasoned my cast iron pan baked in the oven with many coats of flax oil at 500 F, but I doubt I will repeat that process, too smoky and hot.

Cook a bunch of bacon and call it good?

Nothing. They are practically non-stick. Just make sure they are hot before you put anything onto the surface. I have a DeBuyer Mineral B Element Iron Crepe Pan (11.8-Inch Round) which I got out of massive frustration. My Dosas were sticking to even my best pans. The dough was spot on, confirmed by my Mumbai neighbors. The DeBuyer pan solved it. You can buy these all day from Amazon for Bubkes.

Here >> Amazon.com: DeBuyer Mineral B Element Iron Crepe Pan, 11.8-Inch Round: De Buyer Crepe Pan: Kitchen & Dining

[Cookietruck]

bacon grease isn't my favorite, it seems sticky.
when you first get the pan your are supposed to boil some potato skins in it or something, i did it outside on my propane burner until the beeswax lifted then i did a thin coat of vegetable oil.

my wife always puts acidic stuff in the skillet and pulls all the seasoning out. so i usually scrub it out then heat it up hot and wipe a very light coat of vegetable oil in it and let it cool, that's all it needs.

[11.4]

There are several approaches:

1. The pans start with a thin coat of beeswax on them, so they won't stick coming out of the box. You'll be adding more and better oil to the pans as you cook with them.
2. Clean the pan with hot water and soap to remove all oil and beeswax and dry carefully, then coat with an extremely thin rubbed on coat of grapeseed oil and put in the oven for about 90 minutes at 450. You can do this two or three times but the first time pretty much accomplishes what you're looking for.
3. The Cooks Illustrated trick, which works really well, is to mix a third cup of vegetable oil, third cup of kosher salt, and the skins of a couple baking potatoes. Toss it all around on the top of your stove for about twenty minutes and you get a nice dark base to build on.
4. Whatever method you choose, cook with them as you cure them because that helps with the finish.

You hear recommendations for all kinds of temperatures and methods and different oils. These differ because you can use a different oil and need a different temperature and sometimes a different method. If you go significantly over the burning point temperature for the oil, it just burns and you don't accomplish anything. Similarly, you want to get the pan hot enough or you just get a sticky unpolymerized mess on the pan. You want to treat the pan (same for cast iron) at a temperature a little below the burning point. So if grapeseed oil burns at 465 degrees, heat the pan at 450. Usually it takes 90-120 minutes in an oven, plus a gradual cooling (don't pull the pan out or open the door -- just turn off the oven and let it cool overnight).

Steel pans are so smooth that little will stick (compared, say, to the pebbly sandcast finish of a raw Lodge cast iron fryer). But you still want to let it cure properly. My steel pans, with just a tiny bit of maintenance, will sometimes slide an omelet or steak right off onto the floor because they are so slick. Dogs like it, I don't. If anything is sticking, you have a problem with your temperature or you did something like putting wet meat into the pan (you always want to fry products without water on the surface). It always helps to dust your meat with a tiny bit of cornstarch or flour or even polenta or something like that.

Don't mistake good steel pans for the junk ones. Good pans like the De Buyer's are quite think, an eighth inch deep or more. Cheap pans are like sheets of tin.

Every cook learns how to use pans a bit differently. With steel pans you develop your own seasoning, your own familiarity with temperature, and so on. They are a lot more conducive to individuality than your basic AllClad. With modern stoves, a steel pan really works about the same as a vintage copper one, and better than the copper if the latter is thinner (which is often the case). If you ever completely mess one up, heat it up, take it outdoors, spray it with chemical oven cleaner, and when it cools down just don nitrile gloves and scrub it clean.

You liked tubulars, right? That's what steel pans are about.

[caleb]

They got crazy expensive, just a little less than the copper ones with cast iron handles.

I do have a matched set of four crepe pans in that design if you're interested. Treated but never used.

Huh, the cost explanation makes a little more sense than the tale about the foundary burning down, but how expensive and/or difficult can it be to get some cast iron handles knocked out to spec? Both the sourcing and cost explanations seem a little strange. The Smith Foundary is maybe a half mile down the Greenway from me here in Minneapolis, and they could probably have a container of cast handles waiting at the factory in France when the workers get back from their August vacation. I have to imagine there are places in France that could do it too, and it seems odd that they'd be any more expensive than the stainless handles that Mauviel has gone as far as to color black to look like cast iron. Anyway, the whole anti-cast handles thing seems weird to me, especially since a good one conducts less heat than a stainless equivalent.

I sure don't need another crepe pan, but if you have an extra 28cm frying pan with a cast handle that hasn't been sprayed with oven cleaner around, I'm your man.

[Too Tall]

Huh, the cost explanation makes a little more sense than the tale about the foundary burning down, but how expensive and/or difficult can it be to get some cast iron handles knocked out to spec? Both the sourcing and cost explanations seem a little strange. The Smith Foundary is maybe a half mile down the Greenway from me here in Minneapolis, and they could probably have a container of cast handles waiting at the factory in France when the workers get back from their August vacation. I have to imagine there are places in France that could do it too, and it seems odd that they'd be any more expensive than the stainless handles that Mauviel has gone as far as to color black to look like cast iron. Anyway, the whole anti-cast handles thing seems weird to me, especially since a good one conducts less heat than a stainless equivalent.

I sure don't need another crepe pan, but if you have an extra 28cm frying pan with a cast handle that hasn't been sprayed with oven cleaner around, I'm your man.

Let's go dumpster diving.

[11.4]

Let's go dumpster diving.

In Ballard, WA? Behind the BluSkillet ironworks?

[11.4]

When I use an oven cleaner on pans, I only use basic potassium hydroxide. It leaves no residue, doesn't damage the metal, and washes off easily. It also works quite well on a hot pan. It's nothing to be shy of.

[Will Neide]

These Butter Pat pans are on my short list. Made in a foundry up the road from me (in Pa) and are smooth finished cast iron. Not cheap, but should last long enough to pass to my grandkids. https://butterpatindustries.com/pages/people