DARTO carbon steel pan review

[MarcelNL]

After having one pan warp slightly, I adopted a protocol of gentle and slow heating and haven't had any problems. But the fact that you must take special care with carbon pans (and that larger pans will still be prone to hot spots) makes me not use them on induction very often. They're much better on gas or resistance electric stovetops.

thanks! that makes refraining from buying a lot easier ;-)

 

[Jovidah]

thanks, I know carbon is not the greatest conductor but i was more interested in warping...my larger De Buyer has a bit of a bulge in the center.

Like already mentioned by btbyrd gentle heating helps...but so does matching coil size to the pans. The smaller the gap the better it works.

 

[Michi]

thanks! that makes refraining from buying a lot easier ;-)

Matfer updated their pans to prevent spinners. Suitable for induction.

 

[MarcelNL]

@Michi , you're no help ;-)

(it's rather a negative spinner. the center is bent upwards ever so slightly yet enough to make oil/fat pool on the outside...I've been thinking about giving it a good whack with a blunt object)

 

[Michi]

@Michi , you're no help ;-)

Terribly sorry

(it's rather a negative spinner. the center is bent upwards ever so slightly yet enough to make oil/fat pool on the outside...I've been thinking about giving it a good whack with a blunt object)

Well, that's better than a spinner, for sure! I suspect that your chances of getting rid of the bend are slim to none. You won't magically move the metal around the perimeter away, which is why the bend is there in the first place.

 

[MarcelNL]

yeah, it's something I know, yet do not want to accept ...yet.

 

[Pertti]

@Michi , you're no help ;-)

(it's rather a negative spinner. the center is bent upwards ever so slightly yet enough to make oil/fat pool on the outside...I've been thinking about giving it a good whack with a blunt object)

De Buyers come with a slight upward convex by design. On some pans it can be more noticeable than others.

That convex is there indeed to prevent the pan from warping in the other direction, creating a spinner. Also on induction that slight upward bulge will have zero effect on how the pan heats. Dartos have this also and they explain it on their website, but its less noticeable on my pans vs de Buyers. I have 5 Darto and 4 de Buyer carbon pans for induction.

For optimal function IMO, carbon pan should be chosen so that they'd have a slight bit smaller cooking surface than the induction element. Then you will notice they cook fine. Go oversized and its a hotspot in the middle.

Both the De Buyer 28cm frypan and Darto n25 that I own, are fine IMO on my 21-22cm AEG induction hob, but I would not choose to buy their larger frypan models for this hob. They would be less than good. I did buy, still use and own the 32cm de Buyer country pan as my larger stir frypan though.

I had been for long hoping for a new induction cooktop and I ordered one on friday now. It'll come with a 28cm 5,2 kw hob and I hope it works fine with my Darto n30 .

 

[Pertti]

I'll still add, that I would say that a de Buyer 26cm 3mm with an 18,5cm bottom would still heat more optimally on my 21cm hob (21cm according to manual, 22cm painted ring), but at some point the pan is just too small for its intended tasks.

The around 20cm bottom of the n25 and de buyer 28 are fine. Preheat somewhat low for a moment before raising heat to a more medium setting empty and you should be fine preventing warping. In my experience, during cooking you can also use higher heat settings as necessary, without fear. I dont really ever use the power boil function though, outside of sometimes for short periods perhaps when stir frying.

When I'm cooking morning eggs on carbon, I'll typically use the rather small de Buyer 24cm on the 21cm hob. And the Darto n20 heats perfectly on the 18cm back hobs.

 

[Jovidah]

Just received my 35 paella pan from the presale. Can't say I'm that impressed. The thick layer of linseed oil is pretty much entirely polymerized into a sticky gummy mess so that's going to be a nightmare to clean up. On top of that somehow rust spots still managed to appear all over the thing. The edges are also generally sharp and rough. Even on the cheapest De Buyers I never saw anything like that.

It'll probably be fine after I give it a lot of scrubbing and put it to use, but it's still annoying, especialy when you think you're getting somewhat of a premium product. It does still have the advantage of thickness and one-piece of design over the cheap De Buyers, but in all other regards I find F&F to be inferior.

 

[Naftoor]

Honestly I had no such reservations about it being a premium product. It was 50 bucks, to form 4mm thick of 7-8lb of steel into a pan, and ship it from the third world to my door. I don’t even think I could BUY that material in plate form for 50 bucks locally. No rust on mine. The only area I’m noticing a rough edge is the edge where the handle is punched out and meets the body. Luckily it’s not actually sharp just annoyingly rough on mine, if it was rougher I’d probably take some 80 grit to it. As it stands, since I’ll be handling it frequently with hot pads it isn’t a problem on mine. I

agree the oil was awful but I’d rather that than the oil. Took about 30 minutes of screaming hot water, credit cards to scrape and green scrubby action to remove it all. Definitely machining marks over large portions of the surface, and a few nicks I’m guessing before they even put it in the press. Time will tell if they cause an issue with cooking. Most are on the underside which doesn’t matter but a few are on the cooking surface.

Used it for 2-3 lbs of potato’s and 4 lbs of chicken thighs last night. Slightly overfilled because I was stubborn but I’m very pleased with it. My only personal issues are that I didn’t properly measure my intended storage for it (it’s freaking huge if any Americans are wondering how big a 35cm pan is) so it’s gonna have to get stored in the oven. Bought it as a chicken roaster, unfortunately a lot of stores near me no longer sell whole chickens, but I’m gonna preemptively say it’s gonna be great in that role due to the size.

If I had purchased it at the current price I might be slightly disappointed. Then again, it’s a larger pan than the debuyer paella at about 20% cheaper. But at the presale price, I’m very pleased with it. It’s a hunk of metal for chicken and potato’s that’s absolutely gonna out live me, for less then the cost of a meal for two.

That being said, it’d be terrible for paella. Far too thick, my understanding is that true paella pans are in the 2ish mm range for responsiveness over open fire.

 

[Jovidah]

Yeah admittedly they were cheap now, and at that price you can't complain much... but at normal full price the paella I bought would have been a hundred bucks; that's pretty much twice what you pay for an equivalent De Buyer.

Machining marks were on mine too but nothing I'd expect to impact performance. Using it as essentially a big oven roasting pan was also my intended usecase, and I think it'll do well in that role. The low sidewalls are actually a benefit there. But if you actually wanted to use it to make paella I think the low sidewalls would suck.

 

[ptolemy]

I think you guys are giving them a pass when you shouldn't. Thick layer of oil is bad...you shouldn't have to spend hrs scrubbing it clean. Rust I can understand, which is a pretty easy fix, but sharp edges is pretty bad. One shouldn't have to grinding it down to make it psafe. It should be fairly easy for them to create a process/jig to give it 2 round overs at 80 and 120 to smoothen it out.

In this situation, price, imo doesn't matter, since the product is obviously not suitable to be used when it arrives.

 

[Jovidah]

Honestly it wasn't hours to scrub it clean... luckily some degreaser I still had laying around actually worked so it was a matter of throwing it in the shower, spraying it, and giving it some time. I guess handson time to clean it was more like 15 mins. Still annoying, but not undoable.
Sharp edges...they're not so sharp I'd cut myself on them... just sharper than on the other stuff I had so far. Again, a bit annoying but not completely disqualifying.

And in practise none of the carbon steel pans are ready to be used when it arrives since at the very least you need to season them. And De Buyer Mineral B series also come with beeswax crap you gotta take off.

I guess my main point is that it feels like a bit of a sidegrade from a De Buyer. F&F is a bit worse, height is a bit lower (on the 35 paella) but that's neither good nor bad, but you do get more thickness and the rivetless design. It's not perfect, but for the 65 dollars I paid it's also not a terrible deal, even with the issues it had.

 

[Naftoor]

I should clarify the rough edges on mine are only in the interior of the handle cutouts, and they kinda remind me of metal that was cut with a saw and not finished after. Definitely feels like it’s missing a finishing step, but I don’t think it’s a cut hazard in any way.

I have one of their presale N30 sautés as well, which I never got around to setting up but the cut outs in that things handles seem significantly smoother. The variation in the F&F is definitely concerning. For my part, I think the pan(s since I haven’t used the N30) seem to be a great value at the presale prices. Full price, I don’t think I’d buy them.

For the paella, I don’t think the darto paella pan is anything like actual paella pans. They’re made of significantly thinner material, and have much shorter side walls since paella is cooked in such a thin layer. They really should have labeled it as a roaster because that’s what it’s ideal at, or for plunking down on the grill to get a solid seat on 3-4 steaks at a time.

I haven’t seen a similar product though. There are plenty of 35cm paellas which are cheaper, but they all have riveted handles which is what drew me to darto. I haven’t heard of rivets failing on more then 1-2 pans from people, so likely not a real issue for anyone, but I like it cosmetically. For monopiece, similar sized pans the only things I can find are from the boutique forges like blue or smithey and such, where they run for 300+ for this size, but obviously have much, much, much better F&F

 

[cheeken1111]

I got the 27 cm pan. Also had gummy oil but no rust spots. semi sharp handles. I gave it a quick rinse and cooked off the oil on my bbq side burner for 10-20 min. Rinse again and put your own oil to season one more time.

Is there a reason to scrub off the half cooked gummy oil? I feel like it was just a half done seasoning job and you just do the other half for them?

Agree its not ideal but ... 50 bux for a thick pan. I do like them thiccc

 

[ptolemy]

usually, and I only own a few carbon pans, u want many layers of VERY THIN layers of oil, vs 1 thick, since the goal for it to become bonded with metal, where as thick oil will never bond as strongly as thinnest possible layer, so most likely you would need to remove it all and re-season. perhaps it does adequate job keeping it from rusting during shipment, but def not good enough, imo, for actual seasoning..

I believe and don't quote me, once other cast iron makers do the pans, they tumble them through sand or pebbles, which would round off edges and remove other crap that came from casting...

 

[BillHanna]

Wabi sabi pearls before swine without the upcharge

 

[Naftoor]

They use linseed oil, which isn’t food safe. It’s common for tools and wood working, but isn’t meant to be consumed. Unlike seasoning, there’s no heat involved. Linseed polymerizes at ambient, and who knows what happens when heated. As mentioned, it’s also quite thick, significantly thicker than a seasoning layer and if you did try and use it for cooking I have no doubts it would peel off due to the internal film stresses. If you really didn’t want to use chemicals or abrasives to remove it, you could probably set up a wok burner outside, stand down wind and burn it clean like when folks season woks.

 

[cheeken1111]

They use linseed oil, which isn’t food safe. It’s common for tools and wood working, but isn’t meant to be consumed. Unlike seasoning, there’s no heat involved. Linseed polymerizes at ambient, and who knows what happens when heated. As mentioned, it’s also quite thick, significantly thicker than a seasoning layer and if you did try and use it for cooking I have no doubts it would peel off due to the internal film stresses. If you really didn’t want to use chemicals or abrasives to remove it, you could probably set up a wok burner outside, stand down wind and burn it clean like when folks season woks.

ahh i see i guess in my case hope it all burned off adequately =)

 

[Jovidah]

I should clarify the rough edges on mine are only in the interior of the handle cutouts, and they kinda remind me of metal that was cut with a saw and not finished after. Definitely feels like it’s missing a finishing step, but I don’t think it’s a cut hazard in any way.

Mine were the same, but the sharp edges kept going beyond the handles.

I have one of their presale N30 sautés as well, which I never got around to setting up but the cut outs in that things handles seem significantly smoother. The variation in the F&F is definitely concerning. For my part, I think the pan(s since I haven’t used the N30) seem to be a great value at the presale prices. Full price, I don’t think I’d buy them.

For the paella, I don’t think the darto paella pan is anything like actual paella pans. They’re made of significantly thinner material, and have much shorter side walls since paella is cooked in such a thin layer. They really should have labeled it as a roaster because that’s what it’s ideal at, or for plunking down on the grill to get a solid seat on 3-4 steaks at a time.

Yeah for sure, a roasting or oven pan is really what it shines at. Which is what I bought it for, but probably also what they should advertise it for.

I haven’t seen a similar product though. There are plenty of 35cm paellas which are cheaper, but they all have riveted handles which is what drew me to darto. I haven’t heard of rivets failing on more then 1-2 pans from people, so likely not a real issue for anyone, but I like it cosmetically. For monopiece, similar sized pans the only things I can find are from the boutique forges like blue or smithey and such, where they run for 300+ for this size, but obviously have much, much, much better F&F

I've only ever had rivets get loose over time on some clad pans (probably due to the difference in materials). Never had it happen on one of the DeBuyers no matter how much abuse I threw at them, so I'm guessing it's not really a point of failure there... but it is easier to clean without the rivets, and I just like the smoother setup.
I agree, if you're set on one-piece construction there isn't a whole lot out there, most of the cheaper ones I can think of are all riveted.

 

[Jovidah]

I got the 27 cm pan. Also had gummy oil but no rust spots. semi sharp handles. I gave it a quick rinse and cooked off the oil on my bbq side burner for 10-20 min. Rinse again and put your own oil to season one more time.

Is there a reason to scrub off the half cooked gummy oil? I feel like it was just a half done seasoning job and you just do the other half for them?

Agree its not ideal but ... 50 bux for a thick pan. I do like them thiccc

The problem with trying to turn that original oil layer into seasoning is that it's on the thick side. Even if you can get it beyond the 'thick and gummy' stage it's still likely to flake off in the future.

usually, and I only own a few carbon pans, u want many layers of VERY THINK layers of oil, vs 1 thick, since the goal for it to become bonded with metal, where as thick oil will never bond as strongly as thinnest possible layer, so most likely you would need to remove it all and re-season. perhaps it does adequate job keeping it from rusting during shipment, but def not good enough, imo, for actual seasoning..

I believe and don't quote me, once other cast iron makers do the pans, they tumble them through sand or pebbles, which would round off edges and remove other crap that came from casting...

Yes I've seen the 'dragging through pebbles' method in production videos of several cast iron videos. De Buyer simply put a little bevel on the outside edges to take the sharpness off. The latter is probably the better solution for stamped pans.

 

[Jovidah]

Had some time to play around with it... so the few things that came to mind about the 35 cm paella.
-The steeper walls mean you have a lot more frying surface than you would have on a De Buyer of similar diameter
-Even though I didn't buy it for this, it works great as just having a massively large frying surface for using on my triple ring burner. You can basically fit bacon, eggs, bread and the whole damn breakfast in the thing. Works better too on my gas burner, compared to the square cooktops (that work better on induction cooktops with zone functionality).
-Also means it's far more straightforward to preheat than the usual square-ish oven roasters.
-Not surprisingly, due to the 4mm thickness and large size it's rather slow to heat up. Solid as a rock though, not even the slightest sense of warping, and heat distribution is not bad for a carbon steel pan.
-Especially for my usage as an oven / roasting pan I'm really happy with the lower sides.
-As mentioned before though, the lower sides would probably make it suck as an actual paella pan, or anything that would really put significant volume or fluids into it; you'd spill relatively easy.
-All that's really missing IMO is a wire rack that goes on the top; could be really nice with this.


All in all, I'm quite happy with it. F&F could have been better, but considering the price I payed it's still a great deal, and it gets a lot of things right.

 

[SiDave]

I’ll definitely check this out as I’m a huge fan of carbon pans

 

[btbyrd]

-All that's really missing IMO is a wire rack that goes on the top; could be really nice with this.

You've already got one.

 

[btbyrd]

 

[coxhaus]

I received my Darto carbon steel pan. I have been keeping it in the oven with a little oil to break it in. I flopped at cooking bacon in the oven. I am sure it was my fault. It was just something I tried it to help break it in. I cook bacon well on the stove top. It cooked great asparagus in the oven for 8 minutes with just olive oil and salt.

 

[Taurahe]

these are on my list, but i cant justify another CS pan to add to the six i already have

 

[pgugger]

I picked up one 30 cm unused from BST here and so far I like it quite a bit. Well made and designed. My main complaint is that the edges could use some filing to smooth them out a bit.

I’ve had a Matfer one and have been really frustrated by the bottom warping… it’s now stuck with the center lower (bulging down) than the edges. Wasn’t a huge deal on a gas stove but unworkable on glass top electric now.

 

[btbyrd]

This is a video showing the real-time searing performance of the OG Darto No 27 when paired with an Iwatani 35FW portable butane burner. I used a Darto No 15 as a grill press.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

i feel bacon is a bad idea to break in a pan. at least around here, our bacon has some sugar in it which jacks a pan.