High end frying pan recommendation

[sansho]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

 

[drrayeye]

So far, the only one missing is Hestan Nanobond. I have had an 11" nanobond fry pan for three years, and it is an interesting alternative. Check it out.

 

[ptolemy]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

i first add water, bring it to simmer and let it go for 20-30 min. then use barkeepers friend. works very well. and no, i am not worried about removing the silvinox coating.

 

[Nemo]

I sometimes scrub with a copper wool. Much softer than steel. No obvious scratching.

 

[sumis]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

sometimes i boil water and then scrub. i mostly just use a white scotch pad. on a few occasions i’ve lightly scrubbed with a green pad. i find the silvinox surface VERY easy to clean.

but i find stainless in general easy to clean, and have no sticking issues with my less expensive restaurant supply pans.

.

 

[Dan-]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

I use a blue one. If stuff is stuck, I will boil with added baking soda. If you need to polish, bar keepers friend does the trick. (or you can break out the finger stones )

 

[sansho]

thanks

 

[Jovidah]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

Just like all stainless pans; hot water, soap, plastic dish brush. If something is persostent give it a bit of a soak. Never really needed more than that. The water being hot makes a big difference; you're pretty much deglazing whatever is left in the pan.

 

[damiano]

to those of you with demeyere proline skillets...

how do you clean them?

do i need to worry about messing up the "satin Silvinox finish"? does it matter if i go to town on it with a green scotchbrite scrubber pad?

When I had one I just put it in the dishwasher. The Prolines are notoriously difficult to clean, especially re high heat polymerisation. Anything extra I needed to do I’d just a green scrubber with barkeepers friend. They can withstand a lot.

 

[Sdo]

Never had any issues with cleaning the ones I have. Actually I have never had such easy pans to wash as these.

 

[Chips]

I occasionally just let Easy Off Oven Cleaner do the heavy lifting for the burnt on enamel residue that requires too much elbow grease, time and green scrubbies to clean.

 

[coxhaus]

I received my first copper pan that I plan to use. Does anybody know anything about this pan? I cleaned and boiled slat water in it. It heats fast to where the handles were hot fast. The bubbles when boiling were across the whole pan. I need to give the onion test. We are having smash burgers tonight, but my wife wants to eat them out. I would like to cook the onions and meat in my new pan oh well another day.

That spot on the middle picture is some kind of crap which I missed. I don't know if I will polish as I plan to use it on the grill as a Paella pan also.

 

[ptolemy]

I received my first copper pan that I plan to use. Does anybody know anything about this pan? I cleaned and boiled slat water in it. It heats fast to where the handles were hot fast. The bubbles when boiling were across the whole pan. I need to give the onion test. We are having smash burgers tonight, but my wife wants to eat them out. I would like to cook the onions and meat in my new pan oh well another day.

That spot on the middle picture is some kind of crap which I missed. I don't know if I will polish as I plan to use it on the grill as a Paella pan also.

View attachment 188464

View attachment 188465

View attachment 188466

16" paella pan that was made for sur la table. mauviel used to make exclusive for slt, william sonoma and few others in the past 40 years

 

[coxhaus]

I received my sur la table 16-inch copper Paella pan last evening. I just cooked smash burgers today and I am a believer in copper pans. This 16-inch copper pan seems to cook very evenly in my way of thinking. Way better than the 16-inch carbon steel pan providing you have the money. I could make do with the carbon steel version but I prefer the copper version just suing it once.
A 16-inch pan may be the extremes so I am not sure if it makes a lot of difference in smaller versions? My All-Clad copper pans which are smaller seem to cook evenly and still react to gas burner changes pretty fast. My sur la table 16-inch Paella pan is a keeper for me.

I grilled onions first across the copper pan and then fried patties. The onions pretty evenly cooked much better than last time in the carbon steel pan. I think the patties were better also. I buttered and toasted the buns in the carbon steel pan with both pans on my range at the same time. The onions could have been cooked longer but my wife was hungry for lunch and did not want to wait. I put a small amount of Dr Pepper on the onions.

 

[Racheski]

I received my sur la table 16-inch copper Paella pan last evening. I just cooked smash burgers today and I am a believer in copper pans. This 16-inch copper pan seems to cook very evenly in my way of thinking. Way better than the 16-inch carbon steel pan providing you have the money. I could make do with the carbon steel version but I prefer the copper version just suing it once.
A 16-inch pan may be the extremes so I am not sure if it makes a lot of difference in smaller versions? My All-Clad copper pans which are smaller seem to cook evenly and still react to gas burner changes pretty fast. My sur la table 16-inch Paella pan is a keeper for me.

I grilled onions first across the copper pan and then fried patties. The onions pretty evenly cooked much better than last time in the carbon steel pan. I think the patties were better also. I buttered and toasted the buns in the carbon steel pan with both pans on my range at the same time. The onions could have been cooked longer but my wife was hungry for lunch and did not want to wait. I put a small amount of Dr Pepper on the onions.

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View attachment 188559

The entire surface of the pan is never going to heat evenly given the size of the pan compared to your burner, but if you are cooking burgers having a cooler area at the top of the pan that is not directly above the burner is advantageous - you can toast buns, keep onions warm, etc...and it looks like the bottom portion that is above the burner has more than enough room to saute.

 

[coxhaus]

The entire surface of the pan is never going to heat evenly given the size of the pan compared to your burner, but if you are cooking burgers having a cooler area at the top of the pan that is not directly above the burner is advantageous - you can toast buns, keep onions warm, etc...and it looks like the bottom portion that is above the burner has more than enough room to saute.

My copper pan comes pretty close. It is amazing to me. It is easy to tell with the carbon steel pan there is a difference in temps from center to edge.

My Viking range has a 4 1/2 burner with the flame another 1/2 inch to 1 inch on each side depending on settings.

 

[Jovidah]

To be fair, carbon steel and cast iron are somewhat mediocre at spreading the heat... aluminium or stainless clad aluminium always does a much better job as well.

 

[btbyrd]

Carbon steel is a terrible conductor. Copper is the opposite. As I said early on in this thread, I don't think there's really such a thing as "high end carbon steel" (or cast iron). There's *expensive* CS and CI. There's "artisanal" CS and CI. But it's all bad at heating evenly.

EDIT: Jovidah beat me to it.

 

[Jovidah]

I don't think carbon or CI is necessarily bad though... it certainly has its uses. But you have to be aware of its strengths and limitations. On my gas stove it's no problem to get them evenly heated as long as I stick to normal frying pan diameters... but if you have an induction cooktop with relatively small coils that generate massive hotspots they're probably not going to work.

Admittedly though my experience based on De Buyer stuff that also has a good price to performance. I'm struggling to see how I'd justify paying 4x as much for a carbon steel pan and how it'd do better...

 

[coxhaus]

I don't think carbon or CI is necessarily bad though... it certainly has its uses. But you have to be aware of its strengths and limitations. On my gas stove it's no problem to get them evenly heated as long as I stick to normal frying pan diameters... but if you have an induction cooktop with relatively small coils that generate massive hotspots they're probably not going to work.

Admittedly though my experience based on De Buyer stuff that also has a good price to performance. I'm struggling to see how I'd justify paying 4x as much for a carbon steel pan and how it'd do better...

Probably more like 5 to 7 times as much depends on if you buy it new. People are talking about demeyere pans which don't seem cheap to me either. My big drawback is the heavy bottom thick layer. I would rather have copper since I have gas.

 

[Jovidah]

Main perk of Demeyere vs copper is that it's futureproof; if you ever end up no longer having access to gas and switching to induction at least you know all your pans will still work. And tho they're not cheap they're still significantly less expensive than copper pans these days.

 

[Dan-]

Main perk of Demeyere vs copper is that it's futureproof; if you ever end up no longer having access to gas and switching to induction at least you know all your pans will still work. And tho they're not cheap they're still significantly less expensive than copper pans these days.

The other is you can throw the demeyere in the dishwasher.

 

[ptolemy]

The other is you can throw the demeyere in the dishwasher.

Main perk of Demeyere vs copper is that it's futureproof; if you ever end up no longer having access to gas and switching to induction at least you know all your pans will still work. And tho they're not cheap they're still significantly less expensive than copper pans these days.

The other is you can throw the demeyere in the dishwasher.

i have demeyere atlantis 12.6", kitchenaid made by demeyere (with 2mm of copper base almost other) 5qt sauté pan, 16" mauviel mave ws paella pan and I have used 28cm matfer and 32cm I think falk copper pans.

If I am going for high heat, crust, I will go for demeyere made made pans. To me, they are just built like tanks . It doesn't mean others wont work, just those are more tanky imo. The saute pan is amazing for when you need to get great crust but then want to do a sauce and want less evaporation at the end (it has straight sides and a lid).

They are all great pans, but i def babied more copper ones...

 

[MarcelNL]

if I'm not misstaken Debuyer makes a line of stainless lined copper fit for induction, called Prima Matera, I have the 16 cm saute pan for sauces etc and LOVE it, they also make a 34cm
https://www.debuyer.com/en/copper-frypan-prima-matera-1522.html

 

[johnvburke100]

I have an All-Clad sauteuse which is terriffic for risotto--more a matter of the shape than the material, I think--plus a couple of low-end Vollrath non-stick 10 inch skillets and a 12 inch Vollrath non-stick skillet. My cast iron Lodge pans get very little use--they're far too heavy for sautéing--and I don't think the difference in performance between All-Clad skillets and the low-end Vollraths is worth the difference in price. This reflects my observation of professional kitchens such as Rreidiii mentioned. Restaurant supply companies have the Vollrath at very reasonable prices--take a look at ChefsToys web site for a typical price list. For long, slow cooking--the kind a restaurant can't afford to do ("Good choice, sir, your osso buco will be up in a mere two or three hours")--I like Le Creuset enamel cast iron, and Lodge's attempt to imitate it I think falls short. I have a small unlined copper "butter warmer" that I use when I need to make caramel--it heats up super fast and has a handy pour spout for making meringue--and a 12 quart aluminum stock pot--the only unlined (reactive) aluminum utensil I use. In general, I agree that high end utensils are as much about aesthetics as about cooking performance: nothing wrong with spending extra for aesthetics, but wide price differences, in my experience, don't translate to wide quality differences in results.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

if i need even heat on my cast iron or carbon, i warm the thing thorougly in the oven first. its bad when i try to do the same thing stovetop. it just doesnt move the warmth around very great.

 

[ptolemy]

if i need even heat on my cast iron or carbon, i warm the thing thorougly in the oven first. its bad when i try to do the same thing stovetop. it just doesnt move the warmth around very great.

My issue with that is, for some reason, my cast iron pan smokes and smells when heating in the oven.. i don't know why...

 

[JASinIL2006]

if i need even heat on my cast iron or carbon, i warm the thing thorougly in the oven first. its bad when i try to do the same thing stovetop. it just doesnt move the warmth around very great.

Same here. I normally won't fire up the oven just to pre-heat cast iron, but if it's on already, I always do this.

@ptolemy , what temp are you heating the pan to? I regularly heat mine in the oven to 475F without smoking.

 

[ptolemy]

Same here. I normally won't fire up the oven just to pre-heat cast iron, but if it's on already, I always do this.

@ptolemy , what temp are you heating the pan to? I regularly heat mine in the oven to 475F without smoking.

usually around 400 to 425.

I think it's because the sides maybe not perfectly clean. when it's on a gas, it doesn't smoke, but in oven, somehow it does... I don't use my cast iron often anymore.. except to toast spices, nuts, and to make quesadillas.. but I used to use it for many more things, like steaks, burgers, pork chops, or any other type of meat cooking

 

[bkdc]

Copper needs to be 2.5 to 3 mm thick to function well especially as a fry pan that needs heat retention.

Either get yourself a thick Demeyere Proline (or Demeyere Silver 7) or buy a thick disc bottom and try to avoid cooking on the sloped sides.

If I need super-heat retention, I don’t use a fry pan. I use my Double-handled rondeau (stainless steel roaster) (essentially a double handed sauté pan) from Fissler with a 6mm thick aluminum disc which covers he ENTIRE bottom. No ring of scorching. Perfect even heat distribution even on induction. Higher heat retention than cast iron. I have not encountered any cookware that beats the Fissler Original-Profi lie for evenness and thermal capacity. I fry on my rondeau all the time. Cast iron? No need.

Mauviel 250’s are selling for crazy inflated prices. I guess 2mm is adequate for home, but why pay double when you can get an amazing Belgian-made Falk Culinair 2.5mm thick (of which 2.3mm is copper and 0.2mm is inner stainless) for half the price.

For half the price of the Debuyer Prima Mater (the induction compatible line with apparently 2 mm of a copper layer), you can get yourself the Belgian made Falk Copper Coeur with 1.9 mm of copper and it’s fully clad and easy to maintain. Also less radiative loss because it’s fully clad with no copper showing.