Seasoning your pans is as important as seasoning your food
The concept of nonstick cookware has always been appealing to me; especially during the years I was cutting dietary fat to the bone.
A few years ago articles questioning nonstick cookware safety started popping up and I, pretty much, ignored them since I liked how my scrambled eggs (mostly egg whites) cooked without fat; sliding so easily around my slippery nonstick saute pan.
You'd think that an article about a pet bird dying from the vapors given off by an overheated, nonstick pan should have been a clear clue that there was something potentially wrong with nonstick cookware. But no, it's possible to convince oneself that the bird had a pre-existing health condition.
As more warnings appeared about nonstick cookware's safety along with how the chemicals from which it is made polluted some water supplies, the less delighted I became. One day, I removed all nonstick cookware from my kitchen and stored it in my garage; wanting to see if I could live without it.
I could, but it was a journey.
At first, I started using my stainless steel, All-Clad saute pans. Nice stuff that All-Clad. However, I had to use more oil or butter to keep meats or eggs from sticking. All-Clad cooked well, but eggs stuck to the pan after finishing, which made for a higher-hassle cleaning effort and usually left me an All-unhappy cook.
A video on Cook's Illustrated's website about carbon steel skillets and how to perfectly and easily season them delivered the answer for what I was looking. You'll find carbon skillets in restaurant kitchens for several good reasons: they're reasonably priced, easy to maintain and, if properly seasoned, nonstick without any downside coating issues.
A well-used carbon steel skillet isn't particularly good-looking, nor comes in fancy designer colors, but looks aren't what this pan's about; ease of cooking is.
I bought the number one rated pan, an 11 ⅞-inch Matfer Bourgeat black steel round frying pan ($51.68/Amazon). Upon arrival, I followed the exact directions that came with my new pan to clean and season it. They were almost identical to CI's video.
First, the pan needs to be washed thoroughly with soap and water to get the protective coating cleaned away. Then the pan is seasoned using oil, salt and potato skins.
Once seasoned, discard the oil, salt and now extra-crispy potato skins and wipe out the pan; it's ready to go.
My new pan worked as well as a nonstick pan and food slides easily around in it. My pan browns (sears) steaks and chops beautifully and cleans up in a jiffy with warm water and a sponge. Never use detergent to clean a carbon steel pan.
Like a cast iron skillet, a carbon steel pan cannot stay wet, or it will rust. The manufacturer suggests placing a clean skillet over medium heat to make certain that it's completely dry. Also, that's the perfect time to wipe the interior surface with oil (I use coconut oil) leaving a light oil film on the pan's surface.
At this point, you may wonder why I haven't mentioned iron skillets. The biggest difference between the two is the weight. The carbon in a carbon steel pan allows it to be made thinner and not be brittle. Brittle? Yes, an iron skillet if hit hard enough will crack, where a carbon steel pan will simply dent.
One downside: a slowly simmering tomato sauce can remove a carbon steel pan's seasoning.
I love my new pan and use it at every opportunity. Now, I'm not sure what to do with my old, nonstick pans cluttering up my garage.
On Wednesday nights I'm on my own for dinner, and I make a fairly simple but delicious one-pan meal using lean, grass-fed ground beef. You can guess in which pan I make it.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@ theleanwizard.com.