de Buyer – Mineral B Carbon Steel Country Pan – Naturally Nonstick – Oven-Safe – Induction-ready – 11″

I really like this pan and have found it Remarkably well suited for stir-frying, braising small cuts of meat, and it has even worked well for deep frying egg rolls. If you’re interested in frying steaks, etc, I would not recommend this pan as it is a bit small at the base for such things. Instead, consider the larger De Buyer Country skillet (be forewarned that it is a heavy pan) or one of the traditional De Buyer fry pans.My only complaint with the pan is that the silicone coating on the handle seems pointless–it is too thin to offer any real insulation from the heat and it has melted/cooked away at the point where the handle is riveted to the body of the pan.Seasoning: there is an incredible amount of debate/information on the web about how to season steel and cast iron pans. My experience has been that the methods for seasoning cast iron and steel are similar but not necessarily interchangeable. The method I used, one that has worked well, is to:1) Boil potatoes skins in the new pan as directed by De Buyer (this helps remove the bees wax coating that the pan ships with). Throw out the resulting grey mess;2) scrub the pan thoroughly with soap and water to get off any remaining wax;3) Heat the pan slightly on the stove to ensure that it is completely dry–about 2 minutes on medium heat;4) Using a clean paper towel, vigorously rub a thin coat of flaxseed oil onto the insides of the pan (don’t forget to shake the oil well before using it and to refrigerate it). I cannot reiterate that this layer of oil needs to be very, very thin–best to apply lots of thin layers than one big thick one;5) Heat the pan until the oil cooks past its smoke point–about 15-20 minutes. Remember that seasoning IS NOT cooking and the goal here is to cause the oil to polymerize. If you are really interested, leave a comment and I will point you to a link that explains the chemistry in-depth;6) Allow the pan to cool and then repeat steps 3-6 several more times;7) After you’ve created a solid coating of 7-10 layers on the inside of the pan, just start cooking with it and it will continue to season on its own.Cleaning; usually I just wipe it out with a clean cloth/paper towel; however, it does, on occasion require that I use some boiling water and salt to get out crusty bits.

This is a very versatile pan, really all you need for most “skillet” cooking. Have had it all backwards, you don’t need a “clean” or shiny pan. You don’t need the low sides of a skillet, unless you literally know how to flip items. High sides help control the mess. Can be used kinda of like a wok, easier to deal with than a huge wok. Cook burgers, steak, chicken breast, pork chop all great. Cook with oil, like they have done for centuries.You just have to get used to “cleaning” the pan, and you don’t have to get it “clean”. You don’t have to baby it, you can’t ruin it, just don’t let it rust. You can scrub the rust off and it will be fine. It will never look perfect, it will be perfectly functional.

Tired of having health concerns over the scratched non-stick pans, I go back to the line of metal woks (I’m Asian), something my mom and generations before her having been using and the metal wok she owns has already served us for decades. This de buyer pan is heavy obviously. For my first seasoning, I wanted to play smart so instead of washing it with hot water, I boiled some water with it directly but that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. It left ugly marks on the pan so DON’T DO IT. Tried vinegar rub but the marks won’t go away. Anyway, that doesn’t affect the “non-stick” property of the pan at all. Just remember: Pan’s hot, oil in. Oil’s hot, food in. And you’ll get a pan that stays non-stick forever.

The media could not be loaded. Bought this for deep frying, and recipes that may involve sauteing and boiling; and something that would last for many many years; so here’s my initial review after seasoning this 2x with potato peels mix with course salts in Canola oil over Induction burner:(I had to do the seasoning process outside in cold weather as I did not want to overwhlem my microwave vent and trigger the smoke alarm detector)Pros: the tater tots I deep fried using gas oven came out very good, the over easy eggs with very scant oil left no residue; clean up with moist towel/paper towel and re applied few crops of canola oil (post seasoned); and because of its weight it sits evenly on the burnerCons: Pricey; very heavy (feels like 10-15 lbs, I have to use both hands ito lift this); the very long handle is flat and awkward with grips; and the before use prep/seasoning process is very tideous, time consuming; also I wish it came with a lid

Perfect size. A bit on heavier site. Go ahead and buy it. You can hand down this to genereations.