Cuisinart Carbonware Carbon Steel Frying Pan Review: Affordable Nonstick for Induction Cooktops

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We were on a Zoom call, and I watched his face as he scanned the images, clearly trying to understand them.

“Whoa,” he said, stopping on the T-fal. “Why is this one so cold?” “

The footage showed how quickly and evenly the cast iron and carbon steel pans heat up, but in the T-fal all the heat was concentrated in the center and quickly faded towards the edges, as if someone was pointing a lamp. pocket in the very center. from close. I did all of the tests on the same burner, and after three minutes on high power the melt was over 600 degrees Fahrenheit, but the T-fal was only in the 300’s and 400’s. I turned off the Cuisinart Large Pot after a minute and a half on high power because it was also approaching 600 degrees. Cast iron and carbon steel were clearly part of a group, performed wonderfully, and the T-fal was a disappointing outlier.

Left to Right: Cast Iron, T-fal and Cuisinart after five minutes on a medium induction stove.

Photography: Joe Ray

However, my wife Elisabeth used the smaller Cuisinart skillet to make a fried egg sandwich later in the afternoon, and she had some issues.

“It sticks,” she said. I cleaned the pan and cooked another egg, intentionally using a little too little butter. Forcing the problem didn’t work well at all. Some non-stick pans can cook egg after egg without any cooking oil; but despite the claims in the Cuisinart owner’s manual, this is not one of them.

In case I damage the pans during thermal testing, I called a new set.

What I had come to realize was that as long as I had enough oil or butter in the pan, enough to evenly coat the bottom, I would be in good shape. The pan would act as I wanted it to.

I have had other issues with Cuisinart Pans, including one of the larger pans arrived with a bit of a dome on the cooking surface – where the center is slightly higher than the edges – which means that when the oil heats up, it collects on the edges instead of evenly covering the bottom. This is a problem that plagues the pan-dom, especially in the low to mid price range. Finally, after searing a steak, which the Cuisinart did exceptionally well, it developed a few spots on the surface that never went away.

Smooth Grace

After several weeks with the Cuisinart Carbon Steel Nonstick Pans, I have come to some conclusions. Most notably, they are an improvement over my T-fal, but they are not perfect. Nonetheless, these are my new affordable favorites for non-stick cooking on induction burners. They are not the best, but the best that I have found. Recently our friends at Wirecutter found an induction compatible nonstick skillet that they recommend; I haven’t tested it, but it may be worth digging into. It is in the same price range as the Cuisinarts.

Can I make a suggestion here? If you’re using non-stick pans, pop out the bejeezus. We may have an almost non-stick cast iron pan that will easily outlive us if we take care of it, but we’ve conditioned ourselves to accept the idea of ​​throwing our non-stick pans in the trash every two years or sooner. -when the surface wears out.

Do not cook steak in it. Don’t push their limits. Use them for eggs and maybe some delicate fish, and that’s it. When not in use, hang them where they don’t click in other pans, or stack them with the entire cooking surface protected with a towel.

If you own an induction cooker and want to go the non-stick route, I recommend these pans, although they could be better. The hunt for the parfait is still going on, but so far these are doing a pretty good job.

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