I’ve been kind of curious about these for a while now. I have several teflon coated pans, but they’re not so great for high heat applications, and the coating wears off after a while.
Anyone use these? Do you like yours? Do you have a brand recommendation?
I have and still use a few, but for new pans I’ll only get bare metal (stainless or Carbon steel) for new pans. One is a Tefal sauté pan. It’s not too thick aluminium and the coating has developed hair cracks over time and the antistick properties aren’t consistent. The other is a small frying pan by a well regarded (local) company and only got good once I started abusing it because I thought it was a write off. That’s the one I mostly use to fry eggs, but you still need oil and a hot pan to have the egg not stick.
Meanwhile I have a seasoned carbon steel frying pan that is more non-stick than either of them, and a cheap carbon steel wok (under €20) that’s also doing great in the non-stick department. And you can clean either of them with a coarse steel wool without destroying the non-stick properties as long as you’re not too rough. And any damage to the seasoning is easily touched up.
Stainless initially stick for meat, but once the crust develops it will detach itself. And sometimes you want some stickage to develop flavour, for gravies etc., which you then deglaze.
I’ve got a carbon steel pan, too! It works great. The only issue is that it’s heavy (not as bad as cast iron, but certainly heavier than my teflon coated pans).
That’s one unfortunate downside of carbon steel. Stainless can be a bit lighter, but needs a different technique to get it to not stick (of which several demonstrations can be found on Youtube.)