The Best Carbon-Steel Skillets

The best carbon-steel skillets have thick, solid construction and smooth interiors, with minimal handle rivets (or none) to trap food, sides that are neither too high or too low, and an ergonomically angled handle. They brown food deeply and quickly acquire a slick, naturally nonstick surface. Our previous favorite, the Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Round Frying Pan, 11⅞ in, has been slightly redesigned—in ways we heartily approve—to make it easier to season and less prone to warping. It again earned the top spot and is our ATK Recommended winner. 

If you’d like a smaller version of our favorite, we also recommend Matfer Bourgeat’s 10-inch and 8-inch models. 

What You Need to Know

Restaurant chefs have used carbon-steel skillets for decades. Now home cooks are embracing them too. We love them for all kinds of cooking tasks, from searing steak and sautéing onions to cooking eggs and even baking desserts, since they easily work both on the stove and in the oven. A carbon-steel pan is probably the most versatile skillet in your kitchen. It shares the durability of stainless steel and the heat retention of cast iron but with far less weight than a cast-iron pan. Like cast iron, carbon-steel pans become naturally and renewably nonstick, releasing delicate foods such as fish and eggs easily. But unlike nonstick-coated pans that deteriorate within a few years, carbon-steel skillets last a lifetime. 

When buying a carbon-steel skillet, you have a few decisions. You can choose between budget-friendly factory-made pans and pricier hand-crafted ones. You can choose a lightweight, thin pan or a thick, heavy one. You can pick whether you want it preseasoned. Because plain carbon steel will rust if exposed to air and moisture, a carbon-steel pan needs to be seasoned to protect it. This is typically a very thin coating of cooking oil heated to polymerize and bond to the surface, shielding the pan from rust. Over time, as you use the pan for cooking, seasoning becomes fully established. 

Traditionally, carbon-steel pans have been sold unseasoned, leaving it up to the buyer to begin this process. Increasingly, manufacturers are selling preseasoned pans, letting consumers start cooking right away. A third, less common option is “blue” carbon steel—regular carbon steel that’s intensely heat-treated to oxidize and seal its surface, preventing rust, which turns it blue. In our experience, this jump-starts the seasoning process, but you still have to season these pans to make them nonstick. We bought pans in each of the three styles to test. 

What Size Skillet Should You Get?

We like to have a variety of sizes for different ta... read more