Frying pan

The materials

Stainless steel (clad)

Even heating, oven safe, indestructible, and it produces the best fond for a pan sauce. Food sticks until it releases, which takes learning. The best all-round pan for cooking.

Cast iron

Enormous heat retention, so it barely drops in temperature when cold food goes in — the best pan for steak. Very heavy, slow to heat, and it needs seasoning and drying.

Carbon steel

Most of cast iron's virtues at half the weight, and it responds much faster to heat changes. Needs seasoning like cast iron. What most professional kitchens use.

Non-stick

Eggs, pancakes, delicate fish. Should not be used over high heat or heated empty, produces very little fond, and is a consumable — it will need replacing every few years however careful you are.

Anodised aluminium

Light, even, often non-stick coated. Fine, and rarely the best at anything.

Copper

The most responsive material there is and the most expensive and demanding. Beautiful, and not a practical first pan.

What to buy first

• A 24cm or 28cm non-stick pan for eggs, pancakes and fish. Buy an inexpensive one and accept that it is a consumable.
• A 26cm or 28cm stainless or carbon steel pan for everything else. This is the pan that browns, sears and makes sauces.
• A cast iron skillet if you cook steak often, or want something that goes from hob to oven and lasts forever.
• Size matters more than people expect. A pan that is too small makes you crowd it, and crowding is the cause of most failed browning.
• Check it is oven safe if you sear and finish in the oven. Plastic handles are not.
• Heavy is generally better. A thin pan loses heat the instant food goes in.

Seasoning cast iron and carbon steel

Seasoning is a layer of polymerised oil bonded to the metal. It builds with use and it is what makes these pans progressively less sticky.

• Wash a new pan, dry it thoroughly, and heat it until dry.
• Rub a very thin layer of a neutral, high-smoke-point oil over the whole surface, then wipe it off as though you had made a mistake. It should look almost dry.
• Heat it — in the oven upside down at around 220°C for an hour, or on the hob until it stops smoking. Let it cool.
• Repeat two or three times for a new pan.
• After that, cooking with fat maintains it. Frying bacon in it is genuinely helpful.

Care, by pan

• Cast iron and carbon steel — wash with hot water and a brush, minimal or no soap, dry immediately over heat, and wipe with a trace of oil. Never leave them wet. Rust wipes off and can be re-seasoned over.
• Stainless steel — anything goes, including the dishwasher and a scourer. Burnt-on food comes off with water, a simmer and a wooden spoon.
• Non-stick — hand wash, soft sponge, never a metal utensil, never a scourer, never empty on high heat. Replace it when the coating is scratched or food starts sticking.
• All of them — do not put a screaming hot pan under cold water. Thermal shock warps pans and can crack cast iron.

Common questions