Matfer Bourgeat 062008 Black Steel Round Frying Pan, 15 3/4-Inch, Gray

So, why the five stars? Well, the rating is for the quality of the pan, but not the utility. Also, nobody reads the lesser-rated reviews.First off, everything you’ve read about the seasoning process is probably true. I’ll just add that I had to use an SOS pad and Barkeepers Friend a number of times. I also used the potato peel method as directed by the manufacturer, but note that they don’t mention seasoning the bottom. I did that anyway with the oven method.Now, to the utility problem. See, these pans are designed for industrial use. It kind of reminds me of back when restaurant-style gas stoves became popular in home kitchens. The proud owners quickly learned that they were not suited for home use, with their high flames and lack of insulation turning the entire kitchen into an oven. Carbon Steel pans are designed to be cheap and take a beating. But, since they’ve doubled in price the past few years, only the latter remains true.Are they really nonstick? The simple answer is: no. Sure, if you put enough butter in one you can swirl an egg around like you see in the videos. Only problem is you can’t actually swirl the pan because it’s too heavy. What’s more, you can do the same thing with a stainless steel pan which you can actually pick up and move around. But in none of these can you crack an egg into it without fat like you can a nonstick pan.Any other problems? Yes. Because of the way they’re stamped in production, there’s an annoying crease around the interior edge that traps all kinds of gunk. Also, they’re very small. Owing to the highly-flared rims, my 10” pan only has an interior of less than 7”. Compare that to the over 8” interiors of my 10” All-Clad and Oxo Non-stick pans.What would you use it for? Well, it makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich (but then, so do all the others). It excels at steaks and burgers (but then, so do all the others, especially cast iron). And, unlike the others, it leaves a good bit of fond that you can’t just wipe out (see Fig. 1). And, of course, once you scrub it out with hot water (even without soap), there goes your seasoning. And if you want to use that fond for a pan sauce, that will remove your seasoning too, plus add a lot of dirt and rust to your sauce (see Fig. 2). You’re way better off with stainless.Oh, and don’t forget the handle gets hot; you’ll need a silicone cover.So, what is it good for? Hmm…nothing really. It will last forever, though, if you go through the trouble of hefting, using, cleaning, and re-seasoning. And you get to brag to your friends that you have one.Do I hate carbon steel? Absolutely not. My current wok is about twenty years old and has a beautifully-seasoned finish. I wouldn’t use anything else for stir frying. Of course, owing probably to it’s rounded shape (less chance for warping, so thinner), the wok is much lighter (and it's 4” bigger).Do I hate the Matfer Bourgeat? No, but you will.

Just cooked first breakfast on a new 15.75 incher. My impressions. First, it's big. I wanted something bigger than my vintage 12 inch cast iron for cooking big batches of veggies and bunches of burgers for the fam. To get a bigger bottom surface area, went with the 15. It's 2 pounds heavier than a #12 cast iron. The pan is thick and the handle is almost comically well built. The 15.75 is way too big for a standard oven, which is fine for my purposes. I cook on a powerful bluestar range with 25k btu burner. I wouldn't go bigger than this size for sure. On a regular range, I have to believe this wouldn't heat evenly on the edges. The 14 would probably fit better on a bluestar with less overhang but I wanted the extra space. This pan and size would probably be good for a drive in campfire cook. High sides, lots of room, big handle.I talk about the seasoning. The instructions on the sticker are deceptive in how easy they make it sound to clean the factory coating off. Warm water and detergent with a brissle brush won't do it. I worked hard on it and the coating just started scratching after 15 minutes. I saw various places people say to use easy-off oven cleaner outside to avoid fumes. Tried it and have to say this is my new method. Sprayed it on and left it in a garbage bag for a couple hours. It still took hard scrubbing but it progressed pretty quick and could easily see where there was and wasn't coating. The effort after easy-off was like what I thought it should have been out of the box. Then I seasoned with canola oil cause that's what I had. Held it over the huge burner till each section smoked. It looked and felt perfect. I would have done this in the oven for a smaller pan. Even with 25k btu, it took a while to get each area to smoke. It's a thick pan. Don't know if the smaller pans are thinner.Weight. The 15.75 is very heavy. I'm a beefcake with strong arms that has no problem one handing a full 12 inch cast iron. This thing is a 2 hander all day. It's very long handle to the far opposite side. The bottom half the handle gets hot. The top half seemed to stay cool.I have a long history with cast iron. Have a bunch of vintage griswold pans of various sizes. Cooked 1000s of meals in CI. My wife has a carbon steel crepe pan and I started messing with it for eggs and I was like, what's this? Seemed light and very non-stick. I've wanted something bigger than a #12 cast iron for bigger meals. So after a bunch of research, I ended up with this 15.75 to get a bigger bottom surface than a #12. I think the 15.75 is maybe an inch wider at the bottom, which is quite a bit more in area when you do the math.My overall impression of cast iron vs carbon steel is carbon steel is easier to clean. Feels a bit more non-stick. I like that I can run a hot/warm carbon steel pan under water. Don't do that with CI. I cracked a vintage CI pan doing that. I like the longer handles. This newer matfer has the convex bottom which I'm not a fan of. On gas, the oil runs to the outside. It's not terrible, just less than perfect.Temperature IR tests. Did a simple heat comparison with an IR gun between a griswold #12 and the 15.75 matfer. From each pan completely cold, tested each pan every minute on the middle and the outside edge running full blast on the 25k burner each minute. I expected the matfer to be faster to climb. I was surprised.Results (middle of pan and outside edge):#12 Griswold @ 1 min: 370 mid, 288 outside. 2 min: 570 mid, 490 outside.15.75 Matfer @ 1 min: 200 mid, 168 out. 2 min: 340 mid, 235 out. 3 min: 410 mid, 288 out. 4 min: 460 mid, 330 out.Then after the test about 3-5 minutes, didn't measure closely, the #12 was still 330 degrees. The matfer was 160 ish. Matfer had more time to cool as it was tested first. CI definitely holds heat. These are different shaped pans and not really and apple to apple but I expected quicker heats up on the matfer as that's one of its selling points. The CI was blazing in a couple minutes. Not saying that makes it better. That pan does tend to get and stay too hot. The 25k is a monster and I can't imagine how long a 12 or 15k typical burner would take on this pan. Wouldn't be good at all for searing steaks, anything high heat. Just throwing that out if anyone with a regular gas burner is thinking of going this big. I can't speak for induction or electric. Outside cooking on a bayou burner would be a good fit probably.After seasoning, cooked sunny side up eggs and they came out perfect. As non-stick as I expected. Probably a hair more non-stick than the cast iron. Clean up seemed easier. All in all, I'm impressed. I think 15.75 is too big probably even for a bluestar range but is workable. Great quality pan. I'll be picking up some other sizes and will sideline some CI pans other than for searing.

Opened the plastic protective bag today to season the pan and I noticed the edge on the outside rim of the base is very rough & deeply grooved, not smooth like the rest. The scratches are deep and raised enough to risk damaging my induction cooktop's glass surface, if it were used.Not the quality of the previous 30cm (11 7/8inch) Matfer pan I have purchased.Not happy!

Buenísimo. Es algo caro pero vale la pena. Si lo cuidas bien, entre más lo usas más antiadherente se vuelve. Un sartén así te puede durar toda la vida sin problema. Me encantó.

This pan is a great all-arounder that I usually reach for when I need a medium pan. I personally enjoy cooking with it more than my similar stainless and cast iron pans.More details:- Handle's shape works well for tossing- Handle length helps it dissipate heat so it's more comfortable to grip while in use- The whole pan, handle included, is oven-safe- Handle is welded to the pan so there are no rivets. This is awesome because it makes the pan easier to clean- Angled sides are great for tossing (small stir fry, flipping eggs, etc.)- Moderately nonstick once it's seasoned (but initial seasoning is trickier than cast iron)- It ships with a protective coating that takes a frustrating amount of elbow grease to remove- After years of use, it's developed a barely-perceptible warp on high heat that doesn't seem to affect cooking on an electric rangeI have frying pans from Lodge, de Buyer (Mineral B) Cuisinart (Multi-Clad Pro), and All-Clad (D3) that I can compare this to.Shape-wise it's similar to my All-Clad and de Buyer pans; its sides have a lower angle (~45°) than the more vertical Lodge or Cuisinart sides. I think the lower angle is more generally useful because it works well for tossing and also makes it easier to slip spoons or spatulas under whatever's cooking.It's heavier than stainless pans (1724g vs my 10" Cuisinart's 1081g) but lighter than cast iron (my 10" Lodge is 2483g). I'm a lightweight adult male and can comfortably pick it up one-handed and toss food in it. (I would not do the same with the Lodge.) It's too heavy for my (much smaller) wife to do the same.Between my 8" de Buyer and 10" Matfer Bourgeat carbon steel pans, I prefer the Matfer Bourget. The de Buyer's handle has a coating (epoxy?) that limits its heat resistance; it doesn't handle ovens well and mine has even degraded where the handle connects to the pan. It also uses rivets to join the handle and pan, and they're a nuisance when seasoning the pan and a nuisance to clean.Relative heat retention is less than the Lodge cast iron, more than the stainless All-Clad and Cuisinart, and about on par with the de Buyer (the de Buyer might be a little thicker and thus have marginally more heat retention). I think it's a comfortable middle ground for most cooking.I've never gotten Teflon-like non-stick performance, but it's better than stainless and plenty good for everyday cooking with eggs and fish.I use this pan most of the time, but there are niche use cases when I reach for something else:- A nonstick pan (didn't list it above because it's a sauté pan) for delicate foods that I *really* don't want to stick- Stainless steel for cooking acidic stuff like tomato sauces (they can mess with the pan's seasoning if they sit in it too long)- Clad stainless when extra-even heat retention is needed (though I've not had trouble with this in practice)For reference, I've used this pan for just over 3 years.