Looking for a new pan for cooking steaks

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S7ewie

Assistant Cook
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
26
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Hey,
One of my favourite things to cook is steak. Until now I've always used a cast iron "grill" pan with the ridges in. It definitely does a nice job but I'm thinking about trying something else for several reasons.

One of the main ones is that I love to make a peppercorn sauce with my steaks, and I prefer to make it in the juices from the cooked meat. The grill pan makes is very difficult to scrape up all those extra bits of goodness and stir it at the same time. It also makes it very hard to clean. On top of this I don't always get a very even "searing" of the steaks. So I'm thinking maybe I should try a flat pan instead.

I'm assuming that a normal steel frying pan is a bad choice straight away. So do I stick with cast iron? Or are there better choices? I read somewhere that a lot of people use carbon steel?

Let me know what you think.

Thanks :)
 
I use big ol' cast iron fry pan. Get it screaming hot and toss the steak in after drying it and rubbing it down with some fat to get a nice crisp sear.

I usually don't do any sauce with my steaks but i guess that after I pull the steak out to rest I would just do a quick deglaze and turn down the heat a little.
 
A cast iron skillet is your best tool for the job. It has the added benefit of being available for all kinds of other cooking when you're not searing steaks.
 
I used a grill pan for a while, but I got tired of the grill marks that don't give real grill flavor, and it's hard to clean, so I use a regular cast iron pan for searing steaks. Made some just last weekend and it worked perfectly. After cooking, I deglazed with red wine, reduced it, whisked in butter, crushed dried rosemary and S&P and had a wonderful pan sauce.

This was delicious, easy to cook and clean, so I don't feel a need to look for "better." I've been using this pan for 25+ years.
 
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Sounds delicious! Exactly what I'm after :D
Yeah I'm tired of the grill marks too, I don't feel like it adds anything and think I'd be much better off getting a flat pan.
 
I use a well heated stainless steel fry pan. You can sear, then stick it in the oven to finish off.
While the steak rests on a warm plate you can make your sauce in the fry pan.
There is no reason to make this complicated.
Most any decent fry pan will work just fine.
 
It says cast iron under material?


It says it's carbon steel and that's what it looks like.

Coated with beeswax.

Personally, I'd buy a Lodge cast iron skillet and spend the money you save on a few bottles of wine to go with the steak!


"Features: -Mineral B Element collection.-Carbone Steel pan.-Induction Ready.-Organic beewax finish.-Product Type: Frying pan/Skillet.-Collection: Mineral B Element.-Color: .-Hardware Finish: .-Distressed: No.-Powder Coated Finish: No.-Material: Other -Material Details: Carbone steel..-"
 
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I always used my George Foreman to cook steaks, but I retired it to the thrift store and bought a Cuisinart Griddler at the Cooks Catalog going out of business sale and that is what I use now. I prefer not to fry my steaks.
 
That's what I originally thought by in the description under "Material" it says "Cast Iron" .. I don't know, may be poorly listed.

A lot of people online seem to think carbon steel is better than cast iron? I take it you don't agree with that?

I'll have a look around but from what I found with a quick google, the Lodge ones are about the same price as the De Buyer one here in the UK.
 
The only times I use a pan for steak is when blackening (CI), for Palomilla steak or if the weather doesn't cooperate for grilling, CI for then also.
 
That's what I originally thought by in the description under "Material" it says "Cast Iron" .. I don't know, may be poorly listed.

A lot of people online seem to think carbon steel is better than cast iron? I take it you don't agree with that?

I'll have a look around but from what I found with a quick google, the Lodge ones are about the same price as the De Buyer one here in the UK.

It is poorly listed.

But it says that the pan is carbon steel (the picture is of a carbon steel pan not a cast iron one -- they look very different) and deBuyer is well known for them.

Features: -Mineral B Element collection.-Carbone Steel pan

It says the handle is cast iron (but it doesn't look it to me)

Handle Material: Cast iron

Carbon steel pans are great but a bit fussy for me. I have 3 cast iron skillets and I use them for everything. They are cheaper in the US, I guess. Cheaper that an deBuyer carbon steel pan.
 
I heartily approve of a cream/peppercorn sauce with my steak .
I'd recommend a stainlees steel pan with a bonded copper or aluminium base.
 
A 12" pre-seasoned cast iron skillet from Lodge is a super cheap item. $40 on Amazon. It's available at Wal-Mart for half that.
 
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