For residential kitchens, I think hands down the winner is the old fashioned cast iron pan. The pan has high mass. You heat it, dry and empty, on the burner for 10 minutes, then add oil, heat until the oil is shimmering. Then add food. If you want fast searing, you can't overload the pan with food. But due to all the heat stored in the pan, you can cook in larger batches than with another pan. If correctly seasoned, the pan is non stick and cleans with just hot water and a stiff brush. Finally, they only cost $40. $10 at a flea market.

Have you used a wok before?

dcarch

I do recommend a carbon steel wok, if that is your usual and preferred method of cooking.

Are you ending up warping a lot of pans? Is it due to thermal shock or just extreme high heat? I have the Demeyere Prolines and Saute Pan and they are pretty resistant to warpage due to their thickness. However, they are expensive. I've had All Clad and I have cast iron and I rarely use either -- but I do use a carbon steel wok.

I second cast iron.

Thank you so much for the inputs.

No, I have never cooked in a wok. Yes, I warped a few pans over the years, yet it has been very frustrating that I could never achieve desired tenderness and crispiness with regular pans. I blame our electrical coil range top, I long for a gas or induction range. It just occurred to me that may be I have been using wrong pan.

John, Lace, If well seasoned cast iron is good for high heat cooking, does it mean I should try Le Creuset pan first by following John's cooking directions before getting a wok since Le Creuset pan is cast iron with enamel interior?

I've never found an enameled iron pan good for high heat cooking. They don't sear as well, require more oil to avoid sticking, and are a pain to clean up. So, no, I would not use the LeCreuset.

A wok is great for stir frying. I have a couple thin carbon steel round bottom woks. They require a wok ring. I'm not sure if they can be used on an electric range. The rounded shape and thin material isn't so great for searing a steak.

This post was edited by johnliu on Mon, Jan 19, 15 at 8:43

Induction does not work well with a wok. They do make induction for woks only, but that is $$$$$.

Coil type electric works somewhat with flat bottom woks, but not very well for wok style of cooking.

Coil type electric cooktop does not heat up the sides of frying pans, the hot bottom and cold sides create differential thermal metal expansion and contraction, which can warp a pan.

Once a pan is warped, it gets less efficient in heating up.

Cast iron is a good option because it does not warp.

dcarch

I agree with plain, pure, black cast iron.

I 5th or 6th the plain cast iron suggestion. Johnliu suggested the flea market and $40 list. I just want to point out that used cast iron can be better than new because it may already be seasoned (especially if you were willing to pay any where near $40), or so close that an aggressive cleaning followed by a hot oil treatment might get it back in shape. And of course, any messed up cast iron can be recovered with a couple days in the hot sun in a bag of ammonia or other super attack method: see google.

The thing is, you can go to a garage sale or the salvation army etc and find cast iron in various conditions, even below $10. Or, you could probably find a friend who has an extra piece.

One caution: while dcarch stated that cast iron doesn't warp, (and he should know because he is a fan of cranking the heat on CI to instantly brown up his sous vide meats), but I have seen several mildly warped pieces of iron at auctions, garage sales etc; so it can be done.

I agree with the cast iron also.

But a word of caution on buying used!

I bought cast iron pot at a yard sale and it had a terrible smell when I tried to cure it. I couldn't cook it out!

I think someone used it as a catch pan for changing oil in their car!

A lot of the old old cast iron you can find at garage and estate sales is better quality metallurgy than much of what is being commonly sold today. Some of it is far worse. If you do a quick search you'll find plenty of fan sites explaining how to tell which ones are the good ones. If you find a good one, do check the bottom because while it's not easy to manage, it is somewhat possible to warp. The higher quality ones are thinner. The really bad ones may have been sold warped to begin with.

Cast iron is not indestructible--you can break it if you drop it just so--but it's close to it. If you find a really messed up piece, it can be restored. Here's a blog page about how to remove serious crud. Before going to the lye, which is not something most home cooks want to deal with, you can try burning off crud with a torch or high heat grill or oven. If you do that, let the pan cool in place so it won't crack.

People make a big deal out of seasoning, but it's not that hard. It's a matter of coating with thin layers of fat and heating so that they polymerize. Solid fats work best. Be careful not to have thick spots or puddles.

For a first cast iron pan, however, you could do just as well with a pre-seasoned Lodge frying pan, which goes for a middling price and you might be able to get on sale or at BB&B with one of the neverending coupons. Lodge isn't the best, isn't the worst, should be up to your task, and should be adequate to tell you whether it's worth your while to go picking looking for a bunch of the great old ones.

You can clean with soap and water, and a gentle scrubby if necessary. No steel wool. The trick is, if you do, you must heat and season afterwards.

Another thumbs up for cast iron, especially if you can find some antique Wagner or Griswold. They had machined surfaces back then, and they take a seasoning well. I traded four modern Lodge pans (well seasoned) for one Wagner, and I feel I came out ahead. I read a book by Pierre Franey (or maybe it was Jacques Pepin) and he said that when he came to the USA as a struggling cook all he had to cook with in his apartment was a hot plate and a cast iron skillet.

First cousin to cast iron is carbon steel. Lighter than cast iron, but with a machined finish (as opposed to the rough sand cast finish of modern cast iron), it takes a seasoning well and eventually becomes nearly nonstick.

The seasonings on both cast iron and carbon steel can be burned off if you use extremely high heat, but fortunately they can be reseasoned.

You can think of carbon steel pans as halfway in mass between a cast iron pan, and a thin wok.

I have some Debuyer carbon steel pans I lucked in to at Tuesday Morning, and I also have a Paderno World Cuisine carbon steel pan. Even though the Amazon reviews ooh and aah about the Debuyer pans, I personally prefer the Paderno. YMMV.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paderno Carbon Steel

This post was edited by arley on Mon, Jan 19, 15 at 17:00

I have so much cast iron it is near embarrassing.
I just can't say no at a yard sale for a dollar or two...
Some i've found that was purchased years ago, but love it.
Clean it up and give it a new life in the kitchen. Some have become favorites.
I do have a few of the newer ones. They are not made the same. Not the extra step of grinding that the older pieces have.
I do have the flat bottom wok. Lodge. I bought it for our wood fired cook stove.
It fits down in the open fire box once the steel plate ring is removed.

I do think it would work on electric coil with the flat bottom. Just need to heat it slowly, just 8-10 minutes while prepping, then crank it hot. My steel wok cover fits it. As does the splatter screens.

I use it less here, but i do have one, so i must have two of them. Mostly for thin sliced partly frozen flank or similar cuts...for an asian dish we make in the winter with lots of high heat quick veg. Rice noodles, finish with miso and fresh cilantro...
(the name and recipe is not available in my brain right now)
I've been slicing and seasoning and laying out in the fridge in a single layer and drying recently for tenderizing meats, (24-36 hours)...same meals but discovering that letting meats dry a bit to age and remove some moisture is key to tender. Wet meat in a hot pan will want to steam. Or cooking low and slow...

High heat in the wrong pan will ruin them. Cast iron is hard to ruin if given the time to heat properly.

If not cast iron, a flat bottomed wok. I prefer using a traditional round bottom wok, but that only works well on gas.

You don't want any thing coated (non-stick or enamel) - just carbon steel or cast iron - it transfers heat quickly to the food and isn't damaged by high heat.

Y'all have got me to thinking after mentioning the fact that the old ones were machined. Me thinking could be a dangerous thing!

I work maintenance and I wear a lot of different hats. One is as a machinist,

I have a cast iron frying pan from the 50's that belonged to my parents and it is so much better than the newer ones that I have. The surface is much smother and it just never rang a bell until Y'all mentioned it!!

I think I will take one of the newer ones to work and machine the surfaces on the lathe and see what I get.

Another thought is to use my rotary grinder to smooth it out. That would be easier since it will take a while to get it squared up in the lathe.

Edited to add, I Googled after posting and found that a lot of people sand them smooth and some machine them. So I guess my thinking isn't so bad!

This post was edited by wertach on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 14:07

Wertach, let me know if that works. I have tried taking a new Lodge pan and using a abrasive flap-sander to smooth it, to no avail.

I tried grinding, but it's hard to grind something flat with a grinder held at an angle.

I realized that if my time was worth $10 an hour, I was better off buying antique Wagner and Griswold items; it took forever to smooth out the Lodge units, and even then I didn't get them as smooth as the older pans. The ideal thing would be a large grinding surface about the size of the bottom of the pan.

Anyhow, if you succeed, let me know.

Again, thank you so much for your fantastic inputs, I have learned a lot from them.

This coming weekend I will try out Debuyer, Paderno and pre-seasoned Lodge frying pan at local stores, as well as check out Goodwill stores. I also noticed CL and eBay have quite a few old cast iron pans for sale.

For the first cast iron pan, may I ask what size is the most useful one?

10" or even 12", if you are strong enough to lift it. Because you never want to crowd the pan, meaning you want to leave 1" between pieces of meat. Take an 8" pan and start taking away 1" on either side of each piece, pretty soon you are cooking just one steak at a time, or two tiny steaks . . . Some pans have the helper handle opposite to the main handle. You'll need to use potholders, but that extra handle is great.

To polish cast iron, you need to use silicone carbide (carborundum) wet/dry sand paper.

You cannot machine (lathe) a cast iron pan because that will make the bottom thickness uneven.

You can do serious high heat stir fry with this technique:

1. Heat up two pans on two burners WITH NO OIL. Heat them up to red hot. No oil, no smoking.

2. Add oil to your ingredients and warm up (not cook) your ingredients in the microwave first before dumping in you very high heat pan.

3. With your exhaust fan on and smoke detector off, your food will be fried just like a Chinese chef cooking with a wok on a furnace.

4. Your first pan is now cooled down and little, dump the ingredients in the second red hot pan on the second burner with additional ingredients and continue stir frying.

Yes, you can do stir frying on a home stove and achieve serious "wok hei"

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 10:05

I got my first two cast iron pans!

One is 10 inches, the other one 6 inches. Both are clearly marked old Wagner, in great condition, flat, smooth and well seasoned. John, I know I know, I should not buy a small one, but it is so cute. I talked myself to buy it with a "vision" of using it to cook morel mushrooms with butter.

I could not find one single cast iron pan in two Goodwill stores, so I went antique mall shopping. Luckily with the help from two customers, both are cast iron cookware collectors, I was able to weed out a few Griswold and Wagner pieces. The price I paid for the two pans is very reasonable, especially considering the time I saved from shopping at garage sales, and money saved from paying hefty shipping charge if buying from eBay.

I used both pans cooked dinner tonight. When I saw tiny water beads jumping on the pan, I knew it was a good sign. The dinner turned out so good. It almost makes me believe I am a good cook.

I love my pans! All of you are so right! Thank you again for recommending cast Iron pan.

Below is a link to seasoning cast iron. I am lucky enough to have DH's grandmother's 10" skillet. It was stored in an outdoor shed for years. When DMIL passed and they cleaned out the shed, no one else wanted it. I felt like I had gotten a prize. It took a little cleaning and re-seasoning but it works like a dream now. I have two smaller cast iron skillets that are pre-seasoned Lodge. Good luck to you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Seasoning Cast Iron

asmom: Under the circumstances, it sounds like you did the right thing. When I suggested the garage sale, flea market route, I was assuming that one would occasionally attend such things in an ongoing manner and one would pop up 'soon'. It would also be very unlikely to run into a Griswold pan. I'm sure you will enjoy your 'new' pans.

bbstx,

Thank you so much for the link. The link "blog page about how to remove serious crud" in Pllog's posting is also very informative. I have copied the two links in case I need to season my pans in the future.

chase,

Your suggestion is spot on. Shopping garage sales is the way to go. I was too eager to get a cast iron pan, it is why I took the easy way out.

I shop online more than from stores. But now I realized it is difficult to apply what I learned from the two collectors when picking out antique cast iron cookware sight unseen. Going forward, I will be looking for more Griswold or Wagner from garage sales, Goodwill and antique stores.

I got a bonus from yesterday's antiquing, I found a lightly used, handsome size 28 Bourgeat skillet. DH said the price I paid is below a good deal. It would be perfect for food that is not suitable cooked in cast iron. Oh, I love my pans!

You did great!