Matfer Bourgeat Black Carbon Steel Frying Pan, 12 5/8"

This is not my third Matfer pan, and for good reason. This pan is flawless, simple, elegant in that austere French way, and—when properly seasoned—easily outperforms my other pans, which includes a 5-ply stainless, and a disappointing Hexclad). It's heavy for its size, but I welcome the trade-off for having more consistent heat distribution and retention. Their product support is impressive: a robust Q&A, and you can subscribe to get technical tips and product information. They clearly want you to appreciate how to use the pan correctly and get the most out of it. I'm not a huge fan of the potato skin/salt/oil method of seasoning, preferring to barely coat the pan with oil and bake in 500dF oven for an hour, then repeat when cooled. Is this pan better than other cabin steel pans you'll see out there? Look at the quality of the weld on the handle, the thickness of the pan body, and the absence of any rivets on the business side of the pan. Hard to beat.

Where has this pan been all my life? I followed the simple seasoning instructions, cleaned the pan as recommended, and have enjoyed non-stick cooking, many of the advantages of cast iron skillets, and easy care for almost a year now. I wish I had discovered it 30 years ago. I was tired of non-stick pans that put invisible chemicals in my food, which steadily deteriorated with every use, and which required replacement every few years. Properly cared for, this pan will last a lifetime with no loss of quality. It is slightly heavier than most non-stick pans of equal size, but far lighter than cast iron. A great professional skillet at a reasonable price.

The best! Amazing pan. This opened up the door to carbon steel cooking and I’m never going back. The handle is ergonomic, the sides are perfectly sloped. It seasons beautifully and is now totally nonstick. If you’re struggling with it go the CarbonSteel subreddit and ask for help. I own a smaller one (7 or 8”) and the 11” and they both get used daily. I’ve even been giving them as house warming gifts. I love this pan so much I made a guide to carbon steel cooking. See below: Intro: Carbon steel (CS) is basically the same as cast-iron, just lighter. It is the same material (iron alloy with carbon added) - but instead of being poured into a cast during manufacturing it is "punched" out of a circular sheet of carbon steel. Getting started with your new CS pan: 1. Removing the manufacturer's coating You have to remove the thin clear (almost invisible) wax layer on the cooking surface that is placed by the manufacturer. Start by scrubbing the cooking surface with some rubbing alcohol. Then scrub the cooking surface with soap and hot water. The layer should now be gone and you're ready to "blue" and season. 2. "Bluing" your pan Before seasoning you want to "blue" your pan. This will make it more rust resistant and easier to season. You are going to super-heat your pan and this will create a blue colored oxide layer (tri-iron tetroxide)( Fe3O4) that helps prevent rust. Wipe off all the water on your pan. Place your pan on your stove on the highest heat. Watch the pan turn orange, and then blue from the inside out (usually 5-10 minutes). Keep the pan on the heat until the blue goes all the way up the sides of the pan and the whole pan is blue. You're now done "bluing" your pan and you're ready to season. Let your pan cool down for a few minutes before the next step. 3. Oven seasoning Seasoning is creating a layer of polymerized oil on your pan surface, which is basically a self-healing "non-stick" layer. It also prevents rust. You need to oven season this particular pan first. You will automatically season the cooking surface while cooking, but because you have a raw steel handle (not plastic) you need to oven season the handle and the under-surface of the pan to "seal" those areas from rust. In order to create the polymerized oil layer, the oil has to burn, or smoke. So you have to heat the pan slightly above its smoke point for at least a few minutes. Grapeseed oil is commonly used for seasoning. It has a smoke point of 421F. To get started, apply a thin layer of grapeseed oil with a paper towel all over your pan, underside, and handle. Now use a new paper towel and vigorously try to wipe off all the oil. You want an imperceptibly thin layer of oil. Too thick of an oil layer will crust or season unevenly. You want a slight sheen to your pan but it shouldn't be glimmering with oil. Now place the pan in the oven upside down (cooking surface down) and turn the oven to 450F. To account for different oven thermometers, you want to turn the temperature slightly above your smoke point. Leave the pan in the oven for 45 minutes. Now carefully take the pan out, let it cool for a few minutes, and apply another oil layer. Again thoroughly wipe off the oil layer with a paper towel so it is as thin as possible (almost gone entirely). Put it back in the oven at 450F for 45 minutes and take it out. Your pan is now seasoned. 4. Stovetop Seasoning To maximize the non-stick, you want to season the cooking surface a few more times. This is most easily done on the stove instead of the oven, but is basically done the same way. Apply a thin layer of oil to the cooking surface of the pan and wipe it off with a dry paper towel. Put the pan on the stove and heat it to medium high just until the oil starts to smoke (you'll see smoke). Let it smoke for 1-2 minutes. Now take the pan off, let it cool, and apply another oil layer, and wipe it off. Put it back on the heat until it smokes and repeat. You can do this 3-4 times to have a super slick cooking surface. ====== Cooking tips for your CS pan: You can cook with any oil, including olive oil. They say olive oil has a low smoke point but that may not be true based on some industry research. Start cooking with a moderate amount of oil and once your pan is better seasoned, you can start using very little oil. Using a spray bottle (you can use a glass refillable spray bottle) is a nice way to get the oil on the pan You can cook on medium heat. You do not need to use high heat like with stainless steel. Low heat can be tricky and can cause some sticking, but generally medium heat works well Just like with cast iron, you can vigorously scrape your pan with a metal spatula to get crusted food off either while cooking or afterwards. Scraping won't remove your seasoning. You can clean your pan with soap and water and sponges. This will not remove your seasoning. That is a myth. Same applies to cast iron. The important thing is that water cannot be sitting on your pan. Don't leave it in the sink - it will rust. Dishwasher probably isn't great either. Don't let water sit on the pan for a long time. Wipe off all the water and leave it out to dry after you're done cleaning it. Some people will stove heat the pan and wipe with oil to protect from rust. You can cook acidic foods like tomatoes. It will strip your seasoning and stick to your pan but that is okay. Your pan will reseason over time. If you're having issues with things sticking to your pan, you can try this traditional Chinese cooking method of 滑锅 or "longyau" (aka "swirling oil"). This method is basically seasoning your pan every time you cook with it. You apply a generous amount of oil (pour a thick layer) to your pan and heat it up to high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke, you can pour off the excess oil into a glass container (and keep it for future cooking) and let the pan cool down to the desired cooking temperature. Your pan has just been quickly seasoned. Now you can cook with whatever oil remains on the pan. Don't worry about the color or spots on the pan. It will look funky as you cook in it over time - doesn't matter and won't affect performance. Enjoy your indestructible non stick pan. If it warps you can hammer it out. If it rusts, you can sand off the rust. It will probably outlive us.

Update 4/20/2023: I decided to make one more (forth I think) pass at seasoning this. I sanded the inside down to polished metal (800 grit) and tried the potato peel method. For reasons lost on me (vs oven) this worked. Two passes yielded a decent coating, and the next day I cooked a ribeye on it, to continue the seasoning and test it, and it released well and cleaned up nicely. Since then it continues to work fine. So what did I do wrong the first few times? I am unsure. I had removed all the preservative (at least by the second time), I was using a very thin layer of oil. I have seasoned bare metal cast iron exactly the same way with the same oil without issue. Something in the potato/salt chemistry? Not idea. But start there. Don't assume a "normal" seasoning will work. At this point the pan is working great and I am barely using my cast iron. I ordered a small version of this and am having a bit more mixed results with its seasoning (and one heck of a hard time cleaning all the preservative off, being smaller it is harder to scrub I think). They need a better mechanism for preserving them during shipping that does not turn into an afternoon of scrubbing. But revising my rating, and using the pan. Originally: I am a cast iron user for many, many years, but this carbon steel pan has beaten me. I have seasoned it now three separate times. The first time I decided I may have not gotten all the preservative oil off since it pealed badly on first real use, so I sanded off the pealing seasoning and cleaned the pan, and actually sanded the bottom spotlessly clean and smooth, washed and dried again, definitely no preservative left, and seasoned twice. Pealed. Thinking maybe I had the coatings too thick I started over. For this time I sanded it again, including the sides- beautiful. Washed thoroughly. This time I did not polish it completely but used a fine (not extra fine) grit of 220 so there were very slight swirls, thinking that would help it grip. I then went through a series of FIVE separate seasonings with grapeseed oil. Each time heating it to thin, drying it nearly completely with two rounds of paper towels, and baking in the oven at 425F for 90 minutes then leaving it to cool. It looked perfect, nice and even. Cooked some sausage, then added butter and cooked scrambled eggs. Everything released well. Added a bit of water while warm to clean (no soap) and .... massive amount of the seasoning came off, some all the way to the bare steel as you can see in the photo. I'm done. Not sure if it is this manufacturer, or that I am not destined to use carbon steel, but at least for now going back to Cast Iron, and returning the small skillet that I have enroute and not even going to try it. It may be worth noting that I use this on a new induction cooktop (vs radiant I just changed from). Quite disappointed, I love how it adjusts heat fast with induction, ideal in all ways except I just cannot get it seasoned. Three strikes and giving up and throwing it away.

This is the new pan that they shipped with the logo. It's got that bottom that doesn't spin like the old ones . I cooked 2 rounds of potato skins in grapeseed oil with salt and fried up 1 potato. Only used Dawn Powerwash when I first washed it in the sink. It's getting a cool patina now already on day 1. Wow I love it. No oven like I did with my cast iron pans. This took less time than sticking it in the oven over n over though I still may do that I don't think it's necessary. That's what appealed to me about this pan cuz I don't have to season it in the oven which can literally take a day or 2 like with a cast iron though I love my cast irons. Very pleased with it. Good sturdy pan. Weighs a little less I think than my 10 inch cast iron. This is probably going to be my go to pan. I have stainless steel, cast irons, Oxo's but I think I'll end up using this pretty regularly now. Update: I put the pan in the oven for an hour at 470 with grapeseed oil the next day and it the 2 pictures show how it darkened. May 6 2024: Uncle Scott's Kitchen updated the French recall info. Apparently according to the letter from Matfer he was reading from they tested this pan by cooking something acidic for 2 hrs in a pan that wasn't seasoned and it leaked arsenic and some other stuff but that's not how these pans are supposed to be used normally. These pans are not for acidic foods. Cooking acidic foods will remove the seasoning. Stainless steel is more for acidic foods so I'm not worried about it at all. Update. I got the 9.5 inch pan and I really like it. It's the older version but it's still great. Had trouble cleaning it in the sink getting off the coating but it's still great! Update 5.28.25... This pan and my deBuyer 9.5" are both my go to pans for cooking. LOVE this 9.5" Matfer. It's seasoned great and is completely non-stick when it's hot n smoking. Some of the seasoning came off of the bottom but I just kept using it and seasoned over it by cooking and re-seasoning after and now it's not really chipping off anymore. So easy to do eggs with. This pan is the best n I even prefer it to the DeBuyer at times too.

I have been looking for a new pan for a while that has non-stick properties. Last year I bought two new non-stick pans and about a month later read a news report that they cause cancer so I stopped using them and had to learn how to cook in my stainless steel all clad pans without food sticking. It has been okay, but not a great experience. This really is a great pan. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box and took the pan out is how heavy it is for it's size. I got the 8 5/8" version for eggs because I have a lid that fits it perfectly and I like my eggs basted. I watched some videos that made me concerned about seasoning the pan on my electric stove so I contacted the manufacturer and they emailed me some instructions on how to season the pan in the oven. In the end I decided to do it on the stove using the method with the potato peels, salt, and oil. I also saw some videos where people said it was difficult to scrub off the initial factory coating and the manufacturer sent me some detailed instructions on how to do that, as well. It turned out to be much easier than others made it out to be. Per the manufacturers suggestions, I went to the store and bought some Scotch Bright copper scrubbing pads. I filled the sink with hot water and soap and scrubbed the pan for about 5 minutes until all of the coating was removed inside and out. Then I dried the pan with a towel and put it on the stove with a preheated burner set to the #3 setting. While it was warming up on the burner, I peeled two potatoes, prepared 1/2 cup of salt and 1/4 cup of canola oil. Then I added the salt, oil, and potato peels and set a timer for 15 minutes. I gradually increased the heat one setting at a time until I got to setting #7, to slowly get the pan hot. Once I got to setting #7, I backed off to setting #6 and then #5 and left it there. At about 12 of 15 minutes, the potato peels were a little burnt so I stopped and dumped everything out and wiped the pan as clean as I could get it and repeated the process. The pan turned a nice golden copper color. Once that was complete, I put a little canola oil on a paper towel and wiped the pan down inside and out with a very fine layer of oil. This morning I cooked up a couple of the potatoes that I peeled and made hash browns using grape seed oil. I put in the potatoes, some bell pepper and onion and nothing stuck. Then, I wiped out the pan, added some butter and put in two eggs. I added a little water and put a lid on the pan, waited about two minutes and the eggs were done. The eggs barely stuck in a couple of places but easily released once I slid a spatula under them. I'm not concerned as I know the pan will get better over time. Once again, I wiped out the pan with a paper towel, put a little oil on another paper towel and wiped it down inside and out. I think that is easier than washing and drying a pan. It was probably better than using a non-stick pan. It was like cooking on ice. When I cooked hash browns in my stainless steel pan, I always had a layer of potatoes stuck and burnt to the bottom of the pan. I figured out how to cook eggs in a stainless steel pan without them sticking but could never figure out the potatoes. The Matfer Bourgeat pan makes cooking much easier. I've heard these pans can warp on electric or induction stove tops, especially the larger pans. That is why I wanted to take is slow with the heat and not shock the pan. The manufacturer said that is another advantage of the oven seasoning method is that it tempers the pan. I'm buying a larger version from Amazon today and I may try the oven method with that one. I would highly recommend this pan.

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.

This is an UN-Seasoned steel skillet! It is bare steel, which will rust very quickly, unless it is coated or otherwise covered. This is as basic, no frills device as can possibly be constructed to qualify as a skillet. The only features that make this a skillet are that it is a steel disc with the sides turned up so its no longer a flat steel disc and there is a handle attached by a spot weld. There are no technological features, unless being pot-like with a handle qualifies as a feature. No copper, aluminum, stainless steel discs on the bottom and no ready to cook non-stick coating. This one is factory coated in some kind of plastic film to protect the steel during shipping. The plastic coating on the skillet must be removed before seasoning and before any cooking can commence. Some reviews have suggested scrubbing it off. It took 3 hours of hard hand scrubbing. In hindsight, some spray on oven cleaner would have been easier. Using the recommended seasoning method of frying potato peels with salt, it laid down a mottled brown, tan, or black, extremely thin seasoning layer. When making scrambled eggs using lots of butter at a low temp, the seasoning came right off in small patches. Seasoning will make some smoke, so be sure to use plenty of ventilation. Seasoned again with potato peels and salt. Scrambled eggs made this thin re-seasoning come off again, but this time in different patches. Re-re-seasoned again, more eggs and re-seasoned again, and then again. Eventually lost count. After one of almost month of daily use and re-seasoning after every use, the seasoning is about 60% solid but still has some bare spots that 'move around'. Maybe eventually it might come around to fully seasoned, after maybe 3 more months of use and constant re-seasoning. This skillet requires extreme patience to get fully seasoned. Be sure to use maximum ventilation to remove the smoke produced by seasoning, otherwise your home will smell like a greasy spoon after a few days! Seasoning is tricky due to the thin steel hot spots. If the oil is not hot enough, the seasoning will not stick, but your food sure will. Also, wiping the oil around the inside takes a special technique. Too much oil leaves a drip or heavy run that becomes a hard blob and eventually comes free and pulls the seasoning off in that spot. Too little oil and it immediately burns and smokes leaving a black spot to comes right off the next use. The thin steel on this skillet means there will be hot spots that affect cooking and is the cause of the spotty, blotchy and unsightly seasoning layers, *** UPDATE: After more than 9 months, I gave up on getting this skillet to retain any uniform seasoning of any kind. Continually seasoned after each cooking session. I used it for frying, using plenty of oil/grease, tried cooking on very low temps, tried using lard, Crisco, butter and olive oil - but everything always sticks, every time, all of the time. The seasoning goes on but comes right off in a different spot each time leaving blotchy patches. The multi-colored layers of burned/brown/tan splotch seasoning really looks disgusting, and very unappetizing, like cooking with a 100 year old never washed skillet. It looks for all the world to be an old crusty old miners grub skillet from 1849! Now just need the crusty old miner with a pick-axe and mule to go with this skillet. But it will dependably stick no matter what temp, oil or grease. Also this this steel skillet has hot spots directly over the heat source so be sure to constantly move it around the burner. The burner heats the bottom, goes straight up, and does not spread out to the sides. The skillet either cooks perfectly directly over the heat source with medium or low settings and then the sides are cold and uncooked, or with medium to high settings it burns food directly over the heat source and the side cooks OK, but never cooks evenly. Pre-heating on low to medium for 5 to 10 minutes will help but the hot/cold spots are still very irritating. All this seasoning care, preheating, fussing, and pampering might be 'character' but takes a lot of time for poor results. I got a Lodge pre-seasoned Cast iron skillet, have used it for two months now, and I'm very happy with it. Use a little of any kind grease, olive/corn oil, or butter and it just does not stick[PERIOD]. Be sure to pre-heat on low for just a few minutes before starting to cook and this prevent hot spots and cooks very evenly. After use, while still hot, rinse in very hot water, all the little particles come right out and wipe it dead dry. Then using a spray bottle with some olive oil, 1 light squirt of oil, wipe it all over the hot dry skillet. Store it in the oven to keep it handy for next time. It's cast iron, so is literally bullet proof, in case if you ever turn the oven on with out checking it first. Yes, slightly more care than teflon, but I have used and replaced 4 cast iron skillets ($20 to $40 each) and becomes useless when the coating scratches and wears off. Teflon (aluminium) skillets can't be used at high temperatures. This Lodge cast iron doesn't stick, I can see the seasoning gradually building up with each use, it will last forever, and it cooks evenly. Cast iron is also great for frying chicken. The cast iron heavy weight retains the heat, after it gets up to frying temp (350-375 degree F), drop the chicken, the temp does go down, but cast iron still keeps it frying around 300F to 325F. It is critical to maintain the higher temp throughout frying process for any fried foods to be non-greasy. Also retaining the heat cooks the food quickly and thoroughly with the higher temps. Maybe someone at Goodwill will have better luck than me with the Matfer Bourgeat skillet. They can have it but they aren't getting my cast iron!

I love cooking and was looking for pans I can safely use on my gas stove top, put in the oven and use on my 100 year old Rayburn wood stove! I am weeding out all plastics, Teflon and non-stick surfaces, and noticed lots of very good reviews for the Matfer steel pans. I started with a small pan, followed all the starter seasoning instructions and cleaning after every use very carefully and so glad I did. I was so very happy with this pan I bought another. When I can afford a third I will add to my collection. Nothing sticks! The cooking results are excellent. I'm very happy! Tip, I purchased heat proof slip on silicon handles, cause they get hot and the pans are heavy. Follow the cleaning instructions every single use. No detergents, dry thoroughly and oil lightly when dry. I use rice bran oil. My pans are nearly black now, which is how they are supposed to be after correct use and cleaning/storing.

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Seasoned it on the stove (following the video guide by Serious Eats) and it turned beautifully dark in just a day! Food did not stick, except when I used soy sauce the first time. It’s my first time using carbon steel and I have high hopes and good experiences so far. It’s on the heavy side but more manageable than cast iron. The bottom surface is very small though, much less space than a 10 inch Lodge skillet.

Its a Joy to cook in, once it is seasoned, its the best non stick pan. Best for stake lovers. I personally try to cook as much possible in this. Wok will be a nice addition to our kitchen. Its going to last a life time. Absolutely worth the investment.

This is my third matfer bourgeat cookware and as expected is of high quality. Highly recommended! Have provided photographs of before and after seasoning …