I didn’t have to spend a long time with my DeBuyer to understand that it’s a well engineered piece of cookware.

I’m drawn to cooking less because I love food and more because I love weird gadgets. Does my favorite cast iron skillet really cook a steak better than my mom’s ugly nonstick? Well, yeah, but mostly because I know exactly how long it takes to heat up, exactly how long to get a steak to the perfect level of doneness, and exactly how to keep it clean. 

So when it came time to try out a carbon steel pan — specifically the DeBuyer Mineral B Pro — the centuries-old French cookware company really had their work cut out for them. So what did I think? Spoilers: while I won’t be throwing out my cast iron any time soon, I did make breakfast with this pan right before writing this.

Let’s get the obvious comparison out of the way: a carbon steel pan functions very similarly to a cast iron skillet, requiring virtually identical care and prep. I first season my DeBuyer with avocado oil, the same oil I used to season my cast iron, and I wash it with warm soap, water, and the same salt and mail scrub I use on my cast iron. It even takes on a similar dull black color as the metal becomes "seasoned," and therefore naturally nonstick.

In fact, there are only two main differences that I can tell: my carbon steel heats up faster (and therefore cools down more quickly), and it’s significantly lighter. 

While the weight difference is purely advantageous — carbon steel is sturdier than brittle iron, and can therefore be used to manufacture thinner cookware — the heat retention is a double-edged sword. While the quick heat-up makes carbon steel excellent (and convenient) for searing meat or cooking eggs, the higher heat-retention of cast iron means that more heat is also radiated as it cooks, making it better for roasting or pan frying. And if you like to flip pancakes, the lighter weight of the carbon steel makes it far less likely you’ll splatter that batter all along your walls.

I didn’t have to spend a long time with my DeBuyer to understand that it’s a well engineered piece of cookware. The cast iron steel handle is tightly bolted to the pan itself, with no discernable wiggle whatsoever, and cleverly designed with a gap built around the logo to keep the handle from getting hot while you cook with it.

According to Sylvie Giret, DeBuyer’s managing director in North America, this innovation — and others like it — come directly from consumers.

“We keep adding, upgrading it, according to the feedback and requests of our customers,” said Giret. “Americans love to be able to put their pan in the oven, which is why we added the stainless steel handle, but then a complaint we kept hearing is that the handle became too hot. This design is one of the innovations our R&D came up with.”

"This design is one of the innovations our R&D came up with.”

Listen, I’m normally a pretty healthy guy, but you’re not going to get a good sense of a pan’s capabilities just by frying Brussels sprouts (shut up, you’re not) so I spent the past few days cooking eggs, bacon, and steak. Each one came out great, but the steak tips definitely took the best pictures, so let’s enjoy that first.

Raw, with just salt and pepper to season.

Raw, with just salt and pepper to season.

The outside had the precise texture I always go for, and the inside was a flawless medium rare.

Genuine perfection (I’m a very good cook).

While the general consensus is that cast iron is superior for searing, I had no complaints whatsoever about what I cooked with this pan. The outside had the precise texture I always go for, and the inside was a flawless medium rare. 

Fried eggs are a bit of a gauntlet for any skillet — a bad skillet will stick, resulting in broken yolks and an ugly meal, while an effective nonstick will allow the eggs to skate around the inside of your pan like an X-Games athlete jamming out to the new “Suicide Machines” track in 1998. This DeBuyer skillet was the latter, and most impressively, it cooked well immediately after my first seasoning (my favorite cast iron took a few days to develop the necessary coating for eggy-perfection). 

Fried eggs are a bit of a gauntlet for any skillet

While I’m a cast iron devotee, a certain amount of that is due sheerly to habit. I’m hard pressed to think of a person who wouldn’t benefit from adding a carbon steel pan to their repertoire — particularly if they lack the upper body strength, or suffer from any common wrist injuries that make regular cast iron use uncomfortable. 

That said, this pan is four times the price of a Lodge Cast Iron skillet, so it could be more of an investment than you want to make if you’re on a tight budget or keeping a minimalist kitchen.

That said, your dollar is still going far here — especially if you do a lot of cooking. The ergonomic handle is the most comfortable one in my pantry by far, and the light weight makes quick meals and clean up a breeze. It might be one of those situations where you just have to try it out and then ask yourself if you can live without it.

Joshua Sargent is the Senior News Editor, Commerce, for Hearst Newspapers. Before this job he wrote video games and comedy, which probably just made you say "ah, yeah, that makes sense."

Josh can play the guitar solo from Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" almost exactly right and lives in Brooklyn, NY with a cat that "belongs" to him according to the "law."

Email him at josh.sargent@hearst.com.