I have been using Hexclad for around a year. Love them. Easy to clean, good for browning a nice even distribution of heat. I bought the set supplemented it with a couple of small additions.
Recently they brought out a 14 inch pan. It does not sound that much bigger than the normal 12 inch pad. But somehow it is, one of the most useful pans I have, and allowed me to make some changes to the way I cook larger meals. The photo below is 8x 1lb Osso Buco; which are the larger ones offered by D’Artagnan, taken high off the bone. I would have normally browned in two batches, and changed the oil. The same thing with the gray sole I made yesterday, and the schnitzel from earlier this week.
I got a 14" cast iron skillet recently and it holds way more food than the standard 12". Surface areas are squared so going from a six to seven inch radius gives you 35% more space.
What has your experience been relative to heat distribution on a standard burner with the 14" cast iron? I find that I would sometimes like a bigger pan for things like searing fish or large cuts of pork but have questioned whether the heat distribution would be sufficient for this purpose.
The problem for us with most of the big ones is that they have those loops on either side instead of a long handle, which makes them a hard pass for Jonathan especially. If it doesn’t have a handle, he won’t consider it.
Sadly I have been through almost pan made by mankind. Apart from hexclad, and some old saucepans, I kept my cast iron pan. The carbon steel was not a great success, and ended up passing it on to my son who discarded it.
I’ve found it fine as long as there is enough oil to cook with since it’s very thermally conductive when the cast iron has been heat soaked. I think I’ve been influenced too much by crank it to 11 type of mentality with searing at home. I found moderate heat produces a fine crust. I think it’s the moisture content of the item cooked that is the real issue. You’ll need to increase the heat to evaporate moisture if the surface isn’t dry. Surface browning doesn’t occur until evaporation ends. The extra surface area to me allows me to evaporate excess moisture and avoiding things steaming in a pan.
Same. A couple years ago, I ordered what I thought was a 12" saute pan during the All Clad seconds sale. Somehow, they shipped me a 14" pan and I kept it. The first thing I made in it was potato latkes for Hanukkah and it was a total gamechanger how many could fit in the pan with ample room around each one. Since then, it’s my go-to for any time I am cooking for more than myself.
I have a 14" cast iron pan and love it, but that friggin’ thing is almost a two-hand lift, and that’s without any food in it! It just weighs so, so much. I think I’d really like something like this because I’m sure it weighs a whole lot less. With that big pan, and with my crummy range, I’ve found that slowly heating it so as to encourage more heat to the edges works well enough to get most of the cooking surface sufficiently hot.
In other words: thanks for the review and for the link!
