Like a lot of home cooks right now, I’ve been looking for ways to reduce the amount of nonstick Teflon in my kitchen in favor of non-toxic options. Unfortunately, I also have a deep aversion to spending money, which often stills my hand before I can click “buy” on a $100-plus ceramic skillet that—no matter how durable it is—may scratch, chip, and need replacing in a year. I’ve also grown tired of lugging out my heavy cast iron pans every time I cook dinner, and despite my best efforts, I’ve accepted that my enameled cookware will not be replacing my egg pan anytime soon. As so rarely happens*, I’ve found the one pan that solves all these problems: the OXO Obsidian Carbon Steel Frying Pan.
* I’d like to attribute this to my lucky girl syndrome, but the fact that I spend all day writing and reading about cooking gear might have something to do with it, too.
Why I Love the OXO Obsidian Carbon Steel Skillet
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The OXO skillet is actually my second carbon steel pan. My first was the unseasoned Mauviel M’Steel, which aced our tests but daunted me with the responsibility of forging its cast iron-like seasoning myself. I think I read editorial director Daniel Gritzer’s seasoning how-to a dozen times before I felt confident enough to strip off its protective wax coating and start the smoky process. Though my intimidation was largely unwarranted (it wasn’t hard!), it did take several rounds of oiling and heating over multiple weeks before I felt like I had a stable working patina.
Unlike the Mauviel, the OXO Obsidian Carbon Steel pan came pre-seasoned with natural cooking oils already hardened into an even, glossy black surface. It felt like a luxury to be able to start cooking on it immediately. After using it for several months, I found the OXO’s baseline seasoning more resilient than my Mauviel’s built-up one and less likely to diminish when I deglaze the pan or scrape off stubborn food bits.
Serious Eats
Another major bonus of this carbon steel pan is its weight, or lack thereof. I can easily toss food in it while sautéing, and cleaning it is much easier than wrangling a heavy cast iron skillet. Its carbon steel construction means it has excellent heat responsiveness; it heats and cools much faster than cast iron, too. The pan comes with a silicone-sleeved handle, which keeps the handle cool while searing and can come off for stints in the oven or on the grill (where the frying pan can handle temps up to 660°F). It’s so adaptable that it lives full-time on my stove; after I sear pork chops or chicken breasts in it for dinner, I wash, dry, and oil it so that it’s ready for egg duty in the morning.
I won’t lie to you—this pan isn’t (and will never be) as nonstick as a Teflon- or ceramic-coated egg pan. It also won’t always wash up with just a quick swipe of a sponge, as those pans do. That said, I have watched countless videos and read several explainers on how to fry eggs in stainless steel, and this pan (plus this guide) has gotten me the closest I’ve ever come to reliably clean, over-easy eggs from a non-nonstick pan.
While a nonstick skillet makes frying eggs easy (but needs to be discarded as soon as it gets scratched or overheated), I know that if my yolks break or I bump the heat too high, I can still enjoy my ugly eggs and then scrub my carbon steel pan, add another layer of seasoning, and keep using it for years to come.
