To make a restaurant-quality steak at home, you’ll want to have the proper pan—especially if you spent a little more for a high-quality cut.
While you’ve got a few options, to achieve a perfectly seared steak with an ideal temperature gradient—i.e., rarer in the center and less rare near the edges—you’ll need a pan that can get and stay ripping hot. Here are four of our favorite pans that will do right by your favorite steak recipes.
Best for High Heat: Carbon Steel Frying Pan
Carbon steel is one of our absolute favorite materials for steak night (or really any other protein). Lightweight like a stainless steel frying pan with the stellar heat retention of a rustic cast iron skillet, our Carbon Steel Pan features excellent heat control, meaning you can easily lower the flame to avoid burning once you’ve gotten that perfect sear. And, the curvature of where the cooking surface meets the pan wall was designed for basting your steaks—you'll find a basting spoon fits perfectly in that nook.
Able to stand temperatures up to 1200F, it's safe to use in the oven, on the grill, and over an open flame, so you can reverse sear or char the exterior—whatever your tastes, carbon steel can suit them.
For Perfect Sears: Stainless Clad Frying Pan
No matter the cut, our Stainless Clad Frying Pan can get a beautiful sear on your steak. Similarly to carbon steel, our Stainless Clad Frying Pan is lightweight enough to maneuver around the stovetop or out of the oven, but heavy-duty enough to get a serious sear going. With 5 cladded layers of metal, you get the best of each type of metal—meaning quick heating, instant response, and consistently stellar performance.
An added benefit of our Stainless Clad is that it’s non-reactive. Essentially, this means that you can add acidic ingredients—like wine to make a pan sauce—to the pan without causing a reaction between the ingredients and the surface of the pan. Carbon steel and cast iron are two examples of reactive materials; meaning the addition of acidic ingredients would cause a reaction, strip the seasoning, and potentially impart a metallic taste into your food.
For Grilling or Camping: Carbon Steel Grill Frying Pan
If you prefer to cook your steak on the grill, you might consider upping your game with a grill frying pan. Our Carbon Steel Grill Frying Pan offers the same excellent heat conductivity and lightweight feel as our standard Carbon Steel Frying Pan, but with a bottom featuring 62 perforations that allows your steak to make direct contact with the flames of the grill. Both easy to maneuver and imparting smoke-kissed char to your proteins, the Carbon Steel Grill Pan is a win-win.
For Varied Uses: Carbon Steel Griddle
By now, you can probably guess much we love our Carbon Steel for cooking steak—that doesn't change when it comes to our Griddle. Not only can the Griddle do everything the Carbon Steel Frying Pan and Grill Frying Pan can do, it can be used on the stove, over open flame, or on the grill. Anywhere you want to sear your steaks, the Griddle can get it done flawlessly.
What to Look For When Cooking Steaks
For steaks that are consistently excellent every time you cook them, make sure to look for a pan that not only gets ripping hot, but also responds well to adjustments in temperature. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind.
1. Heat Control
Steaks are deceptively finicky when it comes to cooking them to the right temperature. While some pans, like cast iron, are known for giving steak that sought-after crust, they’re almost too good at retaining heat, meaning it’s harder to reduce the temperature of the pan.
If you’re not careful, you could wind up with a steak that’s raw on the inside and fully cooked—or even burned—on the outside, something that’s easier to avoid with a Stainless Clad or Carbon Steel pan.
2. Temperature Maximums
Not all pans can be used interchangeably, and that especially goes for the high-heat cooking used for steaks. If you plan to cook your steak on the grill or finish it in the oven, make sure your pan is designed to hold up to cooking using those methods—otherwise, it may degrade the pan (and probably ruin your dinner).
Luckily, our Stainless Clad Frying Pan can luckily withstand temperatures of up to 800F, while the Carbon Steel Frying Pan and Carbon Steel Grill Frying Pan can both withstand up to 1200F—so you don't need to worry about warping your pan.
Ready to Cook?
After you've landed on then best pan, the next step for cooking a great steak is a high-quality cut of meat—we recommend a filet mignon, New York Strip, or a bone-in ribeye from our friends at Porter Road.
Once you’ve got everything you need, treat yourself to one of our steak recipes—like Grilled Steak with a sweet and spicy baked potato salad on the side, courtesy of Mike and Mark Black of Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin, Texas. The steak is seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared in a Carbon Steel Frying Pan to create that perfect crust. Watch the video above, or get the recipe below—either way, you'll want to pick up a steak for dinner ASAP.
