For the home cook looking to get a little more serious about their cookware collection—or a chef shopping for a workhorse to equip their restaurant kitchen with—it’s tough to do better than carbon steel.
We chose this durable, lightweight, versatile material for our Griddle and Frying Pans, both of which beautifully showcase the intense, direct heat, responsiveness, and natural non stick patina that carbon steel is known for. And while we use both of these pans on a regular basis, we want you to know exactly what to expect from each one—and how to choose the one that best fits your cooking style.
The Basics: Griddles and Skillets
The main difference between griddles and skillets (or frying pans) comes down to the amount of flat cooking surface and the height of the walls.
What Is a Griddle?
While griddles vary in shape, size, and material composition, the basic idea of one is that it provides a wide, flat surface with low walls, giving you plenty of uninterrupted space to toss, flip, sauté, and sear a large amount of food. That’s why they’re so often found in diners and other restaurant kitchens, where cooks use them to churn out hundreds of burgers, steaks, and seafood entrees in a single night.
Of course, you’re probably not dealing with a dining room full of hungry paying customers in your own home—but you can still definitely benefit from the griddle. These pans are beneficial whether you’re cooking for a small crowd or want to churn out a full breakfast spread for two without dirtying up a bunch of pans.
Our Carbon Steel Griddle makes all of this easier: not only is it pre-seasoned and ready to use, but it also features hand-welded, raised handles for easy carrying to the grill.
What Is a Skillet?
A skillet—aka a frying pan—is arguably the most-used tool in any home or restaurant kitchen (including ours). Typically round, with moderately low, sloped walls and a long handle, they’re used for sautéing, searing, shallow-frying, and a number of other cooking methods. Depending on the material composition, you can even use them to roast, bake, or shallow fry.
We especially like carbon steel frying pans, whose high heat resistance and non stick surface work just as well for searing steaks as they do for cooking eggs and delicate, flaky fish. Like our Griddle, our Carbon Steel Frying Pan also comes pre-seasoned, and weighs only slightly more than our Stainless Clad Frying Pan—less than ¾ of a pound—for easy tossing and flipping.
Advantages of Carbon Steel
Similar to stainless steel, carbon steel is durable, lightweight, and quick to heat up. And while cast iron is unparalleled at retaining heat, carbon steel’s responsiveness gives you more control, allows you to quickly cut the heat if your food starts to burn.
All of this is to say, carbon steel makes a great foundation both for cooking over high heat (i.e. the main reason we love using a griddle) and for gentle, low-heat cooking methods.
Griddles vs. Skillets: How They Stack Up
From stir-frying to searing, here’s what to expect from these two complementary pieces of cookware.
Cooking Surface and Size
As we touched on, the griddle’s main selling point is the ample surface area it provides. If we’re talking carbon steel, both a griddle and a frying pan will offer identical heat retention properties—however, while a frying pan is better for tossing food, you definitely want to use a griddle for cooking a large volume of food.
Not only does this help maximize the amount of direct contact between food and pan, but it also provides sufficient space between each piece of food, enabling faster and more even cooking.
Heat Distribution and Retention
You can use a griddle and frying pan pretty much interchangeably—with a few exceptions. Love the smashburgers at your local burger joint, but have no idea how to achieve a similar result at home? Either a carbon steel griddle or carbon steel frying pan will do the trick, unless you’re cooking a dozen burgers (or several steaks or a whole fish) at once.
On the other hand, we definitely recommend a frying pan for a method like sautéing, which involves fast, continuous tossing. The skillet is also better for sauces, shallow frying, and anything that involves a large quantity of oil or liquid.
Versatility and Functionality
Carbon steel is a fairly versatile material. As we mentioned above, carbon steel’s quick, even heating ability and responsiveness to temperature change make it a good pick for a variety of cooking methods, from a gentle sauté to a hearty sear.
Ease of Use and Maintenance
If you know how to clean a carbon steel skillet, you know how to clean a carbon steel griddle, and vice versa. Carbon steel—while just a tad trickier to maintain than stainless steel or non stick—rewards your efforts with a naturally non stick cooking surface that’s nearly impossible to ruin.
Unlike PTFE-based non stick cookware, which can sustain permanent scratches and other damage if you’re not careful, carbon steel needs only a quick reseasoning to restore it to its former smooth, non stick state.
Skillet or Griddle: How to Choose the Right Cookware for Your Needs
A quality frying pan is going to be one of the most-used items in your kitchen—especially one made from a material as versatile as carbon steel—and if you don’t have one, you should change that ASAP.
A griddle is less of a requirement for a home kitchen, but is one that can change the game completely when it comes to high-heat, big-batch cooking, searing, and grilling. We like to think of our Griddle as just a larger-format version of our Carbon Steel Frying Pan, with the added ability to smash, sear, and flip. And, while the dual-burner Griddle is a size commitment, we also offer a Half Griddle for the same exact qualities, just in a smaller, single-burner package.
We believe there’s room for both of these in your kitchen—there certainly is in ours!—but we recommend starting with a skillet if you don’t have one already, then expanding to a Griddle.
Why Choose Made In Carbon Steel Cookware
Our Carbon Steel is both approved and loved by some of the world’s best chefs. Below, you’ll find just a couple other reasons why you should consider Made In Carbon Steel.
Quality and Craftsmanship
Made from professional-grade carbon steel, our Carbon Collection can last for decades or longer with proper care and maintenance. Unlike other non stick pans, which eventually wear out no matter how premium the coating, carbon steel is practically indestructible and just gets better with time. Rust, discoloration, and sticky spots can all be worked off with a little elbow grease and can easily be re-seasoned to restore its non stick surface.
Customer Testimonials and Reviews
Our Carbon Steel Collection is beloved by home and professional chefs alike. Reviewers call it “superb and versatile”; a “game changer”; and “a must have in every kitchen.” Customers say they love using the Griddle for items like smash burgers, whole fish, and bacon and eggs; and they love the Frying Pan for searing steaks, frying eggs, and caramelizing onions without burning them.
Point is: no matter which shape you go with, you can feel confident knowing it’s proven and backed by real customers, not paid ambassadors.
Product Range and Availability
Over time, our Carbon Steel Collection has grown from the single size Carbon Steel Frying Pan that was our entry point. From seasoned and unseasoned variants to different sizes, you have a wealth of options to choose from—including the Half-Size or Full Size Griddle, or a half-perforated version perfect for grilling. Once you get your first piece of carbon steel cookware, you’ll understand the need for a full collection.
Ready to Shop?
Whether you’re cooking at scale or prepping a fancy solo dinner, carbon steel makes a stellar add-on to your existing cooking collection. With sloping sides and a comfortable ergonomic handle, our lightweight Carbon Steel Frying Pan makes all of your sauté, stir fry, and searing dreams come true: for more wiggle room (but the same searing power and heat retention), opt for our Carbon Steel Griddle. Whether you pick up one or both, you're guaranteed to see the difference carbon steel can make.
