BALLARINI Professionale Series 3000 11-inch Carbon Steel Fry Pan

This carbon steel pan is professional quality and very sturdy. For the price range it is absolutely worth the cost. Welding is secure, and the handle is long enough that it does not get hot at all; no oven mit or silicon handle required. If you are not familiar with carbon steel, you need to treat it similar to cast iron: never use soap or abrasives. In time, it will create its own non-stick surface that will last several lifetimes if cared for properly. The process is smokey and time consuming, but well worth it in my opinion. While (As of these pictures) I'm not done seasoning it, it's certainly getting there. I started off by thoroughly washing the pan with dish soap and water (I know, counter intuitive to what I said before, but bare with me, you need to remove the factory oils that prevent it from rusting). Next, take a paper towel or dish rag and apply a thin layer of neutral, high heat oil such as canola, vegetable, or peanut. Ghee may work but I have not personally tried it for the initial process. Make sure you cover the entire surface, handle and all as it will be prone to rust without the treatment. Put it in the oven at 400-450F (200-230C), for 30-45min. Let it come to room temp, put another thin layer of high heat oil and do it again. Then again. After that, I recommend using the stove top. Crank up the heat to medium and apply a thin layer of oil only to the inside of the pan until it smokes. Let it smoke for a while, then wipe more oil around the inside until it smokes again. Keep repeating for a bit, then let it come to room temp. Do this a few more times until it's glossy. The more you use the pan, the darker and more non-stick it will become. Never buy another 'non-stick' pan again. Bonus: works on all stovetops including induction. This pan is my go-to for steaks and proteins. Gets a good crisp on the outside and I can put the whole thing into the oven the continue cooking. I also use it to make millions of grilled cheeses for my son. Everyone wins.

This is a beauiful pan! The 9.5 inch pan. I have a De Buyer French pan in the next size up as well. Both these are wonderful saute pans. In most respects I would prefer the Ballarini pan, but in a few respects I might prefer the DeBuyer pan. Both however are wonderful. I think the Ballarini pan achieves absolutely the perfect turn and height of the sides for the size of the pan. The DeBuyer pan has higher sides relative to the bottom surface. As far as a pan for omelets is concerned the Ballarini pan is ideal for making a French rolled omelet in the 2 to 4 egg size. For that purpose, there is little possibility of it being improved on. It is also the perfect pan for making Italian Fritattas or the famous Torte Espanole from potatoes and eggs. The form and height of Ballarini's pan sides are absolutely perfect for flipping, and sauteing. It is somewhat better in that respect than my particular deBuyer pan. With regard to seasoning, I found it slightly easier to season the DeBuyer pan, which also came as raw steel, not nitrided. I would like to see Ballarini offer this same pan in a nitrided ("blued") vesion. Nitrided carbon steels seem to me to give a more durable carbonized coat upon seasoning than does bare carbon steel. They also seem to be a little easier to season and tend to give a move even seasoning of the surface. The one nitrided steel pan I own was very easy to season. Nevertheless, once either the Ballarini or DeBuyer pans, are properly seasoned, these are lifetime non-stick pans and the equal of the best saute pans you will ever own. Another nice feature is that these pans can go into very hot ovens. There are no polymer handle parts to be damaged. A disadvantage, however, of these professional steel pans is that the high long handles will make it impossible to fit these pans into most toaster ovens and they may not fit as close as needed under the broiler of you main oven. These pans can always be refinished and re-seasoned, and that makes their useful lifetime essentially unlimited.. There are different carbon steels used by different pan manufacturers. Carbon steel alloy, sometimes called mild steel, is the most common kind of steel, it is used for nails, for example. Carbon gives the steel malleability, something hard brittle cast iron lacks. The malleability imparted by including up to about 4 % carbon in steel makes it much easier to form manufactured item such as cooking pans out of sheet steel. The main drawback of carbon steel is its susceptibility to rusting. That's were "seasoning " comes in. Seasoning is a way of applying an adherent coating of crosslinked and partially carbonized organic (in the chemical sense) coating to the steel. The carbon steel Debuyer uses is slightly easier to season than the carbon steel Ballarini uses. I wiish Ballarini would tell us in their packaging the nature of their anti rust coating applied at the factory to prevent rusting and keep the pan surface bright before it is sold.. If it is beeswax, then there should be no reason to remove it before seasoning the pan, because Beeswax is soluble in hot cooking oils used to season carbon steel pans. Let me make an additional comment here regarding stainless steel pans as some have commented that their seasoned carbon steel pan is easier to clean than stainless steel. There is a natural tendency to think that since stainless steel doesn't have to be seasoned why use carbon steel if stainless is available. Stainless steel has its place in cooking. But is can't replace seasoned carbon steel. Here is what everyone shopping for pans needs to keep in mind. Protein has a great affinity for steel whether stainless or carbon steel. It has less affinity, however, for some stainless alloys than others, but eggs will stick to steel! So uncoated stainless steel pans make lousy pans for cooking eggs! Seasoned, carbon steel or cast iron pans, on the other hand, become non-stick when eggs are cooked in them because protein dies not stick to elemental carbon nor to crosslinked vegetable oil, i.e., varnish. Also, seasoned carbon steel, or cast iron pans can also be used to cook acidic food such as tomatoes or butter sauces acidified with lemon juice, etc, provided the cooking is relatively brief and not prolonged.. You just can't store, or simmer all day long, acidic foods in these pans even when they are well seasoned. There is, however, absolutely no problem "deglazing" a properly seasoned carbon steel saute pan with wine or vinegar. Both stainless steel and seasoned carbon steel pans have there place in cooking, but they are not entirely interchangeable. And if you have lighter, and therefore more convenient, seasoned carbon steel Ballarini pans, you'll never have to use your clunky, wrist-breaking, cast iron skillet again for sauteing or frying. These pans are not only practical, but they are also beautiful in the eyes of anyone who appreciates top notch functional design.

First of all, you must have patience. It takes a bit of time and effort to get a carbon steel pan to be nonstick, but I believe it will be so worth it to move away from traditional nonstick pans that only last a few months or that peel and flake who knows what into your food. My Ballarini pan came wrapped in a plastic bag, and covered with oil to nicely protect it from rust during shipment. There was only a cardboard tag attached with no instructions on seasoning, other than to just wash all the oil from shipment away with soapy water, rinse, dry, and then put on a light coat of oil to protect. I knew from past research in order to be nonstick it had to be seasoned, so I used the oil, salt, potato skin method (instructions readily available online). Messy to be sure, and I did it twice as recommended, but seemed quite effective. (Just an FYI… when you use this method, you are stirring the ingredients constantly and moving them all around and up the sides of the pan to season everything uniformly. I don’t recommend using silicone utensils for this. I ruined my best spatula because it got too hot. The second time I used wood. Much better!) The first thing I cooked was bacon and fried eggs. These turned out great with a very minimum of sticking. This morning I cooked scrambled eggs. These stuck just a bit more, but nothing bad and adding a bit of hot water and using a nylon sponge easily removed every trace. (It is recommended to never use soap on carbon steel as soap can remove the seasoning.) After cleaning, you dry thoroughly and then rub the entire pan with a small amount of oil before storing. This pan is a nice heavy weight. It seemed to distribute the heat uniformly and held the heat well. It worked great on my gas range and seasoned beautifully. Carbon steel is said to become more nonstick the more you use it (as long as you care for it properly) so I’m excited about getting to the point of total nonstick with a pan that should last a lifetime. Be aware that carbon steel pans are not what I would call beautiful (my husband said it looked 100 years old after the first day, lol), but I don’t care. I just wanted a nonstick pan without all the chemicals that would perform well and last for many years. I will be using this on a daily basis so if anything changes I will update this review.

Over the years I have slowly replaced my cookware from the "College Apartment" non-stick pans to solid cookware for people who enjoy cooking. I have picked up a number of stainless steel, and copper, and carbon steel skillets and pans that I use inside, as well as cast iron skillets and pans that I tend to use on my outdoor grill. I found myself looking for an everyday carbon steel saute pan that I could basically abuse and it would stand up to the workout. I came across the BALLARINI Professionale Series 3000 11-inch during one of my Amazon ventures, and put it in my "Wish List" to think about a bit more because the reviews were good, but the lower reviews made me pause. About a week later I got a notification that something in my list was 50%, which happened to be the pan. I figured at that price why not take a chance. Overall the pan is quality made. Then handle doesn't get hot on a gas stove top, and the pan is heavy enough for you to know it can be shaken around and beat up a bit on the bottoms and side. And if you now how to toss your ingredients while you cook, you have no trouble controlling the food. It does come with a coating that will not come off with a simple cleaning with dish soap and a scrubber. In fact I ended up using a power scrubber and Comet cleanser to get it down to the bare metal I was looking for. As for seasoning the pan. I have 4 different carbon steel pans, and I knew it would not season like a cast iron pan. In fact if that is what you are hoping for you will probably not be happy with the look of this pan... at first. As with all of my utilitarian carbon steel pans, the more you use them, the darker they get. You do need to season them from time to time and it will transition from silver, to bluish and yellow and finally a nice dark color. Along the way it will be non-stick, if you are treating it like a well made pan. i.e. do not start the pan on high heat. Start it at medium, heat it, add some oil, move the oil around to coat it. Maybe wipe it around, add some fresh oil and start adding your flavor (basil, garlic, etc.) and cooking. I stress this is a saute pan, and it is not a sauce pan, or something you should be boiling water in. Also, if you treat it like a general non-stick pan you are not going to have a good experience. Just like with stainless steel, or copper pans, you will most likely need a lot less heat to make the pan perform the way that you expect it. Also.. when you are done cooking, cool it down, wash it, dry it, stick it on a burner for a minute to really dry it well, and let it sit on the stove overnight so there is no water left on it.

So I’ve tried a number of carbon steel pans. This one pretty much by far is the best one ever. Weight of the product (I have the 11 inch) is 3.2lbs (I weighed it). Handle is hefty and very sturdy without being too intrusive. Steel quality is also very good, case in point is the seasoning is so good on this pan and things pretty much don’t stick from the start, pretty rare. Bottom diameter is 8 inch which is plenty. Before i tried a company who I thought was promising (Sardel) and first of all that pan was riveted, which is not a problem except the metal which makes up the handle is much softer so after awhile it keeps coming loose and you have to hammer it. No such issue with this pan though compared to Sardel because first and foremost the quality of ALL of the components are great and secondly the handle is welded so no rivets at all. Great work to the company who made this pan!

I've seasoned steel pans before but this one proved problematic. I suspected something was different when I inspected the pan upon delivery. It had a much shinier surface than I anticipated. When I cleaned it according to directions it still appeared shiny. But I proceeded according to seasoning directions and what appeared to be a decent first seasoning appeared. Then I did a light saute, using the same high smoke point oil as I used for seasoning and the seasoning lifted off the pan. So I figured I did something wrong, thoroughly cleaned the pan again and repeated the seasoning process, this time doing it twice. The result was much the same, the seasoning did not adhere. So I went back to the reviews of this "frequently returned item" and discovered the aluminized issue. Despite claims only the handle is aluminized my new pan appeared to have the same finish on the pan as well as the handle. I suspect at least some pans were fully aluminized, cannot be properly seasoned and that has caused customers to return this item (as I did). It is also possible the cleaning process described by Ballarini was insufficient and I did not completely remove the protective coasting applied for shipping and storage. Bottom line, buy your carbon steel pan from another manufacturer.

Carbon steel pans are great. They need a little special care, but they will last forever. This pan is no exception. I’ve had it for just over a year now, and I use it almost every day as our egg pan. It’s got other uses too, but it’s a perfect pan for 2-3 eggs or an omelet. It’s satin-smooth now, and performs nicely - as nice as pans that cost significantly more. I’ve come back to write this review, and to but this pan again, in a bigger size. I have so much faith in the pan, that I’m buying a used/returned one for a discount, knowing that I can resurrect it with some heat, oil, and scrubbing. A lot of poor reviews for carbon steel pans mention rusting metal and sticking food. This is user error - failure to properly season the pan, and improper heat control. If you want “idiot-proof pans’ buy some Teflon instead. If you are serious about getting good performance out of your pans - like a nice sear on a delicate piece of fish or scallops, evenly browned pancakes, crispy fried potatoes, perfect quesadillas, “slidey eggs” - buy these pans.

This review is for the 9.5 inch pan. I was sick of "non-stick" egg pans that are fragile and not shaped right for folding omelets or flipping fried eggs and required special spatulas. This one is the real deal, a true lifetime egg pan. Clean it and season it according to directions and you have a durable egg pan that will never die, and yes, the eggs don't stick to this pan if you've seasoned it right, they release once the proteins congeal and then you can slide them around the pan and tilt the pan to fold your omelet as you will. The only downside of this pan is that it has a *very* long handle, which can get in the way if you've got a lot of things on the stove. But that's a minor thing and doesn't change the fact that this thing is a bargain for the price -- a forever egg pan for not much more than disposable "non-stick" pans? Yay!