I've been using 2 Gotham Steel 9.5 inch frying pans since July 2018. I use them almost every day and a photo would show them to look almost new. Grilled cheese, quesadillas, eggs, breakfast meats, searing steaks before grilling, chicken in salsa, and much more. On stovetop and in oven.
Use them smartly and they will continue to look great and do the job; fail to follow the "rules" and they will fail within weeks or days. What are these rules?
* When you get the pan, wash it by hand with conventional dish soap (i.e. dawn) and dry.
* Immediately "season" the pan with oil (safflower or peanut/ground oil is recommended) on the stovetop or in the oven. Google "pan seasoning" to really understand how.
* After dishwasher washing, re-season before using. No seasoning, no non-stick!
* A properly seasoned pan will need little or no oil for cooking AT LOW TO MEDIUM TEMPERATURES.
* Use a minimum amount of oil, +/- a teaspoon, for most foods, in a properly seasoned pan. The "no oil at all" thing is not important to my diet and I use the smallest amount of olive oil sometimes with a little MCT oil mixed in.
* NEVER use canned spray oils. The solvent that keeps the oil spray-able will change the non-stick surface, even after as few as 2 to 4 uses!
* NEVER cook food on high heat. This will quickly erode the non-stick capability of the pan. Set your burner to MEDIUM heat, or just a little lower and WAIT for the pan to heat up, 2-3 minutes or so. Flick a little water to know when the pan is ready - the sizzle sound will tell you when.
* NEVER scrape "stuck" food residue from the pan. After cooking, let the pan cool, fill with lukewarm water in the sink and let it soak for 5 minutes or more. I then scrub my pans with a nylon kitchen brush or a nylon mesh pad. After a brief soak, they come amazingly clean with little effort.
* Never clean with steel wool or abrasive cleansers like Comet. The keyword here is "abrasive".
* Use nylon or plastic utensils. Initially, the surface seems immune to metal tools but scraping is scraping - both the pan and the tool will erode. Even dentists have to replace their tooth-cleaning tools every so often. And don't do the egg-beater thing in the pan! Other than the TV hype, what would the point be?
Above all, remember: these are typically $10 to $30 pans. They are not going to last forever. I originally expected 2 to 3 years when I bought them. Now I'm thinking more like 4 to 5. Maybe I'll have to think further out over the next couple of years, and when the time comes, I'll buy more of the same.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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