Starfrit Light Cast Iron Fry Pans

Based on the good reviews on Amazon, I picked up the 12 inch stir fry pan and I just gave it its first test run making curry.

In general this is an excellent pan, it's a good weight, meats brown and vegetables saute quickly, it cleans easily, and it is very responsive (i.e. it heats and cools quickly as you adjust the burner).So it makes a very good alternative to a stainless steel or anodized aluminum skillet or saute pan for everyday cooking.

That being said, it does not completely replace a standard cast iron skillet because it is so responsive...if anything, this pan heats and cools a wee bit too fast. Traditional cast iron heats and cools slowly because of its mass, making it very good for certain types of cooking that need the temperature to hold steady like deep searing meat, stir frying vegetables, shallow and deep frying, and braising.

I also wonder if the ceramic surface will hold up.As anyone who cooks on terra cotta or stoneware knows, ceramic in general makes a tough and easy to clean cooking surface, but Cook's Illustrated recently reviewed Starfrit's ecological cookware and said the ceramic surface began to quickly degrade.However, the base of that cookware is aluminum which has very different thermal properties than cast iron.Since ceramic and cast iron are more similar, I hope this pan does better.Only time will tell.

P.S. If anyone from Starfrit is reading this, I would love it if you made this pan in a 13 or 14 inch, 6ish quart size. The wider base and extra volume would make this more useful, especially when cooking for four or more.Even though I appreciate the lighter weight, a bit heavier of a gauge of iron would be good too and resolve the sometimes too rapid heating and cooling issue. A lid would be nice too.

UPDATE: After a few weeks of use, It's my pleasure to say these pans (I eventually bought the 11 inch skillet too) are more versatile than I originally thought.The 12 inch stays hot enough to do a very decent job at stir-frying. Sure, my Staub wok does a better job, but it must be three times the weight. The skillet sears steak like no one's business. My only issue is I wish both were a tad larger...a standard 12 inch for the skillet and 13 inch for the stir fry.

The pan itself works great the non-stickiness quite good (although you do have to use some oil with it).

For the first time in ages I don't have to soak and scrub the eggs off the pan, which after years of hassle with LeCreuset pans feel borderline miraculous.

HOWEVER, my biggest problem with this product is that the picture shows a different pan altogether the stirfry pan, and not the regular fry pan, which is more shallow and does not have the wok-like shape that the picture suggests. For me it was a huge disappointment (especially since apparently amazon does not carry the stirfy model at all, at least at the time of my writing it).

Plus, the main reason for my buying this pan was it's supposed non-toxicity. Call me crazy, but when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

I truly do hope that the non-stick coating is 100% safe as they claim, but still, I have my doubts.

That being said, the pan does work great. I'd give it 5 stars, but the picture deception really got on my nerves.

UPDATE:

Part of the non-stick covering on the pan simply wore off! As a result it sticks like crazy. I've heard of other safe-pans retaining their non-stickiness for only a couple of months, but I was hoping this one would be different. No such luck. What a bummer. Wasted money aside, I'm concerned that whatever the protective covering of the pan was, it obviously ended up in my food.

Also in the non-sticky frenzy of my first review I forgot to mention that the bottom of the pan was not perfectly leveled the middle part of it was slightly raised, which was a bit of a pain, as the oil would glide over to the edges of the pan.

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I picked up the 11-inch version of this pan because the old cast iron pan (one of the really heavy ones) I had used was reclaimed recently by my mother after a long term loan. I think having a cast iron pan around is essential, but I have to admit, that super heavy model was somewhat of a pain to us. Which is why I wanted a more versatile one, and one that wasn't as tough on the wrists. This pan fit that bill perfectly. It has the heft and strength of character you'd want in cast iron, but more maneuverability. The stay cool handle is nice, too, when you're cooking on the stove. Last night though I was making a savory bread pudding in here, and started it on the stove, and then moved it into the oven. Luckily, I remembered at the last second before pulling it out of the oven that stay-cool or not, the handle was going to be hot after being in the oven. So, be careful in that situation, which will come up because of the pan's ability to go from stovetop to oven easily. That, plus the lightness, will really let you expand how you utilize cast iron.

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I have the 9.5-inch Starfrit Light cast iron fry pan, and it's become an indispensable part of my cookware collection. I've always been wary of cast iron because it's heavy and requires a lot of care. Not so with this pan! It's pretty light and easy to carry in one hand (especially with the neat stay-cool handle). The pan itself come pre-conditioned so you don't have to mess around with cooking oils before you use it. The pan heated up really quickly, and retained heat/kept food warm once I took it off the burner. The pan is the perfect depth for wok-style frying of veggies, but shallow enough to use for eggs and pancakes too! Cooking was relatively non-stick (I almost always add a dollop of olive oil), so despite frying tons of sticky veggies in it, the pan cleaned up quickly and easily.

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I am very happy with the weight and the non-stick ability of this pan.But the bottom of the pan is only about 4 1/2 5" diameter.OK for 1 or 2 eggs.The top rim is 8".I would have given this 5 stars if it was an actual 8" pan.This to me is a little deceptive.You cook on the bottom of the pan, not at the rim!