Mauviel M'Steel Black Carbon Natural Nonstick Frying Pan With Iron Handle, 14.2-in, Suitable For All Cooking Surfaces, Made in France

First you have to get the wax off. Bake the pan in a 200° F oven for 20 minutes or so. I put mine on a cookie sheet with lots of paper towels, which saved a lot of mess. Then I scrubbed it and put it back in the 200° oven. After another 20 minutes it was wax-free. Since it was already at 200°, I rubbed it with flax-seed oil, all over, including the handle. I rubbed off most of the oil with another paper towel. I put it back in the oven and turned it up to 550° F. Left it for an hour. Turned off the oven and let it cool fully for several hours. When I took it out, the pan was a beautiful dark brown color and seemed sort of non-stick. I repeated this process several times. Then I used the pan. I fried chicken and bacon. I sauteed spinach. Nothing stuck badly, but the beautiful finish didn't hold up. Within a week, 15% of my new, hard-won seasoning had flaked or chipped off. Did I make the oil too thick? I don't know and I didn't give up. I repeated the seasoning steps. I heated the pan to 200°, rubbed it with more flaxseed oil, wiped off as much oil as I could, put it back in the oven at 550°, and left it there for more than an hour. When the baking on was done, I turned off the oven and let it cool slowly overnight. I have a well-insulated Chambers oven, and it probably took 4+ hours to fully cool down each time. I did this many times, over and over. It took a long time. After 8 more seasoning processes, my pan is quite non-stick. I can scramble and fry eggs. All meats and fish work well; I can sear steaks and not lose any goodness. No matter the temperature, nothing sticks. I often brush the hot pan with a little fresh coconut oil on a paper towel before I add food. I don't use this pan for acidic foods like tomato sauce, or boiling liquids, ever. It finally, after all this work, works just like people say. It is perfect and I would never part with it. I scrub the pan with a soft scrubby or chainmail and hot water and dry it immediately. I rarely use soap and never use steel wool. I don't use salt either. This is a great pan and I love mine. It works well with my induction burners as well as huge flames and high temperatures. The bottom is perfectly flat, unlike many carbon steel pans that cost much, much more. It is a joy to use in every way. Was it worth all the trouble? I don't think about that any more, this pan is part of my life.

I wanted a skillet that could sear meat, go in the oven and not get damaged by metal utensils. This one hits all of those marks. I seasoned it with avocado oil and put it in a 500 degree oven for an hour, turned the oven off and let it cool down gradually. After the first seasoning, the pan was bright blue. I seasoned it a second time and it was brown/blackish, and I figured it was ready to cook with. I haven't had any trouble with food sticking. Sure, it's not as non-stick as coated skillets, but that's not the point of this skillet. Like I said at the top, I use this one for intense heat and abuse that other skillets can't take. For cleanup, I usually wipe out excess grease with a paper towel and maybe a gentle scrub under running water. If it's really bad, I'll use a little soap. The seasoning is durable enough to hold up to that. Then, I'll dry it and put it back on the stove to make sure it's bone dry before storage. My wife values non-stick above all else. If it's not super-easy to clean, she just won't deal with it. She sees my skillet out on the stove and asks me why I didn't put it away. I tell her "It's still hot. I heated it up to fully dry it... I'll put it away when it's cool." She roles her eyes at me... Mission accomplished!

I was excited to get carbon steel pan from Mauviel, thinking it would be great quality and having experience with a pan from another brand, I was expecting to have a similar experience with this one. I own 2 pans from Mauviel and 2 from another brand, and so far my experience with Mauviel pans is quite bad. First, it comes with a very thick layer of wax. It's great at keeping the pan rust-free, but it is a huge pain to clean that wax off. Not only it does not come off easily and cleanly when you use extremely hot water as the manual suggests, it is also difficult to wash it off by hand for that very reason - the water is extremely hot. In addition, the wax (which is about 1mm think btw) will stick to whatever you try to clean the pot with and it will get progressively hard to wash. You will probably need to get some sort of brush on a long handle and then carefully wash the wax off. The second problem - as soon as you wash the wax off, the pan starts to rust visible. I was honestly amazed at rust forming speeds visible to the naked eye. I didn't even have a chance to put oil on it properly before the pan was covered in rust. And the final and probably the biggest problem - everything sticks really badly to all Mauviel carbon steel pans. I want to point out that this is not my first carbon steel pan and I know how to season it. I seasoned it multiple times and I tried using it with different types of seasoning at different stages. The pan formed nice patina and is clearly seasoned. However, no matter what food I use or how much the pan is heated - everything sticks to it. It ruined a few of my dishes because the food stuck to it and now I am reluctant to use it. If I could get a refund for it, I definitely would. My cast iron and carbon steel pans from a different brand do not have problems like these. Even delicate food does not stick to them, almost like they are covered with Teflon. I was appalled to see pans from Mauviel behave so poorly, they are much worse than even stainless steel pans with regard to food stickiness. My verdict - do not buy these damn pans.

Nice weight...versus my cast iron anyway...and size. The handle is very long but will just barely fit into my stove for finishing steaks, etc. This pan will likely last way beyond my remaining lifetime. I seasoned it per the instructions and immediately regretted it. On my second go-round, I wiped it sparingly with oil and put it in a hot oven...and repeated several times. It got a dark brown patina to it. I then sautéed some chicken and it stuck like crazy. I finished up the meal...a stir fry...and the burned part of the chicken will not clean off. I attempted subsequent seasonings and have used the pan a bunch of times since. The seasoning has all flecked off so I'm left with a mottled looking pan. I do not scrub to clean it but rather boil water in it and scrape with a plastic spatula...and then dry thoroughly. However, it seems to clean up fairly easily and food isn't sticking much at all. I figure I'll just keep using it and eventually it'll season itself over time. I did realize over several uses that my heat was too high so that might have been an issue...and one that I've corrected. I prefer this to yet another non-stick pan with its fumes and eventual toss into recycling or the landfill.

Nice pan. A bit heavier than I expected but no big deal. The quality seems quite good, it seasoned very well too. I own a few 1950 - something Griswold cast iron pans and thought I knew how to season a pan. Just for kicks, before I seasoned this pan I researched the subject further and saw many references to using flaxseed oil and the "Vollrath method". This is truly the way to go, though rather than using my crappy electric stovetop, I used my oven. The pan is very well seasoned and I actually re-did my Griswolds using flaxseed oil and the same method. Quite pleased. As a side note, Mauvial apparently does not offer lids for these frying pans, at least none that I could find for the 14" pan. We have a Wasserstrom Restaurant Supply here locally. I visited today and found a lid that fit this pan quite well. Coincidentally, it is made by Vollrath (I have absolutely no affiliation with the company). The part number on the lid is 67541. I imagine it's easily ordered online from either Amazon or someone else. Happy cooking!

I use other sizes of this product and other Mauviel fry pans, both stainless and carbon steel. They perform excellently and clean with little effort (I tend to cook immediately after use to allow the heat of the pan to assist in cleaning). I ordered the 14" fry pan, an excellent value, and looked forward to its arrival. Amazon sent via Amazon shipping (guess they are trying to corner another market). It was listed as arriving, then arriving late, and now as possibly missing. Their tracking is not as good as fed-ex or ups. I guess you could say their shipping is in beta. Still waiting for my pan.

Great product, great price, great service

I was looking forward to adding this pan to a large arsenal of frying pans. I have cast iron, carbon, stainless clad, non stick, aluminum etc. in many brands. 30 years of cooking/catering experience. Everything arrived looking good. The wax removal is something everyone has to deal with but I knew this in advance so this did not phase me. What did phase me is that once I was placing the pan on medium low heat to begin the seasoning process I noticed that the pan was warping before my eyes. After a short period warming the pan it was teetering back and forth worse than I have ever witnessed with a pan. I took the pan off and let it cool. It returned back to nearly flat as it cooled. I tried on a gas burner(previous attempt was on a flat top electric) to season it and it continued to warp upwards on the sides to a point where the pan became a top and had very little contact with the burner before even heating up the oil to a near smoking point. I have tried numerous fixes for this issue but it seems I have purchased a $100 dollar paper weight. Aside from this the handle on the pan is so long that seasoning it using the oven method or being able to use the pan in the oven is only possible if your oven is larger than a conventional residential oven. The finish on the pan looked great. The shipping was fine. This is a large pan which already presents an issue when using conventional burners but when you add the fact that only a 2" spot in the middle is contacting the burner it makes even heat impossible. I recommend looking elsewhere at this price.

Se volverá antiadherente con el uso, a pesar que tengo la estufa grande la sartén no cabe muy bien. La calidad es muy buena. Si cabe en el horno de la estufa, ya he hecho pizza y rostizado pollo. Nada se ha pegado. Por ser de acero al carbono requiere más cuidados que una sartén normal. Muy recomendable.

I really wanted to like this pan, the size (14") is awesome but as soon as it went on the heat it warped to the point of spinning around and half sliding off the burner (I'm using an electric glass top stove). The warping goes away when off the heat but always returned when back on. Returned and got a de buyer mineral b 12.5 inch instead and it works great, no warping.

It is a strong sturdy pan that is virtually non stick with any good I’ve cooked after seasoning it a couple of times.

Good quality. Thanks

Quality build.