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Stainless steel frying pans are popular among professional chefs and home cooks. They are lightweight, easy to clean, and resistant to rust and corrosion. They also have a sleek and modern appearance, making them a great addition to any kitchen.

Home Cooking: Black cast iron griddles and grill pans are popular in home kitchens, offering a convenient and effective way to achieve professional-quality searing, grilling, and cooking results. They are suitable for a variety of cooking techniques and are easy to maintain.

Cast iron frying pans are heavy and durable, making them ideal for high-heat cooking. They are also perfect for searing and browning food because they retain heat well and distribute it evenly. Cast iron frying pans are also great for cooking dishes that require a long cooking time, such as stews and casseroles.

Best for: Almost any food that needs searing, including steak and burgers. Cast-iron pans are ovenproof, so you can use them to roast meats like beef or pork and to bake cornbread, deep-dish pizza, shepherd’s pie, and more. And they retain heat so well that they’re a good choice for deep-frying chicken, doughnuts, or other foods because they keep the oil at a constant temperature.

The details: Cast-iron frying pans are practically indestructible, and they’re handed down for generations in many families. That makes their typically low price even more attractive. And if well cared for, cast iron develops a patina that releases food almost as well as nonstick. But the pans are heavy, and you have to be patient when heating them up because they don’t come up to temperature fast. Once they do, however, they retain heat.

Our tests of coated and uncoated cast-iron pans show how versatile this cookware can be. We sear steaks, brown scallops, and bake cornbread to see how well a cast-iron pan works for home cooks. The best pans ace all these tests. We also judge how easy they are to clean. Because of the enamel coating, the coated pans are a bit easier to clean than the uncoated ones.

Here are two recommended cast-iron pans from our tests.