How many of you use carbon steel skillets?

I did some research on them and recently bought one. I've been very impressed.

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So our first discovery was a big one: Getting true nonstick performance from a carbon-steel skillet is remarkably quick. Another virtue of carbon-steel skillets came to light when we seared steaks. A smoking-hot traditional stainless-steel tri-ply skillet does a perfectly acceptable job at this task, and it’s what most home cooks are likely to use, even though we’re partial to cast iron and find that it does a superior job (cast iron’s heat retention makes it incredibly good for high-heat tasks). The carbon-steel pans trumped both. The impressively deep, even browning these pans produced was easily on a par with cast iron, but because carbon-steel pans are lighter and thinner than cast-iron skillets of the same size, the carbon-steel pans were able to heat up in nearly half the time. Later, using our winning carbon-steel pan, we saw equally great browning when we tried an assortment of other recipes, including frying sliced potatoes, cooking burgers, and stir-frying Sichuan green beans. This is a skillet worth owning if only for pan frying and sautéing, besting our favorite traditional skillet and equaling the best cast-iron skillet in terms of results but with less weight to lug. Like both of these types of pans, it can also go under the broiler.

However, during these additional tests we did discover one downside. If you simmer an acidic tomato sauce in a carbon-steel skillet, as we did when we made a batch of skillet lasagna in our winning pan, the acid will strip off most of the pan’s dark patina and the shiny silver interior of the skillet will reappear. However, we didn’t notice any off-flavors when we tasted the lasagna, and a few rounds of stovetop heating and wiping the skillet with oil, which took about 10 minutes, restored the slippery patina.

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Despite these minor issues, though, our conclusion was clear: Carbon-steel skillets have earned a place in our kitchen. They possess some of the best attributes and lack several of the drawbacks from each type of standard skillet. They offer the versatility of a traditional pan, the heat retention of cast-iron at a lighter weight, and the slick release of a good nonstick skillet without the synthetic coating or the lack of durability. In fact, many of us would happily opt for just a carbon-steel pan in our own home arsenal.

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Cooks Illustrated

Serious Eats

Amazon

I bought the winner of the Cook's Illustrated comparison and have not regretted it at all. I'm a huge fan.