Our kitchen team was, quite frankly, stunned by the Vermicular 10-inch skillet. It is at least 50% thinner than other cast-iron skillets, making this 2.4 pound one the lightest we’ve tried. Durably designed, it features a heat-resistant enameled surface and a wooden handle that stays cool to the touch. The pan cooks more like stainless steel than cast iron thanks to its thinness, which makes it heat up more quickly, but it offers the nonstick and cleaning advantages of enameled cast iron. It’s the perfect skillet for searing or stir-frying. The skillet also comes with a glass lid that’s designed to be stood upright to avoid touching a dirty counter. Use to sauté veggies, fry an egg, sear a steak or make the perfect crispy grilled cheese.

Our kitchen team was, quite frankly, stunned by the Vermicular 10-inch skillet. Weighing in at 2.4 pounds, it is at least 50% thinner than other cast-iron skillets, making it the lightest skillet we’ve tried. Durably designed and nonreactive, it features a heat-resistant enameled surface and an oven-safe aluminum handle. The pan cooks more like stainless steel than cast iron thanks to its thinness, which makes it heat more quickly, but it offers the nonstick and cleaning advantages of enameled cast iron. And it still retains heat well and evenly like cast iron. It’s the perfect skillet for searing or stir-frying. The skillet also comes with a stainless steel lid with an attached cast-iron handle that’s designed to be stood upright to avoid touching a dirty counter. Use to sauté veggies, fry an egg, sear a steak or make the perfect crispy grilled cheese.

Field's cast-iron griddle is the perfect pan for breakfast or quick high-heat cooking. The low sides let you easily get your spatula under pancakes and fried eggs, and it's perfect for searing steak. We love Field's cast iron because it works just as well as other brands but is much lighter and easier to maneuver—the 10.5 inch No. 9 model weighs just 4 pounds, at least 20% less than other models. Like all Field cast iron, the griddle comes pre-seasoned, well burnished so it's smooth, not rough, for natural nonstick cooking, especially if you've seasoned your skillet properly. The Griddle No. 9 is a single-burner tool designed to fit any stovetop (including electric and induction). Cast iron gets—and stays—hotter than most pans.

When a recipe calls for charring vegetables, what do you do? Well, you can fire up the grill but that is a lot of work for just one eggplant or two bell peppers. In Turkey, however, they have a better solution called the Közmatik, a metal disk that fits perfectly over the burner of a gas stove. Evenly spaced holes allow heat to circulate around the vegetables, so you are truly roasting, rather than searing as you would on a skillet. The holes are close enough to hold even small veggies, like slender spring onions, and the disk is large enough to keep several bulbous eggplants from rolling off. It’s also less messy than charring directly on the burner: The Közmatik catches nearly all of the bits of charred vegetable skin and juices that would leak onto the surface of the stove. And, once cooled, it can be thrown in the dishwasher for easy cleanup.

This pan from Iwachu is made from Nambu iron, a traditional Japanese cast ironware known for heat retention and durability that dates back over 400 years. The perfect companion for eggs, pancakes, stir-fries and more, the pan is ergonomically designed with curved edges and high sides that deepen on the front end for easy flipping. Its compact, not-too-heavy size is just right for omelettes or fried eggs, and its natural cast iron construction makes it practically nonstick. Plus, the thoughtfully designed handle stays cool longer on the stove, so you can skip the potholder and still keep your hands safe when flipping.

This Milk Street-exclusive, three-piece set from Wahei Freiz is made for the smoothest, streamlined deep frying experience. The first piece: A deep frying pot, complete with a flat, sturdy base, which allows plenty of depth for oil, sits safely on a burner and makes for more even heating than a sloped wok. The pot has a wide opening, so there’s plenty of room to move utensils freely within and fry evenly.

The second piece is a drop basket, which makes for easy loading and unloading, without risky dropping and splashing even when frying heavy chicken thighs. The stay-cool handles of the fry pot hold the basket so that it functions as a draining rack, too. And the final piece is a custom-fit splatter screen, made of black mesh that’s easy to see through. Using this well-designed set when frying makes for a more even, consistent result, reduces mess and even limits oil waste, as everything drips and drains neatly back into the pot. Bonus: While the set’s designed for frying, we also tested it for pasta and other items that require boiling and draining, and it works like a charm. All three items stack compactly for easy storage.

Ingeniously simple and efficient to use, the Milk Street-exclusive Wahei Freiz Stovetop Sandwich Press is the better way to make grilled sandwiches—and so much more—at home. Typical panini presses are clunky and large, requiring a plug to work, while old-school Toas-Tite sandwich makers squish crusts and trap fillings. The Wahei instead is a simple, space-saving metal clamshell with no electrical component, simply place your assembled sandwich in one tray, close the other side over it and place the sandwich press over your stove. Your sandwich will brown evenly as both metal plates heat up—if you do want to flip, this won’t make a mess—crisping on the outside and becoming melty on the inside. The wide sandwich pan has 1.5 times the capacity of a typical panini maker, so you can grill thicker sandwiches with ease. And we tested it for more than sandwiches: the press makes the ultimate breakfast sandwich (we even fried an egg over easy right in the press first), sears scallops, perfectly cooks chicken thighs, makes cheeseburgers and produces moist salmon with crispy skin.

The typical wok is lousy for home cooking. With a round bottom that doesn’t heat on a flat American burner, poorly conductive steel and low-quality construction, most woks don’t perform well enough to be worth the storage space. That’s why we designed the Milk Street Hammered Wok specifically for American home cooks. After dozens of hours testing 10 woks of varying shapes, sizes and materials, we understand the features that make a great wok. Our redesigned 13-inch wok has high-quality construction, oversized handles for better control, a special dimpled surface for nonstick cooking and a tight-fitting tempered glass lid. It will last a lifetime, and it’s guaranteed to improve your day-to-day cooking.

Unlike nonstick pans that need to be replaced every year or two as their coating wears off, carbon-steel pans are designed for the long haul and actually become more nonstick over time. This durable egg pan from French company de Buyer's Mineral B line is thicker than other brands and can be used in the oven as well as on the stove. This compact pan is the perfect size for everyday use, when you want the benefits of carbon steel but don't want to deal with cleaning a large pan; it's also great for toasting small amounts of spices or blooming spices in fat to make infused oils. And with each use, the pan develops more of a protective surface coating that has nonstick properties.

In Mexico, the comal—a thin, round, slightly concave clay griddle—is an essential tool for professional and home cooks that dates back to the Aztecs. In search of something a bit lighter but just as effective for Milk Street home cooks, we were thrilled to find a comal made from featherlight carbon steel. Produced in Mexico, this large comal heats up quickly—stretching across two burners—and holds its heat well. It can be used directly on any stovetop (from electric to induction, or even on an open flame) for everything from toasting spices and charring vegetables to making tortillas. And it’s perfect for use on the grill when cooking delicate vegetables or fish that benefit from the smoky heat of the grill but could stick or fall apart if cooked directly on the grate.

Like all carbon steel take time to season and properly clean this comal for the best nonstick long-lasting results.>

This carbon-steel pan from iconic French company de Buyer has rounded sides that are just the right shape for turning or rolling French-style omelets, then gently sliding them out of the pan when done. And it is by no means limited to omelets: The round sides that help with rolling an omelet are also nice for sautéing and flipping any food. Each Mineral B pan has an all-natural beeswax coating that protects against rust and provides a foundation for seasoning. Over time, your pan will transform from its original gray to mottled blues and oranges before developing a lustrous, fully blackened patina. As the seasoning builds, the surface also becomes smoother and more nonstick.

Before you use your de Buyer carbon-steel pan for the first time, clean it with very hot water and rub down the entire surface to remove excess beeswax. Heat oil in your carbon-steel dish on the stovetop—enough to cover the bottom—until it starts to smoke, then discard the oil and rub the cookware down with paper towels. Before the cookware develops a fully blackened patina, we recommend adding a little more oil or butter to start, and ensure the pan is fully preheated and evenly coated in fat before adding ingredients.

In case of stubborn, stuck-on bits of food, scrub the pan with kosher salt moistened with oil, which will simultaneously season the pan. We also recommend wiping a thin coat of neutral oil across the pan’s surface for storage (with use and time as the patina improves, this will become unnecessary).

• Net Weight: 2.9 pounds/3.2 pounds
• Dimensions: Diameter: 8 inches/9.5 inches/11 inches, Depth: 1.5 inches
• Use: Compatible with all cooktops, including induction
• Care: Hand-wash only
• Place of Origin: France

Named for its place of origin, La Chamba clay cookware from Colombia is crafted completely by hand using centuries-old methods. Made from local river clay, this stunning matte-black comal can be used directly on the stovetop for everything from toasting spices and charring vegetables to frying eggs or warming tortillas. It is perfect for use on the grill when cooking delicate vegetables or fish that benefit from the smoky heat of the grill but could stick or fall apart if cooked directly on the grate. Use the La Chamba comal to char vegetables for our Oaxacan Green Mole with Chicken. Making La Chamba cookware is quite literally a community effort, and every piece passes through the hands of various skilled artisans in one village in Colombia. The three types of clay used in the dishes’ construction make them strong enough to use in the oven, microwave or on your stove—but as with all clay cookware, La Chamba pieces should not be exposed to extreme temperature shock. Instead, heat your comal over low flame, or put it in the oven before preheating.

Much as we love our stovetop coffee makers, too often the grates over the gas burners are too wide for them to sit safely above the flames. But in Italy, Christopher Kimball was introduced to a simple tool that keeps the country’s ubiquitous stovetop espresso pots perfectly balanced. The Ilsa Gas Ring Reducer consists of high-quality, heavy-duty cast-iron construction that decreases the size of gas burner openings in center grates while absorbing and diffusing heat evenly. It’s fantastic for making coffee, of course, but we find it’s equally useful for any small cookware, from saucepans to tea kettles.

The typical wok is lousy for home cooking. With a round bottom that doesn’t heat on a flat American burner, poorly conductive steel and low-quality construction, most woks don’t perform well enough to be worth the storage space.

That is why we introduced the Milk Street Hammered Wok. The broad 13-inch diameter wok is designed for big batches, ideally for four or more main-course servings. But what about smaller batches, side dishes and sauces, or when cooking for one or two? Then smaller is better.

Meet Milk Street’s tried-and-true wok design in a new compact version. Its 10.5-inch circumference provides just enough real estate for smaller jobs in an easy-to-store package. It’s perfect for cooking smaller batches or cooking for just one or two.

With high-quality carbon steel construction, an oversized handle for better control, a special dimpled surface for nonstick cooking and a tight-fitting tempered glass lid, it will last a lifetime, and it’s guaranteed to improve your day-to-day cooking.

Welcome the new Milk Street Small Wok!

Now featuring a glass lid! We consider a big, broken-in cast-iron skillet the most useful pan in any kitchen. It holds heat like no other cookware, develops a nonstick surface to rival the best coating and is virtually indestructible. But getting that well-seasoned surface? That takes time and effort to build up. Plus, the shape of a skillet has its limitations: Steep walls can result in food getting stuck in the corners or uneven cooking.

So we modernized the classic cast-iron skillet using a hybridized shape that combines the best of a skillet and a saucier in one. Like a skillet, the shorter, sloped sides of the Everything Pan provide maximum surface area for cooking—it has as much internal space as many 12-inch pans, even with its smaller 11-inch diameter. But like a saucier, we added rounded edges to aid with whisking and stirring for more even cooking. The curved edges where the bottom meets the side are rounded to help turn food and ensure nothing sticks in the corners.

From searing a steak or whisking up gravy to baking a skillet pan pizza or shallow-frying fritters, the Everything Pan will take you from breakfast through dinner and can go from the stove straight to the table, thanks to its gorgeous two-handled design and an exclusive, custom-fit magnetic wood trivet. The pan’s walls are low enough so that you can easily flip eggs and pancakes but tall enough to boil pasta or simmer soups and stews.

After casting, the Everything Pan is tumbled smooth—a final polishing step that most modern cast iron producers skip—which makes all the difference between the sleek, satin finish of a well-seasoned vintage pan and the rough, pebbled surface of most new pans. It’s then treated with a durable, all-natural vegetable oil seasoning, making it slippery-smooth right out of the box.

Factory Seconds

Inspired by the communal style of grilling thinly sliced meats, our Cast-Iron Stovetop Korean Barbecue brings the experience of Korean barbecue to your table. Simply place thinly sliced meat on the ridged, domed center—the juices will slide down into a reservoir, where vegetables pick up that flavor as they cook. The cast-iron construction means the grill heats evenly and retains that heat well even after it’s removed from the source. It fits well over any type of burner or cooktop, including portable stoves, so you can use it just about anywhere. And besides grilling sliced meats, it’s also great for thin fish filets, sliced vegetables, flatbreads, tortillas and more—perfect for entertaining groups. Plus, two side handles make for easy maneuvering.