Strata Pan Review: It Combines Two of Our Favorite Pieces of Cookware

Dead celebrities, little pigs, sheets to the wind; all sorts of things come in threes. Sometimes they’re bad, like aviation disasters; and sometimes they’re good, like beans, cheeses, and leches. Auspicious or malignant, when there’s a triad, people pay attention.

Such was the case when the Strata pan came into our test kitchen. It’s a new piece of cookware that takes three materials—stainless steel, carbon steel, and aluminum—and combines them into a single pan. While clad stainless-steel pans with aluminum cores are common-place from brands like All-Clad (we like them quite a bit actually), the combination of a stainless steel base, aluminum core, and a carbon steel cooking surface makes the Strata pan unlike any other you can find on the market.

According to Strata, the goal in creating this “carbon-clad pan” was to remedy some of the shortcomings that full carbon-steel pans typically have: heft, uneven heating, and ease of care. We brought the pan in to see whether it lived up to its promises.

What makes the Strata unique?

Each material layer used in the Strata pan has particular qualities that are useful in cooking. Stainless steel retains heat well, aluminum heats quickly and evenly, and carbon steel develops a slick, nonstick patina over repeated uses that chefs love for searing meat.

The benefits of combining all three show differently depending on what you’re comparing it to. Next to a regular carbon-steel pan, the Strata is lighter, and heats more evenly across its surface. Because carbon steel has low thermal conductivity, even the best carbon-steel pans will demonstrate a little inconsistency in how they heat. Another nice thing about the Strata in comparison to a 100% carbon steel pan is that you don’t have to worry about maintaining a protective seasoning layer on the outside and the handle, which will rust without one. Also, if a carbon steel pan has a carbon steel handle it can get hot on the stovetop. Something that isn’t an issue with the Strata.

Compared to a stainless steel pan, we found the advantages of the Strata exclusively on the cooking surface. On the one hand, stainless steel can be prone to sticking (especially if you aren’t a particularly skilled chef). On the other, you don’t have to worry about rust spots, which can be a problem for carbon steel pans without an established seasoning. The weight is comparable—compared to an All-Clad of the same size, the Strata pan was only a few grams heavier.

How well does it perform?

In addition to cooking with it myself, I enlisted test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic into putting the pan through a few tests. She’s one of the kitchen’s carbon steel skeptics because she doesn’t think the benefits you can get are worth the upkeep involved.

She fried eggs, seared salmon, and skin on chicken thighs to get a general feel for cooking with the Strata—particularly whether food would stick to it, and how well it seared.