De Buyer Mineral B review: the £68 pan that retired my non-stick
French carbon steel, 28cm, and a seasoning curve that turns it into the most useful pan in the kitchen by week three.
What's right
- + Cheaper than a mid-range non-stick — and it gets better with age, not worse.
- + Heats faster and hotter than cast iron, with half the weight.
- + Takes a pan-sear that actually leaves a fond — non-stick coatings won't.
- + Made in France, beeswax-finished, will outlive your kitchen.
What's wrong
- − Three weeks of seasoning before it really sings — there's no shortcut.
- − Acidic foods (tomato, lemon) strip the seasoning until it's properly built up.
- − Heavy-ish at 1.6kg. Not a wrist-flick pan.
The argument for carbon steel is short and it goes like this: it does everything a non-stick does, plus everything a non-stick can’t, plus it lasts forever instead of three years, plus it’s cheaper. The only thing standing between you and the carbon steel pan is the three weeks it takes to season properly, and a small amount of mythology about “ruining” it.
Let me dispatch the mythology first. You cannot ruin a carbon steel pan. The worst thing that can happen is that the seasoning strips, in which case you re-season it. The pan itself is a solid piece of 2.5mm French steel that was old technology in 1850. Stop being scared of it.
What seasoning actually means
When you heat oil on a metal pan, the oil polymerises — it becomes a hard, slick, plastic-like layer bonded to the metal. After enough cycles of heating, this builds up into a non-stick surface that’s far more durable than any chemical coating. It’s the same principle as your grandmother’s cast iron, only carbon steel responds faster.
De Buyer ship the Mineral B with a beeswax coating to protect it in the box. You wash that off, dry it, and start a seasoning routine. Mine looked like this:
- Days 1–3: heat the dry pan, add oil, smoke it gently, wipe with a paper towel. Repeat three or four times.
- Week 1: cook fatty things only. Bacon, sausages, a chicken thigh skin-side down. Avoid eggs.
- Week 2: introduce eggs. They will stick. This is normal. Wipe out, oil, repeat.
- Week 3: the pan is now non-stick. An over-easy egg slides around like a hovercraft.
By week six, my Mineral B was outperforming my late Tefal in every category that matters except salsa, which I make in a saucepan anyway.
What it does that a non-stick can’t
The thing nobody tells you about non-stick is that it can’t get hot. Above 240°C, the polymer coatings start to break down — the manufacturer-stated upper limit on most premium non-sticks is around 260°C. Steakhouse pans run at 300–350°C.
A carbon steel pan will laugh at 350°C. You can preheat it on a screaming-hot hob until it’s almost smoking, drop a steak in, and get a Maillard crust the way a steakhouse does. You can’t do that on a non-stick without ruining the pan and possibly poisoning yourself.
You cannot ruin a carbon steel pan. The worst thing that can happen is that the seasoning strips, in which case you re-season it.
What it does that cast iron does, but better
Cast iron — the kind I cook stews in, like the Le Creuset 28cm Skillet — does most of what carbon steel does. The difference is weight and heat-up time. The Mineral B is 1.6kg; my Le Creuset is 2.4kg. The Mineral B reaches searing temperature in about 90 seconds; the Le Creuset takes four minutes.
For weeknight cooking, those minutes and grams matter. I reach for the carbon steel five days out of seven. I reach for the cast iron when I’m doing a Sunday roast or anything that needs to go from hob to oven and stay hot for a long time.
The 28cm vs 24cm question
De Buyer make this pan in five sizes from 20cm to 32cm. The 24 is too small for a steak; the 32 is heavy enough to be annoying. The 28 is the right answer for one-or-two-people cooking and the size most professional kitchens default to for line work.
If you cook for three or more people regularly, a second 32cm is worth owning. Two carbon steel pans on a hob is a serious kitchen.
Care
Don’t wash it in the dishwasher. Don’t soap it (mild soap is fine if you’ve burnt something, but contrary to the internet, occasional soap won’t strip a properly built-up seasoning). Wipe it out with a paper towel after each use, rinse with water if needed, dry on the hob, light film of oil. Forty seconds of care, every time.
If the seasoning ever strips — say, after a tomato sauce that boiled too long — heat the pan dry, add a teaspoon of oil, smoke it, wipe, repeat three times. You’re back to normal in fifteen minutes.
Should you buy one?
Yes, if you cook eggs more than twice a week. Yes, if you’ve burned through two non-stick pans in five years and you’re sick of buying replacements. Yes, if you’ve ever wondered why your home steaks don’t look like restaurant steaks. The answer to the last question is “non-stick coating,” and this pan fixes it for £68.
The Mineral B Pro version (which adds a stainless steel handle suitable for the dishwasher and an oven) is £20 more. I have not found it worth £20. The classic French handle is fine.