Misen Carbon Nonstick™ Use and Care

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Carbon Nonstick™
Use & Care

What Is Carbon Nonstick™?

Our Carbon Nonstick™ line is built from coating-free nitrided carbon steel that's naturally nonstick and gets more nonstick the more you cook on it.

The nitrided surface delivers lifelong durability and great food release right out of the box, while a lightweight aluminum core provides fast, even heat. The entire line is safe on gas, electric, induction, oven, and grill (heat-safe up to 1100°F).

How to get the best results cooking eggs in a nonstick pan video tutorial

How to Cook With Carbon Nonstick™

Click here to watch a 1 minute video on how to use our Carbon Nonstick™ cookware

Always preheat your pan. Place your pan on a burner approximately the same size as the pan bottom and heat it over medium heat for 45 seconds. This is the single most important thing you can do to prevent sticking.

Common mistake: Turning the heat too high to get there faster, or not waiting the full 45 seconds.

Always cook with oil. Add a high smoke-point oil (450°F or more) — refined vegetable, canola, avocado, sunflower, and algae oil all work well. Use at least 1 teaspoon for an 8” pan, 1 tablespoon for a 10” pan, and 1 heaping tablespoon for a 12” pan. Let the oil heat for 1–2 minutes, swirling to cover the base of the pan. The oil should move around like water and ripple a bit.

Common mistake: Underheating or overheating your pan and oil. If not hot enough, food will stick. If too hot, food will scorch and stick. If your oil starts to smoke, your pan is way too hot — carefully remove the oil, let the pan cool, clean it, and start over.

Add your food when the pan is ready. You should hear a gentle, steady sizzle when food hits the pan — not aggressive popping or spitting. If it’s loud, your heat is too high. If you hear nothing and see no bubbles, your heat is too low — take the food out and let the pan warm up for another 30 seconds.

Tip: Before adding all your ingredients, drop one small piece in first. If it sizzles, you’re good to go.

Adjust for delicate foods. If you’re making eggs, pancakes, or other foods that need lower heat, turn the heat down before adding your food.

Cooking in the oven?

Place the empty pan in the oven as it preheats, then add oil and food.

All Carbon Nonstick™ cookware is oven-safe to 1100°F.

How to condition carbon nonstick cookware video tutorial

Conditioning: The Key to Nonstick Success

Click here to watch a 1 minute video on how to condition your Carbon Nonstick™ pan.

Conditioning is a light maintenance step after every cook. It takes about 2 minutes and locks in the seasoning that makes your pan nonstick. (It's different from re-seasoning, which is a heavier process you only need after stripping the pan — see below.)

Clean the pan first. The surface should feel smooth to the touch after washing. If you feel any debris or sticky spots, see the How to Clean section below.
Heat the pan. Dry your pan, then put it back on the burner over medium-high heat for 30–60 seconds, until it feels hot when you hover your hand an inch above the surface.
Turn off the heat. Add 2–3 drops or ¼ teaspoon of high-smoke-point oil. Use a dry paper towel to rub the oil into the entire cooking surface — corners, sides, everywhere — until no oil is visible. It should look like the oil has been completely wiped away.
Let the pan cool for 10 minutes before putting away.

Common mistakes:

Adding more than ¼ teaspoon of oil. More oil will leave a sticky residue that diminishes the pan’s nonstick qualities. You only need a microscopic amount.
Not rubbing the oil in fully. Pooling oil will leave a residue. Rub until it's gone.

Condition your pan every time you use it, or any time you notice a dip in nonstick performance.

Hand scrubbing a dark nonstick frying pan with soapy sponge

How to Clean Carbon Nonstick™

For 95% of cooks, hot water and soap is all it takes to clean Carbon Nonstick™. For the other 5%, there are two methods to restore your pan.

Normal wash

Hot water, mild soap, and a soft sponge are usually all you’ll need. If you see any food debris before washing, use a Pan Scraper to lift it off while the pan is still slightly warm — warm pans release stuck-on bits much more easily than cold ones.

Wash until the surface feels smooth. Air-dry if you like; unlike regular carbon steel, your pan won't rust.

Finish by conditioning (see above).

If the pan is clean and it feels smooth to the touch, don't try to scrub out every spot or stain. Discoloration is your pan's natural seasoning building up, and that's what makes it nonstick.

If the normal wash isn’t enough (the Salt Method)

For sticky residue, stuck-on bits, or burnt-on food that normal washing can’t remove:

Heat the pan over low heat for 2 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of high-smoke-point oil.
Scrub with a folded towel or paper towel in circular motions until the surface is clean. The salt is a gentle abrasive that lifts residue without stripping the seasoning underneath.
Wash the pan as usual with soap and water.
Dry on the burner over medium-low heat.
Condition the pan.

Common mistake: Skipping straight to Bar Keepers Friend. The Salt Method handles most stuck-on situations and leaves your seasoning intact.

If the Salt Method doesn’t work (Bar Keeper’s Friend - aka BKF)

Heads up: this strips the pan to bare metal. Only use it if you have visible rust, burnt-on black carbon the Salt Method can't lift, or persistent stickiness nothing else has fixed. After using BKF, you must re-season — see the next section.

Let the pan cool completely. Never apply BKF to a hot pan.
Wet the surface with warm water.
Sprinkle BKF over problem areas, or make a paste with a few drops of water for larger spots.
Scrub with steel wool in circular motions until the cooking surface and sides are smooth metal, with no sticky or damaged seasoning remaining.
Wash thoroughly with hot water and mild soap.
Dry immediately on a burner over medium-low heat.
Re-season before your next cook (see next section).

Common mistake: Partially stripping the pan and trying to cook on it anyway. If you're going this route, go all the way to bare metal. A half-stripped pan will cook unevenly and stick badly.

Re-Seasoning Your Pan

Re-seasoning is not the same as conditioning. You only need to re-season if you've just used Bar Keeper’s Friend to strip the pan or the pan has become stripped from acidic foods and lack of conditioning.

Stovetop method (recommended)

The fastest way to return your pan to nonstick. You’ll need the peels from a couple potatoes or one sliced onion.

Ensure the pan is clean and dry.
Heat over low heat for 30 seconds, then medium for another 30–60 seconds.
Add ⅓ cup of high-smoke-point oil (canola, grapeseed, vegetable) and ⅔ cup of kosher salt.
Add the peels from 2 potatoes, or 1 sliced onion.
Cook for 10 minutes, continuously moving the mixture around the pan and up the sides.
Discard the potato peels or onion, wipe the pan clean, and let cool.

What you're looking for: A spotty brown patina across the cooking surface. That's your seasoning. It won't look uniform, and that's normal.

Oven method

Fully clean and dry the pan.
Preheat your oven to 450°F.
Heat the pan on a burner over low heat. Add ½ teaspoon of high-smoke-point oil and rub it over the entire surface with a paper towel. Wipe off as much excess as possible — the layer should be nearly invisible.
Turn off the burner and place the pan upside down in the oven for 1 hour.
Remove and let cool completely.
Repeat steps 3–5 two more times for full re-seasoning.

Common mistake: Using too much oil. A thick layer will pool, bake unevenly, and leave sticky residue. Nearly invisible is what you're going for.

Your Pan Will Change Over Time

Click here to watch a 1 minute video on how your Carbon Nonstick™ will change over time.

Your pan, griddle, or roaster will look different over time, and that's a good thing. After a few cooks, you'll notice dark spots on the surface. As long as they're smooth to the touch, don't scrub them off. That's natural seasoning building up. With regular cooking and conditioning, the entire surface develops a dark patina and becomes increasingly nonstick. A well-seasoned pan can also be quite beautiful!

Heads Up:

Cook anywhere. Gas, electric, induction — move freely from stovetop to oven or grill. The entire Carbon Nonstick™ line is heat-safe up to 1100°F.
Keep it out of the dishwasher. The line is rust-resistant when hand-washed, but it's not dishwasher safe.
…But leave it in the sink if you want. Thanks to the nitrided surface, your pan is designed to resist rust — an overnight soak won't hurt. Just wash, dry, and condition afterward.
The Round Roaster's lid is dishwasher safe. The lid (which fits the Round Roaster, all Frying Pans, the Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel pans, and the Carbon Steel Wok) can go in the dishwasher. It's oven-safe to 450°F / 230°C.
Your pan will have more texture than other kinds of nonstick — and that’s by design. Carbon steel is a natural material, and with our nitriding process it’s normal to see or feel some texture variation on the surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Every product in the Carbon Nonstick™ line uses the same nitrided carbon steel construction, so cooking, conditioning, cleaning, and re-seasoning are identical. The only differences are product-specific: the Round Roaster comes with a lid (see below), and oven-preheating differs from stovetop preheating (see “Cooking in the oven?” guidance above.)

The lid is dishwasher safe and oven-safe to 450°F / 230°C. It fits the Round Roaster, all Carbon Nonstick™ Frying Pans, the Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel Frying Pans, and the Carbon Steel Wok.

Carbon Nonstick™ is a carbon steel pan with an aluminum core. It’s 3-ply: the inner layer is the aluminum core, which helps the pan heat and cool more quickly than other carbon steel pans. The top and bottom layers are nitrided carbon steel — more on what nitriding means in the next question.

Nitrided carbon steel is carbon steel that has been super-heated in a nitrogen-rich oven, which creates an extremely durable, corrosion-resistant, and naturally nonstick surface without the need for coatings like ceramic or PTFE.

Nitriding is completely food-safe and nontoxic, and is widely used in industries beyond cookware, including aerospace, automotive, surgical, and industrial machinery.

Carbon steel relies on natural "seasoning" to achieve its nonstick properties. Unlike ceramic and PTFE nonstick coatings, seasoning is completely natural and becomes more nonstick over time as it builds up.

The seasoning process begins the moment you start cooking. When any type of fat is heated in the pan, it chemically bonds with the metal to create a durable surface that prevents rust and improves nonstick properties. The more you cook, the more the seasoning builds up, and the better your pan gets.

Carbon Nonstick™ gets a boost from nitriding, which super-heats the pan in a nitrogen-rich environment and creates an extremely durable, corrosion-resistant, and virtually nonstick surface without the need for coatings. The nitrided surface gives Carbon Nonstick™ great food-release properties right out of the box and helps the seasoning build up gradually on its own — so you can get right to cooking.

We still love our Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel pans. But there are some key differences.

First, Carbon Nonstick™ is lighter — a 10" pan weighs only 2.48 pounds, compared to carbon steel's 3.2 pounds. It's an easier pan to hold and use on a daily basis.

Second, Carbon Nonstick™ doesn't require seasoning. Our original Carbon Steel needs to be regularly seasoned as you use it, and that seasoning can come off depending on what you cook — sometimes the pan needs to be re-seasoned from scratch. That won't happen with Carbon Nonstick™ because it's nitrided — aka super-heated in a nitrogen-rich oven to make it extra-hard, extra-smooth, and extra-durable — so it holds its seasoning better than a carbon steel pan ever could.

Third, Carbon Nonstick™ has an aluminum core, while our Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel pan does not. In addition to making it lighter, the aluminum core helps the pan heat and cool faster — making your cooking more efficient and precise. Our Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel has slightly better heat retention for tasks like heavy-duty searing.

Fourth, Carbon Nonstick™ is more resistant to rust. Our original carbon steel pan isn't nitrided, so it will rust if you don't wash and dry it immediately after cooking. Carbon Nonstick™ can soak in the sink overnight without issues.

Traditional PTFE nonstick and ceramic pans are both made with coatings that create a pronounced nonstick effect on your cookware — but they don't last. Carbon Nonstick™ is coating-free, so it may not start out with the same level of slipperiness as traditional nonstick.

However, as other nonstick pans gradually lose their nonstick coating and eventually end up in the trash, Carbon Nonstick™ actually becomes more nonstick with use, as cooking fats build up on the pan's surface. So while your other nonstick pans will be useless in a matter of years, your Carbon Nonstick™ is made to last forever.

No. Carbon Nonstick™ is free of PFAS, PTFE, and PFOA. It's made of nitrided carbon steel with an aluminum core, and that's it.

No. Unlike traditional carbon steel cookware, which requires multiple rounds of oiling the pan and heating it in the oven for hours, you don't need to season your Carbon Nonstick™ pan. By simply cooking with it, you'll be seasoning it — the more you use it, the more seasoned it becomes. We call this natural effect "self-seasoning," to differentiate it from the time-consuming process of seasoning carbon steel or cast iron.

That said, we strongly recommend conditioning the pan after cooking to speed things up. See the Conditioning section above for the full how-to.

Carbon Nonstick™ is not pre-seasoned in the same way as our Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel, which is pre-baked with a neutral oil to jumpstart the seasoning process.

Carbon Nonstick™ doesn't need to be pre-seasoned because it's been nitrided, which does the same job. Instead, the pan is simply wiped down with a thin layer of neutral corn oil after nitriding. This moisturizes the pan, protects it during shipping, and makes it nice and slippery right out of the box.

We recommend going easy on tomatoes and lemons for your first 30 or so cooks, so the pan has a little time to build up its nonstick properties. Once your pan is nicely seasoned — which you'll be able to tell by its shiny, jet-black patina — bring on the lemons.

Carbon Nonstick™ works on all stovetop types — gas, electric, and induction. It's also oven- and grill-safe up to 1100°F.

Troubleshooting

Don't worry — it's totally normal to experience some sticking while the pan starts to build up seasoning in the first month or so. Your pan will naturally become more nonstick the more you cook with it. In the meantime, here are some tips:

Preheat and use oil. Set your pan over medium heat for 45–60 seconds before adding oil, then add a high smoke-point oil (algae, canola, grapeseed, avocado). Avoid aerosol cooking sprays, which can leave a sticky residue.
Adjust the heat. If your pan starts smoking, it's too hot. If you're not hearing an audible sizzle when food hits the pan, turn up the heat.
Use metal utensils (like our Fish Spatula) — thin and flexible yet sturdy, perfect for getting right under whatever you're cooking.
Go easy on delicate foods (for now). Pancakes, tofu, eggs, and skinless chicken breast might be more prone to sticking while your seasoning is still building up.
Clean the pan well. See the How to Clean section above — start with a normal wash and only escalate if needed.
Condition after cleaning. See the Conditioning section above.

Your pan will self-season every time you cook in it, eventually building up a fully natural nonstick surface. If you're looking to speed things up, condition the pan after every cook (or as often as you'd like). See the Conditioning section above for the full how-to.

Nope — those spots are your pan's self-seasoning at work, meaning your pan is well on its way to nonstick nirvana. As long as the pan feels smooth to the touch, you're golden. (If the dark spots are raised, they're stuck-on food and you should scrape them off.)

Nope. Unlike ceramic or coated nonstick pans, Carbon Nonstick™ has absolutely no artificial coatings that can be scratched or flaked off. Like any carbon steel pan, scratches on Carbon Nonstick™ are purely cosmetic and won't affect your pan's performance or safety. If you do see a scratch, you can either buff it out with your fingers or simply keep cooking — the pan's self-seasoning will eventually fill in the scratch over time.

Nope — it's totally normal to experience some sticking from time to time as your pan starts to build up seasoning. Seasoning can initially develop in uneven patches across the surface of the pan, but will gradually accumulate until your pan's surface is completely nonstick. If you notice the surface looking a little dull or matte between cooks, condition it (see above). If conditioning alone doesn't bring nonstick performance back, try the Salt Method (see the How to Clean section above).

Nope. Sticky spots usually mean there was too much oil during conditioning, or oil got too hot during cooking. (You'll see the same effect on cast iron or stainless.)

If a normal wash doesn’t remove them, use the Salt Method (see the How to Clean section above). Heat the pan over low, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of oil, scrub in circular motions with a folded towel, then wash with soap and water. Finish by conditioning.

If the sticky spots are stubborn and the Salt Method doesn't fully clear them, move to Bar Keepers Friend, but only as a last resort, because you'll need to re-season after.

Nope. Rust on Carbon Nonstick™ is uncommon (the nitrided surface is highly rust-resistant) but it can happen if the pan sat wet for a long time or if seasoning has been stripped. It's also fixable.

First, confirm it's actually rust: run a finger or paper towel over the spot. A bright orange residue is rust.

Treatment depends on severity (see the How to Clean section above):

Small spots: Try the Salt Method first. Scrub the spot with steel wool and a paste of kosher salt and oil. If that lifts the rust, wash, dry, and condition.
Larger spots or rust the Salt Method can't fix: Move to Bar Keeper’s Friend. This will strip the rust completely — but it also strips the pan to bare metal, so you'll need to re-season before your next cook.

Your pan will eventually turn a dark black/brown color all over and take on a glossy sheen, indicating it has fully developed its natural nonstick surface.

You can cook a great meal on Carbon Nonstick™ with any oil or cooking fat you like (except aerosol cooking sprays). High-heat oils are the most effective at developing a nice, even seasoning on your pan. Fats with lower smoke points like butter and some olive oils are prone to burning before they have a chance to season the pan.

If you prefer cooking with butter or olive oil, we recommend cleaning your pan well after cooking to remove any residue, then conditioning with a high-heat oil for the best of both worlds. If you have a question about a specific brand or type of oil, reach out to our culinary-trained customer service team and we'll be happy to help.

You can safely cook acidic foods right from the start — just know that it will take a bit longer to build up your pan's self-seasoning. If you want to fast-track your pan's nonstick potential, we suggest going light on tomatoes, lemons, wine, vinegar, and other acidic ingredients for the first 30 days.