There are a few key steps to remember when using a cast griddle pan.  First, it's important to season your pan properly before using it for the first time.  This involves coating a cast iron grill pan with a thin layer of oil and heating the cast iron grill pan in the oven to create a non-stick surface.  Once seasoned, the skillet can be used to cook a variety of foods, from meats and vegetables to sandwiches and more.

    For those who want more cookware options,13-piece cookware set and 20-piece cast iron cookware sets  offer a wider variety of pots, pans, and accessories. A 13-piece cookware set and 20-piece cast iron cookware sets are perfect for individuals who like to experiment with different cooking techniques and recipes.

Best for: Almost any food that needs frying, browning, or searing. Because it’s ovenproof, stainless is also a good choice for foods that you start on the stovetop and then move to the oven to finish, like thick pork chops.

The details: Nitahara says that 95 percent of the pans used in the CIA’s teaching kitchens are stainless steel because they can take a lot of punishment. “The only time we don’t use them is on egg day, when we use nonstick,” he says. He adds that the shiny surface of a stainless pan makes it easy to see whether your food is browning.

In CR’s tests of stainless steel pans, we measure heating evenness by cooking pancakes, and we gauge how evenly a pan sautés by cooking potatoes until they’re tender. We also conduct a cleaning test to see how easy it is to remove cooked-on food. You’d think that all stainless pans would be about the same to clean, but our tests show that some require a lot more scrubbing than others.

Here are two recommended stainless steel pans from CR’s tests.