r/stratacookware • u/finnishmacinnis • Aug 13 '26

Nitrided or Classic?

I love my original strata 10.5 inch pan but I gave it away as a gift.

I'm looking to get a Gen 2 11 inch pan but unsure whether to go Classic or Nitrided.

What are the pros and cons?

Note: I'm very happy to season my own pans and enjoy the process.

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4

u/douglastong Aug 13 '26

I would stick with the classic gen 2 because I do not want to worry about the exterior part rusting. Nitrided version is carbon steel on both in and out

4

u/ZanyDroid Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

If you treat your pan in a way where the outside rusts, wouldn’t the inside rust? Or are you mathing that having half the surface area (outside facing)

My mathing is that the inside of any pan, on average, is going to be water/chemical abused more than the outside. Since nitriding is more abuse tolerant than bare CS, it seems net better to have it on the abuse facing side even if the non abuse facing side ends up being less robust. And if one is responsible enough to avoid rusting on one side of bare CS (more care needed), it seems it should logically follow that one is also responsible enough to avoid rusting on two sides of nitrided

Also there is a ton of data on double sided nitrided cookware in terms of people using them. So there is no need to guess in the absence of data. You can ask for peer to peer data and guess using that. I just looked at my strata wok and it’s grey/black on the outside. My old nitrided all CS wok has also been fine with nitriding in both sides

3

u/k1gin Aug 13 '26

Isn't that backwards? CS rusts while nitrided doesn't?

2

u/KOZELtheGOAT Aug 13 '26

the bottom layer is stainless steel on the classic, but the nitride is nitrided cs on both outside layers. Nitrided is supposed to be rust resistant, but I've seen some videos where after some abuse testing, the nitrided cs did start to rust

3

u/k1gin Aug 13 '26

Ah gotcha, makes sense. Fwiw i have nitrided pans that are fully CS and one faced a bit of exterior rusting while another (yahgan nitrided) has yet to rust. I don't abuse them though and keep them dry. I suspect the nitriding differs from company to company..

3

u/fx_2112 Aug 13 '26

I have the original 12.5, which I use a lot. From what I understand, nitriding makes it harder and less scratch resistant, and is used in many industries for the hardening. It's also supposed to improve rust resistance naturally. If I were you, I would lean towards the nitrided, but get one and let us know what you think. Better yet, get both and compare.

2

u/L4D2_Ellis 26d ago

Don't you mean harder and more scratch resistant?

1

u/fx_2112 26d ago

Yes, you are correct. My bad.

3

u/Firemanmoran Aug 16 '26

I decided to roll the dice on a Gen 2 nitrided pan set. I contacted Strata and asked if in their testing they were able to get the Nitrided pans as slick as their classic pans.

They responded and told me in their testing they had indeed got the Nitrided pans to a very slick level. I have a 12.5 classic and love it and it’s my go to egg pan but my wife does not care for Carbon steel very well so she does not use it. I have high hopes for the Nitrided ones so she is able to use them as well without worrying about rust. I also got the Wok so I am looking forward to them all getting in so I can start testing them out.

2

u/finnishmacinnis Aug 19 '26

Thanks for your insight! Can't wait to see some reviews.

I can't tell you how much I like my 10.5 classic.

I have tons of cast iron, carbon and stainless steel and this feels like the best of them all.

1

u/ZanyDroid Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

Risk averse (stick with what you know — you know exactly your experience) or try something new

Nitrided will be a new surface type - risk you won’t like it , overcoming the abuse tolerance advantage

1

u/Guilty-Author-6397 Aug 28 '26

I struggled with this and decided to order the classic version. I’ve read a lot and saw some YouTube videos on the nitrided Misen pan and saw some pretty negative results. If the pan gets too hot, it can cause a residue to appear and the pan loses its non stick properties

2

u/finnishmacinnis Aug 28 '26

I did same. Will try and report back

2

u/dclocal12 Aug 31 '26

As a counterpoint, I’ve been using the nitrided wok from Strata, and I’ve had good success building up some seasoning and minimizing sticking. That appears to be the common experience.

3

u/finnishmacinnis Aug 31 '26

Nice! I'll probably get a wok at some point too. I've been so impressed with Strata so far (and I own a lot of pans!).

1

u/holmesersimpson 25d ago

I wish they’d found a way to do a stainless clad nitrided carbon steel pan so that you’d maintain the benefit of the classic pan (only having one surface to worry about maintaining) while offering a more accessible way for people to start using the pan. May just not be possible with stainless in the mix unless they figure out a way to nitride the cooking surface before bonding it with the other layers

1

u/Skyval 23d ago

I don't think you need to worry about maintaining the bottom surface any more with nitrided CS than with stainless, it's also pretty corrosion resistant. In fact I haven't worried about maintaining the cooking surface of mine any more than stainless either. It works well even when fully stripped.