De Buyer Mineral B Crepe and Tortilla Pan Review

We purchased the de Buyer Mineral B Crepe and Tortilla Pan so our reviewer could put it to the test. Keep reading for our full product review.

Sometimes it is exciting to change up the usual Sunday morning chocolate chip pancake routine and bring in some fun food from your travels and other cultures to the table. For any visitor to Paris, the first encounter with a crepe at one of the squillions of street creperies is an important rite of passage. Eating a freshly made feather-light crepe filled with cream and strawberries or a delicious hazelnut spread for the first time is a feeling that is hard to forget. What’s easy though is to recreate those tastes and share them with friends and family. And when I don’t feel like going the sweet route, I go with the savory ‘galette sarrasin complete’ (buckwheat crepe with eggs, ham, and cheese) or ‘galette saucisse’—buckwheat crepes with pork sausage.

Now to do all this, one needs a plan and a pan. I made plans to make flour tortillas for the weekend taco bar and socca for snacking on and readied the batters for both wheat and buckwheat crepes. Now, all that was left to do was test the de Buyer Mineral B Crepe and Tortilla Pan, so I could test it to see if it was the pan. Here are my thoughts.

Design: Durably made, but needs a batter spreader

When this arrived, it had a sleek stainless-steel look, which changed to a dark brown once seasoned. It is durably made with a design that makes it more than a one-trick pony. It will not win many points for being a showstopper though because, once seasoned, it is rather blotchy. The pan does not come with a batter spreader or a crepe turner. While I did not mind the absence of the latter, using my other spatulas to do the job, I really wished there was a batter spreader for a pan this size and weight. Turning the pan with one hand as I poured batter with the other was inconvenient and ended up making the crepes uneven. The only way around that was to make smaller crepes, which made the process much slower. Easy to store in my kitchen cabinet, the traditional French handle is long and has a hole for convenient hanging. Best of all, the sloped edge helps cook more than just crepes and flatbreads.

Material: Heats quickly and evenly, but not for the oven

The pan is made from carbon steel with an epoxy coating on its handle. While the pan is lighter than a cast-iron pan of the same size, this pan is still hefty at about 4 pounds. It’s induction-compatible and can be used on other cooktops as well, giving the users freedom to use it on any heat source.

There is however a hitch when using the pan in the oven. It is only oven safe up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and for 10 minutes. After that, the epoxy coating on the handle starts to melt off. While I used the pan predominantly for crepes, tortillas, pancakes, and injera, I did have to switch up my socca recipe to make it work with this pan since I couldn’t put it under the broiler or leave the pan in the oven at a high temperature.

The stovetop heating however was a different and happy story. The pan heats quickly and evenly, and also cooled down faster than cast iron. While making flatbreads and batter-based recipes, this came in handy and gave me more control on the heat.

Cooking Performance: Smooth and efficient

I had to reign in the excitement of getting right to it and churning out crepes. The pan needed to be seasoned first. The manufacturer’s instructions come in a miniature booklet that is hard to read. Keen to just get it over with, I took a picture of the instructions on my phone and expanded the text. Later, an online search yielded a manual in a size that is rather normal, but it is not on the manufacturer’s website.

Once seasoned, it worked without any additional oil or fat for crepes—they released effortlessly. A batch of grain-free pancakes cooked to a fluffy texture without much fat as well. I made both gluten-free and flour tortillas, and the heat control was efficient, allowing me to slow down while I was rolling the tortillas and speed up when I needed to give it some color. I changed up my recipe for the socca from an oven-based to a stovetop one since the pan is not oven-safe. I had to coax the socca to release in a few spots, but nothing too damaging. I believe as the pan seasons more, it will release much more easily. This pan wouldn’t be my first choice to cook eggs, but in a pinch, it will work. To test that theory I made fried eggs on it, and they released with a gentle push.

Cleaning: It’s a commitment

When the pan first arrives, it is coated in beeswax to prevent rust during shipping. Removing this layer is not as easy as the manufacturer’s directions make it out to be. I put the pan in the sink and poured hot boiling water on it to remove the first layer of beeswax from the pan. Once the pan cooled slightly, I washed it again under hot water and scrubbed it thoroughly. Next up, was seasoning the pan. After I figured out a way to read the miniature manual, it instructs you to layer some oil on the pan, and heat it till it smokes. Then toss the oil out, wipe the pan clean, and the pan is ready. Or not. It took me three more tries of repeating these instructions to feel confident that the pan was seasoned.

After each use, I cleaned the pan like my other cast-iron pans. This is an ongoing maintenance process to keep the pans working efficiently and without rusting. I make sure to clean the pan with hot water after every use, dry it, and apply oil again to keep it seasoned for next time.

Price: Moderately pricey

Retailing between $35 and $80 depending on which size you buy, it is a bit pricey for a pan if you only use it to make pancakes or crepes. For someone who will put the pan to varied uses, it can certainly be considered a good investment.

de Buyer Mineral B Crepe and Tortilla Pan vs. BK Black Steel Seasoned Carbon Steel Crepe Pan

BK Black Steel Seasoned Carbon Steel Crepe Pan: This Black Steel crepe pan from BK is again a carbon-steel crepe pan option that is also versatile. While I liked the de Buyer Mineral B Crepe and Tortilla pan, I would have liked it to be a little less hefty and oven-safe. The BK Black steel pan comes pre-seasoned, is lightweight, and best of all, is oven safe up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. For someone who wants a carbon steel pan without all the fuss about seasoning when it arrives, the BK Black steel pan is a fine option.