The Best 8-Inch Nonstick Skillets

“They're so cute!” said nearly everyone who walked by me while I was testing these little pans. And my coworkers were right: An 8-inch nonstick skillet does seem positively adorable next to a 10- or 12-inch version. But these petite pans are useful in their own right. They're perfect for making a couple of fried eggs or an omelet, for cooking recipes scaled down for one or two people, and for toasting nuts, spices, seeds, bread crumbs, garlic, and more.

To find the best 8-inch nonstick skillet, we studied the market and chose eight pans, priced from about $15.00 to $110.00, including one from OXO, the maker of our winning 12-inch nonstick skillet. Four of the pans were traditional nonstick, and the other four were ceramic nonstick, an alternative coating often marketed as “green” or “environmentally friendly.” All the pans were perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)–free.

We tested the pans extensively, starting with a dry egg test in which we cooked eggs one after another, with no oil or butter, until they started to stick or until we hit 50 eggs. Next we made omelets, scalloped potatoes, and scrambled eggs in each pan, beating them up a bit along the way to simulate long-term use: We washed them repeatedly, subjected them to thermal shock (heating them and then plunging them into an ice bath), and banged them on a concrete ledge to test their construction. Finally, we repeated the dry egg challenge at the end of testing to see how the nonstick surfaces held up over time. So does it matter which little nonstick skillet you buy? If you care about not having flakes of nonstick coating in your food, it does.

Traditional versus Ceramic Nonstick Pans

Hands down the most important factor in determining a good pan was the kind of nonstick coating. There are two types used on cookware: traditional PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon is the most well-known brand name), and ceramic, which has exploded in popularity in recent years as a result of concerns about the safety and environmental impact of PTFE.

We tested four pans in each style, and differences emerged immediately. In the first egg test, seven of the eight pans were able to cleanly release all 50 eggs; the one that couldn't was ceramic. A few days later, the coating started flaking off two of the pans—both ceramic. And at the end of testing, the fourth (and final) ceramic model was the most scratched-up of any pan we tested, which doesn't bode well for durability. Meanwhile, the PTFE pans emerged reasonably unscathed. Clearly the ceramic pans weren't as durable. We delved into the science behind the two kinds of nonstick coating to understand why.

“Ceramic” is a broad term that e... read more