One of my kids gave me a very nice and a very expensive stainless-steel pan one year. I ended up donating it to Good Will. Everything I put in it stuck like Brer Rabbit to the Tar Baby.
However, I just read an article that makes me wish I had kept the pan. The Well-Equipped Cook’s website says there is a sure fire way to make stainless stickless.
Here’s what they say.
Put the pan on the eye for a few minutes, then sprinkle a bit of water in the pan. If the droplets just roll around, the pan is not hot enough. If they disappear, it’s too hot. What you want is for the pan to be at the temperature where the droplets bounce around in the pan.
At a certain temperature range well above boiling—about 365 to 379 degrees Fahrenheit—the water in food evaporates and the steam lifts food off the steel surface so that it floats like an air hockey puck. That layer of steam remains trapped beneath the food, which prevents it from sticking.
At the same time, the steam layer insulates food from the hot metal, which prevents the food from burning.
When you hit the right temperature, you make an air gap. Water is not in good contact with the pan anymore, which is why it skitters around the surface. Flicking a few droplets of water into the skillet demonstrates the Leidenfrost effect; steam is lifting the droplets of water off the surface of the skillet the same way it will with food.
Adding food too soon (before the water beads up) means that there isn’t that protective air gap created by rising steam and will result in the dreaded caked-on food that seems impossible to scrub off.
Omelets, fish, meats, and more? It really works. It’s all about the right temperature.
