It’s perfectly possible to fry eggs in a stainless steel pan with butter, but it requires a bit of technique. Preheat the pan over high heat (assuming a ho

It’s perfectly possible to fry eggs in a stainless steel pan with butter, but it requires a bit of technique. Preheat the pan over high heat (assuming a home style gas range) for a least a minute, it should be almost hot enough to brown the butter. Then add a tablespoon (or more) of butter and swirl it around to coat the pan. Gently add the eggs (one is easier than two) and let them sit for 20 seconds. The idea is that with enough hot enough butter the egg protein on the bottom will set before it touches the metal, ie a very shallow deep fry. Done right the egg will be free to slide around the pan. The next thing to practice is flipping the egg without utensils. Maneuver the egg to the rear of the pan and tug the handle sharply forwards. Practice and confidence help, but the failures are still tasty so long as they land somewhere you don’t mind eating off of. I suspect most people don’t get the pan hot enough which will let the egg stick. Sometimes you get a fragile egg that breaks up and sticks anyway. Omelettes work the same way except the eggs are mixed up first. The basics of really hot pan and plenty of butter and the flipping technique all apply.