5 ms·

If you cook eggs correctly, they stick less to a cast iron pan than to a teflon pan, and they hold together better.

by siftrics 4y ago

lumb63 4y ago
How’s that? Got any additional info?
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Seriously, the single time I've made eggs work without having a layer of stuck egg at the end, in cast iron, was on this immaculately-maintained ancient cast iron pan in an AiBnB on a Mennonite farm, and even that only worked because I cooked them in a bunch of sausage grease, probably amounting to 10x the fat I use in teflon (butter, in that case). But, I usually make scrambled, and you need tight, lowish temp control for those, which is one thing teflon really excels at (cast iron and stainless need higher temps to prevent sticking)
  - lukevp 4y ago
    Try carbon steel, it’s much less sticky
dahfizz 4y ago
Anytime your solution to a problem is "Just exert more effort and skill and do it correctly", there is a 100% chance the general public will not adopt your solution.
- xeromal 4y ago
  This should be codified as a law of the internet.
  - HPsquared 4y ago
    Dahfizz's Law
  - halfnormalform 4y ago
    I've heard something similar phrased as "Discipline doesn't scale."
- klodolph 4y ago
  The worst is when I see this advice used for backup policies. Like, the backup is there to save your ass when you don’t do things correctly. If the backup needs you to exert more effort and do things correctly, then it’s most likely to be broken when you need it the most.
- siftrics 4y ago
  I agree, but I think it's less effort to cook eggs in a cast iron. Just add a dash of oil and cook on medium low-heat with a lid. I never spend more than five seconds cleaning because the eggs never stick.
- testTED 4y ago
  This explains the state of the general public very well.
greenie_beans 4y ago
what is the correct way to cook eggs?
- siftrics 4y ago
  I see what you're saying. For me: dash of oil, medium-low heat, and a lid. You don't even have to clean the cast iron because the eggs don't stick.
  - webnrrd2k 4y ago
    If I'm cooking bacon, then I baste them in the hot bacon fat. But mostly I like to put enough olive oil in the pan so that I can easily baste the eggs with a soup spoon. Salt, lots of pepper, and baste 'em -- the tops solidify just enough not to run.
yamtaddle 4y ago
I'm still struggling with conveying, "you have to get the stainless pan hot and lay down some fat before you add the food, or it will stick". Add the tendency of cast iron to unpleasantly flavor acidic foods (which is lots of foods) and it's hopeless, as far as convincing goes. At least stainless doesn't do that. I might win her over for stainless, mostly, but cast iron's going to remain only for me. No denying that it's a lot easier to make eggs or pancakes or whatever on teflon, while distracted by also trying to get the kids dressed and such, without ruining the food or making a mess, than it is on other materials. Even if you know what to do with other pans, you still have to do it, and that takes more attention and care than teflon. If it comes out that teflon pans are, in fact, a major source of ingested or inhaled PFAS, I'll probably kick up my efforts to convert her. In the meantime I suspect a lot more of it comes from other household materials (clothes, carpet, furniture—plus stuff in cars) that've been treated for fire and stain resistance, so I'm not super worried about the pans.
- hgomersall 4y ago
  You need stainless for acidic foods. We have both types of frying pans. The problem with Teflon as I understand it is that it breaks down to PFAS at temperatures that are easy to reach in a frying pan. It might be that Teflon other things are better (like a stand-alone grill thing), but I just try to avoid it.
- buu700 4y ago
  I'm still struggling with conveying, "you have to get the stainless pan hot and lay down some fat before you add the food, or it will stick". Would she be willing to use a timer? She can just set it for 10 - 15 minutes after turning the burner on, and avoid putting anything in the pan until after the timer is done. I've certainly ruined my fair share of eggs by rushing, but having the patience to let it get up to temperature is pretty much the only "hard" part of using cast iron.
  - kingnothing 4y ago
    10 minutes? You don't need the pan to be 900 degrees! It's more like 1-2 minutes.
insanitybit 4y ago
I think I'm legitimately an egg cooking expert at this point. I've cooked eggs in 1000 different ways on different pans. There's no comparison - a non-stick pan is going to trivially handle eggs, regardless of how your pan is oiled, the heat, etc, whereas a cast iron is only going to do a decent job if you're cooking eggs in a few specific ways and you take care to control temperature and oil.
- earthling8118 4y ago
  It's also pretty trivial to get right. I'd use carbon steel just because it can heat faster. I can have my pan ready to go in 2 minutes of heating. Use a bit of oil (sometimes I mix in a tiny bit of butter to help nonstick, but it isn't required) and it's good to go. The difficulty is extremely exaggerated. I've not had a need for nonstick
- acdha 4y ago
  If the non-stick pan is brand new, yes. The problem is that you need to replace them every couple of years as the coating become degraded or they perform worse - even if you religiously use only soft utensils, simple use and cleaning will break it down. Unless you’re trying to avoid using oil for some reason, there is no time savings.
  - insanitybit 4y ago
    > simple use and cleaning will break it down. This isn't my experience. Low heat (which is how you should be using them) and soft utensils (I prefer to use those anyway) should be enough to keep it going - I have no scratches or wear on mine that I've noticed, though I did just replace them. They're quite cheap so replacing isn't really onerous either. > Unless you’re trying to avoid using oil for some reason I don't want my eggs to be particularly oily, or if I'm explicitly making a buttery french scrambled eggs I want to use butter and I want to add it in later, not use it for lubrication/ stick. You'll need much more for the cast iron.

If you cook eggs correctly, they stick less to a cast iron pan than to a teflon pan, and they hold together better.

lumb63 4y ago

How’s that? Got any additional info?

yamtaddle 4y ago
Seriously, the single time I've made eggs work without having a layer of stuck egg at the end, in cast iron, was on this immaculately-maintained ancient cast iron pan in an AiBnB on a Mennonite farm, and even that only worked because I cooked them in a bunch of sausage grease, probably amounting to 10x the fat I use in teflon (butter, in that case). But, I usually make scrambled, and you need tight, lowish temp control for those, which is one thing teflon really excels at (cast iron and stainless need higher temps to prevent sticking)
- lukevp 4y ago
  Try carbon steel, it’s much less sticky

dahfizz 4y ago

Anytime your solution to a problem is "Just exert more effort and skill and do it correctly", there is a 100% chance the general public will not adopt your solution.

xeromal 4y ago
This should be codified as a law of the internet.
- HPsquared 4y ago
  Dahfizz's Law
- halfnormalform 4y ago
  I've heard something similar phrased as "Discipline doesn't scale."
klodolph 4y ago
The worst is when I see this advice used for backup policies. Like, the backup is there to save your ass when you don’t do things correctly. If the backup needs you to exert more effort and do things correctly, then it’s most likely to be broken when you need it the most.
siftrics 4y ago
I agree, but I think it's less effort to cook eggs in a cast iron. Just add a dash of oil and cook on medium low-heat with a lid. I never spend more than five seconds cleaning because the eggs never stick.
testTED 4y ago
This explains the state of the general public very well.

greenie_beans 4y ago

what is the correct way to cook eggs?

siftrics 4y ago
I see what you're saying. For me: dash of oil, medium-low heat, and a lid. You don't even have to clean the cast iron because the eggs don't stick.
- webnrrd2k 4y ago
  If I'm cooking bacon, then I baste them in the hot bacon fat. But mostly I like to put enough olive oil in the pan so that I can easily baste the eggs with a soup spoon. Salt, lots of pepper, and baste 'em -- the tops solidify just enough not to run.

yamtaddle 4y ago

I'm still struggling with conveying, "you have to get the stainless pan hot and lay down some fat before you add the food, or it will stick". Add the tendency of cast iron to unpleasantly flavor acidic foods (which is lots of foods) and it's hopeless, as far as convincing goes. At least stainless doesn't do that. I might win her over for stainless, mostly, but cast iron's going to remain only for me. No denying that it's a lot easier to make eggs or pancakes or whatever on teflon, while distracted by also trying to get the kids dressed and such, without ruining the food or making a mess, than it is on other materials. Even if you know what to do with other pans, you still have to do it, and that takes more attention and care than teflon. If it comes out that teflon pans are, in fact, a major source of ingested or inhaled PFAS, I'll probably kick up my efforts to convert her. In the meantime I suspect a lot more of it comes from other household materials (clothes, carpet, furniture—plus stuff in cars) that've been treated for fire and stain resistance, so I'm not super worried about the pans.

hgomersall 4y ago
You need stainless for acidic foods. We have both types of frying pans. The problem with Teflon as I understand it is that it breaks down to PFAS at temperatures that are easy to reach in a frying pan. It might be that Teflon other things are better (like a stand-alone grill thing), but I just try to avoid it.
buu700 4y ago
I'm still struggling with conveying, "you have to get the stainless pan hot and lay down some fat before you add the food, or it will stick". Would she be willing to use a timer? She can just set it for 10 - 15 minutes after turning the burner on, and avoid putting anything in the pan until after the timer is done. I've certainly ruined my fair share of eggs by rushing, but having the patience to let it get up to temperature is pretty much the only "hard" part of using cast iron.
- kingnothing 4y ago
  10 minutes? You don't need the pan to be 900 degrees! It's more like 1-2 minutes.

insanitybit 4y ago

I think I'm legitimately an egg cooking expert at this point. I've cooked eggs in 1000 different ways on different pans. There's no comparison - a non-stick pan is going to trivially handle eggs, regardless of how your pan is oiled, the heat, etc, whereas a cast iron is only going to do a decent job if you're cooking eggs in a few specific ways and you take care to control temperature and oil.

earthling8118 4y ago
It's also pretty trivial to get right. I'd use carbon steel just because it can heat faster. I can have my pan ready to go in 2 minutes of heating. Use a bit of oil (sometimes I mix in a tiny bit of butter to help nonstick, but it isn't required) and it's good to go. The difficulty is extremely exaggerated. I've not had a need for nonstick
acdha 4y ago
If the non-stick pan is brand new, yes. The problem is that you need to replace them every couple of years as the coating become degraded or they perform worse - even if you religiously use only soft utensils, simple use and cleaning will break it down. Unless you’re trying to avoid using oil for some reason, there is no time savings.
- insanitybit 4y ago
  > simple use and cleaning will break it down. This isn't my experience. Low heat (which is how you should be using them) and soft utensils (I prefer to use those anyway) should be enough to keep it going - I have no scratches or wear on mine that I've noticed, though I did just replace them. They're quite cheap so replacing isn't really onerous either. > Unless you’re trying to avoid using oil for some reason I don't want my eggs to be particularly oily, or if I'm explicitly making a buttery french scrambled eggs I want to use butter and I want to add it in later, not use it for lubrication/ stick. You'll need much more for the cast iron.