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Stainless steel with some basic seasoning every once in a while (oil, high heat, it’s easy to do) has done me well for a long time. I do keep a non stick aroun
by graypegg 3y ago
Stainless steel with some basic seasoning every once in a while (oil, high heat, it’s easy to do) has done me well for a long time.
I do keep a non stick around just for eggs though, hard to beat.
- namdnay 3y agoI’m not sure you can really season stainless steel? It’s not porous
- williamdclt 3y agoYou’re right that you don’t season stainless steel, but I think it is porous, that’s why it sticks (don’t quote me on that)
- reaperman 3y agoI have gotten an amazing season on stainless steel by slowly cooking oil onto it. It crosslinke into a super hard super smooth almost ceramic surface. You can also use a drill attachment polish one stainless steel pan to a mirror chrome finish, then heat it up, add oil and add the rgg to thr cold oil. For me that guarantees teflon level performance of nonstick. However, the mirror finish has lower emissivity so its a bit weird at first when a hot pan doesnt seem to transfer heat to the food at nearly the rate that it “should”.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoYou can’t season it like cast, but you can definitely get a really nice anti-stuck surface on it. A lot of people will treat their woks with oil to get that type of low stick surface.
- namdnay 3y agoWoks are carbon steel, not stainless
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoUsually woks are carbon steel rather than stainless though, and definitely need an oil seasoning.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoIt still works. I do it on my stainless wok. It certainly isn't as resilient as my cast iron, but it works and is super easy.
- r00fus 3y agoI’ve switched over from nonstick to pre-seasoned carbon steel for my eggs and meats. Stainless steel for all other things.
- sneak 3y agoI really love eggs, but they’re really high in cholesterol. It’s better to skip them, sadly. I wouldn’t normally offer unsolicited advice like this, but this is a thread about optimizing for health/safety. If you’re going to avoid teflon, you should probably avoid eggs too.
- capableweb 3y agoIf your aim is to avoid anything that could potentially be dangerous for you in high quantities, how fun would life really be? You can lower your intake rather than skipping out on life's gold like scrambled eggs.
- Fishman343 3y agoBeing high in cholesterol doesn't necessarily mean they need to be omitted. Look up Japanese egg consumption & see the country's relative good health.
- CptFribble 3y agoYou don't need to skip eggs! They are high in cholesterol, but the dietary cholesterol from eggs doesn't impact your serum (blood) cholesterol levels the way other fats do. Eggs are one of the best bang-for-your-buck foods you can work into your diet. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/expert-answers/cholesterol/faq-20058468 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-ch...
- sneak 3y agoThe site you linked says that studies have shown a link between eating eggs and heart disease, which was the basis of my suggestion that they be avoided. > Although some studies have found a link between eating eggs and heart disease, there could be other reasons for these findings. and: > Health experts now suggest eating as little dietary cholesterol as you can, aiming to keep intake under 300 milligrams (mg) a day. One large egg has about 186 mg of cholesterol — all of which is found in the yolk. People really like eggs, me included. That unfortunately doesn’t change the fact that they’re bad for you and we shouldn’t eat them (and I no longer do). Two eggs is more than the recommended daily total amount of cholesterol, and a good omelette is 3. I don’t imagine most people are going to be vegan for 60 hours following to compensate.
- kfoley 3y agoWe use seasoned cast iron for eggs with very few issues. We used to use butter which led to some sticking, however recently we've been using olive oil and it's much better, with little to no sticking depending on what style we're cooking the eggs.
- ronyeh 3y agoWow I've had the opposite experience with my lodge cast iron pan. Butter is the only thing that allows my eggs to not stick. Olive oil and vegetable oils in general cause more sticking. Maybe we preheat our pans differently? Do you use very low heat but preheat for a longer time?
- jghn 3y agoI love my Lodge but modern cast irons like Lodge can never get that true non-stick texture that people talk about, although it can reach a not bad level [1] [1] https://www.seriouseats.com/the-truth-about-cast-iron#toc-myth-6-modern-cast-iron-is-just-as-good-as-old-cast-iron-its-all-the-same-material-after-all https://www.seriouseats.com/the-truth-about-cast-iron#toc-my...
- tass 3y agoYou can sand them as a DIY project. I haven’t done this myself but am now considering it after reading how easy it is.
- snazz 3y agoJust wear a respirator if you do, that dust isn’t good for you :)
- arcticbull 3y agoThis guy seemed to manage. Here's a video of an egg cooked on a cast iron skillet without oil. [1] It doesn't have to be absolutely perfect without oil - a thin coat will yield perfectly comparable results. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33OaD3RikXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33OaD3RikXo
- Y_Y 3y agoEggs aren't hard to beat if you've got a good whisk.
- graypegg 3y agoHaha, I see how I wrote that weird. I mean “hard to beat” like “it’s so good at being non stick to eggs compared to anything else”
- 29athrowaway 3y agoRamen eggs is where it's at.
- vosper 3y agoI think carbon steel is better than stainless. It can be seasoned to almost Teflon levels of non-stickness, just by burning some cooking oil, the seasoning is maintained by cooking, often comes pre-seasoned, is cheap (there’s no reason to buy an expensive carbon steel pan! Get one from a restaurant supplier)
- ainiriand 3y agoSo you eat burnt oil every time you cook?
- arcticbull 3y agoNo, like with a cast iron skillet, the hard, black, very-attached, coating is the burnt oil. Cast iron and carbon steel are normally shiny metal, not dull black, without this layer. The oil fills the pores of the metal and polymerizes. Subsequent layers cross-link with each other to develop the non-stick coating. It doesn't really 'come off' although I'm sure small amounts will occasionally. It doesn't contribute to flavor and it's not exactly toxic. Same deal as cast iron, details here. [1] [1] https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/science-cast-iron-seasoning https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/sc...
- lost_tourist 3y agoonly if you don't clean out your pan. Any youtube video on seasoning it will explain it quite well. Seasoning isn't "burnt oil" by any stretch or chemistry.
- Doxin 3y agoMost oils polymerize at high temperatures. Getting the temperature juuuust right is pretty tricky in a home setting. Much easier is to just burn the shit out of the oil and wipe away the burnt oil, leaving any oil that happened to polymerize behind. This is in fact how they used to make linseed based paints. They'd boil the oil, setting the stage for it to polymerize, and add pigments. The oil would slowly polymerize after being applied, locking the pigment into place. These days I think they mostly use chemical accelerants instead, Which makes the curing times much more tolerable.
- tomxor 3y agoI switched to stainless last year after getting fed up of going through so many teflon pans, and decided I wanted to stop ingesting teflon flakes (I know PFOA is not technically in the end result and it's supposed to be inert, but I'd rather not ingest it all the same). Cooking on stainless is not as bad as I expected in terms of sticking, it does require better care over temperature control, but that also seems to have resulted in me cooking better. Also when stuff does get a little stuck or burnt, it comes off without deteriorating the pan unlike non-stick.
- Doxin 3y agoHonestly my favorite thing about non-nonstick pans is how if something gets stuck you can just dig it out with a metal implement. Turns out things sticking is much less a problem if you can just force a sharp metal spatula under there.
- tru3_power 3y agoI have great success with stainless steel and butter for non-stick when cooking eggs. Never use Teflon.
- arcticbull 3y agoCast iron is fantastic for eggs. After you season it well and use it for a bit it's almost as non-stick as a teflon pan. There's videos of well seasoned pans cooking eggs without oil. You can throw metal utensils at it, and just wipe it down with some oil when you're done. Holds heat well, sears well, goes into the oven. If you're only going to have two pieces of cookware, a stainless stock pot and lodge 10" skillet is all you really need. Best of all if you mess up, you can just take the seasoning off and re-do it. It will outlast your grandchildren.
- InSteady 3y agoIf you don't mind using a moderately high amount of fat (~1.5 tbsp for 4-5 eggs), stainless is perfectly fine for eggs. If you start with med-high heat be sure to drop it down relatively quickly. Or fry on medium to med-low heat the whole way through. For whatever reason beaten eggs seem to stick even less (basically not at all) so omelets and scrambled eggs are my go-to. I've gotten my technique down so I can flip my omelets with the stainless pan, no spatula required.
- graypegg 3y agoI’ll give that a try tomorrow! I normally put scrambled eggs in a cold pan and whisk while heating because either I’m a masochist, like creamy eggs, or both.
- hellcow 3y agoCarbon steel seasons more effectively and is both lighter and heats more evenly than cast iron (but requires similar maintenance). Well worth a look.
- thumbsup-_- 3y agoAgree. We are 100% on stainless steel and cast iron now for a few years. Teflon is not really needed.