Over my years I’ve owned many types of non-stick pans. Judge me as you see fit, but I’ve owned Teflon, stainless steel, ceramic, and cast iron pans, but none of them seem to stay “non-stick” for more than a few years. I’ve had the best luck with cast iron, but my wife doesn’t like to use them because they’re heavy. I hand wash them all with soap and water, but they all seem to lose their ability to shed off what I cook in them. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good non-stick pan?

EDIT: It seems like the consensus is on cast iron, or ceramic steel. I just looked it up, and there are “slim” cast iron pans, so maybe that’ll be a happy medium. Thanks for all the anecdotes and suggestions folks.

  • chillpanzee@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    13 hours ago

    you need to preheat over MEDIUM-LOW heat until the pan is UNIFORMLY heated enough that it can levitate a large bead of water all over the surface.

    There is no single skillet surface temp that’s right for a stainless pan. Leidenfrost gives you a visual clue as to surface temperature, but that’s all it does. It doesn’t mean that specific temp is right for any particular cook. Just as an example, you can cook a perfect over easy egg in a stainless skillet, but you cannot do it with a pan that hot.

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 hours ago

      Sure, that’s a generalized explanation but you can use a stainless steel pan in several other ways, for example boiling pasta. But if you want it to be non-stick like OP asked that’s the way. And sure, you don’t need to rely on the Leidenfrost effect, you can use a surface thermometer or after you’ve used the same pan enough just your feeling of it, but for a generalized way to tell people how to measure the temperature it’s a great marker.

      BTW, I make my eggs over easy using that exact same set of steps, so it absolutely can be done. In fact if you don’t do that the egg will stick to the pan and you won’t be able to flip it, and if you can’t flip it it’s not over. Also if the pan is not hot enough the yolk will cook, the pan needs to be hot enough to sear it and cook it on the outside without giving time to cook the inside thoroughly.

      The more I think about this, the worse that example looks. The steps I outlined are exactly what’s needed to make an over easy egg on a stainless steel pan.