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Use the Leidenfrost effect to make your stainless steel pan non-stick Science will prevent you from wasting your time scrubbing cookware.
popularscience ^

Posted on 10/12/2022 10:26:02 AM PDT by mylife

Stainless steel pans are the workhorse cookware in most restaurants. But yours are probably just sitting there, neglected after your last attempt to fry a chicken breast somehow glued the poultry to the metal, resulting in a mangled meal and a burnt-on ring of carbonized protein firmly stuck to the bottom of the pan.

“There’s got to be a better way!” you exclaim, as if on your own real-life infomercial. And I assure you there is: using science and proper heat management, you can exploit the Leidenfrost effect to give your stainless steel cookware non-stick superpowers.

We don’t want to oversell this, so let us clarify that you’re never going to be able to crack a raw egg into a cold stainless steel pan with no oil, fry it on low, and slide it right onto the plate. But your food will move when it needs to, and you’ll never again have to add a chisel to your dishwashing tools.

How to use stainless steel pans correctly Unless you’re just warming something up, you should never put food into a cold stainless steel pan—always pre-heat your cookware before putting anything on it, even oil.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, as cold, protein-rich food (like meat or poultry) heats up along with a cold pan, proteins bond with some of the elements in the metal, like iron atoms. This is why your ill-fated chicken ended up glued to the pan last time. There’s no scientific consensus as to why this is

(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: cooking; dietandcuisine; leidenfrost; leidenfrosteffect; sautee; stainlesssteel
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1 posted on 10/12/2022 10:26:02 AM PDT by mylife
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To: mylife

Soak overnight in water with Dawn detergent, scrub with Scotch-Brite®.


2 posted on 10/12/2022 10:30:12 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Steely Tom

Soak in dishwasher tablet. Rinse. No scrubbing


3 posted on 10/12/2022 10:33:46 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything. )
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To: mylife

Ha! Yeah I ruined a fair number of meals before I realized this.


4 posted on 10/12/2022 10:34:45 AM PDT by Scarlett156 (My aluminum baseball bat keeps telling me it wants to talk to J3rry S3infeld. Hm. )
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To: Steely Tom

5 posted on 10/12/2022 10:35:38 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Jamestown1630

The monthly cooking group might be interested in this article.


6 posted on 10/12/2022 10:35:47 AM PDT by Twotone (While one may vote oneself into socialism one has to shoot oneself out of it.)
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To: Steely Tom

My husband does the high-temp pan, room-temp food all the time, and cleanup is usually easy just by soaking in hot water for a while.

But for pans that really have cooked-on food, the Dawn Powerwash is excellent. You just spray it on, let it sit for a while, and everything wipes off.

My only complaint with it is that the bottle is very hard to pump, especially if you have very small hands.


7 posted on 10/12/2022 10:36:59 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: mylife

“There’s no scientific consensus as to why this is...” (why food sticks to cold stainless steel)

Yet the government tells us there IS scientific consensus on the of mRNA vax.

Food sticking to stainless cookware — no settled science.
mRNA vax — settled science.

The food industry needs Fauci to take over. He’d settle the issue once and for all. And the cookware bigwigs would become overnight billionaires.


8 posted on 10/12/2022 10:37:03 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I used to be nothing but a Deplorable Clinger, but I've been promoted to Brigadier Ultra-MAGA”)
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To: mylife

Hot wok, cold oil.


9 posted on 10/12/2022 10:39:21 AM PDT by fretzer
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To: mylife
I thought that the high-end restaurants used special stainless-steel pans that had a core made of a metal that retained heat better than just stainless-steel.

Not all stainless pans are the same.

10 posted on 10/12/2022 10:42:01 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: mylife

Yeah, but if the pan is toi hot the result can be messy or dangerous


11 posted on 10/12/2022 10:45:00 AM PDT by dila813
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To: dila813

Our smoke alarm gets a workout. Husband likes to cook his steak in a VERY hot pan...

(A spatter screen helps a lot with fat popping.)


12 posted on 10/12/2022 10:51:37 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

can I has triple clad copper with a built in air fryer?


13 posted on 10/12/2022 10:52:08 AM PDT by mylife (And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids...)
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To: Jamestown1630

Husband likes to cook his steak in a VERY hot pan...

smart man


14 posted on 10/12/2022 10:53:06 AM PDT by mylife (And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids...)
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To: mylife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUwaOnCd1h0

Cooking eggs using Leidenfrost effect.


15 posted on 10/12/2022 10:54:35 AM PDT by ResponseAbility (-The truth of liberalism is the stupid can feel smart, the lazy entitled, and the immoral unashamed)
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To: mylife

Copper is so pretty, but a headache to keep shiny (unless it’s got that terrible lacquer on it). I’ve ceased to use anything copper except some bowls - to whip egg whites (and look pretty hanging on the wall.)


16 posted on 10/12/2022 10:57:01 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: mylife

Stainless steel scrub pad. Add white vinegar to make it shine.


17 posted on 10/12/2022 10:58:40 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: ResponseAbility

I was taught the water test as a child


18 posted on 10/12/2022 10:58:51 AM PDT by mylife (And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids...)
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To: mylife

I have a chisel in my kitchen.
Works great for cleaning pans.
Add a hammer and separating hotdogs and sausages is easy.
Use the chisel for ice cream and there will be no bent spoons.


19 posted on 10/12/2022 10:59:07 AM PDT by Haddit
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To: mylife

Makes life so much better, doesn’t it?


20 posted on 10/12/2022 11:05:48 AM PDT by ResponseAbility (-The truth of liberalism is the stupid can feel smart, the lazy entitled, and the immoral unashamed)
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