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

popularscience ^

[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

[Jamestown1630]

My husband has a collection of cast iron from his folks; I think some are about a hundred years old. One of them we use all the time; the others are in storage and have to be cleaned up and seasoned. I like the way things cook in cast iron; but it’s heavy to pick up and move :-)

[daniel1212]

"My husband has a collection of cast iron from his folks; I think some are about a hundred years old. One of them we use all the time; the others are in storage and have to be cleaned up and seasoned. I like the way things cook in cast iron; but it’s heavy to pick up and move :-)" Yes, age will not detract from their value. Heavy but less likely to burn. Again, thank God for such, and the food to cook in them.