The One Thing Standing Between You and a Stainless-Steel Pan That Doesn’t Stick
Stainless steel pans are sold as versatile, durable and long-lasting, which they definitely are. They aren’t sold as easy, which has sent a lot of cooks toward coated nonstick pans. The latter may seem more forgiving, but they wear out faster and handle heat less well. The irony is that stainless steel can release food as cleanly as any coated pan when it’s preheated correctly, a technique based on a real physical phenomenon called the Leidenfrost effect, where a properly heated metal surface creates conditions that prevent sticking at the molecular level. The entire technique hinges on one variable: temperature. Here’s how to control it.
Bring a stainless-steel pan to the right temperature before adding fat or food, and something called the Leidenfrost effect kicks in, creating a microscopic vapor layer that keeps food from bonding with the metal surface. The result is a pan that releases eggs, fish and...
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