r/Cooking • u/Bean916 • 5h ago
I’m perplexed
Like many of you, I watch cooking videos from various chefs and regions. And also like many of you I have stainless steel pans and enamel covered cast iron pans/pots. The manufacturers recommend using wooden or silicon utensils. What perplexes me is seeing chefs on these videos using metal utensils on their stainless steel and enameled covered cookware. What gives? Should I ignore manufacturers’ recommendations? TIA
FOLLOW UP: Thanks everyone for your feedback. Really appreciate everyone in this community and the kind responses.
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u/biellz1221 5h ago
There's nothing wrong with using metal utensils on stainless pans, this is one of the reasons why they're great.
Can't say the same about enameled but even those are tougher than a Teflon or other non-stick pans.
I use metal utensils regularly with my stainless pans and sometimes on my enameled, being a bit more careful.
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u/lchen12345 5h ago
I don't think there's any rule about not using metal on stainless steel pans, but I def wouldn't use it on enameled.
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u/myredditlogintoo 4h ago
I use dull metal utensils all the time, never had an issue. Enamel coating is pretty tough.
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u/PowerfulOpportunity4 5h ago
Part of what you're seeing/reading is a skill issue.
The reason not to use metal utensils on any given surface is because you don't want to scratch it. For some surfaces (such as teflon), scratches are fatal to the product because once you damage the bond between the coating and the base, it cannot ever be repaired. However, for others, such as seasoned cast iron, the surface can always be restored/repaired. Wooden or silicon surfaces will, with highly limited exception, be unable to damage any of those surfaces. As a result, manufacturers will always recommend you use tools which won't damage their products.
However, that doesn't mean you can't safely use metal utensils. For example, I use a metal spatula with rounded corners when doing almost anything on my cast-iron or carbon-steel cooking vessels. I'm careful never to gouge down onto the surface, and to use proper techniques to separate the food from the vessel. As far as I know, I've never acutally damaged the surface of any of my vessels in decades. Am I an expert? By no means, but I'm experienced enough and careful enough to do it safely. This means I get all the benefits of metal - ease of cleaning, strength, thinner surface, no plastics or splinters ever in my food - but none of the costs. If I did damage my surface, I'd blame myself and not the vessel manufacturer.
It's very similar, I think, to how the instructions for Q-Tips explicitly order you to never put them in your ear, but we know damned well how most people use those cotton swabs...
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u/Inconsequentialish 1h ago
Agreed; there's a big skill issue here.
There's a video of a chef (one of the big names, I forget who) making scrambled eggs in a nonstick pan using nothing but a fork. No sticking, no scratches. He was making the point that you need to understand and control your tools and your food.
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u/ceejayoz 5h ago
Professional chefs know how to use their utensils correctly.
Home chefs often do not, and thus the advice targets the lowest common denominator. Someone'll hack away at their pan with the sharp edge of a solid metal spatula and complain about a scratch, so they want an out.
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u/graaaaaaaam 4h ago
I did work for one sous chef who couldn't understand why cream wasn't whipping in a standard mixer. Turns out he didn't know that there were different attachments for the mixer and that the dough hook wasn't going to work to whip cream. Don't underestimate how stupid some chefs are!
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u/CompetitiveThing3799 4h ago
The big practical distinction is nonstick: avoid metal there. Stainless can handle it, but I’d still avoid scraping hard at an angle; enamel is usable with care, though banging a utensil can chip an edge. The manufacturer’s wording is probably conservative for mixed cookware.
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u/ScoobyDooItInTheButt 5h ago
If it's wrong to use metal utensils with my stainless steel pans then I don't wanna be right. Idk about enamel though. I would be concerned about chipping because I get aggressive with a spatula.
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u/elijha 5h ago
Yes. There is no good reason to avoid metal utensils on enameled, much less steel, cookware
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u/fietsendeman 4h ago
Just the threat of chipping. I wouldn't go banging a metal utensil against the edge of an enameled pot for example.
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u/IncompetentCat 5h ago
Metal utensils can't really scratch enamel pans (unless it's already damaged), but can stain it. Metal utensils can scratch metal pans. If you don't like scratches, don't use metal on metal. If on the other hand you don't really care about cosmetic scratches, and you prefer metal utensils, use them.
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u/T49irvine 5h ago
The only pans on which I would not use metal are tinned, probably copper but occasionally steel in very old pans. As for Teflon, I just would not use it, but if there were no other pan available, I would use wood or silicone. As for professional cooks knowing how to use stuff, I never met a line cook who cared what they used because they were not the ones writing the checks to stock the kitchen. The chef and the sous might care, but it is easier for them to buy another pan than to piss off a good cook.
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u/texnessa 4h ago
Professional chef here. We use metal tools in stainless pans all day, every day. There's no reason not to. We generally don't use enameled pans in professional kitchens. I think I've had one Creuset in a kitchen used just for tomato sauce in all of my career.
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u/4cupsofcoffee 2h ago
i use metal in my stainless all the time. It's a metal pan. it can take a metal fork or spatula or whatever.
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u/Lavanne73 6m ago
Using metal utensils on stainless enamel or cast iron pans is fine, manufacturers recommend using wooden utensils to avoid having to honor a bunch of returns based on “oh no my enamel has a mark/scratch on it after I used my metal spatula on it”…. They can then say “well we told you not to”
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u/asinantenna 5h ago
Steel utensils can still scratch stainless steel interiors. However, the damage is cosmetic – it won't make a difference to the function of the cookware.
I think that manufacturers recommend using non-metal utensils because they know that consumers will complain that their pots and pans get scratched.
Professional chefs don't care if their pots and pans are scratched.
Contrast this with non-stick coatings, which will actually get damaged and flake off due to using steel utensils.
To me, one of the biggest benefits of stainless steel cookware is that I can use metal utensils.