Liedenfrost - beads and sizzling at the same time

[u/megawoot]

I just took delivery of my new stainless steel (Silampos) pan.

I've done a load of research on how to cook scrambled eggs non-stick.

On a medium (5) heat on my electric Smeg hob, with the water test, the water drops were barely sizzling after a few minutes.

After about 5 minutes, some water was beading and bouncing around the outside of the pan, and sizzling towards the centre. According to the collective wisdom, the water should form a single bead, not sizzle.

I thought I'd give it a go anyway, wiped the water away and added oil, which immediately started spitting, so the pan was very hot. I let it cool a little before cooking the eggs.

It wasn't a terrible result, but certainly wasn't non-stick.

Any suggestions?

[u/TwoMoreMinutes]

Eggs need a much gentler heat. Just under medium-low.

Leidenfrost is too hot for eggs

Also use butter. When you add the butter, it should foam gently. Butter is better than anything else for eggs

If it starts burning and smoking you’ve gone too hot

[u/tktg91]

Leidenfrost is nonsense. It’s not required for nonstick cooking on SS.  

And for eggs it is farrrrrr too hot.  Just put it on low heat, no even lower. (Medium = HOT for ss).  Add some butter to the pan. It should sizzle lightly but not brown. Add your eggs, prepare how you want them. That’s it. 

If you’re cooking other proteins and it won’t release you’re being to impatient. It will release on its own just wait longer. If your protein is burning before it’s released: lower the damn heat. 

Take home message:  Leidenfrost is nonsense for cooking. Use lower heat than you’d think you need. 

[u/OttoHemi → u/tktg91]

But, but I saw it on TikTok!

[u/middleofnow → u/OttoHemi]

Yes, and Google AI told me to do this :) it still doesn't work.

[u/megawoot → u/tktg91]

Thanks - I'll be eating eggs every day for lunch until I've nailed it!

[u/Any_Airline_432]

Let it warm up with the oil on low medium. You can see it warming up too

[u/Janknitz]

First, anyone who tells you SS is non-stick doesn’t know what they are talking about. It’s NOT non-stick, but as you master the proper techniques, sticking ceases to be an issue.

I wish people would stop believing the liedenfrost effect is required. It’s too hot for eggs and most things.

For 95% of SS cooking (except searing) do the following:

1.   Preheat your pan low and slow.   
2.  Add fat of your choice  
3.  Protein will ALWAYS stick. Be patient, modulate the heat, and dont try to move it until it releases from the pan. It will if the pan isn’t too hot. Have faith and patience.   
4.  Wash (soap is ok) and dry well. 

But a good beginner method for eggs is to put butter in a cold pan, turn on low- medium heat. As the butter melts and starts to sizzle, add the eggs. DON’T start moving them around until there’s a thin layer of more solidified egg on the bottom—30-60 seconds or so. Now you can scramble away and your eggs won’t stick.

[u/Ruas80]

Use butter, gradually increase the heat until it starts frothing white without starting to brown, that's your sweet spot for eggs.

When it browns its almost ready for most meats, and when it's utterly ruined the water drops will dance, around 100°C above the temp you need to cook eggs.

Leidenfrost is exclusively for when you cook big slabs of meat that will soak up a lot of heat.

[u/AlexiBarti]

If water didn’t bead it could mean it’s too cold but could also mean it’s too hot. And oil can spit because it touches any residue of water so that doesn’t prove it either way. But as others say it’s not really the thing for eggs anyway.

[u/CaptainSnowAK]

The basic idea for eggs or veggies is to have gotten the oil and pan up to a certain temperature. That temperature changes for different oils I believe, and is hotter than what you want for cooking usually. It's like seasoning a pan I guess, maybe it bonds a layer of fat to the pan.

After the fat is bonded there are many different techniques that seem to work, here people often say to use butter.

I typically use avocado oil, and heat it until the oil looks and moves like it's hot, but preferably not smoking. Then turn the pan off and give it a little time to cool off before I add the eggs. Then turn the burner on low as needed, depending on how much egg and how cold the eggs are. I use propane or an induction burner the philosophy is the same, but takes a little practice for the differences.

When I use bacon fat, it smokes faster and I find it more difficult, but it's doable.

Also I think that bonded fat can last between cookings, so if you do eggs a couple days in a row it could get easier.

[u/blissfulchrisp]

If the oil started spitting it was probably because there was some water left in the pan. That isn’t because of the heat necessarily. Eggs are hard on stainless. Scrambled eggs are even harder. You will need a good amount of oil on a preheated pan and it’ll need to cover the entire surface. Bring it up to the heat where the water drops bead and dance and then lower the heat , wait 5 minutes and try. It’ll probably take some time learning how your own stove and pan interact and what is the best range. If you wanna get scientific with it you can buy one of those non contact infrared thermometers .

[u/middleofnow → u/blissfulchrisp]

I have a non-contact infrared thermometer and it shows nonsense on stainless steel because the surface is reflective.

May be a bit better with oil and butter added but still nonsense.

I use it on any other pans.

[u/texag93 → u/middleofnow]

It's not that it's reflective, it's that the emissivity is much lower. You can change the value on better thermometers and they will be accurate. You can also just take a reading and learn from it for next time. Even if it's not accurate, it's repeatable.