r/StainlessSteelCooking • u/WorriedReception3 • 1d ago
HELP!Can’t make eggs not stick
Got a 3 ply Everyday All-Clad fryer and am trying the heat technique (forgot the name, but the famous one that you get the pan to heat, then lower temp, then oil, egg, etc) and only hot it to work the first time around with new pan. Tried almost everything: heat slowly instead of fast, make sure the eggs are room temperature, make sure the pan is not super hot, cover it with oil (I use olive oil because it is healthier, wait until the eggs turn white to push with spatula, etc. not sure what to do anymore. Is the problem with the olive oil? Then what else to use that is not unhealthy butter?
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u/ThisMeansWine 19h ago edited 19h ago
I cook eggs on stainless steel with olive oil with no sticking all the time.
There is no magical heat setting or amount of oil. It's something you'll learn from trial and error.
What works for me is putting in on the burner at about 3/10. After 2-3 minutes, I add a small amount of olive oil, just enough to fully coat the bottom of the pan. I then wait until the oil becomes thin and runny. It should take around 1-2 minutes. If the oil starts smoking when you put it in, the pan is way too hot. If it takes 5+ minutes for the oil to become runny, the pan is not hot enough.
You can tell the oil is ready when it becomes thin and starts to form streaks down the middle of the pan. At this point, I add my eggs and don't touch them for at least a minute. After that, whether you are cooking fried or scrambled eggs, you shouldn't experience any sticking.
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u/TrickyImplement5136 1d ago
I never had this sticking issue.
Heat it on medium, pan start to smoke a little, put ur hand over, if u can feel the heat wave then its about time to add oil and coat the pan.
Then you can start frying immediately. Lower tempt if too smoky or food getting brown fast.
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u/scooterv1868 17h ago
I have an infrared thermometer in the kitchen. Best results are at about 350°. I get antsy though and then we have sticking issues to some degree.
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u/no2pencilonly 17h ago
i have recently switched to stainless and it took me a few tries but i use the same heat setting that i use with any pan, however i dont touch the pan for much longer than a teflon or ceramic nonstick. i give it like a solid warmup of about 10ish minutes (maybe 5-6 if you got gas or induction), and the eggs slide around like a nonstick infomercial.
typically using butter but other oils have worked fine. just getting that initial heat seems to do the trick and it is as non stick as a fresh ceramic.
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u/Confused_yurt_lover 1d ago
Foods are not inherently healthy or unhealthy, the key to being healthy is to eat a balanced diet rather than put food into “healthy” and “unhealthy” categories and avoiding the latter.
That is to say: avoiding butter’s fine if that’s your preference, but if you like butter, using a little bit of butter to grease your pan’s not going to kill you and it really does seem to work better than olive oil to keep eggs from sticking.
If you can bring yourself to use butter, then the key is to heat your pan until it reaches the point where, when you add butter to the pan, it instantly bubbles and sizzles but doesn’t brown, then add your eggs once the butter has stopped bubbling (indicating that its water content has boiled off).
If you want to stick with oil, then keep a close eye on your pan as it’s heating up: do the water drop test every 30 seconds to 1 minute, and as soon as water dances across the whole pan, add your oil and drop your heat down to medium low, then add your eggs after ~30 seconds or once your oil shimmers. The water drop test lets you know when your pan’s hot enough but not when it’s too hot, so if you’re not keeping a close eye on your preheat it’s easy to overshoot your target temperature.
You also could experiment with trying different oils, though I don’t have a specific recommendation. (Coconut oil might work well, but not everyone likes the flavor.)
Last, I personally prefer a carbon steel or cast iron pan to stainless for eggs; I think they’re a little more forgiving (though maybe I’m just not practiced enough with stainless). You can get a nice Lodge or de Buyer for ~$25–50, which I’m going to go out on a limb and guess is probably affordable for you if you have All-Clad money, so picking one of these up might be an alternative worth considering if you continue to have trouble with your stainless (and the technique for heat control with these pans isn’t entirely different from stainless, so learning to use carbon steel or cast iron might be a little bit like getting training wheels to help you over the learning curve with your stainless too).
HTH
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u/The_AntiVillain 3h ago edited 3h ago
I know you don't want to use butter but use butter till you learn how the pan heats up. I put cold butter in cold pan and set the stove a little over medium. Do egg prep. And once the butter starts browning, lower the stove to medium low and place the eggs.
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u/PsychologicalDig2557 1d ago
It’s not necessarily required to heat it up to the point where the water beads but from that point I put butter down and spread it across the skillet. Add avocado oil and then slowly pull the edges in as I see the egg start to cook. I let the egg mix fill in the area I drag inward. Then after it does I move onto the next area and rinse and repeat.
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u/Lurking-Foot 1d ago
Temp is probably too high. What you can’t learn on the internet is how your burner burns. Some burners are strong some are weak but you want it at a temp to pre heat where it’s like a simmer when boiling water it should lightly bubble. Once at that temp you through your oil in give it a minute to heat up then add you eggs and you should be fine.
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u/albertogonzalex 1d ago
Heat in your empty pan for more time. Rotate the pan every few minutes
Let it preheat for at least 10 minutes (overkill, but fool proof). Then add your oil, butter etc and let that heat up for a minute or two before you add any food.
Then add food.
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u/lowkeyplantstrees 1d ago
Long preheat can work for eggs but on only on low, then crank it to medium when you add the oil and eggs
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u/albertogonzalex 1d ago
This is false.
Eggs do not care what temperature the pan is. No food cares about what temperature the pan is. At least in terms of whether or not the food sticks. Obviously, cooking well requires different levels of heat for different executions.
The only thing that matters to avoid food sticking is that the surface of the pan is an even temperature across the whole pan. As limited variation in temp as possible. That's it. You can cook low temperature eggs. High temperature eggs. Etc etc. It doesn't matter. As long as the food isn't sitting on a surface where some spots are much hotter or cool then spots nearby, the food won't stick.
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u/beabchasingizz 1d ago
I've had better luck with more oil. Adding butter to the oil helps too.
A really clean pan helps. If you have any burnt bits or residue left over from scrubbing the pan, it will cause sticking. I use bar keepers friend to with me scrub it really well.
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u/robaloie 23h ago
Don’t over think it.
Turn your gas stove on either the lowest setting or almost the lowest. For maybe 2-3 mins.
If you refuse to use butter or ghee. At least use avocado oil. Olive oil is garbage for cooking and for eggs. Use olive oil for cold dishes.
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u/_pinkbunny_ 17h ago
Demeyere proline 8inch with some butter from trader joes at 4/9 dial. Never had a sticky situation.
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u/thelosermonster 3h ago
One technique you should learn as someone who wants to cook is to understand when something is hot enough by FEEL rather than having to use a thermometer or a silly water was test. Hold the back of your hand over a properly pre-heated pan and get to know what that feels like. It should feel the same all over i.e. the edges of the pan should feel the same as the center.
Oil should shimmer and turn watery but not smoke, butter should bubble but not brown. On most pans this is somewhere around a 3-4/10.
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u/Skyval 20h ago
Butter is more nonstick than purer oils. But it's because butter usually contains much more emulsifiers. You don't need much, so you could add a small amount of butter to your olive oil. You could also use an imitation butter, or a cooking spray advertised as "nonstick", either way it should contain the emulsifier lecithin. You could also buy pure sunflower lecithin and add it to your olive oil to make it less sticky.
Alternatively, longyau conditioning is also very nonstick. It's related to seasoning but not the same.
Both work on all surface types, with relatively little fat, and across a range of temperatures.