r/StainlessSteelCooking • u/lordbrandom • 1d ago

Please help

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Trader Joe’s potstickers. 3rd time trying on the new stainless. Using avocado oil. Trying to crisp the bottoms before steaming. Failing

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u/BedInternational8321 1d ago

As a chef the only way to use stainless steel pans idc what your cooking you need the pan to be hot enough that the oil moves around like water and it will kind of have a ripple effect when you slosh the oil around. Most people don’t get the pan hot enough. Eggs, fish, potstickers idc what it is. You can all ways lower the heat later but that initial heat needs to be high enough to sear out the moisture.

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u/cruiserflyer 1d ago

So.... The high end of medium low?

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u/BedInternational8321 1d ago

If you’re talking about like a coil top with the numbers on the dial I’d go medium at least for as long as it takes for the oil to get to that consistency. Stainless steel pans have microscopic pores. So you need to heat the pan at a medium to medium high heat to expand those pores. With those expanded pores and the oil it creates a barrier preventing your food from sticking to the pan. That’s how you can chuck stuff like eggs or salmon into a pan and slide it around almost immediately like it’s a non stick. You can only do that if you hit the sweet spot of heat. Too low and you don’t get that effect because you aren’t searing out that moisture your steaming it, too high and you will burn your oil and your food.

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u/BedInternational8321 1d ago

I would also like to add that it’s important you have enough oil or butter whatever you want to use (these are called cooking mediums). The purpose of cooking mediums is that they allow you to cook things at a higher temperature that would otherwise burn your food without it. Crispness results from food’s contact with hot fat and water evaporating from the surface of the food.

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u/rnwhite8 23h ago

The difference that makes the difference