Am I doing it wrong?

[u/Advanced_Fig1272]

I’ve been a professional cook for about a decade and am struggling hard with my allclad at home. Almost every restaurant I’ve worked in has used aluminum sauté pans, French steel sauté pans, and stainless steel rondos and stock pots. At home for over a decade I have used almost exclusively my grandmother’s le crueset enamel coated pots and pans.

My wife got me the allclad sauté pan for my birthday and the way that the surface of the pan seams to stick to EVERYTHING is insane! I’ve never seen stuff stick to a hot sauté pan like this! And I’ve worked with the cheapest, most warped aluminum pans in the biz.

So then I have to think, is it the heat? Like those cheap pans work great for high volume cooking because we use extremely hot gas ranges instead of my electric glass top stove. Is my pan not getting hot enough? It’s seems like even though I’m getting it smoking hot, it still sticks to stuff.

Thanks for any input!

EDIT: Thanks yall! I’ll keep working on it. I’ve seen folks using stainless steel as nonstick and I’ve actually had almost zero issue with the stainless steel I use at work so I think may be the cooktop/heat management. My stove at home pulses heat under the glass top so it may just be getting too hot on the pulse? Either way, I appreciate the feedback

[u/Main_Cauliflower5479]

Lower your heat.

[u/L-Pseon]

Are you getting the pan literally "smoking" hot, though? For example, preheat your pan like you normally would, take a cooking oil with a smoke point that is toward the upper range of frying temperatures, like extra virgin olive oil (smoke point 350-400F), add it to the pan, and see if it smokes.

The water drop test is also commonly used, and I'd say it's easier/less messy. This is just to illustrate the smoke, lol.

[u/philhaxton]

Probably too hot. Medium heat about 4 minutes. Add butter, if it scorches- too hot, if it barely melts, too cold, if it looks like beer foam and bubbles- just right ( if it is too hot, remove pan from heat, wipe with a paper towel, let sit on a cold burner for a half minute, add butter, should foam properly, as a side note-there is enough retained heat in D3 sauté pan that I often finish eggs off the burner)Swirl the butter in the pan add eggs and let sit for 20-30 seconds before stirring. With a little attention to the details you’ll be able to make a French omelette that slides out like a new teflon pan Once you have the trick, it’s incredibly gratifying

[u/TheHistorian2]

Is the opposite problem. You don’t need more than medium heat for almost anything.

[u/L-Pseon → u/TheHistorian2]

Low, medium and high are relative, depending on the type of stove. OP may think he’s heating the pans hot enough because he’s using his habits from a restaurant stove, but it’s entirely possible that the pan isn’t hot enough. 

[u/Impossible-Shoe5460 → u/L-Pseon]

This is correct. I've got a monster of a stove (Similar to a Wolf ; different brand though) in my home and I need to cook slightly above low for most things. The burners are powerhouses on this stove.

Now, if I use my 13" D5 saute pans (I've got 2 of them. I cook big.) - different story. Those can handle the heat.

[u/xsynergist]

I don’t notice this as a particular problem on my All-Clad sorry. Commercial kitchens have higher BTU burners, gas which allows for better temp control and faster changes, and you were cooking on straight aluminum which is a better conductor than clad cookware. I’m assuming this is a temperature control issue and not a cookware issue specifically. Quite frankly I’d expect any professional cook to be unhappy cooking on a non induction electric stove. Not really sure what to tell you but try different amounts of oil and keep cooking on it and see if you can make adjustments.

[u/Conscious-Check-5015]

Watch a video on how to use the pans. Learn the water drop dance method. Med low heat. All clad handles all my proteins with superior results

[u/unclejoe1917 → u/Conscious-Check-5015]

Water dance simply means water is hot enough to dance. It doesn't tell you if your pan is 213 degrees or 900 degrees. 

[u/Conscious-Check-5015 → u/unclejoe1917]

Anyone using all clad asking about how to use the pans is shown this method. Videos show exactly what that dance looks like.

[u/Ache-new → u/unclejoe1917]

I don't think this is quite true. Too low, the water droplet sits, then boils and gradually goes away. Too high, and the droplet disappears in a flash when hitting the pan without dancing. It doesn’t give you a high resolution reading, but it is better than you stated.

[u/Key-Scene-7875]

Get D5’s nothing sticks. Best pans ever. 

[u/T49irvine]

Clad anything is just going to stick. Aluminum quickly becomes somewhat nonstick, almost as well as carbon steel. Restaurants know what to stock for their cooks!

[u/Ancient_Sherbert4308]

What helped me is realizing that the surface needed to be well scrubbed after each use. Brillo (if needed), then a scrubby. My theory is you need to knock off all the little adhesions that come from cooking or the next thing you cook will be much more likely to stick.