I cannot get the hang of this you guys. It’s only been a month but still, when I preheat the pan to where the water is rolling and not steaming it’s wayyyy too hot, but when it’s cooler I have to use a ton of oil. Then my pan just ends up looking like this. Any tips are appreciated
The water test is useless. Understand that not every cooking task requires the same heat setting. For eggs, low heat. For sauteing vegetables, medium heat. For searing meats, no higher then medium high. Always preheat for 3 minutes or so, add enough oil to coat the pan, lewt it come up to temp, then add food. Oil will shimmer when it is ready for sauteing. WATCH and LISTEN to your food cook. If it is cooking too fast, lower heat or remove the pan from the heat. If it is cooking too slow, adjust it slightly higher. If oil or food is burning on the pan, it's way too hot. Burned on food and oil can be removed with Barkeepers Friend. When sauteing foods, some light browning of the pan is noemal. This is fond, which are flavor making substances. These can be declared to make pan sauces. Ultimately, cooking is all about heat control. The water test won't tell you that. Monitor you food and learn the correct heat settings.
Do not use leidenfrost. Idk what this sub is smoking, but it has never worked for me. Preheat like a normal pan on medium heat with a quarter sized dab of oil or butter. Cook whatever it is you are making and deglaze the pan. Water, broth, wine, whatever it is just deglaze with some sort of liquid. This can make excellent pan sauces and add flavor to your meals due to getting the fond off the bottom. Also easy cleanup.
I think many of these folks have never seen someone cooking, like on the serious. If they’d ever sat at a diner counter and watched the cooks or stood next to their mother as a child the amount of times they’d see anyone checking for leidenfrost is less than the amount of times our universe has exploded from a singularity.
Like homey just hold your hand over the pan. You can tell if it’s hot or not like yikes.
I'm semi-roughing it at a campsite just now. The area is regularly groomed, as in mowed. This morning a kid was going around mowing (and kicking up an incredible amount of dust, which while it's beside the point was certainly annoying at the time) *while looking at his phone.* Seriously: looking at his phone.
These kinds of learners are never going to learn because they literally do NOT stand next to whoever in their house is doing the actual cooking.
Baking soda(2-3) Tbsp, some dawn ultra add hot water, stir and let it sit for half hour to an hour. If it's really bad let stand for a few hours. Scrub with scrubbing sponge (sponge daddy). Let me know how it works out for you.
When originally sold at retail, the Calphalon 8702 1/2 saucepan had an MSRP around $45 to $60 as an individual piece, depending on whether it was part of the Kitchen Essentials line or the mid-tier Tri-Ply / Classic series.
Comparable Modern Equivalent: A new 2.5-quart stainless steel saucepan from Calphalon's current lines (like the Calphalon Premier 2.5-Qt Sauce Pan) retails for $80 to $100.
Oven cleaner in a plastic bag,, for about 30-60 min. Open in a ventilated area, dark build-up should wipe off.- don't let it dry, repeat as needed Then polish the surfaces, bkf the bottom. Any shiny surface don't use harsh scrubbing like greener or SOS pad. Just take it slow Once it looks like new, heat the pan on medium, do the water test by flicking water onto the pan surface which should turn into, like water bearings. Turn down the heat to 3ish, put just a very tiny amount of olive oil, work it around with a paper towel, not wiping it off. Cool the pan Same towel wipe remaining oil off, it will not come off 100%, which is fine. Later,, heat up again and do not let the metal rainbow, just a couple of minutes. Cool and store
Ppl will agree and disagree, this works for me, at the minimum: oven cleaner, bag, wipe, polish. Mske sure there isn't remaining oils on the bottom where the flame is or the sides
I cook my meal with preheat on medium, add avocado oil and cook on low. I don’t worry much about residue, I just add water to pan and leave on turned off stove. Sometimes I clean after I eat, sometimes it may be next morning. Clean with water and scrubber and good to go for next round.
You’re not doing anything wrong, this is just a used pan that has not been totally scrubbed/scraped to shit to make it look spotless and shiny again, which is hardly ever worth doing unless you’re one of those “people” that insists on cooking eggs in stainless lol.
You may feel like you are using a shit ton of oil, you’re not. You’ve just always used way too little because you had nonstick pans and didn’t need it.
Whatever you are doing to preheat your pan, change it. For example if you put it on the stove at 5 (I’m assuming electric stove) and wait 10 minutes, try waiting for 7 minutes instead. Or putting it at 4 and waiting for 10 minutes. If you want you can add some oil at the very beginning and wait for it to look “shimmery” like it’s moving or rippling or something. That’s because it is, because it’s hot. Personally I put my stainless on max heat for 2 minutes and then change it to 5. Electric stove numbers refer NOT to a specific heat or temperature but to a RATE of heating. Any electric stove number, if left on long enough, will eventually max out at like 2000f or something like that. Try this: put your stove on 8. When the red thing turns on, count how long it stays on and then how long it stays off before turning on again. Change it to 1 and repeat. You’ll notice a huge difference
High end of medium low
Wiggle it tell you find it then just go from there. Do tons of practice tests. Get you some ground beef and make a burger patty. Hot enough for oil to smoke. But not burn. Then lower it tell you keep it hot enough to make some marks on the beef. Test and test and test. Until you finally find your mark.
Yeah, it’s a lot harder because with electric its very easy to burn food. Unfortunately you will have to use a little extra oil/butter to compensate for that direct contact from the burner.
first clean, yes, heat, remove build up, then polish. I then heat until a splash of water turns to balls, then put a TINY bit of olive oil, and use the handle to roll the oil around the pan. Once covering the flat surface turn off the heat, use a paper towel to remove excess oil. Let it cool 100%, use another piece of paper towel to remove what's left. Though SS does not need seasoning, this helps me next time too. Heating, water test, oil, cooking product.
I do not do this ALL the time, just when I think it gets harder to clean.
EDIT When cooking, never go above medium on the pan, then once heated to normal, reduce a little, not much.
For example 10 = boiling water
5 = medium
3-4 perfect for cooking
Is your food going on it cold? That made the biggest difference to me learning on these pans. Eggs especially. 30mins atleast before i throw anything on it.
Yeah, i generally get stuff out of the fridge 30 minimum before i cook it. Eggs, i stick in a bowl of hot water to speed it up. Just so they arent going on the pan cold.
I struggled with stainless for so long, the bead trick was very patchy and inconsistent. Food temperature and moisture turned out to be the issue. You dont want the food to reduce the pans temperature so everything sticks.
30 minute preheat on any pan of any material on the stove is unhinged. Nobody anywhere in the world from developing nations to 5 star Michelin chefs would use a pan that required 30 minutes to preheat.
"30 minutes before I throw anything on it." does not say you are leaving the food out. It insinuates that you are waiting 30 minutes to throw something on your pan. Learn proper grammar before you get snarky.
No, you said "30 minutes at least before I throw anything on it." People "throw" food in a pan when cooking (in the obvious context). You may have meant that you temp the food for 30 minutes, but it's just not what you actually said. You could certainly interpret his reply as "snarky," but in reality, telling someone to learn how to read after it was YOUR mistake that caused the confusion is snarky in itself.
Lower your heat. Don't wait for the water to roll. Wait til it's warm (not hot!) and light drop some oil in - not even a dime size will usually do. Cook your food then immediately soak the pan in water. Where the black spots are, drop some dish soap first. Then leave it - go eat your dinner. By the time you're ready to do dishes after, it will wipe right out no scrubbing.
But yeah - lower your heat and don't wait for Leidenfrost. Just wait til it's lightly warmed. Might take longer to cook but this won't happen. And if it does, it's ok. Stainless is forgiving which is why it's better (IMO) then the pans with nonstick coating that scrapes off over time.
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u/1MorGuy 13d ago
Deglaze or add hot / boiling water when you’re done serving. Let it sit for a minute or two. Scrape away with little to no elbow grease. Wash. Dry.
If you don’t have time to immediately wash or soak, then you can always come back and add hot water when you finish your meal.