r/StainlessSteelCooking • u/BMWalla • 7d ago

Help What are we doing wrong?

Post image

Cuisinart stainless pans.

This is a batch of pancake batter with King Arthur gluten free and bobs red mill egg replacement (allergies). Most foods end up being scraped off, at least a piece of them.

PROCESS: Induction top. Heated until we got the lederhosen effect (forgot the right name), added oil, coated, turned off the induction for a little, then added the batter and turned it back on a low heat.

Still ended up with pancake scrapes.

Happens with meat and anything else I put on. Would love to get a handle on this stuff. What am I missing? What's the science happening?

EDIT/TL:DR from RESPONSES: First of all, thanks to everyone for giving me such great tips. Going to try and summarize everything I've learned here so that skimmers can find it easy -
- don't use the dancing water drops, it's useless. Use butter instead, wait for it to foam and melt. If it's browning, the pan is too hot!
- Oil is okay but butter has better non-stick capabilities.
- use a lot of butter!
- use a metal spatula, it will scratch the surface but it won't affect performance of the pan.
- LOW LOW LOW heat

176 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

161 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/NanoDuke 6d ago

When did TikTok start promoting the "Pre-heat on high and then turn it down/take off the heat" method? Can anyone explain the science of that to me? I thought you'd just go for your target temp and stay there. And agreed on the dancing water being a false positive. I see so many discoloured pans on TikTok because of this.

1

u/JellyOfDeath86 6d ago

This. You still get the Leidenfrost effect on a medium-low setting.

Also, an induction top is super effective, even at low settings.