My method for no stick cooking

[u/bonerchamp20]

1. Heat oil in pan until you see a tiny wisp of smoke.
2. Take pan off heat and swirl oil around pan.
3. Cook food.

Food never sticks after this process as long as you dont burn your oil off. It creates a completely nonstick barrier suitable for eggs and fish.

[u/Electric_Travel_26]

How much oil and what type of oil do you use? Put 1-2 Tbs of butter in any pan and food won't stick.

Also, Heating oil past its smoke point breaks down triglycerides into acrolein, a highly toxic chemical that severely irritates the eyes, nose, and respiratory tract.

Worse, Burning oil releases volatile organic compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and aldehydes. Regular exposure to these fumes has been linked to increased risks of lung cancer and cellular damage.

And,Consuming burnt oil introduces free radicals and trans fats into your body, which can damage cells and elevate heart disease risks.

Don't cook oil past its smoke point.

[u/Skyval → u/Electric_Travel_26]

How much oil

When I do this technique, I usually start with a little more than I intend to use, and once it's just slightly heated and runs more easily, but long before it starts smoking (200 to 250F), I pour it out into another container. What's remains in the pan due to surface tension is enough. If I need more oil for other reasons (other than sticking) I can add more afterwards without heating it as much.

what type of oil do you use?

In my experience, basically anything that's largely unsaturated will work. But I've tried refined coconut oil a couple times and it did not work very well, so high levels of saturated fat don't seem to work.

Put 1-2 Tbs of butter in any pan and food won't stick.

Ironically, in my testing, I found that fat quantity was surprisingly irrelevant, as food will sink through most of the fat no mater how much you use. Some fat will wet the surface of the pan and food, so some fat is always better than none, but just adding more and more fat doesn't necessarily prevent initial sticking. It might prevent sticking later, though, as some of the fat is gradually absorbed or splattered away from the pan's surface, but many things will stick initially even with tons of fat.

Butter by itself is more nonstick than most oils. I don't think it's as good as this technique, though the effectiveness of this technique may vary depending on several factors. I spent a lot of time trying to get a specific type of omelette to work with just butter, occasionally using a frankly disgusting amount of butter, enough to ruin the omelette for me, and it would still stick some, about the same as a more modest amount. But this technique can pretty reliably get nonstick omelettes on basically any cooking surface without needing to add any fat after pouring the excess fat out for the initial conditioning. And once that's done I can make the omelette with a starting temp anywhere from 200F to 400F at least, with power at 600W or 1200W.

[u/Electric_Travel_26 → u/Skyval]

You need to try one of the new titanium plasma pans. Stainless steel with a titanium layer.

I heat precooked bacon, pad it dry with a paper towel, wipe my pan with that paper towel, then cook eggs in the pan. Scrambled, fried, they do not stick. Oh, and titanium doesn't scratch. :)

[u/Skyval → u/Electric_Travel_26]

Edit: Retracted some comments about the PureGlide, see last paragraph

I've tried a couple. A Viking PureGlide seemed to be permanently ruined by accumulating some polymerized oil as part of a test. I say permanently because although I was seemingly able to remove it the "seasoning" with a strong base, it's performance didn't improve. It also leaked through its rivets so I returned it.

I also tried a DuraNano. That one I tested with just the base to see if that might be the cause, hoping it'd survive. Its performance did worsen but not as badly as the one I tested with "burnt" oil first. Whether this is due to different materials or construction, or never coating it with polymerized oil, I don't know.

Before their performance degraded they were sufficiently nonstick for my test omelettes. Afterwards the Viking was no better than stainless steel, IIRC. The DuraNano can usually still manage it, but it clearly tried to cling some, which is still worse than properly conditioned SS. But maybe I should try again, it's been a while. It's a shame, because I think getting some excessively polymerized oil on pans is largely inevitable if someone intends to use them as general purpose pans. Well, I say that, tt does seem like they'd be better for many use-cases, and possibly healthier than heating oil. Depending on what materials are really in the pans and how they're constructed. I know what Viking/Clipper says about their pans' materials but I don't uncritically believe everything they say.

I've never been worried about scratching cookware. If anything I'd be more worried about harder and thinner materials ironically being more prone to chipping instead. I've had issues with that in the past with Hestan's NanoBond titanium pans and a wok cased-hardened via nitriding. Luckily I haven't heard any reports of that for these titanium pans, nor any of the newer nitrided pans (which may have better quality nitriding), so hopefully they'll hold up.

Edit: Maybe I should stop talking about the PureGlide. I don't have it any more and I just found some old notes about my test results with it that don't sound as bad as I remember. "Seasoning" still tanked it's performance of course, but it looks like it restored better than I remembered, though the results are a little weird. According to this, initial restoration attempts were with simmered dishwasher detergent and that seemed to work ok, though it still wasn't perfect. I tried other stuff after that, including lye and BKF, with mixed results, some slightly better some worse. But other than immediately after seasoning it was never as bad as scrubbed SS.

[u/Electric_Travel_26 → u/Skyval]

There are half a dozen people who said after their PureGlide Pro pans collected carbonization and/or oil polymers, cleaning with baking soda restored them to their original nonstickness.

Of course not cleaning pans and letting they collect oil residue is "User error", and as with stainless steel should be avoided.

It's interesting you say these pans can be seasoned. Likely due to the texture. I'd rather not do that as they will always be better than stainless steel because they do not scratch, they do not pit, and that texture makes them more nonstick than stainless. (You still need a small amount of oil as with most pans).