/ck/ - Food & Cooking

you can do the water droplet test to see if the pan is at the right temperature. If it behaves like a mercury ball, you can start adding oil. In the same way, the water in your food creates a vapor layer that raises your food from the surface and prevent it from sticking. It's called the Leidenfrost effect.

>>19085697
I'm glad anon. I've been trying to get my roommates to understand this very basic principle for years to no avail
had to just get my own kitchenware since theirs is always filthy with burnt stuck shit

>>19085697
>>19085791
Doesn't work for me.

>>19085992
It's not enough that the pan is hot, the oil has to be hot, too. It needs to be just under smoking. A good indicator is that the surface of the oil is rippling.

>>19085697
>>19085697
it's about time

do I actually have to scrub pans like this or is it ok to keep cooking as long as it's smooth but kinda brown

>>19086654
Throw it out and get a new one.

How to properly prepare a stainless steel pan to keep your food from sticking:

1. Heat the clean, empty pan on your stovetop.

2. Pour in a quarter tsp. of water when the pan is hot.

3. If the water sizzles and boils off the pan is not hot enough yet, keep heating and testing the temp by pouring in more water from time to time.

4. As soon as the water doesnt sizzle and evaporate anymore but slides across the bottom like a puddle of quicksilver (Leidenfrost effect) the pan is hot enough.

5. Now wipe the pan completely(!) dry with a dish towel, pour in some high-temperature cooking oil (e.g. canola) and coat the pan thoroughly by spreading it with a kitchen tissue or a spatula.

6. Keep heating the pan right up to the smoke point of the oil, keep it at that temperature for a minute.

7. Pour out the excess cooking oil and let the pan cool down to the desired temperature.

Wa la, you now have a perfectly non-stick stainless steel pan. The non-stick coating will last through all frying until you strip it off with dish soap or acidic stuff.

>>19086693
Gonna fry some burgers testing this, brb

what are some things that you actually want to stick and scrape off?

I heard about smashburger with onions or something

it's so nice using a real metal pan not nonstick or r*ddit iron that is all bumpy

>>19085697
The heat of the pan cooks the food.

>>19085791
Or just hold your hand over the pan for a second or 2 you huge retard

>>19086722
>once your skin melts off and drips in the pan and rolls around like a ball of mercury, your pan is hot enough you huge retard

>>19086732
Holy FUCK try being dumber you disgusting tranny

>>19086740
>hurr dur just use you're hand your all retards and tranny

>>19086722
stainless steel emits barely any infrared radiation. That works with cast iron and carbon steel but not with stainless steel. if you leave a chromes and polished wrench lying in the sun for an hour or two it will get hot enough to burn your hand.

>>19086654
its fine to let it patina

>>19086693
>>19086697
kinda worked
less sticky than usual but still far from non-stick.

>>19086654
I wash my pans after every use. If you're a lazy sack of shit you can probably get away with washing less frequently. Stainless steel isn't like cast iron where the seasoning builds up over time, so you have to wash with soap and water eventually.

>>19086750
You're a fucking idiot

>>19086722
That takes a lot of experience and practice to get right. The water droplet test is virtually foolproof.

>uncover outdoor gas pipe to ensure gas is sufficiently heated by the sun
>quickly heat up stove top and heating elements with kitchen blow torch
>once gas is sufficiently warmed, turn on gas and allow stove grid to come to temperature
>remove steel pan from fridge 20 minutes before cooking to allow internal temperature to rise
>begin warming your water to use for later
>allow gas and air to reach high temp
>now place warm pan on gas, placing away from you to ensure hot air splashes backwards
>take some hot water and swish around your cup to warm through
>pour hot water into your cup and splash it into your hot pan
>if water behaves suspiciously, pan is hot enough
>warm your oil through with remaining water and pour into pan
>allow the pan to come down to ideal temp and begin cooking
it’s really not difficult

>>19086854
checked, electric and induction fags eternally btfo

>get pan hot
>get oil hot
>put put food in
>it just explodes with a bunch of hot oil going everywhere

>>19086902
>he forgot to get the food hot before placing it in the pan
Yikes from me fella

>>19086919
Do I microwave it first before I start pan frying it?

>>19085697
An old-timer's and totally fool-proof method is frying on solid bacon's fat.
You chop it into small pieces and put on a pan on high heat (it isn't even necessary, just makes everything go faster). When fat's rendered and bacon's part are crispy the pan is ready to fry everything you want.

>>19085706
???

>>19086925
the heat from the pan fries the food

>>19086956
Wow

>>19086693
You can skip the step with the water by just slightly wetting your hand and flicking some water droplets onto the pan. It helps me because my municipal water has a ton of shit in it and has a bad tendency of leaving residue behind when it evaporates. Lots of hard water.

>>19086987
>you can skip the step with the water by doing the step with the water in a slightly different way

I thought you weren't supposed to heat up an empty pan. They say it damages it.

>>19087016
ideally you dont heat it up on induction at full power, and you never walk away from it while it is heating up AND empty so you cant forget about it Without at least some oil in it to warn you it is overheating by starting to smoke yes, it is really easy to ruin the pan.

>>19086810
They skipped basic physics while you were at school, eh? Sad to behold the intellectually crippled examples of the American school system

>>19087031
I just leave a can of vegetables in the pan before I walk off to help remind me if I forget about it.

my new stainless steel also says not to use any rough scrubber on it

they just lie so that people are less likely to do something dumb and leave bad reviews online

>>19087016
It's the retard proof rule they put in the pamphlet to avoid explaining nuance, like canned soup which warns you not to bring it to the boil (it doesn't matter if it boils, just don't overcook it).

>>19087040
Better use a can of sweetened condensed milk, that way you can at least scrape delicious dulce de leche off the ceiling if you forget about it.

>>19087016
it damages it in the sense it is a pointless endeavour, why would you heat up a pan for no reason in particular?

the step of actually putting something into a hot pan implies heating an empty pan like the above scenario but to use the word damage in the scenario you then use the pan to cook is misguided, things break and get damaged as you use them, anything gets "damaged" when you use it, even drinking from a glass cup "damages" it

>>19087057
retard

the pan (or the pot) gets damaged because it may heat up too quickly withoout anything in it to absorb the heat. Also some people walk away while the pan is heating up, then forget about it and leave it empty on full blast for half an hour which will ruin it, usually by melting the aluminium core inside most pans, or the nonstick coating.

>>19087065
ill fucking kill you you faggot nigger cunt

>>19087065
>usually by melting the aluminium core inside most pans
What's it going to do, leak out?

>>19087071
Yes.

how hot can a pan really get with nothing in it?

>>19087076

>>19087076
I ask myself the same thing every day of my life

>>19087065
>heat up the pan too quickly

you made this up to make yourself sound right

i will fucking kill you

>>19087084
is that a pressure cooker?

those are too scary for me

>>19086713
>what are some things that you actually want to stick and scrape off?
any time you want to make a pan suace

>>19087087
induction especially is notorious for not heating the bottom of the pan evenly, only the area the induction coil covers. If that happens too quickly the hot area expands and the other parts of the bottom stay cold, which creates huge internal stresses in the material, and the pan tries to alleviate that stress by warping. If it is bad enough it will be permanent, even after the pan has cooled down again. That is the case with stainless steel pans, cast iron pans will crack.

>>19086732
You don't actually touch the pan you mouth breeding inbred, but it does take time and experience to know when it's at the right temperature.

>>19087139
>you mouth breeding inbred

>>19085697
How long did it take you to figure that out? How many dishes were ruined because they stuck to the pan? God damn this board is full of retards.

>>19086654
you do need to scrub, yes. it's not bad unless you fuck up and burn something badly, though; then you may have to do a bit of scrubbing with steel mesh.

more importantly though, you have to learn what kind of approach does and doesn't work well when using stainless. it takes an adjustment period

>>19086713
Just declare the pan and make a sauce. It's not hard when there are a million retards on youtube making videos for attention. Anyone who doesn't know how to cook with all of the information we have is not going to make it.

>>19087240
Deglaze fucking phone posting

can anyone recommend a stainless pot i can use for deep frying? i'd guess you would want something built to retain and transfer the heat well? i don't want to fry anything in any large quantities and would look something the size of small tabletop electric fryer

>>19086713
>it's so nice using a real metal pan not nonstick or r*ddit iron that is all bumpy

you're supposed to sand the surface of the cast iron pan leveled and smooth if you want to get a good non-stick surface (after seasoning)

>>19087245
Here you go bud, all-clad d5 Dutch oven. You can get a d3 to save money but two less layers of metal so less heat retention.
https://www.all-clad.com/d5-stainless-brushed-5-ply-bonded-cookware-dutch-oven-5-5-quart.html

>>19087253
thanks, chief

>>19087253
What's funny about this is that a tabletop deep fryer from A-C is almost half the price as their d5 dutch oven. It's even digital!
https://www.all-clad.com/ez-clean-pro-deep-fryer-with-digital-timer-and-oil-filtration-system-3-5-liter.html

>>19087231
i can't tell if some of the posts itt are disingenuous or not. who the fuck needs to splash water on the pan to see if its good to go or not.
like just heat the pan, watch the oil for a little bit, spread it out, and throw ur shit on

>>19087251
lol now I have to sand it?
cast iron lunatics do so much pointless work for a dumb pan

>>19087636
>lol now I have to sand it?
>cast iron lunatics do so much pointless work for a dumb pan
You don't understand the sunk cost fallacy.
"The phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial."

>>19086750
Good thing the vast majority of the heat you feel off a pan is convective, unless its literally red hot

>>19087084
K I N O

>>19085992
>can't make droplets of water react to a hot pan

NGMI, im sorry anon

>Use SS pans all day at work when I'm on saute
>Don't even bother with this heat it then oil it then heat is some more bullshit
>Just squirt or ladel whirl/oil into pan or add sauce into cold pan before putting it on the heat and immediately adding ingredients to the cold pan and fat
>Never had a problem with sticking
Learn when your food is cooked retards, it's not that hard.

>>19087118
Induction sounds like a retarded meme for faggots. Who willingly gets induction?

>>19087605
Someone tries to force the waterball/liederhosen effect meme from time to time. The problem is it's not funny enough or ironic enough for most people to notice so they reply to it seriously.

>>19088992
It is twice as fast as any other kind of heat source. It is amazing for searing stuff and bringing liquids to a boil quickly. I do admit that current affordable models have quite a few issues (small diameter coil, pulsed power, too much power even at the lowest setting) but that is mostly the manufacturers cheaping out and cutting corners, it has nothing to do with the concept of induction. Just being able to boil rice, potatoes and pasta without having to worry about shit boiling over, stinking up the house and burning into your stovetop is worth it. Also being able to take a portable top outside and fry smelly stuff without smoking and stinking up your house is amazing.

>>19089377
you can do all that with gas already

>>19088997
I am that someone and it is not a meme. It is a very detailed description of the concept for beginners. Once you have a feeling for how long everything takes you can of course do away with a bunch of those cumbersome steps.

>>19089384
No you cant. Gas takes AT LEAST twice as long to bring an amount of liquid to a boil, more like three times as long, and that is compared to cheap 2.000 Watt induction tops. Where I live we have 230V and I can plug in a 3.500 Watt top into any wall outlet.

>>19085697
And if you fuck up and the food is cooked but stuck to the pan, cover it with a lid and let it cool down. Trapped steam will condense and uniformly deglaze the pan so that the food will come right off. Might be a bit soggy, but probably less so than if you were to pour water to deglaze

>>19087016
yeah it can damage non-stick pans. steel pans on the other hand are near indestructible, especially by just heating them.

Every generation thinks they're the first to discover something that humans have been doing since before recorded history

Zoomer genocide when?

>>19089949
Isn't leaving a lid on a cooling, hot pan a bad idea? I thought I heard that can seal the lid into the pan as it contracts.

>>19090420
Maybe? My lid has a small vent, so there's still plenty of steam for the deglazing to happen, but it won't seal.

>>19087488
A Dutch oven is multi purpose...worth the money. People need to stop being poor when it comes to kitchen equipment. It will last a lifetime if taken care if properly. Personally I don't like the idea of a one purpose type item taking space in my kitchen or pantry.

>>19085992
Have you tried turning the pan off and on again??

>>19087239
I've burnt some shit really hard in the past but soaking it in soapy water over night usually takes care of it.

what's the ck obsession of making stainless non stick? it's not non stick in fact it's supposed to stick a litle.

>>19085697
Do the water drop test