question about stainless steel frying pans

[missruckus]

i finally got rid of my toxic teflon pan and bought a new stainless steel pan. i heard that food won't stick if you heat the pan up first before adding cold oil.. so i tried that the other day but the food still stuck so i thought maybe i hadn't heated the pan up enough. so then today, i made sure the pan was good and hot before adding the oil..

Comments

[nymphatacita]

I've never heard of heating the pan up first. I always coat my pan before it's hot.

[missruckus]

i think you do that just to prevent sticking (supposedly)
you also do that when stir-frying

[surrealestate]

I always heat my pan first and I don't have a problem, but there is one key issue: Did you get a decent pan? Because there is a huge difference between a decent stainless pan and a crappy one. IME, the crappy ones stick like crazy, while the decent ones do not. I don't mean super high end like All-Clad or Calphalon, but even mid-range like Wolfgang Puck's line or the like. I don't know enough to know what exactly makes the difference, but I have experienced it many times.

Good luck!

[missruckus]

i got a wolfgang puck pan

[blueheron]

I don't like stainless steel pans myself. After having switched to cast iron now, I don't see myself ever going back.

Now that it is properly seasoned, it works as well as my old teflon pan (wrt non-stick), so I actually don't use oil for a lot of what I cook.

I do have stainless steel pots, with thick copper bottoms. This makes a huge difference, I find, in improving the way that heat gets conducted. Stainless steel itself doesn't conduct well

[missruckus]

if i try the seasoning route, can i use vegetable oil or must it be coconut oil or shortening?

thanks for the tips! i wish i had gotten cast iron but i'll make do with what i have for now, i guess..

[blueheron]

Vegetable oil risks going rancid on you.

Coconut oil (refined) is tasteless and very stable, plus it has a high smoke point. It is really my favourite for this type of thing.

[econ_queen]

I have found that this has everything to do with the quality of the stainless steel pans. All clad work great but they are super expensive. Cast iron also works great and it's much cheaper. Good luck!

[narkivity]

i dont have any help for your question =/ but do you have any links to websites discussing the toxicity of teflon pans? i'm pretty intrigued now, some of my family members use em.

[missruckus]

i don't have specific ones but i just found info through googling. try that and see what comes up.