novice at cooking here. know the basics and can make some decent tasting dishes without the need of a recipe, but not enough to know the full ins and outs of cooking.
since i moved out of my parents’, i’ve been cooking with cheap pans pots and pans from ikea, and while they do the trick for most of my cooking, i cannot for the life of me make decent eggs without them overcooking and sticking, butter/oil help a little bit but not consistently. the electric range is def a hurdle to learn coming from gas, but most of my other dishes seem to come out fine.
anyway, i’ve been looking into some decent pans that meet the following criteria:
- nonstick without chemicals (teflon/PFAS/whatever)
- induction burner compatible, as i plan on getting a burner at some point
- (optional) comes in an 8in and 10in size
- (optional) oven safe
from what i’ve seen so far the “Analon EverLast N₂ Carbon Steel” seems like what i’m looking for based on reviews but i also wanted to ask for people’s opinions before making a purchase
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Cast iron or carbon steel! They last forever and require very little maintenance. Buy it once and buy it for life.
steals all of itsathursday’s cookware
…buy it once, eh? Welp. Learn something new everyday!
I have no issues with eggs over easy, but when I scramble eggs on my cast iron they always stick. What am I doing wrong?
The thing that works for me is allowing the pan to heat up quite a bit before pouring the eggs in. I mean, not searing hot, but you want it to make a little “tssssh” noise when you pour in the eggs. Allowing them to sit and cook a little bit before you stir seems to help, too.
That’s also why I don’t really scramble them very aggressively. The bottom layer needs to sit on the pan and cook, becoming a little solid, before I move them. When I do it that way, they don’t stick. It ends up being kind of like an omelette that I frequently ruffled up and then flipped at the end, rather than really scrambled.
TL;DR: A little fat, low to low-medium temp, but don’t put the eggs in the pan until it’s up to temp, keeping in mind that it’ll take longer with the heavy cast iron pan.
When my eggs stick it’s virtually always because I was impatient and put them in too soon. If you hear the eggs sizzling from the instant they touched the pan you should be good as long as the heat’s not crazy high, but if you dump those eggs in and the pan is quiet than that means it didn’t get hot enough in time. It’s already too late at that point, they will soak up the fat and stick, but whatever it’s not the end of the world. Just wait until it gets hot, throw a few drops of water on there to check if it beeds and floats (good).
What the other commenter said about waiting a moment to start scrambling is good too. I find that if I start stirring while the layer of egg touching the pan is still liquid (which again, can be for awhile if you didn’t wait for the pan to get hot), it’ll just stir the fat into the eggs instead of around them. So wait just a moment for at least that thin layer contacting the pan to cook before you stir. If your pan is the correct temp it should only take a few seconds, if that.
So yeah, the preheat and the first second or two really make or break scrambled eggs, but past that it’s smooth sailing.
I’ve had this problem with scrambled eggs and cast iron. Two things help for me. One is letting the eggs set a bit before I commence scrambling. And the second comes down to choice of spatula. I find that a thin metal “turner” spatula does a much better job at cleanly separating the egg from the pan.
Lower temperatures and more butter/oil or milk help. I have heard keeping the eggs out of the fridge a bit and letting them sit for a bit before disturbing them in the pan also helps but I don’t have time for that and some bits are always going to stick, they just mean you have some nice crispy bits to scrape off and put on top.
You still need grease (butter, oil, or other fat). You may also want to cook it just a tiny bit longer. If they’re done, they shouldn’t stick.
I use plenty butter, so maybe I’m not letting them set long enough
Ive got a crappy electric stove and some oddball pans etc. The thing is heat. Usually it will unstick itself when there’s enough oil and if it’s sufficiently cooked. And if the pan is hot enough, it will be less likely to stick.
Also carbon steel isn’t inherently nonstick. Ideally it needs to be seasoned.
Sorry to avoid your specific question, but just a little comment that I’ve found the enamel/ceramic coated cookware to hold up extremely well and work well for me.
But I cook my eggs on a nonstick griddle I have - cheap from Walmart, like $15.
In general, if your eggs are sticking, you are not letting the pan heat up before you cook (typically non–nonstick metal pans/skillets need this), or you’re just not using enough fat/oil. It doesn’t take a whole lot, but you do need some.
You already have a lot of good responses, but one thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that you can cook on parchment paper. It’s obviously not a method for scrambled eggs, but something delicate like fish can just be put on parchment paper in a pan. Alternatively, you can fully wrap it in parchment.
Your problem might be not pre-heating the pan long enough (this goes for cast iron, stainless, and carbon steel). For eggs made in pans with these materials, you need to let it sit on the heat for a bit; not too hot to obliterate the egg, but hot enough to evenly heat the pan. The pan should have some oil/fat in it as well.
In layman’s terms, the science behind this is that these metals have little microscopic “pores” that open wider when heated. When the pan is cold, they are smaller and latch onto the food. Heating up the metal opens up these “pores” and allows the oil to lubricate the metal much better.
You might want to invest in a 3-ply stainless steel pan ( which basically means aluminum encased in steel). The steel protects the aluminum, and the aluminum distributes heat evenly to the whole pan to facilitate the above process. As long as you pre-heat the pan and add enough oil or butter, not even eggs will stick. I personally use a Viking stainless steel pan, but I’ve also heard that Made-In makes some good ones too. Cuisinart also is a cheaper option
Seconding this. Heat the pan first, I’ll wet my hands and throw some water droplets on the pan, once they sizzle, I know it’s hot enough.
Then heat the oil. It doesn’t take very long, especially on an induction burner. I consider it hot enough when the oil becomes more fluid, almost like water. Then add your foods, not too quickly (or the heat might drop to a steam), but not too slowly either. Pay close attention, as you need to thread a needle between hot enough to fry/sautee but not hot enough to burn. You’ll probably burn some food in the process of learning this, and then again once you feel comfortable with it enough to try to multitask.
On that note, unless you have to wait for a very long cooking time, prep all your ingredients before you start cooking anything. Ideally, you should be able to just drop the ingredients in when it’s time to do so. Put them in bowls that represent the stage they are in and then you can concentrate on the timings, temperature, and techniques.
I say all of that because I barely ever burnt anything until I learned that I was actually only steaming things I thought I was sauteeing, and I learned that by learning how to use heat to reduce food sticking.
Another thing to be aware of is when to deglaze stuff that sticks to the bottom anyways (it’ll still happen, just not catastrophically where the thing sticks more to the bottom than to itself and falls apart) and when to give up on a burnt mess. So far, I think it’s based on the colour (black is charcoal, which you want to limit, brown is caramelized, which is chemically modified but usually not a bad effect on the food, other colours are just that food sticking on the bottom, and will still tastr like that food but maybe with a crispy/crunchy texture from the bottom part), but I’m still learning this one myself.
Edit: one advantage of stainless steel pots/pans is that you can use stainless steel wool on them. It will scratch the finish, but those scratches won’t ruin the pans or make them release dangerous chemicals into your food. They just reveal more stainless steel.
Alright time to get downvoted to oblivion.
Yes, I know non-stick is bad for the environment. So I want to give a recommendation for a good set so if you do buy it you dont have to throw it out after a year.
The non-stick I currently have is from all clad. I’ve owned them for 4 years now and they still work great.
In the past most non-stick pans would start sticking after 2 years, so these lasting this long is pretty good great. Yes, they start sticking even if I stick to medium heat.
Yes, I own both carbon steal and stainless steel pots but sometimes I just don’t want to deal with the clean up.
I have found that cast iron is quite easy to get nonstick. It isn’t as good as teflon but it does get functionally close, to the point where I don’t have any kind of sticking trouble with my cast iron. Give it one oven season when you first get it then just cook with it like normal. Don’t cook food particularly sensitive to sticking until you’ve cooked with it a few times, a month of regular usage should be more than enough. If you’re worried about sticking, use extra oil, has never done me wrong.
I am on team cast iron, nonstick coatings always seem to be problematic. Cast iron gets better and better with time, and I cook with fats, so it works for me. Buy once use forever, other pans have come and gone but my cast iron is still here and my kids argue about who will get it when I die.
But as I’m sure others have already noted, technique makes a big difference too - oil into hot pan, food into hot oil and not moving the food at the beginning helps it release.
Unpopular opinion, but all nonstick cookware has a limited lifespan, get something inexpensive and Teflon and expect to replace it away every couple years. For the most part do your cooking in stainless steel, carbon steel, or cast iron cookware which are all fairly nonstick of you have good technique and save the Teflon for more challenging foods or when you can’t be bothered to wait for a pan to heat properly.
Non-stick (teflon style) pans should never be used higher than medium heat. Once the non-stick begins to darken, it’s going to die fast. Never use a scratched up pan, it’s depositing plastic in your food. Dark coated pans (the coating looks very dark brown/black) should never look black, you can tell because the bottom will be darker than the top rim. Also, do not purchase aluminum pans. You need a steel base, and again, stay at medium heat or lower. This pan should last a very long time, and it does not need to cost a lot.
Learn to cook in a Stainless Steel pan, Carbon Steel, & Cast Iron. They all have strengths. For example, a Wok should always bee Carbon Steel, you will never get good food out of a non-stick wok, cast iron takes too long to heat and stainless will just burn food. Woks require HIGH heat and fast cooking.
Cast iron is great for foods that need to be seared within an inch of their life (think steaks).
Eggs need your attention an patience. Regardless of pan. Many foods need to sit and develop that 'bottom" or crust/sear. You are not on a TV show chucking food in a pan and flipping it on a plate. That’s for TV, not for real life.
Cooking is super easy when you teach yourself. Make notes if you often forget which pan for which food. And no one needs to own a full professional kitchen to cook. Find the minimum amount of tools you need for the life you are living.
Electric is certainly a challenge when coming from a gas burner. You need to be more patient with it.
It takes longer to come to heat and longer to cool down. It sounds like your pan it too hot when cooking eggs. It’s gonna take you some practice to know when the right burner point is and how long it takes your pan to heat up.
I can’t give you advice on a specific non-stick pan though. I use stainless steel but on gas. It takes 5-10 min to reach an even heat over the whole pan. Once the whole pan reaches heat just a little oil keeps eggs from sticking.
What’s your budget, and how long do you want the non-stick coating to last for you? EDIT: actually I wasn’t familiar with that Anolon, and it looks nice. I’ve been hankering for the Misen carbon non-stick. Both look nice, and I think Misen has the slight edge on non-stickiness and ease of use and upkeep. Your opinion may differ, but I think both would be solid options.
budget right now would probably be no more than $150/pan, and with good care at least a year’s worth of cooking. i was raised well enough to not use metal utensils on coated pans so at least that will aid in the life of the pan
Stainless Steel, Carbon Steel and Cast Iron have been mentioned, but also look at Nitrided Iron pans. They don’t rust and are as durable as cast iron!
I typically coon on 18/8 stainless fir typical pots and pans stuff. 50+ years old. Literally the stuff I grew up learning to cook on. I had to replace a few handles but otherwise the stuff looks brand new, despite countless decades of stuff getting burned in them when stuff did stick.
When something needs high sustained heat I have cast iron. Cast iron when properly seasoned is non stick but it’s heavy and you can’t quickly adjust the heat level. So not great for delicates like eggs.
I have a dedicated ceramic coated aluminum pan for eggs. Nothing but eggs. No metal utensils. No dishwasher. Just eggs. It gives instant feedback on temp changes, absolutely zero fat is needed to prevent eggs from sticking (but use it anyway for flavor). It’s light weight for quick flips and folds on omelets.
And I have a carbon steel wok that I also scramble eggs in when doing fried rice. Lots of oil needed because they do want to stick no matter how fast you move because of the high heat.
All nonstick gives you cancer pretty much.
Go with something enameled and a light oil.
That’s completely false.
Are the non-stick coated pans good? No. Is there anything in them that can give you cancer? Also no.
You are insane.
Here’s one of the “new” and “safe” studies right here:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28913736/
Look up any other previous versions. Cancer all the way down.
Go read the thing you posted. Kindly do not reply to me.
