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
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.