I have a new non-stick pan and it’s the first time in my entire life I’ve had this issue when frying an egg.
Whether I’m on 1/10 heat (Gas stove), 3/10, or 5/10 heat it does the same thing: It films over the skin of the egg with a strange texture, but doesn’t actually stick to the pan.
In that video I managed to separate the film from the egg, but I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong to have that film develop in the first place? It’s a firm-plastic texture, like a tupperware lid.
You can get similar non stick properties from learning to use cast iron or stainless steel. If you’re interested, I’d say start with cast iron, it’s cheaper and while you’re still learning how to make it non-stick super easy to clean by literally scratching it with chainmail!
i actually have an almost unused stainless steel pan.
how can i make it non stick?
Google “stainless steel water test” but basically the water starts sliding around on the pan.
For eggs it needs to be hot enough to just maintain this effect, or else they can burn and start sticking again. You can also add a bit of oil at this point but it’s not strictly necessary and can cause smoke depending on the oil used.
Unfortunately the quality of your pan also has an effect here. 3-5 layer “all clad” is best. But if you wound up with partial clad like me (the kind with a visible disk on the bottom) the section that isn’t clad will almost always get at least a bit of food stuck to it.
Learning stainless steel imo also takes more patience if you’re on electric, because you’ll need to wait longer for the temperature to settle, but not impossible. I switched to magnets! If you want to give magnets a shot, but don’t want to spend $2000+, you can get an induction hot plate online for ~$100
I looked that up and it sounds mighty hard! It seems I just opened a pandora’s box of stuff I need to learn to actually do this.
And the quality of my pan is probably not the best either.
It’s okay, just practice getting the water to bead, that’ll help a lot, and if something gets stuck, plastic or wood scrapers and barkeeper’s friend will help.
Sometimes I’ve also boiled stuck on food, that’s helped it release too.
And worst case, you make mistakes and can learn from them, no harm no foul I’d say!
My wife still does eggs in the cast iron, which is fine, anything that gets stuck on we just scrape off.
Cast iron is extra post cleaning care Stainless steel is extra cooking and cleaning care. Get barkeeper’s friend.
And it’ll strengthen your arms!