What 38 cooks actually recommend among stainless steel cookware

Guess what? Stainless steel doesn't have that problem. It is perhaps the safest cooking surface I can think of.

And everything else, you just follow the directions of any other recipe you're using. And that's the beauty of stainless steel. It does it all.

Stainless is that version without all the [ __ ] Hopefully, I have you convinced.

But it is worth the effort to learn how to cook on stainless steel [music] or cast iron or carbon steel than to always cook on nonstick because nonstick, it doesn't matter [music] if you spend $1,000 on your non-stick pan or $20.

So, do yourself a favor and get into something that is stainless steel because it is easier to get into than carbon steel or cast iron [music] and it's going to make you a better cook and it will last you a lifetime.

Just like your pots and pans, buying a quality [music] knife is going to last you a lifetime.

Once the oil is in the pan, I want to talk about heat control. This is where everybody makes big mistakes. All right? This is where people burn stuff. This is where people smoke out their houses.

And this is also where people get that sort of brown ring around the pan, which is fine, but it's just annoying to clean.

There's a thin layer of oil around here that's going to get hyper hyper hyper hot because the edges of this pan are thinner than the bottom, right?

You will have to use more oil or more fat when you're using stainless steel. That is the simple reality.

Obviously, the parts of the pan that didn't have any oil on it is where the egg stuck on the scramble.

This is what stops people from cooking with stainless steel. They see this happen and they're like, I'm got to throw the pan away. And a lot of people have thrown their pans away because of this.

Common mistakes that will ruin your life or maybe just your pan. Number one, cooking on too high of a heat.

Now if this was a steak or whatever and you wanted to delaze your pan, this fond no more. This is just char. So if you delaze this, it'd be bitter. It'd be blackened. It'd be gross.

Let me be honest with you. This hack still sucks to do, but it works really well.

And the best thing is it distributes heat quickly, efficiently, and evenly over the pan.

But often times they heat really inevenly, and they take a long time to preheat. This to me is perfectly balanced in that way.

Another reason, it creates flavor like fawns. It gets great sears on any piece of meat.

But guess what? Most of it won't end up on the food. You drain it on a paper towel. Really, it's not too much more.

Once it has seared properly enough, it will naturally release from the pan. You can already see the edge of this egg already lifting up off the pan.

just to prove the egg came off clean. Look at the underside of the egg. See that? No sticking, no ripping.

Cleaning this isn't going to be that hard. You take an abrasive pad to get this part off first. Clean it immediately. You're ready to go again.

And the beauty of this is if your pan is hot enough, really, your fish should move around the pan. You won't even really need to scrape it off.

You can see the skin is nice and crisp and dried out. You got a little bit of mayard on the flesh. It's not even sticking to it, even flesh side down, but I can feel the fish.

I've been sitting around medium, slightly above medium for this whole temperature. Right. If the pan looks like it's starting to get too hot, just drop the temperature a little bit. You can fluctuate it however you need. That is the key to using stainless.

And what will be left behind is little brown bits from the flour, stuck bits from the meat that are on the pan. That is your fond. There's tons of flavor in that. You don't want to throw it away.

You can scrape on the bottom to release any stuck bits. Scrape on the sides. Scrape that into there. Now, you can see all the stuck bits. That's all that like reduced intense chickeny flavor now giving flavor to this sauce.

So, my pan's not like ripping hot. It's warm, so it'll release a little easier, right? We're almost preparing this to delaze it, right? You're basically delazing in here.

And you'll notice that even just by doing that, if I rinse this bad boy out, I haven't even used soap yet. This is 90% of the way clean.

We have a pan that basically looks almost brand new. It's literally that simple. This applies to pretty much every single scenario I could possibly think of. The key is soap and water or proper stainless steel cleaner. That is it.

Leave it in there. Don't scrape it off because it's going to stick anyway, right? Just let it cool down naturally, and you could easily bring it back on once it stops smoking and turn it to medium heat. Eventually, it'll release.

So, you're going to fill this up with water about halfway up. Set it on your stove. Add one drop of dish soap. That was more than a drop. Set over medium high heat and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, let it boil for about 1, two, maybe 3 minutes until the residue comes off easily.

And like I said, you got to season this. If it gets rusty, you got to season it again, right? Unless you use a cast iron pan every single day and maintain it regularly and always have fat and oil in it. Guess what? You're going to have to constantly season it.

you have to dry your stainless steel. Never, ever, ever just let it sit with water. You're going to get water stains, and guess what? You're going to have to clean it all over again.

But this pan has a slight warp in it because we did that a lot. The warping has created a bowl in there. See that? It doesn't sit flat on this anymore.

The beauty of stainless steel is there is almost no stain. It's stainless. No burned on bit. you can't clean off. You just need to know how.

Now, this is a still usable pan and that's fine. It happens. People make mistakes. But the more you do that to that pan, the more the pan is going to get more anded up, okay?

You don't have to do that with stainless steel. It's oven and dishwasher safe.

It's great for fish. It's great for vegetables. You can also cook gently in it.

you could easily just heat this pan back up. You don't even have to clean it yet, right? I've got tons of stuff in here. There's still flavor in this pan, right?

Searing, sautéing, developing a fond, and then removing the fond through delazing, making a sauce with that, putting it on top of our thing, and we have a final dish all with one pan.

but what happens with stainless is that as they get better and better they start to behave a little bit more like cast iron they hold their heat incredibly well and they distribute their heat incredibly well

i can season of course in my cast iron pan where if i cook at the right temperature in my stainless steel and i use a lead enforced effect where i'm finding just the right sweet spot i can cook with a little bit of oil and things basically become nonstick

so using the cast iron pan being well seasoned it's more forgiving you can have it really well seasoned if it's a little cooler a little hotter a little variable in heat then it seems to allow you to have things that don't stick

the beauty with high-end stainless steel is the variability is wider so you have a bigger window of it being more of a perfect temperature within a high-end stainless steel aluminum core pan than you do in a cheat pan

it definitely can brown a little bit better over time things cook a little bit more thoroughly in cast iron somewhat when it comes to high-end cookware not not a massive difference

it takes a while to get to operating temperature because it's so densely packed it takes a while to cool down

so that translates in if you need to adjust your temperature you better adjust it well in advance because you can easily burn your food if you realize that your temperature's set too high and you want to lower it the skillet's going to take a while to adjust

so dialing in your temperatures and adjusting during your cooks can get pretty tricky with cast iron there's a bit of a learning curve

and with cast iron and carbon steels you do have to be very careful with how you do clean them at the end of your cooks you need to wash them and then completely dry them on the stovetops and lubricate them before storing them every single time or you do run the risk of getting rust and you definitely don't want that

another big thing with cast iron skillets and carbon steel skillets as well is that they tend to react with acidic foods

i feel like cast iron skillets don't tend to react as much as carbon steel skillets do

they don't retain heat as well as cast iron skillets but that also means that they don't share any of those negatives

but the biggest con of stainless steel skillets is yes they do stick

but it does stick you don't believe me try making scrambled eggs it can be done you have to put a lot of oil on there and it's a lot more work you have to be very mindful to temperatures

the biggest cons of stainless steels however are they stick they stick like crazy they're not as forgiving if you make mistakes

i mean they get hot really quickly they cool down really quickly but if you're not paying attention you can either put your food in when the skillet's not necessarily hot and boom now you've just created a really sticky mess or you'll get distracted and you've burnt your food really quickly

but other than that the two biggest cons are the price and they're not as nonstick as carbon steel and stainless steel

and she definitely loves the carbon steel skillets but i don't think she likes to do that extra step at the end you know completely drying them off and cleaning them

cast iron can fry cast iron can sear a really mean steak they can saute vegetables you can make pizza in cast iron you can bake in cast iron it will literally do everything pretty well

cast iron skillets are relatively cheap and propel you into that pro level category will make you into a better cook because they do have a learning curve but the learning curve is really all the fundamentals of cooking so once you've mastered cooking on a cast iron skillet you've basically mastered cooking

if you're looking to make sauces out of the fond fond is basically the leftover sticky bits that are left on stainless steel skillets you can make a sauce out of that by adding wine or a chicken or beef broth or whatever broth that you want to use

just like cast iron carbon steel can be used for almost anything i've made pizzas in it i've baked i've cooked and seared amazing steaks in it you can saute in it and you can even make sauces

stainless steel skillets can literally cook anything acidic foods meats proteins you can bacon them you can do anything you want with stainless steel skillets

but they do one thing extremely well and that's fond if you want to make an amazing sauce stainless steel skillets are for you

i tend to use mine mainly for italian dishes or something where i know i want to make a sauce right after and that's what stainless steel skillets are really good at

but i have gotten rid of all my cast iron skillets ironically i've given them away to friends and family that are that had just started cooking and how you know i've actually moved on to carbon steel

but it can make anything i mean a stainless steel skillet can make a great steak

Cool spots, like the ones I caused by repeatedly dropping water intp the pan, also have an impact.

So, after watching the tests over and over again, and with the considerations I just mentioned, I believe in the context of stainless steel cookware the Leidenfrost Effect begins around 420°F or 215°C.

But if you're measuring from the center of the pan, aim for approximately 430°F or 221°C to ensure the entire pan is hot enough.

Heritage Steel, Taima, and the stainless steel pan all came out with noticeable scratches.

The stainless steel pan ended up with circular scratches that were deep and I could feel with my fingers.

The stainless steel pan had small dark spots starting to form, and at first I just thought this might be mineral buildup, so I cleaned it with vinegar and Bar Keepers Friend. But the spots didn't come off. They hadn't corroded through the surface yet, but it was the beginning of pitting.

After the second and third rounds, more spots appeared on the stainless steel pan. And when I zoomed in, I could see that they were actually starting to eat into the steel. When I rubbed them with my fingernail, I could feel the indentation.

The second thing is that, from my experience, once I realized how to use a stainless steel pan, the food comes out tastier. And I feel that in many cases, what I cook tastes better from most restaurants.

There is that level of crust that you can't do in pans that are not stainless steel pans or iron cast pans that give that special texture and umami, and it's amazing.

Another example is that just from the smell that comes out of the pan, I know the level of heat of the pan. I know it sounds weird, it sounds bad even, but trust me, it's that film that you can compare to any other pan.

Um carbon steel is not a very good heat conductor. So um if you put a carbon steel pan over a burner, it will show a very distinct heat pattern from that burner. Um whether it's a star shape, a ring shape, or in the case of a good wok burner, it's going to be just heating the very bottom of that wok.

You're able to do that in a cast iron pan because uh you're generally heating it very evenly.

so now for my Allstar picks of what if I had to start over what would I buy I would go with a 12-in fry pan

That's all you really need to know about sticking. If it's sticking, let it sit in the pan longer. Either you started too cold or it's not done searing.

If the pan looks like it's starting to get too hot, just drop the temperature a little bit. You can fluctuate it however you need. That is the key to using stainless.

if you love the idea of using cast iron and the the heritage that comes with that then that is more of a choice and that's you know from the the hundreds of pans that i sell every year that is a choice that people are making

if you do that with stainless things stick if it's too hot too cold you have problems you just gotta find that right temperature

a really thin cheap aluminum core stainless steel pan it's kind of sweet spot to cooking is very very small

Because cast iron pans are thicker than stainless steel, and cast iron has a lower thermal conductivity than the materials used as the core layers of stainless steel cookware, it heats slower.

If a cast iron skillet is too big for the burner, food in the middle will cook faster than the edges, as you can see with these chicken cutlets.

The water in the stainless steel pan started boiling after 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and the water in the cast iron pan started boiling after 3 minutes and 34 seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, stainless steel pans, especially good quality fully clad pans, retain heat well, but not at the same level as cast iron.

Also, cast iron tends to absorb the flavor of the food you cook. So fish and other pungent ingredients can linger in the skillet and impact your next meal if you don’t clean it thoroughly.

However, because it’s not coated and doesn't have a layer of seasoning baked into the surface, foods like eggs are more prone to sticking.

The one major problem with stainless steel cookware is food sticking. It’s easy to ruin eggs, and cleaning sticky stainless steel pots is no fun.

one thing I am noticing about the cast iron skillet just a little bit is the oil tends to pull more around the exterior of the pan whereas this stays really centered the oil stays really centered on the interior of the pan

color is not as good on that one same amount of time could be that there and probably is some difference in how they are holding the heat inside of the pan I do think that is occurring

color is not as good on this side my Ard reaction is not as good getting a lot less smoke over here getting a lot less smoke getting a lot more smoke over here from the cast iron pan but it's not burning

there's more of that Darkness on the cast iron Sak I just think it's more uniform across there's a little bit of blotchiness over here

now let's take a look at the other side well there you go that doesn't look good at all whereas over here on the cast iron skillet it looks much better

this side looks much more appetizing than this side which almost has like a SV type color to it

I wouldn't have noticed it was missing until I bit in to the cast iron steak piece

right when you bite into this one you do notice that one side is softer because it just doesn't have the