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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2698 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

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What are my best frying pan options if I want to fry eggs? I bought an expensive non-stick model about 10 months ago and it apparently already needs to be replaced. Is there any good long-term alternative option?

I've used an Italian ceramic pan from Ballarini for a couple of years and it seems more durable than your run-of-the-mill teflon pan. I still treat it as I would any other non-stick cookware out of an abundance of caution e.g. use only plastic or wooden tools, don't cook with it above medium heat, and clean it with soft sponges that won't scratch. I'm not actually sure how much one costs, as it was a gift, but I think you can find good discounts on their cookware sets.

Egg frying is about temperature. A stainless steel pan would work just fine. I use carbon steel (woks), and it works great. You only need a non-stick for french omelettes.

I'm not in a position to back this up right now but at this point I'm pretty sure that non-stick is a terrible idea. Those chemicals are not good for you and whatever the government says about 'safe' temperatures hotspots can and do develop on a stove and turn that convenience into cancer and who knows what else. I used to have a George Foreman grill (remember those?) and when I hit it with my temp gun it was over 800° in places. Plus I suspect that if you have male children it'll make their penises smaller and generally cause problems along those lines hormonally.

IMO stainless steel remains king. And as a bonus you can ditch the plastic utensils while you're at it.

I think nonstick is still far and away the best option for cooking eggs. Stainless steel is good for other things but not for this specific task. As far as the chemicals go, I'm not worried about that and I don't personally think anyone else should worry either (but to each his own).

For cooking steaks and the like I really loved a carbon steel pan I had (until my wife ruined it and it rusted a ton ><). It was the perfect searing pan - it got hot like cast iron, but wasn't unreasonably heavy like cast iron. I really should get another one one of these days.

What about enameled cast iron?

Yeah, I have a whole lot of that stuff including (pertinently) multiple frying pans and a breakfast pan. It's lovely and pleasant but in practice I only end up using it for serving guests. My daily drivers are all stainless steel, mostly All-Clad. Stainless is just lighter and easier. Cleans very well without discoloration as tends to accumulate on e.g. Le Creuset's creamy interiors. Staub mostly fixes this issue with their black inner enamel, but let's all admit the creamy stuff looks prettier. Also I think that for eggs in particular it's nice to have a bit less in the way of heat retention; I like to be able to cut the fire and finish cooking with carryover heat instead of being rushed to get the eggs out of the pan before they burn.

The enamelware breakfast pan is possibly a bit better for steaks, though, and I do almost all braising in Staub enamelware.

I also have an unenameled 17" cast iron skillet and have been wondering if I'll ever find a purpose for it.

Oh and FWIW I fry eggs every morning for the kids so I've had a lot of time to try different things and consider outcomes.

I have a Staub. It's great. But my question was intended to be: is the enamel safe for long term health or will it give off any dangerous particles into the food?

Oh! I'm pretty sure it's completely safe. Slight caveat that anything made in China is liable to have cadmium in it or something but that's a general problem.

I guess carbon steel, it comes smooth, properly seasoned is quite non stick especially if you use something like the chineese long yao technique - in which you create a nonstick surface before each cooking. something like - get the pan screaming hot, throw couple of drops of cold oil. disperse and wipe with a paper towel wait till the new film is lightly smoking - then throw your cooking oil to make a think layer and drop your eggs. Should be pretty non stick.

If you don't wash it too aggressively, this coating will build into a pretty good seasoning layer, as with cast iron. You can even do it with stainless, if you more or less don't wash it at all.

It works on aluminum, too. I've seasoned my sheet pans the same way I've done my skillet.

Cast iron is the buy it for life option (it will take some maintenace but you can cook almost anything with it).

Yeah, I'll try a few things to try to revive my current pan and if none of them work, I'll get a cast iron. Seems like the best option overall.

I dislike how long it takes to heat up just to fry a couple of eggs though.

3.5 kw induction is your friend. A stovetop like that costs around 250 euro. Or any 2kw induction with big enough ring.

Carbon steel is your huckleberry then.

Have you considered poaching eggs?

Softboiled is the true master race. Easily digestible protein with delicious, vitamin rich raw yolk.

Stargazer cast iron pans are fantastic. Season properly and they're highly nonstick.

10 months seems on the short side. Are you taking good care of your pans? The first result for "what ruins non stick pans" suggests 5 years expected life.

If you don't fancy cast iron you could get a stainless steel pan and a suitable metal scrubber.

The 5-year number probably assumes sporadic use. I use mine daily, multiple times a day.
As far as care, nothing problematic that I can think of. I use a wooden spoon and a regular sponge for washing.

don't buy expensive non stick. replace every year at least. there is no such thing as a long-term coated non-stick pan.

tramontina is reliable and cheap.

you don't need a non stick to fry an egg though. with a little practice, very gentle heat and a small dollop of butter, you can even fry on cast iron.

replace every year at least. there is no such thing as a long-term coated non-stick pan.

I disagree. I'm very happy with my PTFE non-stick pans, I use them daily and they last longer than 5 years.

I take special care with them (no metal utensils ever, not hotter than 150°C ever (meat goes into the cast iron), never in the dishwasher, no pan scrubber ever, not stacked in the pan rack), and as a result the coating is completely intact. My theory is that the coating starts to degrade in patches starting from a scratch/nick - so if you never have a scratch, the coating stays intact.

I'm not sure brands make a huge difference, but my pans are all from WMF and in the low 3 digit price range.

don't buy expensive non stick. replace every year at least. there is no such thing as a long-term coated non-stick pan.

Yeah, that seems to be the popular opinion everywhere else online I'm seeing. It's a real shame, I would much rather buy one decent product and use it for 5 years or longer.

You absolutely can do that. I have a Misen nonstick pan which I've had for almost 5 years now. It's not as good as it used to be, but it's still nonstick enough that it gets the job done.

If you are worried about the fat macros from using butter, cooking oil-spray (like PAM) also work well for frying eggs in cast iron.

IMO it does work better than just vegetable oil but not quite as well as butter. It's also much much less tasty than using butter. The ones in the pressurized cans seem to work better than the pump versions. I'm not too worried about the propellant as the amount used per serving is minuscule. For daily eggs one can lasts me 6 month to a year. The classic version works the best, olive oil version works well but you have to be careful of the smoke point using in cast iron, the coconut oil version works well as long as it's above 74° F in your kitchen but has a hard time aerosolising otherwise.

If using cooking spray to conserve calories, go easy on how long you spray. One serving is something like 1/4 of a second. It's supposed to be ~1g fat per second spray.

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