Opinionated intro to stainless steel pans

This is a guide for users of non-stick coated pans who are open for giving some uncoated alternatives a try. Stainless steel pans offer many advantages:

• Better browning. Seriously, if you've ever asked yourself why you never manage to get a good maillard browning and have always been using a Teflon pan or similar, this may be the reason.
• No slow degradation. All non-stick coatings (except seasoning) degrade over time, resulting in a very frustrating "boiling the frog" situation of skillets slowly becoming worse at their job while still being technically usable. After a couple of years, or maybe a decade at best, the coating is dead and the pan needs to be replaced.¹ Stainless steel pans last a lifetime.
• Easy to clean (dishwasher safe!). Most non-stick coatings suffer from shortened lifespan if you put them in the dishwasher.

For me, the reason I switched because all those half-broken Teflon pans I was keeping around were causing me emotional pain, and I did not end up trying stainless steel pans until some detours, but if I had known how much easier it is to make deliciously browned food I would have switched much earlier.

Be prepared to adapt your cooking

I promise that this is a journey worth embarking on, but it is a journey. This is not a "stainless steel pans are cool just use them" drop-in replacement. In fact, this is true for all ways of cooking: Every pan material and coating, and every stove technology for that matter, has a different way of cooking, and when you switch you must be willing to learn what it means to cook with that technology.

I want to show you the techniques and tricks that I learned when I first bought mine.

Scrape the fuck out of it. With metal.

Seriously. I've heard way too often "oh no, you shouldn't scrape, because the food will

Use more fat

The traditional way of making things stick less in the pan is to use fat. Many people have never learned this, because non-stick coated pans require little to none in order to heat the food without it sticking. (Note that fat serves a much richer purpose in cooking than merely to make the food not stick in the pan.²)

Using more fat in a stainless steel pan is not strictly required, but it makes things a lot easier, so I'd recommend leaning on the heavier side in the beginning. For reference, I use coconut fat which comes in conveniently sized 15g chunks, and I find that one chunk is a good amount of fat for a fully loaded medium sized frying pan most of the time.

Scrape more. Use metal sponges

Know when to use a different pan

I use my stainless steel pan for most of my cooking, but sometimes it would be the wrong tool for the job.

I want to try this at home

Here's the quick and short version you need to memorize:

1. Add more fat
2. Don't load the pan too full
3. Instead of stirring, do a "push under and lift" motion using a thin metal spatula
4. Use a dishwasher and steel wool for cleaning

Adjacent rabbit holes

I think the biggest rabbit hole is seasoned pans, which means that instead of using a synthetic non-stick coating the pan gets its non-stick properties by polymerizing fats through heat. People typically season cast iron and carbon steel pans and not stainless steel pans, but the latter is technically possible. (I've tried it and found it gave me little benefit with all the downsides of seasoning, and also the seasoning was less durable than on my carbon steel pan.)

If you're curious, MinuteFood on Youtube has some good introduction videos on pan nerdry. Personally, I've spent one year of trying to befriend a carbon steel pan with mediocre sucess, and then I tried a stainless steel pan and immediately fell in love.³

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