Today I’m hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays for Tammy of Tammy’s Recipes while she’s away on vacation. If you have a favorite kitchen tip of your own, please feel free to link back and link up down at the bottom. Thanks!
We no longer own a nonstick pan. Not a single one. It just isn’t something we found necessary. In fact, we found the cocktail of chemicals in the majority of nonstick cookware rather unnecessary, and so quite a few years ago now, we replaced them all with higher quality stainless steel cookware. The kind that sticks.
I will admit I was at first a little intimidated by the shiny surface of the new pans. It seemed like the perfect recipe for disaster. However, as I’ve learned to cook with them, I can unwaveringly tell you that I will never go back. I have grown to love all the nuances of stainless steel, preferring it over the nonstick of years past.
Recently I made a frittata (recipe to follow), and here are my tips for dumping a bunch of vegetables and eggs into a stainless steel skillet, tossing it in the oven and still having it come out easily:
- Only sauté certain vegetables. For me, this includes spinach, which creates moisture rather than sticking to the pan. I roasted my potatoes rather than gunk up the pan, as well, and this helps to keep the surface of the pan free from stuck on food, and if food is already stuck before you dump in the eggs, well, more food is bound to stick.
- Butter it up. Before melting my butter in the pan, I rub the unmelted butter all over the bottom and up the sides. This way, I know I’ve thoroughly greased all the stainless before introducing the eggs.
- Use a silicone or rubber spatula to help release the edges. Rather than just dig right in with your metal turning spatula or a hard plastic one, run a silicone spatula head around the edge to help release the frittata before you go to pull the pieces out.
Next week’s Kitchen Tip Tuesday will be hosted by the lovely Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship. Then it’s back to Tammy!
Now it’s YOUR turn! Add your kitchen tips below.
Hi there.
I made a mistake and shared a tip that I had already shared this past week (Save Time in the Kitchen with Measuring Tools), so I added another. Feel free to delete the first one if you need to :-).
Thanks for hosting!
Hi Shaina. Just wanted to say thank you so much for hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays this week!
Have a great day!
Mindy
This looks amazing – we also do full stainless due to all the chemicals in the non-stick and it always scraps off into your food!
Can you link to the frittata recipe? – I want to try it!
Just have to tell you how much I enjoyed the wee little hand holding the stick of butter!! I love cooking with my children!
Thanks for the smile and the great recipe!
Cheers!!
Thank you, Jill! That little hand was so excited to be there. 😉
I have been intimidated to try stainless steel completely. I have a few pieces but would like to invest in a whole set. Thanks for the tip.
I like the tip to butter it up. 🙂 I’ll have to try that!
my parents don’t support my freegan lifestyle. i live with them and they make me eat? the dinner they made and not pick out of the garbage. my family’s pretty good on not wasting food anyway.. Thank you for sharing.
I just got some stainless steel pans for Mother’s Day and I’ve been fighting with the sticking issue. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for this time. I admit, I’m scared of stainless steel pans……maybe I should look into getting some, since I’m scared of nonstick surfaces. LOL Looks like I’m scared of everything. Ha, ha!
WHEW! I mean, thanks for this POST. I should proof-read.
These are great tips! I recently switched over to stainless steel and am still learning the nuances. I, however, will never go back to nonstick!!
I’ve been using stainless for making omelets and what works best for me is to grease the bottom lightly, heat it fairly hot, then add the butter. The hot oil layer at the bottom acts as a temporary non-stick layer. Works even better if you just wipe out the skillet rather than wash it with soap.
Another key to helping stainless steel resist sticking is to heat the pan to cooking temperature before adding anything, including greasing agents such as butter or coconut oil.
We’ve gone to mainly stainless steel cookware in our family as well, since our old non-stick pans were all scratched up and flaking off. It certainly is a change in technique when cooking with it compared to nonstick, you really need to have the right temperature and add oil or butter at the right time.
Hey there, You’ve done an excellent job. I will certainly digg it and personally
recommend to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this website.
Did everything as directed – the frittata still stuck and burned at the bottom. Sigh…
Thank you very much for these great recipes.
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Excellent and delicious.
Awesome Post I really like this post. wow so yummy and healthy I can’t wait to try this recipe, looks fantastic.