TIL most home cooks treat stainless pans wrong

I was watching a buddy sear chicken in his stainless skillet last weekend and he dumped cold butter in before the pan was hot enough. The sticking and burning was brutal, he ended up scraping half the crust off. Has anyone else noticed people skipping the leidenfrost test before adding fat?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorbutler6d ago

Has anyone else run into folks just treating stainless steel like nonstick? A buddy of mine used to crank the heat to max and toss in oil right away, then wonder why his eggs welded themselves to the pan. Once he actually let the pan preheat properly and did the water bead test, his cooking changed completely.

oliver_anderson6d ago

Yeah it's like people just rush through everything these days. I notice it with all kinds of stuff like letting a grill heat up or even just waiting for water to boil before dropping pasta in. We're all so used to instant results that we skip the basic steps and then get mad when things don't work out.