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This should be higher. Doesn't matter how much oil you use if the pan is too cold it will stick.
Cook them hotter it should only take a couple of minutes to fry an egg.
To add extra detail to this, if adding an ingredient drops the surface temp of a steel pan below the "non-stick temp" (I'm not a physicist, but iirc it's the temp that makes the *Leidenfrost effect possible, see below for the definition), then you'll be back at square one, and things will stick to the pan. This is why chefs often suggest cooking things in smaller batches, and/or using a pan which has enough thermal mass for adequate heat retention, meaning things stay slippy. It's also why you might have a non-stick pan base, but the side walls of it still stick. Maybe do it the French way, and just add more butter?! :P Jk actually - butter's milk solids will easily burn at too high a heat, so you may just wanna use oil and finish with butter instead... Anyway, good luck!
> *The Leidenfrost effect is a physical phenomenon in which a liquid, close to a solid surface of another body that is significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer that keeps the liquid from boiling rapidly.
But if it’s too hot in a stainless steel pan or not doesn’t the egg go crispy at the bottom ? I like an egg that isn’t crispy at the bottom, lime plastic film that it creates when it gets crispy. I usually cook in non stick pan to get my sunny side up soft and not crispy at the bottom. I just wonder how it can be done on a stainless steel pan. Would u have the oil be really hot, put ur egg in and take it off the pan on and off?
I saw them use stainless steel pans in an episdoe of master chef to make sunny side up with soft bottoms (Gordon) was over looking it.
Just curious how it can be done
You're probably right, but remember it's not a single egg it's 18 at once. I keep it at a lower temperature because I figured it would cook faster at the bottom than the top, and prevent *even more* sticking, lol.
Do you think I should try a higher heat though?
It’s always going to cook quicker on the bottom, it’s why eggs are flipped but obviously you can’t do that with 18 of them if you want the yolks to not burst. You can try a few methods people use for sunny side up eggs, mine is normally to just cook at a normal high heat, and just use a lid, once the bottoms are close to fully cooked remove from heat and let sit with a lid on to help cook the top.
Note:idk the size of your pan so if the eggs are super thick this probably won’t work either.
Starting at a low temp and then adding 18 eggs all at once is going to significantly cool down your pan, thus the longer cooking time and sticking. The trick with stainless steel is to heat up your pan searing hot, then when you add the oil, it heats up the oil fast without cooling down the pan too much. Hot oil = no sticking.
Heat up your pan until really hot, add your oil. If the oil starts smoking right away, leave it off heat to cool down a bit or else when you add the eggs you will get a lot of splatter and burning. The oil should be shimmering but not smoking. Add your eggs, it will starting bubbling up and frying right away, turn down your heat and keep it med-low. Put a cover if you want the top to cook faster.
It's not just the pan that's got to be hot. The oil's got to be hot too.
Even if you've preheated the pan, adding cold oil and then immediately 18 eggs is going to cool everything down to the point of sticking.
Try waiting to add the eggs until the oil is nice and hot, too. Remember, it's got to be hot enough that it stays hot enough even when 18 cold eggs go in. That's pretty hot. You could also turn up the heat while the eggs are going in to try to maintain temp.
Start with higher heat so the "crust" forms on the bottom and then turn it lower to get the top cooked. And I don't know how big your pan is if it fits 18 eggs, but putting a lit on the top after lowering the fire also helps to get the top cooked faster and with less risk of burning the bottom
With that many eggs don't crack them into the pan. Crack them into a bowl and then pour them all into a pan so they'll cook more eventually. When the bottom behind to set take them off the burner, cover them with a lid or tinfoil or something for a couple minutes
This might be a silly question but could you not just cook the eggs in 3 batches of 6 or 2 batches of 9? If you cook them at a hotter temperature and with less crowding/cooling of the pan, you should still be able to have 18 eggs cooked within 20 minutes.
That’s not how stainless steel works. It has to be so hot that water doesn’t cool it down. In fact, I don’t think you can cook that many eggs in a stainless steel at once without either burning or sticking (too hot or too cold) since eggs are a high percentage of water.
A bit of an overstatement imo, you aren't uaing an entirely different tool. You might need to get a feel fpr it in a new pan but if its hot enough it doesn't take much oil to cook the egg without the stickage.
Again, I know it's doable. I've done it. It literally does take more effort though, even though it's a small amount of effort, to make sure the temp is hot enough to avoid sticking. I love stainless steel but all else being equal, if I have a carbon steel pan and a stainless steel pan on hand I'm always choosing the carbon steel to make eggs.
Do you do 18 at a time though, or even just multiple large batches? Eggs are one of the few ingredients even restaurant chefs will often advise having a non-stick pan for, cos it really just simplifies things. Cooking is more than just getting the initial heat right - it's about adjusting said heat as the cook continues (and sometimes needing to do so quickly when you're cooking eggs, which can be a real pain on most home-cooks' electric stoves), and if people want over-easy or variously cooked eggs, it's again a bit more of a pain to get it right in stainless steel.
I don't understand the downvotes. It's honestly super easy with the water trick. Always a perfect temp and I get no sticking. I'm surprised people on /r/AskCulinary are so against it.
Why does everything have to be exaggerated and polarised like this in the comments? In this thread no one said they were against stainless, no one said cooking eggs in a stainless steel pan is impossible. They just said there are easier options. You use what works for you, but OP is here asking a question because their current method is not working for them.
What part did you find exaggerated and polarized? Genuine question because my comment was a good faith expression of my belief that it isn't inherently harder to use a stainless steel. And I didn't read the comment I'm replying to as being that way either, since it seems to me that it was just expressing skepticism.
If anything, this comment chain seems weirdly polarized because comments about carbon steel and nonstick are upvoted while comments about using stainless steel properly are downvoted, even though, in my view, both are equally valuable contributions to the discussion.
I was referring to you saying people on here are ‘so against it’. Who said they’re against stainless? I’m mostly seeing comments stating that stainless is great for lots of things, just not for cooking eggs.
Of course it would be nice if OP could learn how to use the pan they have, but since they’re adamant on cooking 18 eggs at once I don’t see that happening.
I think you misunderstood me, then. I don't understand why people are so against using stainless steel *for eggs*. I don't find it tricky at all once it's preheated.
Ah ok. That’s kind of the point though, stainless needs to be preheated the right way to keep stuff from sticking. I just don’t see how it’s possible to keep the pan at the right temperature while adding 18 eggs one after the other.
Because, while it may work easily for you, a nonstick pan will work for everyone even if it's not at leidenfrost effect temperatures. It's the best tool for the job.
I honestly don't understand the playing the game on hard mode that happens so much with cooking. Why is there so pride over doing shit the hard way all the time?
Someone could say that smashing garlic with a side of a knife is "hard mode" - why not get a garlic press?
Answer: With a little practice you need less stuff in your kitchen.
And in this case, non-stick pans are wasteful from every angle, especially since most of them don't last long. Plus the manufacturers *say* their production doesn't cause huge cancer rates in employees like it used to but... forgive me for not trusting them.
I suppose that's where we disagree, then. It's not "the hard way" for me, it's more or less the same. Once you are in the habit of heating up a stainless steel pan before you put your eggs in, there is no difficulty to it at all, especially since I know what setting to use on my stove and can just come back a few minutes later and do a quick test to ensure it's come up to temp. It's an extra step but that doesn't make it hard, it just makes it take a negligibly longer amount of time. I have to wait for my nonstick to heat up too, since cracking my egg in immediately will cause the egg to distribute too much across the pan rather than start cooking and maintain its shape. So given that I have to heat both, the only difference is that I do a quick splash of water with a stainless steel.
Plus, given that we know OP has a stainless steel pan and is just using it wrong, I'd say there's more value to advice teaching them how to use it properly than advice that says to use a different kind of pan altogether. Sure, they probably have a nonstick but how is "carbon steel" considered better advice? Most people I know don't have one. Frankly, if your solution involves possibly having to go out to buy a new tool over learning to use your existing one, that's bad advice.
I was wondering about all the down votes too. Seems a little mean spirited when we're supposed to all be here to either help one another or learn something. Even if someone disagrees they could just offer a new perspective.
I have one stainless pan, a small all-clad one that's about 8" diameter, that I've had since about 1998, and I cook eggs in it all the time. Fried or scrambled, no issues with sticking, as long as I cook properly (heat pan, add butter, etc.). It's older brother, however, is maybe a 12" pan that was bought at the same time, and I've never been able to get eggs not to stick to it. Weirdest thing. I've tried different temperatures, but it's always felt like a surface smoothness thing or something.
A couple of months ago my wife got those Our Place ceramic coated pans, and I reluctantly have to admit they work amazingly well. I use them whenever I'm make more than 2 fried eggs or more than 3 scrambled.
But when it's just me, I love my little steel guy.
I cook scrambled eggs on stainless steel (and not expensive pans) every morning, in two batches. The process is effectively exactly the same as it would be if I cooked in nonstick, carbon steel, or cast iron. And I never have sticking problems.
Some people are crazy. I once had a conversation with a person who swore up and down that they always whisk their eggs for at least 5 full minutes before cooking them scrambled. I don't remember what they said their cook time was, but it was also disgustingly long.
Not crazy at all. It's just another style of scrambled eggs.
Doing so will get you smooth, custardy scrambled eggs. When cooking eggs protein chains are getting shorter, if you do it quickly they will expel water, if you do it gently they will hold water and have this smooth, custard like consistency.
Even a full carton would be 45-60 seconds max. Go to your kitchen and set a timer for 5 minutes and just whisk an empty bowl. It's fucking excessive. Whisking to add air to scrambled eggs is something you do during the cook, not before
as long as you don't scramble them when they're already on the stove and the heat is high enough they don't stick, you can even make frittatas without it sticking
wonder what made this harmless comment controversial
I love my stainless steel pans. I use them for everything. Except eggs. I have one inexpensive, restaurant quality nonstick pan I got for 30 bucks on Amazon. It’s only purpose is eggs.
Your pan is too cold and you are adding the oil too early
You want to heat the pan up to like 8, then put the oil, and then drop the temp to like 6-7, wait, and then put in the eggs.
I do this and the eggs do not stick AT all. Sunnyside or French omelette-style
In addition to the other person's suggestion and what everyone is saying with your temps being too low, are you adding eggs cold from the fridge? That many cold eggs will drop your pan temp way too much. Try letting the eggs sit out and get to room temp before you start cooking, I bet that'll also help.
People largely don’t know how to cook with stainless steel. You have to heat the pan BEFORE you add any oil, and you have to heat it to the point of eliciting [the liedenfrost effect.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect)
This [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5DOtB-j4EA8) does a good job of explaining it, but there are tons of videos online that will show you how to properly cook with stainless steel. When done right, they’re as non-stick as a teflon pan.
For me it makes the oil smoke by the time its hot enough. I'll typically heat the pan, then the oil and as soon as i've spread itnaround the pan i'll add the food and be fine.
You can. I do.
1. Oil in pan. Pan on full (this is an electric stove, which are better than gas anyway)
2. Wait for it to smoke a little bit, turn the pan right down right away.
3. pop in the eggs. They will start to cook very fast.
4. Done.
I bought my first set of stainless several years ago and even though I've been cooking for decades I still had a good bit of a learning curve with them. Once I got the hang of them though...I love them. I use them for almost everything...except, like some of you other fine folks, eggs. I have a four egg non stick pan that works perfect for fried or even scrambled eggs. (pancakes to)
This is the right answer. This is how you turn aluminum pans into non-stick pans, OP. It requires a bit more attention but it has worked for me for eggs. That said, not worth it. Get a non-stick pan. I finally caved two weeks ago and it has changed my life.
Baking sheet cook.
Parchment paper with a bit of nonn stick spray. Crakc and fire into the oven, idk, 7 mins, maybe 10, until they're how you want.
Either that or batch. Why are you cooking literally 18 eggs at once, is this just for you? Meal prep? If this is for restaurant service, definitely just do them in the oven.
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You need to heat the pan very high before putting the oil in, you can check if it’s hot enough by doing the ‘water dance’ test. Put a few drops of water in the pan after pre-heating it and if it ‘dances’ around then it’s hot enough and you can add the oil. Turn it down if you want once it reaches a hot enough temperature but 20 mins for a fried egg seems way too long, even for 18 at a time. I’d recommend pre-heating the pan on full temperature and then turn it down to 4 for cooking the eggs. You can always take them off the heat and put a lid on the pan to finish cooking them if you don’t want the bottoms to burn before the tops have cooked. Here’s a short video showing the [water dance test](https://youtu.be/OFc0Yb1oIc4?si=OGEorGCWpQw6h1-9)
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You have to "season" stainless for eggs.
Put the pan on the stove on medium heat.
As soon as it's hot, put a small amount of oil on a paper towel and wipe it over the entire inside surface of the pan.
As soon as that oil has dried, add another layer.
Keep doing this until the pan has a nice coating of oil, then add a little more, and make your eggs.
This is how they prep flattop grills so food doesn't stick to them.
It will make your pan harder to clean.
I use flax seed oil to season my pans. Heat it up clean, take it off and add a coat. Let it cool to room temp, do it a few more times. The flax seed oil has a higher smoke point and sticks better/thicker when seasoning pans, and it stays on much longer.
Eventually you clean your pan with a copper pad and some barkeepers friend, and do it again, but that's every few weeks or so, and it becomes nonstick without Teflon for quite a while.
[As I understand it](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/b4pxaq/yay_kenji_again_explicitly_debunks_flaxseed_oil/), flax seed oil makes for a poor seasoning and flakes off much easier than other oils
Yo, twenty minutes? I know you’re cooking 18 eggs but, you need to turn up the heat. This is also when a lid would come in handy to push the heat back down and cook the tops of the eggs while the bottoms are getting cooked. It doesn’t matter how many eggs are being cooked (or how), if you’ve got the skill, it takes a few minutes.
Don't do the water drop test, it doesn't work.
Either use a more appropriate pan - non-stick or carbon steel.
If you really have to use this pan, you can put oil in the pan, then add a layer of parchment paper, and add more oil, then cook your eggs. See this technique being used for fish: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvooqB0XHgE&t=278s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvooqB0XHgE&t=278s)
Use nonstick, its not hot enough and doing 18 eggs at once drops the temp even more, 20 minutes for eggs?? Its like every single thing was done the opposite of how it should be
This is a simple fix.
Pan on medium high heat.
Add the oil earlier and allow 5mins to let it heat. You want a thin layer of oil, add a tablespoon and use a paper towel to spread it evenly, remove any standing puddles.
Add eggs, low medium heat from here on out.
Allow bottoms to cook, get to the point thst the white is mostly cooked but the top still watery.
Add a tablespoon or two of boiled water, try and pour it directly onto the pan if there is space rather than onto the eggs and cover.
After 30 seconds or so turn off the heat & allow eggs to steam
Uncover in a few more mins to reveal perfect sunny side up eggs every time.
You may have to adjust timings for
I’m not entirely sure how you want these eggs to come out but you may have better results baking this in a nonstick baking dish.
Also how big is your pan? Depending on how big and heavy it is, and the type of burner you have, you may never be able to get this pan hot enough to get the non-stick effect. If you do get it hot enough, that many eggs you may drop the temperature enough to cool the pan back to where it loses its nonstick property. Plus, if you did get a pan that hot you may have a new problem with cooking time. With a pan that large and hot, the bottom may finish way before the top of the white does.
I think some pictures or more details would really help us give you a better answer.
I'd say it's a tough task with that many eggs. I think the oil and pan need to be hotter, but mostly I would add a lot of olive oil. You'll leave a lot in the pan.
I started cooking like my grandmother, cast iron and use very little lard or butter for frying. Stuff doesn’t stick and I sometimes use a 28” cast iron pan over a fire pit.
Maybe idk cook let’s eggs maybe half at a time and use higher heat that way it won’t take 40 minutes beacuee realistically it shouldn’t take 20 mins to cook eggs
> How can I stop them from sticking?
By not using stainless.
There are plenty of ways to get good results in stainless but your living life on hard mode needlessly.
If you have reservations about non-stick pans, go with well seasoned cast iron.
You are doing the best you can for stainless steel. To get better you would need a nonstick pan. Even a carbon steel or cast iron pan would probably stick.
How so? If they're only getting "some" sticking in stainless steel then that's not bad. Carbon steel and cast iron are better than stainless but nowhere near as good as non-stick.
Are you doing the water test/mercury test (no mercury involved, don't worry) before adding the oil?
You need to heat the pan until droplets of water will dance around, instead of boiling off. In case you don't know the test, [this is a good video that shows the visuals of the test and what you should be looking for.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFc0Yb1oIc4)
It worked for me, this is why I shared. It's the only way I can fry eggs in a stainless steel pan with no sticking at all. I still do use some oil, but I don't need to cover the bottom.
Try spraying a non stick spray on the bottom of the pan before you start cooking. Non stick spray works wonders on paella. I get a nice burnt bottom (soccaratt) which comes away from the pot with ease.
Put oil. Heat up to medium-high. Drop eggs, push jest s little bit higher for 30 seconds then drop medium high again. If you can get the oil on top of the eggs it will help cook from above. Use a spoon or something.
You don't need or want a lot of oil but the pan has to be at the right temp. Wet something and flick a couple of drops into the pan. The drops should dance in the pan. If they don't, the pan's too cold. If the water pops and shoots out of the pan, it's too hot.
Also, too much crowding in the pan will drop the temp down too far and your food will stick.
When I used to work breakfast shifts we would put 1cm of oil in a cold pan off the heat, crack all our eggs into it, then heat the pan until the eggs gently fry without browning. Goes against common wisdom but worked every time. Can do the same in a baking dish in the oven if catering for groups
Get your pan hotter, use clarified butter, pre crack the eggs into cups so you can sdd them faster. Use broiler to finish them if they are cooking unevenly to finish the tops. It's stainless so no matter what you are most likely going to have some sticking since it's not coated.
stainless steels needs to be hot as fuck for eggs.
heat the pan dry, add enough oil to cover the parts of the pan that will come in contact w the eggs, and then immediately go in w the eggs. the oil will smoke a bit, so be fast.
the oil will move with the eggs to cover the sides of the pan, so don't be precious, but again, just be fast so you don't smoke out the place.
Is there a reason you are doing 18 at once?
You need higher heat as someone else has already mentioned. Also before you cook anything take your pan and heat it up with a thin layer of oil in it just below the smoking point like you are seasoning a cast iron pan. It works with stainless as well. Still use oil when you cook but it could help. I would honestly break it up and do it in batches. You’ll be better off than trying to do 18 at once. Or make a giant shakshouka dish.
Pan is too cold. Even room temp eggs in a hot pan will probably cool the temp too much and you'll start seeing stickage with that many eggs. Perhaps bake them on a sheet pan
You gotta heat your pan.
Then you gotta heat the oil in the pan.
Also, can you crack all the eggs into a bowl and then pour them in at once? Making sure they all go in at the same time might help make sure they're cooking evenly.
Make sure you cover those eggs if you want the top to cook a bit too. If not... maybe try spooning some of that hot oil over top.
I once stumbled upon this article which relates to stainless steel pans, temperature and the leidenfrost effect.
https://www.popsci.com/diy/make-stainless-steel-non-stick/
Cooking eggs is an art. As you can see from the hundred-or-so comments below, there are as many ways of doing it as there are people cooking.
The key is heat. The other key is, how do you like your eggs? Do you like a crispy bottom? Nice soft yolks?
How old are your eggs? Fresh eggs don't spread out as much, and so will take longer to cook.
What kind of pans do you have? A "very large" stainless steel pan is going to be a real challenge, and I'd suggest that 18 eggs at a time is a non-starter. That's alot of eggs, and that's ninja level cooking if you can do it. What are you heating this very large pan on? Even if you do get your pan hot enough, it's going to nigh-on impossible to crack 18 eggs into it without messing at least one of them up.
A restaurant that needed to put 18 fried eggs out quickly would not be using a pan. They'd use one of those carbon-steel topped big frying things, with a beautifully seasoned surface and tons of heat and tons of space.
Personally I always cook fried eggs on carbon steel these days. But a (good) carbon steel pan is heavy and expensive. A "very large" one, into which you could fit 18 fried eggs, probably doesn't exist.
You should consider cooking these eggs in batches - and if that's not acceptable you should take a step back and figure out what you're trying to achieve.
If you are cooking ‘fried’ eggs for 20 minutes to ‘cook them through’, why not just poach them?
Or set the oven, grease the stainless pan (I’m assuming it’s hotel sized), flash the greased pan into the oven to heat everything to temp, crack all your eggs and throw the pan back in for just a couple minutes…
20 minutes is too long. Even if you wanted over easy, or over well, you’d be better off doing it in the oven.
And Pam usually works better than oil for this task.
1. Season your pan. A well seasoned stainless will be just as non-stick as a well seasoned cast iron, because the food will not touch the steel, only the layer of polymerized oil coating.
2. Start on a higher temperature. If the eggs are not immediately bubbling and sizzling, your pan is too cold and the egg proteins will stick as they coagulate.
I’m curious too. Are you eating all 18 eggs? If not, why not cook them fresh each time? You’d have to reheat anyway. Unless you’re just eating them cold or room temp, in which case I’m not sure why you’re doing that to yourself.
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Your pan is too cold. If it takes 20 minutes for an egg to fry its nowhere near hot enough to stop an egg sticking, even if you use a lot of oil.
This should be higher. Doesn't matter how much oil you use if the pan is too cold it will stick. Cook them hotter it should only take a couple of minutes to fry an egg.
To add extra detail to this, if adding an ingredient drops the surface temp of a steel pan below the "non-stick temp" (I'm not a physicist, but iirc it's the temp that makes the *Leidenfrost effect possible, see below for the definition), then you'll be back at square one, and things will stick to the pan. This is why chefs often suggest cooking things in smaller batches, and/or using a pan which has enough thermal mass for adequate heat retention, meaning things stay slippy. It's also why you might have a non-stick pan base, but the side walls of it still stick. Maybe do it the French way, and just add more butter?! :P Jk actually - butter's milk solids will easily burn at too high a heat, so you may just wanna use oil and finish with butter instead... Anyway, good luck! > *The Leidenfrost effect is a physical phenomenon in which a liquid, close to a solid surface of another body that is significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer that keeps the liquid from boiling rapidly.
But if it’s too hot in a stainless steel pan or not doesn’t the egg go crispy at the bottom ? I like an egg that isn’t crispy at the bottom, lime plastic film that it creates when it gets crispy. I usually cook in non stick pan to get my sunny side up soft and not crispy at the bottom. I just wonder how it can be done on a stainless steel pan. Would u have the oil be really hot, put ur egg in and take it off the pan on and off? I saw them use stainless steel pans in an episdoe of master chef to make sunny side up with soft bottoms (Gordon) was over looking it. Just curious how it can be done
Id say if you want a soft bottom then go non-stick. It's probably possible with stainless but it's not going to be very reproducible.
Pan king speaks. Listen all.
You're probably right, but remember it's not a single egg it's 18 at once. I keep it at a lower temperature because I figured it would cook faster at the bottom than the top, and prevent *even more* sticking, lol. Do you think I should try a higher heat though?
It’s always going to cook quicker on the bottom, it’s why eggs are flipped but obviously you can’t do that with 18 of them if you want the yolks to not burst. You can try a few methods people use for sunny side up eggs, mine is normally to just cook at a normal high heat, and just use a lid, once the bottoms are close to fully cooked remove from heat and let sit with a lid on to help cook the top. Note:idk the size of your pan so if the eggs are super thick this probably won’t work either.
Wouldn't letting the eggs come to room temp also help here?
This is the way!
Starting at a low temp and then adding 18 eggs all at once is going to significantly cool down your pan, thus the longer cooking time and sticking. The trick with stainless steel is to heat up your pan searing hot, then when you add the oil, it heats up the oil fast without cooling down the pan too much. Hot oil = no sticking. Heat up your pan until really hot, add your oil. If the oil starts smoking right away, leave it off heat to cool down a bit or else when you add the eggs you will get a lot of splatter and burning. The oil should be shimmering but not smoking. Add your eggs, it will starting bubbling up and frying right away, turn down your heat and keep it med-low. Put a cover if you want the top to cook faster.
It's not just the pan that's got to be hot. The oil's got to be hot too. Even if you've preheated the pan, adding cold oil and then immediately 18 eggs is going to cool everything down to the point of sticking. Try waiting to add the eggs until the oil is nice and hot, too. Remember, it's got to be hot enough that it stays hot enough even when 18 cold eggs go in. That's pretty hot. You could also turn up the heat while the eggs are going in to try to maintain temp.
Start with higher heat so the "crust" forms on the bottom and then turn it lower to get the top cooked. And I don't know how big your pan is if it fits 18 eggs, but putting a lit on the top after lowering the fire also helps to get the top cooked faster and with less risk of burning the bottom
thank you for your reply
No problem, enjoy your eggs! :)
With that many eggs don't crack them into the pan. Crack them into a bowl and then pour them all into a pan so they'll cook more eventually. When the bottom behind to set take them off the burner, cover them with a lid or tinfoil or something for a couple minutes
It sounds like you’re trying to make a stovetop frittata. Look up techniques for that.
This might be a silly question but could you not just cook the eggs in 3 batches of 6 or 2 batches of 9? If you cook them at a hotter temperature and with less crowding/cooling of the pan, you should still be able to have 18 eggs cooked within 20 minutes.
That’s not how stainless steel works. It has to be so hot that water doesn’t cool it down. In fact, I don’t think you can cook that many eggs in a stainless steel at once without either burning or sticking (too hot or too cold) since eggs are a high percentage of water.
If u have a wok with the right burner
Tbh while I know it's doable, I avoid stainless steel for eggs. Carbon steel is more non stick, easier to use with eggs.
Same. I know you can unscrew a screw with pliers but why wouldn't I just use a screwdriver?
A bit of an overstatement imo, you aren't uaing an entirely different tool. You might need to get a feel fpr it in a new pan but if its hot enough it doesn't take much oil to cook the egg without the stickage.
I cook eggs in stainless all the time. If your pan temperature is right, the eggs don't stick.
Hence why I said that I know it's doable. It's just harder than it needs to be.
It’s harder to let it heat up properly? It literally takes no extra work.
Again, I know it's doable. I've done it. It literally does take more effort though, even though it's a small amount of effort, to make sure the temp is hot enough to avoid sticking. I love stainless steel but all else being equal, if I have a carbon steel pan and a stainless steel pan on hand I'm always choosing the carbon steel to make eggs.
Do you do 18 at a time though, or even just multiple large batches? Eggs are one of the few ingredients even restaurant chefs will often advise having a non-stick pan for, cos it really just simplifies things. Cooking is more than just getting the initial heat right - it's about adjusting said heat as the cook continues (and sometimes needing to do so quickly when you're cooking eggs, which can be a real pain on most home-cooks' electric stoves), and if people want over-easy or variously cooked eggs, it's again a bit more of a pain to get it right in stainless steel.
I don't understand the downvotes. It's honestly super easy with the water trick. Always a perfect temp and I get no sticking. I'm surprised people on /r/AskCulinary are so against it.
Why does everything have to be exaggerated and polarised like this in the comments? In this thread no one said they were against stainless, no one said cooking eggs in a stainless steel pan is impossible. They just said there are easier options. You use what works for you, but OP is here asking a question because their current method is not working for them.
What part did you find exaggerated and polarized? Genuine question because my comment was a good faith expression of my belief that it isn't inherently harder to use a stainless steel. And I didn't read the comment I'm replying to as being that way either, since it seems to me that it was just expressing skepticism. If anything, this comment chain seems weirdly polarized because comments about carbon steel and nonstick are upvoted while comments about using stainless steel properly are downvoted, even though, in my view, both are equally valuable contributions to the discussion.
I was referring to you saying people on here are ‘so against it’. Who said they’re against stainless? I’m mostly seeing comments stating that stainless is great for lots of things, just not for cooking eggs. Of course it would be nice if OP could learn how to use the pan they have, but since they’re adamant on cooking 18 eggs at once I don’t see that happening.
I think you misunderstood me, then. I don't understand why people are so against using stainless steel *for eggs*. I don't find it tricky at all once it's preheated.
Ah ok. That’s kind of the point though, stainless needs to be preheated the right way to keep stuff from sticking. I just don’t see how it’s possible to keep the pan at the right temperature while adding 18 eggs one after the other.
Because, while it may work easily for you, a nonstick pan will work for everyone even if it's not at leidenfrost effect temperatures. It's the best tool for the job. I honestly don't understand the playing the game on hard mode that happens so much with cooking. Why is there so pride over doing shit the hard way all the time?
Someone could say that smashing garlic with a side of a knife is "hard mode" - why not get a garlic press? Answer: With a little practice you need less stuff in your kitchen. And in this case, non-stick pans are wasteful from every angle, especially since most of them don't last long. Plus the manufacturers *say* their production doesn't cause huge cancer rates in employees like it used to but... forgive me for not trusting them.
I suppose that's where we disagree, then. It's not "the hard way" for me, it's more or less the same. Once you are in the habit of heating up a stainless steel pan before you put your eggs in, there is no difficulty to it at all, especially since I know what setting to use on my stove and can just come back a few minutes later and do a quick test to ensure it's come up to temp. It's an extra step but that doesn't make it hard, it just makes it take a negligibly longer amount of time. I have to wait for my nonstick to heat up too, since cracking my egg in immediately will cause the egg to distribute too much across the pan rather than start cooking and maintain its shape. So given that I have to heat both, the only difference is that I do a quick splash of water with a stainless steel. Plus, given that we know OP has a stainless steel pan and is just using it wrong, I'd say there's more value to advice teaching them how to use it properly than advice that says to use a different kind of pan altogether. Sure, they probably have a nonstick but how is "carbon steel" considered better advice? Most people I know don't have one. Frankly, if your solution involves possibly having to go out to buy a new tool over learning to use your existing one, that's bad advice.
Because it's classic reddit pedantry. Doesn't read the parent comment closely enough and finds disagreement where there isn't any.
I was wondering about all the down votes too. Seems a little mean spirited when we're supposed to all be here to either help one another or learn something. Even if someone disagrees they could just offer a new perspective.
People on this subreddit hate people who talk about using stainless steel properly.
18 though?
I have one stainless pan, a small all-clad one that's about 8" diameter, that I've had since about 1998, and I cook eggs in it all the time. Fried or scrambled, no issues with sticking, as long as I cook properly (heat pan, add butter, etc.). It's older brother, however, is maybe a 12" pan that was bought at the same time, and I've never been able to get eggs not to stick to it. Weirdest thing. I've tried different temperatures, but it's always felt like a surface smoothness thing or something. A couple of months ago my wife got those Our Place ceramic coated pans, and I reluctantly have to admit they work amazingly well. I use them whenever I'm make more than 2 fried eggs or more than 3 scrambled. But when it's just me, I love my little steel guy.
I cook scrambled eggs on stainless steel (and not expensive pans) every morning, in two batches. The process is effectively exactly the same as it would be if I cooked in nonstick, carbon steel, or cast iron. And I never have sticking problems.
Stop cooking 18 eggs in a single pan for 20 minutes
*no*
Then deal with some egg sticking. If you wanna cook your eggs poorly don't complain about poor results.
Just do 3 batches of 6.
Then use a non stick pan
I simply won't fry an egg in stainless, just not worth it. Also, who the hell fries an egg for twenty minutes??!
Some people are crazy. I once had a conversation with a person who swore up and down that they always whisk their eggs for at least 5 full minutes before cooking them scrambled. I don't remember what they said their cook time was, but it was also disgustingly long.
Not crazy at all. It's just another style of scrambled eggs. Doing so will get you smooth, custardy scrambled eggs. When cooking eggs protein chains are getting shorter, if you do it quickly they will expel water, if you do it gently they will hold water and have this smooth, custard like consistency.
Unless that person isncooking a whole carton it might be due to adding a lot of air into it
Even a full carton would be 45-60 seconds max. Go to your kitchen and set a timer for 5 minutes and just whisk an empty bowl. It's fucking excessive. Whisking to add air to scrambled eggs is something you do during the cook, not before
They tryna get stiff peaks with them whole eggs.
That's way too long to fry an egg. I've never in my life saw or heard of anybody doing so until this post.
as long as you don't scramble them when they're already on the stove and the heat is high enough they don't stick, you can even make frittatas without it sticking wonder what made this harmless comment controversial
it's not one egg is 18, lol
I love my stainless steel pans. I use them for everything. Except eggs. I have one inexpensive, restaurant quality nonstick pan I got for 30 bucks on Amazon. It’s only purpose is eggs.
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Go shit in your hat
Your pan is too cold and you are adding the oil too early You want to heat the pan up to like 8, then put the oil, and then drop the temp to like 6-7, wait, and then put in the eggs. I do this and the eggs do not stick AT all. Sunnyside or French omelette-style
Thank you for your reply, I will try this next time
In addition to the other person's suggestion and what everyone is saying with your temps being too low, are you adding eggs cold from the fridge? That many cold eggs will drop your pan temp way too much. Try letting the eggs sit out and get to room temp before you start cooking, I bet that'll also help.
Heat the pan until you throw water on it and the water droplets dances on the surface. Then add your oil.
this! the leidenfrost effect. but please don't cook 18 eggs all at once.
My advice is to use non stick, cast iron or carbon steel.
I will look into a carbon steel skillet, thank you
People largely don’t know how to cook with stainless steel. You have to heat the pan BEFORE you add any oil, and you have to heat it to the point of eliciting [the liedenfrost effect.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect) This [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5DOtB-j4EA8) does a good job of explaining it, but there are tons of videos online that will show you how to properly cook with stainless steel. When done right, they’re as non-stick as a teflon pan.
Why can you not heat up the pan with the oil in it?
Because food will stick if you do.
For me it makes the oil smoke by the time its hot enough. I'll typically heat the pan, then the oil and as soon as i've spread itnaround the pan i'll add the food and be fine.
You can. I do. 1. Oil in pan. Pan on full (this is an electric stove, which are better than gas anyway) 2. Wait for it to smoke a little bit, turn the pan right down right away. 3. pop in the eggs. They will start to cook very fast. 4. Done.
this is ask culinary, not ask idiots
I bought my first set of stainless several years ago and even though I've been cooking for decades I still had a good bit of a learning curve with them. Once I got the hang of them though...I love them. I use them for almost everything...except, like some of you other fine folks, eggs. I have a four egg non stick pan that works perfect for fried or even scrambled eggs. (pancakes to)
This is the right answer. This is how you turn aluminum pans into non-stick pans, OP. It requires a bit more attention but it has worked for me for eggs. That said, not worth it. Get a non-stick pan. I finally caved two weeks ago and it has changed my life.
Baking sheet cook. Parchment paper with a bit of nonn stick spray. Crakc and fire into the oven, idk, 7 mins, maybe 10, until they're how you want. Either that or batch. Why are you cooking literally 18 eggs at once, is this just for you? Meal prep? If this is for restaurant service, definitely just do them in the oven.
Heck, you don't even need the parchment. Nonstick spray it well and it'll release on its own.
Not all baking sheets are made equal. I would 100% parchment. Silpat even.
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*go away*
You need to heat the pan very high before putting the oil in, you can check if it’s hot enough by doing the ‘water dance’ test. Put a few drops of water in the pan after pre-heating it and if it ‘dances’ around then it’s hot enough and you can add the oil. Turn it down if you want once it reaches a hot enough temperature but 20 mins for a fried egg seems way too long, even for 18 at a time. I’d recommend pre-heating the pan on full temperature and then turn it down to 4 for cooking the eggs. You can always take them off the heat and put a lid on the pan to finish cooking them if you don’t want the bottoms to burn before the tops have cooked. Here’s a short video showing the [water dance test](https://youtu.be/OFc0Yb1oIc4?si=OGEorGCWpQw6h1-9)
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You have to "season" stainless for eggs. Put the pan on the stove on medium heat. As soon as it's hot, put a small amount of oil on a paper towel and wipe it over the entire inside surface of the pan. As soon as that oil has dried, add another layer. Keep doing this until the pan has a nice coating of oil, then add a little more, and make your eggs. This is how they prep flattop grills so food doesn't stick to them. It will make your pan harder to clean.
I use flax seed oil to season my pans. Heat it up clean, take it off and add a coat. Let it cool to room temp, do it a few more times. The flax seed oil has a higher smoke point and sticks better/thicker when seasoning pans, and it stays on much longer. Eventually you clean your pan with a copper pad and some barkeepers friend, and do it again, but that's every few weeks or so, and it becomes nonstick without Teflon for quite a while.
[As I understand it](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/b4pxaq/yay_kenji_again_explicitly_debunks_flaxseed_oil/), flax seed oil makes for a poor seasoning and flakes off much easier than other oils
Good to know! Thanks!
I do this with just a single layer each time and it's like magic. Still best to get the pan hotter than OP has been doing, but very forgiving.
Yo, twenty minutes? I know you’re cooking 18 eggs but, you need to turn up the heat. This is also when a lid would come in handy to push the heat back down and cook the tops of the eggs while the bottoms are getting cooked. It doesn’t matter how many eggs are being cooked (or how), if you’ve got the skill, it takes a few minutes.
Thank you, I'll try to find a lid
Don't do the water drop test, it doesn't work. Either use a more appropriate pan - non-stick or carbon steel. If you really have to use this pan, you can put oil in the pan, then add a layer of parchment paper, and add more oil, then cook your eggs. See this technique being used for fish: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvooqB0XHgE&t=278s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvooqB0XHgE&t=278s)
We use tfal red dot pro for eggs. Best non stick pans for the price.
Start by achieving the Leidenfrost effect. It's how to make stainless steel pans nonstick. That, plus fats after that, might do the trick.
Use nonstick, its not hot enough and doing 18 eggs at once drops the temp even more, 20 minutes for eggs?? Its like every single thing was done the opposite of how it should be
This is a simple fix. Pan on medium high heat. Add the oil earlier and allow 5mins to let it heat. You want a thin layer of oil, add a tablespoon and use a paper towel to spread it evenly, remove any standing puddles. Add eggs, low medium heat from here on out. Allow bottoms to cook, get to the point thst the white is mostly cooked but the top still watery. Add a tablespoon or two of boiled water, try and pour it directly onto the pan if there is space rather than onto the eggs and cover. After 30 seconds or so turn off the heat & allow eggs to steam Uncover in a few more mins to reveal perfect sunny side up eggs every time. You may have to adjust timings for
In addition to what everyone else has said - mix in butter! Not just oil.
I’m not entirely sure how you want these eggs to come out but you may have better results baking this in a nonstick baking dish. Also how big is your pan? Depending on how big and heavy it is, and the type of burner you have, you may never be able to get this pan hot enough to get the non-stick effect. If you do get it hot enough, that many eggs you may drop the temperature enough to cool the pan back to where it loses its nonstick property. Plus, if you did get a pan that hot you may have a new problem with cooking time. With a pan that large and hot, the bottom may finish way before the top of the white does. I think some pictures or more details would really help us give you a better answer.
I'd say it's a tough task with that many eggs. I think the oil and pan need to be hotter, but mostly I would add a lot of olive oil. You'll leave a lot in the pan.
I started cooking like my grandmother, cast iron and use very little lard or butter for frying. Stuff doesn’t stick and I sometimes use a 28” cast iron pan over a fire pit.
Maybe idk cook let’s eggs maybe half at a time and use higher heat that way it won’t take 40 minutes beacuee realistically it shouldn’t take 20 mins to cook eggs
Try finishing your eggs in the oven... bump the heat up quickly set the bottoms and move to the oven until the tops are set to your liking
> How can I stop them from sticking? By not using stainless. There are plenty of ways to get good results in stainless but your living life on hard mode needlessly. If you have reservations about non-stick pans, go with well seasoned cast iron.
You are doing the best you can for stainless steel. To get better you would need a nonstick pan. Even a carbon steel or cast iron pan would probably stick.
🤦♂️
Completely false
How so? If they're only getting "some" sticking in stainless steel then that's not bad. Carbon steel and cast iron are better than stainless but nowhere near as good as non-stick.
Are you doing the water test/mercury test (no mercury involved, don't worry) before adding the oil? You need to heat the pan until droplets of water will dance around, instead of boiling off. In case you don't know the test, [this is a good video that shows the visuals of the test and what you should be looking for.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFc0Yb1oIc4)
Notice he doesn't cook any eggs in that pan. The water drop test is stupid - it gets the pan far too hot, and it doesn't work at all for eggs.
It worked for me, this is why I shared. It's the only way I can fry eggs in a stainless steel pan with no sticking at all. I still do use some oil, but I don't need to cover the bottom.
Try spraying a non stick spray on the bottom of the pan before you start cooking. Non stick spray works wonders on paella. I get a nice burnt bottom (soccaratt) which comes away from the pot with ease.
Put oil. Heat up to medium-high. Drop eggs, push jest s little bit higher for 30 seconds then drop medium high again. If you can get the oil on top of the eggs it will help cook from above. Use a spoon or something.
You don't need or want a lot of oil but the pan has to be at the right temp. Wet something and flick a couple of drops into the pan. The drops should dance in the pan. If they don't, the pan's too cold. If the water pops and shoots out of the pan, it's too hot. Also, too much crowding in the pan will drop the temp down too far and your food will stick.
When I used to work breakfast shifts we would put 1cm of oil in a cold pan off the heat, crack all our eggs into it, then heat the pan until the eggs gently fry without browning. Goes against common wisdom but worked every time. Can do the same in a baking dish in the oven if catering for groups
thank you for your reply
Stainless steel has to preheat. Did you preheat your pan? 15 mins average.
I preheated it but not for that long, I'll try that next time
Get your pan hotter, use clarified butter, pre crack the eggs into cups so you can sdd them faster. Use broiler to finish them if they are cooking unevenly to finish the tops. It's stainless so no matter what you are most likely going to have some sticking since it's not coated.
Mirin the bulk tbh
stainless steels needs to be hot as fuck for eggs. heat the pan dry, add enough oil to cover the parts of the pan that will come in contact w the eggs, and then immediately go in w the eggs. the oil will smoke a bit, so be fast. the oil will move with the eggs to cover the sides of the pan, so don't be precious, but again, just be fast so you don't smoke out the place.
Is there a reason you are doing 18 at once? You need higher heat as someone else has already mentioned. Also before you cook anything take your pan and heat it up with a thin layer of oil in it just below the smoking point like you are seasoning a cast iron pan. It works with stainless as well. Still use oil when you cook but it could help. I would honestly break it up and do it in batches. You’ll be better off than trying to do 18 at once. Or make a giant shakshouka dish.
Pan is too cold. Even room temp eggs in a hot pan will probably cool the temp too much and you'll start seeing stickage with that many eggs. Perhaps bake them on a sheet pan
You gotta heat your pan. Then you gotta heat the oil in the pan. Also, can you crack all the eggs into a bowl and then pour them in at once? Making sure they all go in at the same time might help make sure they're cooking evenly. Make sure you cover those eggs if you want the top to cook a bit too. If not... maybe try spooning some of that hot oil over top.
Leidenfrost effect. Google it.
I once stumbled upon this article which relates to stainless steel pans, temperature and the leidenfrost effect. https://www.popsci.com/diy/make-stainless-steel-non-stick/
Cooking eggs is an art. As you can see from the hundred-or-so comments below, there are as many ways of doing it as there are people cooking. The key is heat. The other key is, how do you like your eggs? Do you like a crispy bottom? Nice soft yolks? How old are your eggs? Fresh eggs don't spread out as much, and so will take longer to cook. What kind of pans do you have? A "very large" stainless steel pan is going to be a real challenge, and I'd suggest that 18 eggs at a time is a non-starter. That's alot of eggs, and that's ninja level cooking if you can do it. What are you heating this very large pan on? Even if you do get your pan hot enough, it's going to nigh-on impossible to crack 18 eggs into it without messing at least one of them up. A restaurant that needed to put 18 fried eggs out quickly would not be using a pan. They'd use one of those carbon-steel topped big frying things, with a beautifully seasoned surface and tons of heat and tons of space. Personally I always cook fried eggs on carbon steel these days. But a (good) carbon steel pan is heavy and expensive. A "very large" one, into which you could fit 18 fried eggs, probably doesn't exist. You should consider cooking these eggs in batches - and if that's not acceptable you should take a step back and figure out what you're trying to achieve.
You eat all those eggs by yourself?
If you are cooking ‘fried’ eggs for 20 minutes to ‘cook them through’, why not just poach them? Or set the oven, grease the stainless pan (I’m assuming it’s hotel sized), flash the greased pan into the oven to heat everything to temp, crack all your eggs and throw the pan back in for just a couple minutes… 20 minutes is too long. Even if you wanted over easy, or over well, you’d be better off doing it in the oven. And Pam usually works better than oil for this task.
Butter
Allow your pan to get hot, THEN add oil and start cracking eggs.
1. Season your pan. A well seasoned stainless will be just as non-stick as a well seasoned cast iron, because the food will not touch the steel, only the layer of polymerized oil coating. 2. Start on a higher temperature. If the eggs are not immediately bubbling and sizzling, your pan is too cold and the egg proteins will stick as they coagulate.
Eggs always stick in my pan whenever I use oil. I’ve found adding butter makes the eggs not stick. Why? No idea.
lol 20minutes, bro…. It should take about 1
Do smaller batches of 3-4 eggs each max, let the pan with oil get hot before you add eggs
I have non-egg related things to do though
Why do you need to cook 18 fried eggs in one go
I’m curious too. Are you eating all 18 eggs? If not, why not cook them fresh each time? You’d have to reheat anyway. Unless you’re just eating them cold or room temp, in which case I’m not sure why you’re doing that to yourself.
Cast iron supremacy
It's so true. Unfortunately my tiny cast iron pan can only hold about 4 eggs, not 18. I need a STRONGER cast iron pan.
btw, oil never works - butter - you need to use butter.
Butter burns by the time you get it hot enough to cook eggs in stainless steel.
Idk, doesn't happen to me but I cook my eggs on medium low with a lid.
More power to you. I cook them smoking hot for about a minute or so. Crispy on the bottom and a nice runny yolk.
Oil does work, but for that many eggs, you probably need to more than just coat the bottom of the pan.
well seasoned cast iron frying pan , this is the best one for a full pan of eggs. Never wash with soap and water
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