I follow the instructions for proper use of a stainless steel pan but for whatever reason, I find that food still sticks so I get discouraged from using it. I am not sure if I’m doing something wrong 🤔
Any tips or tricks are greatly appreciated <3
In: Other
Yeah, that happens. I don’t want to invoke too much esoteric chemistry, here. In short the pan has a thin layer of chromium oxides on it’s surface that form as a reaction of chromium in the steel with oxygen and moisture. This layer is highly inert, unlike iron oxides, so it seals the surface and stops further oxidation, like a coat of paint, but better.
However the oxygen atoms bonded with chromium have a negative change. That causes water molecules and particularly proteins which have some positive charges, to be attracted to the negative oxide layer. Likewise the chromium atoms have a positive charge so they attract negatively charged oxygen atoms in water.
Another thing that happens is mechanical adhesion where liquids flow into small scratches, valleys, and divots in the surface, then cooking causes the liquids to solidify or dry out. This locks the two materials together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Eggs, for example.
Nonstick pans typically have a coating of a slippery plastic called poly-tetrafluroethylene or PTFE. PTFE has a lot of cabon-fluorine bonds which are generally the second strongest bonds on nature, second only to the bonds in graphite. This causes it to be very repellent to liquids. Any molecules with charged regions like water actually experience a slight repulsive force from PTFE whether positive or negative. Thus liquids simply skate around on top of the PTFE layer and have little physical contact due to surface tension. More specifically there’s typically a layer of gases and molecules called hydrophobic surfactants (mainly fatty acid derivatives) that form between the PTFE layer and any water based liquids. This stops both chemical and mechanical adhesion. Although older pans where the plastic layer has been heavily scratched and scored may still experience mechanical sticking of foods.
Now, cast iron pans typically have the granddaddy of all nonstick coatings. Usually they’re sandblasted in order to actually increase surface roughness and porosity. This is because iron can act as a catalyst which causes certain vegetables oils (specifically those with poly-unsaturated fats like soybean oil) to polymerize by forming lots of *cross-links* with oxygen. This causes the oil to solidify into a soft, flexible, oily, gel with a brown color. These days it’s usual for the factory to sandblast then coat the parts with food grade flaxseed oil, poppy seed oil or soy oil. The the pans are baked for several hours to speed the “drying” of the oil coating.
This prevents sticking due to the normal repulsion of water and oil. With cast iron
You could in theory season a stainless steel pan in the same way. Although you’d be wise to either sandblast or heavily scuff the inside surface with a power sander and a scotch-brite pad. The point of this would be to increase the adhesion of the oil coating so it didn’t flake off.
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