You Can Totally Cook Eggs In a Stainless Steel Pan
The easiest way to test if your pan is hot enough to cook an egg is to add a drop of water to it. If it sizzles and steams, your pan is not hot enough, and the Leidenfrost effect has not occurred. But if that drop of water seizes up into a little ball that rolls around the pan, you’re ready for action. If it breaks up into a bunch of little balls, however, the pan is too hot. Let it cool and try again. (This test is often called “the mercury ball test,” because the ball of water kind of looks and behaves like a drop of mercury.)
You gotta add a little fat
Once your pan has passed the mercury ball test, you can add some fat. You don’t need a lot. Oil works best, as the heat required to create the Leidenfrost effect will burn butter, but that can be fun if you like a fried egg with deeply browned, crispy edges.
The fat provides moisture but won’t ball up and dance around, creating an even protective layer between the food and the pan, and allowing you to scramble or fry to your heart’s content without any stickage. (Fat also conducts heat, which is famously helpful when cooking food.)
Even cheesy scrambled eggs, which provide multiple oppurtunites for stickage, lift off a properly heated stainless steel pan with ease. Don’t believe me? Look at the pan I scrambled these eggs in.
Putting it all together
You don’t actually have to understand the Leidenfrost effect, or any science at all, to fry an egg in a stainless steel pan. All you have to do is the following:
- Heat your naked pan over medium-high heat, adding drops of water until one balls up and dances around the pan like you see in the video above.
- Add a little oil, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan, and let it warm for about five seconds.
- Add your eggs and cook as usual, keeping in mind that they will cook quite quickly, thanks to the high temperatures needed to created a (virtually) nonstick surface.
That’s it. You should now feel empowered to fry eggs in the most intimidating egg frying pan around. (And, just maybe, stick your hand in molten lead.)
