How To Clean Eggs Off Stainless Steel Pan

The other night I was making eggs when this happened. My stainless steel frying pan ended up with a thin layer of burnt eggs on the bottom and sides that was very difficult for me to scrape off or wash.

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That thin layer of eggs sure was a pain. So I did some research and decided to test out the simplest solution to this problem of them all. Happily for me, it worked.

If you've found yourself in a similar situation, I'one thousand going to assist y'all go out of information technology; simply with tap water and in less than 10 minutes.

How can you clean burnt eggs off a stainless steel frying pan?

To clean burnt eggs off a stainless steel pan, pour enough water to cover the afflicted areas and bring to a boil on high heat. Let boil for 2-3 minutes and use a wooden or silicone spatula to scrape the eggs off. Clean the pan by mitt in soapy h2o.

Some authors that I read recommended soaking the pan in soapy water for a couple of hours. Others wrote about making a bootleg cleaning solution with white vinegar or baking soda.

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Though all of them had shared good ideas with solid reasoning, I found that the simplest approach of them all—filling your frying pan with tap water and bringing it to a boil for 2-3 minutes—worked out ameliorate than I expected. And so I didn't even think of trying the rest.

Professional chefs call this technique "deglazing" and they really apply it to make pan sauces on the fly. Deglazing works but besides for cleaning your frying pan as information technology does for making a sauce out of the food residuum stuck to information technology.

When you deglaze a frying pan, you lot add cold liquid to it while it's notwithstanding hot, turning up the estrus on your cooktop to high.

As a result, you'll become a lot of steam (then make sure to turn on your kitchen vent fan to the highest setting if you have one) and the food residue in the pan will lift off from its bottom or sides, with the smallest food particles dissolving into the boiling water.

And then utilise this technique for burnt eggs or whenever any food burns and gets stuck on the lesser and/or sides of your frying pan.

It'southward and so unproblematic and and so powerful, information technology's almost difficult to believe it works then well (and in less than 10 minutes).

Hither are my step-by-stride instructions (with photos):

How to Clean Burnt Eggs Off a Stainless Steel Frying Pan

This simple technique is and so powerful, you lot're going to have a hard time believing it until y'all try information technology out for yourself.

Active Fourth dimension 10 mins

Full Time 10 mins

Frying pan
Non-scratch scrub sponge

For Deglazing the Pan

ii cups tap water

For Cleaning the Pan

i piece not-scratch scrub sponge
one squeeze dish soap

Deglaze the Pan

Don't endeavor to scrape the burnt eggs off of your frying pan as you risk to scratch and damage its cooking surface.
While your pan is however hot, add together two cups of h2o (or enough to embrace the bottom and sides) and plough the heat on your cooktop upwards to high.
Permit boil for 2-iii minutes. Use a wooden or silicone spatula, pressing down to scrape off the sparse layer of burnt eggs that was stick to the cooking surface.

Clean the Pan by Hand in Soapy Water

In your kitchen sink, drain the water from the pan. Use a drain strainer (or cascade the water from the hurting into a sieve) as all the egg residue will autumn right into your kitchen sink.
At this stage, only a niggling burnt egg residue should be left on the bottom and/or sides of your frying pan. This residue is piece of cake to clean off past paw.
Using dish soap and a scrub sponge, cover the pan in soapy water and let sit for 2-iii minutes. Then scrub the pan clean. Some areas may demand more persistent scrubbing than others.
You're done! Thank you to the magic of deglazing, your stainless steel frying pan should now look equally good every bit new.

If yous are like me, you lot're not going to stop there, though.

Every bit soon as I managed to clean the burnt eggs off of my stainless steel frying pan, I started asking myself…

Why do eggs get stuck to your frying pan in the outset identify? And is there anything that I can do the next time I make eggs to prevent that from happening?

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Why Eggs Get Stuck to Your Stainless Steel Frying Pan

When you lot cook eggs in a stainless steel frying pan, the proteins in the egg will grade chemic bonds with the surface of the pan. Whereas the non-stick coating on teflon and ceramic pans interferes with that reaction, stainless steel frying pans have a cooking surface of blank steel.

Steel as well expands and contracts as it heats up and cools downwards. Though your stainless steel pan looks smooth and shiny to the naked middle, it's actually covered with microscopic imperfections that get bigger and smaller equally you utilize the pan and change the heat on your cooktop.

Calculation cold ingredients to a hot frying pan will cause information technology to lose temperature, which will then crusade these microscopic dents and scratches to contract—catching onto the nutrient that you're cooking and causing it to get stuck.

How to prevent this?

To continue eggs from sticking to your stainless steel frying pan, glaze the cooking surface of the pan with plenty butter or oil and allow it to preheat (2-three minutes on most cooktops) for enough time.

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Afterwards yous pour the eggs into the pan, let them melt and solidify for a while earlier stirring them with a spatula. The better the proteins in the eggs have cooked, the less they'll go stuck to the bottom and sides of your pan after you stir them.

Of class, the extent to which yous're willing to melt your eggs depends on what recipe y'all're making and how y'all like them.

The Bottom Line

Cleaning burnt eggs of your stainless steel pan is easier than it seems. Just use the technique that professional chefs call deglazing to become the burnt eggs unstuck from the pan. Then make clean your pan by hand with soapy h2o and a scrub sponge.

To go on eggs from sticking to your pan in the first place, make certain to coat it with butter or cooking oil and preheat information technology for 2-3 minutes before you add the eggs in.

Tried this technique? Permit me and the residual of this mail service's readers know how it turned out for y'all by leaving a annotate beneath.

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Jim Stonos

Founding Editor

When Jim isn't in the kitchen, he is ordinarily spending time with family and friends, and working with the HCW editorial team to answer the questions he used to ask himself back when he was learning the ropes of cooking.