Not only how to remove the egg you accidentally burned on your stainless steel pan (ahem), more importantly I’m sharing tips on how to prevent it from happening again!

Oh boy.

Yes, so this has been happening a lot lately and wasn’t sure why…

Where’s Alton Brown when you need him?? I bet he has all the answers to why this is going on!

Anyway, this happened a few times because I didn’t make the research into this topic a high priority. But last week when it happened again, and found myself scrubbing the pan again, it swiftly made its way to the top of my list! I not only wanted to spend a few moments to find out the why part, but also how to easily clean my pan. What I didn’t realize through my research is that the cleaning process may play a part into why my egg is burned. And that’s why I’m sharing this helpful post with you guys – both components are equally important.

Just in time for that Mother’s Day brunch you have planned!

First I’ll share how to easily clean the pan with only 3 ingredients you already have in the house. I had two pans to clean, one was worse than the other.

What you’ll need…

1 Cup of Vinegar

2 Tablespoons of Baking Soda

Water

Sponge or Scrubber

To start, add a layer of water to cover the bottom of your pan and add 1 cup of vinegar. Put your pan on the stove over medium heat until it begins to boil…

Once boiling, turn off the heat and add 2 tablespoons of baking soda. It will foam and bubble, so add each tablespoon slowly…

Then remove it from the stovetop and let it sit until warm enough for you to scrub, keeping the water mixture in the pan as your cleaning agent.

This was my result after one go round…

With minimal arm effort, quite a bit was removed. After one more cleaning round, we were back in business…

If you find your egg is burned on quite a bit more and you’re really struggling, I’ve heard good things about Bar Keepers Friend, and have used it myself in the past. However, a word of caution – and why I didn’t go there from the beginning – in my research I discovered that abrasives in your stainless steel pan may be part of what’s contributing to food sticking in the first place. So use cautiously and sparingly.

You can also make a paste from baking soda mixed with a little water and use that to clean your pan. It’s less abrasive.

Moving on to how we can prevent the egg from burning in the first place…there was a ton info available so I decided to bullet point the tips that resonated. These are also the tips that seemed to be agreed upon by a lot of folks sharing or commenting.

• If you think about it, eggs are the glue in nearly every recipe that calls for them. So naturally, cooking them in a pan will cause them to stick. The best way to avoid sticking is to cook slowly over the right temp and to not bother them too much during the initial cooking process.
• Cooking eggs correctly in a stainless pan involves starting at the right temperature, which appears to be about 320 degrees. A good test to know your pan is ready or the temp is correct is to drop water into the pan – if it stays in a ball and rolls around in the pan, it’s just right.
• A decent percentage of people feel negatively about non-stick pans for cooking eggs – or anything really. Personally, in the past I’ve owned non-stick pans, but don’t have any now. I have a set of stainless steel pots and pans as well as a few ceramic cookware pieces. There’s a lot of opinions on the topic of non-stick and it’s a debate that isn’t appropriate here on my blog. Everyone has an opinion on the matter of health issues related to using non-stick. I say, do what you want. But there was a lot of chatter about it during my research, so it was a good point to bring here.
• To spray or to oil or to butter? There was a lot of discussion about this as well. Some felt butter was a healthier option for cooking over the stove, as opposed to a Pam-type spray that comes from an aerosol can. But the real issue with spray was in regards to the way it ultimately affects your pan. Much of the info I read suggested spraying your pans will only damage their finish over time. Which brings me to my next point…
• Seasoning your pan is important and a well-seasoned pan has less of a chance to burn your food. Most pans don’t require a thorough scrub-down to the point of brand new perfection. Pans really need to stay seasoned…so after cleaning out the food remnants, it’s important to season your pans to keep them in great shape for their next cooking session.

Finally, I thought this tip from this feed was excellent – “An ex-girlfriend’s mom used to be a short-order cook and I learned the best way of frying eggs from her. Crack the eggs into any pan, let them set or crisp edge, then pour about a shot of water per egg between the eggs into the pan (some use butter). Cover the pan for a few minutes and voila. This works with sticky pans as well; if I’m frying one or two eggs I use a 10″ All-Clad LTD and a lid from a 3Q saucepan. Never a stuck egg in my 15 years of doing it this way.” This comment was backed up by someone commenting later that they tried it and in fact the method worked! I’m looking forward to trying this over the weekend when I make my typical Saturday morning breakfast for everyone.

Of course, I’d love to hear tips from you as well – Share with us in the comment section please!

Happy cooking and cleaning everyone!