How to cook with stainless steel cookware?

Introduction

Are you new to cooking and wondering on how to cook with stainless steel cookware? Do you desire to get a well cooked brown meat? One thing for sure is that you will not get anything close to brown when using non-stick coated cookware. So, what’s the best way forward?

If you desire beautifully browned meats, the only cookware to use are the ones made from stainless steel. However, you should know that temperature is an important factor when dealing with such pans.

Tips to know when dealing with cooking pans

Since stainless steel is not a good conductor of heat, ensure that the pan used has either an aluminum or copper core. Copper conducts better than aluminum but it is more expensive.

Pots made from stainless steel come in various thicknesses hence go for the ones friendly to your budget. Cookware made from only stainless steel will cook unevenly and this might result in hot spots.

What to do when dealing with stainless cookware?

Regardless of the thickness of the cookware, your ability to control temperature changes and shocks will affect the quality of meat. Have you ever wondered why chicken is first roasted at a higher temperature? 

This is done to shock the meat hence creating an appealing, crispy and brown skin. The rest of the cooking is usually carried out at lower temperature. Similar technique is applied when dealing with stainless cookware.

How to find the ideal temperature

The trick is to simply pre-heat the pan before placing cooking fat or food on it. Once you preheat, the cooking fat should start shivering when you add it on the pan. If the temperature is too high, the fat will burn and smoke instead. If this happens, remove the pan from the burner, discard the fat and start again. Always preheat over medium heat.

Another trick to know the right temperature

It is important to know that if your stainless steel pan is too cold the food will stick and if too hot, the food will burn. This is where the ��water droplet trick’ comes in handy. When preheating, just place a small droplet of water after sometime. If too cold, the drop will bubble and evaporate fast. Otherwise, it will move very fast on the pan separating into smaller droplets.

Cleaning the pan

Cleaning stainless steel cookware is very easy but at times it might be tricky. If you observe chalky white spots, clean them using a boiled solution of vinegar and water in a ratio of 1:3. In case there are dried stuck bits of food and scrubbing the pan has not yielded any results, fill it will soapy water, give it time and scrape away the softened bits.

Conclusion

Most restaurants don’t use coated cooking pans. This is simply because stainless steel cookware produce the most delicious meals. The trick is learning how to use the pan correctly. Most home cooks have never gone back to coated pans after tasting meals from stainless pans.

There are a wide range of recipes which can be used on such cookware. It doesn’t have to be meat only. In addition, newbies can start off with the following basic stainless steel cookware pieces; one, two and four quart saucepans with leads or two to three gallon stockpot with lid.