[jmcclell]

Carbon steel pans are seasoned and generally will be stored with a light coat of oil. You'll add oil while cooking, as well. My carbon steel pans don't stick – an egg will happily glide on the surface.

Stainless steel pans are not seasoned, but can still be relatively non-stick as long as they are heated properly prior to use. Heating them closes the pores in the pan's surface, making the surface smoother. Add oil after the pan is properly heated. This youtube video explains the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-SCA1reqE&t=1s

[cenamus]

Stainless steel doesn't have any pores, and they certainly don't "close" with a 200 degree difference (how even? It's steel).

The video just shows a nice hot pan with oil in it, no matter the pan's made of, under those conditions of course stuff isn't gonna stick.

[jmcclell]

There is no oil used in the video that I linked. Did you watch another video?

The water glides across the pan due to the Leidenfrost effect. That’s the point when you add the oil.

I suspect there are some truisms involved here, but the common wisdom is that there is a combination of contractions in microscopic imperfections of the surface of the pan from the heat (more accurately, expansion causing the gaps to close) and the laidenfrost effect keeping the food from sticking once the pan has reached sufficient temperature.

Regardless of the true mechanism, my own experience suggests that most complaints about sticking with stainless steel can be avoided by properly heating the pan before adding the oil and food.

For what it’s worth, here is one manufacturer referencing a porous surface:

https://www.heritagesteel.us/pages/cooking-techniques#:~:tex....

[cenamus]

Of course there is, at 1:30, the lady even says it.

[jmcclell]

Ah, forgive me. I was going off memory and thought you meant during the heat testing portion which only used water for the test.

It seems you take issue with calling it non-stick when oil is involved? To that end, sure, Teflon-like pans beat everything. But I don’t know many people cooking without oil even in Teflon-like pans.

When people say that properly heating a stainless steel pan will allow non-stick cooking there is certainly an implied asterisk involved re: oil. That’s because it is in direct contrast to a cold stainless steel pan which will cause foods to stick even with oil.

[radicality]

This reminded me of this funny skit video I saw recently about cast iron seasoning [0].

I also mostly use stainless steel, carbon steel and enameled cast iron pans, but do still occasionally reach for the non-stick for more sensitive things like an omelettes.

[0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=47Wv44OwAzw