How to Care for Stainless Steel Pots and Pans

Whether you're a bona fide at home chef or are a casual cook, you likely have had some experience using different kinds of cookware during your time in the kitchen. 

There's cast iron, there's enamel, there's non-stick, glass and so much more. And of course, there is stainless steel.

Stainless steel sometimes gets a bad name for itself because many have spent hours scrubbing and scraping burnt food off the surface. And sure, there are certainly types of stainless steel pots and pans that are of low quality and almost predestined to fail —  but there is still hope! High-quality stainless steel can be an absolute dream to cook with as long as you know what to look for and you take proper care of it.

Here is a short crash course on how to choose the right type of stainless steel cookware, how to properly cook with it and, of course, how to clean it.

How to cook with, care for and clean stainless steel

Choosing your stainless steel cookware

Stainless steel comes in many forms, and the type used in food grade cookware is just one of those forms. 

Steel itself is an alloy metal, which means that it is a mixture of different elements at different ratios to achieve a unique final product. It contains mostly iron combined with a little bit of carbon, creating an alloy that is stronger than iron on its own but is still susceptible to rust and corrosion. 

Now, we certainly don't want to cook with rusty and corrosive materials, so in order to create a high corrosion-resistant steel, we have to use a type of steel that contains extra elements like chromium, nickel, nitrogen, titanium and molybdenum. This new kind of steel alloy that contains over 10.5% of chromium is what we refer to as stainless steel, due to its resistance to rust and corrosion.

There are a few different kinds of stainless steels, each grouped into a category depending on how much chromium, nickel or molybdenum they contain — the next most common elements used in stainless steel after iron and carbon. There's quite a bit of science to the precise elemental composition of these different groups, but for the sake of simplicity, anything with a higher percentage of nickel and molybdenum will have a higher resistance to corrosion and will, therefore, be a higher-quality piece of cookware.

Cooking with your stainless steel

Understanding how stainless steel cookware reacts to heat is the key to properly preheating and cooking with your stainless steel pots and pans.

The cooking surfaces on stainless steel pans are made up of microscopic pores and gaps in the metal alloy, and thanks to middle school science classes, we know that metal expands when it comes in contact with heat. If the stainless steel is heated properly, the metal will expand and the gaps and pores will close, creating a smooth and nonstick surface. 

Typically, you will never have to heat your pan on anything higher than medium heat. Stainless steel is not an excellent conductor of heat, so heating it on too high a temperature will likely burn your food.

You can test whether your stainless steel pan is hot enough to cook on using the water droplet test. Simply pour about a teaspoon of water on to the pan and watch how it reacts to the heat. If the water immediately sizzles away and evaporates, then those pores are still open and the pan is not ready to cook with. If the water beads up and slides along the surface of the pan like mercury, then the pores have properly sealed and the surface is smooth enough to cook on.

After that, you can add your oil to properly lubricate the surface and begin cooking your food.

If your food does stick to the stainless steel pan, it could be for one of three reasons.  First, your pan may be too cold and the food got trapped inside those miniscule pores.  Second, your pain was too hot and the food burnt to the surface. Third, you may not have used enough oil on your pan and the food has stuck to the surface.

Cleaning stainless steel

Stainless steel pots and pans are pretty easy to clean. Most higher quality pots and pans will come with manufacturer's instructions that outline any specific care concerns, so be sure to hang on to those if you can. Otherwise, all you need to clean stainless steel cookware is some soapy water and a non-abrasive sponge.

There's only one rule when it comes to washing stainless steel, and that is to let the cookware cool down completely before you start to clean it. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward.

For regular everyday messes, scrub stainless steel with warm soapy water and a non-abrasive sponge. If there is any food stuck to the pan, add enough soapy water to cover the food and bring the water to a boil, after which you can use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the food residue off the bottom of the pan. Use a few teaspoons of baking soda instead of soap in the water if the residue is still striking. 

So, if you have had any poor experiences with stainless steel in the past, consider this your invitation to give it another go. Many top-tier chefs and cooks use stainless steel as their main preference, so there’s no reason why we can’t either!

Good luck!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/1110349