Non-stick strategies for hard-anodized cookware?

October 23, 2008 5:45 AM

Just bought a set of Calphalon hard-anodized cookware and I'm having a terrible time getting food not to stick to the pan when cooking. The problem is particularly bad when cooking eggs- strategies for getting food to not stick to these pans?
posted by mhaw to food & drink (14 comments total)

Are you using a cooking spray? I've heard that can actually make things stick worse in a nonstick pan. I always use butter or a little oil.

And for the egg question, previously.
posted by thejanna at 5:58 AM on October 23, 2008

I have had this issue as well, but can say that once the pan has properly seasoned, it is a relatively non-stick environment.

I did not try to season my Calphalon pan, just let it happen over time, here are some instructions for seasoning a pan
posted by silsurf at 6:08 AM on October 23, 2008

A little seasoning will do the trick. It worked for mine.

(Recently made eggs in an aluminum fry-pan. Holy cow, I tried to make them the non-stick way and wound up with a gigantic mess.)
posted by unixrat at 6:23 AM on October 23, 2008

Seasoning is best accomplished by using coconut oil or ...lard. That's right. Lard works amazingly well.
posted by melissam at 6:38 AM on October 23, 2008

super important: a low-medium heat. it may take a few more seconds but its completely worth it. also, a more liberal amount of oil than a non-stick. don't be worried about health - use safflower oil or something and you'll be fine.
posted by yonation at 6:51 AM on October 23, 2008

I just plumb stopped cooking eggs in hard-anodized pans. I know, not what you want to hear, but other things (cast iron, for example, or nonstick, if you're not afraid of it) are much, much better for this.

Anodized pans do seem to improve with age and use, though (a kind of seasoning, though that's a word I really only understand in the context of cast iron), and be aware that aggressive scouring will dramatically shorten the life of the coating--around here (Toledo), the thrift stores are clogged with Calphalon pots that have had their bottoms scrubbed down to bare aluminum. Be careful!
posted by pullayup at 7:18 AM on October 23, 2008

You might want to invest in a single small non-stick pan expressly for doing eggs and other things that stick. IMO hard-anodized is not the best material for that kind of cooking.

I am not a big fan of non-stick but I keep them around for just that sort of thing, and use my hard-anodized stuff for making pan sauces, doing alcohol deglazing, and lots of other stuff that would wreck nonstick or take the seasoning off cast iron.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:23 AM on October 23, 2008

You want to season the cookware. It is fun. It works. It is the ancient methodology for non-stick.
posted by watercarrier at 7:58 AM on October 23, 2008

I don't cook on non-stick stuff anymore. Not out of health concerns, but because I hate cheap cookware and can't see spending $100 on a pan with a coating that won't last my whole lifetime.

1) Be sure to preheat the pan before putting anything in it. My theory: Eggs and meats have proteins suspended in liquid. If you put food in a cool pan, the liquidy proteins come in direct contact with the pan. As they cook, the liquid disappears and the proteins turn into superglue. If you heat the pan first, the liquids in the food will boil instantly at the pan/food interface, which keeps it from sinking its claws into the nooks and crannies of the pan surface.
2) Use butter or animal fats for stick-prone foods. I use olive oil for most stuff, but for eggs I _always_ have better luck with butter or lard. It tends to fully wet the bottom of the pan rather than skittering along the surface.
3) Leave the eggs until they've thoroughly set and started to brown a tiny bit. They'll release easier this way.
posted by paanta at 8:09 AM on October 23, 2008

I always use a bit of oil when cooking just about anything. In fact, I made eggs this morning in a hard-anodized pan with some olive oil, and it worked fine.
posted by phrakture at 8:26 AM on October 23, 2008

Like others here, I don't buy non-stick or hard-anodized cookware, just because I've found them to have short lifespans and not produce great results. So my real advice here is to buy, season (if necessary) and get used to using a specific frying pan for your eggs, if nothing else. I like cast iron, others will say get non-stick, or maybe you'll like something else (I have a friend who swears by stainless steel for her eggs, while I can't cook eggs in that pan without a huge stuck disaster -- YMMV). The point being, if you have a good seasoned or non-stick egg pan, that will solve 9/10 of your food sticking problems, leaving you to worry about the minor problems you are having with other foods.

When I've had to cook on hard-anodized cookware, I found that temperature really, really mattered. Maybe the cookware I had to use was low quality, I don't know, but high or medium-high heat meant scorching and sticking, while too low meant uneven heating and sticking. There was a narrow window of "just right" heat that kept the sticking from being too bad, and combined with butter or olive oil made the pans work pretty well.

Finally, for a lot of foods other than eggs, you can embrace the sticking problem by making deglazing a routine step in your cooking. Turning those stuck bits from being an irritating disaster to being the basis of a yummy sauce/gravy/etc is real cooking magic, but takes only a moment to do.

(Also, I think that those soft plastic spatulas you are supposed to use on coated cookware make the food sticking problem worse. When I get the temperature wrong in a cast iron pan, and something starts sticking, I just scrape the pan with the metal spatula and everything is ok (and the constant scraping means the bottom of the cast iron pan gets a super smooth finish, on top of the seasoning). But a plastic spatula doesn't have the rigidity or the sharp edge to free stuck foods, so the stuck bits stay on the pan and burn.)
posted by Forktine at 8:36 AM on October 23, 2008

The right heat and oil are definitely important, but so is the technique you use for heating the pan. I spent years using hard-anodized cookware, and got OK but never great results. Then I learned the following and it made all the difference:

Eggs definitely take only low-medium heat. Be sure you're preheating the pan for a minute or two first before you add any cooking spray or oil (the rim of the pan should be very warm to the touch -- don't burn yourself, obviously!). Then add the oil, and let it heat up for a bit. Only then should you add the food.
posted by scody at 8:48 AM on October 23, 2008

I use non-stick for eggs only. I use cast iron or high-end stainless steel for everything else. I never use hard anodized Al for anything. I don't really see the point of it. It's particularly horrific for what non-stick is great at (eggs), and inferior to good stainless or cast iron for everything else. Good stainless (clad) is expensive but it's more durable, browns better, easier to clean, etc.
posted by madmethods at 9:18 AM on October 23, 2008

That is nice cookware and will do a great job for you for many years. It does season somewhat but not as well as cast iron. It is not non-stick like Teflon and similar coatings. Eggs are tough, and I cook egg whites or low yolk frequently and even Teflon is tough without sufficient oil for those. If you use a healthy oil and don't crank up the heat too high these pans will work well even with eggs (although perhaps not egg whites) and the clean easily. You can't expect them to be what they are not (Teflon level non-stick) but they are great pans. They particularly excel in heat distribution. You will not be burning delicate foods because of local hot spots.
posted by caddis at 12:26 PM on October 23, 2008