I mentioned in the grilled potatoes post that stainless steel is better than non-stick for grilling. This is why.
I forgot to bring the pan in from the grill after it had cooled. It was two days later when I realized it was still out there. Uh-oh. Well, lets give it a quick rinse to see if anything comes off.
Nope. Okay, time for the Brillo™ pad.
It doesn’t have to be Brillo™, but that does have to be steel wool. Not some synthetic fiber thing. Sure enough, it starts cutting through right away.
And in no time at all, good as new.
The discoloration on the right half is actually from extreme heat. If you’ve ever seen the way chrome pipes on a motorcycle change color right next to the engine, that’s what’s going on here. No food stains, no rust, nothing. And that’s three years of abuse on that pan.
I used a non-stick pan about three times before I had to throw it out. The only thing that didn’t stick to that pan was the finish. Never again on my grill.
2 Comments
Pro chefs avoid stainless like a plague. Stainless is one of the poorest conductors of heat. Maybe this patch will be cooked through, while the adjacent patch will be undercooked. Iron is the best. Properly treated (primed, to be precise) and iron will clean up in a jiff.
If I were cooking on a stovetop I’d agree with you that iron is better. However if you look closely, you’ll see that this pan is extremely thin, perforated, and used on a grill. It doesn’t cook by transferring heat through the metal. It cooks by allowing flame directly through the holes. And for that it works great.
As for what pro chefs use, I don’t want to dispute your experience, since I don’t know how much you have. All I’ll say is that I’ve seen a lot more steel and aluminum in the kitchens I’ve been in than I’ve seen iron.
Since you use the term “primed” instead of “seasoned” I’m guessing you may not be from the U.S.? Maybe where you’re from they “avoid stainless like a plague.” I’d love to hear more about that.