The other dark I was making eggs when this happened. My stainless steel frying pan ended up with a thin layer of burnt eggs on the bottom and sides that was very difficult for me to scrape off or launder.

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That thin layer of eggs sure was a pain. So I did some research and decided to test out the simplest solution to this problem of them all. Happily for me, it worked.

If you've found yourself in a similar state of affairs, I'm going to help you become out of information technology; only with tap water and in less than 10 minutes.

How can you clean burnt eggs off a stainless steel frying pan?

To clean burnt eggs off a stainless steel pan, cascade enough h2o to cover the afflicted areas and bring to a boil on high heat. Let boil for ii-3 minutes and apply a wooden or silicone spatula to scrape the eggs off. Make clean the pan by hand in soapy water.

Some authors that I read recommended soaking the pan in soapy water for a couple of hours. Others wrote about making a homemade cleaning solution with white vinegar or baking soda.

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Though all of them had shared proficient ideas with solid reasoning, I establish that the simplest approach of them all—filling your frying pan with tap water and bringing it to a eddy for two-iii minutes—worked out amend than I expected. And then I didn't even think of trying the residuum.

Professional chefs call this technique "deglazing" and they really utilise information technology to make pan sauces on the fly. Deglazing works merely likewise for cleaning your frying pan as information technology does for making a sauce out of the food residue stuck to it.

When yous deglaze a frying pan, you add together cold liquid to it while it's still hot, turning upwards the heat on your cooktop to high.

Every bit a result, you'll get a lot of steam (so make sure to turn on your kitchen vent fan to the highest setting if you lot have i) and the food residuum in the pan will elevator off from its bottom or sides, with the smallest food particles dissolving into the boiling water.

So use this technique for burnt eggs or whenever whatsoever food burns and gets stuck on the lesser and/or sides of your frying pan.

It'due south so simple and so powerful, it's almost difficult to believe it works and so well (and in less than 10 minutes).

Here are my step-by-step instructions (with photos):

How to Make clean Burnt Eggs Off a Stainless Steel Frying Pan

This simple technique is so powerful, you're going to have a difficult fourth dimension believing it until you try it out for yourself.

Active Time 10 mins

Total Fourth dimension 10 mins

  • Frying pan

  • Non-scratch scrub sponge

For Deglazing the Pan

  • 2 cups tap water

For Cleaning the Pan

  • 1 piece non-scratch scrub sponge
  • ane squeeze dish lather

Deglaze the Pan

  • Don't try to scrape the burnt eggs off of your frying pan as you take chances to scratch and damage its cooking surface.

    Burnt eggs on stainless steel frying pan

  • While your pan is withal hot, add 2 cups of water (or enough to cover the bottom and sides) and turn the heat on your cooktop upwardly to high.

    Dirty stainless steel pan

  • Permit boil for 2-3 minutes. Apply a wooden or silicone spatula, pressing down to scrape off the sparse layer of burnt eggs that was stick to the cooking surface.

    Dirty stainless steel pan

Make clean the Pan by Paw in Soapy H2o

  • In your kitchen sink, bleed the water from the pan. Use a drain strainer (or pour the water from the pain into a sieve) every bit all the egg residual volition fall right into your kitchen sink.

    Burnt eggs

  • At this stage, but a piddling burnt egg residue should be left on the lesser and/or sides of your frying pan. This residue is like shooting fish in a barrel to clean off by manus.

    Burnt eggs on stainless steel pan

  • Using dish soap and a scrub sponge, cover the pan in soapy h2o and permit sit for two-3 minutes. Then scrub the pan make clean. Some areas may need more persistent scrubbing than others.

    How to clean a stainless steel pan

  • You're done! Thanks to the magic of deglazing, your stainless steel frying pan should at present look as good as new.

    Stainless steel pan

If y'all are like me, y'all're non going to terminate there, though.

As presently as I managed to clean the burnt eggs off of my stainless steel frying pan, I started request myself…

Why do eggs become stuck to your frying pan in the starting time place? And is there anything that I can do the next time I make eggs to prevent that from happening?

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Why Eggs Get Stuck to Your Stainless Steel Frying Pan

When yous cook eggs in a stainless steel frying pan, the proteins in the egg will grade chemical bonds with the surface of the pan. Whereas the non-stick coating on teflon and ceramic pans interferes with that reaction, stainless steel frying pans accept a cooking surface of bare steel.

Steel also expands and contracts as it heats upward and cools down. Though your stainless steel pan looks smooth and shiny to the naked eye, it's actually covered with microscopic imperfections that get bigger and smaller as you utilize the pan and modify the heat on your cooktop.

Adding cold ingredients to a hot frying pan will cause information technology to lose temperature, which will then crusade these microscopic dents and scratches to contract—catching onto the food that you're cooking and causing information technology to go stuck.

How to prevent this?

To keep eggs from sticking to your stainless steel frying pan, coat the cooking surface of the pan with enough butter or oil and allow it to preheat (two-3 minutes on most cooktops) for plenty time.

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Later yous pour the eggs into the pan, permit them cook and solidify for a while earlier stirring them with a spatula. The better the proteins in the eggs have cooked, the less they'll get stuck to the bottom and sides of your pan subsequently you lot stir them.

Of course, the extent to which you're willing to melt your eggs depends on what recipe you're making and how you similar them.

The Bottom Line

Cleaning burnt eggs of your stainless steel pan is easier than it seems. Only employ the technique that professional person chefs call deglazing to get the burnt eggs unstuck from the pan. Then clean your pan by mitt with soapy h2o and a scrub sponge.

To go on eggs from sticking to your pan in the first place, brand sure to glaze it with butter or cooking oil and preheat it for 2-3 minutes before yous add the eggs in.

Tried this technique? Let me and the residue of this postal service's readers know how it turned out for you past leaving a annotate below.

Jim Stonos

Founding Editor

When Jim isn't in the kitchen, he is usually spending fourth dimension with family and friends, and working with the HCW editorial team to answer the questions he used to ask himself dorsum when he was learning the ropes of cooking.