Stainless steel cookware maintenance

GnomeTank

So some of you remember I posted a thread last week about new cookware, well it's all here! Thanks Amazon Prime.

My question is day to day and preventive maintenance on this stuff. Can I do day to day cleaning with regular soap and water? Do I need to use Barkeepers Friend every time, or just when I want to get hard water/cooking stains off the metal? They say dishwasher safe, but part of me gets the impression it's better to hand wash and dry them immediately after use, in terms of longevity?

Other than cooking with a lot of oil/fat/butter when things might stick, and not cooking on super high temps, is there anything else I need to know to not warp/ruin this stuff?

KalTorak

I've run my stainless steel pan through the dishwasher, handwashed with regular dishsoap, Barkeeper's friend when there's a stain or something. The thing has been pretty resilient so far (other than some baked on coloring on the bottom that I don't care about).

WildEEP

Dishwasher is fine for stainless steel - set it to energy save dry so it doesn't bake the dishes after the wash.
Jet dry cuts down on the water spots.

mrt144

Regular soap and water is fine. Dishwasher is fine. In general I've never had anything stick to stainless that couldnt be resolved with hot water and dish soap soaking. Also, i wouldn't worry about things sticking too much.

bowen

Except tomato sauce you conveniently forgot in the fridge behind tons of other food. Worry about sticking then.

Gabriel_Pitt

That's not so much 'sticking' as 'actively resisting eviction.' :P

bowen

That explains the tendrils, but yeah they're super easy to clean gnome.

Being dishwashed like they don't give a fuck.

GnomeTank

I'm not sure that I would ever leave tomato sauce in my relatively expensive pans at the back of the fridge, but if I ever do, I will keep that in mind!

mrt144

I use gladware and stuff to store food.

Kruite

Avoid using metal utensils on the surface. It's not a cardinal sin for stainless steel (as it is for coated pans such as teflon), but you will prevent scratches from forming on the surface (which would lead to rusting eventually)

supabeast

About the only real damage you can do to stainless is burn something onto it, and vinegar will fix that.

Mad Jazz

supabeast wrote: »

About the only real damage you can do to stainless is burn something onto it, and vinegar will fix that.

Yeah? Just soak for a while and then scrub out? I may have...carbonized some rice when I accidentally turned down the wrong burner...

MichaelLC

I have a decent tri-ply Calphelon set, and only hand-wash them. Occasionally use Barkeeper if I want to shine them up. Supposed to be dishwasher safe, but just don't feel like risking it.

bowen

Mad Jazz wrote: »

supabeast wrote: »

About the only real damage you can do to stainless is burn something onto it, and vinegar will fix that.

Yeah? Just soak for a while and then scrub out? I may have...carbonized some rice when I accidentally turned down the wrong burner...

Yup. Worst case, scrub the pants out of it with copper wool. Far less scratchy than steel wool. But bartender's helper works too.

GnomeTank

So I cooked using one of them for the first time last night. Boiled some water for noodles. I immediately washed the pan, and now on the bottom inside of the bottom (where the water/food actually goes), there are these little bright spots. It's hard to explain, I should have taken a picture. The pan is spotless clean, so it's not food particles, and it doesn't seem to be hard water either. It's like the metal itself is just brighter in droplet size patterns. I don't think it functionally effects the pan, but man is it ugly and makes me sad

bowen

Sounds like a stain from starchy food.

GnomeTank

It was noodles I was cooking, so that would make sense. Will Barkeepers take it off? Soap and water didn't.

bowen

It should. Does it have a blueish hue to it?

If not vinegar at the worst should give it after a soak through (I've seen comments about cooking some tomato sauce to get it off after a vinegar soak and rinse).

GnomeTank

Yeah, I guess you could say it had a bit of a bluehish hue. The stained areas are really small, like I said droplet size, so it's hard to say.

For now, it's functionally perfectly fine and is sitting washed and dried in my cabinet. I'll hit it with some Barkeepers next time I use and wash it.

bowen

Yeah pretty sure it's a starch stain (probably a noodle smearing itself on the hot surface of the pot while doing the boiling dance). You should be good, probably won't be there forever!

GnomeTank

This isn't so much maintenance, but:

When cooking really lean ground beef (97/3), should I put anything in the pan first, or will the fat from the ground beef be enough?

Akilae

It will not be enough. You should add some oil.

wonderpug

If you want to be super health conscious, you can use a spray to make the oil coating as thin as possible, but generally you always want some oil on the pan. Bacon is the only thing that comes to mind that I might not bother oiling the pan for.

GnomeTank

No spray (I'll buy some next time I'm at the store), so I'll use a bit of oil and a paper towel to spread it around.

Akilae

I'm probably dense, but there's nothing wrong with a normal oil/fat intake. It's not like you're chugging the stuff or deep frying your burger patty.

GnomeTank

The idea is just to lubricate my cookware, not really cook with the oil. I'm not adverse to some fat intake, but no reason to just douse the pan in oil.

Djeet

Are you making burgers, meatballs or a Salisbury steak type thing, or just browning loose meat?

The problem with such lean meat is that it will likely stick if you are trying to brown it.

GnomeTank

I'm browning it, but I coated the pan first.

My next question is, I am about to put this in some sauce to simmer, should I coat the pan it's going to simmer in? I am watching it, so I won't be letting it burn on there or anything.

mrt144

GnomeTank wrote: »

I'm browning it, but I coated the pan first.

My next question is, I am about to put this in some sauce to simmer, should I coat the pan it's going to simmer in? I am watching it, so I won't be letting it burn on there or anything.

Nope, no need to do that.

GnomeTank

Well I did anyway, just to be safe. A little oil won't hurt the sauce, but I'll know for next time.

wonderpug

When cooking non-liquids, the oil does more than just help prevent sticking. It provides a more efficient way for the heat to transfer from the pan surface to the food.

wonderpug

Was the sauce you made today to go with the ground beef? A meat sauce for pasta, perhaps?

If so, I highly recommend you heat the sauce in the same pan as the beef after the beef is done browning. (Drain the fat before adding the sauce, if you like.) The sauce will deglaze the pan, meaning it'll dissolve all the brown stuff that stuck to the pan when you cooked your beef. That stuff is delicious and is itself the basis of many sauces.

By using the sauce to deglaze the pan as you heat it up, you not only make an ordinary jar of sauce from the store far more delicious, you make cleaning the pan a lot easier afterward.

mrt144

deglaze with anything acidic or alcoholic or stocky.

Djeet

Personally I would use 15-20% fat ground meat for browning and then drain. If using 3% fat meat I'd put in some oil for browning and drain when it's cooked enough for the next step.

When adding your sauce you don't need to add oil (unless you want that oil in the sauce). The issue with lean meat is particular to cooking a very high protein and low moisture/fat ingredient.

As said earlier, deglaze with your sauce/stock to get the nice brown bits into the sauce.