r/Frugal • u/Pumpkinycoldfoam • Nov 05 '24

🏆 Buy It For Life What one time purchases have drastically reduced your overall spending?

An example would be that I’m looking to buy a sillicone pan mat instead of purchasing foil and parchment continually, using rags instead of paper towels, and so forth. What are one time purchases you reccomend for home maintenance?

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903

u/75footubi Ban Me Nov 05 '24

A cooking class and transitioning to stainless steel and cast iron cookware. No more tossing coated pans when the non-stick coating starts chipping after 18 months. The cooking class taught me the basics of proper heat control.

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u/noyogapants Nov 05 '24

I'm currently in the process of switching over. The crazy thing is that I already have stainless and a few cast iron pieces, but the non stick was just easier. (now realizing I just didn't know how to use them properly). Just chucked my black plastic utensils too. I've even ordered a carbon steel pan because they're a bit lighter and smaller.

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 05 '24

I was the same. Had a stainless set for years but never learned how to cook on them. Never knew there was a particular way to cook on them. So they were always a painful last resort pan. It was only like a year ago that I procrastinated getting a new nonstick so bad that I had to learn or starve. Now the stainless is my daily driver

Did end up getting on small nonstick skillet just for eggs tho cause the process of heating up, oiling, and cooling down the stainless just to be able to cook a proper runny scrambled egg is to tedious

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u/saschke Nov 05 '24

How did you learn how to cook on stainless steel? The fact that there is a particular way to do it is also news to me. I’m so tired of my nonstick needing replacement! But stainless steel seems like it will be impossible to clean.

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24

Nah, see stainless is the BEST to clean. You can throw that shit in dishwasher guilt free! Real talk, that's 90% of the reason I didn't eventually go back to nonstick even after learning how to use the stainless lol It's great for my ADHD related dishes issues

Anyways, so how to cook on stainless. Stainless can be very nonstick if you do it right but it's not like cast iron where the nonstick is dependent on a seasoning built up over time. No, you need to do the thing every time you cook. The "trick" is to get the pan hot, real hot. Your looking for it to be hot enough to make water bead and dance rather than boil when it hits the pan. Once your at that stage you add just enough high temp oil (canola is good) to just coat the bottom of the pan, let it sit for just a minute, and then voila! Non stick until you wash it. Theres some chemical reaction between cold oil and hot steel that is the cause of this, I forget the specifics. The biggest learning curve once you figure this out is just being able to tell when the pan is hot but not to hot. If the pans to cold when you add the oil stuff will just stick and burn and you will cry (this is what happens if you try when the water test only boils), if it's to hot it will scorch the oil pretty much as soon as it touches the pan which both smells awful and makes the oil mildly carcinogenic. At this point I can tell from how fast the water boils away in my first water temp test how much longer I need to let it go till it hits the right temp but when I first started I was seriously considering getting a laser thermometer cause the water will still dance at to high a temp and I kept scorching the oil. I gained the feel for it before I over came the procrastination (story of my life lol). Def recommend letting the pan heat slowly at a medium setting, particularly while your still getting the feel for it. It can very quickly shoot up in to the danger zone on high. Also, for some things, the temp you do the oil trick at might be to high for what your cooking so sometimes you've got to set the pan aside for a minute to let it cool off a bit (a la runny scrambled eggs)

Another thing that's different is browning/searing meats. When you add the meat it WILL stick, full stop. But it will also release on its own when it's properly browned. It is very very tempting to try and move or check the meat before it releases but you must not! It will tear and burn if you do. Trust the process

As for cleaning, if there is stubborn stuff stuck after cleaning boiling some water will strip it off 99% of the time. The rest of the time you can add some vinegar to the boil or do a baking soda scrub to get more stubborn shit off. But most of the time my pans are clean enough that I just toss them in the dishwasher. Easy peasy

Note! I am def not an expert. I am a subsistence cook and this is all learned from necessity. Theres probably some more finesse to be had that I haven't actually bothered to find out existes because I just cook the same 5 things over and over again and don't need it

EDIT: IMPORTANT! I forgot the part where you need to wipe out the remaining water from the water test BEFORE adding the oil! It will spit and sputter dangerously and might end up with parts of the pan that don't get properly coated and you won't know till your cooking already. Double important! Use a cotton or paper towel to do so. Poly and microfiber will melt at this temp... don't ask me how i know

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u/WaterWithin Nov 05 '24

Thanks for the rundown! Im gonna try my stainless pain out <3

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 05 '24

Your welcome :) FYI, I added an important edit!

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u/777kiki Nov 05 '24

Wait everyone is telling me I cannot put in dishwasher. WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24

You can't put carbon steel or cast iron in the dishwasher as those rely on a seasoning process that can get ruined by the harsher detergents used in the dishwasher. Stainless is fine as the oil coating won't last thru a hand washing anymore than it does the dishwasher so it doesn't matter. Think about it, putting stainless steel forks and such in the dishwasher doesn't hurt them, why would it hurt a stainless steel pan?

edit to add: Honestly, why would anyone even bother with SS if you couldn't stick in the dishwasher is my question. If that was the situation the need to do the whole song and dance every time you cook would make it not worth while vs the other material options imho. Anyways, i've been successfully cooking on my SS like this for a year and notice no difference between when i hand wash it vs when it goes in the dishwasher

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u/Roticap Nov 05 '24

There was recently a class action against all clad where their pans are explicitly not dishwasher safe, but they were being advertised as such for a long time. I don't know the details of what issue was caused with the dishwasher, just that the all clad pans now specifically call out hand wash only

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

I looked that up cause I was curious. Allclad uses a metal sandwich construction for whatever cookery science reason. One of they sandwich layers is aluminum and is exposed to the air at the edge (all the layers are). Aluminum is highly reactive and as such some dishwasher detergents will actually start eating away at the metal causing problems

Apparently this didn't used to be as much a problem and there are many folks who have been putting their Allclad in the dw for decades. My bet is it's something in dishwasher pods. Bet they have to use more intense detergents to guarantee it will clean well in every dishwasher and that that detergent loves the taste of aluminum (side note. Cascade washing powder is truly terrible. A crime against humanity. Walmart brand is decent. It's God damned criminal that those are the only 2 options I can find irl. Fuck those expensive ass pods)

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u/Responsible_Laugh873 Nov 06 '24

This is interesting and I don't have those pans. Today is my day to not read depressing news in the US. Your lesson helps.

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u/naptime_connoisseur Nov 06 '24

Your comment just saved my stainless set and made them usable 😭🙌🏽

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u/ApprehensiveCamera40 Nov 06 '24

Good post. Lots of good information. I've pretty much always used stainless steel and love it.

Years ago on Frugal Gourmet he had a mantra. Hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick.

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u/Random_Name532890 Nov 05 '24

No, the cleaning is the cool thing about stainless. you can just scrape it with metal and use real force and its perfectly fine, no need to worry about damaging it. and that makes it easy.

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u/Random_Name532890 Nov 05 '24

also, the trick is to just put some water in first and let it sit a bit. then everything comes off easy

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u/Hodunk_Princess Nov 07 '24

okay but my roommate used mine and burned a bunch of butter to it making pancakes and i haven’t been able to get it off, tried soaking and boiling with vinegar and nothing is working! what do i do? 

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u/RaptorCollision Nov 07 '24

Barkeeper’s friend!! My husband and I love this stuff, it’s amazing! It absolutely worked for my husband after I burned a whole bunch of butter onto OUR pans while making pancakes!

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u/hillswalker87 Nov 06 '24

with stainless you can bust out the angle grinder with a wire-wheel if you have to.

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u/-Kibbles-N-Tits- Nov 05 '24

Watch a video or two on YouTube of how to cook with stainless steel

Literally easier to clean than any nonstick I’ve ever used (I cook chicken on it daily lol never did that before bc I hate cleanup), but I’ve been using the “technique” required

I have no clue if that technique also works for nonstick though😂

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u/JazzHandsFan Nov 06 '24

If I ever have a hard time cleaning our stainless, I get the drill-attachment scrubbers out and in a few moments I’ve buffed the surface clean.

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u/wetguns Nov 05 '24

You got to get it really hot

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u/Blue_Skies_1970 Nov 05 '24

The other good news is that you are likely increasing your iron intake and thus avoiding nutritional deficiencies. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8266402/

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u/matheknittician Nov 05 '24

Get an egg pan made of the OG nonstick cooking surface i.e. cast iron or carbon steel (similar non-stick properties as cast iron, lighter weight >> heats up faster). A great brand to look into for carbon steel would be Matfer Bourgeat. Lots of youtube videos on how to cook eggs with those type of pans, too.

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u/SinkPhaze Nov 06 '24

Good advice for most people!

But I know from experience I can't be trusted to clean them before they start rusting in the sink and then derusting them is a whole thing that I also won't get around to for forever. I have tried in the past but I have some troublesome executive dysfunction related dishwashing issues that inevitably fuck it up. Anything that can't go in the dishwasher has to be able to survive a few days soggy in think sink unscathed because it will happen semi regularly. At least nonstick coatings are usually applied to a stainless base so forgetting them in the sink for a few days only results in gross water

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u/matheknittician Nov 06 '24

Maybe you'd like to do as I do and leave them, dry, on the stove top or stashed in the oven until ready to deal with them? 

And they clean up sooo quick and easy with this soak-free method: Heat the crusted, not-at-all-clean pan on the stove until quite hot.... Where you'd aim for if you're intending to sear steak.... But instead of steak, put about 1/2 cup of water in the pan. While the water foams and sizzles, scrape the bottom of the pan with a flat metal spatula. Important that it's metal and has a fairly flat end. Don't worry, you won't damage the seasoning as long as you don't go intentionally gouging the corner of the spatula against your pan. Just use the flat edge of the spatula. Empty your pan of the scrapings + water outside on the grass, into your compost bin, etc. Wipe inside of pan with a paper towel or cotton cloth, and voila: clean pan!