The Secret to Smoothing Stainless Steel Eggs

Wanting to better understand why this trick works, I enlisted the help of researchers at Emory University’s Burton Lab, a research center focused on physics.

Salt is an explosive substance that can remove old residues that cause high-protein foods to stick, explained Justin Burton, professor of physics and lead researcher of the Burton Lab, in a video interview. It can act as a sponge to soak up excess moisture and gunk, which is why he says salt “can turn brown when you heat it.” All of that helps create a smooth cooking surface, which was evident during my testing.

Burton’s team and I did more experiments to see what would happen if we used salt versus salt, scrambled egg whites versus whole eggs, and butter versus oil. And we discovered that hacking is not stupid.

In my testing, I found that you need to wash, dry, and re-salt the pan every time you want to use it to cook soft foods. There is no holdover slippage, as there is when saving a cast iron pan. And I wouldn’t recommend cooking a second batch without washing the pan anyway, as any oil left in the pan may burn on the next use.

Cooking hard-boiled egg whites was a disaster. Despite our salt hacking, the whites just congealed and stuck to the pan – a big difference from how I’ve easily prepared a regular batch of hard-boiled eggs in the past. “Oil may have something,” Larson explained. (The whole egg has more fat because of the yolks, which can help prevent sticking.) So if scrambled egg whites are on the menu, you should use a nonstick pan.

Burton Lab researchers also tried a slightly different version of the salt hack I tested. They use a wet towel, rather than a dry one, to pour salt into the pan. The good news is that the extra moisture didn’t hinder the Leidenfrost effect on performance; in fact, they were amazed at how the water droplets flowed in the area after removing the salt. But when they put the butter in the pan, it quickly browned due to the high heat, which caused the egg to stick to the surface in some places. They saw better results when they instead used hotter cooking oil, which has a higher smoke point than butter.

Burton’s team also tried raking salt into a badly damaged ceramic pan and a scratched Teflon skillet, but it only seemed to make things worse on the already fragile surfaces, as they noticed it caused the eggs to stick even more to the pan. So save the salt hack for stainless steel pans.

Conclusion: Take care of your cookware. The smaller your pan, the easier it is to make a good batch of fried eggs. Keep your stainless steel pans clean and make sure they are hot enough before you start cooking. And in a pinch, a steady hand and a little kosher salt can provide additional insurance against many egg fiascos.

This article was edited by Annemarie Conte and Jason Chen.