Tag: Misen

Can you slide eggs around in a non-stick pan?

Can you slide eggs around in a non-stick pan?

There have been a lot of commercials for various cheesy and quality pans that show off how you can slide the eggs around on the non-stick surface. But they never answer the question: why the heck would you do this? We have a good quality Misen nonstick pan, so we decided to try this silly experiment. We got out Misen pan over a year ago and really like it. We use it quite frequently: at least once a week and it has performed well for us. But we never tried to cook an egg without any butter or bacon drippings before!

So, we set our pan over medium-low heat on our gas stove, and broke an egg into a cup and slipped it into the pan. After it started to solidify, we tried to slide it around with wrist motion. That wasn’t enough, but after we briefly slipped a spatula under the egg, we could slide it around promiscuously!

Of course, we had to wait until the white was mostly cooked, but we could then easily pour the egg out of the pan and onto a plate. Of course, this really isn’t the best way to cook an egg: you would normally baste it was bacon drippings or butter, or flip the egg over, but we got it cooked.

Then we melted a little unsalted butter in the pan and cooked another egg. We had to cook it at a slightly lower temperature to avoid burning the butter, so it took a little longer. We had to dislodge it slightly with a spatula, but then it slid around in the bit of butter just as gleefully. And we could slip that egg onto a plate just as easily.

Results

So what are the results?  The egg cooked in the dry pan didn’t have much flavor, since fat carries the flavor. The one cooked in butter tasted a lot better, but both were pretty tough, because they were only cooked on the one side. We actually took two butter fried eggs, put them back in the pan, flipped them and cooked them for maybe 15 seconds. Then we put them between bread and made nice sandwiches. We added a little mayo for moisture, and some onion salt for flavor.

They weren’t bad, but would have been better flipped sooner, or basted in a bit of butter. But the dry-cooked one just wasn’t very good.

Overall, whole thing is silly.

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The Misen Nonstick pan

The Misen Nonstick pan

Our last nonstick pan wore out years ago, and we didn’t bother replacing it because they are hard to care for: the coating flakes off and isn’t edible, of course.

But we decided that we really wanted to make better fried eggs, and a nonstick pan really makes a difference. The Misen Nonstick Pan, which has been heavily advertised on the Internet and FB seemed a possible candidate. It looked better made than those cheap pans that come from the As Seen on TV conglomerate and we thought we’d give it a try.

both pans

The 10” Misen pan compares favorably with our Allclad 10” pan. It’s heavy and well-made, weighing 42 oz. The Allclad weights 37 oz, probably because it lacks the same sort of handle. The coating is PFOA free and is described as a three layer DuPont platinm coating.

 

 

To illustrate the problem we wanted to solve, we fried a couple of strips of bacon in the Allclad and 5 more in the Misen pan and compare the residue. The Allclad pan had streaks where the sugar in the bacon caramelized on the pan, while the Misen had some floating debris that did not stick to the pan or to the eggs.

 

 

We were easily able to fry 4 eggs at once in the Misen pan, and they didn’t stick at all while cooking. It was pretty easy to baste the eggs with a little bacon fat while they cooked, although they did move easily so we couldn’t tip the pan too much while spooning.

frying eggs

With any nonstick pan, you are supposed to use a non-metal spatula. We have one that see Melmac on it. Others might be wood, silicone or nylon, and in any case, you can slip the eggs onto the plate two at a time without breaking the yolks.

2 eggs fried

In terms of egg cooking, we are completely sold: the Misen is a great pan.  We were disappointed to learn that the instruction sheet says that we shouldn’t have put it in the dishwasher, but since it washes so easily, that isn’t a huge problem.

The Misen instructions say cook only at medium heat, and never above 450˚ F. You shouldn’t scrub with pan with metal or abrasive sponges, but thus looks like it would be unnecessary. And you shouldn’t shock the hot pan by pouring cold water in it. You also shouldn’t stack other pans on top of it (without padding). We paid $45 for our pan plus $5 for shipping and it arrived in about 4 days. It’s a really nice pan and we hope it lasts a long time.