I use all stainless steel now too. When I first got a stainless steel frying pan (a good thick one with some kind of impressive layering system that I’ve long forgotten about) I just assumed that things would stick to it, but I’ve never had any problems that didn’t come off with at most a basic sponge and moderate effort. Mostly food just rinses right off. I’ve had that pan for something like 15 years now. As far as I can tell, non-stick is just a ploy to get people to keep buying new pans as it wears off.

> As far as I can tell, non-stick is just a ploy to get people to keep buying new pans as it wears off.

This is one of the biggest reasons my wife and I switched away from non-stick too. We moved from replacing non-stick pans after a year of use to our carbon steel pans working better after 5 years of use than when we got them... or buying 80 year old cast irons from a thrift store for 5 bucks. We have more types of cookware now, but none of them have an expiration date

Cast iron & eggs: if all that's going in are eggs (and fat), I have less clean-up with cast-iron than Teflon.

Heat pan on medium-low, add oil, add slightly-stirred eggs, turn heat off or minimum, mix with a silicone spatula. Perfect eggs in about a minute. The heat retention of the iron transfers at just the right rate to the eggs, the oil (olive, butter, avocado) prevents sticking.

My usual "scramble" has a bunch of ingredients (onions, garlic, sausage, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, seasoning, eggs), and there's more adhesion, but a 10--15 minute soak (whilst eating) hot water + detergent, and a quick scrub, and it's all good.

The only thing that I need a nonstick for is a French omellete or French-style scrambled eggs. Because with stainless steel, carbon steel, or cast iron you need heat in order to prevent sticking.

Apparently it's possible but hard to do in stainless steel:

https://reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1ove4wy/finally_a_non...

I just make them fast and I add a little slurry of potato starch and water or milk to the eggs. Around a teaspoon to 2 or 3 eggs.

I just get the pan hot, add oil, dump in the eggs, shake the pan with the fork agitating, but not touching the bottom, take off the heat or reduce to low depending on how it's going, switch to a rubber spatula, add filling, fold and plate in the traditional way.

if you struggle with sticking it might not be just your pan...

yeah, a good stainless is more than non stick enough for anything. But something that doesn't get enough attention with these kinds of statements is the role of the cooktop.

stainless is easy when you have a cooktop that can maintain the proper temp. that just a hair over "medium" (i havent temped it but i suspect its about 350-375, right around the smoke point of peanut oil)

if your pan is too hot/too cold stuff will stick waaay more (or burn before it would release naturally)

id never been able to get stainless to perform properly on cheap gas burners. heat was too uneven and the hotspots on edges or center would make it not work. no way to get it dialed just right. switching to induction made all the difference. now i can do anything with no fear of sticking.

pan to burner size ratio matters a lot also.

I no longer have any nonstick or cast iron. I almost never manage to clean my cast iron pan in 30 seconds; it’s more like 3–4 minutes. Stainless steel is all I use now. It goes in the dishwasher, so literally two seconds to put it in and two seconds to remove it when the dishwasher is done.

It's much easier with non-stick and I'm not the only one that cooks in my house.