1,525 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

The two frying pans

Where we see that a non-stick frying pan, if it is very practical in general, sometimes it is not enough.

11 K 4.7/5 (15 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Cooking Pan Casserole Utensils Meat Juices Tefal Teflon Non-stick

Last modified on: February 26^th 2022

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

The two frying pans

You probably have one at home, a non-stick frying pan or saucepan, which everyone calls "Tefal".

The non-stick pan

Very recognizable by its black color, and its very particular interior coating, the food adheres to it very little, which is infinitely practical for anything that needs to cook without sticking, an omelette for example, but this is the case most of the time.

poele tefal

It is extremely practical, but it is not harmless, the internal coating is teflon (hence the name Tefal), I will not go into it too much, but you have to be careful with these pans which age quickly (you have to change them as soon as the coating starts to get damaged) and be careful not to heat them too much, for example by forgetting it on the fire, empty, the time to prepare what to cook in it, the coating will then degrade quickly.

But, the risk being known, we have to admit that cooking with it is rather nice, it doesn't stick, and it is easy to sauté something inside.

But?

There is a downside, it doesn't stick, very good for fried eggs, but for a meat for example, with which you want to make a sauce or a juice after cooking, you will need the cooking juices, and with a non-stick, there is (almost) none... It is normal at the same time, as the meat does not stick, the cooking juices do not form, the famous Maillard reactions, if you want to add cream and Roquefort for a delicious Roquefort sauce for example, it will not be so successful.

Yes, because for this kind of recipe, on the contrary, you want it to stick, a little, so that a lot of cooking juices are formed, juices that you can then "deglaze" (some say "decook") by pouring a little liquid in the pan and scraping the bottom and reducing.

cuisson viande sucs de cuisson

You will have understood that for this kind of cooking, the non-stick frying pan is not well suited, you need a classic one, almost old-fashioned, in stainless steel if possible, a bit like this:

poele inoxydable

This type of pan is ideal for making post-cooking sauces after a meat as mentioned, but also a fish, scallops etc. etc.

On the other hand, to make an omelette in it, you really need to load it with butter or oil, so as not to have to remove the omelette with a chisel and hammer at the end of cooking...

Not one, but two!

Which means that in the end, you'd better have 2 pans, one non-stick for everyday cooking, and another steel one, for all the cooking that requires juices for after or during the cooking.

As always with kitchen equipment, you have to pay the price, if you have to buy a second pan, get one made of stainless steel with a thick bottom, why not a French brand, we can find here high quality brands (De Buyer for example), certainly a little more expensive but "the price is forgotten, the quality remains" (my favorite mantra)

The new generation of non-stick pansI

I'll end by coming back to the non-stick pans, the manufacturers, Tefal being the first, are finally becoming sensitive to the arguments of the consumers who don't want any more dubious products for their health, such as teflon (see the movie "Dark waters" that you may have already seen), teflon that they are progressively starting to abandon. So we have been seeing for some time now so-called non-stick pans appearing, but of a rather light color, where teflon is replaced by ceramic, completely neutral and much more solid.

poele céramique

Objectively it is not as flexible as the historical non-stick ones, but it is already much better for your health, ceramic being neutral, and also much more solid, it is not afraid of being hit by a fork or a knife.
I would like to recommend them to you.

To sum up: If possible, have 2 pans at home, one non-stick (ceramic if possible) for everyday cooking, and another steel (stainless if possible) for cooking that requires the formation of juices, for tasty sauces after cooking.

Lasts posts

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20251,2365

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20256,7693

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20256,2075

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20256,3215

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20254,4635

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

The baker always gild twice

I've already told you about gilding, the beaten whole egg that is spread with a brush on anything that needs to brown in the oven: puff pastry, pastries, etc. and that professionals use a lot, I'm going to come back to this to clarify a bit how to do it, and give you a professional tip.
June 9^th 201935 K4.2

Different kinds of pastry and dough

When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked. .
November 6^th 2012111 K 14.0

Perpetual stock

It's something you have probably have done yourself: cooked or pre-cooked vegetables before adding them to a recipe. This is almost always done the same way: peel the chosen vegetables (carrots, for example), cut them up, boil them in salted water (using a tablespoon or so of coarse salt per litre),...
November 22^th 201630 K5

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017133 K 14.1

The taste of raw tomatoes

Let's take a look at tomatoes, which are still in full bloom at the end of summer (as I write these lines), and which make for delicious salads. I had already talked to you about the interest of peeling tomatoes, which gives them an extraordinary sweetness in the mouth, but let's talk about the...
September 8^th 201815 K4.9