My John Lewis Thermacore pan: a better second try at frying tofu

After several days of trying to fry eggs, I thought I had conquered stainless steel cookware. But yesterday, when I fried tofu, it initially did not stick and then suddenly stuck wildly to the pan.

I looked through Xiaohongshu and Google and had a long conversation with ChatGPT. In the end, I found that the problem was that the surface of the food was not dry enough.

Tofu is soaked in brine, and I did not dry it immediately after taking it out. After frying it for a while, I felt that it had mostly set and tried to move it, only to find that the entire underside had stuck, as shown in image 2.

After reflecting on the failure, I scrubbed the pan clean and dried the surface of the tofu. This time it was much better: the edges stuck slightly, but the pieces could slide overall, as shown in image 1.

📒 My personal summary of general stainless-steel-pan tips. Feel free to discuss them in the comments!

1. Preheating:

   I used to start with a cold pan and cold oil, heat it until it smoked slightly, turn off the heat and wait for the smoke to disperse, then add the food after the oil film had stabilised. Once the sizzling became quieter, I turned the heat back on.

   The drawback is that if your pan and worktop are not perfectly level, the oil will not spread evenly and the pan can heat unevenly. One area may begin smoking while other areas have not reached the temperature needed to form an oil film.

   I still recommend the traditional water-droplet test: heat the pan until a water droplet rolls freely, then add the oil. It should start smoking almost immediately; turn off the heat and wait for the smoke to stop, then add the food normally and turn the heat back to medium once the sizzling becomes quieter. Medium heat can prevent the part of the pan not touching the food from overheating and smoking, which could damage the oil film and make it unstable.

   The key point: hot pan, cold oil; once it smokes, turn off the heat, wait for the smoke to disperse, then add the food and turn the heat back on.

2. Adding the food:

   I never used to deliberately dry the surface of the food. In my experience, fried eggs almost never went wrong, but I had two particularly serious failures with starch-coated meat strips and northern-style tofu. They stuck so badly that I wanted to throw the pan away. But a pan this expensive could not possibly be the problem—it had to be me!

   When adding food, you should take care to dry off as much surface moisture as possible, especially with foods that are prone to sticking. Examples that come to mind include tofu, fried rice and fish.

   In principle, if the food contains a lot of moisture, evaporation can create small steam explosions between the underside of the food, the oil film and the pan. The steam carries away heat and damages the oil film, causing the local temperature to become too low. Once the oil film has already been damaged, the food can come directly into contact with the pan and stick.

   The key point: pay particular attention to drying the surface of starchy foods and fish as much as possible.

3. My personal view: stainless steel pans are not suitable for high-heat stir-frying. Excessive pan and oil temperatures—the wok hei we are seeking—can damage the oil film we worked so hard to create.

However, with foods that do not tend to stick, such as leafy vegetables, the pan and oil can actually be hotter, as long as the minced garlic does not stick or burn.

I hope everyone can conquer their beautiful stainless steel pans. Feel free to discuss this!