Stainless steel tips?

[u/Ok-Strawberry7048]

Hello,

I’m still pretty new to cooking on stainless steel and the one dish I love to make uses sausage. I cut them into coins and cook them on a pan. I always struggle with them sticking. I’m doing all the basics such as the water beading trick and making sure the pan is line with oil pretty well. I know it’s good to have some fonds or whatever in the bottom but it sometimes just gets too burnt and when I deglaze it makes the sauce taste worse.

Any tips would be helpful.

Thanks!

[u/enderjaca]

I was waiting for the daily post that jumps straight to "so I was using the leidenfrost water droplet technique i saw on tiktok and...."

Most of the time, that just means your pan is too hot.

[u/Ok-Strawberry7048 → u/enderjaca]

Haha that’s funny 😂 Good to know now

[u/Jewish-Mom-123]

Why are you cutting them into coins before cooking? Cook them first, let them rest a few minutes, then cut them and start the dish from there. Add a cup or so of water to the pan when you start them cooking, to slow down the heat and render out some of the fat. That way they cook through without burning on the outside while still raw in the middle.

[u/Ok-Strawberry7048 → u/Jewish-Mom-123]

To be honest it was just intuition. They’re precooked chicken sausage from Aldi so I figured I’d just cook them real quick to get a browning on them. I guess I should try cooking them whole now. Thanks!

[u/LordPhartsalot → u/Ok-Strawberry7048]

I prefer browning them as coins for most dishes because it maximizes the browned surface. But it's certainly true if you're having difficulty then browning them whole and then slicing might be less trouble.

I suspect you're just jacking the heat up too much.

[u/padishaihulud]

I've got a stove that has a dial that starts with "Low" and goes to "Boil" with the numbers 1-9 in between.

If I'm just browning some meat like your sausages I will always set the dial to 6.5. If I want to render out the fat and slowly brown something extra fatty like bacon I use 5 and flip often. The number 8 is useful for searing big pieces of meat but only for short periods of time. I have no idea why anyone would need anything over 8 unless they're boiling a liquid off.

It sounds like you're going too hot.

[u/Mad-Mac100]

As others mentioned, likely the pan is too hot. For context, I cook most things on medium or medium low on my newish stove. Otherwise, stuff burns.

[u/Square_Ad849]

Are the sausages raw or ready to eat?

[u/LisaLovesCooking]

precooked chicken sausage is probably doing most of this to you. there's almost no fat in it to render, so nothing ever gets between the coin and the steel, and the Aldi ones have sugar in the mix — that's what goes black and turns your deglaze bitter.

so lower than you'd think, and longer. and if the fond is already dark, wipe the pan out and build the sauce clean, you can't cook bitter back out of it.

[u/idontgetnopaper]

You should mix those sausage with cooked potatoes and green beans and a little onion and see how you like it. Put a can of green beans (i  drain the juice off mine but you can leave it if you want) in a pot and add cut up potatoes. Add liquid enough to get the potatoes to cook done and add the sausages and onion if you like that. An let every cook together until the potatoes are done. Serve with corn bread if you like that. Easy meal and doesn't take a lot of time to prepare. 

[u/VVeerroo]

Your pan is too hot. The trick with the water bead test does help make things stick less, but the trick is to actually turn the temperature down after you reach that point. i.e. get to that point, turn the heat down and immediately put your oil in the pan.