Fried eggs - this is the dish that is probably found in the kitchen of almost any family. Although it is customary to cook this simple food using any dishes, many housewives have a special frying pan for it.
Features
A frying pan for fried eggs can be of two main types. The first is characterized by small dimensions: as a rule, the diameter does not exceed 16 centimeters, and sometimes it is only 10 centimeters. The second type of cookware for fried eggs allows you to cook dishes of various shapes, for example, in the form of a circle, square or cartoon character. This also includes special pans designed for cooking a limited number of eggs.
They look like braziers with several compartments, each of which breaks one egg.
Materials and sizes
When choosing a frying pan, be sure to take into account the one from which material it is made. Aluminum cookware warms up quickly, which simplifies the cooking process. Its light weight and ease of use meet the same goal. In addition, the small diameter of the bottom makes it virtually impossible to deform. However, the structure of the material itself often leads to the product sticking and burning. In order to avoid such an effect, it is necessary to consider a method of "closing" the pores of the metal.
Turning and stirring the ingredients in an aluminum pan is allowed only with a wooden spatula or silicone, otherwise the surface can be easily scratched. It is important not to forget that overheating of aluminum also negatively affects the state of the dishes - it changes its shape. The bottom thickness should not be less than 5 millimeters.
In general, aluminum pans are not durable, so if you can, then you should look for a cast aluminum model with thickened walls and a bottom.
Stainless steel tanks do not rust. The material is safe for health, and therefore the prepared products do not oxidize, their taste does not deteriorate. In turn, oxides do not enter the human body. Among the minuses, it is possible to distinguish the impossibility of using abrasive materials for cleaning, as well as the appearance of greenish spots during soaking or long exposure to fire. In addition, there are some requirements for the cooking process - for example, a spatula must necessarily be wooden, and the amount of fat will have to be increased.
Being absolutely safe for human health, a stainless steel frying pan is suitable for connoisseurs of not only tasty, but also healthy dishes.
A cast-iron frying pan allows you to evenly heat the cooking product, maintaining a high temperature. Unfortunately, this roaster is characterized by a large weight and a lengthy cooking process. Separately, mention should be made of containers with non-stick coating. In this case, the spraying can be any, since the technology for preparing eggs is very simple. Non-stick pans are easy to use, but it is worth abandoning metal devices.
The size of the pan depends on the shape and purpose. For example, figured dishes designed to fry one egg are always small. A portioned pan with a recess, on the contrary, usually has a large size, because it should contain several mini-troughs.
Model Overview
There are a number of models of frying pans for scrambled eggs that have proven themselves in most users. Dishes with beveled sides performed in the form of a square or circle. The outward inclination of the low sides greatly simplifies serving, since you do not even have to use a spatula to lay eggs on a plate. Curly pans for fried eggs are striking in their diversity. In addition to standard hearts or the sun, various animals and cartoon characters are produced.
Some of the products are additionally equipped with grooves, thanks to which the figure acquires additional details. Mostly figured dishes are designed for children, since it is much easier to feed a naughty child breakfast or dinner with it. As a rule, the sizes of such models are very small and contain only one egg.
Portion pan is made in the form of a rather large square, circle or triangle, but the latter is quite rare. It can immediately be identified by the concave bottom, which is a certain number of equally sized recesses. One egg is broken into each of them. The number of recesses may vary depending on the size and manufacturer, but most often there are variations with 4 or 7 pieces. The shape of the notches allows you to fry each egg with high quality, avoiding the fairly common problems with a burning edge.
There are variations on a portioned pan aimed at children. In such dishes, the recesses have an unusual shape.
Do not forget about special "frying pans" designed for poached eggs. The cooking technique explains the rather complex structure of this device. A frying pan consists of several parts: a deep frying pan filled with water, a lid with a hole from which steam comes in, molds for eggs and a special upper disc. The second, in turn, is “studded” with holes - large for molds and smaller for outgoing steam.
A special double-sided pan allows you to cook an omelet without thinking about turning over. Thanks to the convenient design, the egg dish can be filled with a variety of fillings, for example, ham or greens.Some models are additionally equipped with stands, allowing you to immediately cook poached egg. If we talk about the base utensils for cooking fried eggs, then it is usually a small size and a round shape.
The bottom of such a pan is thin, and the sides are slightly sloping to the sides. Very often, a frying pan for cooking an egg dish is an ordinary pancake design. And using portioned molds, it will be possible to get curly fried eggs in an ordinary frying pan.
How to choose?
When choosing a roasting pan for cooking eggs, several important factors must be considered. The diameter of the bottom cannot exceed the size of the burner, otherwise the dish will be unevenly fried. To simplify the process of use, it is better to look at the handle from wood or silicone or a special bakelite material. If the material used is too thin, the pan will break quickly. The optimum thickness is 2 millimeters.
For novice cooks, non-stick cookware is more suitable.
We must not forget that not every skillet matches any stove. For example, on the gas there is the possibility of cooking in any dishes, but with induction everything is not so simple. In this case, the operation of aluminum containers is not permitted, and in the case of glass-ceramic, the wall thickness cannot be less than 3 millimeters. Handles at braziers are also different. Some of them are removable and allow you to cook in the oven or in conditions of heavy congestion of the stove, while others are fixed with bolts.
The bottom of the pan can be either single-layer or multi-layer. Multilayer models qualitatively accumulate heat, but single-layer models have less weight. Non-stick coating is good for the time being. For a while, it perfectly fulfills its functions, thanks to which the food does not burn and does not stick. But then the particles begin to fall away and turn out to be in food, which is extremely dangerous for health.
How to care?
The care of a frying pan for an egg is largely determined by the metal from which it is made. For example, a cast-iron roaster should be calcined from time to time using salt, as well as lubricated with oil. It can not be washed in a dishwasher, and also used for long-term storage of the finished product. Ceramics also do not tolerate washing in a dishwasher, as well as the use of alkaline products.
In general, a general recommendation for the care of pans can be called a ban on the use of highly abrasive solutions, as well as metal cooking appliances.
By the way, a cast-iron frying pan still requires proper preparation before initial use. This procedure is more convenient to carry out in stages, since there are enough steps to be done. First, you have to wash the purchased dishes with salt, soda and laundry soap.
After wiping and drying the fryer, it will be put on the stove and calcined over a large fire for about a quarter of an hour. Having fallen asleep in the tank of rocky salt, you will need to hold the pan over the fire for the same amount. After that, the salt is thoroughly cleaned with a dry cloth, and the roasting pan is treated with refined oil from the inside. Finally, the pan is cleaned inside the oven and kept for half an hour at a temperature in the range from 180 to 200 degrees.
Additionally, the same brazier made of cast iron can make a home-made non-stick coating. Washed dishes are carefully covered with a thin layer of fat and removed in an oven heated to 190 degrees. Processing takes place over an hour, after which the pan cools down directly inside the switched off oven in a natural way.
A review of the frying pan for a scrambled egg in the shape of a bear is waiting for you next.
