The One Thing You Should Never Put in Your Nonstick Pan

I love nonstick pans. I use mine mostly for frying eggs, pancakes, and breakfast potatoes — three of the stickier breakfast foods. I buy ‘em cheap, rarely wash them, and never run them through the dishwasher, and I’ve found they last a pretty long time, provided no one takes any metal utensils to them. (I’ve heard tell of nonstick pans that play well with metal, but they are expensive, so I have a silicone spatula.)

A nonstick pan can help you cut the fat while pan frying a wide variety of foods, but there’s no rule against using fat in a nonstick pan. (Though nonstick manufacturer Anolon notes cooking with, “heavy vegetable oils may leave a residue that can affect nonstick performance.”) I use lots of butter when I fry my eggs, and lots of bacon grease when I fry my potatoes, but I never, ever hit the pan with cooking spray of any sort.

PAM and her ilk are the enemy of nonstick cookware, due to the presence of an emulsifying agent called “lecithin.” According to Real Simple, lecithin will, “cook onto the surface of your pan, build up, and become nearly impossible to remove.” Anolon also cautions against cooking sprays, noting that they burn, “at lower temperatures and will damage the non-stick coating of your product.”

All of that will turn your nonstick pan into a very sticky one; using a cooking spray can even void the warranty of certain brands. Luckily there is an easy solution: Use butter instead. Or if you want a thin layer of something greasy, fill a mister bottle with a pure oil and spritz it on the pan. Or, for a solution that doesn’t require purchasing a mister, dab a little on a paper towel and wipe it around the pan. (That’s what I do.)