Skip the TikTok Parchment Paper Nonstick Cooking Hack. Try This Instead.
One simple change will make cooking in a stainless steel pan better
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Parchment paper—that humble roll of paper used to bake cookies—is having a moment right now. A cooking hack that’s gone viral on TikTok has people lining their stainless steel pans and cast iron skillets with parchment to cook delicate foods, like fish and eggs, without the food sticking. It’s essentially nonstick cooking without a nonstick pan, and even chef and author J. Kenji López-Alt says it’s legit.
Why not just use nonstick pans, you ask? Some people might be trying to avoid potential exposure to PFAS or simply don’t need another pan in their kitchen. All nonstick pans will also eventually crap out at some point.
What Happened When We Pan-Fried Salmon With Parchment Paper?
In our lab, we cooked the salmon with a bit of vegetable oil over medium heat for 15 minutes and used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of the pan’s surface intermittently. The stainless steel pan’s temperature went to the upper 500s while the cast iron pan went above 600° F (at which point the thermometer gave an error reading). The parchment scorched in all cases but never flared.
Parchment Paper and Safety
We were pleasantly surprised that the parchment paper never caught fire, and the salmon was cooked beautifully with a crisp skin. But the temperature went well beyond the 425° F threshold that Reynolds says is the max safe temperature for cooking with its parchment paper. The company says also to avoid using this product in a broiler, in a toaster oven, or near an open flame. We couldn’t get a solid answer as to what could happen beyond that point except for scorched paper, says James E. Rogers, PhD, director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports. While we don’t know the chemical food safety risk, the process does not allow you to adhere to the recommendations on the package regarding temperature limits, he says.
A Better Way to Cook With Stainless Steel Pans
You don’t actually need parchment paper to cook delicate fish or sunny-side-up eggs without them sticking to the pan. What it comes down to is properly preheating the pan.
The surface of stainless steel is somewhat porous. The pores shrink when stainless steel is heated, and the pan expands. Foods have a tendency to get stuck to your pan if they are pinched by pores that are still contracting. Avoid this by preheating your pan.
Place your pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, then sprinkle a few drops of water into it to see if it’s ready. You want the water to become a slippery bead that glides along the surface of the pan. If the water flattens out and slowly evaporates, try again in 30 seconds. If the water breaks into tiny beads and splatters, that means the pan is too hot, and you need to let it cool off a bit. It may take some practice before you get the hang of finding the sweet spot.
Once the pan is properly preheated, add oil, swirl it around, and add your food. Wait to flip it! The surface temperature of the pan will fluctuate and grip the food when you add a cooler object, so you want to wait for the temperature to return and for the pan to release your food. (It helps to make sure your food is at room temperature before cooking it, too.) Once it’s done cooking, watch that salmon glide along the surface of the pan just as the bead of water did before it.
If you’re using a cast-iron skillet, be sure to season it properly.
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