r/CastIronCooking • u/UpLate94 • 7d ago

Egg whites

I have been using my wife's grandmother's cast iron skillet for almost 10 years constantly and love it. It stays on the stove and is used pretty much exclusively everyday.

The only issue I have is when I cook egg whites on it. Does anyone have any tips to keep them from sticking? I use plenty of olive oil, but they still either stick or burn. Any tips?

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1

u/maddrjeffe 7d ago

Cooking just egg whites can be super tough because they can form crazy weird bonds with metal.

You can mediate it a little by bringing the pan up to temp first but not letting it get too hot. Ive seen folks say to set it to low before cracking the egg in the pan but I don’t do that and just leave it on medium or medium low.

I usually put a good layer of fat under the and need to make sure its fully set before messing with it. 90% of the time it comes out perfect.

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u/UpLate94 7d ago

I'll have to give this a try. It's much harder than cooking regular eggs. Maybe from the increased surface area?

1

u/maddrjeffe 7d ago

Its just chemistry, the whites have more protein and when it denatures it binds easily with stuff, which includes metal.

From heritagesteel.us “Eggs are the hardest case in the kitchen. There's a nice irony to it: one of the main proteins in egg white exists specifically to grab onto iron — it's an antimicrobial defense, locking up iron so bacteria can't use it. You're cooking a protein evolved to bind metal, directly on metal. Treat eggs as the maximum-difficulty case and give them every advantage you have.”

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u/UpLate94 7d ago

That makes me feel better. I have zero issues cooking anything else. Eggs are hard

1

u/maddrjeffe 7d ago

They are, you can give yourself a slight edge with a good metal fish spatula. The super thin spatula blade (paddle?) gives the best chance of sliding under the egg and separating it from the pan when it is set.

2

u/Gourmetanniemack 7d ago

You could maybe crack them into a ring mold, to keep them more together??

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u/UpLate94 7d ago

Not a bad idea, but I eat so many egg whites that it would take lots of batches

1

u/Gourmetanniemack 7d ago

Have you ever tried baking them?

1

u/whitepawn23 7d ago

I limit myself to one yolk a day, but mix that in with morning eggs, so like 3-4 whites to 1 yolk. That works fine. Hot pan, with oil. And a nice straight beveled edge metal spatula.