A woman has gone viral on social media for a creative yet controversial egg recipe that uses cucumber instead of oil.
Jana, who goes by username Jana.dvll on TikTok, can be seen lathering her skillet with a large green fruit before cracking an egg into it.
The result? A perfectly cooked sunny-side-up egg, its golden orb intact, sliding out of the pan with ease, and leaving it even cleaner than it would have been had she used oil or butter.
Jana, who appeared as astonished as some of her viewers, proclaimed that she would never use oil again.
The internet is not buying buying into the hack
Image credits: Dusan Petkovic/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Tiktok for most parts, is sceptical, with many pinning the recipe with two million engagements’ success to the pan’s nonstick coating.
“I don’t know how everybody is surprised that the egg isn’t stuck on a nonstick pan. [It] literally has nothing to do with the cucumber,” one commenter wrote.
To test the theory, Sara Kate Gillingham and Maxwell Ryan’s TheKitchn performed an experiment of its own.
The home cooking media outlet cracked an egg into a cold nonstick skillet and turned the heat up slowly.
Image credits: jana.dvll
The result proved effective. There was no browning at the edges with the additional upside of no hot grease splattering out of the pan.
But it did present one drawback. The egg was “noticeably less rich and delicious” than when cooked with oil, fat or butter.
Jana claimed she learned the hack from her Italian grandmother.
TikTok had ideas on this too, with one commenter writing: “As an Italian, absolutely not. No Italian grandma would replace oil.”
She learned it from her Italian grandmother, she says
Image credits: jana.dvll
Olive oil—in the context of Italian cooking—is nothing to worry about, argued one of Jana’s followers, who sees the obsession with skipping it as misplaced.
With the exceptions of canola, corn, soybean, sunflower, safflower, and palm oils that produce unhealthy compounds when heated, cooking with oils can be healthy—especially when inflammation is a common condition, per University of California, Davis.
Cooking with Teflon-coated cookware, however, is a source of controversy in medical and scientific circles.
Nonstick pans have a history tied to severe illnesses
Image credits: jana.dvll
Teflon, now a trademarked brand name, was known to contain a toxic chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), but the substance was phased out by 2013, according to the health guidance website, Healthline.
It was associated with thyroid disorders, chronic kidney and liver disease, and testicular cancer along with infertility and low birth rates, according to various studies archived with the National Library of Medicine.
The coating still contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), chemicals known for their oil- and water-resistant properties.
The effects of these synthetic compounds on the human body—which are also found in rain jackets, nail polish, dental floss and carpets—are not fully understood, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Cooking without oil could be more dangerous
Image credits: jana.dvll
Manufacturers tout cooking on Teflon without oil as safe provided the utensil does not exceed 500°F (260°C).
But according to the University of Illinois, Teflon covered pans often have imperfections that emit gasses which are toxic at much lower temperatures.
Factors that may expedite this wear include the use of metal spatulas, abrasive scorers and detergents, cleaning in dish washers, preheating and, according to Liz Meimann, a food science expert at the University of Iowa, cooking dry—which means; cooking without grease, fat or oil.
But there are alternatives
Image credits: jana.dvll
There is the traditional way of cooking eggs in a stainless steel pan and it does not need to stick.
The trick here, according to shopping aide Prudent Reviews is pre-heating the skillet.
The best way to test the pan’s temperature is by splashing water into it. If the droplet dances around, then it is at the right temperature.
Image credits: Светлана Лазаренко/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Tip the moisture out, add your oil and then the egg. The same rule applies to cast iron pots, which, notably, will need a bit more grease, but the principle of preheating remains the same.
Because cast iron pots retain their temperature so well it is essential to turn the stove all the way down once it’s hot enough, per TheKitchn.
Social media is divided on Jana’s hack
@jana.dvll that was so smooooth WHAAT? #cucumber #eggs #lifehack #breakfasthack #cookinghack ♬ Love – The Something Specials & Taylor Olin
