Why would heating salt in a pan prevent food from sticking?

Most of the described method will help you to clean and dry your pan. A clean pan, especially when it is cast iron, is a happy pan and will work better. A clean and smooth surface, and rubbing salt on it will clean and smooth a metal surface, will also help to prevent food from sticking.

Sprinkling your pan with salt immediately before frying fish or meat is pointless. What salt does to food is to bind water and less moist things stick less. But your pan should be so hot that the little salt can't make a difference. If the salt has time to dry your food, your pan just isn't hot enough.

Try it before you knock it! My mom did this when I was growing up. I do not know why it works but it does. She would put about a tablespoon of table salt in a seasoned cast iron pan on top of the stove and heated it until the salt turned a little brown. She would wipe the salt out with a paper towel and throw it in the trash. Amazingly the cast iron was as non-stick as a brand new Teflon pan. I do not know the chemistry behind it but I do know that something happens and the difference is amazing. Just try it. It will not hurt your cast iron.

From previous experience, salt was used on seasoned pans as a means of cleaning off a pan's cooking residue while still on the cooking line. This enables keeping pans working without going to the dishwasher.

With regard to using salt as a means to making it non stick, I believe the salt restores the non stick pan seasoning. A coating of oil may have been added to a cast iron pan after use, or some left over from previous use. A surplus of oil in a pan tends to get sticky, defeating the purpose of the non stick pan surface. Adding salt to a warm pan and scrubbing would absorb/remove the surplus oil, restoring a pan's non stick seasoning. In my opinion, that is.

I saw a chef on European TV who always sprinkles a little salt on his hot skillets, swirls it, and then wipes it before grilling anything. Nothing sticks. His explanation is that the salt absorbs the extra moisture ingrained in the pans, especially cast iron. I do that whenever I remember, especially when searing meat or chicken without adding fat, and of course for fish. It works.

I've used this method for 70 years, learned from my mother. Sprinkle a liberal amount of salt, let it get good and hot, wipe clean with paper towel and cook your food. I use it at least a couple times a week (cast iron skillet) when making pancakes. John

If you have a pan that has micro-scratches from using metal cooking utensils, then it is always advisable to fill you pan with salt, heat it, allow to cool slightly, and using a kitchen towel to rub the salt well into the pan. This will remove the scratches. Following that, season your pan as normal.

What the salt is doing is acting as a fine abrasive. When I was a chef, I was proving and seasoning pans all the time. We also used sand as well depending on the state of the pan.

Im an ex Airforce Chef and we would Prove our Omelette pans with salt once every 2 weeks. Proving the pan with salt drew all the moisture out of the pan and the pan would become non stick. a high heat would be used and the pan and salt would be on the heat for no more than 5 minutes.

My mother always salted the cast iron pan before frying meatballs. I believe this method is meant for meat that will render fat, alleviating the need to oil the pan. I don't think fish would work.