Hot Pan
Hey–
How do I know when my pan is hot enough to saute stuff in?
–Gary
Gary–
There are a couple of ways to check. Generally, you want it to be hot enough that water balls up and rolls around the pan, but not so hot that it’s smoking.
If you don’t feel like splashing water into the bottom of the pan, you can look at the fat that you add to the pan to cook things in. You want the fat to slide around the bottom of the pan easily and coat the whole thing, plus you should see some ripples in it when you tilt the pan and it flows.
If all else fails, add one piece of whatever you’re cooking to the pan. It should sizzle at a moderate volume. If it’s not sizzling, wait a little longer. If it sizzles too loudly, add everything to the pan, but remove it from the heat until it quiets down a little.
Whatever you do, don’t splash water into a pan that already has fat in it: that will lead to hot fat splattering in your face!
Have a question about food or cooking? Email me, and I’ll try to respond in a future post.
April 26th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I’ve recently picked up a combo laser (infrared)/probe thermometer for some other applications:
http://www.fantes.com/thermometers.htm
It was a bit pricy ($90), but it’s useful for all sorts of things. In this case, it can be used to take the temperature of the pan surface. Browning reactions take place at around 300F. It’s probably extravagant to buy one just for this, but if you have one anyway, this is certainly a good use for it.