Cooking

Hot pan, cold oil

1. Heat up your pan/pot to a desired temperature.
2. Once it is thoroughly hot, add just enough oil to coat the pan and swirl the pan around to get coverage..
3. Once the oil starts to "shimmer" (I usually just wait for 15-30 seconds), add your food.

Whether you are using, cast iron, stainless steel, a wok, whatever, this is the case.

The one exception is pans with non-stick coating (I would recommend against these pans generally, because they shed and get in your food, and then the pans get thrown away, and all of that sucks). If you heat up a non-stick pan too hat without anything in it, it could burn the coating, and then you effectively have a "broken" pan.

Other considerations

• Overly wet ingredients may still stick, because the water breaks the oil film layer, so pat dry your ingredients if you can.
• Too much oil is a deep fry. Not enough is going to make food stick.
• Wait 10-20 seconds to move the food just placed on the pan. The proteins and starches need to crisp up before it will move properly.

How does it work[3]

This technique will result in less sticking for various reasons:

1. The tiny pores in metal pans close up when the metal is heated and expands. Without this, the various elements seep into the pores and get caught there, which is what causes sticking.
2. Oil that is not as hot as a significantly hot pan will be easier to work with and not absolutely blast your food, which can cause carbonization.
3. Cold oil on a cold pan won't move around and will just sit there and seep into pores. Cold oil in a hot pan will move freely and not be overly concentrated. Not as big a deal, but it is nice.
4. The Leidenfrost effect is when "a liquid, close to a solid surface of another body that is significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer that keeps the liquid from boiling rapidly. Because of this repulsive force, a droplet hovers over the surface, rather than making physical contact with it". So the food won't even touch the surface, which is ideal. To test this, add a small amount of water or oil to the pan. If it beads and rolls around, the pan is around 193° celsius/279° fahrenheit and ready to use.

References

1. https://zerowastechef.substack.com/p/9-tricks-that-add-more-flavor-to?utm_source=email&publication_id=35728&post_id=45668964
2. https://www.hokwokleung.com/viewtopic.php?t=199

Last modified: 202609261520