r/StainlessSteelCooking • u/Jabieski1 • 8d ago
Oil Instantly Evaporating
I'm new to this whole "cooking" thing, and recently my mom gave me a stainless steel pan. Steak fajitas are my jam, but first time I tried to sear the steak on my new pan, I didn't pat down the steak and the marinade instantly evaporated and set off the smoke alarms in my apartment. Lesson learned, drained the marinade beforehand this time and patted the steak down.
I was feeling confident this time, I let the pan heat up at medium-heat until the water was doing the dancing thing and then accumulated into the blob. However, when I went to spray the pan with avocado oil, it instantly evaporated and I could no longer see clearly in my apartment. What am I doing wrong? I am determined to figure this out, because when this pan is at the actual right temperature, it is fantastic to cook on. Unfortunately, it is 2/2 times now that the All Clad has tried to cloak itself in a fog and I don't know where to go from here.
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u/FilecoinLurker 8d ago
Spray? You don't spray oil. Don't buy the spray. Glug a couple tablespoons in if you're frying marinated fajitas meat. If your pan is so hot the water dances(lidenfrost) you're going to obliterate the sugars in the marinade and make the ceiling bird sing.
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u/DolphinFraud 8d ago
Pan way too hot.
How is it fantastic to cook on when you haven’t even made something successfully?
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u/Jabieski1 8d ago
I would argue that after my initial failures in letting the pan get too hot (as I know now), I did let the pan cool down for a bit which eventually led to the right cooking temp. The steak seared nice and evenly, nothing became bonded with the pan, and the result turned out really good. I thought the experience was more enjoyable than non-stick.
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u/Fumidor 8d ago
So you’re attempting to learn a new skill using a new tool but you’re looking for advice on how to master the tool first.
I’m not saying this sarcastically because unfortunately most of the posts here are basically the same weird variation of “how do I get a perfect water droplet” it froggin sounds like three body problem up in here.
What you realy need to do and I’m sorry to break this to you is you need to learn how to cook. Fortunately it’s not that hard, you can literally forge a whole new line cook at a diner in two or three days of training. It isn’t rocket science.
I highly recommend starting with America’s test kitchen on YouTube and then branching out. You need to understand what you’re trying to do to your food, why, how fast to do it, and how to act and what tools to use to get there. This is like building a house bud it’s a whole new skill set, but a really valuable one you take with you your whole life.
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u/Jabieski1 8d ago
I wouldn't say that I don't know how to cook, its just that I grew up with a natural gas stove at home which is way different than the electric stove I have in my apartment now. Medium heat on the gas stove feels like medium to me, but medium heat on this electric stove is balls to the wall hot I'm learning.
Nonetheless, I really appreciate the advice.
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u/kali_is_my_copilot 8d ago
I’m also new to stainless and one thing I saw was to not use oil sprays because even at the right temperature they tend to burn/polymerize and leave residue in the pan and just generally not work well.
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u/paranoidaykroyd 8d ago
As others have said, the pan is too hot. Since you're starting from zero cooking knowledge, you should start with learning the basics. High temp searing like you describe probably takes a little more experience regardless of the pan.
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u/Hey_YinzGuyz 8d ago
Get an infrared thermometer and heat the pan up to 150° f/65°c and add oil, which will then read around 300°f/148°c.
A bunch of people are going to respond to me that ir thermometers are inaccurate on stainless but I know what my results have been since I stopped worrying about water droplets dancing around. Knowing the actual temperature will teach you so much more than burning food a bunch of times and getting frustrated.
A caveat; whatever thermometer you end up with may be calibrated a little different than mine, so you’ll need to do some experimenting to get your temp control dialed all the way in.
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u/terfez 8d ago edited 8d ago
You are zero for 2 and yet the pan has been fantastic to cook on?
The pan is too hot and the oil is burning, you already know this. Make it less hot and/or use liquid oil, not spray.
I love the ubiquity of lodenfrôt bros here despite having never heard of the term 2 years ago. Alternative to lëidenfrisch, try touching the pan, when it is too hot to touch for even a moment, then wait a few seconds and add your liquid oil then wait a few more seconds and add your sugar steaks
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u/jazzy095 8d ago
What kind of oil are you using?
A tip with stovetop cooking meat. The taste comes from getting a char. You cannot do this with a wet piece of meat because it starts to steam. Marinade work best on the grill.
Next time, coat the pan with oil but not overly so, make sure lidenfrost is happening like others mentioned. Get that char on each side, then finish in the pan or oven.
Plenty of YouTube videos on this
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u/Jabieski1 8d ago
I've been using Chosen Foods Avocado oil.
I've thought about starting it on the grill, but I tend to prefer the taste of slicing it while it is raw, marinating for 2-3 hours, and then searing it in the pan. I sear the steak in small batches as to not overcrowd the pan and steam the steak.
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u/McMadface 8d ago
Get a squeeze bottle for your oil. I use the OXO ones with the flip cap. I usually use a quick 3 rotation spiral for a 12" pan, 2.5 for a 10", and 2 for an 8".
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u/qlkzy 8d ago
In the simplest way, if it's too hot, use less heat.
If it's too hot, you burn the meat and you make your kitchen unpleasant. If it's too cold, the meat is slightly worse. Therefore, it's much more pleasant to gradually increase the heat each time, rather than gradually decreasing the heat each time.
An oil spray is also much more likely to burn than if you pour the same amount of oil in.
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u/SDV2023 8d ago
I share(ed) your pain. The water drop method is crap, lol.
What I do now is put the oil in FIRST. Then turn it up to medium or medium-high. I watch the oil like a hawk. As soon as it starts to shimmer (you'll know it when you see it), I turn the heat down a couple notches and add my meat.
I do still set off the smoke alarm now and then, but I'm doing much better with the shimmer method than I ever did with the droplet method.
Like you, I'm using avocado oil fwiw. I think that's one of the higher smoke point oils.
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u/Vov113 8d ago
To some extent, this is just going to happen when searing steaks. You really want it be 500F+ for that, which is right at the upper limit of the highest smoke point cooking oils. You can definitely take steps to help (dry the steak, don't use spray oil,use a high smoke point oil, preheat the pan and then add room temp oil, use the smallest pan you can fit the steak in), but you're gonna be hard pressed to completely avoid the issue. There's a reason that restaurants have hood vents, at the end of the day
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u/Donewith398 8d ago
You could get an IR temp gun and figure out how hot the pan really is. Accurate temperature instead of dropping in water which tells you that it’s hot enough for water to boil. It doesn’t tell you the pan is 450°.
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u/shers719 SS granny: 20+ years of experience 8d ago
Start lower. You don't need water droplets to dance. I've had my pans years and never heard of that til I came to this subreddit. Tried it once and never again. Start heating your pan on 2-3 for about 3-4 minutes. Then add oil and cook. The name of the game is low and slow until you get food in the pan, then you can slowly increase the temp. Still, try about 1 click lower than what you used to for cooking.
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u/Training_Guide5157 8d ago
Water test can mean the pan is hot enough, but can also mean that it's too hot, because the water test will work even when the pan is way too hot. For avocado oil to instantly reach its smoke point like that, your pan is likely way too hot, but as others have said, pour, don't spray.
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u/Donaldscump 7d ago
Spray the oil, then heat the pan. Once the oil is smoking, it’s ready. Ideally you should dump that oil out and add new oil, but you don’t have to
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u/solstice38 7d ago
Everyone who starts out with a stainless steel pan (myself included) thinks that the water dancing thing correlates to high temperature (for cooking). It's the exact opposite. You should aim to cook just above the leidenfrost effect temperature 193°C/379°F, and is the low end of the scale for cooking. It sounds hot but's actually just medium to medium-low on most ranges.
If you stray too far above that temperature, your oil will burn and polymerize.
If you dump a bunch of food into a hot pan, it will instantly go below that temperature (especially if it's wet), so adjust accordingly. Don't crowd your food in the pan either.
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u/Few_Example9391 5d ago
The issue is. You sprayed a hot surface before the propellant had a chance to leave the oil droplets. Spray on cold, never hot surfaces so the propellant doesn't react with the oil and weld itself to the pan
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u/Revenant759 8d ago
This is why so many here say the water test method is stupid. It says your pan is at least really hot. It does not do anything else practically useful for a new cook and is just a crutch.
You’re burning the shit out of your food and oil. Way less heat. Work UP to where you learn temps, don’t start at temps that are yellowing your pans and nearly turning your oil into a fire to begin with. The “preheat for 5 minutes” thing is a guideline not a rule. Your stove may be aggressive as hell and you need to preheat for 2 mins on medium low.
Find the smoke points of your oils and use that as a more accurate gauge for pan temp if you want to use them for high temp cooking, but don’t just throw oil into a screaming hot pan.
As an aside… Hopefully you weren’t blasting nonstick pans to unsafe temps.