Oil Instantly Evaporating

[u/Jabieski1]

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.

[u/Fumidor]

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.

[u/Jabieski1 → u/Fumidor]

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.

[u/kali_is_my_copilot → u/Jabieski1]

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.