New to cooking here.
What are some examples where I should wait for the pan to pre-heat, for how long, and why?
Thank you in advance!
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4This really depends on what you are cooking. It's all about understanding effects of temperature on your product, control of your cooking surface, and your desired outcome. I think you are going to need to be more specific in order for this question to remain open. We do best with questions that allow for specific, focused answers.– moscafjDec 4, 2020 at 21:05
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@moscafj thanks for your response! I revised the question a little more, I know it's not really too much more specific, but I realized that what I'm looking for is "why." Let me know what you think. Thank you!– JackieDec 4, 2020 at 22:44
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Hi Jackie, I absolutely understand and admire your desire to know "why". The problem is that you might have stumbled into a much larger field than you intended. As general as your question is, the answer corresponding to it is "because we live in a universe in which different temperatures lead to different thermodynamic reactions". If you want to know something concrete, you will have to ask about a specific recipe.– rumtscho ♦Dec 6, 2020 at 12:53
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2 Answers
That really depends on what you want to make! For example, the Spanish Omelette (potatos, onions, eggs, "potato omelette") needs to be poured in a pan which has had to be preheating for some time until it's quite hot (you can pour a little bit of olive oil, and if you move it and it moves VERY fast, that's usually a sign. Don't overdue it as you can "burn" the oil!). That is so you can "sear" the outside while the inside still remains with the liquids and flavours!
If you want to sear a meat (I asked a question about that a little ago, or in the case of the omelette, cook it on the outside so it can have a shape, and let the omelette be runny on the inside. Here you can see something I made the other day!
Another example in which I use it, if I'm cooking curry or something related with CHICKEN, I'd just toast a bit (in Spanish we call it "to golden the chicken", "dorar el pollo"), which basically is at high heat (PRE-HEATED!!) and with some olive oil, cook it quickly, so the outside is seared, but it still has all the liquids on the inside (still raw in most cases because of this quick cooking), and you can add it later!
Common kitchen wisdom is to pre-heat your pan most of the time, but especially when searing meat. The reason for this is to get a good sear (look up Maillard reaction for more details) relatively fast, while the inside can stay at a lower temperature; while you want to cook chicken all the way through, beef steak should mostly be at most medium in the middle.
You could absolutely get away with not pre-heating your pan or pot when you do not care about getting a sear, but most things develop a lot of flavour when seared, e.g. roasting garlic or onions before adding tomatos for a pasta sauce.
One thing to keep in mind is that stainless steel and cast iron cookware will stick more when not preheated. If you are shallow frying a piece of fish in a not hot enough pan, it will tend to stick and possibly tear when you flip it.
So in general, I would recommend preheating (with a little bit of oil in the pan).
