while I'm asking

[waider]

I am generally somewhat flummoxed when faced with a new cooking device as to the correct settings for any given type of cooking. Some experimentation leads me to believe that by and large anything over half-way on my current cooking surface is good for boiling water and little else, practically speaking. It would be nice, however, to be able to cope with such cooking instructions as "the pan should be hot enough to cook an egg" without wondering, well, "WTF?" a lot. I mean, most of the settings on either the small or large rings are "hot enough to cook an egg", depending on how you like your egg cooked - slowly and thoroughly, or like plastic with a raw centre, or a range of options in between. Aside from the time-consuming (and food-consuming) "through experience" method, are there any rules of thumb for this stuff that I should know about? (e.g. at some point I was told that when deep-frying stuff in a pan full of oil, you should toss in a piece of potato; when it floats, the oil is hot enough. This may or may not be correct, but since I don't deep-fry stuff it's kinda academic, but it gives you an idea of the sort of guidelines I seek)

Comments

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

When testing a pan for hotness for frying eggs or cooking pancakes I sprinkle some water on it - if the droplets "dance" on the surface I figure it's hot enough.
Personally I think the pan is too hot if the oil is smoking. When cooking with olive oil there's a point at which the oil gets fragrant, and that's the point at which I add other things.

[merde.livejournal.com]

yeah. what she said, too. and if the oil is smoking, take that pan off the heat pronto. and do NOT, whatever you do, try the water-sprinkling trick. unless you like being covered with tiny, randomly distributed burns, i mean. smoking oil will give you burnt-tasting food.

note that different oils will smoke at different temps. olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, whereas peanut oil can be used much hotter.

and this kind of info is why the world needs alton brown.

[merde.livejournal.com]

i mean, don't try the water-sprinkling trick if the oil is smoking. or even if it's already visibly sizzling. only if it's not obviously hot.

[candice.livejournal.com]

I was taught the dancing droplets thing too, it tends to work. Wet your hands, and shake them off over the pan a little bit type of deal.

Then again, at the moment I am blessed with a good gas range, so everything gets hot quickly for me.

[merde.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584790830/

or, if you prefer your food science books extra-dry, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684843285/

the info in books like these is much more valuable than what any cookbook will tell you. or anyone who hasn't used your particular stove. unless your burner knobs actually tell you what temperature they're taking the burner to, which is exactly what they should do but don't.

that said, any cookbook that gives you instructions as vague as "should be hot enough to cook an egg" needs to be tossed in the garbage and replaced with a real cookbook. me personally, i'd hazard a guess that the setting intended would be a bit between medium and medium-low -- at least, that's the temperature i use to cook eggs -- but the differences between individual stoves, much less brands and types, are so great that this is more or less meaningless info for you.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Both of those are excellent.

I would add Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything", although I don't know if it's available in an edition for European kitchens (weight rather than volume for dry ingredients, metric units).

I've noted elsewhere, but I find his recipes less fragile than other cookbooks'. By which I mean, his recipes are more tolerant of substitutions and kitchen errors; other cookbooks recommended to beginners (eg, Cooks Illustrated's series, Nigella Lawson's) are more fussy, although I like them too. Bittman's instructions are sufficiently detailed for a newbie, but never tedious. He explains the reasons behind techniques (briefly), so you understand why flour should be sifted some times but not others. It's comprehensive enough for preparing pretty nearly anything I can think of. Add to that a concise writing style and a lack of intimidation. "How to Cook Everything" is our only cookbook with permanent kitchen residence. I'm not being paid for this endorsement.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I hope you're wearing your asbestos pants, because if you invite comment on the "right" way to cook an egg, you're going to get more heat than you ever dreamed of.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

"Hot enough to cook an egg" is a bollocks instruction, to be blunt.

The other classic test for oil for deep frying is to drop in a small piece of bread (easier to obtain that a small piece of potato). It should sizzle instantly and brown in less than a minute.

As merde said, smoking oil is bad. Smoking oil = nasty taste. If it's smoking before you get anything in it, move it aside, discard as soon as it is safe to do so, and start again.

Most of my stir-fried dishes start with cooking the onions. This is partly because I like the onions a bit softer (and slightly caramelised) while wanting the other vg to be crtunchy. However, onions also have a bit more tolerance than some other things for variation in the oil temperature (IMO). If the oil is hot enough, the should sizzle vigorously as soon as they are added; if not, they'll take a wee bit longer to cook, and the pan can warm a bit more during that. Note that adding a large quantity of anything to the pan will reduce the oil temperature slightly.

As a rough rule of thumb, a generic eejitalmuppet stir fry goes something like: onions, then garlic, ginger and thinly-sliced meat (assuming it isn't precooked, and, ideally, after marinating the meat in a little soy sauce, rice wine and maybe something else), dry spices and veggies (added when meat is about 1/2 to 3/4 done) according to cooking times (carrots tend to take longest; peppers and courgettes take a while; mushrooms and beansprouts are delicate and just want a quick sizzle), pre-cooked nuts (I sometimes fry up a few cashews before starting the stir-fry proper) turn heat down and add other flavourings (pick one or more from soy, rice wine, sesame oil, hoisin, chili bean sauce, sesame sauce (basically Chinese version of tahini), lemon juice, water...). Allow liquids to reduce to pleasing level, and serve.
If you are doing noodles instead of rice, chuck them in (pre-cooked)around the same stage as the "other flavourings" to have a stir around and pick up the flavours. With noodles, you may want more liquid.