Frying- when to apply the oil?

corblimey

When pan frying (a steak for example) I've always put the oil onto a cold pan and then heated it up. But watching (I think) Ramsay doing his Cook Off Live there a few weeks back, he heated up the pan, then applied the oil. Is it 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other, etc?

AngryHippie

When the pan is hot, the oil is more runny and you can get away with a thinner film of oil covering the whole pan. Also If you are using olive oil, It'll start to burn If the pan gets too hot, so a hot pan doesn't really give it time to start smoking. I use a hot pan myself, But I doubt there is that much difference

Minder

Cooking a steak, I always found that rubbing a little oil on the meat will help prevent it sticking, so heat a griddle pan without the oil, have the steak at room temperture and if the meat has a good piece of fat eg sirloin, then straight onto the pan with no oil. The fat breaks down as the meat cooks.

Also heard of this approach when cooking fish. Oil the food, not the pan.

Pigletlover

I always heat the pan first and then add the oil, that way you use less oil and it doesn't burn. If using a griddle pan, brush whatever your cooking with oil and add it to a hot pan (no oil required on the pan). If you want to fry with butter use a little oil first and add the butter to the hot oil to prevent it from burning.

P. Breathnach

I never thought about this before. I have always put oil in the cold pan, and then heated it. But I prefer to use peanut oil, as it doesn't smoke and it transfers almost no flavour to the food.

The Sweeper

It depends what I'm frying. And what I'm frying it in.

Stir fries, heat the wok, add the oil.
Onions and garlic for sauce bases, add the oil, heat the pan.
Single pieces of meat and fish, tiny bit of oil on the meat, use a heated non-stick pan.

rubadub

I heat the pan first. I usually wash my pan before using it, just a rinse maybe, so dry heating it drives off all the water, while if you add oil to the cold pan with a trace of water it can spit everywhere.

When doing steaks I will cut off the fat and add it to the pan, this cooks it and releases enough fat for the steak. I then push it aside, cook the steak and discard the cooked fat. This also means no raw meat in the bin, so less risk of it going stinky.

Nordwind

I cut the fat off before cooking it but I don't put the fat on the pan...never heard of that done before.

Magic Monkey

The reason is here. It's to stop food sticking.

mildews

corblimey wrote: »

When pan frying (a steak for example) I've always put the oil onto a cold pan and then heated it up. But watching (I think) Ramsay doing his Cook Off Live there a few weeks back, he heated up the pan, then applied the oil. Is it 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other, etc?

The reason that you put oil in a hot pan is because you can judge more easily how much oil is needed.
If you put oil in a cold pan, the oil will be thicker and as it heats up it thins out and covers more area in the pan.
If you put oil in a hot pan, the oil thins out immediatly and you can judge the amount better.
I hope this makes sense..