I’ve always heard that it’s “technically” correct, when sauteing, to heat the pan, then put the oil in, rather than heating the oil along with the pan. Why is this? I must confess to ignorance on the reason for this.
The saying I know is “Hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick.” So that’s the why, but I don’t know the physics/chemistry behind it.
“This mantra is repeated by many people as the best way to prevent food from sticking to the pan when sautéing or stir frying. The idea is that you heat up the pan first then add the cold oil and almost immediately add the food. This works of course, so it is not a myth in that it is untrue. It is, however, false to think that this is the only or the best way to prevent sticking. What you really want is “hot pan, hot oil” and that’s what you are actually getting because the cold oil heats up almost instantly when added to the hot pan. You’ll get the same results if you heat the oil along with the pan rather than adding the oil at the last minute. In fact some cooks prefer this technique because the appearance of the oil in the pan can give you some indication of when the pan has reached the proper temperature.”
http://www.pgacon.com/KitchenMyths.htm
However, I will say that in my own (very lmited, broke-slacker-college-student) experience, doing otherwise often resulted in lots of hot, smoky, stinking, carcinogenic oil on my old stovetop. Your mileage may vary. According to the above, it doesn’t really matter anyhow.
That’s how Jeff Smith used to say it.
I found this, but it’s speculation:
… hm. There’s a good chance that the bulb I need to operate my Vis-Spec won’t be in tomorrow, giving me several hours in a laboratory. During which I’ll be bored.
Now all I need is some cooking oil, a buttload of pans, and some co-workers who can keep a secret.
I have tried heating the pan with the oil, and measuring the temp to see if is hot, and in my experience, food is much more likely to stick.
It is also safer to use the hot pan cold oil. For one thing, you can determine the temperature of the hot dry pan by drizzling water in it. The water should skitter if it is hot enough, that is hot enough to cause flash vaporization. When you have the oil in first, drizzling water result in hot oil spatter, yet flash vaporization is what you want to check for. You want your oil to be hot enough to turn the water in your food to steam. This pushes the oil out, so your food is less greasy too. The secret of frying is to keep the oil hot enough to cause this steaming from within yet cool enough that it cooks the food evenly and does not catch fire.
Ah yes, I could not for the life of me remember where I’d heard it that way. Too bad about the scandals and all; I really enjoyed his show.
I’ve not had a problem with either method resulting in sticking. The sensible answer to this is that if you put oil in a pan, turn on the burner, and then become distracted, you could have a kitchen fire (my wife is my cite, on more than one occasion).
When I put oil in a cold pan and heat it with the pan, I don’t put any water in to see if it will sizzle. I look for the oil doing the slight “shimmer” on the surface.
Yup. The convective “oil dance”. This is what I use as well. Thanks for the answers, guys! So it’s not as cut and dried as I would have believed, eh?
Also, wait a sec. Cooking oil doesn’t have a hydrophilic end, does it?
Donn’t really care about the Jeff Smith scandals, what I objected to was the seriously sloppy fact checking on a number of his books. I gave up on the “3 Ancient Cuisines” one after I found over 300 factoids that were incorrect. As a hoot I sent the list to his publisher, with information on primary and secondary documentation information and a suggestion that they needed a new research assistant.
Yes, but you use nonstick cookware, don’t you? (Or was it someone else who said sauces made in nonstick were just as good and you weren’t giving up your nonstick pans? I’m not stalking you, I swear!)
Stickiness aside, hot pan, cold oil is how I avoid burning my oil. If the pan’s hot, the oil goes in and heats just as much as it needs to before I add the next ingredient. If I put the oil in the cold pan, it often overheats (and smokes, as Doctor Peste discovered) before I’m actually ready for it. Overheated oil has more trans fats, so it’s less healthy, and it tastes weird. That’s not, if you’ll pardon the copyright infringement, good eats.
Shirley Corriher explains why it is best to heat your pan, then add the oil, then heat it as well before adding food. Something about the pores of the metal closing up when it is heated, or some such. I’ll try and dig up my copy of Cookwise, or see if McGee has anything to say on the subject.
I think that’s a myth, but I don’t know for sure.
Here is an article on the subject.
:smack: No, it’s me being an idiot and mixing up my terms from Nutrition class. I meant free radicals, not trans fats. Thanks for that link, though, it’s a very good article!
I thought James Bond killed all the free radicals? And yes, I love my nonstick stuff. ::glares agressively at WhyNot::
Eh, I don’t worry. With my properly cared for and used stainless steel pans, not even your aggressive glares stick to me! 
I’d venture this highlights the adage, “heat oil to point of fragrance” prior to food addition whether the pan is or isn’t hot initially.