Because I have caught fire to my pans on three occasions. The last time I was using avocado oil which is supposed to have a high smoke point.
So what gives? I’ve become a little spooked of my stainless steel cookware. I don’t recall having this problem with my cast iron.
Not sure what the question is here. Did you professional grade stainless steel pans somehow get hot enough to cause your avocado oil to burst into flames?
Yes. Typically, I set the pan on the burner for a while until it gets hot, and then I’ll add oil to the pan (to sear steaks). But as soon as I add the oil, it begins to smoke and then catches fire.
Are you pre-heating the stainless the same amount of time you preheated your cast iron? Stainless will get up to temperature much faster so the pan may be much hotter than what you’re used to working with.
I would just dial back the heat a bit. If your pan is getting past avocado oil’s smoke point (520 degrees) then it’s well past what you need to sear.
Alternatively, you might consider checking your oil, if you’re not actually getting that hot.
I’m not at all a serious cook but I thought adding oil to a hot pan was a bad idea or at least dangerous.
It’s actually how they recommend cooking…cold oil in a hot pan, then add your food once the oil shimmers. Especially on non-stick pans…but there’s degrees of hot.
On a high burner, I’d imagine a stainless steel pan wouldn’t need more than a minute or three
Normally, what I’ll do is set the pan on the burner and sett the timer for 4 minutes. Occasionally, I’ll set the pan on the burner but forget to set the timer. So the pan could be setting on there for ten minutes before it dawns on me: “Oh shoot, the pan!”.
Because of my absent mindedness, I’ve learned to dial back the heat a bit. But shoot, this last incident, I only had the burner set just below medium high. And that was STILL enough to catch the oil on fire. I will admit, this was one of those times I forgot I had the pan on the burner. I thought I was safe though because I had the burner turned down.
Maybe you could use an infrared thermometer, to …
Be aware, Teflon pans give off toxic gas above 750 or so. I know they’ll kill our birds if that happens.
I’m assuming by “professional grade stainless”, you really mean stainless clad aluminum.
Those are going to behave quite a bit differently than a cast iron skillet. Cast iron both doesn’t transmit heat terribly well, and it has a huge thermal mass relative to stainless clad aluminum cookware. In practical terms, this means that cast iron heats slowly and retains a lot of heat once it’s hot. This is great for steaks, but not so great for sauteeing.
By contrast, the stainless clad cookware heats up very quick and doesn’t have a lot of thermal mass. So it’s going to heat up a lot faster and hotter than cast iron will. And it cools down similarly. This makes it great for things where you need a lot of heat fast, and the ability to remove it from the heat, both of which aren’t strengths of cast iron.
My recommendation is that if you’re using the stainless clad cookware, you can’t let it sit and heat like you’re doing- there’s so much less heat-up time, and you end up burning your oil.
Yeah, I guess the key is to not forget I have a freaking hot pan on the stove.
I think I’m gonna get one of the thermometers that @DavidNRockies suggested. I quite like that idea.