No matter how much of a culinary genius you think you might be, chances are something in the kitchen will still trip you up now and then.
You might over-boil an egg, say, or find yourself at a loss when it comes to pan-searing a sole fillet to perfection. Or you might find that your pots and pans always come away burnt when you take them off the gas hob, leaving behind unsightly black marks.
If scorching your cookware almost every time you use it is your particular kitchen kryptonite, don’t despair. There are many relatively simple precautions you can take to protect your pans and keep them pristine longer. Read on, and you’ll be more than prepared when the next time comes to turn up the heat.
3. Identify Your Cookware’s Hot and Cold Spots
If you’ve been cooking with a pot or pan for some time, you may notice that there are particular areas on it that get very hot very quickly (“hot spots”). By contrast, certain parts of it will never heat up quite enough (“cold spots”). The precise locations of these spots will likely differ depending on what the pot or pan is made of and on the heat source you use them to cook on. You can be sure, however, that all your pots and pans have them—and that it will help you to know exactly where they are.
Whether you’re refamiliarising yourself with an old pan or just getting to know a new one, there’s a quick test you can do to identify its hot and cold spots. Simply boil some water in it over high heat and note the places where the water bubbles. Bubbles will always form rapidly over hot spots, while you’ll see barely any bubbling, or none at all, over cold spots.
Once you know where a pan’s hot spots are, you’ll know which parts of it are most likely to burn if you let them sit too long over the flame. If you feel up to it, you can shake your pans as you cook like professional chefs do. Changing the position of your pan over the heat source in this way will allow its hot spots to cool down and distribute more heat to its cold spots.
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