Food of One's Own: Browning Tips.

Don't overcrowd the pan. My rule of thumb is that the food should cover 90% of the bottom of the saute pan and somewhere between 85% to 90% is okay. All the food should be in contact with the bottom of pan, the heat source, in one single layer. If your pan is too small, cook in batches.

Heat up the pan without the oil first. The pan is not as delicate as the oil, which has a smoke point and a flash point.

Heat up the pan for about 3 min and make sure there is no liquid before you add the oil. Some people would drop a little water to test if the pan is hot enough. If you do so, make sure the water is all gone. Pour the water out or cook it off before you add the oil.

Don't add oil into a hot pan with very little liquid because the little droplets of water in hot oil will burst and might splash hot oil onto you. This is also why you should always pat the food dry in high heat dry-cooking with fat method.

If you overload the pan, the ingredients make the pan's temperature plummet and the foods end up steaming in its juice rather than properly browned. If there is too much juice in the pan, the temperature will remain at 212F boiling point until all the juice is vaporized and before we see any serious browning. All the extra cooking time while waiting for the juice to be gone would have already cooked the food to the ideal doneness internally without yielding the desirable browning and flavors. If you keep cooking to have the browning, the food would most likely end up overcooked, dry, juiceless and grainy.

When you put the food in a pan, thinking the pan and oil have been heated hot enough, but you see juice coming out of the food and you don't hear the signature "Psssst....." sizzling, pick up the food immediately and let the pan heat up to cook off the liquid. Or place the food aside, and pour off the liquid before you make the second attempt to brown. This way, you won't over cook it. Bottom line, there can't be any liquid in the pan when you want the color and flavor.

If the food cover less than 80% of the pan, the area without food would overheat and burn the oil. For our one-pot club members, use something that won't release liquid but can add flavors such as ginger, green onions or carrots to keep those areas occupied. Cut them into bigger thicker slices so it's easier to handle because you may have to keep flipping and moving these little helpers to avoid burning them (for this reason, I won't use onions), while you leave the meat undisturbed for 4-5 minutes. If the aromatics brown too fast, pick them up and place them on the meat to cool down.

When you brown the meat, you need to leave those meat alone for 4-5 minutes on medium to medium-high heat without messing with them. You need to let the heat do its thing if you want the Maillard Reaction to happen. When you hear the sizzling sound quiets down, it means all the liquid in contact with the pan is gone and the temperature is rising fast. That tells you to check more often now, about every 1-2 minutes.

Pat the meat or fish dry before cooking. Surface moisture creates steam when it hits a hot pan or grill and impeding browning until the liquid is gone.

Run your knife like a squeegee against the skin of fish or meat to scrape off the water trapped in it and pat dry to be sure.

To draw more moisture out of the surface, you can sprinkle salt on all sides of the fish, chicken, or meat. Leave it in the refrigerator uncovered. For fish, 30 minutes to a couple of hours will do. For meat or chicken, you can do this overnight to 24 hours ahead. Beside making browning more effective, this method will give you crispy skin when baking or roasting them.

Yes, that means you can also brown food in the oven. A broiler is the same idea as an inverted grill, a source of concentrated quick-cooking heat. Chicken and meat take about 10-12 minutes to broil at 450F to 500F. You will want to check halfway through, after 5-6 minutes and flip them.

Food of One's Own