Things I had Not Realized

[firstfrost]

The difference between "deglaze" and "flambé" is a dex check.

Comments

[treiza.livejournal.com]

that sounds... exciting :)

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Is there a story?

I usually deglaze with water or stock, which avoids that problem. But sometimes it happens anyways.

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

Umm, yes, are you not deglazing with liquid? Non-flammable liquid?

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Well, flammable liquid, clearly. :) I just hadn't ever set it on fire before.

I'm more curious how chenoameg manages to set her water on fire! :)

[kelkyag]

I imagine that the pan is very hot and contains some fat, and when you add water, the water boils and the fat coats all the water droplets and suddenly has a lot of surface area and will burn given any provocation whatsoever. Certain pikans occasionally used to do crazy things showing off how this worked after cleaning out the grease trap.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I just meant that sometimes when I use flammable liquid it catches fire (i think this only happened once)

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I guess you've never seen the cooking shows where the chef just pours a little brandy into a pan and tilts the pan slightly on the gas stove, and suddenly it's all on fire (which they had intended to have happen). I was very impressed the first time I tried that to find out that it really was just that easy.

[ilhander.livejournal.com]

So what exactly is deglazing?

Imagine what I'll know when I get my hands on a McGee...

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Deglazing is: Using a solvent and high heat to get all of those yummy brown bits off the bottom of the pan after you've used it to sauté or brown something. It's a step in many pan sauces, for example. The Mailliard reaction (which I'm almost certainly misspelling) turns protein sweet and flavorful when you brown it.

The solvent is water-based, either water, or stock, or milk, or wine/spirits.

Additional trivia fact -- some flavor compounds are water-soluable. Some are fat-soluable. Some are alcohol-soluable. Using all three generates the most flavor. Tomato sauce is a particularly good example of this.