How did I get here? I'm not good with saucepans!

[rho]

The following is about the limit of my culinary talents:

1. Take some bacon, cut it up into a pan. Apply heat.
2. Take a leek or two, cut it up and add to the pan when the bacon looks less raw.
3. Crush a few cloves of garlic into the pan.
4. "Stir" (I'm sure there's a better word; I don't know it) occasionally with a fork until it looks done.
5. Remove from pan and serve on toast.

However, I have thus far discovered two slightly different ways of doing this. The first is to put some sort of fat or oil at the bottom of the pan before I start, resulting in the end dish being overly greasy. The second is not to put any sort of fat or oil in the bottom, which results in everything sticking to the bottom of the pan, burned bits in the end dish, and an annoying washing up task.

What am I doing wrong?

Comments

[cesy]

Are you using a non-stick pan? That helps.

I think the general theory is to use a small enough amount of oil or fat that it doesn't make the dish too greasy.

[marcelle42]

Agreed on the "very little oil" and a non-stick pan being essential. I use Pam cooking spray to make stuff not stick.

If you're using a non-stick pan, thought, be careful about using that fork. Non-stick coating + metal implements = no more non-stick coating. Use a wooden spoon, or something plastic intended for high heat.

[zarhooie]

Echoing the previous comments about non-stick pans. Try using just a few drops of butter or olive oil, or possibly using a fattier bacon.

[rho]

The next dumb question, then, is this: where do I get a non-stick pan? What do I look for in a non-stick pan? Is there any way to screw up attempting to buy a non-stick pan?

[marcelle42]

This is not a dumb question. There's a couple kinds of non-stick pans -- anodized aluminnum, Teflon, etc. It's trendy to hate Teflon (and there are some good health reasons for it, burning Teflon = bad for you), but I don't care -- you can never take my Teflon pan away from me!!!!

If you think you'll ever want to put the pan in the oven (like, for a frittata), you should definitely look for something that is oven safe -- that is, it should have a metal handle, not a plastic one. Teflon isn't good for this, mostly.

Fancy anodized aluminum pans : http://www.calphalon.com/calphalon/consumer/jhtml/productLine.jhtml?catId=CLCat100197

Less fancy anodized aluminum: http://www.target.com/Rachael-Ray-Hard-Anodized-12-Skillet/dp/B000HTU6MQ/qid=1239298361/ref=br_1_6/188-4358656-3731637?ie=UTF8&node=13002781&frombrowse=1&pricerange=&index=tgt-mf-mv&field-browse=13002781&rank=pmrank&rh=&page=2

Teflon pan: http://www.amazon.com/Next-Day-Gourmet-Platinum-diameter/dp/B0001MS9MI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1239298501&sr=8-1

[zarhooie]

At a store.
In the pan aisle.
No.

[boosette.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you might have the heat up either too high (nonstick) or not high enough (stainless).

Start with a teaspoon or so of fat and add more by the half teaspoon or so as needed; you can always put more in if it looks like it's gonna scorch, but you can't remove fat you've already added.

When scorching occurs, nothing solves the problem better than an overnight soak with a little dishsoap added.

[janinedog]

You can try taking a stick of butter and just running it all along the bottom/sides of the pan, instead of using oil. It should help things not stick, but it shouldn't leave stuff greasy either. I actually use this method when I cook most anything, even though I use non-stick pans.

[highlander_ii]

The other option is non-stick cooking spray. In the US we have one called 'PAM', but there are lots. Crisco makes one, several companies make them. They work pretty well and don't add grease to the food.

[hermitty]

If you use some type of cooking spray, make sure your pan isn't near any type of heat when you start to spray it. The spray can be flammable.

[damned_colonial]

One suggestion that hasn't been made yet: add oil to start, get your bacon mostly cooked, then strain the fat off, then continue. The easiest way to do this is to push all the bacon into one corner, hold it there with a spatula, and tilt the pan over a receptacle. Best thing to do is to pour it into some old food container you're going to throw out anyway, let it cool, then trash it. Don't pour fat down the sink in large quantities, as it's bad for the environment.

[beet]

One other way you may be able to deal with the sticky bits on the pan is to add small amount of water, wine, or vinegar (experiment to see what you like) at the very end of cooking your dish. Once you put 2-3 tablespoons in, rub against the stuff sticking to the bottom of the pan with a spoon or spatula. It should loosen and dissolve, leaving your pan much cleaner. Added bonus is that this can create tasty sauce!

Caveat! It won't be a nummy sauce if the sticky bits are actually black and are burned. In this case, turn the stove down and cook everything slower.

[rainbow]

I'd start with very low heat, until the bacon has started to release its fat. If there's not enough at that point, add a bit before you add the leeks.

For almost any pan, stirring with a wooden stirrer with a flat bottom is better for the pan and the food -- doesn't scratch the pan and moves everything around so you get less burnt spots.

I don't use non-stick pans at all, but I season all my pans often. Seasoning means you heat the pan until it's very hot, wipe it out with a bit of paper and oil, lard, shortening, etc., then let it cool again. I do this with my cast iron (most of the time) and my stainless (each time before I use it), and even my eggs rarely stick.

When something *does* stick, put in some water as soon as you take out the food (hot water is best), and generally it's pretty easy to scrub out later.

[clare-san.livejournal.com]

I would just like to point out that well-seasoned cast iron skillets are an excellent substitute for non-stick and most new ones come pre-seasoned, but I am prejudiced against non-stick cookware!

[damned_colonial]

I was just re-reading posts in this comm, and saw this again, and realised there's something nobody else has mentioned: the fork. You're stirring things round with a fork, and that's probably not helping. If you got some kind of heat-safe spatula (I have a bamboo one that I love) you might find it helps avoid stickiness because it'd be better at kind of lifting/scraping things that are just starting to get a little bit stuck, before they get *really* stuck.