Cooking For Engineers

[R. Gee]

Browning bite-sized pieces of food by sauteing the first side in a pan and turning over each piece to finish browning is not my idea of efficient cooking. What about placing all the pieces in a layer to broil brown on one side and using them in a recipe? Done that - seemed like an adequate option. Maybe laying pieces on a sheet of foil and somehow using a foiled baking sheet to flip them on the ungrilled side to finish? Haven't had the nerve to try this.

Just brainstorming. What have others tried in place of the time-consuming traditional method?

Thank you for your feedback.

[kgb1001001]

Browning only one side would certainly work, but since only half as much of the surface area is browned that means that only half as much of the wonderful products of the maillard reaction (and don't start that thread again!) would be in the resulting recipe.

Instead, how about some sort of gadget that allowed you to more easily flip the food without the risk of hot grease spilling? Maybe what we need is a clamshell frying pan with two surfaces like a waffle iron...

[Dilbert]

I doubt broiling would generate the surface temperatures desired fast enough to actually brown meat vs. just turning the color....

thinking about the about of cubes / strips I can saute/sear/brown in a 10" pan, and how that would lay out "flat" and how to flip that much "flat" doesn't encourage me <g>

couple things I've "learned" about browning meats:
- do not use a non-stick pan
- use heat as high as possible short of burning the fat/oil
- the shape of the pan is very important to the ease of flipping - nicely curved corner with slope side is ideal, for me at least.
- do not continuous fiddle with the contents; browning requires time at temp

[DrBiggles]