Last night Julian made Thai-Style Chicken with Basil out of a 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Unlike most stir-fried chicken recipes, this one uses low temperature. He was dubious, as always. His dubiosity peaked when he added the chicken and it took longer to reach appropriate eating temperature than a regular stir-fry. Here are his comments, edited for a family-friendly blog post:
“Define medium-low heat for me. What’s medium-low on a Viking professional range is high on ours. It depends on the ambient temperature and the pan used. Should it be defined as pan temperature? Should we buy an infrared thermometer and measure the pan surface temperature?”
Have I mentioned that Julian is a recovering physicist?
1 comment
The recovering physicist would like to clarify his comments. Ambient temperature is probably not much of a factor – the difference between 70 and 90F ambient is not going to materially affect the conditions in a pan that is heated to 300 or 400F. But when you set the knob to a certain position (e.g. “Medium”) the heat output might vary considerably between stoves. The results might also depend on other factors: electric vs gas, propane vs natural gas, aluminum vs iron pan, size of the pan, etc.
There are observable cues for reaching particular cooking temperatures: simmering or boiling water, shimmering or wisps of smoke from frying oil. But these cues are not always available.
I have never used a remote reading (infrared) thermometer for cooking, but I am curious to know if they are useful. These gizmos are now quite affordable, with products priced well below $100.