Was deglazing pans wrong for 15 years until a line cook called me out

I always added cold stock to a hot pan and wondered why my sauce was always gritty until this kid at a brunch shift last Sunday showed me to let the pan cool for 30 seconds first. Has anyone else been doing it the hard way this whole time?

2 comments

2 Comments

brian30316d ago

Holy crap. You were pouring cold liquid straight into a screaming hot pan? That's like putting ice cubes in a deep fryer. No wonder your sauce was gritty, you were shocking the fond right off the bottom. I learned that trick the hard way too, took me five years before a prep cook pointed it out.

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the_joel16d ago

brian303 said "like putting ice cubes in a deep fryer"... yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I did. I was so focused on getting dinner on the table I just grabbed the coldest bottle of stock from the fridge and dumped it in. The sizzle was insane, sounded like a fire alarm was about to go off. My wife still brings up the smoke cloud that filled the kitchen.