Oh, stamped aluminumn will do that even if you started off cold, it's just the nature of aluminum, and carbon steel too, for that matter. Cast aluminum not so much, but then there are very few commercial cast aluminum pans. 'Course, I could write a 3 page essay on why I hate aluminum, but then I'd be off-topic...
My 2 cents on the matter? Nothing irritates me more than watching someone put a cold raw piece of meat into a cold pan, put in the heat, then drizzle oil onto it as an afterthough. Terrible things hapen to the meat, tough, stringly and leached of oil juices, then boiled in the resulting juices once the pan gets to the right temp.
So how can you insure that this won't happen? As a Chef or instructor, how do you instruct the newbie cook to look for a telltale signal when it's time to put the meat into the pan?
Make sure the pan is #$%!-ing hot BEFORE adding in the product.
How do you know if it's hot?
When the oil shimmers and starts to haze.
Cold pan, hot pan, fan schman, when the oil's good and hot THEN it's time to cook, and not a second before.  |