Cooking Tips

From Our Kitchen To Yours

Whether you are a novice in the kitchen or a self proclaimed gourmet chef looking for a few new ideas, let us provide you with useful suggestions to enhance your cooking experience. Through our development and testing here at the farm as well as from ideas from our loyal fellow foodie fans, we have compiled some helpful tips worth sharing.

Deglazing A Pan - What Is It And Why Do It?

Deglazing is a fancy and intimidating word that means to pour cold liquid into a very hot pan to remove all the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Those brown bits are where all the flavors are, and it is called "fond."

How To Deglaze a Pan

You probably deglaze all the time without even realizing it:

• When you pour water into the roasting pan to make gravy
• When you add chicken stock to a pan of sautéed onions
• When you pour wine into a pan where you roasted pork

Now that you know what it is, let's make sure you are doing all the steps correctly.

• Make sure that there is nothing burnt onto the pan you are going to deglaze.
• Pour off most of the fat in the pan.
• Turn the heat up to high.
• Add cold liquid to the hot pan-the liquid will reach boiling very quickly, bringing up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan
• Using a spoon or spatula, scrape the fond as the liquid boils
• Once the fond is dispersed throughout the liquid, turn down the heat

Deglazing Liquids

Almost any liquid can be used for deglazing, although you should stay away from dairy. There is a good chance that dairy products can curdle when boiling, so stick with clear liquids.

Here's a good list to start:

• Red or white wine
• Beer/Cognac/Brandy
• Stock-fish, chicken, beef, vegetable, etc.
• Broth
• Cooking liquid (water that you cooked beans in, for example)
• Fruit juice
• Vinegar

Of course, you can also use water to deglaze, but why would you when there are so many other flavorful liquids that you can use instead?

Pan Sauces

The technique of deglazing is especially useful when you are making pan sauces after you sauté a piece of meat, chicken or fish. Many of our recipes feature pan sauces, so keep your eyes open for them!