Question about cooking with stainless steel pans

[foodnoobie]

I saw that for steaks etc, you have to wait for the water to bounce around and then put in the oil until it starts to shimmer and you're good to go.
But what if you're simply melting some butter to make a sauce? Or what if i need to heat up a pasta sauce that comes in a package premade?
Do i still need to let the pan get that hot before i put it in? Or do i have to let it get semi warm first? Or can i just put it in a cold pan?
For boiling water i assume you can just put cold water in a cold pan, as long as you don't add any salt right away.

I'm still pretty new to this. Thank you for all the support!

 

[Michi]

Do i still need to let the pan get that hot before i put it in? Or do i have to let it get semi warm first? Or can i just put it in a cold pan?

The water bouncing thing is just to help you judge the temperature, so you don’t fry things in a pan that is too cool. You can just as well heat oil or butter in a cold pan, but then you can’t do the water test to check the temperature.

Once you know your pan, you get a feel for how long it takes to heat up on a particular burner and setting, and you won’t need the water test.

 

[Jovidah]

As Michi said the 'water trick' is mostly a convenient way to make sure the pan is hot, since it's a relatively foolproof way to make sure a pan is >193 degrees celcius - the temperature at which the Leidenfrost occurs. At such higher temperatures stuff sticks less, or at least comes off easily.
This is quite useful for doing meat, or maybe frying eggs or other stuff that contains proteins that will coagulate, but for other things it's irrelevant.

So the rule of fist is... if it contains coagulating proteins it can stick and temperature matters. If there's little to no proteins, whether you're using a fluid like water or cream, or just vegetables, starting with a hot pan isn't really a requirement.

 

[foodnoobie]

Awesome! Thank you for the replies. This will make making vegetables or potatoes in the pan a whole lot easier.
Someone also told me the trick to simply ''deglaze'' the pan after cooking a steak, so that it's a lot easier to clean and cools off a lot quicker so i can wash it faster. Now i don't have to wait 5-8 minutes anymore before i can start cleaning it.
Using the stainless steel pan is becoming more of a joy than a pain. I really appreciate all the insight. Great helpful info! Wish you all a terrific 2024!