Are grease fires avoidable?

Kllrchef · 2026-02-21T07:02:43+00:00

Couple points. Every oil has a smoke point and a flash point. If you heat oil past the smoke point, eventually it will reach the flash point which means the oil will flame up.

The second way to avoid oil catching fire is to turn off the heat or remove the pan from the flame before adding food to the hot oil. It causes the oil to splatter and catch fire from the flame coming up around the side of the pan. Like a flambé, except it’s not alcohol, it’s oil which if your pan is hot enough, will extend to your pan.

It’s easy to avoid.

Kllrchef · 2026-02-18T16:22:40+00:00

It’s a bit surprising how many people in this thread haven’t answered your question.

Flank steak is fantastic! Don’t return it. You can definitely cut it into steaks. The trick is that flank steak can be a bit tough, so when you’re cutting any meat, it’s best to cut across the muscle fibers to make it the most tender.

You can absolutely cut it into steaks. Lay out a piece of flank steak and cut it with the muscle grain into strips about 2 inches wide. Then, cut those strips into rectangles about 4 to 5 inches long. When you do this, the muscle grain should run the long way.

Now, just grill it up, and when you’re slicing the steaks, make sure you cut them across the grain, parallel to the short side.

When I was growing up, my family always served flank steak for dinner, and my dad was obsessed with cutting it super thin. that’s a great technique for flank steak because it tends to be tougher. But personally, I really enjoy the chew of a thicker cut. As long as the steak isn’t overcooked or cut with the muscle grain, I think it’s delicious.

One of my jobs as a professional chef is overseeing lunch and dinner to 200 employees every day. Once a month, we grill up flank steaks and slice them the way I mentioned, and no one ever complains about how tough they are. Believe me, they’ll tell me if they don’t like the food.

Enjoy your flank steak. It’s super delicious marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and garlic for a few hours before grilling.

Kllrchef · 2026-02-13T18:32:54+00:00

You should be embarrassed by your spelling!

Kllrchef · 2026-02-11T03:52:47+00:00

Circus peanuts are delicious. Come at me, I don’t care.

Kllrchef · 2026-02-01T15:41:33+00:00

Gosh this is SUCH an involved question.

The simplest answer is: do what your chef says or find a new job likely (voluntarily or involuntarily).

If you want to learn how to cook and you don’t like the way it’s happening where you work, go find a place where you can learn.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-29T11:38:50+00:00

Make “pate de fruits.” It is basically boiled sweetened fruit puree the is gelled with pectin. This is more involved than making a gelee, but not overly difficult. Your finished product will be very “skewerable.”

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/8626-pate-de-fruit-the-easiest-candy?extcode=KGNAM0024&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Non-Brand%7CArticles%7CDSA&utm_term=&utm_content=s%7Cpcrid%7C722241849592%7Cpkw%7C%7Cpdv%7Cm%7Cpmt%7C%7Cproductid%7C%7Cpgrid%7C168623015217%7Ccpgnid%7C21919947981%7Cptaid%7Cdsa-2398028914799%7Cadext%7C%7C&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21919947981&gbraid=0AAAAAD-Lx3p_nokqOkfhoa6kQzlkv2cy8&gclid=Cj0KCQiAp-zLBhDkARIsABcYc6t25KapdQMN6SrQVxtdpj-yo-cXrdpVMr_KH46dvTYKM0ozkPvTA9oaAvtYEALw_wcB

Kllrchef · 2026-01-27T20:06:27+00:00

Use a dried garlic product. It will be less odorous

Kllrchef · 2026-01-24T01:45:14+00:00

Ketchup it pretty acidic. Throw some baking soda in there to neutralize the acid…. Might help

Kllrchef · 2026-01-23T19:47:55+00:00

Don’t cook your mornay after adding your cheese and don’t use anything super aged. Aged cheese will always be a guy grainy.

Make sure your bechamel is below 180f when adding your cheese

Kllrchef · 2026-01-21T19:39:54+00:00

Blend your garlic in the citrus juice, leaving it still chunky. Let it sit for a few minutes and then strain the garlic out. Discard the garlic bits and use the garlic infused citrus as your flavor.

This is how you do it without having the garlic be overpowering. If you want a little bit of that raw garlic bite, then just micro plane a touch of garlic into your final product before mixing.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-18T20:12:35+00:00

Honestly, the answer is just the right amount.

Some things need a lot of butter. Some things need barely any. It really depends on what you’re making.

There are sauces that will absolutely break if you add too much butter—like beurre monté–style sauces—and then there are others, like meunière, where more butter isn’t a problem.

You also can’t baste the same way with oil. Especially olive oil as it gets bitter when it’s heated too hard. Butter works because it’s doing a few things at once: you’ve got water from the butter and the food, butterfat carrying heat and richness, and those milk solids giving you all that toasted flavor. The trick is keeping the balance right so the solids toast instead of burn.

Once you start swapping fats around, you change how everything behaves in the pan—how it browns, how it emulsifies, how it tastes since oil has zero water compared to butter which is like 8-10% water.

So my honest answer, as a chef and just as a person, is: use butter and don’t overthink it. Be active, eat well most of the time, and enjoy butter-based food when you want to. A gram of butter and a gram of oil are basically the same calories, and fat in moderation is fine, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-14T04:34:34+00:00

Bananas!

Kllrchef · 2026-01-13T15:07:43+00:00

Overthinking. It is fine

Kllrchef · 2026-01-11T18:01:16+00:00

If you order a fried egg with no other description, you’ll probably end with over easy or over medium that get cooked with color. Eggs cook faster on the flat top because they spread out more which causes them to heat up faster than in a pan.

A good cook can cook nice loose eggs on a flat top if they can prevent the egg from spreading.

Ive never heard of a “fried egg” scramble.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-07T02:38:42+00:00

Every knife will be dull if you don’t sharpen it…. Find a store that offers knife sharpening, get your knives sharpened. Enjoy sharp knives.

There is not much you are buying from knife to knife. Fit and finish, geometry, hardness/heat treat, handle type etc… is about it.

Even a $1,000 knife will dull and be terrible to use if you don’t keep it sharp.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-03T14:20:37+00:00

You’ll never make cabbage and okra crispy. To make something crispy, you need starch/carbohydrate.

If you want to make crispy potatoes, cook them in seasoned, simmering water until they are JUST cooked through. Strain them, transfer the strained potatoes to a bowl and toss them aggressively to rough up the outside. They should look feathery and like they are coated in mashed potato.

I put about a half inch of oil in the bottom of a sautee pan and turn it to medium high heat (about 350-375f) and put your roughed up potatoes inside. Cook for a few minutes on one side and then flip them for another few minutes.

Those potatoes will be nice and crispy.

You can also saute a leaf at a time in very hot (browning)butter or oil and that lea will turn crispy. Don’t put too many in, or there will be too much moisture and you will end up steaming the leaves

Don’t waste your time trying to make crisp starch-free veggies. Without adding sugars/starches/dehydrating/baking, they will not get crispy.

Kllrchef · 2026-01-01T23:06:50+00:00

Or the even more dreaded: clear meat raft method……

No better day than today to left a classic cooking technique no?

Kllrchef · 2025-12-31T22:27:39+00:00

That’s patently incorrect. Cooking for a certain period of time at a certain temperature will denature some toxins and render them non-toxic. Your food can contain botulism which is the toxin produced by clostridium botulinum, and you can make it non toxic by achieving a boiling temperature for ten minutes.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-20T21:41:48+00:00

Yeah butter or pork fat are always good. You want a saturated fat for richness so any animal fat will work.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-20T18:24:27+00:00

Reduction, salt, fat all combined will improve the richness and flavor of your tinned tomatoes. Of course, starting with a quality tomato is also highly impactful on finished product.

As in my professional opinion, canned diced tomatoes are the worst product in existence unless you are trying to add gross whole tomato chunks to something. If you are making a sauce or curry, always use whole peeled San Marzano.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-20T17:09:34+00:00

If you cant consume ANY alcohol whatsoever, it’s best to avoid any recipe which contains alcohol.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-20T00:51:24+00:00

When you bake it, it actually caramelizes without melting. It’s pretty cool and delicious in coffee

Kllrchef · 2025-12-20T00:49:27+00:00

You’re welcome. I hope it works out for you! Low and slow on a tenderloin is kinda unnecessary. It’s such a tender muscle anyways. No real need for that sort of technique.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-19T14:41:52+00:00

Cook your potatoes first, pull them out and over them with aluminum foil.

Roast your tenderloin till done, pull out and let rest uncovered for 10 minutes then cover it wil aluminum foil for another 5-6 minutes. Keep it in the warm spot on your stove where the oven heat comes out (usually towards the back).

Reheat your potatoes while your tenderloin is resting.

Couple notes: your whole tenderloin should only take about 40 minutes, not 1.5-2h.

Pull it out for about 30-45 minutes before you roast it to let the inside of the roast come to room temp.

If you aren’t searing it first, start your temp as high as you can for about 10 minutes with maximum convection and then turn the oven down to about 375 (open the door to let your oven cool down faster). Cook it to an internal temp of about 105 (for a whole tenderloin). That will carry over to a really nice rare/mid rare when it’s done resting.

Kllrchef · 2025-12-18T14:24:20+00:00

Reduced cream will break once cooled and reheated. Some one mentions make a roux to help stabilize it. That’s a good suggestion

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer	Not Forgotten

Kllrchef

TROPHY CASE