Well, that was educational
I've recently taken to preparing my steaks au poivre. Sure, crushing the peppercorns is a little bit of work, but they give the steak a great flavor, and the brandy sauce is wonderful.
Plus, hey, it offers a chance to flambé, and that's always fun.
Well, discovered this evening the reason for a certain step in the proceedings, because I managed to skip that step.
Anytime you flambé, you want to remove the cooking vessel from heat -- and turn off the burner entirely -- before adding the alcohol. Then, while the liquid bubbles away, ignite the fumes with a firestick. Swirl the remaining liquid until the flames subside, then return to heat.
That part of the flambé checklist I had covered.
However, I skipped the portion of the recipe where you pour out excess oil -- from the tablespoon of butter, teaspoon of olive oil, and whatever rendered out of the steaks when searing them off -- before removing the pan from heat and adding the brandy.
So, remove from heat, turn off burner, add in 1/3 cup of brandy, and ignite with a firestick.
How to describe what happened next...ever see the kitchen grease fire episode of MythBusters? Yeah, wasn't quite a fifty-foot fireball, but nonetheless...FWOOOOOOSH!
Now, this happened the first time I made this dish, but it was just a quick flare, and then subsided fairly quickly.
Remember all that fat I forgot to drain? Yeah. We had several extra seconds of flame, rising almost a foot from the skillet proper.
The fire did go out, after much swirling of the liquid within. It probably didn't help that I was doing this in a cast iron skillet. Iron's a lovely metal. Holds onto heat really, really well. So the alcohol continued to boil AND throw up highly flammable fat droplets.
So, lesson one, this is why you stand at arm's length when igniting alcohol fumes. Lesson two, this is why you pour off the excess oil.
Still, I guess it could've been worse.
Plus, hey, it offers a chance to flambé, and that's always fun.
Well, discovered this evening the reason for a certain step in the proceedings, because I managed to skip that step.
Anytime you flambé, you want to remove the cooking vessel from heat -- and turn off the burner entirely -- before adding the alcohol. Then, while the liquid bubbles away, ignite the fumes with a firestick. Swirl the remaining liquid until the flames subside, then return to heat.
That part of the flambé checklist I had covered.
However, I skipped the portion of the recipe where you pour out excess oil -- from the tablespoon of butter, teaspoon of olive oil, and whatever rendered out of the steaks when searing them off -- before removing the pan from heat and adding the brandy.
So, remove from heat, turn off burner, add in 1/3 cup of brandy, and ignite with a firestick.
How to describe what happened next...ever see the kitchen grease fire episode of MythBusters? Yeah, wasn't quite a fifty-foot fireball, but nonetheless...FWOOOOOOSH!
Now, this happened the first time I made this dish, but it was just a quick flare, and then subsided fairly quickly.
Remember all that fat I forgot to drain? Yeah. We had several extra seconds of flame, rising almost a foot from the skillet proper.
The fire did go out, after much swirling of the liquid within. It probably didn't help that I was doing this in a cast iron skillet. Iron's a lovely metal. Holds onto heat really, really well. So the alcohol continued to boil AND throw up highly flammable fat droplets.
So, lesson one, this is why you stand at arm's length when igniting alcohol fumes. Lesson two, this is why you pour off the excess oil.
Still, I guess it could've been worse.