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The pan-flipping trick thingy


Fat Guy

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Kate, this is kind of counter-intuitive, but your difficulty might come because the curve of the sides of the bowl is too steep. I find the gentler the curve, the easier to flip stuff. That's why I never, ever have a problem with my AllClad "chef's pan" (kind of like a flat-bottomed wok) -- the contents travel up the side, go straight up into the air, and fall right back down into the pan. Even a regular saute pan is a bit steeper, and sometimes the contents scatter a bit. I say this is counter-intuitive, because you'd think a sharper upright edge would send the contents straight up; I don't find that, though.

fifi, I hope the rain is loud. The rattle-rattle-rattle sound of the beans will drive you nuts otherwise. :raz: Seriously, I hope there's no damage from the storm; I heard on the news that the winds are not bad at all, which is good news indeed.

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I wanna know where you got that cool smilie.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Kate, this is kind of counter-intuitive, but your difficulty might come because the curve of the sides of the bowl is too steep.  I find the gentler the curve, the easier to flip stuff.  That's why I never, ever have a problem with my AllClad "chef's pan" (kind of like a flat-bottomed wok) -- the contents travel up the side, go straight up into the air, and fall right back down into the pan.  Even a regular saute pan is a bit steeper, and sometimes the contents scatter a bit.  I say this is counter-intuitive, because you'd think a sharper upright edge would send the contents straight up; I don't find that, though.

Think about how many times you've lost toast from a plate. Much easier to fling with no sides.

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YES! I've always wanted to learn how to do this. Even cooler than breaking an egg with one hand (which is so easy and quick, but looks impressive). I stumbled on this thread and decided to give it a go. I needed to toast some hazelnuts, and figured they would work as well as dried beans. Rock, rock....FLIP! Haven't quite got the proper nonchalance to go with it, but that'll come in time :cool:

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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The pan-flipping trick really impresses onlookers.

At least until you try to flip a 10" zucchini pancake that's loosely held together by egg whites and hope, and you splatter yourself in the eye.

Ow.

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without nonchalance there is no trick thingy

years ago i was working in the fruit & vegetable department of Harrods as a christmas job. a lady asked for half a cucumber. i went backstage to my boss to ask for a knife. he took the cucumber from me and (crucially) nonchalantly snapped it in two making a perfect clean break. A week later another lady asked me for half a cucumber, i picked one up and (slightly hestitantly?) snapped it in two. it shattered into pieces, squiriting juice all over her. i've never tried it again.

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  • 9 months later...
Just bringing this thread up from the depths.

Me too.

About 6 years ago I taught a friend who was a junior in high school how to flip after he spent a half hour watching me sautee onions in awe.

The last time I saw him he told me that when he wants to impress a girl he cooks her dinner. If she is impressed with his skill or can do it herself she's a keeper. If not, oh well.

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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this is also a crucial part of the chapati-maker's arsenal--place raw chapati, wait 30 seconds or so, flip, wait 20 seconds and slide onto burner to puff up--use side of griddle/tawa to whack puffed up chapati onto plate waiting beside stove.

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Three things about flipping...really experienced cooks look on novices flipping away at the range as indulging in an activity of all form, no substance.

Too much of it leads to tendonitis.

Once mastered, it is fun, and looks cool.

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I've become sort-of comfortable with flipping crepes, and more recently roti jala (much more fragile), but to save time I prefer to use two pans, and inelegantly flop the crepe into the second hot pan. This saves so much time - with the crepes cooking in parallel - that I am afraid I will never become nonchalant about flipping and using one pan.

On the other hand, I really admire Chinese chefs who "stir-fry" by flipping food in a neat Ferris wheel using a Beijing (one-handled) wok.

BB

[spelling]

Edited by Big Bunny (log)

Food is all about history and geography.

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this is also a crucial part of the chapati-maker's arsenal--place raw chapati, wait 30 seconds or so, flip, wait 20 seconds and slide onto burner to puff up--use side of griddle/tawa to whack puffed up chapati onto plate waiting beside stove.

Same with the pancakes for peking duck and mu shu - composition not too dissimilar, actually, including the puffing (though for an entirely different reason, of course). The confidence-builder on this, when I first tried it, is that you fry the things dry, so if you blow it there's no flying grease, no mess, no danger. I never did blow it, though, because as the above thread testifies, it's a lot easier than it looks, especially if you do it coolly enough. Makes the whole process go a lot faster, too. Put a pair in the pan, roll the next pair, flip the pair in the pan, peel apart the last pair cooked, and it's time to take the new pair out of the pan and start the whole cycle again. Before you know it you have a stack of 60. :smile:

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At the first French method class I attended the chef instructed us in how to make a puffy omelet using no utensils, the pan had to be swirled a few times as the omelet puffed and then the omelet was flipped and returned briefy to the heat then almost immediately slid onto the plate. He did not want the eggs fully set, they had to be very soft. He used a term for this that escapes me at the moment. (Senior moment?)

My first few tries were less than perfect, one was a disaster, omelet drape over the handle and my hand, ouch, but eventually I got it. He gave me my first "real" omelet pan, thin steel that practically has to be dipped in oil to keep it from rusting - I still have it....

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Doesn't work as well with Chinese food because you end up spraying vegetable oil all over the place.

There is a real technique that I have seen used in carry-out places of doing a motion similar to a flip with a one-handled wok.

It's hard to describe, but I'll try:

1) do a flip-like motion, sending the food away from the cook, up the side of the wok and into the air.

2) do a sort of forward thrust of the wok so that the center is under the food.

This is a bit more "athletic" than the crepe flip.

3) do it again immediately so that the food sort of rolls in space, constantly

falling into the hot wok, then being flung up.

It is impressive to watch, and over "big heat" a very efficient technique.

BB

Food is all about history and geography.

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My son was watching me do this one day, eyes wide. "How do you do that?" he asked.

"Simple," I told him. "See how the side of the pan is shaped? It's a half-pipe for food!"

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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I found this topic today and said "Oh cool, maybe I can find out how to do that!" Then I read it and find out I posted here over a year ago.

Well not much has changed. :biggrin: Ruby Tuesday practically forced me to do that flip thing with the boneless wings in the bowl, but the track doesn't care if you just use tongs or a gloved hand to toss things. It's great. I still think about teaching myself, though.

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At the first French method class I attended the chef instructed us in how to make a puffy omelet using no utensils, the pan had to be swirled a few times as the omelet puffed and then the omelet was flipped and returned briefy to the heat then almost immediately slid onto the plate. He did not want the eggs fully set, they had to be very soft. He used a term for this that escapes me at the moment. (Senior moment?)

Baveuse?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

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"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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At the first French method class I attended the chef instructed us in how to make a puffy omelet using no utensils, the pan had to be swirled a few times as the omelet puffed and then the omelet was flipped and returned briefy to the heat then almost immediately slid onto the plate.  He did not want the eggs fully set, they had to be very soft.  He used a term for this that escapes me at the moment.  (Senior moment?)

Baveuse?

That's it: baveux

thanks for the memory assist.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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