cooks, why did my dinner catch on fire?

[thebamker]

I was making this steak recipe where you put butter and olive oil in a pan and make it searing hot.  cook the steaks a couple minutes on each side and then put them in the oven.

It never 'actually' caught on fire, but I think it was about to.  There was insane amounts of smoke and the butter/oil stuff was almost black.

what did I do wrong?

it's fucking smokey up in here.

[fuckyourcouch]

sounds like you basically burned the oil/butter. probably too high on the heat for too long.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

did your butter burn? was your steak in there when it was all black? burning butter smells bad, dude.

[textbookcase]

It got too hot. Turn the heat lower next time.

[EmilieMadison]

Butter and oil will burn and smoke if you get them too hot. It was too hot.

[sweetday]

Ditto everyone else. When I sear steak like that the kitchen is always smoky.

[lemondrop]

You had it too hot.

You may already know how to put out a grease fire, but I'm going to share anyways. Never use water. If you're frying with oil, keep a lid and one of the larger oven mitts next to it. If it starts to smoke, slide the lid on to the pan and turn the stove off. Leave the lid on for a while.

[ginger]

What kind of pans do you have?

Stainless Steel pans get hotter on much lower temperatures than non-stick.

I just learned this.

[SKP82]

I'm not sure about the butter getting hotter faster thing.

Olive oil has a low smoking point, so it burns easily and smokes/turns black at high temperatures. Which is usually why you add some butter if you want to use it to sear something.

So, yes, it got too hot. Next time, I'd just use butter.

[MixedBerryJam]

Jan 23, 2013 19:09:57 GMT -5 mofongo said:

Butter gets hotter faster and burns quicker, your heat was probably too high.

Butter and olive oil both have really low smoking points (and actually recipes generally have you add the olive oil to increase the smoking point of the butter alone). It's a great combination if you're sauteing vegetables, where you heat quickly and cook quickly, before the oils have a chance to burn, but for searing meats you want a higher smoke point. The oil won't impart flavor like olive oil does with vegetables and whatnot, but that's why you'd season or marinate the meat first.

ETA: SKP, I thought it was the exact opposite!