Cooking Tips.. Deglazing

What is deglazing?

it has nothing to do with removing the bits of the window that are left after the kids have been playing ball next to the house!

In fact you probably deglaze all the time without even realizing it:

do you make gravy from the juices in the roasting pan?

If you do what you are doing if you add a cold liquid to the Pan is deglazing, you want to get all the dark bits that are stuck integrated into the liquid to give it a good flavour. Do not do it if the bits are black and burnt!

So times when you Deglaze are

When you pour water into the roasting pan to make gravy
When you add some stock to a pan of sautéed onions
When you pour some wine into the pan that you roasted the Beef in

Now that you know what it is, here are the steps to get it right.

Make sure that there is nothing burnt onto the pan you are going to deglaze—you are looking for nicely browned brown bits, not blackened inedible charcoal resembling bits
You do not need the fat so pour that into a bowl especially if it is from Beef............ Makes great dripping!
Turn the heat up to Re Hot.
Add cold liquid to the hot pan—the liquid will really fizz and come up to boiling very quickly and as it does hey presto all the good bits come up off the bottom of the pan too.
Using a wooden spoon scrape up the fond (That is the now thick loose bits that used to be stuck) as the liquid boils
Once the fond is dispersed throughout the liquid, turn down the heat

There are so many options for degalzing liquids and it really depends on what sort of gravy or sauce you are going to make!

Danger and an important tip..... if you are adding alcohol (especially spirits) as the liquid I would advise removing the pan from the heat first, especially if it is an open flame. A nice flambe fire ball may reduce your eyebrows and fringe to a crisp. So remove from heat before adding alcohol and then return to the heat.

Have fun and enjoy your dinner..