How to flip food in a pan (Video)

[Video Link] You aren't supposed to lift the pan. You're supposed to slide it back and forth. Thanks, Chef John! (Via Doobybrain)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: Food • how to

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

ryuthrowsstuff

This is one of the handful of truly useful things (along with obsessive use of tongs and hand towels, how to handle a chef’s knife, and mis en place) that I learned working in a trashy diner kitchen. It remains the only one that actually impresses anyone.
dawdler

don’t try this with a straight-sided pan…?
- ryuthrowsstuff
  
  Not until you’re well practiced and even then its significantly messier.
http://twitter.com/cicadamania Cicada Mania

He’s essentially creating a wave. Very cool.
IronEdithKidd

That’s all fine and dandy if you happen to be pan frying cheezypoofs (who does that?), but let’s see him try to flip an omelet without lifting the pan.
- http://twitter.com/alexstapleton Alex Stapleton
  
  Like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kzlu7tYMmE
  - ocker3
    
    I was wondering about a pancake/omelette, it looks like the cook does the forwards and back, then Lowers the pan to give the large surface area object more time to rotate. If you watch the second flip where they elevate the pan while flipping, the pancake almost misses and they have to move the pan forwards to catch it properly
- relawson
  
  I think i’ll throw off the crutch of using a spatula assist this weekend and flip my 3 fried eggs with one hand!
  
  Btw, you really shouldn’t have to flip an omelet :p
- http://BrianEaston.net/ Brian Easton
  
  Fold, not flip.
- http://www.edmstudio.com futnuh
  
  I slide mine out onto a plate, and then use the plate to flip the omelette back into the pan.
  - OoerictoO
    
    cheater
ChickieD

Darn. Now I want a cheese ball.
- Ramone
  
  CHEESEBALL STIR FRY!!!
MonkeyBoy

The vid doesn’t mention how important the slope of the sides of the pan is. The proper type of pan is called a saute pan and the verb saute in French means “jump” which describes this flipping cooking technique.

Strangly enough there are lots of things called saute pans with the wrong sides, i guess which shows that for many people “saute” has lost its “jump” meaning.
- Susan Carley Oliver
  
  Nope, those things actually are saute pans. The “jump” meaning is still present; it refers not to flipping (which almost requires a sloped side) but to the bouncing around that happens as the food is stirred or as the pan is shaken. The straight sides are needed to keep the food in whilst bouncing around.
  - OoerictoO
    
    ding!
    and to flip in a straight sided pan, as far as i can tell, it has to be lifted, even with cheese-balls or mirepoix.
    YMMV
    IANAC
Boundegar

We’re not going to use real food – we’re going to use cheese balls!
Rickenbacker4001

I saw the cheese balls and thought this was ” Here comes Honey Boo Boo…!
http://www.facebook.com/roytruax Roy Edward Truax

Yeah no shit…
Michael D

Like the first poster, this and cutting with a knife were the two great skills I picked up in GreasySpoon 101 in college. The chef who taught me how to flip had me use slices of bread. They’re just a bit harder to flip than eggs, so if you can do bread, eggs are no problem.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1100557977 David Murphy

My old crusty kitchen rat friend told me that if you flip it more than twice “your playing with it.” He said “your trying to fucking cook it, not put on a show.”
- awjt
  
  It’s true. If you are actually preparing a full meal, you don’t have time for showboating.
- http://obsidian.kokolis.net Chloramphenicol
  
  More than twice at all throughout the entire process, or more than twice at any single instance?
http://www.adamfields.com/ Adam Fields

It’s also useful to practice this using a handful of beans in a small ziploc bag. Easy to flip, won’t get all over the place, and has internal motion like a mass of real food.
Smart E Pantz

Sorry to be all “smarty pants” and haughty, but, um……duh.
awjt

Here’s my short list of kitchen essential skills:
Efficient chopping
Flipping and stirring sans utensil
Touching hot things bare-handed
Basic eyeball measurements, tsps, Tbs, cup, half cup, etc.
Memorize key recipes and methods: pancakes, bread, pie crust, noodles, velouté sauce, Bechamel, hollandaise, etc
How to test meat doneness by touch and sight
How to organize prep for 4 or 5 dishes simultaneously
How to clean out the fridge for a great meal
Substitution
And, since becoming a parent, how to hide vegetables in everything