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FIRE! Cooking with Ghee & Coconut Oil


Averygardner

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Hey Everyone!
 

Today marks the start of day 4 for me! Day one was January 6th. Thus far it is going great and I feel "hungover" as expected but still excited about the process. On January 6th at 5am, my start day before work I wanted to make a frittata - step 1 was to put 2 tablespoons of ghee on the skillet. I put 2 tablespoons of ghee on my stainless steel hot skillet and immediately the flames flew up and almost touched the ceiling! Soon after the smoke filled my apartment, my cats went crazy, the fire alarm went off and as I ran to my balcony door to open it up and let the smoke out I contemplated jumping off because how have I comiiteed to this program, spent the day before food shopping, and have almost burnt my apartment complex down on step one of day one at 5am?

 

That night while cooking the pan seared chicken I thought I would switch to the coconut oil and, to my surprise, the same thing happened except not as much smoke this time - lit the pan on fire!

 

What am I doing wrong!? haha Now I just look at my coconut oil and ghee in the cabinet and wish I could use them.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Avery

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I've cooked with both ghee and coconut oil in a Stainless Steel skillet and never had that happen. Now, I have an electric range, not gas, but even so, this shouldn't happen.

Your skillet was probably too hot. On my stove, the dial goes from 1 to 10 or 12, I can't remember for sure, and I rarely set it above 4 or 5 unless I'm boiling water. That's plenty hot on mine, you may have to play with yours to find exactly the right spot, but definitely don't put it all the way up to high.

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Put fat in the pan to melt as you are turning the heat on. Don't let the metal get very hot before adding fat.

 

I cook almost everything on the stove top with medium heat. I go to high for searing steaks, but for little else.

 

I've never had the problem you describe.

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Thanks for sharing!!  I tend to burn when i cook because i always cook everything on high as i want it DONE.  This was good to know before i started using coconut oil or ghee.

 

Did you know they now have a fire alarm for homes that you can just yell at it -- I'm just cooking!!! -- and it turns off :-P

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Thanks for sharing!! I tend to burn when i cook because i always cook everything on high as i want it DONE. This was good to know before i started using coconut oil or ghee.

Did you know they now have a fire alarm for homes that you can just yell at it -- I'm just cooking!!! -- and it turns off :-P

Food really tastes better when you don't burn it -- I get the wanting it to be done fast, Or trying to make sure it's cooked thoroughly, but something to keep in mind when you're cooking meat on the stove top is that at high temps, you'll burn the outside before the inside reaches a safe temp if you have the heat too high.

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Just as a side note, if you ever get a pan catching on fire from underneath on gas, it can mean the pan has some residual oil or fat on it on the underside and this can be quite dangerous as you expose the fat directly onto the flame.

 

Pans clean better when they're cold, so cool down before you wash :)

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