I personally heat up the pan first, then put the oil in and after it’s heated up add the ingredients. I go with the line of reasoning that doing it this way gives the oil less time to burn, thinking that if you do it the other way, by the time the pan and oil has heated up, the oil could already be starting to burn.
I’ve never experimented, but I think this is more of an issue with electric stoves since you can modulate the heat more quickly with gas, ie turn it off if the oil’s starting to smoke.
–Answered by Scivitri
Always heat the oil with the pan.
Heating pans dry damages the pans (especially non-stick ones). Also, there are no warning signs that the pan is hot when you set something else on it or bump into it.
Adding cold ingredients to hot pans also damages the pan, and can scald the ingredients. Even oil. If you guessed too hot, you can damage several things at once, including the meal.
Oil doesn’t significantly degrade through normal heating, and certainly not in a single heat cycle getting up to saute temperatures. If the oil starts smoking (with nothing else in it) yes it’s started to degrade but you’re also a bit too warm.
Tip: Add some minced garlic or scallions to the oil as it heats. Gives you a nice base for sauteing, and lets you know the oil is up to temperature as they start to cook.
–Answered by Darin Sehnert
The typical rule of thumb is that if it’s a non-stick pan you do add a little oil to the pan first before heating. Most manufacturers usually recommend this to extend the life of the non-stick coating.
For regular pans (those without non-stick coating) you should heat them dry until you can feel the heat radiating from the surface when your hand is held about 6-inches above the bottom. Add your oil at this point. You’ll actually need to use less oil because the same amount will spread across a greater surface area due to its decreased viscosity as it heats. Plus, your oil will heat up instantly and when you add your food it’s less inclined to stick. Most people get impatient waiting for pans to heat (and in general) and this also ensures that the food isn’t going into a pan with oil that’s cold or not hot enough. When cold oil goes into a pan and cold food ends up on top of it you’ll end up with one big sticky mess. As for adding oil before heating the pan, the longer fats heat without anything else in the pan, the quicker they’ll break down and burn.