The other day I used my stainless steel pan to cook my frozen fried rice. I have done this often.
This time I accidentally left the stove to preheat the pan on its highest setting. When I sprayed in my vegetable oil it IMMEDIATELY smoked. Undeterred for some reason I threw on my frozen fried rice an turned the stove way down. Even tossed it a lil way above the burner.
What I stumbled into was this flavor I have been trying to replicate at home for quite awhile but did not realize may be more about the time/temperature than anything else. I have cooked frozen fried rice in a stainless steel but it never had this flavor I associate with fried rice from a Hibachi Restaurunt.
It was a bit tougher than normal, almost glazed, and had this delicious umami flavor to it. Little corners of some of the bits of rice were burned a little but overall this cleaned up easily except for the polymerized oil on the pan which did NOT come out without a fight.
What did cooking at such a high temperature here do to add in this flavor and texture change? Is it a temperature where vegetable oil will smoke and I should just deal with it or is there a lower temperature I can get away with potentially?
I thought it might be the mallard reaction and maybe it is but I have cooked my frozen fried rice at lower temperatures before and still seen browning and fond form without that flavor being added.
