How do I deglaze a pan?

Those browned deposits are concentrated flavour created by the meat or vegetables you just cooked. Washing them off is throwing away the best-tasting thing in the pan, and lifting them takes under a minute.

What you'll need

• The pan you just cooked in
• Liquid: wine, stock, water or cider
• Wooden spoon

Step by step

1. Take the food out and leave the pan on the heat.The pan must still be hot. A cooled pan will not release the deposits properly.
2. Pour off excess fat, not the browned bits.Tip out standing fat if there is a lot. What is stuck to the base is what you want to keep.
3. Add a modest splash of liquid.Enough to cover the base thinly — around 50-100ml. Too much and you are making a thin sauce rather than lifting flavour.
4. Scrape immediately with a wooden spoon.It will steam and hiss. Everything stuck should lift within seconds while the liquid bubbles.
5. Let it reduce by roughly half.Especially with wine — the raw alcohol taste needs to cook off, and reduction concentrates what you have lifted.
6. Finish it into a sauce, or pour it over.A knob of butter whisked in off the heat gives gloss and body. Or add stock and reduce further for a proper pan sauce.

Tips

• If bits are burnt black rather than brown, do not deglaze — it will taste bitter. Wash the pan and accept the loss.
• Do this in a stainless or cast iron pan. Non-stick rarely develops the deposits worth lifting.
• Water works. Wine is nicer, but the technique is what matters, not the liquid.

Common mistakes

• Letting the pan cool first — The deposits set hard and no longer lift cleanly. Deglaze straight after the food comes out.
• Deglazing a burnt pan — Black is bitter, not flavourful. Browned is what you are after.

Questions people ask