Category: Daily Living
I'm a little embarrassed about posting this question, but I'd like to know if there's a proper technique to frying bacon or sausage, etc., without having to disconnect my smoke alarm because when I do so I almost always set it off. Any help would be welcome. Thanks for reading.
hey.
what kind of ventalation do you have? Do you have a vent that takes the smoke outside or one that only blows the smoke around, meaning a fan only but no vent?
This could be a bit of your issue if you don't have the vent. Do you use the fan while cooking? If not then you might want to. You can try opening windows or doors while your cooking. Other than that I am not quite sure except to cook on medium. Your not suppose to cook on high unless your boiling water. So if your cooking on a higher tempature than medium, try turning it down.
It is not safe to unplug or cover your smoke alarms, what if something does ketch on fire. So I am sure you know this already because your trying to find another solution. I hope one of us helps...
Good luck
honestly it may not even be your cooking, and you've no reason to be embarrassed. You could be caught with a little gonj having set the thing off.
Lol seriously though when I lived in places with little ventilation, I just cooked things longer at lower temperatures.
Oils from meat like bacon and sausage are not very pure, meaning they have a lot of other components and so they burn at a lower temperature and also smoke.
If you usually cook them on high, cook on medium high. Plus if you just moved there, every stove is different. The most reliable in my opinion are gas, which I do love and am glad to have again.
Without embarrassment I have a question.
Do you burn your food when you are cooking it?
If not here is my thoughts.
The smoke detector could be in the wrong place. A properly placed detector should withstand some smoke and heat.
Next, turn on the fan on the stoves hood. That fan, if you are using it might be part of the problem too, because some don’t vent outside, but have vents at the top of the stoves hood, so blow the smoke in the room.
That makes the first posters suggestions correct.
I’d have it checked, and if it is said to be correct, and you aren’t burning your food, disconnect it while cooking, or turn on a regular fan near the area it is in blowing to the stove. That will move the smoke the other direction.
Hi. The smoke detector was recently installed, but now that it's December I'm cooking with the windows closed. The fan above the stove has always been ineffective, but I will try to cook at lower heat and see how that goes. Thanks for your suggestions.
In our old apartment, we had a smoke alarm that was so effective that even making toast or having a hot shower could set it off... sometimes it's the alarm itself. Hopefully the slower suggestions helped!
Kate
The side effect of cooking at lower temperatures is less sear on the meat you're cooking. This would be further reduced by the new metals they use in pans. Aluminum, for example, will give less sear than cast iron because of the surface. Saying you aren't supposed to use high heat except when boiling water is simply incorrect. There are many dishes and processes which require high heat.
Here are a few suggestions. For sausage, use a sausage with less or different fat. The cheaper, highly processed saussages have fat which flames up and causes a lot of smoke. Use better sausage, you'll have better flavor and less smoke. Don't lube the pan. There's no need with sausage or bacon. Use an extremely hot pan. Try putting the pan in the oven for a bit before cooking with it over high. That will sear the outside. Then turn the heat down to low and cook it the rest of the way through. That will seal in a lot of the fat. Lastly, use the oven. This is especially good with bacon. Bacon cooked in the oven is better, in my opinion, than bacon cooked on a stove.
Cody,
Never heard of cooking bacon in the oven... Do you use a cookie sheet? How long do you cook it for? Will have to try it!
I use the broiler pan myself, but I do know people who use a cookie sheet. Unfortunately I can't answer your other questions because it depends so much on the oven you have, the type of bacon you use, and the kind of weather you're having outside. So, cook it til its done I suppose. You can google dozens of ways to do it.
Hahaha! Awesome!
I hate cooking it in the microwave, and my hubby is much better than I at using the stove so more often than not I will ask him to cook bacon. LOL
Kate
Cody,
Great suggestions. And, I had forgotten about cooking bacon in the oven. Oven cooked bacon is fantastic, and it's how they most often do it in industrial environments.
If you want to be cleaner about it and have less work, put foil on the cookie sheet, or in the inside of the broiler. Broiler is technically the best way to do it so the grease drops off into the pan below. However, some oven cooling racks work just fine provided they fit snug over a cookie sheet. My new gas oven is pretty small and I have no broiler that fits so will have to try that.
The only thing I will say though Cody is there is some new material out now for pans, a sort of ceramic composit, which I really want to try out. It's more heat-tolerant and spreads the heat evenly, and you can scrape away with a metal spatula. We moved to nonstick recently and I am getting tired of burning out the rubberized spatulas.
I don't remember the composit's name though I will try and find it. And find a fry pan made of it haha.
Heating the pan in the oven first is a really good suggestion. Just make sure the plastic handle can take it. That one works best with cast iron, but most of the civilized world is woefully inadequate at taking care of cast iron.
I loves my iron. I swear by it. Take it personal when somebody ask me why I've got them old fashion skillets? Especially for high heat cooking, like the man steaks. MMM!
Now microwave, bacon to me is better, but you need the microwave, cacon device that catches all the grease, so all you get is good crispy bacon.
If I use the oven, I like the boiler pan too, but I like to add a rack for the same reason as in the microwave, dropping the grease.
If you do try a cookie sheet, you need a study hand, or you have to clean it after it cools, so more messy. With the study hand you can pour the grease in a can, or something while it is warm, so the cleanup is easy.
They've got better spatulas Leo for the non stick stuff. These soft plastic aren't the say and be all. I hate cleaning one too, so got some wood.
But than my sweet sister gave me some iiron, and I got some stainless steel too, so now I have no non stick. The wood doesn't do as well on them old fashioned pans. Lol
Bacon in the oven all the way. It doesn't shrivel and curl up.
Oohh, I just seared chicken the other day for the first time in my life by myself and my smoke alarm went off so I quickly opened my front door and my dog totally ran away for a couple minutes but she came bak. Anyway the smoke alarm stopped after a minute so it was all good…maybe I should've turned on that fan that's above the stove. I've been cooking sausage in my oven…I bought that Perfect Meatloaf Pan and it's perfect for making sausage because all the fat drips down into the tray. I haven't cooked bacon yet…I'm on this diet thing so I probably will not be able to experiment with bacon cooking for a little bit.
Hmm, bacon in the oven ... I'll have to try that. smile
o man, do my neightboors hate me! lol my smoke alarm goes off everytime i cook! well almost. so, i thought about what i might be doing wrong. i decided to take the element along with the base and wash them. i did this to all four elements. since i have an electric stove. for the first few times i cooked the alarm did not go off. i find it is my cooking technique effecting the alarm going off. i am not a neat cook. but, cleaning the elements and base after cooking sure does help. i have proper ventalation. ti have a ceieling fan and a kitchen window and the stove is near the door. so i open the door, turn on the fan and open the window some. i will try some of the suggestions mentioned above. cheers
another thing to consider is if you rent, the odds are rather good that your apartment manager has installed the cheapest smoke alarms possible. Unfortunately, most of the cheep ones react to anything, smoke, steam, wind blowing in a little trace of smoke from outside... Unfortunately, not much can be done about this. If your ventilation is also bad, and you don't have a window near your kitchen, open the closest one, and hope. lol
I'm a good cook, I don't often burn things, but our smoke detectors are extremely overly sensitive. Sometimes i'll admit, we end up taking them down, because well. their is no recourse.
This will work on electric stoves: Line the burner plates with foil, then remove and re-line every once in awhile. Easier to clean, and much the improvement.
Us gas stove users, not gonna happen. But I don't have this problem at our new place.
A dirty stove is also a fire hazard. I'm crazy about how clean my stove must be.
I also don't use grease, so it is easier to clean up, but if you do, that stuff is best kepted clean.