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Home » How to Prevent Your Cookware From Ruining When Cooking With Honey or Syrup?
Using honey or sugar syrup can enhance your dishes with divine sweetness.
Mostly used for glazes and baked goods, they add a silky texture to desserts and curries.
However, cooking with either honey or syrup means lots of sticking.
If you’re not careful, it can be very easy to burn honey and sugar syrup in a pan. And, if
you’re working with copper cookware, the risk is even greater. The result? Blackened,
burnt pans that are excruciatingly hard to clean.
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The key to keeping your pans from being ruined when cooking with honey or syrup is
sticking to a gentle simmer. Here’s how to prevent your cookware from burning.
Table of Contents
1. How to Prevent Your Cookware from Ruining When Cooking with Honey or Syrup
1.1. Using the Right Cookware
1.2. Oiling the Sides of a Pan
1.3. Being Careful About the Temperature
1.4. Not Stirring Too Much
1.5. Adding Baking Soda to Honey
1.6. Use a Bowl of Cold Water
On the other hand, when sugar is heated, it gradually melts into a liquid called “caramel”.
The caramelization process begins at 320 degrees F. This is when the crystalline sugar
slowly dissolves into a molten liquid. At around 350 degrees F, the color changes from
crystal white to pale caramel brown.
If not used up quickly, the caramel can re-crystallize and stick to the bottom of the pan.
When either of the two is over-heated, they can burn, crystallize, and stick to the pan.
Here’s how to cook smart with honey and syrup.
Most copper pans are highly reactive, which is why they are lined with tin or steel. Tin,
however, wears out quickly and needs to be replaced so often.
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They also tend to corrode easily and require a good cleaning. Since cooking with honey
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or syrup will result in some sticky residue at the bottom of the pan, copper might not be
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a t choice. So, what should you use?
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The key to preventing your pans from burning from honey or syrup is even heating. A pot
or pan that conducts heat well and distributes it equally across the surface is what you
need.
The most stable cookware choice is stainless steel. The color of the steel also helps you
monitor the sugar syrup or honey so that you know it’s not burning yet.
Multi-ply stainless steel is durable and has excellent heat absorption. It readily heats up
the surface evenly to prevent any hot spots when cooking with honey or syrup.
This cookware can also tolerate high temperatures and is extremely easy to clean. If you
want, you can choose non-stick stainless steel to avoid any sticky residue altogether.
Frying pans run the risk of burning too quickly when cooking with sugars. A deep
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saucepan has a great heat gradient, which allows the sugars from the honey or syrup to
heat up nicely.
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Oiling the Sides of a Pan
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Brushing the sides and bottom of your pan with some oil will prevent the sugar from
sticking. When you heat up sugar or honey in a dry pan, the ingredients are more likely
to burn.
However, glazing with a bit of oil can create a protective coating, which will prevent both
sticking and burning.
Another great tip when cooking sugar is to cover the pot with a lid. This will create
additional steam that will dissolve any sugar crystals on the sides of the pot.
During the caramelization process, you can also wash the sides of the pot with a damp
pastry brush. This will also help in dissolving any sugar crystals that may have
crystallized or burnt on the sides of the pan.
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When cooking with honey, it’s very important to slow down. Baked goods with honey
will always brown faster. Therefore, you need to bake them for a longer time period but
at a lower temperature.
The same rule goes for cooking. When cooking with honey, reduce the temperature by
20-25 degrees F from whatever the original recipe calls for. This will help you prevent
any burns or scorches.
All in all, keep the temperature low so that you have more control and ample time to stir
your sugars in the pan. This will also protect your pan from any sweet, sticky residue,
which is even harder to clean off.
In fact, stirring too much can cause the sugar to splash to the walls of the pan. This will
cause the water to evaporate quickly and cause the sugar to crystallize and stick.
Therefore, the rule with cooking honey or syrup is to only stir occasionally. You can try
stirring the liquid by giving the pan a gentle shake from the handles.
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This can increase the chances of burning and a sticky mess at the bottom of your pan.
A quick tip is to add a dash of baking soda to simmering honey to tone down the acidity.
This will readily prevent over-browning and help you make a deliciously sweet dish ×
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Use a Bowl of Cold Water
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When the sugar syrup turns brown, 80% of the water evaporates from the liquid. If you
keep it over the heat any further, the sucrose will burn.
To avoid this, set aside a bowl of cold water. As soon as the desired color of the syrup is
reached, quickly submerge the bottom of the pan into the cold water. This will
immediately cool down the liquid and prevent it from sticking or burning your pan.
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Following these tips will help you nail just about any dish with honey or syrup. Above all,
it will prevent the sugar from burning or ruining your pan.
However, if you did end up burning your pan for some reason or the other, read on for
some quick remedies.
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The Soaking Method
Before trying out anything, your rst call of action should allow the pan to soak. If the
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coating of the burnt sugar isn’t too thick, the water will soften it and make it easier to
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scrub off. You can allow the pan to soak overnight in soapy water.
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This may be surprising, but try adding a layer of ketchup to the burnt coating. The acid in
the kitchen will do a good job of eating away the burnt sugar and ease the next day’s
cleaning.
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Sprinkle a bit of baking soda over the burnt layer. Next, pour enough water to cover the
scorched bottom. Bring it to a boil and gently simmer for 20-30 minutes.
This will allow the crystallized sugar to soften and loosen from the surface of the pan. If
you don’t have baking soda, you can also use white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide.
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When you re-heat the sugar, your kitchen might smell unpleasant for a while so make
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sure to turn on the exhaust.
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So, don’t shy away from whipping your favorite glaze or caramel dessert. Cooking with
honey or syrup is fun and easy as long as you follow these few tips to protect your pans
from burning!
You may also like the following articles about cooking pans:
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