How do you do a frying pan flip like a pro?

frying pan is an efficient way for you to mix and move food.

Credits: serious eats

How to flip food in a pan? Tossing food.

In our opinion, there are two ways for you to do things in life: you can do something well, or you can do it well and with a lot of style! Let's take the World Cup as an example: You can do something well, like the technical skills of Germany, or you can do it well and with a lot of style, like Brazil does, they don't just play the game, but also do it in a wonderful way with many highlights.

We assume that none of us strive to do things badly or half-heartedly.

It's not that one way is automatically better than the other - on any given day, each of these teams has a chance to beat the other. They are simply two different ways to approach a task, one purely technical, the other with a bit of style and flair.

Learning to flip and toss food in a sauté pan or frying pan is a similar matter. In most cases, it's not an essential cooking skill, as there's always an equally good – but less spectacular way to do it (such as stirring or using your spatula). And frankly, even in practiced hands, there's a risk that tossing food in a frying pan will result in a small mess. It's like juggling - you can get very good at it, but that doesn't mean you'll never drop a ball.

"It's an incredibly fast and efficient way for you to mix and manipulate food in the pan, with just a few quick tosses having the same effect as prolonged stirring."

What can you flip?

Before we start with the how, the first question is what food should you toss. I know many people like to flip pancakes, frittatas, and omelets in the frying pan. Such flips - successfully executed - are quite impressive. But we don't recommend it. First, it's far too easy for you to flip them too hard or too softly, causing them to fall on themselves in sad, broken heaps. Second, because each of these dishes is large relative to the size of the pan, they are much more likely to miss their target in whole or in part on the way down (imagine doing somersaults on a huge trampoline; then imagine doing the same somersaults on a small trampoline - which would you find safer?). Third, even if you successfully flip and land, they come down hard on their wet side, which far too often means a big old splattering belly flop.

Instead, we recommend gently turning pancakes with a spatula; flipping frittatas onto an inverted plate and then sliding them back into the pan; and as for omelets, those should, at least according to the classic French technique, not be flipped at all, but rolled up in the pan while the top is still moist, and then gently turned onto the plate.

What should you toss in the air then? Personally, I like to toss small mixed ingredients when stir-frying and sautéing, so they quickly merge and move through the pan. I also like to toss foods like pasta in the sauce, and starchy dishes like risotto, although this can sometimes be a messier affair, so try that carefully (and with an apron…).

How should you flip?

The first thing you need to know is that the base must be good, a frying pan with sloping sides. And absolutely no flat ones as are often the case with Dutch ovens. If you want to toss something in the air, it must go up with a nice sloping ramp, and not like a car at full throttle against a guardrail…

Let's use the example of ski jumping, the starting position is like the food in the pan. The food is the ski jumper, the flat sides are the ramp itself.

Credits: serious eats

The first thing the ski jumper has to do is rush down towards the ramp. That's what you have to do with the food. But first, it's always a good idea for you to stir the food briefly with a spoon, spatula, or tongs, to make sure everything slides well in the pan and doesn't stick (a bit like when the skier slides back and forth a few times before making the jump). Once you're sure the food is free to jump, give it a downward push towards the furthest slope of the pan.

Credits: serious eats

Now our ski jump analogy stops, because if we stick to that, you would let the food shoot out of the pan and it will end up as far out of the pan as possible, and we don't want that. Instead, just as the food starts to shoot out of the pan, you need to lift the front of the pan and pull it back a little to deflect the food's trajectory so that it shoots vertically upwards, or - even better - backwards and a little towards you. This should be a smooth and fluid movement.

Credits: serious eats

With the food in the air and (hopefully) still above the pan, you then need to bring the frying pan up so you can catch all the falling food again.

Credits: serious eats

Do it right and all the food will end up where it started, and not on the floor. Once you've mastered this movement, you can reverse it so that the forward movement in this final step of catching the food simultaneously functions as the forward (and downward) movement of the next launch.

Are you, by any chance, still looking for good frying pans to flip perfectly with? We've picked out the best for you!

• The best frying pans, also for induction.
• The best wok pans, also for induction.
• The best cookware sets, also for induction.

Popular now: beautiful modern black cookware sets. Their beautiful appearance makes them truly amazing in any kitchen or dining table, but be careful: you shouldn't just look at them, you can also use them just fine! You can find the best choice of black cookware sets here.