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I was cooking in a kitchen that was not my own, and decided to pan-fry some chicken breast for later meal-prep. I get a green ceramic pan on medium heat, pour in some oil from one of 4 identical bottles in the pantry, and let it warm up as I slice the breasts in half and salt one side of each. When my oil starts to bead a little, I put in the first two filets salt-down, and all the oil seems to immediately disappear. I give them a minute or so cooking on that side anyway, salting the raw sides in the meantime, going on to flip them and see no sear but consistent golden-brown-ness. Strange, but whatever.
Pan needs more oil. I grab the same bottle as before, and just after I finish pouring I spot, at the bottom of the label, "Cranberry Balsamic Vinegar." I open the cabinets and see that one of the bottles of the 4 says olive oil, and the 3 others are various vinegars, all of the same brand and little-distinguished.
Well, fuck. It's at this point I see that the additional vinegar I've added is bubbling something fierce in the pan, thickening madly, and starting to smoke. I turn the heat way down, pull the filets, and figure: Well shit, these look cooked, I might as well sleep in this bed I made. I put the other two filets in, flip them a couple times, and by the end they're coated in something resembling barbecue sauce in consistency. However, dabbing a finger on the surface to taste, I find it's quite mild and actually sort of tasty. Spots on the second set of filets' surface are burnt, and the pan looks like a fuckin mess, but cutting in I see they're cooked through and nothing seems to have really penetrated the surface.
After letting the pan cool, anything burnt or crusted on washes out with no effort. What just happened /ck/? Plain balsamic vinegar should have a low smoke point, but in the time I allowed it to heat up while I prepared the meat it behaved exactly like oil.
>tl;dr I pan-fried some chicken breasts in balsamic vinegar; why did this work?
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>>9307374
it evaporated and caramelized
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>>9307374
>low smoke point
Just because it might act like oil for a second, your comparison comes from a misunderstanding rather than actual similarity. Balsamic vinegar has a lot of water, oil has almost none. Some of the water evaporated and thickened the vinegar into a sauce (and results in a flavor that doesn't have the sharp acidity of the liquid in its raw form).
If it helps, it's actually really common to add vinegar (of all kinds) in the last stages of cooking for exactly that reason. Google any average lemon chicken dish and anything worth it's salt will probably throw a splash of vinegar in near the end.
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I think certain oils burn quickly. If I'm not mistaken, something like extra virgin olive oil is best when finishing a dish or on a salad. Low temp.
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>>9307463
You misunderstand; I had been using vinegar the whole time. Nothing but vinegar and rendered chicken fat (lol) was ever in the pan.
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