« Peas and Carrots | Onion Foam (Lazy Bear 20090919, Course 03) | Main | Octopus Confit | "Ink" Tahini | Glacier Lettuce | Basque Pepper Curls | Lemon | Powdered Sesame Oil (Lazy Bear 20090919, Course 04) »

Grill pans are not just to make fake grill marks, they are also for isolating where you want the extreme heat to caramelize or mallard (yes I am using it as a verb) the product. For example, I recently made grilled peaches on such a pan and the parts that touched the grill were heavily darkened and burnt. I would not want to serve a half peach with it's entire face black. How unappealing! Using a grill pan gives me control over that.

Posted by: sygyzy at September 23, 2009 10:44 AM

But the only reason those marks are more appealing is that they are signifiers of the item having been grilled. You're faking them out! Just grill the peaches.

Posted by: Barzelay at September 23, 2009 2:53 PM

Erm, but what if you don't have a grill, and only want 50% of the surface of your product to be seared? I live in a tiny apartment and it's my only way to get that level of sear or char.
And do you really fire up an entire grill just to grill a couple peaches?
(BTW, love your blog. I just found it today. This is the first post I've found I disagree with. So ... you know.)

Posted by: Justin at December 4, 2009 11:01 AM

Justin, no, I wouldn't fire light up a charcoal grill just to grill a few peaches. I recognize the irony in what I'm about to say, but I currently only have a gas grill (which is its own form of fake grill). It's pretty easy and quick to fire it up, even for just one item. Still, I'd be unlikely to grill peaches unless I was also grilling something else.

But I still don't see the appeal in searing 50% of the surface of product (in a particular striped pattern), without searing the other 50%.

Posted by: Barzelay at December 21, 2009 12:31 AM