Why wipe out pan between different steps of same meal?

Just curious, why wipe out the pan after cooking the corn before making the quesadillas? I never do this when I'm reusing a pan for any purpose in the same meal, and just wanted to see if this was a fussy thing or there was a good reason for it.

linzarella
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Elote-Style Cotija Cheese Quesadillas
Recipe question for: Elote-Style Cotija Cheese Quesadillas

4 Comments

boulangere
boulangere September 9, 2019
Gammy's information is spot on. I would add, from a purely practical point, that I often write recipes to include wiping or rinsing out a pan so as to re-use it. Why wash a few pans when you can wash one?
 
Gammy
Gammy September 9, 2019
Thanks Boulangere, I love that you write to quickly clean and reuse your cooking pans. I recently made a recipe from Cook's Country for a corn pudding and counted 4 measuring cups, 2 measuring spoons and EIGHT bowls or containers dirtied for one casserole. Tasty recipe, but a lot of clean up afterward.
 
boulangere
boulangere September 9, 2019
We're either on the same page or in the same kitchen, Gammy.
 
Gammy
Gammy September 9, 2019
In this recipe, wiping out the pan removes all the little remaining bits of corn and hot pepper from the pan where they could char as the quesadillas are cooking. That is usually the reason a recipe will call for wiping the pan. Also, any oil used for cooking the first item(s) may become overcooked and alter the flavor of what is being cooked next... think of cooking onions and garlic first, where if the pan is not wiped clean the oil will retain that garlic essence and continue to cook it as other ingredients are cooked with it. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes it does.
 
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