Last night I made steaks. Normally I put them in the broiler on a broiler pan for 6 min each side. This time I decided to get them seared in a skillet, 30 sec each side, then thrown the skillet with steaks under the broiler.

Safety note: the handle of the skillet will still be rocket-hot 1 min later. DO NOT attempt to just grab the thing when you go to deglaze the skillet. You will end up with a nice burn on your palm at the base of your thumb. Keep the hot pad draped over the handle to remind yourself not to grab it directly.

Anyway, I didn’t have any wine or cognac to deglaze with so I used a little water, a little soy-sugar type oriental sauce, and a little pickle juice from my Good Eats refrigerator pickles. Ended up with a good au-jus kind of thing, if a little vinegary.

Probably next time I will do like the sauce show suggests and deglaze with a little low-sodium broth and a little milk. Also, I seared and broiled with no oil in the pan – next time maybe an oil of some kind will help give the glaze some body so it has more juices and less black carbon flakes ;)