— Cynthia Dudak

I don't think it's gonna make a difference in terms of the care of, of the pan. Um, you know, when we're doing the mercury ball, uh, uh, test itself, uh, we're using, uh, ideally a very, very small quantity. And that's not gonna adversely affect, uh, the pan material. Um, at least not that I can imagine. Uh, and then, uh, in terms of controlling the heat, while we're doing the cooking itself, we've got other food in the pan. Um, you know, if you're adding, um, a teaspoon, you know, a couple of teaspoons, uh, in with other, um, uh, foods, you know, in the pan, um, it, it is probably not gonna be a big deal again as to what, uh, temperature, uh, the water is relative to the pan. Um, but keep in mind that the, uh, water cools the pan down and we eventually want the temperature to come back up. That's called the recovery time. And if the, if, uh, the, the addition, uh, of water is really cool, and we drop that temperature down just a little bit further, the recovery time is gonna be longer. And so if you wanna keep that relatively short, then sure, uh, from a, a, a culinary standpoint, uh, then consider adding some, some warmer water. And I think having just a bowl off to the side is, is a perfect solution. It's a great way to go about that. Okay. And, um, yeah, you know, one last thing I wanna mention on that mercury ball test, that technique, uh, is that, uh, our goal is that after doing that a couple of times, or maybe three or four or five times, that you learn how to gauge the temperature of your pan by feel, and you can just stop using, uh, the water ball test or the mercury ball test. That's our goal. Okay? We want you to become a more intuitive cook, um, that just, uh, that that lowers anxiety, uh, that brings more joy to the process, and that really is what cooking is about.