The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

evaporation, right?
The principle demonstrated by my test was first
observed by Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost, an
eighteenth-century German doctor. Turns out that if
you give a drop of water on a pan enough energy,
the steam that it produces will be pressed out so
forcefully that it will actually lift the water droplet
clear off the surface of the pan. Because the water is
no longer in direct contact with the pan and is
insulated by this layer of steam, the transfer of
energy between the pan and the water becomes quite
inefficient, so the water takes a long time to
evaporate.
The very center of this skillet is still relatively
cool, resulting in water that just bubbles as it sits
there. The edges, however, are hot enough to induce
the Leidenfrost effect, causing the entire blob of
water to form a cohesive unit that elevates itself
above the surface of the pan.
Here’s a closer look at a Leidenfrost-ified water
droplet: