Cooking tips I've learned being married to a chef

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Nateo

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My better half used to work as a sous chef at a fancy Italian restaurant. I've picked up a lot of tips from cooking with her, and thought I'd share them with the world.

1) Learn how to use a knife. I've been cutting things my whole life without actually knowing how to properly use a knife. Start here:
[ame]http://youtu.be/D9Qzz8R_J1c[/ame]
and
[ame]http://youtu.be/YT2EHRqcO2U[/ame]

2) Don't fear spices. The first time I saw her make marinara sauce, I was shocked at how much basil and oregano she used. Use fresh spices, and use a lot of them. Most mediocre cooking can be improved with more spices and more salt. If your spices are more than a year old, toss them out and get new ones.

3) Don't fear the burn. Get a cast-iron skillet and turn the heat up. Most stuff you cook in a pan would benefit from a little bit of charring. It's called "wok hei" in Chinese cooking. It's a combination of caramelization and Maillard reactions. I used to "sweat" everything, which is where your cooked veggies get limp and flaccid over medium heat. Throw the veggies into high heat and they'll get cooked but stay crispy.

4) Brown/char almost everything, especially slow-cooked meats. If you're throwing anything in the crock pot, throw it in that hot skillet for a few minutes first to get a good char on it. The skillet cooking breaks down the outer layer of the meat to allow the hot liquid to penetrate deeper, quicker, which means it will cook more thoroughly and faster. Also, if you're going to use marinades, char the meat first, then apply the marinade, and it will soak in deeper into the meat.

5) Butter is awesome. You know those awesome steaks you get at fancy steakhouses? Drenched in butter. A little bit goes a long way, so try mixing a bit in with whatever oil you're using in your skillet.

Well those are the main ones that come to mind. I'll post more if I think of anything else.
 
Marinading after cooking works great as mentioned above. I grill vegetables and after they're finished immediately toss them in an herb vinaigrette. They absorb a ton of flavor that way.
 
Marinading after cooking works great as mentioned above. I grill vegetables and after they're finished immediately toss them in an herb vinaigrette. They absorb a ton of flavor that way.

Recently many people are starting to believe that marinading after cooking is actually better.
 
My better half used to work as a sous chef at a fancy Italian restaurant. I've picked up a lot of tips from cooking with her, and thought I'd share them with the world.

1) Learn how to use a knife. I've been cutting things my whole life without actually knowing how to properly use a knife. Start here:
http://youtu.be/D9Qzz8R_J1c
and
http://youtu.be/YT2EHRqcO2U

2) Don't fear spices. The first time I saw her make marinara sauce, I was shocked at how much basil and oregano she used. Use fresh spices, and use a lot of them. Most mediocre cooking can be improved with more spices and more salt. If your spices are more than a year old, toss them out and get new ones.

3) Don't fear the burn. Get a cast-iron skillet and turn the heat up. Most stuff you cook in a pan would benefit from a little bit of charring. It's called "wok hei" in Chinese cooking. It's a combination of caramelization and Maillard reactions. I used to "sweat" everything, which is where your cooked veggies get limp and flaccid over medium heat. Throw the veggies into high heat and they'll get cooked but stay crispy. .

You don't need a cast iron pan to caramelize sugars.

Do you know at what temperature sugars caramelize?
 
You don't need a cast iron pan to caramelize sugars.

Do you know at what temperature sugars caramelize?

You're right, I know you don't NEED a cast iron skillet, but thick and heavy pans hold heat better. It's much harder to get a good stir-fry, for instance, in a flimsy pan than a hot cast iron skillet.
 
You're right, I know you don't NEED a cast iron skillet, but thick and heavy pans hold heat better. It's much harder to get a good stir-fry, for instance, in a flimsy pan than a hot cast iron skillet.

So, do you know at what temperature sugars caramelize?
 
The fun thing about cooking is the learning. Subject was "what I've learned" but I do agree a thermometer is your friend. I'm pretty sure there's been a couple of books on how to cook and a lot of learning :)

PS - A little distracted from your avatar Jet.
 
Most mediocre cooking can be improved with more spices and more salt.

I think this is really key. I notice this a lot on cooking stations, it's shocking how much salt they put in, especially hosts that are "real life" chefs. Anne Burrell is a good example.

however, i just don't like giving my family that much sodium.
 
Caramelization is closely related to and overlaps with Maillard browning.

I tend to dissagree. Maillard browning happens at a much lower temperature and most brewers confuse this with caramelization. You can get caramelization at the surface of your pot where the liquid touches it if the temperature is hot enough and the sugars remain on the surface long enough.
 
If you know at what temp sugars caramelize you know how hot your pan is.

Not necessarily. It would just mean that your pan is at least that hot.

Why would a cast iron pan work better at caramelizing sugars?

Because it holds the heat much better and will stay at a much higher temperature when cold meat or ingredients are added.

If you had a heavy cask iron pan, a POS thin aluminum pan from walmart, and an IR thermo you could easily prove it. Get both pans to the same temp and add a steak to both. After 2 minutes see which one is browned better.
 
Not necessarily. It would just mean that your pan is at least that hot.

That's what I meant

Because it holds the heat much better and will stay at a much higher temperature when cold meat or ingredients are added.

If you had a heavy cask iron pan, a POS thin aluminum pan from walmart, and an IR thermo you could easily prove it. Get both pans to the same temp and add a steak to both. After 2 minutes see which one is browned better.

What if you had a nice triple layered bottom aluminum pan from Macy's? Compared to a POS light cast iron pan from K-Mart, wouldn't they be pretty equal?
 
What if you had a nice triple layered bottom aluminum pan from Macy's? Compared to a POS light cast iron pan from K-Mart, wouldn't they be pretty equal?

It would be better but still not quite as good as cast.
 
You can find good cast iron pans at yard sales and thrift stores for basically nothing.

They require a small amount of easy maintenance, so everyone hates them.
 
You could add "great ingredients = great food". When using whole, fresh, high-quality ingredients, it's easy to make something that is amazing...but it's just about impossible to turn cheap, low-quality ingredients into something really special.
 
aluminum has about 3x the thermal conductivity of iron.

So does this mean, using an aluminum pan vs. cast iron, I can expect my cold meat to heat faster because the aluminum pan is conducting the transfer of heat from the flame to the meat faster?
 
Yes, but cast iron has more heat capacity, so a hot cast iron pan has a lot more thermal energy to transfer.
 
So does this mean, using an aluminum pan vs. cast iron, I can expect my cold meat to heat faster because the aluminum pan is conducting the transfer of heat from the flame to the meat faster?

if it's a thin piece of meat, yes. if it's a larger piece of meat, since iron has much more thermal capacity, it will be able to heat it quicker and much more even....er
 
Yes, but cast iron has more heat capacity, so a hot cast iron pan has a lot more thermal energy to transfer.

Sure, but if the aluminum pan is transferring the heat from the flame(which is way hotter than what I need) thru the pan 3x faster than the cast iron....would it take fewer IBU's to heat my meat? And wouldn't I have more control of the cook, and wouldn't the meat cook in a shorter time period?
 
jetmac said:
Sure, but if the aluminum pan is transferring the heat from the flame(which is way hotter than what I need) thru the pan 3x faster than the cast iron....would it take fewer IBU's to heat my meat? And wouldn't I have more control of the cook, and wouldn't the meat cook in a shorter time period?

Heating with alpha acids? Is that even possible???

I'm guessing you meant btu's
 
Sure, but if the aluminum pan is transferring the heat from the flame(which is way hotter than what I need) thru the pan 3x faster than the cast iron....would it take fewer IBU's to heat my meat? And wouldn't I have more control of the cook, and wouldn't the meat cook in a shorter time period?

no, you'd have less control. greater thermal mass means you can keep an constant temp much much easier.

it's like trying to dial in 155F on 1 cup of water instead of 5 gallons of water. with 1 cup, you'll be constantly over/under/over/under.

as soon as you throw a 1" thick ribeye into your al pan, all the heat is going to be lost, and it has to regain it again. sure, it's quicker than iron, but it's nowhere near instant.

throw a 1" thick ribeye into a cast iron pan and not much heat is lost, and it's still gaining heat from the flame.

i don't think anyone's arguing you can't cook a great steak in an AL pan, but I believe cast iron is better for browning big pieces of meat.
 
alton brown is awesome- anyone who wants to know anything nerdy about cooking should watch him- nice post of the vids...props :)
 
I tend to dissagree. Maillard browning happens at a much lower temperature and most brewers confuse this with caramelization. You can get caramelization at the surface of your pot where the liquid touches it if the temperature is hot enough and the sugars remain on the surface long enough.

To quote the website I linked to earlier:

"Maillard reactions have three basic phases. 1/The initial reaction is the condensation of an amino acid with a simple sugar, which loses a molecule of water to form N-substituted aldosylamine. This is unstable and undergoes the famous "Amadori rearrangement" to form "1-amino-1-deoxy-2-ketoses" (known as "ketosamines") which can undergo complex subsequent dehydration, fission and polymerization reactions.

But wait, I here you say! "A sugar loses a water molecule and undergoes further dehydration?" Sounds like a Caramelisation reaction?

*And it is!* One of the reasons Caramel and Maillard reactions are confused in brewing and food processing literature is that one of the Maillard paths is a simple Caramel reaction, catalysed by amino acids."
 
To quote the website I linked to earlier:

"Maillard reactions have three basic phases. 1/The initial reaction is the condensation of an amino acid with a simple sugar, which loses a molecule of water to form N-substituted aldosylamine. This is unstable and undergoes the famous "Amadori rearrangement" to form "1-amino-1-deoxy-2-ketoses" (known as "ketosamines") which can undergo complex subsequent dehydration, fission and polymerization reactions.

But wait, I here you say! "A sugar loses a water molecule and undergoes further dehydration?" Sounds like a Caramelisation reaction?

*And it is!* One of the reasons Caramel and Maillard reactions are confused in brewing and food processing literature is that one of the Maillard paths is a simple Caramel reaction, catalysed by amino acids."

Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning. However, unlike the Maillard reaction, caramelization is pyrolysis, as opposed to reaction with amino acids.

Pyrolysis of carbohydrates(including sugars, starch, and fibre) and proteins requires temperatures substantially higher than 100 °C (212 °F), so pyrolysis does not occur as long as free water is present, e.g., in boiling food — not even in a pressure cooker. When heated in the presence of water, carbohydrates and proteins suffer gradual hydrolysis rather than pyrolysis. Indeed, for most foods, pyrolysis is usually confined to the outer layers of food, and begins only after those layers have dried out.
Controlled pyrolysis of sugars starting at 170 °C (338 °F) produces caramel.

Caramelization of Maltose sugars occurs at 356F
 
Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning. However, unlike the Maillard reaction, caramelization is pyrolysis, as opposed to reaction with amino acids.

Pyrolysis of carbohydrates(including sugars, starch, and fibre) and proteins requires temperatures substantially higher than 100 °C (212 °F), so pyrolysis does not occur as long as free water is present, e.g., in boiling food — not even in a pressure cooker. When heated in the presence of water, carbohydrates and proteins suffer gradual hydrolysis rather than pyrolysis. Indeed, for most foods, pyrolysis is usually confined to the outer layers of food, and begins only after those layers have dried out.
Controlled pyrolysis of sugars starting at 170 °C (338 °F) produces caramel.

Caramelization of Maltose sugars occurs at 356F

If you knew all that, why did you ask about caramelization temperatures? Are you arguing that in any cooked food there is 0% caramelization? You've said yourself that pyrolysis happens on the outer layers of food, so I don't understand what your point or, is why you've bolded your text where you did.

"The Maillard Reaction" is not one specific reaction, but a combination of several different reactions, one of which is "dehydration and further oxidation and degradation."

Caramelization is defined as "dehydration and further degradation and oxidation. "
 
You don't need a cast iron pan to caramelize sugars.

Do you know at what temperature sugars caramelize?


So, do you know at what temperature sugars caramelize?


Sorry, didn't mean to come off that way. Just wondering at what temperature sugars in food caramelize.



Hmmm...what are the different types of sugars and why would they caramelize at different temperatures?


Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning. However, unlike the Maillard reaction, caramelization is pyrolysis, as opposed to reaction with amino acids.

Pyrolysis of carbohydrates(including sugars, starch, and fibre) and proteins requires temperatures substantially higher than 100 °C (212 °F), so pyrolysis does not occur as long as free water is present, e.g., in boiling food — not even in a pressure cooker. When heated in the presence of water, carbohydrates and proteins suffer gradual hydrolysis rather than pyrolysis. Indeed, for most foods, pyrolysis is usually confined to the outer layers of food, and begins only after those layers have dried out.
Controlled pyrolysis of sugars starting at 170 °C (338 °F) produces caramel.

Caramelization of Maltose sugars occurs at 356F

Must have done some reading in the last couple of days.:rolleyes:
 
If you knew all that, why did you ask about caramelization temperatures? Are you arguing that in any cooked food there is 0% caramelization? You've said yourself that pyrolysis happens on the outer layers of food, so I don't understand what your point or, is why you've bolded your text where you did.

"The Maillard Reaction" is not one specific reaction, but a combination of several different reactions, one of which is "dehydration and further oxidation and degradation."

Caramelization is defined as "dehydration and further degradation and oxidation. "

this poster doesnt know anything... its copied form wikipedia...
 
If you knew all that, why did you ask about caramelization temperatures? Are you arguing that in any cooked food there is 0% caramelization? You've said yourself that pyrolysis happens on the outer layers of food, so I don't understand what your point or, is why you've bolded your text where you did.

"The Maillard Reaction" is not one specific reaction, but a combination of several different reactions, one of which is "dehydration and further oxidation and degradation."

Caramelization is defined as "dehydration and further degradation and oxidation. "

I guess my point here is, in post #20 you said "Caramelization is a pretty complex process that is closely related to and overlaps with Maillard browning. " (Maillard browning happens in boiling wort. Caramelization doesn't.)

And I disagreed and I apparently got off track. Being this is a brewing forum my mind went in that direction and I related Maillard browing with boiling wort.

Then post #44 it appeared to me you were explaining how caramelization happens in boiling wort.
I was mearly tying to explain why I disagreed that caramelization happens in boiling wort.

The reason I asked "Do you know at what temperatures sugar caramelizes?" is because you said...

"3) Don't fear the burn. Get a cast-iron skillet and turn the heat up. Most stuff you cook in a pan would benefit from a little bit of charring. It's called "wok hei" in Chinese cooking. It's a combination of caramelization and Maillard reactions. I used to "sweat" everything, which is where your cooked veggies get limp and flaccid over medium heat. Throw the veggies into high heat and they'll get cooked but stay crispy."

I disagreed that you need a cast iron pan to caramelize food, you can caramelize food in a regular pan. Anyone that reads that tip would believe they needed to buy an expensive cast iron pan to caramelize their food.

I wanted to know if you knew at what temperatures sugars caramelize and if you didn't I was going to tell you. That would be another tip you could share. But you took offense.

When I bold my text I am trying to emphasize.
 
this poster doesnt know anything... its copied form wikipedia...

I disagree. Sometimes it's difficult to put into words what you mean. So you find it on the net and copy and paste what you mean.
The poster is very knowledgeable.
 
I disagree. Sometimes it's difficult to put into words what you mean. So you find it on the net and copy and paste what you mean.
The poster is very knowledgeable.

i was talking about you! you copied all that from wiki... im not downing anyone. this thread got ridiculous and was just point it out.
 
G]
i was talking about you! you copied all that from wiki... im not downing anyone. this thread got ridiculous and was just point it out.

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