4 ms·

Entertaining video, but I feel like a lot of cooking is pseudo-science and hear say. For example, everybody tells you to salt during cooking, when it's much bet

by baby 5y ago

Entertaining video, but I feel like a lot of cooking is pseudo-science and hear say. For example, everybody tells you to salt during cooking, when it's much better to salt, add paper, and olive oil, after cooking. Yet, everybody will argue with me like they can really tell a difference. It's interesting that this was not asked during the video though.

aynyc 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0v32jYkSi0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0v32jYkSi0
- baby 5y ago
  It depends how you like your food to taste. If you need ingredients to be as salty as possible, then sure, but when they hit your mouth with the salt that you added at the end it's not going to make much difference.
  - aynyc 5y ago
    I can't speak for your taste, but I can taste the difference, particularly with meat. I don't usually salt veggie that much.
    - baby 5y ago
      I suggest trying to add salt flakes on the already-grilled meat VS salting during cooking. To me it's much better.
      - aynyc 5y ago
        I salt steaks for at least 4-5 hours before I grill them, then add a bit of salt when serving. I don't salt burgers before grilling. Like I say, certain people prefer different taste, and that's what make cooking an art rather than a science. But I'm surprised that you can't taste the different.
youeseh 5y ago
If the olive oil is fresh enough to enjoy with a piece of toast, then the tip about olive oil is accurate. Cooking with olive oil (at anything above low heat) and topping cooked food with olive oil produce two noticeably different tastes. You have to cook at a really low temperature to preserve that olive oil taste, which most people don't. So, you may be better off cooking with a higher temperature oil (avocado, and coconute oils) and topping with olive oil after you're done cooking. About salt: it makes whatever you're cooking dehydrate. This is sometimes desired early on in the cooking process, but not always.
zdragnar 5y ago
What are you cooking that you add oil after it is done? Also, most of the pro chefs that I have watched will add salt throughout cooking (especially if it is a dish they can taste as they go) to make sure the balance stays right. Also, you may be interested in Cook's Illustrated "The Science of Good Cooking"; the book goes through a lot of the "why" behind basic techniques and recipes.
- baby 5y ago
  > What are you cooking that you add oil after it is done? Really everything from salads to grilled meat. If you use good olive oil, cooking it will remove its taste, so it's really a waste. If you want to taste some good olive oil, you have to eat it raw. > Also, most of the pro chefs that I have watched will add salt throughout cooking (especially if it is a dish they can taste as they go) to make sure the balance stays right I know, but then I tried this at home many times and I could not taste a difference. Perhaps there is a slight difference but I wouldn't expect any home chef to notice. Fresh pepper and olive oil always taste better than cooked pepper and cooked oil. Garlic is better when slightly cooked. Same for herbs like mint, coriander, etc. that I don't cook anymore.
  - Groxx 5y ago
    While I agree on a whole lot of points and probably just about everything, "from salads to grilled meat" covers "something not cooked" and "something cooked but very resistant to anything penetrating more than like half a centimeter". That's not a very wide range of food, particularly where these ingredients are concerned. How about a stewed tomato dish? Eggplant Parmesan? Curry? Stuff where salt and oil would have literally any chance of penetrating or affecting the chemistry for more than a few minutes or millimeters? It fairly clearly works better afterward for stuff that doesn't, but that's hardly all or even most food.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - djur 5y ago
russfrank 5y ago
No no no no, it is absolutely necessary to salt the different components that go into a dish. Many things will absorb salt during the cooking process. Salt can also draw water out of an item which will change the way it cooks as well, for example with eggplant. You need to be constantly checking the salt level while cooking to ensure your final product is not just salty enough but salted throughout the dish and not just on the outer layer. This is especially true with proteins, all of which need to be salted in advance in order to get proper penetration. Re your comment about olive oil, an extra virgin olive oil has flavor and it would be pointless to roast with it, but you absolutely need oil while cooking food as it's a thermal interface between your pan or your oven air and your food. Of course there are finishing oils that tend to be something with a lot of flavor like EVOO, sesame oil, or an e.g. rosemary infused olive oil, but most oil needs to be added during cooking.
- ip26 5y ago
  Not to mention blooming your spices.
- baby 5y ago
  I just wish I could cook two dishes, one with salt during cooking, and one with salt after, and do some blind tests. I bet most people would have no idea which is which. The same thing happened with expensive coke and cheaper coke, or coke and pepsi, or branded yogurt vs cheap yogurt, or very expensive wines and OK wines. And blind tests tend to show that most people can't tell the difference. Yet everybody is convinced that they can :)
  - shalmanese 5y ago
    I've done the test, the difference is noticeable.
dahfizz 5y ago
I assume little optimizations like that are only noticeable to "trained" palates. A professional chef could tell whether each component was seasoned, or if you dumped salt in at the end. I definitely couldn't tell, though.
- aerostable_slug 5y ago
  My opinion: taste discrimination in various realms (cheese, ham, beef, wine, etc.) is a perishable attribute, and one that requires conscious attention. Overall experience is important, but I can't pick out cattle breeds by the flavor of their ribeyes like I could when I was a kid. I was eating a lot of beef from local ranchers while I was raising beef cattle, I was looking for certain attributes in the genetic material I was buying, and so I could not only immediately pick out a Charlois from an Angus mix immediately, but I could also pick out differences in crossbreeds. Note that in my experience this isn't unusual, but I did have a knack for judging critters (somehow I won a judging award at Cal Poly SLO and it involved chickens among other animals: I don't know a damned thing about chickens). Now I can't taste beef the same way as I used to, especially not with grain-finished crossbreeds. I think it's one of those things, like pistol shooting, that is perishable and needs heavy reinforcement. Also, age is physiologically a factor. TL;DR: eat more!
39asdfmuu 5y ago
Ar-Curunir 5y ago
Salt during and before cooking. E.g., with chicken if you do a dry/wet brine then the chicken absorbs the salt and becomes internally seasoned, as opposed to being bland internally. E.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3AgIWFZdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3AgIWFZdM
paxys 5y ago
There's no generic advice that applies to all ingredients and dishes from all cuisines. For example try adding oil to a stir fry after cooking and tell me how that turns out.
- baby 5y ago

by baby 5y ago

aynyc 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0v32jYkSi0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0v32jYkSi0

baby 5y ago
It depends how you like your food to taste. If you need ingredients to be as salty as possible, then sure, but when they hit your mouth with the salt that you added at the end it's not going to make much difference.
- aynyc 5y ago
  I can't speak for your taste, but I can taste the difference, particularly with meat. I don't usually salt veggie that much.
  - baby 5y ago
    I suggest trying to add salt flakes on the already-grilled meat VS salting during cooking. To me it's much better.
    - aynyc 5y ago
      I salt steaks for at least 4-5 hours before I grill them, then add a bit of salt when serving. I don't salt burgers before grilling. Like I say, certain people prefer different taste, and that's what make cooking an art rather than a science. But I'm surprised that you can't taste the different.

youeseh 5y ago

If the olive oil is fresh enough to enjoy with a piece of toast, then the tip about olive oil is accurate. Cooking with olive oil (at anything above low heat) and topping cooked food with olive oil produce two noticeably different tastes. You have to cook at a really low temperature to preserve that olive oil taste, which most people don't. So, you may be better off cooking with a higher temperature oil (avocado, and coconute oils) and topping with olive oil after you're done cooking. About salt: it makes whatever you're cooking dehydrate. This is sometimes desired early on in the cooking process, but not always.

zdragnar 5y ago

What are you cooking that you add oil after it is done? Also, most of the pro chefs that I have watched will add salt throughout cooking (especially if it is a dish they can taste as they go) to make sure the balance stays right. Also, you may be interested in Cook's Illustrated "The Science of Good Cooking"; the book goes through a lot of the "why" behind basic techniques and recipes.

baby 5y ago
> What are you cooking that you add oil after it is done? Really everything from salads to grilled meat. If you use good olive oil, cooking it will remove its taste, so it's really a waste. If you want to taste some good olive oil, you have to eat it raw. > Also, most of the pro chefs that I have watched will add salt throughout cooking (especially if it is a dish they can taste as they go) to make sure the balance stays right I know, but then I tried this at home many times and I could not taste a difference. Perhaps there is a slight difference but I wouldn't expect any home chef to notice. Fresh pepper and olive oil always taste better than cooked pepper and cooked oil. Garlic is better when slightly cooked. Same for herbs like mint, coriander, etc. that I don't cook anymore.
- Groxx 5y ago
  While I agree on a whole lot of points and probably just about everything, "from salads to grilled meat" covers "something not cooked" and "something cooked but very resistant to anything penetrating more than like half a centimeter". That's not a very wide range of food, particularly where these ingredients are concerned. How about a stewed tomato dish? Eggplant Parmesan? Curry? Stuff where salt and oil would have literally any chance of penetrating or affecting the chemistry for more than a few minutes or millimeters? It fairly clearly works better afterward for stuff that doesn't, but that's hardly all or even most food.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- djur 5y ago

russfrank 5y ago

No no no no, it is absolutely necessary to salt the different components that go into a dish. Many things will absorb salt during the cooking process. Salt can also draw water out of an item which will change the way it cooks as well, for example with eggplant. You need to be constantly checking the salt level while cooking to ensure your final product is not just salty enough but salted throughout the dish and not just on the outer layer. This is especially true with proteins, all of which need to be salted in advance in order to get proper penetration. Re your comment about olive oil, an extra virgin olive oil has flavor and it would be pointless to roast with it, but you absolutely need oil while cooking food as it's a thermal interface between your pan or your oven air and your food. Of course there are finishing oils that tend to be something with a lot of flavor like EVOO, sesame oil, or an e.g. rosemary infused olive oil, but most oil needs to be added during cooking.

ip26 5y ago
Not to mention blooming your spices.
baby 5y ago
I just wish I could cook two dishes, one with salt during cooking, and one with salt after, and do some blind tests. I bet most people would have no idea which is which. The same thing happened with expensive coke and cheaper coke, or coke and pepsi, or branded yogurt vs cheap yogurt, or very expensive wines and OK wines. And blind tests tend to show that most people can't tell the difference. Yet everybody is convinced that they can :)
- shalmanese 5y ago
  I've done the test, the difference is noticeable.

dahfizz 5y ago

I assume little optimizations like that are only noticeable to "trained" palates. A professional chef could tell whether each component was seasoned, or if you dumped salt in at the end. I definitely couldn't tell, though.

aerostable_slug 5y ago
My opinion: taste discrimination in various realms (cheese, ham, beef, wine, etc.) is a perishable attribute, and one that requires conscious attention. Overall experience is important, but I can't pick out cattle breeds by the flavor of their ribeyes like I could when I was a kid. I was eating a lot of beef from local ranchers while I was raising beef cattle, I was looking for certain attributes in the genetic material I was buying, and so I could not only immediately pick out a Charlois from an Angus mix immediately, but I could also pick out differences in crossbreeds. Note that in my experience this isn't unusual, but I did have a knack for judging critters (somehow I won a judging award at Cal Poly SLO and it involved chickens among other animals: I don't know a damned thing about chickens). Now I can't taste beef the same way as I used to, especially not with grain-finished crossbreeds. I think it's one of those things, like pistol shooting, that is perishable and needs heavy reinforcement. Also, age is physiologically a factor. TL;DR: eat more!

39asdfmuu 5y ago

Ar-Curunir 5y ago

Salt during and before cooking. E.g., with chicken if you do a dry/wet brine then the chicken absorbs the salt and becomes internally seasoned, as opposed to being bland internally. E.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3AgIWFZdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3AgIWFZdM

paxys 5y ago

There's no generic advice that applies to all ingredients and dishes from all cuisines. For example try adding oil to a stir fry after cooking and tell me how that turns out.

baby 5y ago