4 ms·

It's wild how unscientific this video was, and how all of them were basically going off of their gut feelings for answers.

by ARCarr 5y ago

russfrank 5y ago
That's Bonappetit for you. All of their videos of this nature have wildly unqualified folks. One of them featured Alex Delaney who I think was the editor in chief's assistant before he became drinks editor. I'm sure the guy cooks, but they lost my respect when they put him in a video about "Pro chefs". (I didn't watch this one, sorry, but I hope he's not in it)
ehsankia 5y ago
To me the point was how even pro chefs don't agree or know the answer. People like Kenji or Ragusea showed me how much of existing tricks aren't based in any real food science.
- vncecartersknee 5y ago
  Helen Rennie is another good one
- Xcelerate 5y ago
  Ragusea’s video about how searing in extra virgin olive oil is perfectly fine (and in fact healthier than more neutral oils due to the monounsatured fats) was eye-opening. My dad always liked to sear in olive oil and said he didn’t believe the claims that it would impart a burnt taste to the food (but it indeed gives the crust a non-neutral flavor if that’s what you’re going for). Personally, I never thought soaking dried beans overnight made sense. I eventually found a blog post where a chef did a blind taste test of soaking overnight vs directly boiling dried beans and found that they taste better without the soaking (but take longer to cook). Ever since then I have made what I think results in the tastiest hummus by skipping the soaking, skipping the baking soda (which imparts a weird aftertaste), and just straight boiling dried Umbrian chickpeas, followed by passing the final product through a #60 lab-grade sieve. Saves time, is much smoother, and tastes better than any recipe I’ve found online. The only item that I am surprised about on the list is the chefs’ collective opinion on reverse searing. Personally I’ve found it works better than almost anything else if you’re not looking for a technique that imparts additional flavor (e.g., grilling over binchotan is my ultimate favorite approach for many types of meat but that is due to the unique smoky flavor rather than grilling per se). Reverse searing tough cuts for 6-7 hours at a very low PID-controlled temperature even seems to work much better than braising for flavor. I would like to see some blind taste tests for claims about methods that work better than the reverse sear.
  - Ar-Curunir 5y ago
    If you salt your water before soaking, then your beans will be seasoned internally. In Indian cooking we additionally throw whole spices in (cardamom, star anise, pepper, etc).
  - bch 5y ago
    I'm a 4h salted water soaker now - i think i saw the 4h (versus 8h/overnight) on a bean forum that may have been run as net news originally. I find 4h to be a reasonably small amount of time to work with, and I use a pressure cooker to do the cooking; I can have the idea to have beans for dinner as late as ~noon, and that's workable.
  - et-al 5y ago
    Soaking overnight is one of those hands-off, no-brainer preps that no one probably questioned if they could shorten the time until crock pots became commonplace. I'm also shocked at the reverse-sear detractors. Personally I've been doing it for years because "searing in the juices" never made sense, and cooking on plenty of mediocre apartment stoves, it's been a foolproof way to assure that the outside of the steak is nice and dry without overcooking the inside. I've tried other methods that didn't require specialized equipment, and the reverse-sear has been the most reliable.
  - ehsankia 5y ago
    For steak, my first thought was that the objectively best way to cook steak is sous-vide + quick sear. I realize not everyone has sous-vide, but that produces the best results where the entire steak is cooked to the exact perfect doneness, and the top layer has the seared flavor.
    - giraffe_lady 5y ago
      I'd rather have a better sear than an exactly perfect temp gradient though, and sous vide offers the opposite tradeoff so I don't prefer it. Also I think this throws a wrench into the idea that you can define what an "objectively best" thing is here. EDIT: Also please ffs no one give me cooking advice, I know how to get a good sear.
paxys 5y ago
There's a reason they call it culinary arts and not culinary science. Different cultures and chefs have had their own approaches to dishes, methods of preparation and secret recipes for thousands of years. Why are you expecting a group of them to get together and unanimously agree on how to cook?
bobro 5y ago
the gut feelings of working professional recipe creators seems pretty valid to me. id take that over a scientific approach that lacked professional experience to provide context.

It's wild how unscientific this video was, and how all of them were basically going off of their gut feelings for answers.

by ARCarr 5y ago

It's wild how unscientific this video was, and how all of them were basically going off of their gut feelings for answers.

russfrank 5y ago

That's Bonappetit for you. All of their videos of this nature have wildly unqualified folks. One of them featured Alex Delaney who I think was the editor in chief's assistant before he became drinks editor. I'm sure the guy cooks, but they lost my respect when they put him in a video about "Pro chefs". (I didn't watch this one, sorry, but I hope he's not in it)

ehsankia 5y ago

To me the point was how even pro chefs don't agree or know the answer. People like Kenji or Ragusea showed me how much of existing tricks aren't based in any real food science.

vncecartersknee 5y ago
Helen Rennie is another good one
Xcelerate 5y ago
Ragusea’s video about how searing in extra virgin olive oil is perfectly fine (and in fact healthier than more neutral oils due to the monounsatured fats) was eye-opening. My dad always liked to sear in olive oil and said he didn’t believe the claims that it would impart a burnt taste to the food (but it indeed gives the crust a non-neutral flavor if that’s what you’re going for). Personally, I never thought soaking dried beans overnight made sense. I eventually found a blog post where a chef did a blind taste test of soaking overnight vs directly boiling dried beans and found that they taste better without the soaking (but take longer to cook). Ever since then I have made what I think results in the tastiest hummus by skipping the soaking, skipping the baking soda (which imparts a weird aftertaste), and just straight boiling dried Umbrian chickpeas, followed by passing the final product through a #60 lab-grade sieve. Saves time, is much smoother, and tastes better than any recipe I’ve found online. The only item that I am surprised about on the list is the chefs’ collective opinion on reverse searing. Personally I’ve found it works better than almost anything else if you’re not looking for a technique that imparts additional flavor (e.g., grilling over binchotan is my ultimate favorite approach for many types of meat but that is due to the unique smoky flavor rather than grilling per se). Reverse searing tough cuts for 6-7 hours at a very low PID-controlled temperature even seems to work much better than braising for flavor. I would like to see some blind taste tests for claims about methods that work better than the reverse sear.
- Ar-Curunir 5y ago
  If you salt your water before soaking, then your beans will be seasoned internally. In Indian cooking we additionally throw whole spices in (cardamom, star anise, pepper, etc).
- bch 5y ago
  I'm a 4h salted water soaker now - i think i saw the 4h (versus 8h/overnight) on a bean forum that may have been run as net news originally. I find 4h to be a reasonably small amount of time to work with, and I use a pressure cooker to do the cooking; I can have the idea to have beans for dinner as late as ~noon, and that's workable.
- et-al 5y ago
  Soaking overnight is one of those hands-off, no-brainer preps that no one probably questioned if they could shorten the time until crock pots became commonplace. I'm also shocked at the reverse-sear detractors. Personally I've been doing it for years because "searing in the juices" never made sense, and cooking on plenty of mediocre apartment stoves, it's been a foolproof way to assure that the outside of the steak is nice and dry without overcooking the inside. I've tried other methods that didn't require specialized equipment, and the reverse-sear has been the most reliable.
- ehsankia 5y ago
  For steak, my first thought was that the objectively best way to cook steak is sous-vide + quick sear. I realize not everyone has sous-vide, but that produces the best results where the entire steak is cooked to the exact perfect doneness, and the top layer has the seared flavor.
  - giraffe_lady 5y ago
    I'd rather have a better sear than an exactly perfect temp gradient though, and sous vide offers the opposite tradeoff so I don't prefer it. Also I think this throws a wrench into the idea that you can define what an "objectively best" thing is here. EDIT: Also please ffs no one give me cooking advice, I know how to get a good sear.

paxys 5y ago

There's a reason they call it culinary arts and not culinary science. Different cultures and chefs have had their own approaches to dishes, methods of preparation and secret recipes for thousands of years. Why are you expecting a group of them to get together and unanimously agree on how to cook?

bobro 5y ago

the gut feelings of working professional recipe creators seems pretty valid to me. id take that over a scientific approach that lacked professional experience to provide context.