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Sifting flour. Sautéing spices “to release the flavor” and then adding them to stew where they’ll simmer for an hour or more. Pretending “restaurant quality”
by pbj1968 3y ago
Sifting flour.
Sautéing spices “to release the flavor” and then adding them to stew where they’ll simmer for an hour or more.
Pretending “restaurant quality” is anything besides twice as much butter and salt as you’d dare use at home.
“One tablespoon of olive oil” to brown absurd amounts of meat at high heat.
Once you start recognizing recipe BS, you see it everywhere.
- drekipus 3y agoYou actually don't want too much oil when cooking steaks, otherwise they splatter everywhere. That's something I'm glad to learn.
- saaaaaam 3y agoPat them dry before you put them in the pan. No splatter.
- wenc 3y agoYou can cook steaks without adding any oil at all -- in fact, this is how to cook steak in an apartment without getting it all smokey. According to America's Test Kitchen, do this: Pat dry. Start cold in nonstick/cast iron — no preheat, no oil. Flip every 2 mins. Start high, after few flips, turn heat down to medium. Keep flipping every 2 mins until done. Most cuts worth eating have some fat on them (filet mignons might not but they are very dry anyway -- to me they're not worth it). This fat is enough to brown and cook the steak on. It's completely unnecessary to add oil.
- 7speter 3y agoEven better is a reverse sear in stove on an elevated rack on a baking sheet at 230 degrees for 30 minutes, then you finish the steak off on a hot oiled (avocado or maybe peanut oil) skillet for 1 minute on each side.
- wenc 3y agoI went from sous vide > reverse sear (faster than sous vide) > oil-free pan-sear, in the decreasing order of time of it takes. I find the pan-sear delivers almost the same results in much less time (of course, you won't get the uniform insides of a reverse sear, but close enough since you're flipping so much). I'm also at a stage of life when I can afford better cuts of meat.
- drekipus 3y agoI was told that you should only flip steak once. I'm going to have to research this "flipping so much" stuff
- wenc 3y agoThat’s what chefs were taught too. The reasoning behind it is that less flipping equals good browning. The idea is that carryover heat and resting will cook the insides adequately. But I think ATK or someone else debunked this as the best practice. Flipping more than once gets you more even internal cooking.
- denton-scratch 3y ago> at 230 degrees for 30 minutes In my oven, 230deg is just about maximum temperature; cooking anything that hot for 30 minutes will result in cinders. I take it your oven is calibrated in Fahrenheit?
- explaininjs 3y agoI’m curious too — 230F seems low for that amount of time. I’ve cooked plenty of meat in a smoker at 200-250F, but it takes many hours. On the flip side I agree 450F (~230C) sounds a bit high, but not imo catastrophically so.
- yrro 3y agoIf I set my piece of crap Hotpoint oven to 230 C then it will eat to 260. So thermostat inaccuracy also has to be considered!
- explaininjs 3y agoSpices in a stew will only ever possibly reach 212. When blasted on dry heat they can get higher. The tablespoon of olive oil is to kickstart the process, after that enough fat will render out of the meat to keep it going.
- yamtaddle 3y ago> The tablespoon of olive oil is to kickstart the process, after that enough fat will render out of the meat to keep it going. Agreed on meat, but I consistently see way-too-small amounts of oil suggested for cooking veggies, too. It's like every recipe writer online got together and decided that 1) they must specify oil quantities for those steps, but 2) the quantity must never exceed one tablespoon.
- explaininjs 3y agoI wonder to what extent it’s attempts to game the auto-nutrition facts. That said, is anyone actually measuring a tablespoon of oil? I just pour a glug of a size proportional to the ingredients and adjust as needed.
- freddie_mercury 3y agoEveryone has to start somewhere. If you take a university student who has just left home and never cooked for themselves and tell them "just pour a glug proportional to the ingredients"...that's pretty close to useless for them, especially since they don't yet an intuition for what things you can freehand (and how much you can freehand them) and which things you shouldn't. After all, you (probably) wouldn't ever say "I just open the Morton's salt and pour a glug in" because getting salt wrong even by relatively small amounts has a big impact on the final dish. That said, I agree with you that recipe writers usually do a poor job of laying which things fall more on the "suggested amount, you can just eye ball it" end of the spectrum and which ones are "you should really pull out at least a spoon to get close on this one".
- OJFord 3y ago
- jonstewart 3y agoYou can conceivably get a Maillard reaction with toasting some spices (e.g. cumin seed) where you wouldn’t just by throwing them in a stew. But I agree with your overall point. The 1-2 tbsp olive oil is -everywhere-. Also, better to use canola oil for browning meat.
- treeman79 3y agoCanola is more likely to cause inflammation. Olive oil and coconut oil are much better from that stand point.
- explaininjs 3y agoPlacebo effect is more likely to cause inflammation than anything. Ignorance is, scientifically, bliss. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-021-01365-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-021-01365-x
- misja111 3y agoOlive oil is not the best choice for browning meat, because its burning point is too low. Once it burns, it will disintegrate into bitter byproducts, some of which are carcinogenic. Canola oil has a high burning point so is a better choice, but if you really want to avoid it, sunflower oil is a good choice as well.
- bearmode 3y agoLight/refined olive oil has a smoke point of up to 470°F. You can sear meat anywhere between 400°F and 500°F. There is absolutely no reason you can't sear meat with olive oil. You just have to use the light/refined stuff, and not the virgin/extra virgin (which have smoke points closer to 410°F. Worth noting that canola oil, in the best case scenario, has a smoke point of 450°F.
- misja111 3y agoI never said it was not possible to sear meat with olive oil. It is certainly possible, but you have to be more careful not to overheat your oil. > Light/refined olive oil has a smoke point of up to 470°F. Where did you get that number? Any source I found gives olive oil a burning point of at most 410F. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cookin...
- dflock 3y agoSifting flour is to get the weevils out ;)
- mc32 3y agoYou’re right but that flour would have to be out (unsealed) for a while. Boy, weevils!
- millimeterman 3y agoThat strikes me as a fairly modern thing. I imagine that weevils and/or rocks in flour was a common issue just a few generations ago (or, in many countries, to this day).
- steve_adams_86 3y agoIt can also remove clumps that can form in wetter climates, or from flour of lower quality. During the pandemic I got a big ol bag of flour that was loaded with clumps, and I had to gradually sift all 50lb of it. So, I guess it can still be totally useful in modern times if you have bad purchasing and storage options.
- dogline 3y agoSifting flour will still leave you with the lesser of two weevils.
- kragen 3y agoflour here is sold in paper bags, which are glued shut but not waterproof or beetleproof i have not had weevils in a number of years but I have recently had red flour beetles or confused flour beetles they suck
- rob74 3y agoWell, you can always put the flour in another container which can be closed airtight (or at least bug-tight)...
- spoonjim 3y agoRestaurant quality is real and it’s because high end restaurants usually buy the best produce at wholesale and pay for stuff a grocery store can’t. For example they get much better blackberries in top restaurants because they need to be handled extremely gently when ripe: a grocery store can’t put that stuff out on shelves or it would get destroyed.
- pavlov 3y agoAt the very high end, restaurants also get a quality edge by creatively using excessive labor — in other words using ingredients that are very hard to source, and doing things to food that are so tedious or complicated that nobody would try them at home. One of the world’s most celebrated restaurants, Noma in Copenhagen, is closing soon. Their menu costs about $800 per person, but even at that price the business barely turns a profit and runs largely on unpaid interns who put in the endless hours of manual labor so they could have the famous restaurant on their CV: https://www.ft.com/content/6377b292-d825-4b3a-8527-04d1475511b0 https://www.ft.com/content/6377b292-d825-4b3a-8527-04d147551...
- roel_v 3y agoPlus, restaurants can practice the same recipe again and again for months or years on end. It would be pretty damning if they wouldn't be better than home cooks after that much repetition.
- 7speter 3y agoAlso salties (the ultra high heat broilers) and stoves that go from cold to the fires of hell in 3 seconds. Talk about caramelized anything…
- jcrash 3y agoNah dude, sifting flour totally makes better pancakes. They rise so much easier. I'm sure it helps for other baked goods as well
- paranoidrobot 3y agoI'm going to bet that this one is going to depend in part on the particular product, and it's freshness/storage conditions, your location relative to the source mill, and ambient weather.
- ZiiS 3y agoExactly; if sifting is better for people using old flour why on earth would a recipy skip it?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- strken 3y agoI use one to two teaspoons of oil, which is just barely enough to coat the pan if you swirl it, and it works fine if the heat is right. You're not trying to shallow fry the meat in a sea of grease, just stop it sticking and get better thermal conductivity.
- quicklime 3y ago> “One tablespoon of olive oil” to brown absurd amounts of meat at high heat. I love watching cooking videos where they say “a tablespoon of olive oil” and proceed to pour in half the bottle
- guerrilla 3y agoIf you need more than one tablespoon of oil then maybe you just don't know what you're doing. Meat contains fat and vegetables contain water. Consider learning patience (i.e. using lower heat) instead of criticizing people on the Internet for being better at cooking than you are.
- arrow7000 3y agoCalm down there bucko
- misja111 3y agoGood luck trying to sear a steak on low heat.
- guerrilla 3y agoYou start it lower abd increasevthe heat after fat is released or just use a cast iron pan.
- misja111 3y agoThis won't work. Together with fat, juice is released as well. As long as there is liquid water, temperature won't go over 100C so you're effectively boiling your meat and not browning it. Searing your meat only goes at temperatures that are high enough to immediately evaporate any escaping liquid.
- guerrilla 3y agoIt definitely works in a cast iron pan. Just try it.
- misja111 3y agoYou mean, use a cast iron pan at high heat? Yeah that definitely works, it's standard practice in professional kitchens to do it like that. But at low heat it will not. Or well, eventually your meat will brown, but first your steak will have boiled for a while so you'll never be able to serve your steak rare or medium rare.
- Centigonal 3y agosauteing spices makes a noticeable difference, according to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsYzWK3cxOM&t=840 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsYzWK3cxOM&t=840
- runnerup 3y agoI can't respect any claim that toasting cumin seeds on the stove doesn't add new flavors to the cumin seed that did not exist before toasting.
- calmoo 3y agoBy that logic, why cook anything then? It makes a big difference! https://www.seriouseats.com/toast-grind-whole-spices-for-more-flavor https://www.seriouseats.com/toast-grind-whole-spices-for-mor...
- explaininjs 3y agoParent agrees, they can’t respect a claim that toasting doesn’t add flavors.
- calmoo 3y agoAh - it was phrased strangely.
- thiht 3y agoThat's way too many negations, I have no idea what you want to say
- carabiner 3y agoWait 30 minutes for your steak to reach room temperature. *Measures with instant read thermometer* Wow it's 48 °F.
- denton-scratch 3y agoI season before bringing the steak to room temperature; and after seasoning I leave it standing for a good hour. The idea is that salt on the outside of the steak initially draws moisture out of the steak, making it dry. But given enough time, the salt penetrates deeper into the steak, and holds the moisture in.
- ZiiS 3y agoMost other oils work better at high heat; some recipies are just bad.
- xxs 3y agoThe rituals are all bullshit, course. Yet, "sifting flour" was a thing years back... not the one bought in the store but the one stored in large sacks, and ground in the local mill. The amount of lumps sifted out was non-trivial.
- WouterSpaak 3y ago"Lumps" being a nice euphemism for bugs.
- omnicognate 3y agoDon't underestimate the amount of butter and (Maldon sea) salt I'm willing to use at home.
- ReptileMan 3y agoSifting makes sense if you knead by hand - makes absorption easier. Toasting spices in a little oil - spices release flavor into the oil and your kitchen smells awesome. Meat also releases fat when browned. So it is kind of self sustaining.
- denton-scratch 3y ago> Toasting spices in a little oil Whether you dry-roast or toast in oil depends on what you're trying to achieve; if you want flavoured oil for something like a tadka, then you use oil. Dry roasting to season e.g. a curry produces different flavours. It's also harder; different spices burn at different speeds, so for example add cumin first and turmeric last. burnt turmeric is very bitter.
- minusf 3y ago> Pretending “restaurant quality” is anything besides twice as much butter and salt as you’d dare use at home. until you read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and start watching the epicurious yt channel. the "4 levels" and "pro chef vs home cook" epicurious playlists are amazing eye openers, where they exactly highlight the actual difference in skills and knowledge. but sure, anyone can cook well, even a rat.
- jacobp100 3y agoSifting flour is absolutely essential if you’re adding it to a liquid. Sometimes you can get away without sifting if you mix a few dry ingredients first then add liquid on top. If you get it wrong, the flour clumps up tiny grains and never separates. You can end up with really grainy cheese cake
- SamBam 3y agoPlenty of spices distribute their flavors better in oils/fats than in water. Take some szechuan peppercorns and boil them in a soup and see if you feel the ma numbing sensation. Then saute them in oil for a few minutes and then add the soup, and notice the difference. It's the same with lots of spices.