Whenever I need to reduce a sauce by a substantial amount, I always use the largest pan possible to maximize the surface area to minimize the time of the reduction. Is this an incorrect approach? Also, to go even further, would you also want to have fan/exhaust on to minimize the humidity above the pan to further increase the rate of evaporation?
ANNOTATIONS 0:00.100 Please leave comments on my videos after watching them. I read all feedback and will answer any questions you might have. The video you just watched would not have been made if it were not for the comment from one viewer. Thanks for watching! Please share with your friends.
0:09.600 At 60°C there will only be occasional bubbles and almost no visible steam.
0:09.600 CLICK HERE TO SEE AN INDEX OF ALL OF MY COOKING VIDEOS
11:10.800 Typical laboratory flavor analysis of a food.
4:00.290 Water and Sodium Chloride (Salt) CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE Pure Water Section 1 Boiling and Simmering – Heat Management Boiling Point of Water = 100°C Boiling Point of Alcohol (Ethanol) = 78°C Melting Point of Salt = 800°C Boiling Point of Salt = 1,413° C In haute cuisine… This video was inspired by a comment on one of my recipe videos recently in which the person asserted that there was no problem opening up a vessel, since "only steam would escape due to the laws of distillation." Although I immediately explained how this was incorrect in the comments section, I realized that this was probably a common misconception by people (including chefs). Here's why… Water and Alcohol A commercial distillery can get a maximum of 95.63% alcohol from the mixture.
Do you have any book recommendations on heat management for a training chef, or any other books that are applicable to this video for self education in the kitchen? Nice video!!
Excellent Video Chef. In case anyone doubts you, my education was in chemistry, biochemistry and finally chemical engineering and everything here is spot on. Beautiful animations and diagrams too BTW! Kudos! Very useful information as it applies to cooking! Can't wait to watch the next one!
I do study engineering but I'm no expert in organic chemistry or any chemistry lol, in fact i've forgotten all of it. Would you recommend restudying parts of chemistry and which are the most pertinent aspects of chemistry to understanding food at a level where you can create dishes somewhat on par with yours?
YES… I was wondering about the 3D animations and where you got them from. Now I know. You Sir, are a fkng genius. My hats off to you. I prostrate before you !!!
I knew a little about this, now i'm more intrigued to learn more about Chemistry reactions in food prep! thanks chef you are an inspiration to become better on something I like to do!
This is something I understand, I am an Engineer by trade. I would love to find an entire book or course regarding food Chemistry. Molecular Gastronomy is very interesting as well.
My head hurts now, but I think I get it. So you are saying that when I smoke a pork shoulder at 250 degrees for roughly 12 hours that the intense flavor of it is actually because i am not allowing the meat to heat up fast enough to allow violent molecular actions? Did I get that right? but then there's smoke in there and stuff too? And say I grill a steak on hot hot hot heat, that the intense flavor is because I cooked it so hot that…. I better watch again later. I mean it's the same fuel source but you can't cook a steak and a roast the same way and get the same results.
I have mentioned that I USED to think I could cook before I started watching this show. Now I know I have to start all over again and dump 37 years of worthless knowledge, at least for the indoor cooking stuff.
Another excellent vid, Chef! My major in college was Biochemistry. I wish that I had learned at a younger age the correlation between food prep/cooking and Chemistry/Biochemistry/PChem. I used to watch Alton Brown on FN vids because he did his best to explain the SCIENCE behind layers of flavours. Can't wait to view more of your greatly instructional videos.
OK, so, obviously fascinating and informative as per usual, but naturally you've opened a 'can of worms' as far as follow up questions and comments go…
Here's a couple that sprung to mind:
1) Take the simple steaming of carrots. I mean, totally basic carrots, sliced crossways at 4/5mm per slice. What's the ideal method? I always (using a standard tiered steamer with lid) bring the water to a rolling boil first (with the steamer basket inside the pan to get that hot too), then add the carrots, stick the lid on and leave it at a rolling boil until they're done. Usually takes about 6 or 7 minutes for them to be done with a good amount of bite left.
What's right and wrong about that system?
2) If I'm making an ad-hoc stew (slow cooking beef cut like skirt or whatever, plus, say, onion, carrot, parsnip and/or mushrooms), I always brown the meat, lift it out, soften the onions, add the carrots to get them slightly coloured, then repeat for other veg (all in the same pan) then combine with the meat, followed by the stock and seasonings, then cook until the meat is done. The results are often very nice, but yes, it does end up a bit like 'meaty, stock-flavoured veg plus meat'. I would take it from this video that it would be better to cook the veg individually, then add it back in and cook together for a short time, rather than all at once for a long time.
what is your educational background? what would someone need to go through to understand this? i love chemistry. i am studying to become a registered dietitian but i love the food science portion of the degree as well. what i dont like is that we dont take enough chemistry. we take "non science" or lower level chemistry. it seems very counter productive. i want the hard science!
You're a culinary genius. I'm really happy that there is someone with deep knowledge and great skills like yours on Youtube. I'm marathoning and liking your videos, then I will comment when I make them.
this is awesome! It has put words and theory to what I've slowly started to discover whilst starting to cook far more recently. Say have I ever had a say curry, or chilli, or soup, that smells amazing for 30 mins, then you take a bite and you struggle to find flavour. 🙁 Which is then down to either the rapid boiling, or the too early mixing of ingredients, or even the things you are trying to mix because they kind of cancel each other out! A massive thanks to you, again, chef!
Nerdgasm :p, love it :D. So that's why in one pot dish the flavour "meld" together. i love that bits about pervading aroma=escaping flavours, and that one about deep frying since it's most relevant to daily cooking. Is it correct if i say that guess french/haute cuisine prefer to retain the original flavour of ingredients, more than melding into new one you can't distinguished?
I love this video. I love that you're making me connect my engineering background to my hobby in a such direct way. Oh and you've mentioned two of my favourite cooking instruments in the first half! – Pressure Cooker and Sous Vide.
The fact that you've made this video the "introduction" to your channel is completely balla. Azeotropic distillation and Boltzmann distribution – Fuck yeah!
Thank you for this lesson. I hope there are many more to come. It's funny that so many of the people that I have met who enjoy cooking, also have a great appreciation for science (myself included). It must be that mindset that draws us in.
Excellent video, as always! How does the process of reduction fit in to the concepts you describe in the video? I presume that the loss of flavour molecules is offset by the increased ratio of flavour-to-volume in the remaining product?
I've tried watching some food science videos (Harvard) boring….but here you show the science and how it applies. Much more interesting. Though I have heard some chefs say that "smells escaping equals flavor loss" is Modernist junk science.
You say that putting everything in one pot is not a good thing. But what about your chicken cacciatore and artichoke dish? Also curries. Those one are all made in one pot.
A great idea to do this Greg. Also a great way to distinguish yourself from all the trash on the internet. It shows your knowledge and makes your audience smarter. I had to think back to my old chemistry classes.
Whenever I need to reduce a sauce by a substantial amount, I always use the largest pan possible to maximize the surface area to minimize the time of the reduction. Is this an incorrect approach? Also, to go even further, would you also want to have fan/exhaust on to minimize the humidity above the pan to further increase the rate of evaporation?
Brilliant
ANNOTATIONS
0:00.100
Please leave comments on my videos after watching them. I read all feedback and will answer any questions you might have. The video you just watched would not have been made if it were not for the comment from one viewer.
Thanks for watching! Please share with your friends.
0:09.600
At 60°C there will only be occasional bubbles and almost no visible steam.
0:09.600
CLICK HERE TO SEE AN INDEX OF ALL OF MY COOKING VIDEOS
0:27.628
Water and Alcohol
10:48.800
* By the way, I also made the 3D animations in this video, in case you were wondering.
11:10.800
(LINKS OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW)
11:10.800
A one-pot dish?
Vous êtes fou !
11:10.800
No matter where you put the thermometer, you get the same reading.
11:10.800
Paysan!
11:10.800
Typical laboratory flavor analysis of a food.
4:00.290
Water and Sodium Chloride (Salt)
CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE
Pure Water
Section 1
Boiling and Simmering – Heat Management
Boiling Point of Water = 100°C
Boiling Point of Alcohol (Ethanol) = 78°C
Melting Point of Salt = 800°C
Boiling Point of Salt = 1,413° C
In haute cuisine…
This video was inspired by a comment on one of my recipe videos recently in which the person asserted that there was no problem opening up a vessel, since "only steam would escape due to the laws of distillation." Although I immediately explained how this was incorrect in the comments section, I realized that this was probably a common misconception by people (including chefs). Here's why…
Water and Alcohol
A commercial distillery can get a maximum of 95.63% alcohol from the mixture.
4:27.800
Cooler region of the flask
5:05.400
Visible steam is
escaping around
point in the curve
9:48.200
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
Do you have any book recommendations on heat management for a training chef, or any other books that are applicable to this video for self education in the kitchen? Nice video!!
Excellent Video Chef. In case anyone doubts you, my education was in chemistry, biochemistry and finally chemical engineering and everything here is spot on. Beautiful animations and diagrams too BTW! Kudos! Very useful information as it applies to cooking! Can't wait to watch the next one!
I do study engineering but I'm no expert in organic chemistry or any chemistry lol, in fact i've forgotten all of it. Would you recommend restudying parts of chemistry and which are the most pertinent aspects of chemistry to understanding food at a level where you can create dishes somewhat on par with yours?
YES… I was wondering about the 3D animations and where you got them from. Now I know.
You Sir, are a fkng genius. My hats off to you. I prostrate before you !!!
The original microsoft sam voice sample?
Brilliant!
Thank you for taking the time on explaining it,makes a lot of sense! and I will apply to cooking from now on.
this is the kind of content I love! absolutely fantastic!
where'd you get that chart of a carrots flavor components from? is there a website for that?
Awesome video. Thanks for all this information!
Thanks a lot for this video.
I knew a little about this, now i'm more intrigued to learn more about Chemistry reactions in food prep! thanks chef you are an inspiration to become better on something I like to do!
Moving from food prep to the range the first lesson was to control the heat. thanks for the explanation
This is something I understand, I am an Engineer by trade. I would love to find an entire book or course regarding food Chemistry. Molecular Gastronomy is very interesting as well.
My head hurts now, but I think I get it. So you are saying that when I smoke a pork shoulder at 250 degrees for roughly 12 hours that the intense flavor of it is actually because i am not allowing the meat to heat up fast enough to allow violent molecular actions? Did I get that right? but then there's smoke in there and stuff too? And say I grill a steak on hot hot hot heat, that the intense flavor is because I cooked it so hot that…. I better watch again later. I mean it's the same fuel source but you can't cook a steak and a roast the same way and get the same results.
I have mentioned that I USED to think I could cook before I started watching this show. Now I know I have to start all over again and dump 37 years of worthless knowledge, at least for the indoor cooking stuff.
Another excellent vid, Chef!
My major in college was Biochemistry. I wish that I had learned at a younger age the correlation between food prep/cooking and Chemistry/Biochemistry/PChem.
I used to watch Alton Brown on FN vids because he did his best to explain the SCIENCE behind layers of flavours.
Can't wait to view more of your greatly instructional videos.
Best regards,
Mike
OK, so, obviously fascinating and informative as per usual, but naturally you've opened a 'can of worms' as far as follow up questions and comments go…
Here's a couple that sprung to mind:
1) Take the simple steaming of carrots. I mean, totally basic carrots, sliced crossways at 4/5mm per slice. What's the ideal method? I always (using a standard tiered steamer with lid) bring the water to a rolling boil first (with the steamer basket inside the pan to get that hot too), then add the carrots, stick the lid on and leave it at a rolling boil until they're done. Usually takes about 6 or 7 minutes for them to be done with a good amount of bite left.
What's right and wrong about that system?
2) If I'm making an ad-hoc stew (slow cooking beef cut like skirt or whatever, plus, say, onion, carrot, parsnip and/or mushrooms), I always brown the meat, lift it out, soften the onions, add the carrots to get them slightly coloured, then repeat for other veg (all in the same pan) then combine with the meat, followed by the stock and seasonings, then cook until the meat is done. The results are often very nice, but yes, it does end up a bit like 'meaty, stock-flavoured veg plus meat'. I would take it from this video that it would be better to cook the veg individually, then add it back in and cook together for a short time, rather than all at once for a long time.
what is your educational background? what would someone need to go through to understand this? i love chemistry. i am studying to become a registered dietitian but i love the food science portion of the degree as well. what i dont like is that we dont take enough chemistry. we take "non science" or lower level chemistry. it seems very counter productive. i want the hard science!
You're a culinary genius. I'm really happy that there is someone with deep knowledge and great skills like yours on Youtube. I'm marathoning and liking your videos, then I will comment when I make them.
Greetings from Egypt
this is awesome! It has put words and theory to what I've slowly started to discover whilst starting to cook far more recently. Say have I ever had a say curry, or chilli, or soup, that smells amazing for 30 mins, then you take a bite and you struggle to find flavour. 🙁 Which is then down to either the rapid boiling, or the too early mixing of ingredients, or even the things you are trying to mix because they kind of cancel each other out! A massive thanks to you, again, chef!
Nerdgasm :p, love it :D. So that's why in one pot dish the flavour "meld" together. i love that bits about pervading aroma=escaping flavours, and that one about deep frying since it's most relevant to daily cooking.
Is it correct if i say that guess french/haute cuisine prefer to retain the original flavour of ingredients, more than melding into new one you can't distinguished?
I love this video. I love that you're making me connect my engineering background to my hobby in a such direct way. Oh and you've mentioned two of my favourite cooking instruments in the first half! – Pressure Cooker and Sous Vide.
The fact that you've made this video the "introduction" to your channel is completely balla. Azeotropic distillation and Boltzmann distribution – Fuck yeah!
Really fascinating, thank you. So fundamental and yet so rarely taught!
Awesome!
You are amazing. I love you.
Great video! You should create a video similar to this once a month, or so, just covering the fundamentals.
Thank you for this lesson. I hope there are many more to come. It's funny that so many of the people that I have met who enjoy cooking, also have a great appreciation for science (myself included). It must be that mindset that draws us in.
Thanks
Excellent video, as always! How does the process of reduction fit in to the concepts you describe in the video? I presume that the loss of flavour molecules is offset by the increased ratio of flavour-to-volume in the remaining product?
Thanks a lot, very interesting and informative! I too learned something!
I've tried watching some food science videos (Harvard) boring….but here you show the science and how it applies. Much more interesting. Though I have heard some chefs say that "smells escaping equals flavor loss" is Modernist junk science.
You say that putting everything in one pot is not a good thing. But what about your chicken cacciatore and artichoke dish? Also curries. Those one are all made in one pot.
A great idea to do this Greg. Also a great way to distinguish yourself from all the trash on the internet. It shows your knowledge and makes your audience smarter. I had to think back to my old chemistry classes.
Excellent Video. I learned a thing or two.
Wow, Greg, this was very interesting. And I hope your viewers like this video, understanding the science behind cooking is always a great idea.