I'm Just Here for the Food_ Version 2.0 - Alton Brown [139]
20
Since the cooking fat is added to the pan immediately before the food, the issue here isn’t the smoke point as much as flavor. Flavor-rich oils like extra-virgin olive oil and walnut oil lose most of their flavor when they reach high temperatures, so to use them for sautéing is a waste of money. I usually sauté in canola oil because its flavor is neutral. However, if you want to get some of the health benefits of olive oil, do your sautéing with “pure” olive oil rather than with extra virgin.
21
As long as the butter’s foaming you know that it still has water in it, and as long as it has water in it it can’t get hotter than 212° F.
22
Why off the heat? Because if the pan is hot enough, when the water-based vinegar hits the pan a good bit of it is going to vaporize and exit the pan, taking microscopic droplets of the fat with it. If you’re cooking over a gas flame, some of these droplets will ignite. Then, for a few seconds the whole pan will seem to be on fire. Such a sight can be exciting when viewed at one’s favorite restaurant, but it can be a bit disconcerting when witnessed at home.
23
Typically, when these foods are added directly to boiling water the temperature immediately drops, giving the food time to catch up, temperature-wise. In steaming, the food rarely touches the boiling water below, so no reduction of heat occurs. For starchy foods such a thermal onslaught would immediately gelatinize the outer layer of the food, rendering it hopelessly gummy. Also, starchy foods need water to wash away excess starch—something steam just can’t do.
24
The way I see it, if the liquid is thickened by solids or stock, it’s a sauce. If it’s thickened by starch, it’s gravy.
25
Chili powder usually includes oregano, coriander, cloves, dried chiles, garlic powder, and cumin. Chile powder contains nothing but dried ground chiles. The two are not interchangeable so always check that final vowel.
26
Chipotles are nothing more than smoked jalapeños. Pound for pound, they bring more flavor to the party than any other chiles. Adobo is like Mexican barbecue sauce: herbs and ground chiles with vinegar.
27
As noted in Searing, zillions of recipes include this step. Why? Because browning via caramelization and the Mailliard reaction produces myriad flavors. So, if it’s so darned good why doesn’t someone simply manufacture this stuff and bottle it so we can pour it on everything? Darned good question. But personally, I’m glad there’s still something you can’t buy.
28
This does not mean I condone the thieving of chips and salsa from restaurants, but you get the point.
29
Remember when you were a kid and you went to the doctor and they pricked your finger and while you were bawling the nurse held a little tube to the drop of blood and all of a sudden it jumped up the tube, and that shut you up because it kinda seemed like magic? That was capillary action and that’s the same thing that happens when you marinate a piece of meat.
30
If you find the analogy a bit overwrought, you’ve never messed up a consommé an hour before service in a French restaurant.
31
Yes, this is legal. A colloid is any substance, either gas or liquid, in which tiny droplets of one substance are dispersed in another.
32
Bones from cooked chickens won’t deliver as much collagen as those of raw ones because too many of the proteins have coagulated. Some folks like to roast the bones for flavor, but I’d rather keep my stocks neutral. 32 The way I see it, stock is an ingredient and as such, shouldn’t be salted until put to use.
33
This is a really wonderful example of thermodynamics, and I just love thermodynamics. In this case the heat of the stock is moving into the bag. . . very groovy when you think about it.
34
Even if you have no intention of making a sauce, deglazing is still a good idea because it’s the best way to get cooked-on goop off the bottom of a pan. Just add enough water to the hot pan to come ½-inch or so up the side