"Maverick" > wrote in message
...
> "Bob" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Maverick wrote:
> >
> >> Ok, this is where being a novice in the cooking world comes to life for
> >> me. I know what I'm doing when it comes to, say, sauteing (or sweating)
> >> some diced onions for my sauce but I don't know the correct culinary
> >> terms
> >> for what I'm doing. What the hell is the difference between a saute and
a
> >> sweat? About the only difference I can see between them is the temp
> >> difference. Is there more to it than that?
> >
> > Besides the difference in cooking temperatures, a sauté is done in an
open
> > pan, while a sweat is done in a covered pan.
> >
> > The aims of the two are very different: In a sauté, your intent is to
cook
> > the ingredients quickly, with a bit of crispness occurring around the
> > edges. When you sweat ingredients, you're generally trying to get them
to
> > exude juices and soften.
> >
> > Bob
>
> Thanks Bob! This is what the ignoramus cook needs! And, being an
> ignoramus, I need to know this stuff!
>
> I've been doing saute(can't do the little ' sign) then since I never cover
> the pot but I don't do it over high heat. Is there an in-between? Or am
I
> just doing something totally new to the cooking world?
I think there is a bit too much of the pedantic in some areas of cooking.,
and pan work borders on being one.
Think of it like cooking/frying onions - you cook so you get a certain
flavor, not to saute or steam or braise onions.
So if you want sweet, you cook slow and medium until you get that sweet
smell -more for a richer, more caramel smell, longer and a little hotter -
for the dark with the flavor from crisped onion, hotter and longer. Or any
combo in between, by nose.
The terms are kind of a general guideline to get to where your nose and
eye and feel can take over to determine when you want to stop the heating,
and if its the flavors you want-
Take ground beef - slow and steamy meat in the pan to get a liver, blood
sausage smell is fine if that's the flavor you are after for the dish you
are making.
Uncover it to change the flavor slightly and lose more water.
A little hotter and quicker at the meat than you did steaming, and get
drier cooked beef for mixing in a sauce, grey and crumbly, cooked slow
enough to pull out the water so the sauce doesn't get diluted. That's a more
common meat taste, and you determine how long you cook the water out
depending on the mouth feel you want from it in the mix and by watching the
water evaporate.
Get the meat a little hotter and smaller batches so it stays hotter and
keeps moisture, and you get some brown on the grey meat, a different flavor
and generally more juice. If that is what you want for your recipe.
Get the pan hotter still, and small batches moving in a heavy pan with a
little extra hot oil before the meat goes in, and you can have yet another
flavor, that steak-like flavor - which might overwhelm your tomato sauce, or
enhance another - and be just the ticket with some sauces, and the juice may
make another runny.
What do you call each of them? I don't know - I used to, but after I used
them a while and got the hang of it, I found there were a lot more
variables than just sauteing, braising, searing, and cooking.
I do know what flavor I want from the cut of meat when I put the heat to
it, and what it looks like in each of the stages, and what end I want from a
new recipe, so the terms aren't that much use to me anymore.
(As you might tell, I am not a real strict follower of the measurements in a
recipe as much as I am getting the idea and following basic theory so as to
get the same end result.)
>
> I think I'll take up Underwater Basket Weaving. It seems easier.
>
> Bret
>
>
>
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