Temperature

Temperature

• Command the heat.  "The chef's job," writes Daniel Boulud, "is to employ heat to transform ingredients."  Whether it is extracting and reabsorbing juice in roasting, or braising and reducing, or sauteeing, then carmelizing--you are working the moisture in the food you are preparing; and then concentrating it, reintegrating it back into the ingredient.  Heat, concentrate, reintegrate.  No matter how you apply heat, this is the transformational aspect of cuisine.  How good your food is depends on how well you control the force of nature.

• Move the moisture.  Food has moisture content.  Cooking involves temperature changes.  Temperature changes move moisture.  Concentration (as in sauteing, grilling, broiling, roasting, or baking) is the process of sealing moisture into the food.  Extraction (poaching) is the process of drawing moisture out of it.  The mixed method (braising) applies both processes.

• Never jump food more than one temperature state at a time.  There are four functional temperature states:  1) frozen; 2) cold; 3) room temperature; and 4) warm or hot.   When you move food from one state to another (in either direction) don't skip over a temperature state by, for instance, taking a roast directly from the refrigerator to the oven, or from the oven to the refrigerator.  Only one state change at a time.  Jump starting disrupts or destroys the vital process of moisture, concentration and reintegration within the ingredient as its temperature changes.  Place a sealed, warm lasagna in a cold fridge, and here does all that heat and moisture go?  It collects on top of your lovely lasagna, now no longer so lovely.

• Season as you go.  As your food progresses through its temperature changes during the cooking process, seasonings (and moisture) are constantly being absorbed and redistributed.  Season when you start.  Season as you go.  Season again when you finish.

• Always preheat the oven.  Wait at least fifteen minutes.  Better, use a thermometer to verify that the oven has reached the target temperature.  If you do not follow this rule, your food will take longer to cook and might suffer dryness or toughness or both.

• Keep the door shut.  Do not unpack your groceries with the refrigerator door ajar.  Cold air escapes as the warm kitchen air enters the machinery has to work harder to maintain its temperature and you compromise the safety of your refrigerated foods.  Similarly, do not baste a turkey while it is in the oven.  Hot air escapes with every second the oven door is left open.  Remove the bird first, close the oven door, set the bird on the counter to baste it, then return it to the oven.  The consequences of leaving the door open can be more drastic than you think:  longer cooking time, dried out proteins and uneven results.

• Do not crowd the pan.  If you intend to sear, keep ample space between product.  If pieces of meat or fish are too close together in the pan, they produce too much moisture to caramelize.  Work in batches of necessary to maintain proper spacing.  Also, pat dry your food before applying dry heat, even moisture will steam what you are otherwise attempting to cook by another method.

• Move the pan off the heat.  When a recipe says to remove the pan from the heat, do not just turn off the heat.  Gas or electric, the heat source below the pan is still hot.  Place the pot elsewhere so room temperature air circulates around it; otherwise you risk overcooking.  Be aware that thermal mass, a kind of temperature momentum is often at work, continuing the currently prevailing heat state unless you counter it.  Cooking will continue until the energy of the heat is negated, not just when you removed the food from the heat source.

• Flag hot things.  Place an oven mitt, potholder, or towel over the handle of any hot item you set aside.  Signal clearly to others and yourself that there is danger in touching it.

• Don't grab a hot pan with a wet cloth.  Water conducts heat; you'll scald yourself.

• Use a cold pan for butter.  Heat the pan and butter simultaneously.  Butter added to a hot pan burns on contact due to its dairy content.  The proteins and sugars turn from brown to black and taste bitter instead of sweet.  Burnt butter is toxic, throw it out and start again.

• Use a hot pan for oil.  Add oil directly to an already hot pan; in a matter of seconds, it becomes hot enough to cook your food, but not yet hot enough to smoke.  When it does smoke, it is toxic, throw it out and start again.  Match the oil with the cooking method.

• Do not add cold ingredients to hot foods, or vice versa.  If you add cold milk to a warm roux you get a lumpy bechamel sauce.  If you ladle cold stock into warm risotto, the delicate grains of rice cook unevenly.  If you mix hot liquids with a cold, raw egg mixture; as in making custard, the egg cooks in the heat of those added liquids and scrambles into tiny pieces.  A notable exception to this rule is "mounting" a sauce, that is, adding cold butter to a warm sauce to finish it.  The cold butter emulsifies the warm sauce and gives it sheen, a smooth texture, a thickened feel, and a rounded taste.

• Maintain heat at a low temperature.  Lower the oven temperature to 250 degrees to keep a just cooked casserole warm without overcooking.

• Reheat at a high temperature.  Flash prepared food at 425-475 degrees for a few minutes to get them hot quickly without cooking them further.

• Fire trumps radiation.  The microwave can be fine for reheating certain foods, otherwise it distances you from cooking and its elemental pleasures.  Don't let a machine do your job.  You are the cook; it is your fire, your blade, your hands, your finesse that provide the meal's soul.