The secret “ingredient” that each large cook swears by

In the kitchen, a few minutes can make the difference between crisp and golden potatoes and burnt rubble. Several hours can transform the dense dough into a airy bread, sparkling and in the shape of a pillow. A few weeks of hardening of meat allows him to develop complex Umami flavors. Time is really one of the most important elements in the kitchen.

Keep a timer nearby helps when you cook, but very good cooks know that sensory signals – aroma, color, sound, texture and taste – are often more important than counting minutes when they consider cooking food. Cooking is still a matter of time, but the exact moment can vary depending on the ingredients, tools and environmental conditions.

A cook can spend a life improving his understanding of time with regard to food preparation, but here are some of the most important things to know how time has an impact on your kitchen.

Publisher’s note: This is the third in a series of articles sharing essential advice and techniques that have changed the way I, our readers and other publishers of Serious Eats Cook. The first episode explored the preparation councils that change the situation and the second episode included key uses for salt. This series is by no means an ultimate collection of essential techniques – just some of the most important that separates the good cooks from really great.

Mariner longer, it’s better – the more you leave your meats hanging out in a flavor bath, the better. RIGHT? Well, not really. Marinades and salums can do a lot for meats, in particular by improving flavor, texture and justice, but – surprise, surprise! – Most foods do not need to be marinated as long as many people think.

First of all, let’s talk about the brine, which describe the meat of itslation, then leave it lying around while the salt works its magic. Salt can penetrate deep into meat, both seasoning it deeper and helping it keep the juices once cooked. However, the brine depends on the brine exactly on the meat. In our article on dry salums (the salumage method that we tend to prefer), steaks and chops can be salumous for as little as 45 minutes, while larger roasts can be left for a few days, with many other options between the two.

Marinades, on the other hand, are better considered salum with an added flavor. Except that the flavor part of a marinade is only a surface treatment and will not penetrate deep into the meat as the salt will do. This means that marination times can be much shorter than many think, meats enjoying a clear advantage in as little as 30 minutes. The ideal point for most meats, according to the Tim Chin contributor tests, is from one to eight hours. The ideal moment, however, varies depending on the type of meat, the marinade and how you prefer your intensely seasoned food.

There is no shortcut towards deeply caramelized onions. If someone tells you the opposite, beware! Instead, patience and attention are essential to unlock the soft sweetness of the onions. First, onions release the humidity when they cook. It is only then that the caramelization and the reaction of Maillard will trigger, transforming crude crude onions and other alliums, such as shallots, in an incredibly soft, sweet and deep ingredient which is super in pies, on pasta, as a hamburger topper, and even stifled on the chicken. There are a few tips for accelerating things, especially by covering the pot at the start of cooking to help steam onions and softening faster, but it will usually take at least an hour, if not more.

The stews and the braised are low cooking processes and running in which cuts of resistant meat and rich in collagen are entirely or partially overwhelmed in liquid, such as wine or stock, then slowly simmered until the collagen melts in tender gelatin. This gelatin also thickens the tasty braised liquid, which gives it a rich feeling in the mouth.

The duration of the process depends on the meat you cook as well as the temperature at which it is cooked. In our tests of different beef cuts for stews, we found that the cooking time varied from 2 to 3 hours in a soft oven. Compare this to the time lower than the time for cock to wine with a modern hen (not an old hard rooster). Or, take a pressure cooker, which takes advantage of the sealed environment to considerably increase the cooking temperature, and a three -hour stew can become a matter of less than an hour during the week.

Proof of your dough

The bread bakers know that the adequate performance of the dough makes all the difference between the dense and dishes and the sparkling and crisp breads. Petrin and rest of the dough gives gluten a chance to develop, creating a robust structure to support the elevation of bread in the oven. This rest period is also crucial for fermentation, when yeast consumes simple sugars, producing carbon dioxide and developing complex flavors that give bread its characteristic aroma and flavor.

Here is the key, however: there is an ideal place. The counterattack and the over-peak dough can cause deflated bread. The unacittled test breads did not have enough time to develop enough carbon dioxide and structure, while the breads immediately have a weakened and slowed, potentially inactive gluten network.

Certain bread recipes, such as the famous Non-Ciwade method of Jim Lahey, count on the prolonged rest time instead of kneading physical to develop gluten. When flour and water combine, two proteins, glutenin and gliadine, connect to form gluten, the elastic network that gives bread its structure. The Petrin accelerates this process by aligning and physically strengthening the strands of gluten, but given enough time, these same proteins will do on its own. This is why the pasta without Cintlades are generally resting for 12 hours or more: long fermentation reinforces not only the structure but also deepens the flavor.

Elderly beef often surpasses its fresh counterparts. In our own taste tests, tasters preferred steaks aged 30 to 45 days compared to fresh beef and appreciated the complex combination of salty flavors and cheese.

Although dry house at home can look like hassles – require large beef cuts and specific temperature conditions – we offer some tips to make the process slow and methodical a little more fluid. The aging steak requires a clever configuration: Buy a large coast of decreasing bones not embarrassed with the intact fat cap; Configure a dedicated mini-refrigerator which takes place between 36 and 40 ° F (2 and 4 ° C) with a fan; And wait four to eight weeks for the meat to develop a hard exterior layer, which should be cut before cooking.

When exposed to carefully controlled temperature conditions, the natural enzymes of meat decompose muscle and fat, concentrating flavor and creating intensely strong aromas, nuts and almost cheese that define dry age beef. In addition, protein and connective tissue also decompose as meat ages, waiting for meat and allowing it to keep more juice when it is cooked.

Many of the most loved farms in the world need time to develop advanced flavors. Take wine: fermented grape juice undergoes various chemical reactions as it rests, softening astringent tannins and developing complex flavors. Although you may not be ready to make wine at home, it is possible to make a wardrobe other tasty ferments, including lacto-fermented pickles, water kefir, kombucha and yogurt, with a few simple ingredients. Whatever the duration, the gain is clear: microbes transform sugars and proteins into acidic acidic acids, sparkling infos and other compounds rich in flavor – as long as they have time to do.