How to Cook?

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Cooking Techniques - R

• Reduce

• Refresh

• Render

• Resting

• Refreshing Fruits & Vegetables

Reduce

Applied to cooking, this means to boil a liquid until its volume is reduced by evaporation. This thickens the liquid and intensifies the flavour.

This is done by rapidly boiling a liquid to decrease its volume through evaporation. This concentrates the flavour, so season a reduction after it's made -- not before.

Refresh

To submerge a cooked food, usually a vegetable, in cold water to cool it quickly and stop further cooking. It's also know as shocking.

Render

The melting of animal fat over low heat so it separates from any connective tissue. This tissue turns crisp and brown (known as crackling) and the clarified (clear) fat is further processed by straining. To cook fatty meats, such as bacon or spare ribs, until the fat melts.

Resting

Heat drives meat's juices from the surface when it cooks. Letting meat "rest" before slicing lets these juices seep back towards the surface (liquids always take the path of least resistance). The result is a more flavourful piece of meat.

Refreshing Fruits And Vegetables

After blanching, remove foods from boiling water and immediately plunge into ice water. This stops the cooking process and cools foods to a manageable temperature. Refreshing is especially important with green vegetables (such as broccoli) when you want that bright green colour but don't want to lose its natural crunch. When skinning tomatoes, refreshing them prevents them from overcooking and falling apart in your hands when sliding the skin off.

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