When I cook stew or goulash or anything that requires a long simmer, I find that turning off the heat altogether and letting it cool, and then turning the heat back on improves the taste. I usually do this 3 or 4 times over the course of cooking the dish. Is there actually some sort of reaction going on by going from hot to cold and back a few times ? Most leftovers taste better after spending the night in the fridge so I figure I might be acheiving the same thing.
That’s actually a good trick, and makes a lot of sense. Most of the chemical reactions that provide that “next day” flavor happen during the cooling period (i.e., it’s not so much the long time in the fridge as it is the cooling in the first place). Thus, next day pasta sauce or chili are excellent. I’ll have to try your trick, because, well, it makes logical sense given why reheated food tastes better.
What chemical reactions are those?
I agree that the “next day” flavor phenomenon is real but I have never heard a chemistry explanation for it.
Cooks Illustrated claims that meat re-absorbs liquid as it sits cool.
Is this safe to do?
I thought that it was those ‘cooling’ temperatures, between the hot of cooking and the cold of refrigeration, when the food-poisoning bacteria grew so well. Thus you are no longer supposed to let food cool on the counter, but put it directly into the refrigerator.
Wouldn’t deliberately letting it get cool on the stove 3 or 4 times really increase the risk of food poisoning?
All kinds of reactions are occuring, and I was a little off the cuff saying “chemical reactions” when much of what’s going on is physical reactions. Any enzymatic reactions are chemical, though, even if all they precipitate is physical reactions afterward. All cooking is about physical and chemical reactions.
It depends. There’s no way in hell I’d put a hot pot of beans in the fridge, for example. All it would do is elevate the internal temperature of the fridge and its contents for several hours, exposing everything to the temperature danger zone. On the other hand, if you leave the beans on the stove, and don’t break the seal, then it’s a relatively sterile environment. If you remove the beans from the pot in order to put them into a serving dish, and let it sit for several hours, then you’ve potentially introduced a lot of bacteria, and you’re back in the danger zone.
Home kitchen sanitation is really complex, and we have a tendency to overreact. That’s not a license to stop worrying about sanitation, though, because some things are worth being paranoid about. You just have to know which ones. Me? I let big pots get relatively cool before putting them in the fridge. For wort I use an immersion cooler (which could work for anything, really). Steaks I bring to room temperature for an hour. For chicken I spray bleach on every surface of my kitchen afterward and scrub my hands extra times with extra vigor, extra hot water, and extra soap. Eggs I’ll leave out for a couple of hours, unless they’re opened, in which case I use them as soon as they’re close to room temp (for raw applications). And so on.
Yes, there’s some risk, as always and as in everything.
That is correct, but generally applies to roasted meat and poultry needing to “rest” after it comes out of the oven. This is for texture rather than than flavor, for the most part. If you do not allow meat to rest then the juices will run out when you carve it and poultry tends to shred. I do not know if braised meat, which is cooked in liquid in the first place, would also absorb more liquid as it cools.
What physical reactions are those? That is, what occurs during cooling that can enhance flavor? Generally reactions occur with the addition of heat, except for things like gelatin or fats which become more solid as they cool.
Collagen is the substance that will congeal as the food cools, but, turning off the stock pot a few times likely won’t have any effect on it. “Resting” meats has the effect of evening out the temperature: Generally, the surface of the meat will be very hot, close to the oven/grill temperature, while the inside will be much lower, 115˚ ideally for medium-rare. The heat moves from the outside to the inside, cooking the inside another 5˚ to 10˚ while cooling the outside to some non-tongue-burning temperature. This process doesn’t apply to braising meats, though.
It’s entirely possible that the OP is simply cooking their food at too high of a temperature. By periodically turning off the stove, you are just lowering the average cooking temperature. Also, if the temperature of the stock/stew never falls below 140˚ during this period, you have little risk of contamination.
As for cooling foods, it is never a good idea to put a “pot” of anything in the fridge, regardless of how long you let it cool on the counter top. Thick soups and stews should be placed in a wide, shallow container, and should not be more than 2" deep. Thin soups and broths should not be more than 4" deep. Also, don’t underestimate the power of ice to aid the cooling process.
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