Is it actually important to "blend gradually" in this recipe?

My mother in law has a Beef Stroganoff recipe that we like to use. The recipe calls for us to mix sour cream and flour then “blend the mixture” gradually into our beef/onion/broth pot.

When my mother in law is in town and in the kitchen while I’m making this, then if I want to avoid a family incident, I must blend it one small serving spoonful at a time. When she’s not here, I still blend it “in pieces” though not in such small pieces.

But I am not sure this actually matters. What (if anything) would go wrong if I just dumped the whole mixture in and mixed it all at once?

All I see is the potential for the flour to remain lumpy or the cream to curdle (maybe separate is a better term.) Just humor the old bat. It won’t kill you.

If it were me, I’d do what I do any time someone has opinions on my cooking. Offer to let them take care of it. If that’s not satisfactory, I say oops and dump the whole thing in the pot.

I agree with LM, and I imagine lumps of flour is what they’re really trying to avoid.

Ditto, lumps and/or curdling. Why not just follow the directions?

Try it both ways and report back.

It’s beef Stroganoff. It’s worth making twice in a row :slight_smile:

Why not wonder whether directions that seem unnecessary are actually necessary?

Have you heard the story of the cook who insisted that the wings of a turkey should be cut off and placed under the bird before cooking?

They don’t seem unnecessary at all. The fact that they are part of the directions is a much greater indication of necessity than your failure to understand the purpose indicates the opposite.

No, I’d like to hear it. Is it similar to the roast suckling pig served with an apple in the mouth?

If that’s so, then my OP is completely inexplicable. I am either incredibly stupid, or completely insane. Take your pick, I guess?

Or…

Mark the distinction betewen what seems necessary to one person and what seems necessary to another person.

You’re behaving as though I’m arguing as follows:

I don’t understand the purpose, therefore, there is no purpose.

This is a very uncharitable interpretation. The correct understanding of my OP, instead, is as follows:

I don’t understand the purpose. I’m not even certain there is a purpose. But I’m not sure. So I will ask, on the SDMB, whether there is a purpose, and if there is one, what it is.

The idea of turkey story that I mentioned, which may be apocryphal but which is plausible enough for point-making purposes, is that a many-times-great ancestor of the family cut the wings off because his pan was too small. But the wing cutting was taken by his kid to be a necessary component of the cooking, so the family continued to do it through several generations even though it was completely unnecessary.

In my epistemological state as of the writing of the OP, the gradual blending was, for all I knew at the time, just like the wing cutting off thing. (Obviously.)

I would try it both ways and see if there’s a difference. The reason for doing it this way is, I surmise, to avoid lumping. However, when I make my paprikash, the thickening step is the same: you beat flour into sour cream until it’s well incorporated. Then, dump the sour-cream-and-flour mixture/slurry into the pan gravy. As long as you whisk well and your original mixture was mixed well, I have never had any issues with the gravy clumping when dumped in all at once.

For some reason, this thread made me remember this column.

WAG - the sour cream is presumably cold. Dumping it in all at once would significantly lower the temperature of the broth, leading to unspecified bad results. Stirring it in in batches makes sure the broth temperature doesn’t fall too much. So sort of the opposite of tempering the eggs when you make a custard.

To be on the safe side to guard against clumping or curdling, I’d take it a step further. I would blend the flour and sour cream in a bowl, and then slowly whisk in a cup or two of hot liquid from the pot/dutch oven/whatever to temper the cream/flour mixture, then introduce the thickener into the main pot gradually. Did something very similar with a cream/egg mixture for the waterzooi I made last night, and the final texture of the stew was fantastic. I think it always behooves one to err on the side of caution and extra time in the kitchen when dealing with anything that can curdle or clump.

I agree that the purpose in your recipe is that you mixed the flour with the sour cream so they’re trying to prevent lumps.

When I make Stroganoff I just set a little (a couple of tablespoons worth) of the stock or broth I cook the meat in aside. I add the flour to that and combine to make a slurry then add that to the pan at the end to thicken the sauce (at this point I also turn the heat down to low). I don’t know how much sour cream I use but I use a little less than I think I need and add that all at once - never had any issues of seperation and any drop in temperature is overcome by the fact I still have the heat on. Once it’s incorporated I add what more sour cream I need to get the taste I like.

Cooking is applied chemistry. If you don’t know the science, at least stick to the formula.

I do agree there is a purpose to blending it gradually - above mentioned curdling/clumping danger - but your mother-in-law is taking it to extremes if she’s literally putting one spoonful in at a time.

Ok, relax Fry. I just find recipes to be generally good instructions, and if following them makes a dish turn out well I stick to them until I understand their function. As others suggested, just try it without and see what happens if you’re that interested. I’m assuming somehow you don’t like slowly blending ingredients. I find that the best way to examine what’s happening to make future choices, and I also find it a relaxing and fulfilling part of the cooking process, sometimes (other times I can be too impatient, and it usually shows in the result).

I can’t find the original source for the suckling pig, but here’s my paraphrasing:

The lady of the house gave the cook, who only spoke broken English, explicit instructions for Christmas dinner, including the tradition of serving a roast suckling pig with an apple in the mouth. The cook objected strenuously, but her mistress insisted. At Christmas dinner the table was set, all the dishes were prepared exactly as specified, and out from the kitchen came the cook bearing the roast pig on a platter, and an apple in her own mouth.

Actuallly, this dynamic is important but for the exact opposite reasoning. Sour cream curdles quite easily at high temperature, and depending on the volume of food and its temperature, a tempering process is needed to equalize the materials. Some people recommend taking it off the heat when adding in sour cream, but the trick is that you also have the flour or starch to cook off, so you want to cook this sour cream mixture at higher temp than would be normal for just plain sour cream- one wants to bring it near curdling temperature. If you have it at a more even temperature throughout you don’t have to bring it from cold to hot which could cause it to curdle or break. Actually, the flour added to the Sour Cream also acts as a stabilizer or modifier and it will not break or curdle as easily at high heats, but still must be stabilised and tempered in increments… this is probably an old technique from when people cooked over fire in Eastern Europe with two heat settings- Fire or no Fire (Some still do).