What does that mean? That’s not really the question. The question is more, what does letting things stand for 5 minutes do?
I don’t subsist entirely on hamburgers and various things I can cook on a grill. I occasionally cook such gourmet delights as Hamburger Helper[sup]TM[/sup] and such concoctions. I invariably run across directions (yes, I read them, sometimes) that say “Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover and let stand for 5 minutes” or "bake for 30 - 35 minutes, then let stand for 5 minutes. Sometimes they add on to the end that the sauce will thicken.
But how do you get it to STOP standing? If the sauce is thickening while it’s standing, by the time I come back for seconds it’s going to be as hard as a brick.
I’m not one with a highly refined tastebuds (we are talking about Hamburger Helper[sup]TM[/sup] here), but I can’t tell much difference between the first helping at 5 minutes, or maybe 6 if I want to be wild and crazy, and the second helping after it has been standing for, say, 20 minutes. I guess it has been standing, it might have sat down. I wouldn’t know.
Does the time it’s on the plate before I start eating it count as standing time? What if it takes me 10 minutes to eat it, hasn’t the last bite been standing for 15 minutes by then? Is it spoiled after standing for that long?
Things are generally heated from the outside. At the end of the cooking time, the outside will be hotter than the inside, but if you let it stand the hotter outside will heat the cooler inside more.
There are couple of things I’ve found while cooking and standing.
One, it gives “it” a chance to cool so you’re not spooning it right from pot to mouth.
Two, It gives a chance for the sauce (if any) to thicken up
Three, Hi Opal, whatcha cooking?
Four, It blends the seasonings better (I can’t explain the “how” for that though, I’ve just noticed it with my pedestrian palette)
Of course, it could just be that by making you wait a few minutes and smell the wonderful smell (?) of whatever you just cooked, it will make you desire it even more so when you finally do eat it, you’ll enjoy it all the more!
For Hamburger Helper and Lipton Noodles N Sauce (one of my personal favorite over-packaged foods - yummy salty fat! ) the standing does indeed help it thicken. Some thickeners thicken better when boiling, some below the boiling point, so whatever combination of ingredients they tend to use in these concoctions seems to thicken best if boiled then allowed to cool slightly.
This means, of course, that it may very well be rock solid by the time you go for seconds. My advice: don’t go for seconds - put it all in your bowl at once!
For casserole-type things, it allows the food to maintain its shape rather than falling apart, all funky-like, and making an unsightly mess on your plate. It allows sauces to thicken. Sometimes it’s just so mutherin’ hot, that you need the five minutes to touch the container! Just do the five minutes. It can’t hurt.
The problem isn’t waiting the 5 minutes. It’s that the time seems so definite. It’s not at least 5 minutes, it’s exactly 5 minutes. When the directions say bake for 30 minutes, that’s what I do, 30 minutes exactly (well, not exactly, there is a bit of a fudge factor). When it says let it stand for 5 minutes, I want to do that too.
What I can’t figure out is how to end the standing. In my mind, if I take out a serving, the rest is still standing. Best I can tell, from the time I take it out of the oven until I’ve eaten the last bite, it’s standing. I don’t know how to make it stand for only 5 minutes or 6 or 7 counting the fudge factor.
When you see a “Let stand” instruction in a set of Microwave cooking directions, it’s actually there to protect the manufacturer from liability claims. There are rare instances where microwaves have superheated liquids past their boiling point, without the liquid undergoing a phase change to steam.
The liquid is very unstable in this condition, and the slightest disturbance, such as sticking a spoon in to stir, or even moving the dish itself, can trigger the phase change. The manufacturer wants to be sure that if you get massive steam burns from your soup exploding when you stuck a spoon in it, that they can say that you didn’t follow their cooking directions.
That’s right. When the five minutes are up, you stir it and put the whole mess into a bowl or other container. HH only becomes “rock solid” if you leave it in the pan and allow it to mold itself into that shape. Then when you want seconds, you spoon them up from the bowl. If there’s anything left over, then it’s all ready to be covered up and put in the fridge.
I can’t give a real definitive answer. But I have learned this… Directions that in the past I have ignored, because they seemed to make make that much difference… I have learned what they do through the good people at Food Network. (More specifically Good Eats… )
So now, I don’t let little things like this bug me. I just assume there’s a pretty dang good reason for it.
(On the other hand EXACTLY 5 minutes seems a bit harsh. LIke the family is sitting at the dinner table, while mom serves up the Hamburger Helper going “EAT NOW EAT NOW EAT NOW! WE’VE ONLY GOT ONE MINUTE!!”)
Oddly enough, my first thought 'pon reading the thread title was “Hamburger Helper”, as I whipped myself up a batch just last night (Romanoff, I think). Let it stand five minutes before you try and eat it so the sauce can thicken. After that, do as you please. There’s nothing on the box requiring specifically 5 minutes AND NOT A SECOND MORE, now is there?
I know it doesn’t not a second more. It’s just that is so specific how long it is suppose to stand. It gives you a 5 minute tolerance on the time in the oven, but no tolerance on the standing part.
And the stirring thing would work okay for HH, but the casserole thing I made that got me to thinking about this had a biscuit topping on it. Stirring wouldn’t be wise in that case.
It’s sort of the fixin’s for a quick casserole of sorts. The box comes with a pasta of some kind, usually, and a packet of sauce mix. You fry up a pound of hamburger and throw in the pasta and sauce mix and some water and maybe some milk and simmer it a while. Then let it stand for 5 minutes.
There are several varieties, like stroganoff, fettuccine alfredo, romanoff, chili macaroni. They make a quick, easy casserole type dish, you provide the meat.
Thanks Lord Jim I’m assuming hamburger = mince of some description. We have similar products in Australia but I usually just call them packet mixes or meals in a box.
I’d just like to point out that Hamburger Helper and other such quasi-foodstuffs contain a lot of dehydrated vegetable products (like bits of dessicated onion), and letting it stand for a short period of time allows this stuff time to rehydrate, making it soft and tasty instead of hard and gritty. Putting a definite time of “5 minutes” on it ensures that people whose idea of “a short time” can be measured in fractions of a second don’t bite into it too soon.
) the standing does indeed help it thicken. Some thickeners thicken better when boiling, some below the boiling point, so whatever combination of ingredients they tend to use in these concoctions seems to thicken best if boiled then allowed to cool slightly.
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