If you’ve been following this series, by this time, you know your ingredients, you have gathered your essential kitchen tools, and you know how to prep meat, seafood and vegetables.
You’re finally ready to cook!
For this lesson, we will discuss boiling, frying and sautéing. Mastering these three basic cooking methods will allow you to cook countless dishes. You will be able to make soups, cook fried chicken and make simple sautéed vegetable dishes. And, by combining two of these methods (sautéing and boiling, for example), you can cook an even larger number of dishes.
It’s true. That’s why people who can boil eggs correctly are actually imbued with the most basic cooking knowledge.
Essentially, boiling means heating up liquid and cooking your ingredients in it. The liquid can be water or broth.
It is rarely the case, however, that you need to keep the cooking liquid on a rolling boil for the entire duration of the cooking. If you do that, the solid ingredients you drop into the liquid will fall apart because of the high amount of agitation caused by the boiling liquid. Usually, you begin with briskly boiling liquid, you add the ingredients and, when the liquid begins to boil once more, you lower the heat and simmer the food.
In other words, while “boiling” may sound simple, you need to know when the liquid has actually reached boiling point. After that, you need to know how to keep the temperature constant with the least amount of agitation.
The easiest way not to mess up is to use a kitchen thermometer. You clip it on the side of the pan and it will tell you the temperature of the liquid at any point during cooking. Convenient. No guessing games.
I can tell you, however, that while a kitchen thermometer is quite useful, it is not absolutely essential. I prefer that a cook be able to look at hot liquid in a pot on the stove and be able to tell — just by looking with the naked eye — if it is just starting to simmer, simmering, starting to boil or if it is on a rolling boil.
Why is it important to be able to identify the various stages?
Because recipes may call for poaching which requires the liquid to be at that stage when it has not even reached simmering point. Other recipes say that the liquid needs to be boiling profusely while most will require simmering.
So, you have to know.
What delicious dishes can you cook just by knowing how to boil?
To start with, you will be able to make bone broth. From there, the possibilities are endless.
Source
You’re finally ready to cook!
For this lesson, we will discuss boiling, frying and sautéing. Mastering these three basic cooking methods will allow you to cook countless dishes. You will be able to make soups, cook fried chicken and make simple sautéed vegetable dishes. And, by combining two of these methods (sautéing and boiling, for example), you can cook an even larger number of dishes.
The simplest cooking method is boiling
It’s true. That’s why people who can boil eggs correctly are actually imbued with the most basic cooking knowledge.
Essentially, boiling means heating up liquid and cooking your ingredients in it. The liquid can be water or broth.
It is rarely the case, however, that you need to keep the cooking liquid on a rolling boil for the entire duration of the cooking. If you do that, the solid ingredients you drop into the liquid will fall apart because of the high amount of agitation caused by the boiling liquid. Usually, you begin with briskly boiling liquid, you add the ingredients and, when the liquid begins to boil once more, you lower the heat and simmer the food.
In other words, while “boiling” may sound simple, you need to know when the liquid has actually reached boiling point. After that, you need to know how to keep the temperature constant with the least amount of agitation.
The easiest way not to mess up is to use a kitchen thermometer. You clip it on the side of the pan and it will tell you the temperature of the liquid at any point during cooking. Convenient. No guessing games.
I can tell you, however, that while a kitchen thermometer is quite useful, it is not absolutely essential. I prefer that a cook be able to look at hot liquid in a pot on the stove and be able to tell — just by looking with the naked eye — if it is just starting to simmer, simmering, starting to boil or if it is on a rolling boil.
Why is it important to be able to identify the various stages?
Because recipes may call for poaching which requires the liquid to be at that stage when it has not even reached simmering point. Other recipes say that the liquid needs to be boiling profusely while most will require simmering.
So, you have to know.
What delicious dishes can you cook just by knowing how to boil?
To start with, you will be able to make bone broth. From there, the possibilities are endless.
Source
