What is it with lay people & boiling?

[MarkV]

During a summer barbeque, while the steaks were on the grill, I was boiling the marinade to use as a sauce. As we all know, to employ the marinade that the raw meat was in, it must first be boiled. One of my non-cooking friends came out and said that my pot was boiling so she turned it down.

Tonight while preparing for my cooking class I was boiling balsamic to reduce it to make a syrupy sauce for shrimp. I stepped away momentarily to get some coffee and some guy came by to tell me that he saw "something boiling" on my stove so he turned it off. I almost threw my coffee at him and told him to mind his own business.

Where did non-cooks get the idea that boiling is some kind of disaster?

Mark

[castironchef]

Those people aren't cooks, they're "heaters." Once their "meal" is boiling, it's done.

[thetincook]

In most of the kitchens I've a worked in ( a whooping total of 4 ) it was always part of the constant communcation. Since everybody was almost always busy, we always kept an eye on the stove just in case something was going to burn or boil over. We always had the other guys back.

Personally I'd rather have somebody tell me "Hey man, yo' &#$%'s boiling/thickened/whatever," then to have my Balsalmic Soy Gastric get torched.

Sometimes it can bust my fuse, but in the end I appreciate the proactivness on my coworkers.

[shroomgirl]

Reminds me of last Thanksgiving at my dad's house.....4 adult women, 3 teenage girls.....they all wondered why everything was taking so long to bake....gee could it be that every couple minutes one of them would walk by and open the oven to check!!!! whatever happened to turning on the oven light and just peeking through the door.

I'm so used to cooking by smell......

[Andrew Hope]

I have know I used to always do that to my Chef and other cooks when they were busy and i wasnt sure what they were doing... I always believe in play it safe, You can always put it back on right?

[chrose]

Kind of like what's been said by a couple, on the other side of the coin. I can't tell you how many times we would be on a break and someone comes out and says "*** is burning" to which we would reply "did you turn it off"? the usual answer was "No"

[AprilB]

A watched pot never boils...

But an unwatched pot always boils over.

[higjse]

people generally just dont cook with as high a heat as cooks do in a professional kitchen... and if they do, they just dont do it with such frequency...

I know when I cook in my kitchen at home, which is rarely, the upstairs and downstairs people know... I have to open windows in my parents house.... People whom Ive done dinner parties before Lets face it, if you cooked in a home ktichen like you do in a professional kitchen itll smell for weeks. Amateurs just dont understand reducing, searing, etc....

On a positive note, it could help if the people who were at hands length of whats cooking knew what was going on....

[MarkV]

Originally Posted by higjse

Amateurs just dont understand reducing, searing, etc....

Indeed.

Mark

[Andrew Hope]

After getting used to cooking with gas I never have the patenice cooking with electric at home... I don't feel like I have as much control.

[thetincook]

I soo miss having a high volume vent food when I cook at home...
I also miss those warpy curved saute pans too.

[shahar]

My mom always get angry at me for leaving the stove on.
Our house was always five seconds away from being engulfed in flames.

[justfryit]

I've found that people usually cook with too much heat.

Some things can be "boiled" but many times boiling and high heat extracts bitter flavors and ruins food. Boiling wrenches proteins and squeezes moisture from the cells never to return again.

I get what you mean though.

[Nicholas]

Since we're on professional cooking vs home cooking, what about the dishes?
I find myself reaching for a new spoon all the time, until the drawers are empty, and all my wares are in the sink.
Cooking "professionally" at home requires a professional dishwasher too you know!
The greasy floors and full sinks is something I'd have to handle afer cooking as such!

[Metrakay]

You could buy a couple dozen really cheap commercial teaspoons and just use them for tasting...?

I guess I have best of both worlds -- my commercial kitchen IS my home kitchen, since it is a B&B. When I'm just cooking for myself, which is much of the time, the best parts of the kitchen is the the ventahood and the prerinse. If I ever live in another house, I'm putting in a prerinse. I'm not ever going to have one of those residential sprayers again.