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What is it with lay people & boiling?

post #1 of 31
2/6/06 at 8:06pm
Thread Starter 
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? :confused:

Mark
Salad is the kind of food that real food eats.
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post #2 of 31
2/6/06 at 8:40pm
Those people aren't cooks, they're "heaters." Once their "meal" is boiling, it's done.
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post #3 of 31
2/6/06 at 9:17pm
In most of the kitchens I've a worked in ( a whooping total of 4 :blush: ) 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.
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post #4 of 31
2/7/06 at 5:29am
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......
cooking with all your senses.....
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post #5 of 31
2/7/06 at 7:28am
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?
Just another young apprentice eager to develop into the master.
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post #6 of 31
2/7/06 at 9:36am
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":eek: :mad:
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post #7 of 31
2/7/06 at 10:10pm

My motto:

A watched pot never boils...

But an unwatched pot always boils over.

:crazy:
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post #8 of 31
2/7/06 at 11:48pm
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....
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post #9 of 31
2/8/06 at 4:26am
Thread Starter 
Indeed.

Mark
Salad is the kind of food that real food eats.
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post #10 of 31
2/8/06 at 9:19am
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.
Just another young apprentice eager to develop into the master.
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post #11 of 31
2/12/06 at 8:14pm
I soo miss having a high volume vent food when I cook at home...
I also miss those warpy curved saute pans too.
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post #12 of 31
2/13/06 at 5:27pm
My mom always get angry at me for leaving the stove on.
Our house was always five seconds away from being engulfed in flames.
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post #13 of 31
2/13/06 at 9:09pm
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.
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post #14 of 31
2/14/06 at 8:08pm
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!
____________________________________
Around The World In 40 Winks
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post #15 of 31
2/15/06 at 6:00pm
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.
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post #16 of 31
2/15/06 at 10:32pm
Oh! And a walk-in too! :bounce:
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post #17 of 31
2/16/06 at 3:11am
I'd like one of those NOW!:talk: Unfortunately, the kitchen remodel didn't extend that far since it wasn't a requirement for licensing and the budget hasn't allowed it yet. I keep hoping.
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post #18 of 31
2/18/06 at 8:08am

Touch my fire...you touch my d***

So many thoughts have been addressed here. If you're making a reduction of some sort...and there are others around that may not be in the know, pour yourself a glass of wine and stay next to your sauce! "Never trust someone to pack your parachute for you", is what one chef told me. I you have to leave it, than pull it of the fire yourself so nobody "worries". I've had servers walk through my kitchen in a drunken stupor and turn off the low flame I had under a 60 quart stock pot of working veal stock after the shift. One time I caught it...one time I didn't catch it and we trashed 100.oo bucks in veal bones. My take on this is, if you decide you actually give a sh*t about what's on the fire, find out who's in charge and ask questions, but don't touch it unless you know what it is and what to do with it.
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post #19 of 31
2/18/06 at 9:16am
This is really a pet pieve with me. The percentage of the flattop use is small compared to the ovens since we're a bakery. Most of our things require to be babysat. The only time you will here a grumble out of me if there is not a side towel on a sauce pan or a mitt on the oven door telling everyone that there is something going on in the sauce pan and something in the oven. We're crossed trained enough not to have timers or have to ask for a watch.

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post #20 of 31
2/22/06 at 9:21am
I'll grumble too. Since I'm a one-woman show in my catering business, I don't usually have to worry about anyone 'messing with the goods'. But at home....well, that's a different story. My hubby drives me crazy in the kitchen. He's always turning down the heat on everything. 'Honey, this was boiling, I turned it off/down/whatever.' Erggg......'dear, it's called a 'rolling boil'....turn it back up!!'

I think I've grumbled at him enough that he's finally gotten it. I hope.......
Is there such a thing as Queen
of the Grill? Why do men only
get a royal title over the
barbeque? I should be queen.
Girls like to play with fire too.
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post #21 of 31
2/22/06 at 10:08am
Thread Starter 
Jenni, I can soooooo relate.

Mark
Salad is the kind of food that real food eats.
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post #22 of 31
2/22/06 at 11:04am
Hah! Yes :) So true!
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post #23 of 31
2/22/06 at 1:46pm
My problem has always been the opposite. It drives me nuts to see wine, stock or vinegar boiling. To make a proper reduction, a little finesse goes a long way, and a gentle simmer yields much better results. I'm usually the one in the kitchen screeming "Turn it down!!!" :p
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post #24 of 31
2/22/06 at 5:18pm
OK, So you take all the time in the world to make the perfect stock, ( not reducing it under a vigourous boil as mentioned in previous posts )

Then when it comes to using that same stock on the line in a fastidius sautee do you think that all the care that was put into the original stock is lost with the intense heat it undergoes when being introduced into the hot sautee pan ? So do you think that the protiens are exploded/lost in the final dish ? Any food chemist want to explain this ? I think the customer already has.:lol: :chef:
http://www.frappr.com/chefsunited
One time a guy pulled a knife on me. I could tell it wasn't a professional job; it had butter on it.- Rodney Dangerfield -


'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. - George Carlin
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post #25 of 31
2/22/06 at 5:20pm
Eat






Define each letter and reassemble them in your own way.:lol:
http://www.frappr.com/chefsunited
One time a guy pulled a knife on me. I could tell it wasn't a professional job; it had butter on it.- Rodney Dangerfield -


'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. - George Carlin
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post #26 of 31
2/22/06 at 5:21pm
Anything will boil quicker if a lid is placed on it. And AprilB is right a watched pot never boils........
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post #27 of 31
2/22/06 at 5:38pm
:lol: Oh Boy !!! You do not comnprehend what is being conveyed.:lol:
http://www.frappr.com/chefsunited
One time a guy pulled a knife on me. I could tell it wasn't a professional job; it had butter on it.- Rodney Dangerfield -


'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. - George Carlin
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post #28 of 31
2/22/06 at 5:39pm
I still like you either way.:chef:
http://www.frappr.com/chefsunited
One time a guy pulled a knife on me. I could tell it wasn't a professional job; it had butter on it.- Rodney Dangerfield -


'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. - George Carlin
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post #29 of 31
2/23/06 at 3:27am
Thread Starter 
Proteins don't "explode" when cooked, they denature. That means that at first they unwind and then recombine into new forms.

Proteins are also not "lost". Re-heating, or reducing a stock does nothing to the proteins that have been gelatinized. Basically you're evaporating more of the water and hence, intensifying the body and flavor of the stock.

Mark
Salad is the kind of food that real food eats.
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post #30 of 31
2/27/06 at 12:41pm
Is it just me? In school I was told the only thing that should ever be cooked in a full rolling boil is pasta. They way I look at it boiling is very violent and I don't like seeing stuff getting all bashed about. As for reductions, when they are boiling it is very hard to get any idea of the current consistancy. All of that being said, if I am cooking it and it is boiling, HANDS OFF. I am always open to advice and learning more, but jumping right in and taking over some ones cooking is a pretty big move in my books.
Chef Bob


"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch?" ~ Orsen Wells (1915-1985)
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