477-Culinary Wives' Tales

Through the years I have taught people through this podcast, cookbook, videos, tv shows, magazine articles, and in-person culinary demonstrations many different culinary wives' tales or falsehoods. Stuff I was taught and just always did….because…that’s the way you do it…..

As a young chef training under older more experienced chefs, most of them graduates of European or American culinary institutions, I was taught the “way to do things” and little details that I have seen parroted on TV and elsewhere for decades.

I’d like to dispel some of them today.

A good example of this would be letting meat rest to “reabsorb the juices”. The meat is not reabsorbing juices, the juice is in there and has not gone anywhere….they just are moving fast due to heat. Water is still when cold, but moves when simmering or boiling because the atoms react to heat and create energy. So, when we remove meat from the oven, as it cools the juices are less likely to spill out, but there is no reabsorbing going on.
Seasoning meat and thinking the interior is getting seasoned even without a brine being deployed. Sure the outer edges and a tiny bit of the interior are getting some seasoning, but not much more than maybe 1/4 inch. In order to season internally the meat must soak in a brine that contains quite a bit of salt and it takes time for the brine to move into the meat.
In the same vein, we were all taught to season the food with salt and pepper and herbs even if it was going on a hot grill, sauté pan, or oven. What happens is the seasonings (except salt) just burn and become acrid and bitter, especially herbs and seeds (pepper, cumin, coriander, sesame) I have changed my thinking on this…more on an upcoming show…
Basting a turkey is also a total waste of time. I remember thinking why am I opening the oven every 30 minutes letting out half the heat to bast the turkey when it does nothing to increase the moistness of the turkey? I had plenty of dry-basted turkeys, trust me.
The plethora of egg cooking tips to do things like poaching eggs with vinegar and creating a whirlpool. I have done it with no vinegar in still water and it works better and does not give the eggs a vinegar taste.
Making hollandaise over a double boiler and whisking for 20 years…a blender works better and takes 30 seconds.

Part 2 coming soon....