The idea is to accomplish as much as possible, in as little time as possible.

Probably the combination that would be most wasteful of time would have been to make the carrot cake icing, then make the brownies. A better way would have been to make the brownies, and while that was in the oven, make the icing.

When something is cooking, it is "down time" that you can use to do other things.

The brownie recipe called for melting chocolate and butter together, then letting that cool down before continuing the recipe.

The most time efficient way was to

1. start the brownie recipe,
2. While the chocolate/butter mix was cooling down, measure the ingredients for the carrot cake icing.
3. Then finish the brownie recipe and put it on to bake,
4. while that was cooking, mixing/finishing the icing and putting it on the carrot cake.

This utilised as much of the "down time" as I could for what I had to accomplish.

When you cook multiple dishes, or complex dishes, always take that "down time" into account and see how you can utilise it.

Usualy this technique is used on tougher cuts of meat, although it is sometimes used on vegetables or even fish. It is usualy used for larger pieces of meat.

How To Braise

• Put your meat in a pot, with aromatic ingredients (such as carrot, celery, leek and bouquet garni), with a little bit of liquid.
• Cover.
• Cook in medium oven.

Early in the cooking process the meat and other ingredient's juices will concentrate inside the ingredient. Then they will release and provide a rich broth that can be used as a basis for a sauce.

Most often braising recipes call for browning the meat in the pan first. This is referred to as "braisé à brun" in French cooking (browned braised), because of the brown colour the colouring of the meat creates

Pot Roast?

Many people who cook "roasts" are in fact preparing pot roasts, which is a braising technique rather than a roasting technique. Knowing the difference is important because you would not use a more expensive, more tender cut of meat for a braised dish. You should keep those expensive cuts for proper roasts.

Origins Of The Word

The word comes from the word "braise", the French word for "embers". This cooking technique was typically used by people cooking straight in the heart, putting the pot straight in the embers, and often covering the lid with more embers, giving an "under/over" all around heat.

The trick is to have very cold butter, and slightly simmering liquid. You put the cold butter in the simmering sauce and stir rapidly. This melts the butter without splitting it from the liquid. You end up with an onctuous, lustruous sauce.

Typically you would use about 30 g (1 tbsp) of butter for about 125 ml (1/2 cup) of sauce, but quantities vary.

Adding a dash of cream to your sauce before adding the butter will help avoiding the butter splitting.

A grill has parallel metal bars, with space between each bars. The heat comes from gas, charcoal or wood. You may find electric grills, but these tend not to be as effective. People tend to think of grilling as an outdoor cooking method, however, grills can be aded to a cooking range. Some grills are built-in to cast iron pans, allowing to use the grilling cooking method indoors, without a proper grill.

Use very little fat or oil on the ingredient to be grilled. You can grill meats, vegetables, and fish. Of all ingredients, meats are the ones most often grilled. Gilled vegetables are very nice as well. If you grill fish, be careful as it may break apart - use bigger pieces of "fat" fish, such as salmon.

How To Grill

1. Ensure your grill is very hot.
2. Place the ingredient to be grilled "serving side" down.
3. Let the ingredient cook long enough for the grill to char it, then turn it 90°.
4. Continue to cook until the grill has charred the item again, then flip it.

Ideally, you want to achieve "cross hatching" on the food item you are grilling. This will show the diner that the food was grilled, and also look very good. It is tempting to keep playing with the item while it cooks. Refrain from doing so. Ideally, you would touch the meat only 4 times:

1. Picking it up and putting it on the grill;
2. Turning 90°
3. Flipping over.
4. Removing from the grill.

There is some controversy about grilling - it is said that too much grilling is unhealthy as the intense heat and charring may cause cancer. As with all things, moderation is key.

If you are grilling over wood or charcoal, be careful not to let flames develop and burn the ingredient you are cooking.

Don't confuse a grill with a griddle. The later is a flat surface with no gaps

Brown stock is usually made from veal or beef bones, or from chicken/poultry bones. Some "specialised" brown stocks can also be made using venison, or duck, or even quail bones. Pork is rarely used on its own, particularly in French (or Western) cooking. Historically, veal was used instead of beef. The flavour is more delicate. But it is hard to find veal bones nowadays. In fact, it can be hard to find beef bones, now that so many supermarkets don't have butchers on the premises! But there are alternatives - You can use shank, and/or "gravy beef", although the later makes it more expensive.

Qualities Of A Good Stock

There are several qualities you want to look for in a good stock:

1. Fat free
2. Salt free
3. Rich brown colour
4. Rich taste

Buying vs Making

While you can purchase stock at the grocery store, the quality is usually not great, and the prices are quite high. And it is usually extremely salty, which means you cannot reduce it much at all.

Advantages of Making Your Own Stock:

• Lower cost
• Better taste
• More control of what goes in the stock.

Disadvantage of Making Your Own Stock:

• Time consuming

Should you wish to purchase stock instead of making it, select the liquid form rather than the powdered form. These tend to be better and not based on salt so much. Also, compare the ingredient lists between the different brands. You may find salt-free stock, which is better, both health-wise and for cooking.

What Is It Used For?

Brown Stock is used as a basis for sauces. It can be used "as is", reduced, or thickened. Depending on what you do with it after the stock is ready, it takes other forms, and is called differently:

Glaze

Reduced stock until it is syrupy (typically down to 10% of original volume).

Thickened Stock

Stock thickened, usually with flour. This is an expedient replacement to Espagnole or Demi-Glace.

Espagnole Sauce

Thickened stock with extra aromatic ingredients. Espagnole is usually done only with veal/beef.

Demi-Glace

Espagnole sauce at its supreme degree of perfection. Demi-Glace is usually done only with veal/beef. Note that despite similar names, Glaze and Demi-Glace are not at all resulting from the same process.

Straining Stock

Once the stock is cooked, you have to separate the stock itself from the bones & aromatics. The easiest way is to use a large laddle to scoop out the stock from the pot, and pour it in a strainer over a large container. Once you are unable to use a ladle, you may carefully tip the bones and liquid in the strainer. Some people line the strainer with several layers of cheese cloth, to catch any tiny bits still floating in the stock, such as herbs, etc.

Remember: You want to keep the stock, NOT the bones! Which reminds me of an anecdote with an apprentice

This happened in a holiday camp where we were feeting approximately 400 teenage boys, 3 meals a day, plus 2 snacks. Industrial size cooking. I was teaching one of my apprentices how to make stock. We'd put the bones in to roast at 5:30am, spread in 6 ovens. While that was happening and other staff were dealing with breakfast, we prepared the aromatics, got the pots ready, etc. We put the roast bones with the aromatics in the pots, added water. Now these were BIG pots. 50 liters each (12 gallons). Brought the whole thing to a boil and then controlled the temperature to a simmer. The stock simmered in two large pots for hours. Around 4:30pm, I told my apprentice to clean the sinks very well, and to put our large collander in it. I neglected to tell her to put a plug in the sink. I assumed that it would have clicked that we were making stock to keep the liquid. But... No! I told her to get help from one of the guys, get the pot off the stove and strain the content into the cleaned and prepared sink. I turned my back on them just long enough to miss them pouring the entire content of the two pots into the collander, and see the last drops of stock go down the drain. They thought we were keeping the bones, somehow! Lesson learned!

Cooling Stock Rapidly

It is extremely important to cool your stock as quickly as possible after it is finished. As stock is generally made in large quantities, it can take a while to cool down. You cannot put 4 or 5 liters of very hot liquid in the refrigerator because it would warm up the other food in the refrigerator.

The best way to cool your stock is to put the stock in the kitchen sink, and fill the sink with cold water. The heat from the stockpot is going to get exchanged with the cold water. When the water in the sink isn't cold anymore, empty and refill with cold water. Repeat these steps as often as necessary to cool down the stock sufficiently to put in the refrigerator.

Preserving Stock

You can preserve stock in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days. If you wish to keep it longer than that, you will need to bring the stock to a boil and simmer it for 15 minutes, otherwise it will sour.

You can freeze the stock as well, and if it is properly packed, it will last up to 3 or 4 months without problem.

I like to prepare a Glaze and freeze it in ice-cube containers. Then, when I'm ready to cook, I can retrieve the number of cubes I need, instead of having to melt a whole block of Glaze.

Some people like to bottle the stock in preserves. This is not something you should attempt unless you are very familiar with preserving meat-based items.

Many people think they know how to wash their hands. Before attending food hygiene & safety classes, I thought I did, but discovered there was more to learn! I vividly remember the instructor putting a special powder on our hands and asking us to wash our hands as we normally would. He then used an ultra-violet lamp to show where powder was left on our hands after hand-washing. There were many areas glowing, demonstrating how bacteria hides in the nook and cranies of our hands. I have always taken extra care to wash my hands properly since!

Hand-washing helps prevent food born illnesses.

How to wash your hands in 6 easy steps.

You should wash your hands for about 20 seconds (about the length of time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice).

There is NO evidence that anti-bacterial soap is more efficient than regular soap^*. The Mayo Clinic suggests that using anti-bacterial soap "may even lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the product's antimicrobial agents — making it harder to kill these germs in the future".

I prefer to use liquid soap rather than bar soap as there are less chances to accumulate bacterias.

Don't touch the tap with your clean hands - you turned it on with dirty hands! Use your towel to turn the tap off after you dried your hands.

References

* Weber DJ, Rutala WA (2006). "Use of germicides in the home and the healthcare setting: is there a relationship between germicide use and antibiotic resistance?". Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 27

So, How *Do* You Boil Water?

• Select a pot large enough to contain the water and the ingredient(s) you wish to cook. It should not be so small that everything is cramped like sardines in a can, nor so big that ingredients would feel "lonely".
• Fill the pot with water, leaving enough space for the ingredient(s). Boiling water takes up more space than cold water. If you put too much water in the pot, you will end up with a mess on your hands.
• Don't use hot tap water, as the water in the tank/pipes might carry wee beasties (such as the bug for Legionnaire's Disease).
• Put the pot of water on as high a heat as you can.
• It will boil faster if you put a cover on the pot.
• If you do have a cover on the pot, look for steam escaping. Lift the lid carefully, away from you (so you don't burn your face with steam).
• Look at the water. When large bubbles go from the bottom of the pot to the surface, the water is boiling.

Stages Of "Boiling"

In cooking, we often use different terms refering to varying degrees of hot water. It is useful to understand them.

Tepid Water - 23°C to 41°C (85°F to 105°F).

The water is at approximately body temperature. If you put your finger in tepid water, you shouldn't feel much difference between the water and your hand.

Warm Water - 46°C to 49°C (115°F to 120°F).

You can put your hand in the water, but it's quite hot.

Hot Water - 54°C to 57°C (130°F to 135°F).

If you put your hand in the water, you'll get scalded.

Poach - 71°C to 82°C(160°F to 180°F).

There is a bit of a shiver to the water.

Simmer - 85°C to 93°C (185°F to 200°F).

The water has small bubbles coming to the surface regularly.

Slow boil - 96°C (205°F).

There is more movement and noticeably larger bubbles.

Real boil - 100°C (212°F).

Also known as "rolling boil". The water is rolling, large bubbles come to the surface continuously, a lot of steam.

What Is Boiling Anyway?

Boiling is when a liquid turns into a gas. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's really the bottom line :) It happens when the pressure on the liquid reduces enough for the gas to form. For this to happen, usualy we need to add some form of energy, such as heat.

All liquids can be boiled. Solids can't be boiled. That means that technically, you don't make "boiled potatoes"; you cook potatoes in boiling water. But that will be the topic of another post :)

When you have water being heated and you see bubbles coming from the bottom of the pot and raising to the surface, you have boiling water.

Boiling Point (Temperature) of Water

Everyone knows that water boils at 100°C (212°F), right? Hmm, yeah, kinda sorta. The boiling point of pure water at sea level is 100°C. To make our lives easier, we tend to say water boils at 100°C (212°F), however there are two main factors that can influence that.

2 Main Factors Influencing Boiling Point

Notice that I stated earlier "The boiling point of pure water at sea level is 100°C". There are two important qualifiers there: "pure", and "sea level".

Water Purity

If there are other elements in the water, the boiling point will vary. For example, if you add salt to the water, it will boil faster. That is to say, the temperature at which the boiling point is reached is lower. The more salt you put in, the lower the required temperature will be. If you add 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 liter of water, you reduce the boiling point by about 0.5°C to 1°C (1°F to 2°F). Some recipes call for cooking in a mixture of stock and wine, which are not "pure water".

You would have to cook ingredients a bit longer in salted water or in stock or wine than you would in plain & pure water. Not significantly longer. In fact, in most cases you can't really tell the difference, and there are other factors determining cooking time (size of the ingredient, for example).

Atmospheric Pressure

As it is pressure that is keeping a liquid in liquid form, when there is less pressure, the liquid boils faster. Sea level is where there is the most atmospheric pressure (for most cooks). The higher you go, the less pressure there is, hence the temperature required for boiling drops. At the summit of Mt. Everest, the boiling temperature of water is ~69°C (156°F).

A narrow and tall pot of water will take longer to boil than a wide shallow pot of water, because the water creates more pressure. Stormy weather can make water boil faster, because the atmospheric pressure is not as strong.

Some solids don't measure easily. Take shortening, for example - it's a mess to scoop into the measuring cup, you have to make sure all the air has been pushed out, etc. But that's the least of our problem.

The real problem comes from ingredients that can change volume depending on how loose or compact they are. Brown sugar and flour are good examples. When you read recipes that involve brown sugar, you will often see "packed", or "firmly packed", or no mention of any packing made. This does cause a problem because the amount of brown sugar will vary wildly depending on how loose or packed it is in the measuring cup. Same thing with flour.

Here's a little demonstration, measuring a cup of flour, then weighting it, let's see the difference.

I measured a cup of flour, using a 1-cup stainless steel container. I filled the container, then used a spatula to even the top.

The first cup I measured was the flour, somewhat compacted, straight out of the bag. I then used an electronic scale to measure it. The weight of one cup of flour straight out of the bag was 140grams.

The second cup I measured was the flour, after sifting it once. The weight of one cup of flour, sifted, was 125grams. Or 11% less than the first cup!

For the third cup, I used the back of a soup spoon to pack the flour in the measuring cup. The weight of one cup of flour, compacted, was 195grams. Or 39% MORE than the first cup.

So, with such differences, it's not surprising that your wonderful cookie recipe turns out like little bricks when someone else makes it!

It's not a huge problem in most cases. It's not WRONG to use volumes to measure ingredients. It is just something to be aware of when using volume to measure such dry ingredients.

Concentration

The food item's "juices" are pushed inside, or concentrated in the item.

Roast

Cook in dry heat, without cover.

Grill

Cook on dry heat, on a grill. Most often on a BBQ.

Panfry

Cook in a pan, with little to no fat.

Deepfry

Cook immersed in fat.

Expansion

The food item's "juices" are released from the food item.

Poach

Cook immersed in a cooking liquid, such as water, stock, juice, or wine.

Steam

Cook only with the heat from steam.

Steaming is sometimes considered a cooking by concentration method as the intensity of the steam pushes the juices back inside the food item.

Mixed

This method mixes both concentration and expansion during the cooking process.

Braise

First colour the food item as if panfrying it, then add cooking liquid, cover and continue cooking.

Pot roast

Colour the food item (optional), don't add liquid, but cover and continue cooking.

Mixed mode

Very similar to braise, however the food items tend to be in smaller pieces, like meat diced in 2cm (1") pieces.