Is there any point in sweating something if you're gonna boil it anyways? can you explain please?

Is there any point in sweating something if you're gonna boil it anyways? can you explain please?

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Nah, there's no point, it's just something silly superstitious yuropeons do, totally unscientific. Forget about it.

Like, I feel like you're using a dismissive tone here sir, and I'm just curious what the function is. surely the flavors are released anyways when it's boiled?

Boiling is a higher temp, you're not going to get the flavor out of the mirepoix, and the point of sweating is to flavor the fat (butter in most instances).

>Animefags are this retarded

Fond.

Get to know it.
Paul Prudhomme used to call it "cooking to the bottom of the pot". You are doing several things, you're flavoring the fat with the vegetables, and your developing a fond on the bottom which adds more flavor. Otherwise, you're just going to taste boiled vegetables. The only soup I ever make where I just chuck in the veg is miso soup, since I'm usually just adding mushrooms, scallions, tofu, and sometimes baby bok choy leaves.

Yes, the point is flavor and texture.

Because boiled veggies taste like shit, no texture.

Mirepoix into sauces gives good texture

it releases the natural sweetness of the vegetables.

sweeten while it's boiling

fond = browning, isn't the point of sweating to NOT brown

...

concentrating the flavors, that is correct, there's a reason everyone loved Paul P and nobody loves you, OP. You're retarded.

anyway, do an experiment. sweat a mirepoix in a pan, add a cup of water.

use a cup of water, simmer a mirepoix in it for 30 minutes.

compare the tastes. wa la.

Well, when you cook onions down in a pan they release steam and get smaller, but when you boil onions straight away they don't shrink, merely becoming soft.

So I'm guessing that letting the water come out improves the flavor. I do know that straight up boiled onions taste offensively bland, I've tried that.

Boiled Onion = Onion with some of the flavor leeched out into the water

Sweated Onion = We BigBoy now. Maillard has been engaged. Onion has released some of its sugars and this additional flavor that we took the time to create makes the dish more awesome when we add liquid.

Caramelized Onion = We French Onion Soup Now. Maillard has been engaged and ridden to a rodeo championship. Add stock and banish winter.

IT'S IN EVERY RESPECTED RECIPE. THESE GUYS HAVE DEVOTED THEIR LIVES TO COOKING FOOD YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EVEN LOOK AT.

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND JUST DO IT.

Thanks, I just wanted to understand the idea behind it.

Enjoy yourself, and onions, and well written recipes old chap.

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It's later than you think x

honestly not a big fan of browned, caramelized onions, much prefer them light, although I get they have their place in a dark winter stew

Similarly I'm not a big fan of culinary arrivistes, but I'm sure you'll work it out in time.

Godspeed Gastronaut!

>Similarly I'm not a big fan of culinary arrivistes
I don't know what that means, are you being mean to me?

>sweated onion
>maillard reaction

No.

Food can only develop certain flavors through certain cooking methods boiling will only extract one flavor profile but say you brown them up a bit before boiling you will produce other flavors. Imagine beef you can always just drop the deef into the pot and boil it or you can sear it and get some crust on the outside that flavor then goes into the soup and would not have been present if it was just boiled.

but you don't brown during sweating, that's kinda the point.

The point still stands cooking with one method will prodice particular flavors that wouldn't be present if it was cooked another way. Some cooking methods tend to be very similar for instance steaming vs boiling but even that has differences due to steaming not whisking away some of the flavors that boiling removes to the water. You sweat your vegetables to change the flavor profile. Now it is perfectly acceptable to just boil it all together if you are just fixing it for yourself and dont need to impress anyone but if you serving others you should take the extra time to do it.

right, it just seems to me that sweating pretty much is boiling right? just dry. you get the same kinda reaction. or am I wrong? if you add water to it afterwards, what is the point, you're gonna whisk the flavors into the water after all

Nah the new flavors will still be there and some food snob will taste the soup and say oh this tastes weird very bland blah blah and might know the vegis weren't sweated and be all butthurt.

but isn't sweating the same chemical reaction as boiling?

not really chemical reactions arent the only thing going on in a heating method theres also changes to the construction of the food being cooked. I guess that counts as chemical also but it has more to due with the structure of the molecules and what is created from them. Sweating is a sauteing method the other is as the name implies boiling.

What would you choose? Being sweaty or being boiled?

Don't you need unhealthy fats like refined oil or butter to sweat? Can you just use water?

>unhealthy fats like refined oil or butter to sweat?
why are you such a cunt?

The answer is not simple. One argument is that the higher temp and drier conditions of a sweat will produce caramelisation and Maillard reactions which will transform the flavour of the vegetable. Another is that driving off moisture in the first place will concentrate their flavour - but this obviously just means it will take more water to dilute it. Often chefs (March Pierre White is a consistent example) will say it 'reduces acidity' - which, if true, isn't necessarily desirable. In any case I see two main benefits: firstly, that you are suffusing the fat with a lot of the fat soluble flavours; secondly, that the higher temperatures and greater dry matter content in the sweat will transform the existing flavours in a productive way. There is also the production of 'sucs' and a resulting 'fond', but I don't think this is the fundamental point of the process.

I still don't think it's the same, onions behave differently when cooked in a pan -- even without browning. That is, they shrink and get sticky/slimy.

Sweating wastes internal moisture, so when you go beyond the myths and tradition it's actually undesirable. Also this

However, I never understood why you're supposed to avoid browning the mirepoix for soup purposes anyway. browned is better if you ask me.

Well the rule would make sense for making clear broths, which I know is prized in french cooking.

depends on the soup. if it's a soup with a light meat a non-browned veggie fits it better, generally. Brown the veggies for a beef stew