What does simmering food do differently than boiling?
In: 8
Simmering, your supposed to stay just below the boiling point. Whether it’s really “just below” or not is anyone’s guess. So there are two possible differences.
1. It’s not actually that close to the boiling point, so the food is being exposed to a significantly different temperature.
2. The only real difference is that the food isn’t being knocked around by all the bubbles.
I suspect it’s a combination of the two. I can think of an experiment that could help figure it out. You could ask a bunch of people to “simmer” something and actually measure the water temperature. On top of that, you could set up a sous vide (Device that keeps the water at a fixed temperature) to run at the “simmering” temperature you found. Cook some food at that temp while still, and cook some with a bubblier consonantly bumping it around. Do the same with the sous vide at about 98°C. See if there’s a different in a blind taste test.
Not a chef, but when the liquid starts boiling, the temperature remains fairly constant ~ 212 F. This is because if you add more heat, then more liquid will turn to steam and evaporate out, thus removing heat from the liquid. If you’re on a hard boil, you’re creating a lot of steam/bubbles in order to keep the temperature around 212. But as you do this, you are also removing a lot of the water from the liquid and it will thicken up very quickly, and once the water is gone the temperature will increase and it will burn.
With many foods/sauces, you want it too cook for a long time so that the flavors meld together. If you get the food to boiling and then turn it down to simmer, you still have the heat to meld the flavors, but you’re not boiling off all the water, so you can remain at this temperature for a much longer time.
It helps protect some of the flavor. If you’re at a hard boil, more delicate flavor compounds break down. Simmering reduces the chance of this happening.
Simmering will heat the whole joint evenly. Boiling it will cause the meat to tighten meaning the outside ends up tough and rubbery while the centre doesn’t cook properly.
For meat, simmering ensures that connective tissue becomes tender whereas boiling would make it tough. For more delicate ingredients, simmering means they stay whole but boiling would cause them to break up.
Latest Answers