Processing often includes cooking. Depending on the food and the dish in which it is to be used, the cooking can be either total or partial.
In many instances a food must be totally cooked before it is used in a dish, the chicken for a chicken salad, the macaroni for macaroni and cheese, the hard-cooked egg in a thousand islands dressing. Any cooking process appropriate to the food may carry out precooking.
Partial cooking refers to any cooking process that is stopped before the product reaches doneness. Two methods of partial cooking that every cook must understand and master are parboiling and blanching.
Blanch is to plunge into boiling liquid and cook to 10 or 20 percent of doneness.
Parboil is to simmer until 50 percent done.
Stock or water is typically used in both methods.
There is no way to measure these degrees of doneness. You have to build your experience of these things, product by product. By feeling, tasting, seeing, experimenting, you will develop your own methods of judging degrees of doneness.
A special means of blanching and parboiling is cooking in the deep fryer. Potatoes are often partially cooked this way, usually for a style of potato that will be finished by either sautéing or deep-frying.
Partial cooking is done for several reasons. It may be necessary in order to allow additional things to be done to a food. It may be a way of bringing a food to equality with others, such as partially cooking a carrot that is going to share soup with quicker-cooking celery and tomatoes. It may be a technique of preparing a food somewhat short of doneness in order to hold it for finishes cooking. This is often done to save time during the serving period, when partially cooked foods may be finish-cooked quickly in batches as needed.
Partial cooking is also done to extend the shelf life of many items. Potatoes, for example, when peeled, deteriorate rapidly. Partial cooking slows deterioration and enables them to be stored in the cooler or freezer to prevent loss.
Marinating
Another prepreparation process, marinating, has produced some of the most famous dishes in the world; sauerbraten from Germany, chicken tandoori from India, beef teriyaki from the Far East, shish kebab from the Near East. Marinating is soaking a food in a marinade to add flavor or to tenderize it or both. A marinade is any liquid made up for marinating.
Marinades are made from many ingredients, ranging from sour cream to brandy; depending on the particular flavor the cook wants to add to the dish. Vegetables, fruits, and meats are marinated with an infinite number of flavor combinations. The cook's choice will be guided by the preferences of the clientele.
Meats are usually marinated for both flavor and tenderization. A typical formula for a meat marinade would be made up of oil, flavor builders, and acid. Each of these ingredients has a specific purpose.
The oil is a vegetable oil, used to help hold natural juices in the meat to avoid loss of the meat's own flavor.
Flavor builders are such tastemakers as onion, garlic, spices, and herbs. The choice depends on the specific flavors desired.
Acid is used to tenderize by breaking down connective tissue. There is some controversy over how much of this an acid can do. Evidence shows that unless meat is marinated for a considerable length of time, little tenderizing takes place. Nevertheless cooks go on marinating less tender cuts of meat with apparent success. Perhaps the meat seems tenderer because of the added flavor.
Marinating can be a matter of minutes or it can take several days. It depends on the purpose and on the nature and size of the product. Cubes of meat for shish kebab need not be marinated as long as a pot roast. Game might be marinated a day or more because it lacks tenderness. Sauerbraten is sometimes marinated a week or longer. Whatever the length of time, it must be taken into account in planning for precooking readiness.
Marinating must be done in a container that is impervious to acid, such as stainless steel, glass, or crockery. Foods being marinated must be kept refrigerated at proper temperatures.
Mizer, Porter, Sonnier, Food Preparation for the Professional, 1978, Page 60
Go To Page: 1
