COOKING

[an seanduine]

Actually with higher altitudes the boiling point goes down. When I looked up Tibetan tea, the kind with clarified butter, the process involved boiling for several minutes after adding the tea leaves, cooling, straining, adding the fixings and then boiling again for several minutes. None of this ´Pot to the Kettle, not the kettle to the pot´.

Bob

[Nanohedron]

I think that in frying a surface is in contact with the heat of the pan for a significant time* so that it is done differently than the material in the middle. With scrambled eggs, as I understand them, the idea is to move the material in contact with the pan away from it quickly and mix it up with the stuff in the middle before it does anything other than firm up a little. So that's not frying**

I'm sorry, but I just can't understand any of that! I am of the opinion, though, that the word "fry" has some fuzzy edges. How we limit that is pretty much a matter of convention, but conventions are not always completely shared.

[Nanohedron]

Actually with higher altitudes the boiling point goes down. When I looked up Tibetan tea, the kind with clarified butter, the process involved boiling for several minutes after adding the tea leaves, cooling, straining, adding the fixings and then boiling again for several minutes. None of this ´Pot to the Kettle, not the kettle to the pot´.

Bob

Oh, crap. Oops! You're right. I'm going to edit my mistake out of that post. My bad.

Must've been thinking about below-sea-level cookery.

[Wanderer]

I don't know about other Yanks, but for scrambled eggs I would be equally as likely to say "fry" as "cook". Interestingly (or not), I only "cook" omelets; I haven't "fried" them yet.

I agree that you can only "cook" an omelette, not fry it. I take it that's why David referred to "an omelette gone wrong". Similarly, you can only "cook" scrambled eggs. It's very different from frying. I think part of it is that frying implies that there's something solid to begin with. You can't fry a liquid.

I would probably say "cook scrambled eggs." Most of the folks I know might be confused at "fry scrambled eggs". But most people I know would recognize "frying" to mean either pan frying (cooking in a pan with a little fat) or deep frying (totally submerging the food).

I've been quite interested in all the comments about pressure cookers. What advantage do they offer over a standard pot? I eat rice and beans or split peas nearly every day. Would pressure cooker behoove me?

Pressure cookers significantly reduce cooking time, water use, and energy expenditure. They also are excellent for braising tough cuts of meat into tenderness, faster than the low-and-slow oven method.

That's what i use them for. Can cook chicken in less than 10 minutes. What would take me 8 hours in a crock pot can be done in 1 in a pressure cooker. That kind of thing.

An often under-discussed benefit is that it frees up time and effort: If I make butter chicken on the stove-top, I have to return to the pot every so often to stir and check on it. In the pressure cooker, once you've turned it on, you can ignore it and focus on the side dishes. Basically, the same convenience of a slow cooker but in a much smaller fraction of the time.

[PB+J]

An instant pot can do a really nice risotto in 8 minutes.

Saute in the container, throw the rice in thow the liquid in, set it to eight minutes and boom

I made a chicken chili last night with dried canellini beans, took 30 minutes to cook the dry beans with no soaking.

you can make a really good Irish stew in no time, and then the pot will keep it warm.

I made yogurt in it the other day, came out great

I'm very impressed with it.

[benhall.1]

I don't really go for this fast stuff. If it needs longer, I just put it on earlier.

[PB+J]

I don't really go for this fast stuff. If it needs longer, I just put it on earlier.

Yeah sure but I've often got to come home from work and make dinner for the family and the family is hungry and not all that interested in my philosophy of slow is good

Our daughter does ballet and when she has a big performance relatives and friends attend, and the performance ends at 6 and then they all come back to the house for dinner. I can put everything in the pot, and have beef a really good stroganoff or vegetarian risotto ready in half an hour while they are all having drinks and eating cheese.

It tastes better than a slow cooker, I think maybe because everything is sealed in? And you can saute your onions and brown the ingredients in the pot instead of using multiple pans.

I was skeptical about it but it's actually made things a lot easier for me.

[benhall.1]

Fair enough. I must admit, with it just being the two of us here, what we have works for us. I'll look up that instant pot though ...

I've looked it up now. I have seen those in shops. They're surprisingly cheap, aren't they?