Culinary query

[ellarien]

A couple of times lately, I've seen recipes that call for cooking one ingredient in a steamer basket with all the saucy goodness in the bottom of the pan. What they don't explain is whether the liquid is then supposed to be used as sauce (in which case, why not just cook the steamed ingredient in with it to start with?), or whether it imparts its virtues to the food via the steam (minus the calories, presumably) and then gets thrown away.

Can any of you more experienced cooks enlighten me? I've never put anything other than water-to-be-thrown-out in the bottom of the pan when steaming things.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Theoretically, according to some cook books, if you put something strongly flavoured in the water then it imparts a smidgen of flavour to what is being cooked. However, it seems to me that this is a fallacy, as the steam will not contain the flavourings - it's just water. (Or maybe alcohol, if you use wine. However, the flavour will still be left behind.) In fact, when using a steamer, the only way to make sure all the flavours stay in the food itself is to wrap the food in foil to start with. If you do wrap the food in foil with herbs, spices and a dash of wine, then steam it, the food will be flavoured.

I think that people who don't understand changes of state by heating have equated steaming with smoking and poaching, where the flavours in the smoke or the cooking liquid are imparted to the food.

I suppose you could use the steaming liquid for a sauce, and if you haven't wrapped your food in foil to start with it would be a way to putting back some of the lost flavour. Peronally, though, I would not advise it.

[ellarien]

Thanks! That makes sense. I wonder if the fact that the flavoured water smells good during cooking creates the illusion that the food is being flavoured?