Questions tagged [reduction]

The process of thickening a liquid by evaporating water or alcohol by heat.

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When should I reduce tomato purée to brick red or stop midway?

In order to make tomato purée from scratch, tomatoes are boiled and then ground in a grinder to make a paste. As mentioned here, usually as I have been taught, one must always reduce the tomato paste ...
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Heat levels when reducing balsamic vinegar

I'm going to attempt reducing a balsamic vinegar into a syrup, and while most recipes I've found recommend bringing it to just a boil and then lowering the temperature, none of them ever specify what ...
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Best temperature for reducing stock?

When I make (chicken) stock, after it's made and the fat skimmed off I reduce it 3-x and freeze the resulting highly concentrated stock in cubes. Obviously I would prefer the reduced stock to be as ...
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How can I prevent reductions from turning into molasses?

Last night I attempted to make a reduced sauce out of equal parts soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar. I let it simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it got to a mildly viscous consistency ...
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How to stop erythritol crystallisation?

While making a "sugar" syrup reduction with erythritol, I have noticed that the liquid crystallises upon cooling. Google-fu says two parts of water and one part of erythritol will not ...
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Is this Pomegranate Molasses rescuable?

I was trying to make Alton Brown's Pomegranate Molasses, but had trouble converting his "medium-low heat" to my electric (glass top) stove. I ended up with what commenters on the above link ...
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Making large batches of syrups and sauces without reducing the majority of what I originally started with?

I've recently come across the recipe to make one of my favorite glazes, "Jack Daniels Glaze" from T.G.I. Fridays and am close to perfecting it. The only issue I'm currently facing is that in ...
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Does reducing fruit change its composition?

I like fresh fruit reductions like cranberry coulis or lingonberry and huckleberry sauce. But I am worried that I'm not merely evaporating the water, but changing the sauce in other ways. Does ...
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how much alcohol is cooked away in preparing agar agar? [duplicate]

I make vegan jello by dissolving agar agar in boiling water. Sometimes I add liqueur (e.g. Grand Marnier) for a little flavoring and sweetness, in which case I would add about 0.5 cup of liqueur to 5....
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What would happen if I blended (liquified) onions and then reduced the result?

Imagine I liquefy 10 onions with a powerful blender and I subsequently reduce the liquid. What would happen? Would I end up with a caramelized onion paste? Or something else?
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Reducing sauce or gravy always forms a skin

Apologies if I've phrased this wrongly. I don't try to do this very often: that is, boil a sauce to evaporate the liquid (I understand this to be known as 'reducing the sauce'); however, when I do, I ...
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At what temperature should I simmer bolognese to avoid burning?

Bolognese requires a long period of low heat cooking or simmering, according to some recipes several hours. At what temperature should I simmer, in order to avoid burning / overcooking, while still ...
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When should or shouldn't you use pasta water? [duplicate]

Every sauced pasta dish recipe I ever read calls for using the water in which the pasta was cooked for the purpose of thickening the sauce, as the water contains a lot of starch which helps the pasta ...
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When making a sauce, at what point should you add the wine?

Should you add it right after heating the fat? Or after youre done sauteing all the veggies so they soak all the wine? Or should you start with the wine THEN add the fat?
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Keep alcohol in spiced rum reduction?

I'm working on a new recipe and want to make a spiced rum reduction without losing the alcohol. Don't just want it thicker or I'd use xanthum gum I want less liquid with stronger flavor and the ...
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Marinate sundried tomatoes with ethanol overnight?

One of my favorite meals is an oil pasta with sundried tomato, pork belly, and broccoli. When I make it, I put a cap or two of scotch after adding the tomatoes and it really makes it shine. I'm ...
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How do you reduce wine when deglazing without burning the fond?

I have found that by the time all the alcohol has evaporated, my fond turns from beautiful brown to charcoal black. Why does it happen?
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Reducing stock and then adding water

In the past I would simmer stock without a lid on, and the results were generally good. Strong flavor and good gelling after refrigeration. The only problem is that this resulted in very little stock ...
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Do sulfites cook out?

Do sulfites cook out when you reduce wine? The main cooking mode I'm thinking of is a braise: coq au vin or beef Bourguignon, but would also be interested in the shorter cooking time recipes, e.g. a ...
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Can you use wine for cooking even after it's past it's drinking date?

They say you should drink your wine in the 24 hours window since you have uncorked it. But what about using the wine in flavor bases to give sauces a sweet taste? Is it ok to use white wine for sauces ...
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Can you cook off the acidity in wine?

My marinara was strangely too acidic than before even though I used canned tomatoes which are normally ripe, but then I remembered I added white wine to the flavor base (which i reduced). First I do ...
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When should you season sauce that needs to be reduced?

I just thought about how seasoning a sauce is not a wise decision because if it needs to through reduction like marinara then the flavors would get too concentrated. But I always see people put salt ...
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When reducing, why do you simmer instead of boil?

All recipes call for simmering a dish if you wish to reduce. I know that if for example if I wish to reduce wine, it will take me double the time or even more if I simmer instead of just cranking the ...
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How do I know when my wine is properly reduced?

I guess it can be subjective according to tastes, but some reduction is required. If I could know what I am trying to do away with in the reduction process (alcohol, raw bite or volume) then I could ...
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How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?

I poured squeezed orange juice over my meatballs and I thought how well it complements them, but that it's too watery to enjoy with meat. I proceeded to reduce squeezed orange juice on the stove with ...
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What is "au sec"?

I am looking at making a variation of Alain Passard's egg, the Farm Egg with Corriander. The instructions are somewhat clear, with the key exception being the phrase "reduce until au sec". With a ...
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Is it possible to reduce without boiling?

I would like to concentrate flavour by reducing the water content but I do not wish to alter the temperature of the liquid. Is there a way to reduce the water content without boiling? Apart from ...
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How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough?

I followed this recipe over the weekend to try out something new: Eric Ripert's Red Snapper and Morels in Port Reduction My biggest issue was the sauce. It was very liquidy. I don't think it reduced ...
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Squash Casserole: Reducing the water content?

I love squash casserole, summer squash or zucchini. I notice when I use the zucchini, there seems to be a much greater water content and it makes it hard to set. The summer squash, although there ...
Joy Grayson's user avatar
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How to reduce a sauce at the bottom of a baking dish?

A recipe I'm interested in making asks to bake some vegetables in the oven in a baking dish, afterwards, to reduce any remaining liquid by putting the pan on a stove over medium heat. I'm not sure ...
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Does quality decrease by heavily reducing wine?

Somewhere I read a suggestion to reduce wine separately before making a red wine sauce. After doing that, the alcohol taste is always gone, and I can control the wine taste efficiently. A few times ...
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I want to know how to express the result of reduced liquid.

I want to know the best way to express the result of reduced liquid. Example; 5 quarts reduced to 3 Cups. Should it be expressed as ratio or percentage? How do I do the calculation?
user22759's user avatar
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Which cut makes cheapest goulash?

I found I like goulash very much, but the bang for the buck is rather poor - I don't get much made for the amount of meat used up. I tried using different cuts; ham, neck, shoulder. The latter, ...
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What if anything make a liquid a good candidate for a reduction?

What if anything makes a liquid a good candidate for a reduction? Often you see things like wines and fruit juices called to be reduced for recipes. Why are they so common? What specifics about ...
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Pan instead of a skillet

I'm going to be cooking salmon in a white wine sauce & the directions indicate that I need to use a skillet. I don't have one of these, would I be able to use a normal pan or a frying pan instead ...
Mary's user avatar
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Why does my red wine reduction go 'grainy'?

After frying some meat, say beef or lamb, sometimes I want to make a red wine reduction. After lifting the meat out of the pan I turn the heat down to low and add the wine. The wine tends to bubble ...
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7 answers
382k views

My tomato sauce is very watery

It has flavor, but its consistency is too thin. Will letting sit over medium low heat evaporate enough to increase its density or is this useless? Would bringing it to a boil help more. I don't want ...
Matt's user avatar
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3 answers
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How do you reduce a cream sauce?

My wife made a cream based sauce last night and the recipe said to "reduce" it. The cream sauce was comprised of some white wine, couple cups of heavy cream and chicken broth (my wife substituted ...
Ovi Tisler's user avatar
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3 answers
12k views

How can I make very small quantities of balsamic reduction?

Last night, a dish called for a drizzle of balsamic reduction. I thought that, in order to get a good reduction and not burn anything, I'd need way more balsamic than the recipe called for. Is there ...
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How should I add wine to the sauce for my duck?

I have some chicken stock that I've made, that I want to use as a base for a sauce for some duck. I am roasting the duck bones at the moment and will simmer them in the chicken stock for a while. ...
Sam Holder's user avatar
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