25
votes
How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?
How about using orange zest instead of the juice? That way you'll get a lot of the aroma and flavor we think of as "orange" without really changing the sweetness or acidity.
- 950
20
votes
Accepted
How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough?
The whole thing should've been done with the lid off. Any time you're reducing a sauce, you want the steam (moisture) to escape.
As for 'how thick', the standard test is 'coats the back of a spoon'. ...
- 79.3k
10
votes
How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?
You might try zesting the orange, reducing the juice a bit, and then adding the zest to the syrup and then cooking it down a bit more. You may or may not wish to strain it after letting the zest cook ...
- 58.4k
9
votes
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When should you season sauce that needs to be reduced?
First of all, people indeed often add some seasoning in the beginning, but are usually careful with the amount, especially with salt.
Flavor-wise, you could add it at the end, after the reduction and ...
- 13.3k
8
votes
My tomato sauce is very watery
Contra the previous answers: when using fresh tomatoes, one key to avoiding watery tomato sauce (and sauces based on many other kinds of vegetable purees) is to bring to close to a boil quickly at the ...
- 32k
8
votes
Accepted
Is this Pomegranate Molasses rescuable?
Yes. You can dissolve your pomegranate candy in plain water and cook it to a more usable consistency. A candy thermometer is useful here. But if you have any instant read thermometer for cooking, you ...
- 5,204
7
votes
Accepted
Can you use wine for cooking even after it's past it's drinking date?
There's no rule that you have to drink your wine 24 hours after un-corking it, in fact some wines can taste better after 24 hours. 3 or 4 days is fine in many cases, and some wines are still drinkable ...
- 74.2k
7
votes
How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?
You have a couple of solutions:
Make it thicker with agar agar instead of starch
Use something like jam or marmalade
The latter might be to close of the sugary paste you dislike. However agar agar ...
- 136
7
votes
Keep alcohol in spiced rum reduction?
You can do something based on freeze-concentrating:
Partially freeze it until ice crystals form
Strain the ice off.
The liquid will contain much of the alcohol and alcohol-soluble flavour compounds,...
- 43.1k
6
votes
Accepted
How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?
The only good way I know of to concentrate fresh orange juice and maintain the flavor is by removing the water. But not by heating it, as the heat will destroy the flavor.
You need a vacuum distiller ...
- 1,084
6
votes
How do you reduce wine when deglazing without burning the fond?
Prior to adding wine (or any liquid), you have browned meat and/or vegetables. Ideally, you are looking for a dark browning. Once you've removed those items from the pan, you add wine or other ...
- 73.1k
6
votes
Making large batches of syrups and sauces without reducing the majority of what I originally started with?
Follow the recipe and increase everything by the same proportion if you want to make more instead of just adding more water. You've octupled the water but kept everything else about the same. Of ...
- 764
5
votes
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Reducing stock and then adding water
Basically, a good stock is fairly concentrated. In general, home cooks use too high a water to bones/veg ratio for a proper result. So, when you leave your stock uncovered you are concentrating ...
- 73.1k
5
votes
Accepted
When reducing, why do you simmer instead of boil?
There's another reason for not boiling liquids, besides the possibility of making a mess (boiling over) or ruining it (scorching, etc.).
You actually reduce the amount of flavor by boiling. As Kenji ...
- 79.3k
5
votes
How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough?
This is really down to both personal preference and experience. You know roughly how long you simmered this sauce for and that the consistency was too thin, so next time you know to simmer it for ...
- 43.5k
5
votes
How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough?
We do a lot of sauces and never use a lid through any part of the process. No need for it at all. Thickness desired is pretty much up to you. Start the process at higher heat so the ingredient's are ...
- 1,815
4
votes
How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?
If you have enough time, you could make an orange extract. Just peel pieces of zest from several oranges (avoid the white pith) and soak them in vodka for a couple of weeks, then filter it. Then you ...
- 425
4
votes
Accepted
How do I know when my wine is properly reduced?
The goal is to evaporate alcohol and concentrate flavor. If adding wine to a mirepoix, or sofrito...some sort of early stage aromatic vegetable... reduce the wine almost until the pan goes dry, but ...
- 73.1k
4
votes
When making a sauce, at what point should you add the wine?
In sauce making, you would add liquid (wine, water, broth, etc.) to release the fond (browned bits) that adhere to the bottom of your pan. Therefore, as related to your question, after sauteing. The ...
- 73.1k
4
votes
What would happen if I blended (liquified) onions and then reduced the result?
You would first boil the onions and then most likely burn them.
1st: boiling. Caramelization needs higher temperatures than 100 Celsius but as far as there is water in the mixture, temperature won't ...
4
votes
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What would happen if I blended (liquified) onions and then reduced the result?
I attempted this as an experiment and the result was very similar to traditional caramelized onion:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/yoSwO.jpg
I'm not expert so it is hard for me to comment on the changes ...
- 1,840
4
votes
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How can I prevent reductions from turning into molasses?
You already stumbled over the correct answer - your reduction was held too long on the stove.
It doesn't matter what liquids and aromatics you are including, at the end you are making a sugar syrup. ...
- 135k
3
votes
Accepted
Can you cook off the acidity in wine?
You can' "cook off" acidity, but you can balance it. Typically in marinara, that is done with a small amount of sugar, or, better yet, half of a grated carrot per 28 oz can of tomatoes, sweated with ...
- 73.1k
3
votes
When reducing, why do you simmer instead of boil?
As you pointed out, liquids reduce a lot faster when you crank up the heat compared to when you leave it at a gentle simmer. The reason is simply that you're introducing a lot more thermal energy ...
- 1,410
3
votes
Is it possible to reduce without boiling?
It's not necessarily a practical home kitchen answer, but rotary evaporators do this, by lowering the pressure over the liquid and circulating the liquid to increase surface area.
There does exist a ...
- 58.1k
3
votes
Reducing sauce or gravy always forms a skin
Not an expert at this, but I suspect the skin that forms on top is just the upper layers that gets slightly drier from being exposed to open air. By not being submerged like the rest of the sauce, ...
- 2,168
3
votes
How to stop erythritol crystallisation?
This is simply the nature of erythritol. In my testing, I wasn't able to create any kind of viscous, syrup-like consistency by mixing it with water and heating it to reduce; rather, it would always ...
- 1,129
2
votes
Is it possible to reduce without boiling?
You could put the container of food into a bigger closed container also containing a strong desiccant like zeolithe or silica gel - these will probably needed to be dried in a hot oven before use, but ...
- 15.2k
2
votes
My tomato sauce is very watery
You need:
A large (.25 lb) parmesan cheese rind
Time:
bring to a boil first and then reduce to a simmer.
expect no less than 4 hours.
A deep kettle is better to reduce the chance of scorching ...
- 21
2
votes
Accepted
What is "au sec"?
I would read that to mean reducing to the point of it being syrupy. You can go with moderate heat until you sense it thickening, then you probably should turn it down to be very careful not to burn it....
- 58.4k
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