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A.
When you take food off the stove or out of the oven, it continues to be hot (unless you shock it). While it’s cooling down, it will continue to cook. This is called “carry-over cooking,” and understanding how it works and using it carefully can greatly improve the quality of your food. Meat: Careful management of this residual heat will allow you to hit your ideal level of doneness every time. Just use a thermometer to check your meat’s temperature, and remove it from the heat when it’s 5-10 degrees away from where you want it to be when you eat it. Vegetables: Desserts: Custards, particularly creme brulee, are tricky to carry-over cook. Pull them too early and they won’t finish setting up at all. That said, if you do it correctly, pulling JUST before they’re completely set and leaving them in their water bath to cool down slowly, your custard will still set, but with a softer, creamier texture that will have guests and family members swooning. Cheesecakes also need to carryover cook, but the purpose is less to finish cooking them and more to keep them from cooling down too quickly. A fast cooling cheesecake is a cracking cheesecake, so always leave cheesecakes in their water baths to slow the cooling process. Post your comment here:4 Responses to “What is carry-over cooking and how does it work?” |