/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.11937965]

Does flavor from seasonings/sauces seep into meats overtime after cooking?

Like say I make Chicken Alfredo and add nothing to the chicken before hand, brown it in a pan then add and simmer alfredo sauce then leave in containers in the fridge overnight will the cooked chicken absorb the sauce in a similar way like it would if you marinaded it for hours with some kind of marinade before cooking?

[Anonymous No.11937994]

>>11937965
Shit will happen but it probably won't be what you want. If anything, the cooked chicken will let out some moisture and make the alfredo sauce kind of gross. I think the rule of thumb is: make each ingredient delicious on its own and then combine delicious things into a delicious dish.

If you have plain, unseasoned cooked chicken, this violates the rule, so you should expect a bad result.

[Anonymous No.11938004]

>>11937965
Mostly yes. A marinade will tenderize whatever meat it comes in contact with, the cooked chicken won't tenderize from an alfredo sauce.
However marinades are mostly a meme and don't extensively tenderize or infuse flavors; they only influence the meat up to 0.1mm away from what they contact with and dry marinades(which are somewhat rare) are actually more effective than wet marinades(which are the most common) by usually adding a process that draws out moisture and so increases effectiveness of browning for flavor(ie. a sear)

However truly infusing one food with the flavors of another mostly needs to happen under heat and some mode of transport, such as the aromas whorling around a pan. When those chefs sear a steak, but then have butter with seasonings and flavors added to the pan, then actually use that butter to baste the steak, they're better accomplishing what the marinade attempted but the baste did easily 100x better. In fact, the chicken alfredo might come across better on reheat, but not because of the refrigeration time, it's mostly happening in the reheat time. The relation between heat and interaction is dramatic.

If you want blended flavors, practice actually blending the flavors during the cooking and not just with a last second mix. Stuff like finishing the cooking pasta in the sauce, basting with infused liquids, and so on.

[Anonymous No.11938511]

>>11937994
>rule of thumb is: make each ingredient delicious on its own and then combine delicious things into a delicious dish.

Exactly. You should be able to taste the different flavors in a dish. It shouldn’t all be one amorphous blob of a single flavor. Each ingredient should bring a unique flavor profile and texture that when added together equal something greater than the sum of its parts.

Here’s my spicy chicken Alfredo with peas from last night for example

[Anonymous No.11938515]

Every single component of a dish needs to be seasoned.

[Anonymous No.11938568]

>>11938004
>When those chefs sear a steak, but then have butter with seasonings and flavors added to the pan, then actually use that butter to baste the steak

Yep watch some of Ramsay’s videos. He will always throw his herbs and garlic into the pan just after he lays in his chicken so that the herbs and garlic will roast and release their aromas and flavors better. He’ll then add in his butter when he flips his chicken breast (when butter comes in changes depending on what’s being cooked, with steak the herbs and butter come later) and the herbs and garlic release all their flavors into that butter and then after a few minutes he spoons that butter over the chicken several times while cooking and will even place some of the herb/garlic under and on top of the meat. When I learned to do that my meats went to the next level of flavor.

[Anonymous No.11938825]

>>11937965
yes, brining is a thing for a resson

[Anonymous No.11939194]

>>11938511
looks breddy good anon