Always Saute Celery Last?

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When adding mire poix or trinity veggies to a hot pot, I add them all at once. Garlic comes later to prevent burning. The point is to extract flavor from these veggies, not to do a perfect sauté. You want the veggies to soften and brown around the edges for most western dishes. These veggies end up getting cooked thoroughly in the pot with everything else.
 
I was watching a Youtube video the other day and one particular chef said when adding vegetables to a pot or pan to saute always hold off and add the celery after. The reason being that celery is comprised of so much water that it renders too much of it and will prevent the other vegetables, like carrots, onions, and garlic from caramelizing. So many recipes, weather they be European, North American, Latin American, start with these standard vegetables and techniques but yet I have never heard of this cooking tip. What's really funny is that it makes perfectly good sense....

Thoughts?

It only matters if you're planning to caramelize your mirepois. Many recipes only call for sauteing to a point of translucency, and in that case it wouldn't matter. I've made recipes which specifically call for sweating the veggies, not sauteing.
 
yup, sort of my point earlier.

but gg was right; it was specifically mentioned for caramelization.
 
A friend who is married into a family from India recently shared this with me: "Indian meals often take a lot longer to prep than western meals. What looks like a simple curry can have up to 18 ingredients. What westerners don't know is that it is often cooked one day and eaten the next at room temperature." My least favourite dishes to make for the photoshoots are Indian. They use far more mise-en-place dishes and require more prep than other dishes. But, I love the end result, just not dealing with all those little dishes.


but, but, what about servsafe? everyone in india must get food poisoning a lot if they eat room temp food cooked the day before. room temp takes longer to achieve from cold than from hot.

:D
 
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That's where dysentery comes from. Interestingly, dysentery can also cause lactose intolerance, which may explain the Indian aversion to cow's milk.
 
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