Chinese Food/Does the High Cooking Heat affect the taste?

[dragnlaw]

Greg... you're going to have to explain that one!

... teach me to be more of a "rhododendron"..... ???? wha???

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank you for quoting a relative (albeit distant). My Grandfather was an Eedson. Supposedly a version of Edison's name that one of my great-aunts found in our lineage. She was big into family trees.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Greg... you're going to have to explain that one!

... teach me to be more of a "rhododendron"..... ???? wha???

Also means "covered with scales, scaly leaves, or spots." It was my usual oddball humor. You know I'm incorrigible with my humor, right?

I didn't understand your reference to ________. You didn't give enough info for me to fill in the blank.

 

[dragnlaw]

I was trying not to be insulted that you were referring to my scales.

As a dragon - it goes with the territory. Of course I am covered with scales, being of the green lineage a lot of them are leaves, I prefer not to refer to the "spots" but the "few" that I have are considered beauty or beautiful age enhancements. So even though I am only 700+ ages old I am just coming into my most comely era.
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[Greg Who Cooks]

I was trying not to be insulted that you were referring to my scales.

Don't make me buy a fire extinguisher, dragon breath!

Funny how my choice of words comes full unintended circle, considering I never connected your username to dragons. (Your avatar is very dark, and I suggest would benefit from 'Shopping it, giving it a bit more brightness and maybe some contrast if the brightness bleaches it out.)

I used to have a nutcase friend who decided to start calling people "lepidotes" even though that is not a noun that fits people. He defined it as, "scaly or covered with scurf." He thought he was funny, and we who knew him put up with it for a time.

I picked the word at random, yet you connected it full circle, and now it erroneously appears that I consciously selected it based on your username or avatar. This is how misunderstandings occur. In this case evidently not traumatic, but it's still a good lesson on how a person can say something trying to be funny, and then due to unintended consequences, could be taken by somebody else as insulting (although I know you didn't take it that way).

Actually I'm not that clever.

This is one of the very annoying effects of text only communications, absent facial expression, absent body language, absent tone of voice, absent of other visual and audible and other non-verbal nuances that modify what was really intended by the speaker.

I hope we can all take away from my comments that misunderstandings often develop in text only communications simply because it is a limited form of communications that is often easily misunderstood.

 

[dragnlaw]

This is one of the very annoying effects of text only communications, absent facial expression, absent body language, absent tone of voice, absent of other visual and audible and other non-verbal nuances that modify what was really intended by the speaker.

...'cause it is a limited form of communications that is often easily misunderstood.

Well, I 'sort of' disagree.. but it does take willingness and sometimes a bit of ingenuity to communicate that way.

It is amazing just exactly how much CAN be communicated by text only. Emojicons (or whatever they're called) - italics - bold letters - capitalization's... can all show various expressions of nuances the body, voice tone, and visual intentions, etc. were intended.

Inserting an or an can turn what could have been an insulting reply into the light hearted jibe it was meant to be!

Read a good book lately? Were you drawn in to what was going on? Did you feel their fear, surprise, shock, ecstasy, despair, ... yada yada... it was all conveyed with words.

Bottom line is ... you have to WANT to be understood in the frame that you intend.... awe... jeeze...
Guess I'll shut-up now before I get in too deep...

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Yeah but I never connected scales at all to your username or avatar. Yet it appears that my comment connected them. Then people assume I intended to connect them. Sometimes when that happens people get mad at me. They're getting mad at something that they connected that I never intended or connected myself. Yet I get the blame. It's happened before.

Out of all the ways your words can be interpreted, it's almost impossible to see them all as you post them.

It almost makes me want to write fiction and then people can just buy the damned novel or not, I can just ignore the reviews and merely look at the royalties. Actually I do want to try writing fiction. Don't worry, not on this forum!

 

[buckytom]

I maintain that the sauce with which a wokked dish is served in is, save some that are dependent largely on the scorch factor, what decides its greatness.

The wok hei is really secondary. Actually tertiary to the quality of the ingredients.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I maintain that the sauce with which a wokked dish is served in is, save some that are dependent largely on the scorch factor, what decides its greatness.

I couldn't agree with you more! -- and in fact for a scorch factor example, the peanuts in Kung Pao. You didn't do it right if the peanuts aren't a bit scorched.

And irrespective of everything else, I believe in my own judgement on how my Asian cooking comes out. Actually I am overly self-critical. By the time I am satisfied, the dish is fantastic!

I've designed maybe about 2 dozen original recipes in my life. I'm not saying they are things nobody else has cooked, just that my ingredients and cooking directions are uniquely my own, created by me after cooking a recipe over and over, even dozens of times until it was just perfect.

Not Asian, but my mother used to cook a spoon bread recipe when I was a kid. (Officially, part of US Southern cuisine.) One day too late because my mother had gotten old I asked her for the recipe and she couldn't remember. I cooked I'm sure over 2 dozen variations before I found one that tasted exactly like she cooked when I was a kid.

Everybody here has a choice: you can be a cook or you can be a chef. Buy a cookbook and follow the directions and you are a cook. Only a chef can get an idea and create an original recipe based on their own concept. Even if they are recreating a concept. The process is the same. You know the ending but you don't know how to get there until you figure it out for yourself.

I can't tell you anything about authentic Asian cooking except what I've read in cookbooks and what I've eaten at admittedly Westernized Asian recipes in my part of US. But I can tell you that my best Asian recipes are as good and sometimes better than I can find in restaurants. But I didn't come from Asia and I'm certain I have no call to tell anybody what is traditional. I don't do traditional because I don't know traditional. All I know is what's good: that's what I cook. And I don't need a mega-hot wok to cook good Asian-style food.

Actually, watching Asian cooking TV shows, I just realized they weren't using any fancy radioactively-hot woks either. They used the same stuff I cook with. In fact their woks looked like the cheap stuff I see in bargain price stores. Just a plain iron wok over an ordinary stove.

 

[dragnlaw]

... I never connected scales at all to your username or avatar. Yet it appears that my comment connected them. Then people assume I intended to connect them. They're getting mad at something that they connected that I never intended or connected myself. Yet I get the blame.

Out of all the ways your words can be interpreted, it's almost impossible to see them all as you post them.

It almost makes me want to write fiction

'connected scales' but that was really funny! I had never heard the word before and had to 'google' it! It was a perfect response!

If someone assumes a connection and "gets angry?"... well, you know what 'assume' means "ass of you and me" but I always ignore the 'me' part because everyone knows I'm not an 'ass'... (memo to self... lose weight as your ass is getting pretty damn ... large/big/humongus/disgusting/awkkk!)

So write that fiction - I would be honoured to proof read it.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

It's happened to me. Things I said were misinterpreted because I missed the connotations, misunderstood the meaning or didn't make a connection that somebody else made. Enough said.

I wouldn't have ever heard the word I used if not for weird Paul who I knew decades ago, and I guess he too had a facility to remember weird words. In fact I may never again have any occasion to use that specific word.

Somehow a dragon having a fat ass seems entirely fitting and consistent to me. Can you imagine a skinny dragon? They call that a snake! Just feed him grain alcohol and tape a cigarette lighter to his snout.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with a "too big" problem. Perhaps we can share ideas and/or cheer one another along to our new, smaller selves.

First hint: join a gym. Next hint: (I already did #1) your gym won't do any damned good unless you go there and work out. I'm working on that one. I'll go there tomorrow. I always go there tomorrow. One of these times I'll have to go there today!

 

[dragnlaw]

 

[Andy M.]

I guess if you think about the original question, 'does high heat effect the taste'. The answer has to be yes. It certainly does with other foods. It's why we cook steaks over high heat and eggs over low heat.

 

[dragnlaw]

I agree Andy. I should think it is fairly obvious. Look what happens to those eggs when you use too high a heat. And you would hardly swallow that steak if it were cooked over low heat - it would be steamed!

 

[GotGarlic]

I guess if you think about the original question, 'does high heat effect the taste'. The answer has to be yes. It certainly does with other foods. It's why we cook steaks over high heat and eggs over low heat.

Reading the entire original post, the question seems to me it was more like "is the extremely high heat used in restaurants necessary to make a good stir fry at home"? If that's true, then the answer, as with so much else, depends on what you want to achieve.

As I said, I'm not interested in making Asian food that tastes like Chinese takeout, so for me, the answer is no. I get great results with my stainless steel sauté pan on my gas stove.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I was going to reply as GG did. My posts sort of changed to answering the question, "Is high heat necessary." I guess I can sum it up that it depends on each individual's opinion. It appears there is no concensus.

Anyway I don't have any way to create such high heat so the issue is moot for me.

 

[Andy M.]

Reading the entire original post, the question seems to me it was more like "is the extremely high heat used in restaurants necessary to make a good stir fry at home"? If that's true, then the answer, as with so much else, depends on what you want to achieve.

As I said, I'm not interested in making Asian food that tastes like Chinese takeout, so for me, the answer is no. I get great results with my stainless steel sauté pan on my gas stove.

I took a more general look at the question. Wok cooking over high heat vs. wok cooking over less heat. No comparison of restaurant vs. home cooking. Just high vs. not as high heat. High heat cooking yields a different result. No judgement of which is better. Just that there is a difference.

 

[dragnlaw]

Anyway, just watching the flame coming out hitting that wok. Its clearly more than anything I can produce in my home.

So, question is, aside from having the right ingredients, does that high of a heat itself have its own affect on the actual taste?

So even if I had the right ingredients, would it taste different, cooking it on a much lower heat than they use? or would it not be that significant of a difference ??

Just curious

larry

there is a human equation involved here as well Larry. Not only the ingredients and quantities are involved but the dexterity and finesse with which it is added. I believe the heat does change the taste if for no other reason than the length of time the ingredients are in contact with the heat. The motion of the wok or spatula that is being wielded is also a fact.

Should that exact same chef/cook come to your house and cook that meal - with his own utensils and on your stove, his first attempts would not be the same. I'm pretty sure thou, that after a couple of tries he would quickly adjust his technique and produce a meal that no one (except maybe himself - mind over matter) would be able to tell the difference in.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Should that exact same chef/cook come to your house and cook that meal - with his own utensils and on your stove, his first attempts would not be the same. I'm pretty sure though, that after a couple of tries he would quickly adjust his technique and produce a meal that no one (except maybe himself - mind over matter) would be able to tell the difference in.

There you go. Agreeing with me. Might not be exactly the same but close. And anyway how many of us have any hope of owning a wok with a 3 foot blowtorch under it?

When you cook at home you gotta go with what you got. And the good part, if you like your cooking then you're happy.

I doubt there is any serious member of this forum who doesn't like their own cooking except maybe a few novices who will achieve that status one day if they keep trying.

 

[medtran49]

You know what, I have never cooked eggs over low heat. I've always cooked scrambled eggs over as high as heat as possible, stirring constantly, and they ALWAYS, come out light, fluffy/puffy, and moist. There may be a little liquid coming out of them, but I just soak that up with some paper towels. I mix the eggs with a bit of milk or cream, salt, and scramble them in a pan on heat heat with a little butter (not allowed to brown, just to start to sizzle). The eggs I've seen cooked over low heat don't look nearly as appetizing as what I make.