Veggies still hard after 90 mins

[AeroGEL]

Hello,

I made a meat and veg casserole, with potato, carrots and sweet potato diced into approx half inch cubes.
I included a jar of masterfoods Cooking Sauce...
https://www.masterfoods.com.au/cooking-sauces/caramelised-onion-red-wine/

... and about a cup of beef stock, and about a cup of water.

I baked it in the oven for 90mins, and when I dished it out and began eating it, I found that the vegies were still a little bit hard and not as tender as I would have thought for such a long cooking time at 180C.

Now if I had boiled these vegies in a pan of water for 90mins, there would be nothing left of them... especially the potato, so what do you think went wrong.

Thanks

 

[creative]

180C is a very moderate oven, i.e. not even medium heat. Was the meat cooked in this time?

How crowded was the casserole with all these root vegetables? There needs to be some loose liquid i.e. not too thick a sauce for them to cook sufficiently.

 

[AeroGEL]

Hi,
The meat was lovely and tender.
I'm confident that there was enough liquid which is why I added a cup each of stock and water. When I took it out of the oven it was happily boiling away.

Remember that boiling point of water is 100 C, but the oven was set to 180C
So this suggests the oven should have been hot enough for 1 & half hours.

It's got me stumped.

 

[tenspeed]

Hi,
Remember that boiling point of water is 100 C, but the oven was set to 180C
So this suggests the oven should have been hot enough for 1 & half hours.

It's got me stumped.

For the benefit of those in the Fahrenheit world, 180 C is 356 F.

 

[puffin3]

Did you bake it covered or uncovered?

 

[AeroGEL]

Yes, the casserole container was covered whilst cooking.
Also, I added a can of diced tomatoes and some tomato paste, (concentrate).

Is it possible that a high acidity of the liquid had something to do with this result?

 

[ShellyCooks]

You may have overcrowded the pot with the veggies. Letting it boil another 15-20 minutes might have been just enough to completely cook the veggies. Also, next time, try to cut the veggies a little smaller or do what I often do -- steam the veggies slightly and then add them to the boiling pot. They are always cooked through and not mushy. If your veggies were older, maybe overgrown, they have more fiber and take longer to cook. Good luck next time!

 

[AeroGEL]

Thanks ShellyCooks.
I'll try an extra 20mins next time, and then try some pre-cooking in the steamer if the extra 20mins doesn't help.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Did you preheat your oven before placing the casserole in the there?

 

[AeroGEL]

No... I'm pretty sure there was no extended period of pre-heating.
Maybe 3 mins at most.

 

[Kayelle]

If, as you said, the veggies were in half inch cubes, with that amount of liquid, there's no logical reason why they shouldn't be cooked in 90 minutes at 350F degrees. A whole baked potato wouldn't take that long.
Unless there's something missing, I'm stumped too AeroGel.

By the way, welcome to Discuss Cooking, and thanks for the head scratcher question.

 

[AeroGEL]

My thoughts were perhaps it's a problem of chemistry.
Could it be that the acidity from the tomatoes had something to do with it?

I must say that they only seemed to be partially cooked, in that they didn't fall apart as easily as what I thought they would have when eating something thats been cooked for 90mins...

They did have to be chewed a bit.
very odd.

 

[GotGarlic]

I don't think the tomatoes caused the problem. If anything, acidity helps break down fibers.

It's important to preheat the oven to the cooking temperature you want before putting the food in. You don't need to leave it at that temp for any length of time, but if the oven wasn't at temperature before the casserole went in, it didn't cook at 180 for those 90 minutes. That could lead to undercooking.

 

[Dawgluver]

'Tis a puzzlement. Sounds like you did everything right.

BTW, welcome to DC!

 

[taxlady]

I don't understand it either. Even if it took the oven 15 minutes to reach 180°C, then they were cooking at that temperature for an hour and 15 minutes. My roasted vegis were a bit over done after about 40 minutes at 350°F (~175°C). So, maybe it was some kind of chemical reaction. Maybe they got hard again after having gotten soft?

 

[GotGarlic]

Taxy, I don't see how that's possible. Once the cell structure has been broken down, more heat won't build it up again.

Maybe the oven thermostat is off. Do you have an oven thermometer, AeroGEL? It might be a good idea to use one to make sure the oven reaches the correct temperature.

 

[Andy M.]

A room temperature covered casserole filled with cold/room temperature foods including sauce, water and broth going into a cold oven. The oven has to heat up before it can heat the casserole so the hot casserole can transfer heat to the foods in it. All that liquid has to be heated to a boil so it can heat the veggies and start to cook them.

If you were making a regular stew, you'd prepare the meats and veggies on the stove top, add the liquids and bring them to a boil before you put the pot into a hot oven. Then you'd cook it for a couple of hours.

 

[taxlady]

Taxy, I don't see how that's possible. Once the cell structure has been broken down, more heat won't build it up again. ...

I wasn't thinking of the cell structure rebuilding. Maybe this wouldn't happen in a moist environment, but I have overcooked roasted vegis that shrivelled and got hard.

 

[cinisajoy]

Always preheat the oven.
Second do check your oven temperature, it may be off.
Is your oven gas or electric?
My gas oven takes approximately 10 minutes to get to 350° F.
Did you use a regular oven or a small countertop oven?
Also what type of baking dish?

All of those things could be factors in hard vegetables?
How many of each vegetable did you put in?

 

[GotGarlic]

I wasn't thinking of the cell structure rebuilding. Maybe this wouldn't happen in a moist environment, but I have overcooked roasted vegis that shrivelled and got hard.

I see what you mean. That's happened to me, too. It seems like she had a lot of liquid that would prevent them from drying out like that, though.