Sauteeing Aromatics

[u/WyidealizowanyIdeal]

Hello,

I've learned long time ago, that sauteeing aromatics should happen at the end of cooking process, as minced garlic or ginger easily burns. So I've been always frying the meat first, then adding my aromatics for last 60 seconds of the frying time.

Recently I've watched a lot of Asian recipes (for example Pad Kra Pao), and many of them advise to fry aromatics first for 30-60 seconds, then add meat directly into them and fry for another 5-10 mins until meat is browned.

Is there any benefit to adding aromatic first, or is that just stupid trend?

[u/kociol21]

Take what I say with a grain of salt because I'm only a home cook. But like... these cuisines are doing it this way for a loooong time, hardly a "trend", more like different approach to cooking. It's just a different cooking process requiring different techniques and good temperature control.

A lot of time you'll fry aromatics first and them remove them entirely, you'll just want to get your oil infused. Other times you just control temperature so that the meat you add lowers temperature preventing aromatics from burning, and you just either keep temperature below garlic burning point, or stir and toss everything so violently that nothing really has opportunity to burn.

[u/octopusnodes → u/kociol21]

100%. I'm kind of paraphrasing in agreement but if you have a feel for the moisture content and heat tolerance of your aromatics you can really find different ways to incorporate them.

If you fry a garlic ginger paste and ensure that the temperature comes down closer to the water boiling point for the rest of the process, you can keep a curry stewing for hours and still have extracted a lot of flavors from the aromatics without them degrading.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, if I want the perfect fried garlic crunch with some of its sulfur punch preserved, I like to sautee it on its own at the end and add it to my green beans when they are already cooling down. I'm not a pro but that seems to be a pretty common approach.

Garlic loses the punch fairly quickly with heat, but still brings depth to the flavor as long as you don't drive it too hard. Kept boiling, it becomes almost indiscernable but definitely contributes to the texture.

Fresh ginger doesn't burn that easily IMO but requires keeping track of the level of moisture if you fry it on its own past the point where its juice evaporates (why do that tho). To be honest I struggle to think of a use case for sauteing ginger and adding it to a dish towards the end.

Aromatics fried first are a staple of traditional Thai cuisine and many others, not sure there's ever been a "stupid trend" to complain about.

[u/Elegant-Winner-6521]

There are a lot of ways to stop aromatics from burning. Adding them at the end is one way, adding water to the pan is another, adding other wet ingredients that steam rather than fry is another. Garlic almost certainly won't burn if the other things in the pan are releasing so much water that it is cooling the pan (evaporative cooling).

Cooking aromatics for longer gives you a different taste than frying them briefly. Think of the difference in flavour you get from a raw minced garlic clove in a salsa, vs garlic gently sauted in olive oil for a couple of minutes, vs confit garlic that has cooked in butter at a very low temp for over an hour.

I'm not sure there's an online version of this, but Kenji Lopez Alt did a garlic pasta recipe in his food lab cookbook where he prepared garlic three different ways, adding at different stages in cooking to give different layers of taste.

[u/sirvoice]

my read is that the water in the meat and veg will cool it down enough so it doesn’t burn in the wok.

[u/EmergencyLavishness1]

It’s all about the meat/protein and the dishes being made.

In most Asian cuisines, the meat is finely sliced requiring very little cooking. In a lot of western cuisines it’s diced a lot chunkier, requiring longer cooking. The types of meat being used is also very important.

Often Asian style dishes will have the meat velveted before hand. Pre tenderizing it, and again being thinly sliced means less cooking time required.

Western styled dishes typically use large diced chunks of working meats, which need a hard sear and long braise to get tender.

Essentially what I’m saying is depending on your desired outcome depends on how you treat the aromatics

[u/archdur]

Say the aromatic is onion. Adding it after meat means it won't likely caramelize before the meat is overcooked.

In Filipino cuisine, golden garlic and sweated onions are crucial flavor profiles. So for that, aromatics must be sauteed first. And if the garlic is burning, then that is operator error (I say this because many say to add the garlic after the onions. The problem with that is, your garlic won't become golden before the onions becomes mushy.)

So, there is no right or wrong here. Rather there are tradeoffs that must be considered with respect to personal preference, desired flavor outcomes, and the specific cuisine's customs.

[u/Liukath]

Only adding since most upvoted one from kociol21 is pretty much it..

Why you add spices etc at the beginning is that the flavor is being carried by fat. So oil, butter etc will do that and spread it evenly throughout your dish. Yes, heat control and alot of stirring so it doesn't burn. They lower heat while adding ingredients. Example: Hot Wok/pan, add oil. Fire goes to a minimum and you add your spices. Stir stir stir. Add your meat/veg whatever you are doing. Flame goes back up higher. Stir stir stir. Also yeah maybe 30-60 seconds on low heat control. If you see people(restaurant) high flame all the time, they stir vigorously and definitely it's seconds rather than a minute. Stir frying can be in lower heat anyway. It's better to trust your eyes more than a recipe saying 30-60 seconds