In my country is preparing several dishes using this technique, one of the favorite dishes is "fish sweaty", which makes with garlic, onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper and fish fillets or whole fish, and until the firing stops sweating, it is very delicious.
I will try put the recipe when I have the photographs.

That would be great - here is a link to the test kitchen

Then just hit the "add a recipe" and go ahead and enter your recipe.

I am working with a cook and she insists on putting brown parchment paper over whatever she is sweating. Is this really necessary? Wouldn't a tight fitting lid do the same trick?

You generally do not have to use parchment paper or a lid to sweat. Sometimes to get the process going (like when doing a big bunch of onions) you might want to use a lid at the beginning.

I do believe that some cooks can be too stuck to their way of doing things. Perhaps it's just how they learned - but I am constantly asking myself..."does this make sense".

I also wanted to note that using parchment on the surface and a tight fitting lid do not always work the same. The tight fitting lid would allow for the condensation on the lid to fall back into the pot, while the parchment would not.

Hope this helps Carin

Does it make a difference in sweating onions or vegetables without salt or seasoning with salt while sweating?
So, salt or not to salt during sweating?

Regards,
Attila

For more information cooking and how salt affects things, watch the lesson on "How to Season with Salt", in particular the topic called "How Salt Affects Food", even the topic after that one...actually maybe just watch the whole lesson :-) Good luck!

What to do after sweating? Do sweated vegetables remain in pan as we add other food, or we put them on side, until they're needed?

It depends on what you are making really. There may be times when you remove the food but most often you leave the ingredients in the pan and continue on with what you are making. Cheers!

I just went over this lesson again and tried the garlic comparison which was suggested in the practice page. I love garlic and I had NO idea how awful lightly browned garlic can make things taste. It was incredible to see and taste and smell the difference between the 2 waters.

can you get the same result by microwaving vegies with a little butter for 2 to 3 min - do you lose flavor? do you lose nutrients? or, when sweating stovetop does it lose flavor and nutrients?

Unfortunately, you will not be able to sweat vegetables in this way using the microwave. When sweating on the stove top it is the slow and low heat that produces the soft and translucent vegetables. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Can you briefly explain mirepoix? Is the lesson referring to all types of small cut vegetables or just carrots, onions and celery. Sometimes the lesson uses mirepoix and other times it just says vegetables.

These terms are used interchangeably and refer to the vegetable components used at the beginning of a dish. For more information, please refer to the drill-down attached to Topic 3 (What is Mirepoix?). Cheers!

This really was a sweet one. How to slow cook the mirepoix and release there sweet flavor so that it can be later injected into the main dish when needed. Thanks for the inspiring mehtod of the sweat box.

Just made an omelette today. Thought onions & red peppers in the fridge would do the trick. Still learning when to use certain techniques. So - started slow - practically sweating for about 20 min. (just the onions & red peppers) with olive oil. Then didn't know what to do... let it kept cooking slowly - didn't add more oil - and whole concoction started to caramelize a bit. Too say the least - it was delicious in the omelette... but main question: when making an omelette filling, or even a pasta sauce - sweat or sauté? And if you start in one direction (sweating) - I assume you wouldn't want to raise the heat - and then have those things start to caramelize? Tell me what you think about what I did, and when to use these techniques. Thanks.

It all depends on what you want to achieve in the dish. Sweating will soften the ingredients and bring out their flavor (with no added color); sauteing will soften, caramelize and give ingredients a sweet flavor (with added color). To sweat or saute - it's up to you. Try both and see which you prefer. Or simply just have the knowledge that you have the ability to tweak the flavors depending on which technique you choose to use. It's all about being flexible and experimenting to find which techniques/flavors you like best. If you start with the idea of sweating, simply stop the cooking process once the ingredients are soft...if you start with the idea of sauteing, raise the heat and cook the ingredients until they start to brown and caramelize. You're not doing anything wrong. The main thing is to understand the heat and pay attention to what is happening in the pan. Keep on experimenting to find what you like for a particular dish. Cheers!

On the quiz on sweating vegetables I could only find two questions wrong. The score says I missed three. Is it possible to regrade my quiz? Please let me know.

Hi Barbara,

We checked your quiz and it appears that you inadvertently missed/didn't answer one question which was: When sweating large vegetables, the flavor will not be completely extracted during cooking because the outside will be fully cooked before the inside is done.

You are welcome to re-take the quiz as many times as you like to improve your grade. We are working to add a feature to the quiz to alert you if you have missed a question prior to having it graded. Cheers!

How do you choose between Kosher or regular salt? If sodium needs to be kept down, should the salt be skipped completely in a recipe or lessened? Some of the recipes have salt listed in two places, is this needed?

I am enjoying the lessons!

Thank you.
Donna

You may want to check out the lesson on How to Season With Salt, as we go into quite a bit of detail about salt here. The brining lesson, in topic 5, also goes into quite a bit of detail about salt as well.

Note: Our recipes sometimes calls for salt in 2 places as we list the ingredients in order of when they should be used. For example rather than saying 2 teaspoons of salt and then saying in the method "use half the salt" we would simply just break it up so you use the appropriate amount of salt when it's necessary. Step 1 might use 1 tsp and Step 3 may use 1 tsp. Does that make sense?

As for skipping the salt in a recipe this is entirely up to you and your dietary needs; however, salt does play a very important role in cooking and it is something that I would not want to cook without. Again, you may find it helpful to review the lesson on Seasoning. Cheers!

Thank you so much- I did the Season with Salt lesson and now I understand better. For years I didn't cook with salt at all because of needing to keep low sodium. I'm very careful with processed foods, but because I am disabled I often need to take the "easy way out" in order to have dinner on the table. I may not be able to change that but I'll be even more careful with labels than I've been and cooking all my own will be seasoned properly. I'll try to get to the brining tomorrow. Thank you!

Can sweating reduce the bitterness in vegetables?

Generally, bitter vegetables is a sign that the vegetables are older or past their peak. Sweating can sometimes mellow the flavor but the technique of sweating is meant to draw out the flavor not mask it. Cheers!

Many thanks! Where can I read more about what makes a vegetable bitter when it gets old?

Perhaps there might be some gardening or horticultural books that talk about what makes vegetables bitter as they grown or age...or perhaps Harold McGee in his "On Food and Cooking" might have some information for you? Hope that helps. Cheers!