On Time & Temperature
The Element of food
In essence, food is a defined by two central elements: flavour and texture. Both flavour and texture have been copiously researched and developed ever since the act of eating went from being a necessity to a form of entertainment, in recent time by the fantastic Samin Nosrat in her book “Salt Fat Acid Heat”. I’d like to dive deeper into an intrinsic element of texture, the time-temperature ratio and how it helps me understand food, from the perspective of a pizza guy.
There is something beautiful about making bread. While the flavour is achieved by the amount of salt and the type of fermentation, it is the texture that makes the bread stand out, it’s that crunchy feeling followed by the softness created by thousands of air bubbles trapped in the web stretched out inside the dough. Achieving the right texture takes longer and requires a lot more effort, and the ratio between time and temperature plays a critical role.
Different effects of temp-time ratio
In fact, it seems that the ratio between temperature and time is at the core of many textures. For instance, simmering a pot of stew for hours; tenderness is achieved in 4-6 hours at a temperature close to 100°C, whereas in a pressure cooker, where temperatures get to 120°C, one hour, sometime less, is enough to achieve the same degree of tenderness.
On the other end of the spectrum, prawns should cook in a hot pan (200°C -300°C) for a few minutes only, or in my case a pizza is baked in 90-120 seconds in an oven ranging between 350°C - 400°C. In all these cases, it is the ratio of temperature to time that creates the tenderness of the stew, the bittiness of the prawn and the crispy-softness of the pizza crust.
This ratio can be divided into categories in terms of cooking time as opposed to temperature, each with its own effect on texture: brief, short, medium, and long
· Brief (crisp) - measured in minutes with high heat, used for sauteing, boiling, and baking;
· Short (soft) - with temperature between 90°C-180°C and 1-4 hours, that would include roasting, some sorts of stocks;
· Medium (tender) – 4-24 hours, with temperatures varying from 25°C to 90°C, including simmering, stewing and light fermentation;
· Long (stretchy) - 1 day to 1 week at 4°C-25°C, that would include mainly fermenting.
There are of course exceptions, namely smoking, which can be between medium and short, but each ratio would give a different type of smoke. The same goes with preservatives like olives or aged beef that take a few weeks, all the way to the 18 months aging process for prosciutto.
In much the same way, this ratio determines the texture of one element; it is the play on this ratio that brings forth a good dish. When a few elements that carry different ratios meet, they become a classic element of cuisine, and an example is most pasta dishes:
Example of mixed ratios
Making pasta is a very long process, from making the dough to resting, rolling and cutting. This lengthy process is then combined with the brief process of cooking the pasta (boiling). These two ratios meet into a balanced element, itself coupled with a ragu cooked in the medium or short ratio (veal ragu or tomato sauce for example), thus bringing together 3 different ratios and creating a classic dish combining stretch crispiness and soft tenderness. To make it fancy one might add an element from and even higher ratio, such as olives, bacon or anchovy. It becomes quite interesting to analyze food from this perspective while taking apart the cooking process of both classic and modern dishes.
Elemental Pizza Ratio effects
This is a pizza blog, and my day-to-day obsessiveness (I suspect it has passed the obsession stage) with these little differences is what I froth on. I like to look at a pizza from start to finish, with all its elements and ratios they bring together.
The crust itself is the result of a fermentation done in a long ratio, in which the dough is resting and its stretchiness is formed (one can use a biga for the process, bringing in even more stretch, almost to the brink of breaking). On the other hand, the second stage where the dough rises is a short ratio, giving it its softness to the stretch, so that in one bite you can cut right through the crust rather than having to tear it off. Finally, the crust encounters a brief ratio, in which it is baked rapidly in high heat, producing the perfect crispiness the pizza crust is famous for.
The cheese itself, fresh mozzarella, is made in a week; it is a fresh cheese that in a long ratio develops a stretch that only becomes visible once it has melted briefly.
The tomato sauce is the flavour of the dish: it does not give texture, but rather binds all the elements together. It is tangy, sharp, sweet at times, but not soft or crisp. Interestingly, a crème-based pizza, as cream is made through a long-ratio process, brings a different feel to the pizza in a rounded, softer way.
When most of us think of pizzas, we think of a simple (yet delicious) dish; however, when we look at each of its elements, we can see how all these different ratios combine to create multiple, and even complex, layers of texture… It’s no wonder pizza is one of the world’s most popular dishes!
In my day, I like to play around and experiment with these ratios, sometime making them shorter or longer, and observe the outcome. Beyond allowing me to achieve the perfect crust, this has enabled me to better understand the process of cooking. It is enthralling to observe, and can reveal a sort of truth in between the lines of many recipes, revealing what makes them great and giving insight to find new ones, understanding the chef, and ultimately, understanding food.