Should steaming water be used for stock/gravy?
Should I use water from steaming to make stock or gravy?
Does it depend from what I have steamed (e.g., potatoes or vegetables)?
Best Answer
It shouldn't matter if you re-use the water you used for steaming or use fresh water. I would only use it in a few situations:
- You want to season the gravy with whatever flavors ended up in the water
- You want some of the starch in the water to help thicken the gravy
- You want to be frugal and reuse the water and not pour it down the sink
The benefits of one and two are mostly negligible because the amount of flavor or starch isn't going to be that much.
Situation three is really the only reason I would reuse the water, but most of the time cooking water ends up watering the plants.
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Do you use veg water for gravy?
Adding the vegetable water from steaming/boiling your vegetables, as well as a couple of crumbled up stock cubes will make the gravy stretch much further, whilst still ensuring the flavour from the meat juices shines through.Do you salt water when steaming?
Arrange the vegetables in a loose, shallow layer so the steam can cook them evenly. Salt early. Sprinkling kosher salt on the vegetables right after they go into the steamer jump-starts the process of flavor release. You can salt later, too, but adding a little salt early on is a good practice.How do you make steamed water with vegetables?
Besides containing trace nutrients that leach out from the cooked vegetables into the pan water, this liquid essence can be used for cooking dishes such as pasta, rice, soups and stews. Saving vegetable water is also a good way to conserve in your cooking and be less wasteful while adding nutrients.How do you prepare steam?
The pot is filled with a small amount of liquid that is brought to a simmer; the item to be cooked is placed in a basket suspended above the liquid, and the pot is then covered. The hot steam circulates through the pot and cooks the food very quickly.How to make GRAVY
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Answer 2
In general I would not reuse steaming water to make gravy. As devin_s said you are unlikely to get much flavor from there. Depending on what you're steaming (e.g. spinach), however, you are likely to pick up some bitterness or other off flavors.
Water used for boiling, on the other hand, can be very useful. For example, if you have boiled shrimp with aromatics, that water can be very useful as a flavor foundation for a soup or stock. Pasta water (or potato water, I suppose) could be useful as a thickener. For example, I will often add a splash of pasta water to loosen up a thick pesto.
Answer 3
Just as my Mother did, I use potato and steamed vegetable water in gravy, why waste any flavour and nutients in the water.
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