The Liquid Lifeforce
Drink it down because today we are talking about water
Water is the essence of life, and life is the essence of water. It’s not quite Derek Zoolander’s famous quote, but it will work for now. Water is the life force of nature, it’s what you and I are both made of, and we require a certain amount of it daily, or we will die.
H2o is what all life is made of, and it’s amazing that it just falls out of the sky. It makes our plants grow and keeps our animals alive, yet only about 3 percent of it is drinkable water. The rest of the water on this planet is saltwater, which makes a great home for aquatic life but it’s counterproductive for us to drink.
That’s gotta feel like some kind of cruel joke to be lost at sea, you’re surrounded by water, more thirsty than you have ever been but unfortunately, drinking that water will kill you faster than hunger ever will.
This elixir of life plays a vital role in our everyday lives, from keeping us alive to washing our clothes. We need water more than it needs us.
As a chef I see water as an essential part of cooking, after all, it’s one of the five elements of Earth, and no I am not talking about captain planet. In the culinary world, water can be used in a variety of ways such as a cooking medium for boiling foods like beans and rice.
Recently, I have been baking a good amount of bread as well as branching out into other baked goods such as bagels and pretzels, without water bread wouldn’t just be completely undesirable, it wouldn’t exist. Water is useful in tenderizing meats and what is broth but flavor-infused water.
In the commercial kitchen as well as in your home, cleaning, and sanitation is crucial to avoid unwanted bacteria and food-borne illness. Water is an essential ingredient for the process of cleaning and sanitizing kitchen tools, utensils, and surfaces, ensuring food safety and preventing cross-contamination.
One of the more modern cooking methods is sous vide cooking. This technique involves vacuum-sealing food in a bag and cooking it in a water bath at a precise temperature. Water plays a critical role in maintaining a constant temperature for consistent and evenly cooked results.
You can read more about sous vide cooking below in a previous article called,
Is Cooking Really That Simple?
Cooking methods throughout history have come a long way since the caveman was roasting a mammoth over an open fire. Today we have modern ovens, stoves, and other kitchen appliances to assist us in the kitchen yet the science behind cooking remains relatively the same, apply heat to a raw product until the desired temperature has been reached either for …
Water can act as a cushion of sorts for items like sauce or refried beans when reheating in the oven or on the stovetop. If you add a bit of water to these kinds of foods when they are being reheated the water will act as a catalyst for the heat so your food will heat up to the appropriate temperature without burning the product, therefore cushioning the reheating process. Essentially by the time the water has evaporated, the food has been heated through.
Bruce Lee has been quoted as saying, “Be like water”. Let’s take a look at this phrase for a second and think about what it means. For me to be like water means to be adaptable to flow around a problem and to find your way out, to be smooth and not rigid, to be powerful.
Another phrase is water will find a way, meaning that even if it takes forever water will keep going. That little crack in the rocks that has slowly formed drip after drip of water slowly making it bigger and bigger, that’s the epitome of taking small dedicated steps to achieve a goal, and being persistent in your efforts.
Water is the backbone of life, we are water and water is us. Everything that we do from agriculture to industry depends on it. It gives life and in the case of our oceans can mercilessly take it away.
If you’re outside the next time it rains, take the time to look up and be thankful that you are lucky enough to be standing underneath this vitally important finite resource.
Nice one.
Brian, I devised a primitive improvement at one of the kitchens I was working in: on the grill station in particular, I created a quat sanitizer solution for the grill tongs, so they could sit in a very diluted solution in between uses. Otherwise, the same tongs that were being used for partially cooked meats would be used to take the finished food off the grill.
In my head, this is still a good innovation, but this was 20+ years ago now. What do you think?