Doneness

Appears in

Published 2010

Four factors determine the correct doneness to which a vegetable or fruit should be cooked:

Intended use: Vegetables and fruits to be used in salads are often cooked more lightly to retain a crunchy texture. However, vegetable stews such as Ratatouille and fruits in compotes are cooked until tender. Vegetables and fruits for purées must be cooked soft.
Cooking style: If you are making an Asian dish, vegetables and fruits should be lightly cooked and crisp-textured. In French cuisine, they are cooked to a more tender texture. In Eastern European and American Southern cuisines, vegetables are cooked to a soft texture. Poached fruits should also be cooked soft.
Customer preference: Some customers appreciate crisp, lightly cooked vegetables and fruits, while to others these would be undercooked. If customer plates are returned to the dish room with uneaten produce, reevaluate the doneness.
Vegetable maturity or fruit ripeness: When cooking vegetables, maturity trumps all other factors. No matter the type of dish you are making or the cooking style in which you are working you must cook a vegetable according to its texture. If vegetables are more mature, and thus more fibrous, than expected, you may have to change your cooking plans or return them to your purveyor.

In fruit, ripeness determines cooking doneness, or whether to cook at all. Underripe fruit is best for moist-method cooking and not-too-ripe fruit for dry-method cooking. Perfectly ripe fruit is best served raw.

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