Knowledge Base > Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at 11:05 am Pacific, 2:05 pm Eastern

Join Chef Eric Wynkoop in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to co… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

When prepping vegetables like peppers carrots and celery, is it best to keep them in a jar with water?

— Mary Gerstein

Answer:

You know, in terms of holding these particular items in water, I would say that if you're prepping them, uh, ahead of time and you, uh, fear that they might dry out to some extent or another, and you wanna avoid that drying effect, then store them in water. It could be a bowl of water. Um, you're suggesting a jar of water. So I'm wondering if you're thinking about, uh, you know, a day or two ahead, like as in batch, uh, prepping or batch cooking. Um, uh, so in that, in this scenario, uh, you're, you, you're more likely to experience drying right as you store a food item in the refrigerator, because that's one of the things that a refrigerator does very well, right? It dries out your food. So in this case, um, uh, you can certainly store, uh, in water. That's one option. Another one would be to put the items into a container, a bowl, your choice, uh, and then over the top, lay a damp towel. It could be paper, could be cloth. That's your choice. And then, uh, just keep an eye on it, meaning look at it the following day, if you're gonna keep it for two or three days, because that towel may dry out and need to be re moistened, okay? And that moisture is going to maintain the moisture, you know, that's already present in those vegetables, okay? So I think either path is fine, but just understand what's going on in these different environments. Um, if you're talking about, uh, prepping now for cooking in a couple of hours, uh, it may just depend on where you live, right? If you're, uh, in northern Arizona or Colorado, or it's very dry, um, you can, uh, experience a lot of change in a couple of hours, a lot this dehydrating effect can set in. But, um, you know, if you're in a, a more moist environment like Portland, Oregon in the wintertime, then maybe you could just let that stuff sit out for a couple of hours and you would be okay with it, okay? So keep those things in mind as you move forward. Thank you.
Eric Wynkoop

Eric Wynkoop

Director of Culinary Instruction

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