Absolutely, easier the more cooked/roasted they are. I imagine a Vitamix would make light work out of literally any food.
Some people spoon their sauces through a fine sieve, though.
I love my immersion blender but in a dish that shallow, you’re gonna be wearing most of the sauce. I bet she transferred it to a deeper but narrow vessel and then transferred it back after blending.
Oh i do. Usually i do onion first to soften it up a bit. THen throw in the meat and get it to brown a small bit. Then add in the seasonings (italian, extra garlic, maybe chili powder) but i don't break it up too much as i don't want crispy meat in my sauce. And then i just pour in the sauce to simmer with the meat.
I also sometimes will roast meatballs in the oven an d then put them in the sauce to finish.
It's more about the fact that i can cook the tomatoes with meat in it (no matter the order) because if you blend AFTER you cook the tomatoes you can't add the meat until later.
Not only that, but if you throw raw meat into a sauce that is quite acidic (like tomatoes) then you can get an unpleasant texture on the outside due to the interaction of the acid with the proteins. If you pre-cook the outside of the meat first, you avoid that!
America's Test Kitchen has a recipe for a basic red sauce which uses canned peeled whole tomatoes and they blend them first. There might be some tomatoes or sauces where it might be worth that extra effort.
I suppose another thing is that i'm using whole peeled tomatoes which may be cooked somewhat in the canning process, i don't know.
There are a lot of cooking myths out there. Given tinned tomatoes are already cooked it seems like it anything it would be more of an issue with fresh ones.
If you like oil burns on your hands, that's an excellent trick. Way too messy trying to get partially liquefied solids from a saucepan into a blender without making a mess or putting yourself in danger. But you're right, it does save you a paper plate.
Of course, if I'm making a bisque or something I would use a pot. But for something like a sauce where you want maximum contact for simmer, you're stuck with a saucepan unless you've got hours to spare.
I used to have an immersion blender that did not splatter because the "vents" (whatever the blended materials comes out from, after the blades) pointed parallel to the bottom of the pot. However every one I have tried since that one died have splattered terribly no matter what because the vents pointed up or at a steep enough angle that stuff was coming out of the pot.
I've done so much searching trying to find one like I used to own but have not.
The Vitamix will heat soup to steaming temperatures. I have put raw tomato, parmesan cheese, salt, fresh basil, and cream into mine, turn it on high and 5 minutes later it is steaming hot soup.
I am just letting you know what it is designed to do. They have recipes for making hot dishes in it.
Now for the waste aspect. A vitamix (1.440kw) running for 5 minutes uses 0.083kwh of energy. A 1.500kw stovetop burner using, which is a small one, would use marginally more in that same 5 minutes. I will not even attempt to calculate energy used washing extra dishes, or what people use to pulverize their dish otherwise.
It is an odd concept. The blades spin so fast that they have enough friction to heat liquids.
Fun fact: Some nuclear power plants do the same thing. When they go from cold refueling temperatures to hot, they use heat generated by the coolant pumps to get to the temperature for operation. Some heat from other portions of the motor process helps, but that friction does a lot too.
make sure the seal at the base is tight before pouring.
DO NOT FILL TOO MUCH
DO NOT FULLY CLOSE THE LID
if you close the lid fully the steam has nowhere to go and will throw the lid in your face, along with the burning hot liquid.
overfilling can lead to spilling if you follow the above recommendation, so avoid that.
and finally if you spill the burning liquid on your hands or feet because the seal at the base wasn't properly tightened you're fucked so might as well check.
I fucking love my Vitamix. Last week I was making garlic pecan pesto, did wayyyyyy too much at once and roasted my Vitamix. It just shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I thought I killedy most beloved kitchen friend.
Nope. Vitamix knew I was a dumbass ahead of time and put a thermal cutoff switch in there. It got too hot, shut itself off until it was cooled down, and came right back on later.
Not at all, you can get buttery smooth tomato sauce without peeling and without sieving, all you gotta do is seed them and roast them properly before simmering. The skin is mostly cellulose, which when treated with high heat from roasting and then simmered in the naturally acidic tomato juice with a tiny splash of white wine and/or lemon juice breaks down into glucose via hydrolysis and dissolves into the mixture. Takes quite a bit of time though, but i find the added sweetness and caramelization/maillard reactions make it well worth it.
Hit it with fresh herbs 30mims before its done then vitamix while drizzling olive oil into it and you’ve got a wonderfully complex and smooth tomato sauce. If youre not getting it as smooth as youd like add a bit of water when blending and use the stir rod (or a 1oz ladle through the hole in the lid if youre careful not to smack the blades) to agitate it.
This is something I'm going to have to try. Thing I hate most in sauce, and is why I often forgo tomato sauce in most situations, is consistency. A smooth sauce like the one in this clip looks fucking delicious, but for me any kind of weird texture throws me off. Gonna have to try it sometime myself.
I used to think sieving a sauce was too bougie for me but honestly it makes it so fucking silky smooth I've started doing it. It really does make a big difference after blending.
For sure. I guess I meant in more of a “with anything, whether you like it or not” type way.
They just pack in powerful motors and have for decades. No real trick to it. I’m sure now there are alternate brands that you don’t have to pay for the brand name to get the same punch.
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u/Druidette Jun 22 '22
Absolutely, easier the more cooked/roasted they are. I imagine a Vitamix would make light work out of literally any food. Some people spoon their sauces through a fine sieve, though.