厨房的奥秘是每周探索烹饪和食物周围的奇怪之处。它们可能是不应该在不应该失败的食谱，来自不同来源的建议，或者只是怪异的。如果发生在厨房中，您不确定为什么要发送tweet to The Food Geekto find out what’s happening.

megpasz通过Twitter问,”what temperature does a sauce need to ‘reduce?'”

Hi, Megan,

As with most of these sorts or questions, there’s a quick and thoroughly valid answer, and the more in-depth answer. With this one, you get a third answer that’s somewhere between the two.

Simple

You generally want to reduce at a simmer, which is around 200°F (93°C) for sauces that are close to water in consistency. The exact temperature varies based on what’s in it, but look for just a few bubbles rather than going for a full-on boil. Most recipes suggest jumping to a boil first, then going back down to a simmer after, but that’s generally just to get done with the sauce faster.

缓和

严格来说，酱汁将在绝对零以上的任何温度（-273°C或约-460°F）下降低，这都是时间的问题。您降低的温度越高，您就越改变酱汁中风味的性质。Essential oils will break down at higher temperatures, so when possible, you would add these after the simmering (citrus zest, herbs, and so on), but by and large, the lower the temperature, the less damage you’ll do to the flavors. However, the higher the temperature the faster the reduction, so if you’re in a hurry, you can turn up the temperature. Well, as long as the Michelin folk aren’t dining at your home that evening.

彻底深入

让我们考虑一下温度。当我们服用一个人的温度时，我们通常会发现一个相当隔热的位置可以从舌头下进行测量。如果我们还没有消耗冷热的东西，那是一个不错的地方，可以找出人体的真正温度。例如，如果您触手可及的温度，他们通常会更冷，因为没有很多血液流过的血液。

食物也会发生同样的事情。如果您服用一块肉的温度，通常希望它尽可能深入，而不会太近骨头。这样，您远离空中，但不会碰到比肉好得多的钻头。

The interesting thing is that the same thing happens all the way down to the molecular level. Many people think of temperature as being the amount of heat something gives off, but it’s not. If you take some air that’s at 400° and some water that’s 400°, you’re much better off passing your hand through the air than the water. That’s because water holds so much more heat than air, and so will have that much more heat to transfer to your hand. So heat is the amount of energy that can be transferred from one thing to the next.

另一方面，温度是一组分子的平均速度。空气被散开，没有太多停止它，因此它的分子可以在没有障碍的情况下滑动。他们可以很容易地具有高温。水不太容易移动，因为还有很多其他水分子，它们都被堵塞了。但是当他们走了时，很难阻止他们。尽管如此，当空气和水以相同的平均速度移动时，它们的温度相同。

想到它的另一种方法是想象一个充满小猫的房间。这些小猫到处奔跑，爬上窗帘，从墙壁上弹跳，等等。尽管如此，如果您在房间的中间，并且一只小猫碰到了您，小猫很容易弹跳，根本没有真正动弹。现在想象一个装满大象的房间。他们只是闲逛，可能从这里轻轻走来走去。不过，如果您可以让他们像小猫一样快地跑来跑去，然后遇到您，那么您将遇到麻烦和/或挤压。

现在，我们了解温度及其与热量的不同之处，让我们考虑一下温度如何减少酱汁中的液体量。让我们记住小猫的房间，但现在想象一堵墙有一扇大猫门。您知道，那种悬挂的橡胶襟翼。小猫很年轻，所以他们真的不知道它是如何工作的，但是如果一个人碰巧以正确的方式走得足够快，它将通过它。小猫走的速度越快，他们就越有可能穿过猫的门。而且，当一只移动速度快于平均速度离开房间的小猫时，这意味着小猫的平均速度较低，因此房间有效地“凉爽”。

水也发生了同样的事情。如果是沸腾的话，这意味着平均而言，水分子的移动非常快，如果任何给定的水分子朝着正确的方向移动，它会飞出地面并进入空气并变成蒸汽。水会有点冷却，但您并没有真正注意到，因为通常会在水中增加更多热量。

Even at room temperature, water molecules fly off the surface of the water, it just doesn’t happen as quickly as when you’re boiling, because they aren’t moving as quickly. We generally call that evaporation. This is also why you cool off more quickly when you are wet and exposed to the air: the water molecules are evaporating, which lowers the total speed of the water on your skin since the fast ones tend to leave more quickly than the slow ones.

因此，当您减少酱汁时，您可以让它坐下来，最终会减少自身。一方面，这非常方便，因为它节省了能源账单，不会用热量破坏风味。在下降的一面，这将需要很长时间，并且在完成之前可能会破坏。这就是为什么我们通常会慢火煮的原因：它已经足够热，以至于它会杀死讨厌的食物 - 小子，但足够慢，可以保留大多数口味。

If you wanted to optimize for flavor, you could bring the liquid up to 160°F, then drop it down to 140°F for as long as it takes. That will kill the bacteria and keep them from re-growing. Still, that’s a bit of a pain to do without specialized equipment, and I don’t know of anyone who does it that way. That doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t swear that it’s the only way to properly reduce a sauce, but people think all sorts of things. Simmering not only gives you a reasonable time frame to cook in, but it has handy visual cues, so you won’t even need a thermometer.

Understanding how heat and temperature work are vital to your ability to cook well. It will come up again when baking a cake or roasting a large cut of beef or just about anything in the kitchen. The important thing to remember is that temperature is your goal, and heat is how you get there. A jet is faster than a bicycle, but if you’re just going down to the corner grocery store, you’re probably better off using the bicycle. If you’re going to a country 3000 miles away, though, bicycling won’t get you there in time to do anything worthwhile.