Weighting (pressing down on stuff)

[Fat Guy]

Chicken under a brick, grilled-cheese sandwiches and various other foods seem to be enhanced tremendously by being cooked under weight. But why? What is it about the compression that improves food? And how can we exploit that phenomenon beyond the normal applications?

[Jacquester]

I use weighting for several things. I find chicken under a brick comes out cispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I also like to use it when making french toast with a sourdough bread. It increases the density and gives it a great texture. Any grilled sandwich also gains a great bite from the pressure (aka panini)

[Sugar Apple]

I suppose the weighting could put more of the outside surface of the food in contact with the cooking surface. It might also give the food a more uniform thickness so that it would cook more evenly. And maybe remove a certain amount of air from the food, making the flavors more concentrated (that one's probably a stretch).

I can't remember ever using this technique when cooking other foods except the sandwich and chicken examples you give. My husband weights the curds when he's making paneer but in that case it's to get the liquid to drain out and compress the cheese. But it obviously doesn't have the same effect on the nice juicy chicken, nor would we want it to.

As for other ways to use it, my imagination seems to have taken the day off today.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Mushrooms acquire a strange texture when vacuum packed. Normally this would be undesirable, but I've been trying to think of a use for compressed mushrooms. It seems like it could be interesting in the right context.

There is a species of pressed sandwich that isn't cooked after being pressed that is also kind of interesting, such as Escoffier's "Bookmaker's Sandwich" which is similar to the "Shooter's Sandwich" described by Elizabeth David. These could be pressed under weight or in a screw press, such as a letter press. I suspect the pressed cold sandwich was once more common than we realize.

I made the Shooter's Sandwich once, and I think the bread was too resilient to compress in an interesting way--

Edited October 22, 2009 by David A. Goldfarb (log)