A lot of it depends on the recipe. Dishes like Japanese cream stew or beef bourguignon have lots of prep but end with slow-cooking in a single pan, so you have plenty of time to clean before dinner is served.
Compared to something like, I dunno, steak with scratch-made bernaise sauce and buttered kale - it all comes together at the end very quickly, so you’ll have pans and measuring jugs and ingredients on the counter right until the moment you plate-up. No time to clean as you go.
I often choose what to cook purely on the basis of how much mess there will be at the end, because I hate clean-up!
I completely agree. I’m a clean-as-you-go type guy, but sometimes you still end up with a mess, especially if the meal has multiple components that come together at end.
I will always do the cold prep first, then wash and tidy away everything I can before starting to cook.
But having organised prep before you start cooking isn’t necessarily going to lead to zero mess after.
The recipe I chose as an example was specifically because it’s one which makes life difficult. The bernaise sauce in particular wants to be served when it’s freshly made and hot. So you’d cook the steak, and while the steak is resting you cook the sauce.
The sauce requires combining eggs and hot melted butter in a blender and blasting it until emulsified, and then after that adding the fresh tarragon you prepped earlier. Then you serve immediately.
So no matter how much mise-en-place you did, at the end you’ve still got at least a dirty steak pan, butter pan, kale pan, blender, dish for the tarragon, measuring jug, and various utensils…
And oh - the measuring jug was not used for measuring, but rather to transfer the hot butter from the pan to the blender.
If you found a way to avoid all that then great, you’re doing very well indeed.
Skip the blender and make bearnaise the classic way, wilt the kale in the steak pan while it’s resting and give it a quick toss before serving. Two pans, two bowls, a small dish for the tarragon, a whisk and a pair of tongs. Put a bit a water in the hot pans while you eat to soften anything left in them. An immersion blender is a good compromise for sauces like this too, I find them easier to clean than a pitcher. Either way it should take no more than five minutes to tidy up after. (You can also make the bearnaise first and hold it in a warm oven, it’ll be fine)
A lot of it depends on the recipe. Dishes like Japanese cream stew or beef bourguignon have lots of prep but end with slow-cooking in a single pan, so you have plenty of time to clean before dinner is served.
Compared to something like, I dunno, steak with scratch-made bernaise sauce and buttered kale - it all comes together at the end very quickly, so you’ll have pans and measuring jugs and ingredients on the counter right until the moment you plate-up. No time to clean as you go.
I often choose what to cook purely on the basis of how much mess there will be at the end, because I hate clean-up!
I completely agree. I’m a clean-as-you-go type guy, but sometimes you still end up with a mess, especially if the meal has multiple components that come together at end.
Sounds like you need to improve your mise en place.
I will always do the cold prep first, then wash and tidy away everything I can before starting to cook.
But having organised prep before you start cooking isn’t necessarily going to lead to zero mess after.
The recipe I chose as an example was specifically because it’s one which makes life difficult. The bernaise sauce in particular wants to be served when it’s freshly made and hot. So you’d cook the steak, and while the steak is resting you cook the sauce.
The sauce requires combining eggs and hot melted butter in a blender and blasting it until emulsified, and then after that adding the fresh tarragon you prepped earlier. Then you serve immediately.
So no matter how much mise-en-place you did, at the end you’ve still got at least a dirty steak pan, butter pan, kale pan, blender, dish for the tarragon, measuring jug, and various utensils…
And oh - the measuring jug was not used for measuring, but rather to transfer the hot butter from the pan to the blender.
If you found a way to avoid all that then great, you’re doing very well indeed.
Who cares what it wants. You’re the chef, you take charge.
Skip the blender and make bearnaise the classic way, wilt the kale in the steak pan while it’s resting and give it a quick toss before serving. Two pans, two bowls, a small dish for the tarragon, a whisk and a pair of tongs. Put a bit a water in the hot pans while you eat to soften anything left in them. An immersion blender is a good compromise for sauces like this too, I find them easier to clean than a pitcher. Either way it should take no more than five minutes to tidy up after. (You can also make the bearnaise first and hold it in a warm oven, it’ll be fine)