Buzz
Given the season and overall mood, it seems many of you have entered Soup Mode (except for our editor-in-chief, Jordan Calhoun, who stubbornly claims that soup is 'not a meal'). Soup Mode is wonderful, as is its close relative, Creamy Sauce Mode—when you feel the urge to coat proteins and vegetables in a rich, often dairy-based sauce, and serve it all over noodles or rice. Both modes are perfect for a dollop of sour cream (or crème fraîche), but there’s a proper way to add it.
Adding a scoop of Daisy to your cream-based soups or beef stroganoff sauce can instantly give it a velvety texture, but if you toss cold sour cream into a hot, bubbling pot of soup or sauce, it might cause the proteins to clump together, curdling the cream and leaving your dish with an unpleasant split look. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix: tempering.
What does it mean to temper?
Tempering is the technique of gradually introducing a hot ingredient to a cold one in order to raise its temperature and ensure it blends seamlessly with the rest of the dish. This is a common method when incorporating eggs into custards and pastry creams (to avoid scrambling), but it’s just as useful in creating hearty savory dishes. (This should not be confused with the tempering process used for chocolate, where it is heated and cooled to stabilize the fat, giving it a glossy finish and preventing blooming.)
How to temper
Take a heatproof bowl and add your cold ingredient into it. Gradually pour in a few small ladlefuls of the soup or sauce, one at a time, stirring quickly to mix. Once combined, pour the tempered mixture back into the large pot of soup or sauce, whisking again to achieve a smooth, creamy consistency.
