Part of the Prep and Production Cook track. Lesson 4 of 10.
Where in the shift: first, because they take the longest.
Prerequisites: Modules 8, 16, 17, 18.
The sequence
Start the longest thing first.
Bring to a bare simmer and hold there.
Skim.
Add aromatics late.
Taste at intervals.
Season after tender, never before.
Cool properly.
The decisions
Simmer or boil. A simmer, and the decision is made by watching rather than by setting a dial, per Module 17. A boil emulsifies fat and suspends particulate and neither is correctable.
When to pull. Extraction peaks and then declines. More time is not more flavor — past the peak it is different flavor and worse.
When to season. After tender, and to three-quarters, per Modules 8 and 16 — because salt slows bean hydration and because a held pot concentrates for hours.
And whether the beans will actually cook. Soak a sample and check hydration before committing a service quantity to a timed schedule, per Module 16 — because a year-old bean does not look older and it will not soften on schedule.
What you are reading
The surface. Barely moving with occasional bubbles breaking is a simmer. Rolling is a boil.
The soak ratio, which predicts a bad pot hours before the pot fails.
And the taste at intervals, which is where the peak is found.
What goes wrong here
Boiled. Cloudy, slick, permanently different.
Salted early. Beans that will not soften in a correctly simmered pot.
Old beans committed to a schedule. Still hard at hour six on a Saturday, per Module 16.
And cooled in a deep container — no sensory sign at all, per Module 2, and it is the highest-risk operation in this lesson.
Verification
Clarity and gel on a stock. Fully chilled — a stock assessed at walk-in temperature after four hours is not done setting, per Module 17.
And the center probe on cooling. Surface readings answer a different question.
The boundary
Cooling large volumes of hot liquid is among the highest-risk operations in a kitchen and every window, temperature, and method is governed by the local health authority.