How to Reduce a Liquid

Accompany a steak with a red wine reduction.

Reducing liquids thickens them and allows enterprising chefs to entertain taste buds with deep, complicated flavors by intensifying the essence of the material. Cooks have been reducing liquids for hundreds of years, mixing and matching different herbs and ingredients to create new flavor combinations. You can reduce soups, wines, juices, sauces and more to alter their characteristics. The process of reducing a liquid boils away the water inside the ingredient and leaves behind everything else, which is why sauces get stronger and thicker the longer they reduce.

Things You'll Need

• Pan

Instructions

1. Pour the liquid into a pan with an open top.

2. Place the pan on a stove burner. Crank the burner to its highest heat setting.

3. Let the liquid boil away. Stir the liquid every couple of minutes to prevent it from crusting to the pan.

4. Remove the pan from the heat once the liquid is reduced to the desired amount. Decide when a sauce is done by testing its taste and consistency. Use your best judgment when following a recipe -- if it calls for you to reduce a liquid by half, eyeball how much liquid has been lost to determine when to remove the pan.

5. Turn off the stove burner when you're done reducing the liquid.

Tips & Warnings

• Pans with heavier bottoms work best if you're creating a sauce with the pan juices of a piece of meat you've just cooked -- the thicker metal keeps the meat remnants from burning as quickly.

References

• Oregon State University: Food Resources - Reduce Liquid Definition
• Alan Milne; Chef de Cuisine; Keene, New Hampshire