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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

To "sweat down"

English answer:

to cook vegetables over a low heat without adding water

Added to glossary by B D Finch
Jul 19, 2009 17:25
14 yrs ago
10 viewers *
English term

To "sweat down"

English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings Idiom/Phrasal verb
It seems to have a wide gamut of uses (cookery being just one of them). But try to get ahold of a single lexical explanation in the net: it turns up nothing but vague clues. I need all possible situations in which the term can be used.
Responses
4 +3 to cook vegetables over a low heat without adding water
4 Used more in exercise and in sport than in food.
3 1 (culinary) evaporate a lot of liquid in cooking 2 sweat / transpire in a downward direction
References
Sweat – To cook foods over gentle heat,...
Change log

Aug 2, 2009 10:40: B D Finch Created KOG entry

Discussion

Gary D Jul 21, 2009:
Many more uses than just with cooking. "Sweat Down" is used in sport, brazing, soldering, Plumbing, circuit board manufacture, Saunas, Horse racing, cooking. etc etc. To sweat down without browning. I see this most often with onions. Fresh chopped/sliced onions are fairly opaque. once you sweat them down,
http://www.taconic-add.com/en--technicaltopics--solder-reflo...
Drug testing is also done by sweat testing,
B D Finch Jul 21, 2009:
Down at Big Mountain Either Big Mountain is situated in the Grand Canyon, or this is an example of the virulent and painful disease blind-trust-in-ghits-itis.
Tony M Jul 20, 2009:
I always enjoy hugs! Can't get enough of 'em... Do also let's note in passing, in connection with one of the comments in Michael P's answer, that "sweat down at Big Mountain" is of course nothing to do with the geographical location "down at Big Mountain" (whoever heard of "down at" a mountain?) <br><br>This is in fact the noun 'a sweat-down', but sadly, current US usage tends to leave out that ever-so-helpful little hyphen, which suddenly makes sense of it all!<br>
B D Finch Jul 20, 2009:
Sad end to long search It is indeed sad that the Asker has spent many years searching for an English expression hinted at in a Brazilian book of idioms, only to have the hopes that it meant anything other than a way of cooking cruelly dashed. May I suggest that to prevent any more wild goose chases that the book of idioms is finally allowed to be useful and burnt on a cooking fire under a cauldron of vegetables that he sweats down to make a nice curry, or perhaps a soup.

Hope Tony enjoyed the hugs.
FNO (asker) Jul 20, 2009:
Ms M: Point taken. From stem to stern! Hugs!
...and the idioms volume was actually faulty on many a count indeed.
Tony M Jul 20, 2009:
FNO Not a dressing-down "on" [sic] you, and certainly not meant to be stern! How could you imagine anyone with orange hair could ever be stern?! I'm like a well-shaped boat — more 'bow' than 'stern'!<br><br>It certainly helps now you explain the background to your query; KudoZ rules do tell us to "explore all other avenues of research before resorting to KudoZ" and thence to "explain what possible solutions we have found and considered and/or rejected".<br><br>Though I still maintain that this topic would be more appropriately dealt with in one of the general language discussion fora.<br><br>I think your Brazilian book is just wrong — or at least, doesn't really tell the whole truth... Certainly, in all my years as a native-speaker of UK EN, I've not been specially aware of this particular idiom as an expression in its own right — though as I say, the collocation is bound to occur quite frequently for purely fortuitous reasons..
FNO (asker) Jul 20, 2009:
Tony M. Stern dress-down on me, huh? Despite your rather inppropriate turn of words I'll explain: An old Brazilian method I have shows - in the idioms section - "to sweat down" as "to make reduce in size (of course, in Portuguese)". Contrary to your assumption, I've been looking for patterns with this alleged idiom FOR YEARS. Proz's colleagues is a last ditch attempt.
Tony M Jul 20, 2009:
Not really the right forum for that... FNO, this is a forum to ask for specific terminology help; what you're asking for is more like a study in lexicography!

You might do well to start out by buying, or at least consulting, a good, standard EN dictionary, like the NS OED, for example — or consult the OED in full if you possibly can.

I don't personally think that 'sweat down' as an entity is used a great deal; I think you'll find many occurrences are purely fortuitous collocations, rather than examples of a true phrasal verb.

I am familiar with the verb 'to sweat' in its everyday meaning, and as used in cooking and engineering; I have certainly encountered 'to sweat down' in cooking, though I don't consider it a true phrasal, since it is very often used in expressions like "sweat down to half the original volume" or somesuch.
FNO (asker) Jul 19, 2009:
Context? My point exactly! There seems to be more than one (I mean, besides gently cooking sth till part of its water is removed - assuming this is right at all too). It's the possible contexts I look for, Michael.
Michael Powers (PhD) Jul 19, 2009:
context Please give us the entire sentence in context. Thanks.

Responses

+3
2 hrs
Selected

to cook vegetables over a low heat without adding water

Sweating down is a method of cooking vegetables that conserves the taste and nutritional content. No water is added and the vegetables steam in their own juice. "Down" because the volume of vegetables is reduced as the water is first released from their cells and then evaporates as cooking progresses.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-07-19 19:39:02 GMT)
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I don't think one would talk about "sweating down" anything other than vegetables. Fruits tend to cook more quickly and to disintegrate, and I associate sweating down with more fibrous vegetables that don't disintegrate (so not tomatoes, which are really fruit).

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Note added at 14 hrs (2009-07-20 07:50:21 GMT)
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"1 Jan 2009 ... Nothing beats a bowl of soup as a winter-warmer, ... Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic, and sweat down until soft - 10-12 minutes. ..."
www.guardian.co.uk/.../hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-soup-rec... -

I have noticed some refs to sweating down fruit, so perhaps this can be OK, it would have to be done quickly though.





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Note added at 21 hrs (2009-07-20 15:14:46 GMT)
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As marybro's reference comment mentions, sweating does increase sweetness, though I've no idea what the chemical process involved is. Perhaps it is through attenuating some particular other flavours that mask the sweetness.
Peer comment(s):
agree BdiL : bingo! Maurizio
14 hrs
Thanks Maurizio
agree marybro
15 hrs
Thanks marybro
agree Tony M : Yes! I'd say that it increases sweetness simply by evaporating off some of the water that would otherwise dilute the natural sugars.
19 hrs
Thanks Tony. The effect seems to persist though, even if liquid is then added, e.g. to make a soup.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
29 mins

1 (culinary) evaporate a lot of liquid in cooking 2 sweat / transpire in a downward direction

From a quick look at different Internet uses, I believe they can be generalized into two types. Number 1, when cooking the evaporation of some sort of liquid, whatever that may be, in the actual cooking process. And, number two, to sweat or transpire in a downward direction.

Mike :)



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Note added at 30 mins (2009-07-19 17:56:07 GMT)
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A Sweat Lodge
... some feathers, some ancient pottery shards from the four corners, ashes from Felipee's previous sweat down at Big Mountain, and other objects. ...
www.welcomehome.org/rob/sweat/sweat.html - Cached - Similar -

In this particular case, we are referring to the actual sweat from Felipe, and we use "down" to describe where, that is, down at Big Mountain.



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Note added at 31 mins (2009-07-19 17:57:19 GMT)
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So, whether it is actually directional, in a downward direction, or simply a description, such as down there or something equivalent, this seems to be the main if not only gist of the meaning other than its culinary meaning of evaporation in the cooking process.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : In cooking, I wouldn't say it means 'to evaporate a lot of water' (that is rather 'to reduce [down]') — it tends to have the opposite effect, i.e. to bring out the water content of other ingredients (but the main goal isn't necessarily to remove it).
21 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 day 5 hrs

Used more in exercise and in sport than in food.

You are told to "sweat it out", if you have the flu.

If you are working or exercising and you hit your wall (where you run out of breath) and have to suck in the big ones and keep going.

Sugar cane cutters used this term a lot when swinging a cane knife.

When you go to the sauna you go in for a "sweat down" to "sweat it out"

You "sweat it out" if you have to wait for someone to come or something to happen.
Ex: We had to sweat it out for 5 minutes when the plane lost all its power, then then they came back to life.

You may need to "sweat down" when you have finished a race, it is the period directly after you have finished running etc; when your body no longer has air flow to cool your body and it produces a lot of sweat in an attempt to cool its self. (Most people throw water over themselves.

Horses are left to "sweat down" after a race, before they are washed down. this prevents muscle soreness as it releases all the salts and lactic acid, (the white stuff you see on a horse after a race) then they are washed when they have cooled a bit.
*If you wash the horse straight away, their skin pores close up/ contract and the salts and acids are retained causing toxic build ups under the skin (lumps)

You cook vegetables in a stirfry until they sweat, then stir and toss.

You "sweat down" vegetables in a steamer if you just want them to open up to release their flavors and then you remove them, to cook them, you leave them in there longer

Terms like "He has had a melt down" generally refers to someone under a lot of stress and they explode in a stream of sweat. (looks like he is melting)

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Note added at 1 day18 hrs (2009-07-21 11:29:42 GMT)
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Also used when Brazing metal. Sweat down the metal before brazing. The point at which the metal sweats.
68 17 68 22 Thermit 63 went ing, and Brazing 63 Soldering Aluminum 68 35 Brazing 63 .... A frame hinged to a post at a, a carries a metal tube with a rubber ... The extra sand e is struck off before the flask is lifted from the machine. ...... the spelter in b will flow around the shank and "sweat down" to the rim a. ...

http://www.archive.org/stream/machinemoldingfo00inteuoft/mac...

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Note added at 1 day18 hrs (2009-07-21 11:34:54 GMT)
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There are also sweat fittings in plumbing, where the fitting is heated and a solder ring sweats down into the joint to ensure a good strong join.
Also;
Full text of "The Gallery of Nature and Art: Or, a Tour Through ...
Pewter is, in the present day, the common solder for copper and brass; ...... all exactly of the same dimensions, and each nicely fitting the frame, cannot, .... When the enamel is thus seen to sweat down, as it were, to an uniform ...
www.archive.org/stream/.../gallerynaturean00goodgoog_djvu.t... -
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Reference comments

17 hrs
Reference:

Sweat – To cook foods over gentle heat, usually covered or partly covered, until they release their moisture. Vegetables, meats, and seafood are often sweated when making soups, stews, and sauces so that the foods release their juices into the pan and surrounding liquid. Sweating is the opposite of sautéing.

http://www.newitalianrecipes.com/cooking-terms.html
Example sentence:

it's got that onion, bell pepper, celery, we also got those green onion bottoms in here as well as the garlic that we chopped up. We are going to put all that in and we're going to sweat this down a little bit that will bring out a lot of the sweetness

Reference:

http://www.ehow.com/video_2332163_sweat-carrots-onions-peppers-seafood.html

Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree B D Finch : Only quibble: how on earth can it be the "opposite of sautéing"? Removal of all golden brown colour and crispness, while removing fat and undoing the cooking process?// Other end of the culinary spectrum from sautéing perhaps?
2 hrs
Sautéing is usually high heat and quick...sweating is LOW and SLOW
agree Tony M : And sautéeing tends to dry food out and crisp it up, whereas sweating makes it wilt and go mushy... (a bit like me, really!)
5 hrs
sweating does soften the food and enhance the flavor (:>)
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