In gastronomy, reducing consists of thickening or concentrating a liquid.
Reduce is a term that can refer to returning something to the state it had previously or to decreasing, slowing down, tightening or narrowing something . The etymological origin of the concept is found in Latin, which comes from the verb reducere , made up of the following components: the prefix re- , which means “backwards” ; and the verb ducere , which is equivalent to “drive.”
For example: “If you want to reduce your waist, you have to eat a healthy diet and do a lot of physical exercise” , “The governor promised to reduce poverty by 10% before the end of the year” , “We must reduce the level of waste to help the planet.”
Reduce in different areas
Reduction (action and effect of reducing or reducing) can refer to something physical or to symbolic issues . When a woman wants to reduce her waist, she wants it to measure fewer centimeters for aesthetic reasons. If a politician talks about reducing the level of unemployment, however, he will be referring to lowering the figures of a statistic .
Reducing can be forcing someone to surrender or to give up an attitude : “The police had to make an effort to subdue the thief, who put up great resistance,” “They are never going to subdue me: I would rather be killed.”
In the field of mathematics , we would have to explain that reduce is used with two different meanings. On the one hand, to indicate that an expression has been simplified, and on the other, to record that the quantity of a species has been indicated in other different units. An example of the latter is when talking about converting kilometers to meters.
Environmentalists highlight the importance of reducing waste generation.
The concept in ecology
Within the field of ecology , the word reduce is also very important. And it establishes what is known as the three Rs maxim , which are fundamental to being able to take maximum care of the environment. Specifically, that rule is the one made up of these three verbs:
- Reduce , which seeks to cause the least possible damage to the environment. For this, it is essential to have good habits, minimize the consumption of existing resources such as gasoline or electricity, reduce pollution...
- Reuse . As its name suggests, it is about making any product have a much longer life. As? Being repaired or given a different use than the initial one it has.
- Recycle , which consists of taking an item that is no longer useful and turning it into a new one.
Other uses of the idea of reduce
Divide a body into small parts ( “Now we are going to reduce the chicken into three pieces” ), express the value of a quantity in units other than the one given ( “To do the calculation, we must reduce from kilograms to grams” ), simplify a mathematical expression ( “It is important to reduce the equation” ) and changing the gear of a vehicle to a lower one ( “The driver forgot to reduce in the curve and crashed into the wall” ) are other uses of the notion of reducing.
In gastronomy , reducing is the action that allows a liquid to be concentrated or thickened through boiling or evaporation : “We have to reduce the wine before adding the mushrooms.”