Good cooking.
Jan. 30th, 2003 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaYesterday I bought some black-tipped shark filets for dinner. I'd never cooked shark before, so I poked around some food sites to see how other people cook it. I wound up marinating the filets for a couple of hours (in lime juice, beer, oil, garlic, cumin, parsley, salt, pepper, and dijon mustard) and then broiling them. We had couscous and sauteed zucchini on the side. It was good.
As I was cooking, I thought about my mother. She would never have bought shark filets - "I wouldn't have any idea what to do with them." Throughout my childhood, she made very simple meals of the type she'd learned about in home ec class in high school: baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and spinach. Pork chops, rice, and peas. Apple pie. Chocolate cake. She's branched out some in recent years, mostly using recipes my sister and I have given her, but the foundation of her cooking is plain food.
I've always thought of my mother as a good cook. Her baked chicken is good baked chicken, well-cooked but not dry, with crisp golden skin. Her mashed potatoes don't come from a mix, and they don't have lumps. Her piecrusts don't come from a package. Sometimes she made food I didn't like, when I was growing up, but she never made meals that didn't "turn out."
As I've gotten more involved with cooking, though, I start wondering what the definition of "a good cook" really is. I think of myself as a decent cook - I make a lot of different dishes, and most of them taste good. But not everything I make is a success. I use a lot of recipes - I tend to think of good cooks as being more inventive than that, or as cooking from general principles rather than from specific instructions. I sometimes fall back, lazily, on prepared foods - Zatarian's red beans and rice, for example, from a boxed mix. I think of good cooks as making their beans and rice from scratch. I don't use a lot of fancy techniques.
Am I a better cook than my mother, because I do more with sauces and marinades and seasonings? Is grilled fish with tropical fruit salsa inherently better food than baked chicken? Is creativity a requirement, or is the only requirement that food taste good?
I'm curious to know what other people think.
[Poll #97174]
As I was cooking, I thought about my mother. She would never have bought shark filets - "I wouldn't have any idea what to do with them." Throughout my childhood, she made very simple meals of the type she'd learned about in home ec class in high school: baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and spinach. Pork chops, rice, and peas. Apple pie. Chocolate cake. She's branched out some in recent years, mostly using recipes my sister and I have given her, but the foundation of her cooking is plain food.
I've always thought of my mother as a good cook. Her baked chicken is good baked chicken, well-cooked but not dry, with crisp golden skin. Her mashed potatoes don't come from a mix, and they don't have lumps. Her piecrusts don't come from a package. Sometimes she made food I didn't like, when I was growing up, but she never made meals that didn't "turn out."
As I've gotten more involved with cooking, though, I start wondering what the definition of "a good cook" really is. I think of myself as a decent cook - I make a lot of different dishes, and most of them taste good. But not everything I make is a success. I use a lot of recipes - I tend to think of good cooks as being more inventive than that, or as cooking from general principles rather than from specific instructions. I sometimes fall back, lazily, on prepared foods - Zatarian's red beans and rice, for example, from a boxed mix. I think of good cooks as making their beans and rice from scratch. I don't use a lot of fancy techniques.
Am I a better cook than my mother, because I do more with sauces and marinades and seasonings? Is grilled fish with tropical fruit salsa inherently better food than baked chicken? Is creativity a requirement, or is the only requirement that food taste good?
I'm curious to know what other people think.
[Poll #97174]
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-30 03:58 pm (UTC)Unusual and esoteric ingredients are lovely when one can afford them, but it doesn't have to be funky to be good food.
Advanced or complicated techniques are purely perspective-driven. I know some folks that think poaching an egg is too complicated. I know some that won't use a microwave while preparing a made-from-scratch dinner. I can break an egg with one hand like Audrey Hepburn does in Sabrina, but that's purely for purposes of showing off.
Use a gas stove It's preferable to me, but a must? I learned to cook on electric as did many others. I wouldn't put a must on it.
Bake from scratchA very ambitious thought. Being single and the only one around to do the washing up, I don't want to get that many dishes dirty. I've also added some ingredients to a box of brownie mix and saw the results disappear.
put effort into the visual presentation of the foodThis is something I like to do, probably because my parents belonged to a gourmet group that included presentation. Recall the veggies on sticks at the Annex? Pretty colors as well as tasty.
invent new recipesI love to do it, but I'm not comfortable with the "must." Some folks aren't adventurous enough to try from scratch, but do great new twists on old recipes.
make complicated dishesAnother perspective issue. While complicated can be fun, food, like many other things, can be ruined by overcomplication.
have more than twelve herbs and/or spices Feeling whimsical, I'll compare this to my thoughts on penis length. While a lot can be nice, it's more important to know what to do with what you got.
make food that tastes good To whom? A little too general. I could make a great chicken tika masala, but that wouldn't do
I hope you aren't sorry you put up the poll.
not primarily follow recipes My dad always said follow the recipe exactly the very first time, after that, play with it to your heart's content. Much of what I have learned and retained from my father has to do with cooking. With baking, it's pretty important to stick with recipes or one might end up with Adventures in Leavening.
not serve prepared or packaged foods I won't serve packaged and call it my own, but if I do something to jazz it up, I have no problem with that. I do prefer scratch over packaged, mostly. I prefer my macaroni and cheese from a box. Call me weird.
not serve anything that could be an illustration in a 1955 home ec textbook Oh cool, I can bring sex in to compare again. As someone of a more kinky persuasion than I once said, "Sometimes you want the fancy spices and sometimes you just want a good steak."
not use frozen vegetables perhaps if that had the corrollary "when fresh were readily available." I prefer fresh, but there are times when frozen can work, especially if it's an ingredient to a larger dish. Plus while cooking, they may add needed liquid to the mix as they cook.
not use canned foodNot even cream of mushroom soup? Broth? Can't fathom doing without it.
not use white breadOne of the best turkey stuffing recipes I've had is made from Wonder Bread cubes. I don't consider it a stable, but it has its uses.
not avoid spices For some reason, I'm thinking of sex toys. Nothing to be afraid of, but to be used in the appropriate time and place.
not measure thingsI often don't, but in some cases it's disastrous if you don't. Reference my comment about leavening above.
not have failures in the kitchen Failures are learning experiences. I for one, would rather fail spectacularly than come up with something mediocre.
Damn, that was fun. :)
Along with being able to make a meal out of whatever's around, I think another important skill in good cooking is learning when to substitute an ingredient and when not to. A degree of showmanship is fun, but certainly not necessary.
and I really enjoyed the bourbon chicken you made when I visited you last.
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2003-01-30 04:00 pm (UTC)