We are all different. Some people
plan all their meals for the week and buy accordingly. You meet them at the
market with their list in hand. I may have been like that before, but I have
since changed. Now, I buy what appeals to me and I fill the pantry and the
refrigerator. At that point, I start to feel secure enough for the next few
days, ready for any impromptu invitation and waiting to be inspired by the
produce, which is patiently waiting to be consumed.
Before, I used a few processed foods
to save time, but now I do practically everything from scratch. This means all
my produce is fresh, at least when it comes from the market, and I have to
prepare it before it turns too old, in short managing its shelf life in our
home. As I do not spend all my time planning, buying, or cooking, this is
easier said than done.
Plastic wraps and plastic bags help
tremendously for keeping produce fresh longer. Another way to achieve a better
staggering of the week’s ingredients is to partly prepare them while they are
fresh and keep them for future use in plastic wrap or containers in the
refrigerator.
Still, I occasionally discover a
forgotten vegetable in the back of the refrigerator which only a compost pile
would like. This waste is a sure reminder of my inefficiency and I find it
morally wrong, two good reasons to be mortified.
Most recipe authors honestly try to
share their favorite way to reach a certain taste and balance in a dish, and
avoid health risks. This being said, their taste may not be yours or mine. They
also want, unfortunately, to contribute something original, improve on this
well-honed technique or that combination of ingredients, sometimes with
arguable results.
Searching the Web today, you
encounter a great number of different recipes for a given dish (or pastry), all
competing for your preference. Like in the old days when confronted by math
problems, you should pause first, understand what taste you want to achieve,
why such an ingredient is added now (1), and depending on how long it takes to
cook, if it should be added later on instead. In other words, you have to
interpret, which can be a big waste of time. Some recipes are too simplified,
some others over-complicated with lots of pseudo-scientific explanations or
magical practices. (2)
If you want to be efficient, my
advice is to go to a good used books store and browse through books
written by the very best restaurants’ professional chefs. These people have
been recognized by experts for their contribution to the cuisine corpus. They do
have a talent to associate flavors and create new dishes. We should humbly
follow them. (3)
Look at the photographs. Select the
few recipes which inspire you. Check if you can possibly simplify (not improve)
them, in order to make them yours. Try to imagine what would be the impact of
changing this expensive ingredient with a much more affordable one. This is
what the best home cooking should be about.
This is the new natural and
irreplaceable source of knowledge, for cooking as well as brain science or
fashion trends. However, it has its pitfalls. On the Web, everyone has an idea
about everything. Being referenced in the first pages of a search tells more
about Internet skills than cooking abilities. In the end, there is such a
profusion of entries on any subject that it is hard to find those that you can
trust.
This is worse in the area of recipes
than it is in the political arena where you quickly detect an ideological bias
you can feel comfortable with or not. Again, if you want to learn something
valuable, search primarily top restaurants and chefs. They know a lot and they
are happy to teach and share.
One of your best bets is to use YouTube
or its equivalents, where you can familiarize yourself with numerous
techniques. Let’s say you want to
prepare a foie gras terrine, something you have never done and probably will
never do again in the foreseeable future, considering the cost and the increasing
legal bans. (4) You would need advice on:
1. The selection process at purchase time (although you
may have to do with what you can find)
2. The de-veining technique
3. A simple delightful cooking technique
Apart from choosing the foie itself,
deveining is the most important step for the visual quality of the terrine. And
there is no substitute to seeing the way it is done before doing it yourself:
How can you be sure to take out most of the veins? What amount of visual damage
can the liver stand without ill effect? You will still need to identify what
advice is proper or not. I remember a clearly misleading video where bejeweled
hands (a sure sign of hygiene and competence!) left most of the veins inside.
For French cuisine, it will help if
you understand French, because it will open more doors for you. You will still
have to be cautious, as the French chef you are watching may actually be trying
to sell you a branded utensil or what not. But even “creative” French chefs
would not add chili flakes to duck liver. At least, not on a first date.
Except in recipes based on boiling
ingredients in water, every cook tries to brown them because this process
creates the flavors we humans crave. One browning reaction is caramelization, a
transformation of sugar used mainly in pastry and desserts but also with many
vegetables. More complex are Maillard reactions which involve sugar and protein
components to create hundreds of new aromatic molecules which were not there
before. We try to brown when we sauté and also when we grill or roast.
But you also want to recognize what
you are eating: The crust of that steak is nice, but the rare meat inside is
the real reason why you identify beef. If taste alone does not convince you,
health issues may: Remember that excess browning produces its own DNA damaging
compounds.
According to my English dictionary,
searing’s definition is to burn or char. This seems hardly appetizing but
searing is advised in countless recipes, mainly for a benefit it has never
provided.
Justus von Liebig, a very productive
German chemist famous for many achievements and inventions (including bouillon
cubes), hypothesized one day that searing would seal the juices inside
(in 1840?). This was such a pleasant “logical” idea that it became a galloping
myth. Despite their everyday experience to the contrary and countless dry
pieces of meat or fish, even famous cooks came to believe it and spread the
gospel.
This has become the simplest test to
turn away from any acclaimed or self-proclaimed expert, in print or on TV, who
continues to utter this expression. However, it is true that seared meat offers
nice flavors which we find appetizing, causing us to salivate more. Are we
ourselves producing the “juices” we end up appreciating?
Can water be better than stock? Of
course not. Any cream sauce based on a reduction of stock will be richer, with
a deeper flavor, which will often contrast happily with more acidic further
additions.
But there are two reasons why I
rarely use meat stock. Initially, it was because it must be made separately in
advance and might turn bad before I used it for a second recipe. Then, I
discovered that I did like this absence of a rich meaty taste, which ends up
being the same for all dishes.
On the other hand, for fish recipes,
fish stock can be quickly prepared with the unused head and bones of that
particular fish and can enrich the final sauce better than a reduction of a
foreign element like wine.
Except for quick marinating used for
raw fish, I rarely use this technique because I like to recognize the original
taste of the product. If it is not good enough for my taste, I should prepare
something else.
On the other hand, I have used
marinating to conserve a product safely several days for future use, for
example “Oriental” chicken brochettes. Of course, if you are forced to cook a
bland industrially-raised chicken, lemon, spices, and olive oil can add needed flavor
safely.
Beyond the obvious practical aspects
of dividing a bird or other piece of meat or fish so that it can be served to
different people, carving and filleting are also a way to know these animals
more intimately and pay our respects to their sacrifice. Carving and filleting
thus belong to the realm of the sacred. This applies also to vegetable or fruit
preparation. We just need to be aware and present.
All animal anatomies have a lot in
common. This is why, when carving a rabbit or a different bird than usual, you
are at the same time in known territory and in terra incognita: Where exactly
should I apply my knife, so that I detach the leg from the thigh cleanly? Do
not deny yourself this simple pleasure of continuous exploration. Please avoid
the two pitfalls which had their glorious time once, the cleaver, and the
scissors.
Filleting a fish is also a great
pleasure, and in the US a rare one as well, as rare as the availability of
whole fish. It is interesting, by the way, to explore Japanese techniques,
including the Japanese way of skinning fish that you can then apply to any meat
as well. Working with Japanese knives is actually a wonderful experience in
itself, and you might adopt some of them.
The same is true for vegetables or
fruit. Take an orange for example. You can peel it in so many ways: with your
hands or with a knife, just taking out a generous zest or plunging deeper and
cutting away the thin outer skin of each segment. With some practice, you can
even cut out the skins between segments and just show each segment skinless,
with the juicy pulp vesicles apparent. It’s fun (and may be noticed and
appreciated).
As soon as you start eating or
drinking, danger is everywhere. We are afraid of high blood pressure, bad cholesterol,
diabetes, alcohol, sugar, red meat, eggs and more.
Margarine was supposed to save us
from butter’s ill effects in the 1950s, but 40 or 50 years later, we learn that
its transfats are much worse! Mushrooms can kill you and the sweet and soft
spinach can combine its oxalic acid with cheese’s calcium to build kidney
stones. Red wine will kill you while adding to your life expectancy. No wonder
new diets are invented every day. We want to believe in something that will
save us, not realizing that the biggest risk to our health would be to stop
eating altogether!
As the margarine story tells us,
nutrition science is still in its infancy with new contradictory definitive
conclusions issued every day. At this stage, I listen to all this advice with a
distracted ear. So far, I only believe in variety and moderation, pillars of a
balanced diet.
Variety is essential. We are omnivorous animals and probably
we do well with a little bit of everything, including antioxidants, trace
elements, and natural easily absorbed vitamins of all kinds. Even fibers that
we do not absorb are good for us, and a full orange better than its juice.
Pregnant women show us the way:
Suddenly, they crave red meat, which they did not like before, or require
pickles and oysters. I think we can all do the same, learn to listen to the
demands of our own bodies and respond accordingly.
Moderation is the other important factor of our well-being. This
applies to every meal you are having, including exceptional ones, and I can
attest that it requires some willpower. Another point is to limit your intake
to meals. In the US, surrounded by people snacking all the time, it is hard to
resist doing the same but you must forgo snacking. Regularity of meals has been shown to
regulate our metabolic processes better and lead to weight control and better
health.
Finally, especially if it is easy
for you to gain weight, you may need to eat a little less than “moderate”. This
is really the hardest part for me if what I am eating tastes good. My father
always depicted wartime shortages as the best provider of health benefits. (5)
I do not want to wait for the next war, this is why I have to try now, and try
again. I promise: I will start tomorrow.
Everyone has his or her pet peeves.
You will have noticed that I have systematically excluded sugar and flour (and
any form of starch additive) from all recipes except desserts. This is because
they are the essence of desserts, sweet and rich, while in other preparations
they are just a silent passenger with dangerous side effects. It is the same
reason that makes me avoid processed foods with their load of unnecessary sugar
and additives.
There are two ingredients I use
practically every day with mixed feelings from a gustatory point of view: salt
and garlic. I fear abuse of either can mask all other flavors and play against
the complexity good cooking should achieve.
Regarding salt, most recipes assume
that all cooks naturally use the proper amount. I do not mention any
proportions myself but I urge you to stay on the safe side (too little) so that
you can fully appreciate what you have prepared and let the addicted guests add
their own salt. Actually, in some cases like the French Pot-au-Feu, the
juxtaposition in your mouth of slightly under-salted meat and coarse salt can
be wonderful in itself. (6)
In the kitchen as well as in the office or on the
factory floor, proper equipment allows us to be more efficient and productive.
However, in your own kitchen, many appliances and utensils often prove to have
more cons than pros. For example, they can take up a lot of space, they need
cleaning which means more work and less fun, they are used a lot in the first
few days of utensil honeymoon and forgotten 12 months later, although they
still occupy some shelf space.
Among the appliances I have personally rejected (but
which can be very useful for some people), the top 3 are:
1. The food
processor. It would deprive me of the sensual experiences it is supposed to
replace plus… I would have to clean it after use. It could be useful if
I had a restaurant and prepared pâté terrines or sophisticated emulsions for 20
guests, but I just cook for friends and instead of trying to guess what flavors
the sauce, they will find the little bits of chanterelles swimming in it. It is
less sophisticated, but is it less good?
2. The pressure cooker. Just look at these limp brownish
string beans: Are they appetizing? Have you really saved any of your precious
time?
3. The
microwave oven. I have never felt I needed the functions it offers. And where
would it go on my small countertop?
I have grown weary of aluminum pots
and pans, as well as foil, which all react with food in a somewhat ominous way.
Although it is much less expensive than other cooking utensil materials, I now
think aluminum should be saved for building airplanes.
If you have an urge to invest, do it
in carbon steel frying pans, stainless steel saucepans and a large size
stockpot for soups, pot-au-feu, and crab). Enameled cast-iron pans or Dutch
ovens have reached undeserved stratospheric prices but are extremely versatile
and healthy.
A wok is a beautifully designed
utensil: thin in order to transfer heat quickly and react to heat changes
immediately, round so that it is easy to scoop up and turn over its contents,
naturally non-stick, and very cheap if you go to the right store. Its only
drawback is that most US gas ranges have rather inefficient burners, which do
not reach the right temperature, and where the wok sits too far from the flame
to stir-fry properly.
Buy a manual vegetable mill, a
manual grater, and, in the Electric department, a good immersion hand blender and
a hand mixer. I prefer not to beat egg whites manually anymore.
Buy a few good knives, heavy and
light, long and short. Cleavers are useful too, for their original purpose, but
also to cut a pie or a pizza, because you can use two hands and your own weight
to help. I find the act of using a knife against a wooden board to slice or
chop some vegetable one of the most symbolic, meditative and enjoyable parts of
cooking. It requires skill and, if you want to keep your fingers, total
concentration. For some reason, I particularly enjoy using a knife that is
clearly oversized or not adapted to the task at hand, and therefore requires
extra attention for the self-inflicted challenge.
Get yourself a good wooden board
too. For hygiene, no plastic will ever approach it. And also get a good potato
peeler which may double up as a cheap version of a mandolin.
Other equipment could include
cooking chopsticks, spatulas, a steamer, colanders, a salad spinner and a
deep-fryer if you are so inclined. As cooking a roast is all about reaching a
given inside temperature and many modern recipes use temperature instructions,
a thermometer could actually be a good idea, even if it takes away some of the
ambiguity I appreciate so much.
To make eating the ultimate
enjoyment, everything must be in place: Eating is best done with food-loving
peers, pleased to be together, ready to enjoy the meal, in command of table
manners similar to yours. Having “appetizing” but not necessarily fancy linen
and china, efficient silverware including sharp knives and good wine glasses
also helps.
When the time comes to serve, two
main solutions are possible. They come up naturally in general, but can be
happily tailored to the situation. Objectives for both are unstated but real:
tickling appetites, building expectations, and distributing portions among
guests as fairly as possible. Aesthetics also play a key role.
Individual plates are the only solution when you want to display your
artistic sense on every plate and make sure every table companion will have the
same experience, eating the same ingredients, hopefully in the same order. It
is also convenient when plates absolutely need to be warmed up. This is both
thoughtful and festive.
In all other cases, serving will be
done more communally by bringing serving dishes and bowls to the table.
In general, guests are supposed to serve themselves, taking turns around the
table, displaying varying degrees of skill, and inadvertently tampering with
the fairness principle. One of the table companions, more dexterous or simply
more assertive, may emerge as a serving leader. He or she had better be
thoughtful and concentrated and do the best job possible. I am watching!
Over the years, I have accumulated many recipe books,
which have all contributed to my education. I feel that you should do the same
and build your own library, electronic or hard-copy, according to your life
encounters and preferences.
I will just share with you (and recommend) a few books
I have really loved and still use. They belong to a different, broader
register, one of knowledge, wisdom and love. Here is my short list, starting
with the absolute masterpiece.
On Food and
Cooking. The science and lore of the kitchen
By Harold McGee (Scribner)
I once took up that book on a 10 hour flight, started
to read it and never put it down until landing. It is an exhilarating trove of
facts about food, origins, and the chemistry of cooking which has made my life
tremendously richer. I own the first and second editions. I constantly come
back to it and, every time, I am confounded by its scope and spirit. I have
never met Harold McGee, but he is like a friend to me. Thank you, Harold!
A History of
Cooks and Cooking
By Michael Symons
I love these books which synthetize thousands of years
of civilization’s history through some new but factual prism. This was another
hard one to put down. Of course, no Frenchman could ever write such an
ambitious book; this is usually done by American intellectuals. In this case,
it took an Australian writer. And you thought all they loved was surfing!
Ma
Gastronomie
By
Fernand Point (Comp)
Fernand Point was a driven, passionate restaurant chef
who modernized and reinvented French cooking, training generations of disciples
in the process. His cookbook gathers some witty ruminations, followed by rough
sketches for recipes culled from his personal notebook. Although dishes are far
too rich and many ingredients are no longer readily available, especially in
the US, it remains for me the ultimate in meaningfulness.
Physiologie
du Goût
By
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Brillat-Savarin was a bachelor, lawyer, and politician
living in the early 19th century. But his fame comes from this book,
a compendium of thoughts and aphorisms regarding the place gastronomy should
have in our lives. Among the many quotes you can extract from this rich opus, I
will mention this one that few people would relate to today but made absolute
sense to him:
"The discovery of a new dish
confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star."
The
Gastronomical Me
By Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher
It is a rare person who, at the age of 35, already
starts reminiscing about her discovery of eating pleasures, but MFK Fisher was
unique. Is this book her best? Maybe not, but the title is. I like her quest. I
love her writing style. I would have loved meeting her in her later years and I
could have! Why did I discover her far too late?
(1)
Flour is the best example. Sprinkling flour
on a piece of meat at the browning stage means that, later on, this will be the
thickening agent for the sauce. If you are like me, overlook that instruction,
and maybe, the entire recipe.
(2)
See Searing. Another good one is that
flambéing’s purpose is to get rid of alcohol, when evaporation from boiling
takes care of that already.
(3)
This is even more true for pastry. You may
love the recipe from your best friend’s mother for all kinds of sentimental
reasons. But a recipe signed by Alain Ducasse or Pierre Hermé will probably taste
better.
(4)
For some reason, fattening ducks and geese is
considered inhumane in the US and is being gradually banned, while fattening an
entire population with sodas is not really an issue.
(5)
He used to say “On ne s’est jamais si bien porté que pendant la guerre quand il n’y
avait rien à manger” (French people were never healthier than during the
last war when there was nothing to eat).
(6)
A low-salt diet is also officially recommended
for your health, but it is another issue I do not want to address.
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