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I wish recipes instead of usual waffle just had a paragraph of "why". The experienced can skip it, the novices will learn. Like how you should only use 00 flou
by ilyt 3y ago
I wish recipes instead of usual waffle just had a paragraph of "why". The experienced can skip it, the novices will learn.
Like how you should only use 00 flour on pizza if you have hot enough oven while more usual flour works better if your oven doesn't go that hot.
I guess I should start looking for cookbook that goes into detail about process and not just dumps recipes on me.
- Swizec 3y agoI believe Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is such a book for layfolk like us. Otherwise proper chef-ing textbooks. I used to work with a former chef and the details she could go into about why/how various processes work in cooking – wow. I learned something new every time we chatted.
- jayunit 3y agoYou might enjoy https://www.seriouseats.com https://www.seriouseats.com or The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt.
- Sindisil 3y agoYou would love Cooks Illustrated, then.
- __turbobrew__ 3y ago+1 on cook’s illustrated. I love how it goes into the why and also describes the process on how the recipe was formed.
- tafda 3y agoHarold McGee’s On Food and Cooking is the classic in the genre of explaining how cooking works. Rather dry textbook style.
- papertokyo 3y agoA sibling comment mentioned "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat. I cannot praise this book highly enough. If you enjoy food but don't know the fundamentals of cooking, it may actually change your life. Part 1 alone took me from "I need a recipe to make anything other than grilled cheese" to "I can go to a farmer's market, see some ingredients I like, and make something delicious with it". She explains in great detail the "why" of flavor combinations, balance, different cooking techniques, when and how to season, and is full of obvious-once-you-read-it advice like using the right kind of fat and acid for the cuisine you're making. (e.g. olive oil and red wine vinegar: perfect for Italian dishes, totally out of place in a Thai stir fry — you want vegetable oil and lime juice) I do sometimes search for recipes to get a vague idea of what proportions make sense, but I don't feel lost without them anymore.
- jjj123 3y agoThat book absolutely changed my life for the better. I went from basically never cooking before (but loving food) to what’s turned into a years-long cooking and baking obsession. Can’t recommend it enough!
- pfannkuchen 3y agoTangential thought. Olive oil has been in Italy for a long time, you can make it manually and I guess the high quality stuff sold in nice stores is roughly equivalent to making it manually in terms of final product (maybe not as fresh or whatever but close). Vegetable oil though… modern vegetable oil is generally very processed AFAIK, and it’s not at all like what Asians would have used to cook with before industrialization when most cuisines developed I think? I wonder what sort of fat would be used, like, classically, in Thai cuisine? Still vegetable oil?
- walthamstow 3y agoPossibly coconut oil or other nut oils, if it was possible to press it manually prior to industrialisation. If not then animal fats like lard and tallow.
- papertokyo 3y agoGood point, those are both very common in tropical Asia. Also palm oil. I was mentally putting all of those in the 'vegetable' category.