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A 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
by papertokyo 3y ago
A 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.