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Cooking is a form of engineering. I like that there's a science behind it, and I like that if you become any good, your standard-of-living (of eating?) will be
by peterevans 12y ago
Cooking is a form of engineering. I like that there's a science behind it, and I like that if you become any good, your standard-of-living (of eating?) will be vastly improved.
Tip #1: get a good knife. If you can, go to a store that'll let you actually hold a knife prior to purchase, to test its heft and balance. Find one that fits you comfortably. (I like Shun knives, but this is a pretty personal topic; don't let that be my personal endorsement so much as my personal choice.) The knife should be sharp, and you should keep it honed with a honing steel. Eventually it may get dull to the point where you might want a whetstone to sharpen it again, but you'd probably need to use your knife a decent amount before it gets to that point.
Tip #2: mis-en-place, which is French for, basically, putting things into place. Your mis is your work station. Clean your counters. Get out your cutting board. Have a bowl for food waste (e.g. the ends you cut off a carrot, the skin off a potato that you peel) and somewhere to put food once you have finished whatever you are doing.
Tip #3: prep work will make your life much, much easier. If the dish calls for diced onions, then you should dice your onions before you turn the heat on the stove. Having all of the vegetables chopped, things marinated, meat salted and spiced, whatever -- ahead of time -- will make the act of cooking about ten times less stressful than otherwise.
Tip #4: taste your food. Needs some salt? Add salt. Maybe some pepper will make it pop. This is a hard thing to quantify; how things taste and what you think you will need is partly your palate, which you can develop beyond what it is now, but some stuff (salt makes things taste better -- to a point, beyond which it just makes things taste like salt) is universal. Just don't be afraid to try some things, in small measures at least, and taste it to see where it's at.
- darkarmani 12y ago> Eventually it may get dull to the point where you might want a whetstone to sharpen it again, but you'd probably need to use your knife a decent amount before it gets to that point. I completely disagree. It gets dull slow enough that you don't notice it, but there is a difference after 1 month and big difference after 4 months. Although it probably takes a year to get as dull as most people's knives. Although you did mention Shun knives which are much harder than the German steels.
- peterevans 12y agoApologies if the experience with some other knives differs greatly. I'd gone from not really having a chef knife to having a Shun, and the difference in sharpness was just nuts. I haven't felt the need to sharpen it yet -- not that I can claim to be a superb judge of that, but to me, the sharpness is still very much there.
- darkarmani 12y ago> but to me, the sharpness is still very much there. Cutting tomatoes is usually a really good indication. When my knives are sharp, the weight of the knife is enough to cut right through them. The real test is dicing tomatoes because there is less tomato holding the pieces together and you if you push the softer parts of the tomato squish out. The Shun knives are made with a very, very hard steel. The German steels like Wusthof and Henckels are much softer and have a steeper bevel. With harder steel you can have a thinner angle because it doesn't need as much strength (although i hear that they are more brittle).
- tripzilch 12y agoDon't forget he said he does hone it with a honing steel. That's different from actually sharpening it. You can easily quickly hone your knife before every cooking session (though I don't do it always myself).
- darkarmani 12y agoYeah. Honing makes a huge difference.