This short monograph discusses, in brief, some techniques to advance your culinary prowess. We will always emphasize the simple over the complicated, the succulent over the decadent, the meat over the poultry, the cereal over the pseudocereal and tuber, and the objectively excellent over the objectively mediocre.
Use High-Quality Ingredients
You should always strive to use the highest-quality ingredients that you can reasonably afford. Not only do these ingredients taste better, you will also find that they are better for you.While T.C.I. is a culinary resource, it is not possible to complete divorce the discipline of cooking from the nutritious effects that food has on the human body. Especially in the United States of America, there exists a tier of food ingredient that is suitable for bare subsistence at best; this tier of ingredient typically comes at the lowest cost, and should be avoided if at all possible.
This is not to say that one should always strive to use the most expensive ingredients. Quality and price are correlated, but this correlation is not perfect. For an example, let us turn to oils: a simple virgin olive oil is typically cheaper than an exotic seed oil,Or an exotic snake oil, made only from 100% organic snakes. and is no less nutritious.
Source ingredients locally whenever possible. Depending on your region, this may be more or less feasible. Despite the modern miracle of refrigeration, vegetables and fruits vary in their quality throughout the year, and imports may not substitute well for local varieties. Some dishes are best treated as seasonal affairs. Canned tomatoes are excellent in a bolognese sauce, but unsuitable for a caprese salad.
Meat, poultry, and fish should follow this order of preference:
- Wild-caught, trapped, or hunted.
- Pastured, grazed, free-range, &c.
- Grass-fed.Or other natural diet as appropriate.
- Organic, Kosher, or Halal grain-fed.
- Grain-fed. Reject this option if you possibly can.
- None. Reject this option at all costs. Vegetarians worship at the altar of a False God.
It is an objective truth that animals which consume their natural diet both taste better and are more nutritious than animals which subsist on a diet of only maize. You do not consist on a diet of only maize, and neither should your beef.
Cook With Fat
Cooking with fat improves the even transfer of heat from the heat source to the food, and adds flavor to the dish. The correct choice of cooking fat varies with what your are cooking, but "none" is almost never the correct choice. When in doubt, use olive oil, butter, tallow, or lard.
Note also that fat used in cooking is often not the same as fat used for flavor. Always, cooking fat should be applied to the pan and heated before the food is added to the pan. Doing this causes the food to cook in the fat; not doing this causes the food to absorb the fat.
Salt Early And Often
Using no salt at all typically results in a flavorless meal; using too much results in something inedible. It might be tempting to wait until the dish is finished to add salt, but salting the food while heat is applied to it helps the salt evenly permeate throughout the food. The result will be much more tender and flavorful. To prevent over-salting, add small portions of salt progressively as you add ingredients, tasting as needed. Over time, you will develop an intuitive understanding of how much salt is the right amount, and be more comfortably adding the salt earlier in the cooking process.
Use The Right Cooking Implements
Begin by throwing out of all of your non-stick pans.If there's a war on, donate your non-stick pans to H.M. Government so they might be melted down and used to produce Spitfires. Not only do these pans present a potential health hazard, but they are objectively inferior at cooking to other pans. They also wear out quickly compared to alternatives. Throw out all of your non-stick pans.
Cooking implements for indirect heat are very straightforward: for braising, the best tool is an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven. These tools combine a heavy iron construction for even heat distribution and heavy iron lid to prevent the escape of moisture, alongside an enameled surface to permit the use of acidic foods such as tomatoes. They're also invaluable for bread baking, entirely serviceable for soups, and a reasonable substitution for stainless-steel sauce pans. The best examples are made with free labor in France by Staub and Le Creuset. The raw materials and workmanship necessary result in a hefty price, but one that is well worth paying.
Clad stainless steel sauce pans offer certain advantages over Dutch ovens. The lower mass and smaller size of these vessels makes them more responsive to changes in temperature, and the stainless steel surface produces a slightly better fondThe burnt bits that stick to the pan. These are, deliciously, later reincorporated into the sauce. than enameled cast iron. Not inexpensive, they are nonetheless making room for in your kitchen if you have room in your budget. The best examples are made with free labor in the United States by All-Clad, in Belgium by Demeyere, and in Portugal by Le Creuset.
Skillets are an area of contention, and the best choice of skillet depends on application, budget, and heat source.
Cast iron skillets are the cheapest option, and are extremely versatile. When well-seasoned, they have excellent non-stick properties, and their thickness generally results in even heat distribution even with low-quality heat source such as resistance-coil electric ranges. Their thickness also provides good heat retention, which is important when cooking thick steaks or chops using a low-quality heat source. Also serviceable for baking. However, their thickness makes these pans less responsive to deliberate changes in temperature possible when using a higher-quality heat-source, and their rough surface does not sear as well as alternatives. Recommended if you are limited by budget or are constrained to an electric cooktop. Good examples are made with free labor in the United States by Lodge and in Colombia by Victoria.These pans are very metallurgically simple and a hundred-year old piece in disrepair can be readily pressed into contemporary service without too much trouble.
Carbon steel skillets are superior to cast iron skillets for most applications when using a high-quality heat source such as a good gas range or an induction top. Professional kitchens use these pans for good reason. They are more responsive to deliberate changes in temperature, but are still thick enough to heat evenly, and the carbon steel surface sears meat better than cast iron. They can be slightly worse than cast iron for thick chops due to less heat retention. Carbon steel is somewhat more expensive than cast iron, but nonetheless comparatively cheap vs. steel, aluminum, and copper. The best examples are made with free labor in Belgium by Demeyere, in France by Matfer Bourgeat, and in Argentina by Darto.
Multi-clad stainless steel skillets are the best pick for making pan sauces. They also have extremely good heat transfer qualities due to their copper and/or aluminum cores, and thicker models deliver excellent results with low-quality cooking surfaces. These pans are, however, extremely expensive, due both to metallurgical complexity and to the cost of raw materials. The best examples are made with free labor in Belgium by Demeyere.
Enameled cast-iron skillets are similar to multi-clad steel skillets in application, but like their non-enameled brethren, retain heat better while less responsive to deliberate changes in temperature. Of high cost due to the workmanship involved, they are best used for cooking thick chops and making pan sauces on electric coil ranges. These pans use an older technology, dating from the late 18th century, whereas multi-clad stainless steel skillets date from the late 20th century. The best examples are made with free labor in France by Staub and Le Creuset.
Baking stones and steels are relatively simply affairs. Provided that they are made of thick food-grade ceramic or steel, they will serve, and more expensive examples do not outperform their less expensive colleagues. Source locally.