Alcuin

I bought a huge tub of chili bean sauce. A year and a half later, it's still there. That tub is just too big. It's not for lack of use either. There's also quite the assortment of old jams in there too. We keep on buying more and forgetting about them I guess. Some good stuff too, like jalapeno strawberry or straight jalapeno from the farmer's market. I'll have to put those front and center in the refrigerator to remind myself to use them before it's too late...

I don't think you can write much of anything that doesn't require some good judgment on the part of the reader. Recipes that covered everything down to exactly what to do in every situation would be lengthy--I could see it done with big glossy pictures and everything, with something like 7-10 recipes in it though.

I recommend ratatouille too. It's great cold, hot, room temp. It goes with eggs, chicken, pork, pasta, lots of grains. It is extremely versatile and gets better with a bit of time. If I were going to roast vegetables to use in ratatouille, I would just make the ratatouille and cook veg for curry when I needed too-the veg might be a bit tired from all that cooking. I'm sure it would be fine though, as long as you like your squash well cooked.

Potatoes are great with pesto-a little pasta, some green beans, the potatoes, and pesto is a classic combo. So maybe a riff off of that for a salad? Deconstruct it perhaps: potatoes, green beans, torn basil, shaved parm, roasted pine nuts or almonds, dressed in vinaigrette (lemon maybe) over dressed greens. Or something like that. Last night I did this: octopus, chickpeas, green beans, green olives (can't remember the variety), parsley, sliced chili (thai), lemon zest, lemon, olive oil. It was very good-you could use the potatoes in place of chickpeas in a similar salad. Octopus, potatoes, lemon, and parsley go well together too.

There's a group of frozen custard places called Michael's (http://www.ilovemichaels.com/) here in the Madison, WI area. Invariably there's a long snaking line. I don't go there much because my girlfriend can't eat icecream, but it is very good.

I like this. I've had lots of bad meals cooked by friends, from scratch and with (mostly) the right equipment. Were they bad in the sense that they could have been much more delicious? Sure. Were they good because the person was trying to make something good, even going beyond their comfort zone to do so, with the result being a gesture more important than the taste of a meal? Absolutely. Some people just don't have it in them, and don't care to, even if they like to eat. Now the ones that claim to be god's gift to the kitchen and still suck: they suck. But I don't really know too many of them (just lucky I guess).

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Generalizations and judgments don't just make for convincing arguments, there's usually not that much else that an argument can be made of (what would we use if not generalizations and judgments? I suppose facts, but there just aren't that many of them out there to supply us with all the arguments we might want to make). Bad generalizations and judgments are just that: bad, useless, and unconvincing. But can we not say that there are signs of good/bad cooks that are actually good generalizations? I think we can. For instance, I said that not seasoning properly (within parameters that would please most people) is a pretty sure sign of a bad cook. That's a generalization, but I also think it's true. It's going to result in bland food and represents a lack of the fundamentals of a good cook. That bad food makes a bad cook. But I agree about seeing bottle dressings/sauces, or miracle whip, or what someone might call poor knives, etc: That doesn't make a bad cook, because cooking is about the food. Maybe we should be talking about marks of bad food, or maybe marks of a good cook. All this talk of badness is no good. Can you not say the same thing when it comes to marks of a good cook? It's really subjective, because one person's good cook is another person's average. If you were to take all of the responses so far in this thread, I come out looking really shitty. I do use a steak knife for vegetable prep regularly -- I do use my larger knives for things that a steak knife can't adequately handle, like hacking open a Hubbard squash or cantaloupe. I use the steak knife because it's a small kitchen, I have a small surface area to work with and I find that I can get the job done much faster using a smaller implement. My knife skills suck eggs. I vaguely know how to tourne, and what paysanne, batonnet, julienne and brunoise refer to ... but I'm not cooking for Gramercy Tavern and so, see little need to emulate that kind of skill set. I can count on one hand the number of pots I have: a nonstick skillet, a saucepot with a nonstick interior surface, a Le Creuset Dutch oven, a 6 quart stockpot and a small stainless steel saucepot. Not counting my two Pyrex baking dishes, cookie sheet and roasting pan. I don't have a microwave because I think those kinds of appliances are useless. Gee, I'm not only bad but I'm cheap too! Who knew? My fridge is getting nearly bare. I have to find a way to use up things bought from two weeks ago. Tonight will be sugar snap peas and zucchini with Indian spices (the spices won't be top notch because they're not fresh, the zucchini's kind of tired looking the last time I checked and the cilantro is wilted but not yet past the point of no return), followed by ricotta gnocchi with tomato confit and green garlic. The veg hasn't developed sentient life, so perhaps I'm not that bad, huh? On the other hand, I've been known to still use Mrs. Dash when the mood strikes me. Some things don't change. I think most of the things said in this topic aren't really good marks of a bad cook. I think the inability to season is though, and I think you can generalize pretty well off of that. It's hard to come up with good generalizations, but that doesn't mean we can't say there are good cooks and bad ones. Otherwise we end up in everything-is-relative land where nothing is as it seems. Using equipment as a guide amounts to nothing. And about the steakknife thing: I don't know about anybody else, but if I'm over a friend's house cooking and they don't cook a lot, the first thing I'm looking for is something (anything!) serrated: at least it won't be duller than a doorknob. And yeah: stock cubes, Mrs. Dash, seasoning salts, packages of soup to make dip--these things do have their uses (I can make a really delicious French onion dip with only onions, sour cream, herbs de provence, butter, and salt: in the end, it tastes a bit better than the powder from a pouch, but not by that much really).

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Generalizations and judgments don't just make for convincing arguments, there's usually not that much else that an argument can be made of (what would we use if not generalizations and judgments? I suppose facts, but there just aren't that many of them out there to supply us with all the arguments we might want to make). Bad generalizations and judgments are just that: bad, useless, and unconvincing. But can we not say that there are signs of good/bad cooks that are actually good generalizations? I think we can. For instance, I said that not seasoning properly (within parameters that would please most people) is a pretty sure sign of a bad cook. That's a generalization, but I also think it's true. It's going to result in bland food and represents a lack of the fundamentals of a good cook. That bad food makes a bad cook. But I agree about seeing bottle dressings/sauces, or miracle whip, or what someone might call poor knives, etc: That doesn't make a bad cook, because cooking is about the food. Maybe we should be talking about marks of bad food, or maybe marks of a good cook. All this talk of badness is no good.

I'm guilty of this with my food processor I live alone but cook 4-5 times a week and have a fantastic food processor thats been sitting on my counter for about 6 months and has never been used. I always find a way to use my immersion blender instead :laugh: I know-I'll always avoid using the processor if I can. It's kind of a pain to clean sometimes and takes up a lot of space in the dishwasher. I'll usually gladly pound out that pesto or sambal in a mortar and pestle than deal with the food processor. I use it less and less, but that's because I have other things to do some of the jobs it did now too (stand mixer, immersion blender, blender, mortar and pestle).

That's the question maybe but I think you have to take things like this on a case by case basis. Like many people have said, there really is no smoking gun so that when you walk into anybody's kitchen you will know they can cook or not. I don't think you'd mistake my kitchen for that of somebody who doesn't cook a lot. But I know some people who have much better equipment than me because they can afford it and they like to buy stuff. Their kitchen might look to most to be the outfit of a solid cook, but there is very little cooking going on in that kitchen. All the appliances are completely unused (which I found out when I went to use their food processor the other day: it was out on the counter and everything, and looked great, but there was still plastic from the manufacturer that was never taken off of it because it never saw any use). Somebody above mentioned that it would be a shame if somebody who really tried to cook well still sucked after trying for a while. That assumes the kind of trying that made many of the people on these forums good cooks: intense planning, learning the fundamentals, application of a lot of care, etc. For some, their attempts at cooking are superficial, like my attempts at bowling. When I'm at the lanes, I try. But I never get better because there's no sustained interest. Just a few spectacular attempts here and there without any sustained attempt to learn how to get better, or equipment purchased but never put through its paces because cooking remains a rarefied thing, not something you do most days (or every day). That's how you remain unskilled and poor even after a while: haphazard, ultimately superficial interest in cooking. Everyone else will go from poor/bad to good quickly enough I believe. Edit: Looks like Beebs scooped me with a good succinct version of what I was meanwhile long-windedly typing out.

Yes. Not understanding basic seasoning is the sign of a bad cook, even if that cook is trying pretty hard. Also, someone who must follow recipe directions so strictly that they cannot think about altering them (to deviate from that path would leave them floundering in directionless limbo). These are signs of an inexperienced cook too, and these things will gradually be learned. If they are not, the cook is a bad cook no matter the experience they have or the toys they own. Understanding the fundamental elements of cooking make a good cook. Lacking the fundamentals reveals a bad cook, no matter what the equipment or anything else. A lot of people I know that watch me cook tend to say that I use way too much salt. That is because they watch me take a big pinch of kosher salt and sprinkle from on high to get a good even coating of salt on a protein for instance. It is no surprise then that their food is bland, no matter how they try and dress it up. That is the sign of a bad cook.

I generally avoid Willy St. and Whole Foods - they're both well outside my price range, especially in the butchers' department. Copps sometimes has sales on quality meat, but the majority of what I can afford is limited to pre-wrapped meatpumped full of water, which, aside from safety concerns, never cooks properly. I recognize that my budget limits me to things like non-organic chuck steak, but I'll be darned if I can find a good one. Getting well off-topic here, but it's true that the coop and of course WF are expensive. Other than that, there are some small butcher shops around, but they are pretty limited. I eat a lot less meat these days though, so I buy low quantities of high priced stuff. And I eat a lot of chicken.

I'm visiting Viet Hoa posty-hasty. I was at MATC for four semesters, and likely passed quite near it on a daily basis. My greens mostly come from either the family garden pot or, more often than not, a little frozen brick from Copps. Also, where do you get your meat? Bucky's Butchery is nice if you don't mind the irregular selection and highly inconvenient hours, but the major grocery stores don't generally have much decent meat outside of a few hideously overpriced options behind the butchers' counter. I would definitely make a habit of going to Asian stores, especially Midway and to a lesser extent Viet Hoa. Midway has some good frozen vegetables too, and a lot of canned stuff (most of which I haven't tried). But they have good turnaround on their fresh stuff too, and it's comparatively very cheap. Then of course there's Woodmans, a mecca for canned and frozen stuff. For meat, I usually shop at the Willy St coop, Copps, and Whole Foods, in a descending order of frequency and depending on what I want.

Fresh greens aren't so available around here, and the frozen stuff is often a fair bitt cheaper. Hopefully this isn't too off-topic but I live in Madison and eat fresh greens almost every night. Tonight I'm having Gai Lan (if you consider that a green) which I picked up at Viet Hoa on Monona Dr for $1.49/lb. I usually buy my greens at Midway at the corner of West Wash and South Park(pea shoots, various kinds of greens like bok choy, yu choy, water spinach, etc). The supermarkets also carry collards, mustard greens, kale, and chard regularly and of course spinach. Some kinds of greens are expensive (pea shoots @ $3.99/lb, a special treat) but things like collards and kale you can get for under a dollar (I think $.89). Also, there are lots of farmer's markets of course (though sometimes they're not the cheapest, though they can be). Where do you usually shop for greens?

There are some really good Thai salads that are composed--some entirely, some partly--of seafood. There are many many of them too. Some of my favorites to make are lightly poached squid or shellfish or the like dressed simply with shallots, chillies, lime juice, fish sauce, and some herbs, served cold to room temperature. Easy to make and delicious. edited for clarity

My vote is butter and parmigiano. A close second for me would be a light application of Marcella Hazan's tomato and butter sauce (crushed tomatoes, up to 4 T butter, a half an onion, all started from cold and simmered slowly until thickened, then seasoned and tossed). Or pesto. Gorgonzola and cream is also very good. For something more involved and spectacular, Bolognese. The fact is, you really can't go wrong though. I use the Kitchenaid rollers and they make the best pasta I've ever made. Also, I don't roll to the thinnest setting since I find it a bit too thin for noodles (I do it for lasagne). For me, rolling it to 6 is the best for noodles.

I didn't know that an Edible Madison has existed for a year, but really I can't be surprised. The concept seems custom built for the place. I took a look at their summer issue: short articles with tips for farmer's market shopping, some short profiles of local places/producers, a goofy piece about drawing a mental "foodshed" (like a watershed, but with food) map with crayons on construction paper (yes, for adults). The recipes are very very basic. I can see how this kind of a thing has appeal, but it's not for me I don't think. Then again, it's only a year old and a handful of issues in, so if I happen to see the next one around I might look into it to see how its coming along.

Wow it looks like you'll have a tough time trying a variety of wines with those prices! How about a good dry vermouth? Perhaps that might be more available in your area, and I think it does a pretty good job adding a bit of complexity to dishes, especially with fish/shellfish tomato sauces. And it lasts longer too. As for using the same wine you're going to drink with dinner, clearly you're going to have to use your judgment with that. I don't think people who advocate that are talking about using more precious wines in sauces, though there are dishes like Brasato al Barolo that specifically call for expensive wine. I just use a nebbiolo from Langhe in them, which I do also drink with the dish and it works well. There really is something to say for using good wine in cooking, but good wine doesn't have to be expensive: you can get pretty good stuff for $9.99 where I live.

I would go with something subtle. Burgundy is a good choice, but merlot based Bourdeux could be good or a cab franc from the Loire, if the customer likes a bit of fruit. Sangiovese or a clone might be nice too: I'd pick Vino Nobile de Montepulciano for something dry but not overbearing. Sounds like the customer likes fruit, but a new world malbec would be a bit too much fruit I'd think and a French malbec would likely be a bit too dry. I've had a nice French gamay/malbec that might be suitable, depending on the drinker. For something out of left field, merlot from Ticino (Italian speaking part of Switzerland in the Alps).

Soave doesn't have to be expensive; you can find it for $9.99 just like many other popular wines. It was highly popular some years ago and somewhat of trend like something like Malbec is now. It can have good acidity and be pleasantly fruity as well. It is well worth trying as an entry point into Italian wines which can be very economical. Many of them are also made to be drunk with and used in food too, so that's another reason to give them a shot. I'm not really sure what you're looking for here, but when people use wine in food they are typically looking to add a little complexity and give the food a boost from the wine's acidity. Typically Chardonnay's like those you seem to be using are mellowed out considerably by the way they are aged, so you will have less of the acidity. These wines also tend to be a bit rich, which might not suit your purposes either. Or maybe it does: only you can be the judge and you can only find out what you like by trying things like you're doing. It would be helpful to know what kind of sauce we're talking about here too. I tend to use wine when I'm making a fish/shellfish sauce. Otherwise, there's generally no wine in my tomato based sauces. But if you like it, go for it. That said, I'd really recommend you try something with good acidity for your sauce. And that typically means looking to France or Italy: there are many excellent values in wine and you don't have to spend a lot of money to get something that's really good. You might have to shop around and do some taste testing though (try to find some free wine tastings in your area). When I cook an Italian pasta sauce, I typically try to use an Italian wine. So look for a Soave with good acid, or something with Sauvignon blanc in it. An Orvieto can be quite nice as well. Some Italian wines can be a bit subtle, but might still work, like Pinot Grigio. There are many others to try too. Have fun with it!

I've always thought this was about thoroughly heating the tofu before it hits the wok so you don't have to move it around to heat it through and risk breaking it up too much. I don't do it either, but I use silken tofu so I'm not going to risk even that. I try to let the tofu come up to room temp if I remember (I never do).

Well not to be a snob, but the whiskey in the stuff really isn't that great, I mean it isn't bad, if I wasn't so spoiled in the spirit's department by an inheritance of my late uncle, I might even say good, but not that great that you can't temper with it. That sounds pretty damn good, but I have a rule; no tequila, not only am I not a big fan of the taste, but once tequila hits the table, things generally end badly and while this may not be true in a cocktail. I do not have it in my house on that principle. That sounds really great, could I trade the Peychaud for Angostura, or is that crazy talk? I don't think I would-the two have very different characteristics. And besides, if you're into making even the occasional drink having Peychaud's around is a good thing. It's very unique and useful for things like Sazeracs, one of the wonders of the ancient cocktail world.

There's more to do with it than Rusty Nails or straight over ice. Here's my favorite, Dave Wondrich's (Splificator in these forums) Gansevoort Fizz 2 oz medium bodied aged rum (Appleton V/X is suggested) 1 oz Drambuie 1 oz lemon juice 2 dashes Peychaud's shake, strain into a chilled glass, top with 2 to 3 oz soda

No, that was the server's bullshit story. That's insane. A new place featuring wellmade (they're pretty decent, but outstanding for this town) opened up. They make their own gingerbeer. A friend of mine new this, so asked for some of the housemade stuff with whiskey in a highball. The bartender then promptly opened a can of Gosling's gingerbeer and made the highball right in front of her. When my friend told her she wanted the housemade stuff, the bartender told her that that was what was in the drink though visual evidence clearly argued against this. She wouldn't take the drink back and insisted it was the housemade stuff: talk about the customer's not always right, even about reality.

A while back I read an article about a thorough testing of this notion (Cook's Illustrated?), which thoroughly debunked it. Ever since then I've added salt before cooking, with no untoward effects. I like salting at the end so I can taste the seasoning of the final product. I've added it at the beginning with no untoward effects. After all, I like them a bit loose, so they're not likely to get tough unless I overcook them.