What do you want to know how to do?

[Toliver]

A simple milk gravy (the kind you make when serving fried chicken or a southern chicken fried steak). Mine end up tasting like...nothing. The one thing my mom could never do well was make a good gravy and I've seemed to have inherited it from her.

[Anna N]

how about making food look good? or maybe it's just i don't have an artistic bone in my body :-)

Me too! I just wish I could improve my presentation (plating?) skills.

Anna N

[enthusiast]

can't do meringues

[Stone]

Knife sharpening.

Al -- anything other than store-bought pasta and store-bought sauce should work.

Edited July 16, 2003 by Stone (log)

[Busboy]

How to make cream sauces and soups without the stuff breaking half the time (it would be less frustrating if it either always broke or never broke).

[marie-louise]

Canning 101. All I know is you need boiling water and jars;I wouldn't know where to begin. I've never tried it. There is a certain appeal to buying a big ol' lug of tomatoes at the Farmer's Market and making some tomato sauce or tomato chutney for the winter.

[KateW]

Fish prep and cooking...I don't know why I'm so intimidated by this but it seems like cooking fish would be different from cooking other meat because of the texture difference and I know it doesn't take as long to cook fish...but I have no idea where to begin...and also deboning and skinning fish, deveining shrimp, the proper way to eat a whole lobster (I know this one, but others may not), techniques like broiling, grilling, pan frying fish steaks and filets, etc. Big topic, I know.

[Anna N]

Stove-top smoking.

Anna N

[Socrates]

The perfect stock.

Soc.

[Wimpy]

Menu planning, i.e. what goes with what.

[KatieLoeb]

Perfect boiled eggs, at every stage. I know it's pretty much all in the timing, but there's technique too, right?

[Stone]

Menu planning, i.e. what goes with what.

And timing. When to start what dishes for each menu. (But I guess that's pretty specific for the menu.)

[Elissa]

How to cook for one (a unique individual).

[Elissa]

As I am coordinating the "techniques" section of the eGullet Culinary Institute, it struck me that many of us have a good overall understanding of cooking, but have specific kitchen conundrums we want solved, specific questions we want answered and specific techniques we want explained.

Some prospective topics might (and, in some cases, already do) include:

- making a perfect French omelette

aye

[Elizabeth_11]

The perfect pate sucree. I lost my recipe from FPS that I learned last year , would love to find another tried and true one.

[meatman]

will help where ever I can with anything to do with meat. I know a couple of tricks that make frenching a lamb rack a breeze

[jschyun]

I would love to learn how to make high end chocolates. Also, how to temper chocolate perfectly every time. Also, how do they make those candies where you have different crackly pralines in a perfect little dome over the chocolate candy?

[NVNVGirl]

I was afraid that knife skills would be way too basic, but thankfully I see a couple of others are interested in it too....I'd like to particulary know what the proper way or the best way to HOLD the knife...now THAT's basic, lol! And home smoking is great too. A perfect Caesar dressing. Working with brick ovens or pizza ovens. And food presentation/timing would be great too...how do you get it ALL together at the same time and present it still at least warm? Seana

[Jinmyo]

like to particulary know what the proper way or the best way to HOLD the knife...

The rest of the material is here.

[NVNVGirl]

Thanks Jinmyo; for some reason, I have always held it with my forefinger along the top...I just knew that wasn't right! Seana