Improving my cooking skills (2003)

[MatthewB]

I'm a home cook. Nothing more.

Last fall & winter I worked on meats & cuisine bourgeoisie. This spring & summer I continued on meats with a focus on grilling & smoking.

Now what to do this fall & winter?

Here's my preliminary list:

-- Continue working on French cuisine bourgeoisie

-- Dough & assorted baking (bread, tarts, etc.)

-- Charcuterie

-- Indian (I've done a little but not enough to make any claims here)

I would also like to improve on cooking without recipes. (I'm not very good at this.)

I also wonder if I should work through Pepin's "Complete Techniques" and/or Kamman's "New Making of a Cook."

eGullet is stocked with cooks & chefs much better than I hope to become. So, tell me, what should I be doing in the kitchen? I'm open to scrapping everything that I've layed out above.

[helenas]

I vote for Charcuterie. Have you seen Bertolli's Cooking By Hand? Nice chapter on salumi.

[Jinmyo]

Charcuterie, yes.

And try going through the Gospel of St. Jacques.

[Andy Lynes]

Just follow the eGCI of course!!!

[Toliver]

I also wonder if I should work through Pepin's "Complete Techniques" and/or Kamman's "New Making of a Cook."

Pepin.

Then do a "Julie/Julia"-type food blog here on eGullet.

We'll sell t-shirts to commemorate the undertaking.

[Richard Kilgore]

Great thread. I am in a similar spot, so I'll be interested to hear what others say.

I do recommend Richard Olney's Simple French Food if you are trying to learn to work without a recipe. His improvisational riffs are well written, illuminate and are wonderfully helpful. At least they have been to me.

[helenas]

Another great read for cooking without a recipe, is Nigel Slater's Appetite.

[MatthewB]

Not to turn this into a charcuterie thread, but . . .

I have the Le Creuset terrine. It's 1 3/8 quart. Can all recipes be adjusted to this size? Or should I have other terrine sizes? If so, what's good-quality without breaking the bank?

I have Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery. Should I just work through that?

Edit: Started a terrine thread here.

Edited August 27, 2003 by MatthewB (log)

[MatthewB]

As far as cooking without a recipe . . .

I cook from Olney's Simple French Food & Slater's Appetite. And both have allowed me to learn to riff off a recipe.

But I guess I have it my head that I should be able to go to the market, pick out the best & freshest ingredients, & add what I need during the same trip.

Am I off my rocker here? (Note the *here.* )

Might Dornenburg & Page's Culinary Artistry move me in the direction that I think I need to go in? (Or should I not even concern myself with "cooking without a recipe"?)

[fresco]

Do you have a copy of Jane Grigson's Charcuterie?

[mcdowell]

Might Dornenburg & Page's Culinary Artistry move me in the direction that I think I need to go in?  (Or should I not even concern myself with "cooking without a recipe"?)

The Culinary Artistry book is good in that it has abundant ideas for flavor pairings, some that might not be so obvious until you read them and have one of those "hey, yeah" moments. Great book that I take off the shelf a couple of times a year to just browse for inspiration.

I do think that you need to be able to riff a sauce or be comfortable throwing ingredients together without direction and in a way that sounds good to you to be able to use the book effectively (though there are recipes within).

This whole idea of being able to "cook without a recipe", for anyone with even a modicum of kitchen experience, plays more as issue of self-confidence and expectation than one of skill. After all, there are only so many ways to cook food (and a very few at that). It just seems that the recipes are complicated.

I think you'd be suprised at what you could accomplish if you just jotted down a few ideas (even a very simple one like "pork & apple") and attempted a simple dish around those pairings. It can be scary as hell, no question, but if it's not good, you throw it away and try again, ordering pizza in that night. Nothing's really lost, and there's even knowledge to gain with each kitchen failure. Each success will make you more comfortable and confident and soon you'll be glancing over recipes, working only off the descriptions.

I'll bet you don't use recipes to scramble eggs or make an omelet, but rather add in what you want, leaving out what you don't - it's something that's probably very comfortable to those of us that find our way here. Different ingredients don't complicate things, it just makes it different.

Don't expect Thomas Keller, but rather something that's simply satisfying. I bet you have it in you.

[marie-louise]

For dough, you could work your way through Baking with Julia -either the Basics chapter or the whole book, depending on your free time and current BMI- or The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Baking seems like such a natural thing to practice in the winter. I'm a happy camper with soup and bread for dinner in the winter. (Myself, I make the stock and soup, but buy the bread.) If you haven't perfected your stock skills yet, you could do that, too, then improvise to your heart's content on the soups.

Edited August 27, 2003 by marie-louise (log)

[helenas]

But I guess I have it my head that I should be able to go to the market, pick out the best & freshest ingredients, & add what I need during the same trip.

Matthew, great point - this is my ultimate goal as well, but for myself i don't call it cooking without a recipe: what i'm trying to achieve is to build a memory of different ideas, coming in my case from reading a lot of, yes, recipes. I can probably cook without a recipe, and produce something quite decent, but why should i do it?

Example: i'm reading through Gayler's "Passion For Vegetables". Great idea/recipes are on every page. So i'd like to try them all - maybe because i cook to eat the ecxciting food every night, not to prove to myself that i can become next Keller.

[MatthewB]

For dough, you could work your way through Baking with Julia -either the Basics chapter or the whole book, depending on your free time and current BMI- or The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Baking seems like such a natural thing to practice in the winter. I'm a happy camper with soup and bread for dinner in the winter. (Myself, I make the stock and soup, but buy the bread.) If you haven't perfected your stock skills yet, you could do that, too, then improvise to your heart's content on the soups.

I think I'll take you up on Baking with Julia. I have BB Apprentice & I've done a couple of recipes from it. I want to work more with that book.

FWIW, I'm pretty good at stocks & make stock on many Sunday mornings. I'm known for good soups & stews. Fresh bread is the next step, as you've noted.

Edited August 27, 2003 by MatthewB (log)

[MatthewB]

But I guess I have it my head that I should be able to go to the market, pick out the best & freshest ingredients, & add what I need during the same trip.

Matthew, great point - this is my ultimate goal as well, but for myself i don't call it cooking without a recipe: what i'm trying to achieve is to build a memory of different ideas, coming in my case from reading a lot of, yes, recipes. I can probably cook without a recipe, and produce something quite decent, but why should i do it?

Example: i'm reading through Gayler's "Passion For Vegetables". Great idea/recipes are on every page. So i'd like to try them all - maybe because i cook to eat the ecxciting food every night, not to prove to myself that i can become next Keller.

You made some excellent points here, helenas.

Rather than "cooking without recipes," I think you hint at a definition such as "assimulated food memories that allow one to successfully improvise whilst cooking." (Clumsy definition on my part.)

I'm not aiming to cook like Keller. I'm pretty content with producing simple home food. However, where I've been caught is going to market, picking up the best & freshest stuff, & then returning home & finding recipes where I need to return to the market for additional ingredients. That's what I'm trying to avoid. Does that make more sense?

Edit: And I fully intend to continue to read recipes & cook from those that look enticing. I can't imagine not reading cookbooks most winter evenings.

Edited August 27, 2003 by MatthewB (log)

[mikeycook]

I would vote for Charcuterie. I haven't read Grigson's books yet, but there are some good charcuterie recipes in Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France, including Confit of Duck, Goose, and Pork, Air-Dried Magret, and Toulouse Sausages. I have stuck primarily to the confits, but have been pleased with the results.

[helenas]

I'm pretty content with producing simple home food.

You're too modest: the person whose only goal is to cook simple home food won't read the cookbooks you're reading.

However, where I've been caught is going to market, picking up the best & freshest stuff, & then returning home & finding recipes where I need to return to the market for additional ingredients.  That's what I'm trying to avoid.

I know: happens to me quite often. But i almost never shop for dinner without the laptop in my car. There i keep Word documents in which, while going through cookbooks, i write down the list of the important ingredients for most enticing/complicated dishes.

[Toliver]

This whole idea of being able to "cook without a recipe", for anyone with even a modicum of kitchen experience, plays more as issue of self-confidence and expectation than one of skill. After all, there are only so many ways to cook food (and a very few at that). It just seems that the recipes are complicated.

I think you've hit the proverbial nail on the head. My oldest brother (my family's "black sheep gourmet") seems to have no fear in the kitchen. He sallies forth and throws together the oddest ingredients and comes up with masterpieces. He never seems to have an expectation of anything other than success. It's an amazing talent, indeed.

[Suzanne F]

Culinary Artistry can indeed inspire you to put foods together that you might not otherwise. I adore it for that.

But before you can feel comfortable cooking without a recipe, you need to have all your basic cooking techniques down: saute, poaching, braising, grilling, roasting, shallow-fry, deep-fry; and you have to understand the basic chemistry of cooking (why is overcooked meat dry? what is an emulsion? etc.). For the latter, you cannot beat Shirley Corriher's CookWise. For the former, The New Cook by Mary Berry & Marlena Spieler is great at a very basic level; James Peterson's Essentials of Cooking is also terrific. Nothing whatsoever against St. Jacques -- but looking at these others against Complete Techniques in light of what you've said, these might be better to work through.

And of course you have to follow every lesson in eGCI.

If you have trouble finding The New Cook, let me know; I bought extra copies specifically to send to friends in need.

[Suzanne F]

MatthewB: a public answer to your private query: "Why The New Cook or Essentials of Cooking over Complete Techniques?" All three of them have great photographs, which I think are essential in demonstrating techniques on the page; no matter how well it is said, if it isn't shown there's no way to know if you did it correctly. And the texts of all three are clear and unambiguous. Mainly it's a question of how the books are organized, in relation to the way I like to learn and the way I like to teach.

The New Cook is the most basic, for someone who knows virtually nothing about cooking and not much about food. It is organized along those lines: first information (with pictures) on ingredients and equipment; then many basic prep techniques; thirteen Master Recipes that illustrate the use of the techniques, with step-by-step pictures; finally a set of recipes that bring together several techniques, with occasional pictorial reminders. It's probably too basic for you. But I like the progression it makes.

Essentials of Cooking is also excellent information on techniques, but I don't like the way it's organized. You just have to bounce around the pages too much. Prepping vegetables and fruits is at the front before any recipes; prepping shellfish and poultry is within each chapter of recipes using them; but prepping whole fish and large cuts of meat ("Working from Scratch") is at the back, AFTER all the recipes. I hate being told to do something, but not being told HOW to do it until after I've tried on my own. Just too much flipping pages back and forth for me; not something I want to have to do in the middle of prepping and cooking. The lack of consistency in organization bothers me; it might not bother you. But it's not a book to work through, front to back.

If Complete Techniques is not truly 100% complete, at least for classic French cooking, I'd be very surprised. Compared to the other two, it's massive. But for someone who wants to become comfortable with cooking techniques, is it really helpful to include carving potatoes into roses as a "basic?" It just seems overwhelming to me, and therefore daunting. I'm sure it isn't all that difficult to follow the later chapters from start to finish. But it's just so exhaustingly, classically, French.

[Jinmyo]

If Complete Techniques is not truly 100% complete, at least for classic French cooking, I'd be very surprised.  Compared to the other two, it's massive.  But for someone who wants to become comfortable with cooking techniques, is it really helpful to include carving potatoes into roses as a "basic?"  It just seems overwhelming to me, and therefore daunting.  I'm sure it isn't all that difficult to follow the later chapters from start to finish.  But it's just so exhaustingly, classically, French.

Mais oui. But of course.

[fifi]

If you take an interest in Mexican cuisine, Bayless does a great job of presenting recipes as a "process" as well as a recipe and then proceeds to present alternative approaches. I have learned a lot from his books from that perspective.

[Bouland]

I have Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery.  Should I just work through that?

This is an excellent book, but it is becoming a bit dated, having been originally published in 1967. I find it useful as a guide but the cuts of meat can be different and you'll have to adjust around her salt peter usage.

[Bux]

I have Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery.  Should I just work through that?

I am nor so disciplined that I would do that, but it's a great book. And it's a great book for understanding charcuterie as much as it is for having decent recipes.

[MatthewB]

But before you can feel comfortable cooking without a recipe, you need to have all your basic cooking techniques down: saute, poaching, braising, grilling, roasting, shallow-fry, deep-fry . . .

I need to work on deep-frying.

From the looks of my fall/winter cooking plans, I'm going to need to invest in new (bigger) pants.