The Basics

[Megan Blocker]

I've been thinking recently, trying to come up with a list of the three or four basic recipes that every home cook should have in his or her repetoire. I think mayonnaise is definitely in there - but maybe that's just because I'm a mayonnaise addict. A good vinaigrette? A quick, simple pasta? Roast chicken?

What do you think?

[binkyboots]

ooh.. ok, my crucial recipes are

good tomato pasta sauce, either with or without meat

bechamel sauce, for pasta, mac 'n cheese, cauliflower cheese etc

a soup, whatever you like, my standby soup is lentil

roast chicken

[takomabaker]

That's a great idea, but I think "techniques" might be better than recipes. I mean, 90% of the recipes in the back of women's magazines in the check-out line are variations of a sautéed protein and simple pan sauce. So, being able to sauté properly and have a formula for a basic pan sauce would be valuable knowledge to most people.

And I would think being able to make a proper emulsification for such things as a vinaigrette and mayo would be up there in importance, and to be able to master a few more versative mother sauces such as bechamel would be up there.

I'd say being able to make stock would be on the list, but I volunteer as an assistant at a cooking school and have assisted enough Beginner Techniques classes that I know that no matter how much the chef extols the virtues of homemade stock that many of the students are going to leave the class and buy Swansons. It's sad but true. So, I actually think that it is useful to at least teach people who don't have a desire to move beyond the mundane to at least "doctor up" canned stocks. And, frankly, if you've ever cooked at a relative's house or in a remote cabin in a kitchen with nothing but a circa 1957 Club Aluminum pot and a spatula with a broken handle it sure doesn't hurt to know how to make Swansons not suck in a pinch.

[SuzySushi]

Based on techniques and the ability to make a meal, I'd say basic recipes everyone should know are:

How to roast a chicken

How to make an omelet

How to make a simple stir-fry

Learning how to boil pasta so it's not overcooked is a forth basic.

[Viola da gamba]

How to make stock (decreasing Swanson's suckiness is a start, but I'd be inclined to think once you've got that far people often take the leap and make their own), how to make bread (I know - somewhat old school) and how to stir-fry vegetables. Provided you're not on the Atkins, this will mean you can always feed yourself.

My SO's smartalec response: how to make breakfast, how to make lunch & how to make dinner.

[Pan]

I think Suzy is on the right track: Basics are REALLY basic. How to toast bread in a toaster to your preference without burning it; how to boil an egg; how to boil rice; how to boil pasta; how to make a simple roast chicken; how to fry an egg; how to scramble eggs; how to steam or boil vegetables; how to make a simple mixed salad with pepper, oil, and vinegar or lemon juice; how to broil fish. For advanced beginners: How to make a tomato sauce, how to make fried rice, how to make french toast and such-like, according to your preferences of what you want to make (if you want to cook Vietnamese food, you need to know how to make nuoc cham, etc.). And of course, being able to use knives without wounding yourself.

It may be that nowadays, my foremost tool for preparing meals is the telephone I use to order takeout or delivery, but I know how to do all of those basics and much more, so I never have any reason to fear that, if left to my own devices, I'll be unable to cook things that satisfy me. When I was in graduate school, I improvised quite a good bistecca alla pizzaiolo from scratch, purely based on reverse-engineering a rendition I ate at a trattoria in Naples. But I had to have developed decent onion-and-garlic-cutting skills and mastered tomato-sauce-making before I could even hope to give a reasonable attempt at that kind of thing.

[baconburner]

How to make stock (decreasing Swanson's suckiness is a start, but I'd be inclined to think once you've got that far people often take the leap and make their own), how to make bread (I know - somewhat old school) and how to stir-fry vegetables.  Provided you're not on the Atkins, this will mean you can always feed yourself.

My SO's smartalec response:  how to make breakfast, how to make lunch & how to make dinner.

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Hi

I took a cooking course from Pol Martin in the 60's when I moved to my first apartment and one of the lessons that I remember is how to use a knife (Sharp counts). Stocks were also important. Turning a cheap cut of meat into a "Blue Plate Special" with sauce, spice and reduction was the goal. I would probably add what I feel is the most important talent, and that is the use of "SPICE". Maybe this should be a separate topic unless I have missed it

Cheers

Baconburner

[auntdot]

If one is talking very basic, how about a simple saute?

Most people who are clueless about cooking have no idea how easy, and fast, it is to transform boneless steak or chicken, fish, scallops, pork chops or tenderloin, vegetables, the list obviously goes on and on, into tasty food with just a simple frying pan.

Seems to me it's a technique that can transform a total tyro into someone who can make a decent dish without a lot of prep work.

Then, if you can introduce pan sauces, who knows, you might just have a nascent cook on your hands.

Edited June 11, 2005 by auntdot (log)

[Chufi]

how to boil an egg; how to boil rice;

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two things I suck at.

Luckily, I don't like boiled rice, and my husband knows how to boil an egg (one of his very few culinary skills).

My list of basics:

tomatosauce

vinaigrette

omelet

chicken stock

roast chicken

mayonaise

custard

all these things I can do.

One other basic that I would like to be able to do, but I never get it right: steak. Always tough, too rare, too well done, blegh.

[Milagai]

how to boil rice according to the dish (loose and fluffy, or sticky)

how to throw together a simple meal, quick, that most people

will like (simple pasta and salad; sabzi + dal + rice; good sandwich + accomps;

simple stir fry + rice; whatever)

with minimal processed and maximum fresh ingredients.

how to make yogurt at home.

milagai

[jennahan]

I think that basics should be both essential techniques which are a foundation for cooking the simplest to the most complicated dishes, and every-day things that most people cook, but for some reason, are never properly taught how to make the most of.

How to roast a chicken AND make decent gravy from the drippings

Basic egg technique (omlette, poaching, scrambled, hard boiled, soft boiled, separating, whipping)

How to properly dress a salad (i.e., make a good vinagrette and how and when to add to the salad leaves)

Basic potato techniques: roasting, dauphinoise, properly making fries

[PassionateChefsDie]

I agree with what all have said but here's my penny's worth

No ones mentioned bread, I mention bread purely because once you master bread everything from Doughnuts to Brioche become accessible, rarely has anyone got the time to bake all the bread they need! But it teaches you different results by modifying a simple combination of yeast, water, flour and adding enriching ingredients like butter, eggs and sugar.

Next I'd agree with pan sauces, but reduction sauces because even a poor basic Jus can be improved drastically by reduction though as we got Cream and dark you could say you got 2 to master, and unburnt alcohol is nasty!

A simple veg dish something like cabbage with smoked bacon, black pepper and butter to teach you that the garnishes and compliments make up the majority of the meal get these right and the rest fall into place

But honestly you cant teach someone to taste if you know how to make a smooth bechamel it doesn't count if there's a taste of raw flour left! So taste and taste some more remember recipes are guidelines, and if you find someone whos tastebuds you respect, if they something tastes good listen even if you dont like it. Chefs constantly have to cook things we dont like but we still have to taste them sometimes even raw!

Stef

[SeaGal]

I agree about the techique being more important than the recipe. That's why I've always loved Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" since it shows basic techniques and then variations.

I'm going to dissent on the roast chicken, much as I love it. I think for a beginner it would be better to learn the technique of sauteing a chicken, since you can so easily vary this, for example, add some lemon and capers and it's chicken piccata, some mushrooms and tomato, chicken cacciatore and on and on. If you can saute a chicken, it's also easy to saute some chops or a piece of fish.

Of course, ideally, you'd learn both techniques so you could enjoy sautes and roasts.

I also think proper cooking of vegetables is so important to get right.

[snowangel]

It has been fun to watch my daughter Diana (age 14) come to life in the kitchen. Her most proud kitchen moment came in 2nd grade, when she learned about roux, and asked her teacher why roux wasn't on a spelling test. She could not only spell but define and describe it.

[maggiethecat]

It has been fun to watch my daughter Diana (age 14) come to life in the kitchen.  Her most proud kitchen moment came in 2nd grade, when she learned about roux, and asked her teacher why roux wasn't on a spelling test.  She could not only spell but define and describe it.

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Roux rocks. I can remember my thirteen year old Diana self when I learned to make a bechamel -- the base for souffles, cream sauce for salmon patties, for mac and cheese and on and on.

Braising-- stew, Beef B , coq au vin.

And pastry without fear.

[snowangel]

As Alice Cooper said, "school's out for summer" and to keep away boredom, I thank everyone for suggestions for daily activities to keep the kids interested in something, on task, learning (math, reading and science, not to mention food), and helping to get the meals coming!

Bechamel is next on the docket.

As to pie crust, they've been helping with it and rolling it out since they were tall enough to reach the counter on a foot stool.

[suzilightning]

oh, do our perjudices come out here-

for me it would be not a dish but technique - butchering. fish, beef, pig or fowl

then the technique - roasting - especially chicken and being able to use the jus

after that beng able to use veg - in whatever form and whatever way so they aren'

t overcooked

me - i am not touching any kind of pastry(my mom was a phenom at that) and i don't care for desserts that much

Edited June 12, 2005 by suzilightning (log)

[WHT]

Roast herb Chicken

Stew

Biscuits

Would be my first three choices overall. I guess for the versatility of the basic information in the process of preparing the dish. Roast seasoned meat is a key in my mind. Biscuits as a gateway to other quick bread concepts because the variations are so slight between say, banana bread or muffins, pancake batter and cinnamon rolls. Stew is so broad and a lot of classic dishes are essentially stew. Understanding the principals makes soup easier to understand as it is related.

[origamicrane]

hmm....

think we could answer this question very easily

by listing the first 3 things that we ever cooked.

and i do mean the first 3 things ever.

in my case it would be

boil rice

fry an egg

make pasta.

but having said that

most of us know that to get a reputation as a good cook amongst family and friends all we really need to learn is to make a few dishes and do them really really well!

a good omellette

a roast something

a good gravy/sauce

[Pan]

Well, the first dish I cooked by myself was Maryland Chicken, so I don't think that works for discussing the basics.

[origamicrane]

Well, the first dish I cooked by myself was Maryland Chicken, so I don't think that works for discussing the basics.

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that was the very first thing you ever cooked ?

i do mean the very first thing you ever cooking as a kid helping you mum in the kitchen or your first home economics class.

[Pan]

Yeah, that was the first thing I cooked, at the age of 7, following a recipe. Starting at 4, I helped my mother with prep for apple pies, by chopping and coring apples.

[origamicrane]

Yeah, that was the first thing I cooked, at the age of 7, following a recipe. Starting at 4, I helped my mother with prep for apple pies, by chopping and coring apples.

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cool

[dougery]

Wow... this question varies depending on culture, in the US I would say

* egg preparation (boiled, scrambled, etc..)

* making a basic chicken stock

* Read the directions off of any quick prep dinner (Banquet, Swansons, Betty Crocker etc..)

Japan:

* Boiling rice

* making dashi

* basic broiling (fish)

Canada:

* Opening a ketchup bottle ; ) (joking)

[missmaia]

The first thing I ever cooked was a batch of brownies, no recipe. I just decided to wing it, at the ripe old age of eight. They actually turned out ok.

Three things all cooks should know...in term of recipes,

1> How to make a stock

2> A decent vinagrette

3> And one great recipe that was passed down to them.

In a broader sense, I think all blooming cooks should learn (or re-learn!)

1> how to taste using all of the senses

2> how to shop (local and fresh, if possible!)

and 3> how to handle a knife.