The Basics

[redglass]

I'm a relative youngin' and admit that at times my kitchen prowess is outweighed by my enthusiasm for cooking. But looking back, the things that really helped to move me forward in my cooking were:

Finally understanding how to build a basic meal- pretty much what mom has always served: protein, starch, veg. Sometimes I do protein, veg, veg, or starch, veg, veg, but you get my point. Sounds overly simple, but it's the sort of thing that I didn't realize until I was at school, eating potatoes, rice and pizza and feeling horrible.

Know what is in season. If you make a tomato dish in february, it won't be at its full potential. Make it in summer, from farmer's market tomatoes, and you almost have to WORK to screw it up.

Learning how to do basic dishes with meats: simple pan sauces for chicken breasts, pork, how to do a steak well on the grill on on the stovetop. Sauces can take your meat- even a cheaper cut- up quite a bit, as you all know.

Top one thing that has improved my kitchen skills and made me fearless in other aspects of my cooking: baking bread. I'd say this has taught me more than any other of my cooking endeavors about how simple ingredients, well treated and with patience, can create wonderful things. And, once I made a half-decent loaf of bread I was ready to tackle pastry dough and all other sorts of things I'd turned away from before.

[C_Ruark]

With an eye on techniques to master, I'd have to go with any recipe that covers one or more of the following...

1 - Eggs - controlling volume (chilled v room temp); the versatility of this ingredient

2 - How to make a "great" stock

3 - The grand (or mother) sauces

Bechamel

Veloute

Espagnole

Hollandaise

Tomato (preferably our Gramma's)

Runners-up: The basic chicken and beef roasts.

Get these down BEFORE you learn how to cheat!

and the skills...

1 - The idea of mise en place - cut, measure, then cook

2 - Cost management - those chicken bones can be reused; why buy the fancy condiments and oils when you can make.

3 - Knife techniques + maintenance; pick one knife to master and carefully maintain it.

4 - the "five c's"...clean (space), clean (storage), clean (work area), clean (hands), clean (as you go)

[snowangel]

As Peter (age 9) and I fixed dinner for tonight (we actually fixed it late last night and reheated it for tonight; it was a very small venison roast, browned and braised) we went over the basics of deglazing a pan and reducing the deglazing liquid.

Very, very basic to most of us, but key.

[kelautz]

When I was oh, in the first or second grade, my Mom used to make eight loaves of whole wheat bread and six quarts of yogurt every week. She was an Adelle Davis devotee for awhile, and our ingredients were limited, then. So I used to help with those projects all the time. Now that I think about how much dough eight loaves worth is, I'm amazed that I could knead that much. But we kneaded, every week.

I have a clear memory of my mother teaching me how to make white sauce. I remember "Goldenrod Eggs" with fondness, but can't get anybody else to salute.

The first thing I remember making by myself, as an independent cook, was angel food cake, yes. I read the recipe in Joy of Cooking and wanted to try it. My Mom was quite skeptical, as I recall, but the cake turned out great. Did wonders for my confidence in the kitchen ever since.

For several years my Mom canned quite a bit in the summer. Designated helper, moi, couldn't help but learn. Among other things, I learned not to eat too many Concord grapes! Canning with Mom led me to believe that the machine was called the "Foley food mill". I was well into adulthood before I discovered that there were other brands of food mills.

Meat was dear. I remember being sent to the meat store to buy 250 grams of ground beef to feed six. I always thought we ate pretty good though, when I was a kid.

[evilhomer]

4 recipes to cover an array of technique, which can be varied in infinite ways to incorporate an infinte array of ingredients

eggs benny.

roast chicken with roast veg.

salad nicoise.

flourless chocolate cake.

[Viola da gamba]

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.Stef

Hey Stef - looks like you & I are the only ones who still think bread is the staff of life. Sigh.

[Busboy]

Martini

Bloody Mary

Pastisse