Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Cooking: Fine Cooking

[maggiethecat]

Add a pinch of sugar to savoury dishes and a pinch of salt to sweet ones.

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This is a fabulous truc I've been using for the past couple of years. The source:Martha Stewart demonstrating her "house" vinaigrette -- an excellent straightfoward recipe employing the familiar ingredients and proportions. Then she said something like: "OK, here's my secret, why everyone says my vinaigrette tastes better than theirs. I add a teaspoon of sugar." I've never made it any other way since, and that's why mine tastes better than yours!

Our own nightscotsman proved the reverse to me when he served some of his fabulous chocolate tarts. He'd sprinkled the tops with fleur de sel. I'll never forget the power of that sweet/salty contrast

[azurite]

Step away from the recipe book - do your own thing, experiment. It won't always be perfect. Somtimes it will be awful, but you will learn so much more. Anyone can follow a set of instructions, but doing it for yourself will teach you a feel for your food. With feeling comes passion

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I agree with this, but only after you have followed the recipe to the letter. In the past, I would often tweek a recipe as I go, changing things to suit my tastes. But I find that by adhering to a recipe for the first try out, I discover so much more and get a true appreciation of say, why a certain herb is suggested over another. Good cookbook writers have already played around with many variations and what they propose is generally the result of much research.

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It is sooo nice to hear someone say that! It's what I do but I have a friend who is a good cook and has been cooking and baking for years (she's 15 years old than me) so she just sort of does stuff. Although she does follow a basic recipe for curry. Her son, just turned 18, also cooks and has been encouraged by her to experiment rather than use cookbooks (although I think now that he's moved from a very rural area to the 'big' city he's watching the Food Network). When I'm around them I feel like a OCD jerk because I do follow a recipe exactly the first time I try something new (I've been telling them it's because I took 2 years of college chem, and did some sample processing w/acids and it can really matter that you follow instructions carefully . . . and what is cooking but a kind of experimental biochemistry?). Lately I've been trying to read a recipe, imagine how it would taste and then decide if I want to change anything or try it as written--just to try to stretch myself. Or after I've tried a recipe, think of what might make it taste even better (if anything).

I think it's important to be adventurous--if I like a given type of food (say Indian food from several regions of India) then not to think it was too complicated or complex for me until I've gone through cookbooks, tried a few recipes (following them exactly) and discovered that--at least one comes out just fine. Same for baking bread. Like at least one other poster has said, maybe it won't be perfect first time, but, so what?