Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Cooking is trial, error
Lindsey Nair
Front Burner blog
Recent columns
- Be sharp about knives
- What restaurant staffers shouldn't do
- Good gourds: How to make your own pumpkin pie filling
- Column archive
Recipes
I was in my preteens when I decided, for the first time, that I could make dinner for my family.
The meal was Hamburger Helper. And none of us could figure out why it tasted so bad until mom asked, "Did you drain off the grease after you browned the meat?"
Oops.
Fortunately, that mistake didn't dissuade me from cooking again. Neither did the casserole, made from a 1970s Redbook cookbook, that tasted like something they would feed federal inmates.
And neither did the Irish soda bread that came out so salty I could've tossed it into the woods to attract deer.
There have, in fact, been too many of those experiences to remember them all. Just two weeks ago, when I made potato nests for the Super Bowl column, my first batch came out of the pan as hash browns.
But I keep going back to those failed Texas sheet cakes and the poached fish dishes because I know that, one of these times, it can be done right.
Generally, my philosophy is that cooking is trial and error; something you cannot be good at without creating food tragedies on a fairly regular basis.
On occasion, though -- usually while watching Gordon Ramsay sneer at someone's salmon or seeing yet another celebrity chef's book cross my desk -- I worry that fantastic cooking is becoming the domain of the flawless.
To console myself, I called up one of the most good-natured chefs I know: Alex Eliades of Bread Craft on Peter's Creek Road. Before opening a bakery, Eliades earned a culinary degree and worked in several kitchens.
"There are a lot of chefs out there that [think they are] perfect, but the best chefs I have worked with, it has always been a path to getting there," he said. "Every single one of us had to start off with a lot of catastrophes."
He went on to tell me about one of his own cooking disasters, which happened at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg early in his career.
"I had to make a black roux for this Cajun recipe for alligator gumbo," he said. "I almost set the hotel on fire because it was a large amount of oil.
"On the upside, I learned from that experience. ... I certainly learned how to put out a large grease fire."
(With baking soda, in case you didn't know.)
Beginner cooks who have become discouraged by their mistakes should remember a few key points:
n Not every recipe is accurate, especially if it is downloaded off the Internet. So even if you followed the recipe to a T and it didn't turn out, it may not have been your fault.
n Not everyone has the same personal taste. The person who created the recipe you are following might not have liked as much sugar or black pepper or lemon juice as you do. On the flip side, maybe they like too much. This is why it is important, so long as you are not baking, to taste a dish as you cook and adjust the flavors to your own liking.
n Even the best cooks often have to use a recipe two or three times before they achieve what seems to be a perfect dish. If it doesn't meet your standards the first time, don't take it as a sign to abandon that recipe.
"The more effort you put forth, the better you do and the better you get," Eliades said.
Home cooks also shouldn't force themselves into a category of cooking that doesn't match their personalities.
If you're a wild, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person who likes to add a dash of this and a dash of that to a recipe (that's me), maybe baking is not for you.
If you are detail-oriented and you do not enjoy improvisation in the kitchen, you'd probably make an excellent baker. Baking is chemistry, and the slightest deviance from the recipe can result in a failure.
"You can't just make that change throughout the process, you have to go all the way back and make the whole loaf over again, so I think there is a lot more patience needed for that," Eliades said. "I still make mistakes on baking. There have been times when I've had to make whole breads over for my customers because maybe I omitted something and it didn't come out right.
"I haven't come close to setting any fires, though."
What's in your pantry?
Speaking of amateur cooks, I have often wished that someone had handed me a list of staple ingredients when I stocked my first pantry. As it is, I ended up building my collection slowly based on what I happened to be cooking that week.
Paula Deen's 2009 Calendar includes a fairly thorough list of basic items to get folks cooking. On my blog, we had a good time comparing the list to what's in our own cupboards and suggesting items that should have been included.
Three items we thought should have been on her list: butter (what were you thinking, Paula?), olive oil and bouillon.
Take a look at the list and compare it to your own supply. And if you've got a funny kitchen disaster story, head to the Fridge Magnet blog. There are plenty of other stories there to make you feel better -- or at least make you laugh until your face hurts.
