This isn’t something I’d want to try on a regular basis. Baking does require some level of care and specificity; the science behind it is a large part of what I find appealing. Cooking (as in supper) also requires an understanding of the underlying science, but it always feels more open to experimentation, and that can make me nervous. This time, experience led me to trust that I could make something edible, if not delightful. In everyday life, though, it can be tough to feel like winging it. Here, then, are a few pointers.
Taste your food. At this point in the column, I should make you feel inadequate by regaling you with tales of how I, a trained professional, taste my food at every step along the way, fearless in the face of salmonella and E. coli, and I should finish with the phrase “do try this at home, kids.” Instead, I’ll ‘fess up that I’ve always found tasting along the way somewhat icky, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. But do as I say, not as I do, as much as you can stomach. You’ll learn much faster how flavors come together and how to build layers of flavor.
Salt early and often. My fellow cooking-school students and I were often horrified by the regularity with which our teachers would dump fistfuls (or so it appeared) of kosher salt into the food we so proudly presented as perfect. By the time I finished school, though, I had fallen in line. As a young cook, I was never afraid of salt, but I used less and less after I met my husband, who thought a pinch of salt was getting a little too footloose. At school, I learned anew the value of salting early on in the cooking process, so that the final dish didn’t taste salty (as it’s more likely to do if you just add salt at the end), just balanced. Salt enhances flavors in such a complex and often complete way that dishes invariably taste better with it. So start with salt, taste, and add more midway as needed. One of the best salt tips I got from school was for a basic oil-and-vinegar vinaigrette: If, when you taste the vinaigrette, you first taste oil and then a shock of vinegar at the back of your throat, don’t assume you need more oil for balance. Add a little more salt instead, and taste it again; often, that’s enough to bring the flavors together. As I’ve noted before, I prefer using kosher, or coarse, salt for most of my food, as its larger grains have allowed me to train my fingers to pick up just the right amount. Once you start focusing on salt, consider expanding your horizons to sea salt and other, pricier varieties, but know that while fun to play with, these certainly aren’t necessary for daily cooking.
Go on food jags: As the once-exotic has become routine in our world, I think it often seems harder than ever to feel up-to-date and sophisticated in the kitchen. Not only do I still need a crib sheet to keep straight all the various cuts of beef, since I so rarely cook them, now The New York Times tells me I need to conquer yak, too. Sometimes I wonder how food writers can possibly be telling the truth when they say “I make this dish frequently,” given how many kinds of food there are out there that we’re supposed to be making and reporting on — who has time to make any dish more than once or twice? This is the main reason why I still follow recipes. Even books that purport to teach how to cook without recipes still expect you to memorize formulas. How can I find time for that when I’m dealing with a big yak attack? But focusing on a certain ingredient, or better yet, on a style of cooking, for even a week at a time will give your skills a quick boost. I fall into this naturally, as I tend to go on food jags of, say, all kinds of dumplings, for a week straight. Fun for me, though a little weird for my highly tolerant family.
Most recipes, of course, are just variations on other recipes. When I create recipes, I first get an idea and taste it in my head. But I don’t run to the kitchen and start cooking; first, I look through all my cookbooks and find recipes that bear some similarity to my vision, and then combine and adapt them as needed. Likewise, once I’m in the kitchen, I rarely cook straight through one recipe without making changes along the way. That way, I’m no recipe slave, but I’m also not wasting my time.
Recipe: Mom’s Plum Kuchen
First published in the Independent Weekly, June 4, 2003
