All of us are fascinated by your culinary abilities. You said in another thread that you use cook books rather than your own recipes. Can you list some of your favorites for us wannabees
In the mid '60's in college I bought a copy of Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', where I learned to cook things I had never even heard about. I treated it like a Chemistry Lab experiment book - following the directions explicitly - didn't have a problem. She was living in Cambridge at the time, where I was going to college. The Broadway Market there always had the ingredients that she used on her TV show in public television for sale the day after the show aired. Many years later, in 1997, we were at Smith College where my wife (and Julia Child) were being honored as several of the outstanding Smith Alumnae. I brought along my stained and battered cookbook and she autographed it for me. She even asked if I was still cooking. I think she was already in her mid-80's. You can see her kitchen recreated at the Smithsonian American History Museum on the Mall. Notice that the kitchen counters are all raised to accommodate her 6' 2" height.
One problem with cookbooks is errors. I have caught massive ones myself, other times I am sure lack of success was related to such mistakes. While a small fraction of books have a quality control to have someone else repeat the recipe, vast majority do not. Imagine how easy it is for a typo to say one tablespoon instead of teaspoon. There was a review once of cookbooks that tested them and I think Joy of Cooking and Julia's books were rated to be highly accurate while the others they tested were not.
I have doz and doz of cook books and rarely follow a recipe rigidly. Always look at them as a guide line of ideas. OTOH baking is a diff kettle of fish. Formula here usually, tread carefully.
Some of my favorite are not typical cookbooks. Some titles are...
On food and cooking, How cooking works, Science of good cooking,etc you get the idea. The Larousse is in their also.
I consider cooking a true art form. Even to open a cook book, choose a recipe and follow through isn't all that easy or rewarding. I marvel how chefs can take some ingredients, then with an idea in their heads concoct something truly amazing.
One of our favorite shows is on the Food Network and called Chopped where 4 chefs vie to win $10,000 if they have the best 3 dishes (appetizer,main course, desert). What makes the show special is that there is a time limit for each course and some of the ingredients I have never even heard of
I suppose some of that is valid, but the more you know how something works the better chance of integrating and getting out of trouble or avoiding it.
As a simple ex. A few weeks ago Keith had a broth recipe then a pressure cooker came into play then using that unit for a fish stock. Now knowing that a fish stock tends to be a quickie, not a good choice. It very quickly goes from a fine fume to something odd, what I like to call PONR point of no return. Pigs will probably eat it, dog will slightly cock their head, with that you must be kidding look.
That's my goto cookbook as well and for the same reasons. I'm a basic cook and don't get into the fancy foie gras and stuff, nor am I obsessed with presentation (although for company I will try to do my best), but it is important to me that when making a sauce or a specific dish that I use the right ingredients and employ the proper techniques and preparation. The CIA cookbook allows me to do that.
I've found that when it's time to cook something new or bake something different that we've no recipes for I Google "best recipe for......" and usually you get terrific choices all of which really are 'best'
I've found that when it's time to cook something new or bake something different that we've no recipes for I Google "best recipe for......" and usually you get terrific choices all of which really are 'best'
Steve-How can all of the Google choices be the "best?" Isn't it best, better, bestest? For reasons I won't go into, I ended up taking a Boston Butt that I had smoked all day and walking across the street with it and dropped it into the woods for the wild critters to eat. My boxer Maggie wanted it real bad and I tried to get a picture of her with her paws up on the counter staring at the pork while it was cooling. Every time I grabbed the camera, she went back to the floor. Here is a picture of her sitting on the floor and staring up at the pork: