December 13, 2007
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Cooking Mastery
Although I have not written as often I would of liked, I have kept up with my culinary reading. I am picking up lots of tips from the various books. I have learned that the dishes I believed I had mastered, I have not- dishes like chicken soup or beef stew. I have been making them for years (and people enjoy them). But in reading my cookbooks, there are many steps that I have unknowingly always left out. When you make chicken soup you are supposed to roast the bones in the oven until they have a rich brown color (60-90 minutes). Then you put them in a pot of water to make the stock. One is also supposed to roast the vegetables separately. This is a lot of extra work. Not to mention that it makes a much bigger mess in the kitchen. I do not know how many professional chefs take these careful steps, but I am going to believe for now that years of cooking cannot be wrong. If this is what they teach in the great culinary schools- they have to be right. I am definitely going to check for myself.
What dishes are your favorite and you believe you have mastered?
Comments (3)
Everytime I master dishes, my taste buds or my desires change. Lately I’m into very healthy foods which is a totally new concept for me.
I take monthy cooking classes at a local french restaurant and they always brown the bones and vegies in the stock pot (which is how I do it). I’m sure you get more browning in the oven but takes much more time.
I’m a master of every dessert I’ve ever made, but does me no good now that I’m on my health kick.
hmm…let us know if you taste a difference with the noodles! I haven’t really mastered anything yet…not even making rice in the rice cooker…ugh, yes, I am embarrassed to admit. =P I really enjoy making spaghetti though because I’m so picky with the sauce…it has to be not too tomato-y or else yuck! My bf calls my spaghetti, weird but I like it!
When you talk of mastering i hear the KungFu theme. I watched Lidia Bastianich make a puttanesca and picked it up pretty quickly! I really felt like a chef being able to make a deliscious sauce rather quickly that was not jarred.