I was aghast when I had the following discussion with a
friend's teenager;
P - "We had cooking class
today."
Me - "Great...Did you find
all your equipment okay?"
P - "Oh, we don't do that.
They set it all out for us."
You read it right: Teachers set all the equipment and
ingredients out for students! This, of course, means they don't learn to do it for themselves.
It seems that this is not uncommon anymore. It's simpler and
faster to do so. Students are only taught to collect appropriate equipment and
ingredients if they go to a higher level of cooking classes in grade 10 and
higher with an eye to making cooking their career. It turns out that teaching
kids to set up and clear away for cooking at home, where they live and will
eat, is not an efficient use of resources and time. It also turns out that it's
been this way for some time.
Now that explains a LOT!
I've had literally countless talks with people who say
things like "I hate cooking; I never know what to use/do!" and
"I learn more from cooking shows than I ever did in school."
Please understand that I came from a time when you began to
learn cooking from your mom, grandma, aunt or all of them (which, admittedly,
could be exasperating), and usually at around the age of 6 or 7. Why? Because
cooking takes time to learn. And when you burned your finger for the
first time, you were told, "It's all part of cooking, sweetheart. You'll
burn yourself less as you get better at it." It was the same response when
I cut myself or grated my fingers along with the carrot, celery or apple. And those
little injuries did not herald a 7 hours trip to the emergency room (except for
twice when I actually needed stitches). Did it scar me? Oh, heck no! I love to
cook. Unless of course you're talking about physical scars; then yes I have a
few. I'm proud of those scars. I earned them by learning and mastering a skill
that I have used my entire life to nurture and support my own children, whom I
have taught to cook in the same way I was.
What we have developed, though, is a society in which it is
increasingly common to be unable to cook for lack of the most basic of skills,
such as gathering equipment and supplies, organising your kitchen, reading recipes, washing
dishes and shopping.
I can do something about this, though, in the format of a
blog; a series of blogs actually. So, let's start with the most basic of
basics,
Reading A Recipe
While this may be self explanatory to some home cooks, to
others it's a mystery of the magnitude of the Phrygian Knot. But like that
ancient puzzle, it really it isn't as tough as it seems. It's all in the
method. First let's figure out how they're written. Below is a recipe I've used (it's quite yummy, by the way).
1 - Temperature. This is what you have to set your
oven to, and it's repeated in the directions. If this notation does not appear
in the upper right corner, then the dish is cooked on the stovetop, in a slow
cooker, on a barbeque, or by some other means (and there are a surprising
number of them!).
2 - Ingredients. These are the foods
you need to make the recipe, and how much of each of them. Some ingredients
have to be at a certain temperature such as the butter in this one; to make
sure it's room temperature we'd just take it out of the fridge a few hours in
advance. Generally, optional ingredients are marked as such, such as the
powdered sugar, but not always. For instance, this recipe calls for a cup of
chopped walnuts. In fact the nuts would be optional and this cake turns out
just fine without them. Better in my own opinion.
3 - Directions. This part of the recipe
tells you what to do, and how to do it. This recipe tells us the oven needs to
be preheated; this means you turn the oven on to the indicated temperature
before you start putting everything together. It also says to cream the butter,
and only then add the sugar, egg and so forth. It also, however, tells you what
you'll need as far as equipment goes. We can see that we'll need two bowls for
this recipe, as well as a mixer with a whisk attachment, a sifter or wire
sieve, measuring cups and spoons and a loaf or tube pan. Most recently written
or re-written, recipes have a specific list of equipment you'll need but older
ones, prior to the 1990's, tend not to.
The Method
1)
Key to understanding a recipe, especially the first time you try it,
is reading it all the way through! Read it from the first
letter to the last without skipping anything. You need every bit of the
information in it to set up.
2)
Relax. Take your time. It isn't a race, as my grandmother used
to say. If that means that you, your family and/or your friends eat an hour later than usual
then that's when they eat. Mistakes happen most often when the cook is tense
and/or rushed.
3)
Make lists of needed equipment and supplies. You won't be the
first one to need a list, or a few lists, and you won't be the last.
Professional's use lists all the time. Over time you'll need fewer lists,
especially for dishes you make regularly. I still use lists when I'm making
something complicated or new. I definitely make a list when shopping for the
ingredients for Christmas baking! I didn't do that one year...it was horrible!
I ended up BUYING SHORTBREAD...from a STORE!
4)
If you don't understand a term, or terms, in your recipe, look
it up. There are a number of ways you can do this. You can use a search engine.
I prefer Google; you may not. There are a
number of quite good websites, such as Food
Network Canada, with lists of terminology and technique. You can also go to
the library, ask a friend or, if you are very gutsy, phone or email a
cooking school, college, high school or your favourite restaurant and ask a
teacher or the chef. Or you can leave a comment and ask me. I don't know it
all, but I can usually find an answer or at least a link to the answer.
There you have it; four steps to
reading a recipe. As I said, not that tough. And you will get better at it the more often you do it.
Now you may want to know why you want to read a
recipe this way. That too is simple. You need the information to gather the
equipment and ingredients to make it with the best chances of a successful
dish. And at the risk of overwhelming you with too much information, I'm going
to explain those, as well. You see, while they are not, strictly speaking, part
of reading the recipe, they are closely associated with it.
Gather Together The Equipment That Is Specified In The
Recipe and
trust me it is
all there. Let's say your making the recipe for scones to the right (by the way
this really is my yummy scones recipe; you bake them at 325*F at sea level). It calls for one teaspoon (tsp) of baking soda. From this we
know that you will need measuring spoons, or at least a one-teaspoon measure.
It also says to "press in to a cast-iron frying pan. Then you will need a
cast-iron frying pan. What if you don't HAVE a cast-iron frying pan or
measuring spoons? That's actually pretty simple, as well. You can of course buy
them. I would recommend buying them from a thrift store or garage sale at
first, simply because they can be expensive; I mean really, really expensive! A
good cast-iron frying pan can easily cost $100 or more brand-new. And then what
happens if you never use it again? You're out a hundred bucks, is what. Even
better would be to borrow one from a friend or family member. Arrange to borrow
it/them a few days in advance, be sure to clean it thoroughly when you're done
with it, and return it promptly. If it turns out you will make this recipe
again, or find other recipes that need the same piece of equipment, that's when
you buy one of your own, and I'd still recommend good used ones.
Gather Together All The Ingredients You'll Need...
this is a bit simpler
because it's all written at, or toward the beginning of, the recipe. Let's
assume you're making potato cheddar soup.
It says you'll need potatoes, bacon,
butter, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, chicken stock, milk, cheese and salt and
pepper, and that's what you get out. If you don't have an ingredient either buy
it (which works if it's a staple like onions or milk) or see if a neighbour or
friend will loan you a little bit of it (most people will part with, for
example, one stalk of celery).
I'll leave it here for this time. I don't want to
overwhelm you with too much information at once...probably too late. For the next while just take a
little time to examine recipes. You don't have to make them; just read them and
get used to how they're written. Pretty soon you'll be able to read them and
use them more easily. Also I'd like you, the reader, to leave me comments and tell me what you'd like to know more about and learn.
Until next time.
