The Home Cook’s Top 10 List (of Do’s and Don’ts)
©2008 Harry Kenney
In the more than seven months since I put up my cooking blog, I’ve had a lot of time to think about exactly what are my personal “cooking philosophies”, my way of cooking, and more than that, my way of thinking in terms of all things food in general: buying food, cookware purchases, coming up with recipes and of course the actual techniques of cooking.
So in that time I’ve come up with my list, my do’s and don’ts for the home cook. I think all of the advice is practical. Having said that though, it doesn’t mean these are things that are necessarily obvious. That is, I think you’ll get some good tips here, maybe some helpful advice and even some brand new concepts that hadn’t occurred to you before; that’s definitely it’s intention.
And with that out of the way, my top ten list, starting with …
#10. If you won’t eat it or drink it, do not ever cook with it
Another close corollary to this is “Never use ingredients containing salt that should never have salt in them.”
Spices: use garlic powder and onion powder; never ever garlic salt or onion salt. Similarly never use cooking wine which not only contains salt but is also made from the dregs of wine and is totally undrinkable. If you can’t drink it, never cook with it. That means never ever use so-called “cooking wine”. In fact, if you have cooking wine and/or onion salt or garlic salt in your cubbard, put them in the trash right now. Your body will thank you, your taste buds will thank you. Try to avoid using “the spice packet that came with my tacos” kind of thing. Learn to make your own using your own spices so you know what you are using. Never use bullion cubes — unless you either want to kill people or are into drinking sea water; those horrid things should be outlawed as they’re nothing but massive doses of sodium. Use broth also known as stock. They now come in great plastic containers now, not just in cans. Or make your own.
#9. Use your head when purchasing cooking equipment
This is a giant pet peeve of mine: Never ever buy or cook in an electric wok. If I have to explain this one, you’re hopeless. Just go to your local diner from now on and turn your kitchen into a game room or something.
Another one, unless you are actually making melon balls or chocolate truffles or something that requires different sizes of “roundness”, then you don’t need a melon baller. The best way I’ve found to get seeds out of a cucumber is with a tablespoon. (You don’t need a melon baller for that!) My point is where you can save money, do it. Don’t buy every single utility or gadget that comes down the pike.
If you use it, or are definitely going to, very often, buy it then. Are you a health freak who every day with make a protein drink? Then buy a juicer, you will get the use out of it If you’re not, you will use it twice and in a couple years it will be in your yard sale. If you plan on making ravioli once or twice a month fresh you need a ravioli cutter. If you’re going to do it once a year, you can probably find a substitute. If you’re going to deep fry french fries or chicken or something once in a blue moon, use a stock pot and a candy/deep-fry thermometer. If you’re going to do it twice a month, invest in that small electric fryer and avoid the hassle. You get the idea.
#8. Avoid buying and using “imitation” anything
Especially never bacon bits. No one knows what’s inside them. If you’re that lazy, you don’t deserve bacon. Besides as with item ten, this probably has salt in it. That’s about the only thing you can guarantee is an recognizable ingredient inside this otherwise mysterious chemical product. Only possible — and I said possible — except to this rule might be flavoring extracts. Even then, taste both, the real and the imitation (no not at the store, buy one, next time buy the other) and see if you can live with the difference or not.
#7. Never pay more than $40 for a frying pan or a knife
… unless you’re a caterer or a professional chef, or you actually want to spend all your money on cooking and treat it as your luxury thing. For everyday cooks, you shouldn’t have to and better not pretend you’re a restaurant clearing several grand a week. You’re not (unless of course you are, but then why would you be here reading this?)
I saw on America’s Test Kitchen the other day when they were comparing saute pans. Last year’s winner cost $190. This year they found one for $70-something and they were happy to be recommending one that costs $110 less. Well I wasn’t. It’s a pan. Hello?! Let me talk with little words: Home cooks. Not master chefs. A pan. Get it? I can conceive of one possible exception, if they ever come out with a pan that cooks the meal, plates it, serves it, then washes itself, it might be worth going up to $60.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying use cheap, crappy things to cook in. But on the other hand don’t “buy into” the marketing that you need super expensive equipment either. Also, major tip: be a very patient shopper. I’ve waited and waited for those closeout specials and about a decade ago I ended up with a 10-piece brand-name anodized aluminum set of cookware that sold for years at $400 for just $99. Forgetting the four lids, and just including the pots and pans, that came to under $17 per item for professional-grade cookware.
#6. Just because the television cook did it or said it, doesn’t make it true
I actually wrote an article on this many months ago about this. It pointed out two big things. One, TV cooks will use metal on non-stick pans. Why? They have 200 more sitting on shelves behind the scenes the channel or network has purchased in bulk (or gotten for free for showing the name in the credits!). They are a television show with a big budget. If you do what they do, you too will be tossing out frying pans left and right. Problem is you don’t have their budget. Another biggie was when they put hot products, sometimes even hard things like nuts into a blender. They are not using the 10 or 20 year bar blender you have with the easily breakable plastic container and the low-power blades, they are using the new blenders that are practically food processors with new technology glass and plastic containers that don’t shatter. Listening to or watching them you could end up with serious injury.
More so, the other day I’m watching a very famous chef who forgot his feeder tube was in the food processor and poured six eggs into it. You could tell if you paid attention because it filled up and didn’t go in to the container. A microsecond later, he said the dough was now ready. In short, it’s television. They edited it out. It was embarrassing and if you didn’t have eagle eyes you missed it. If you end up following exactly what he did you’d end up with the same problem. TV mistakes are edited out constantly; alas that doesn’t happen in real life. So be careful. Very careful.
#5. Only do it if it’s worth the effort
If it’s worth the time to make something normal into something extraordinary, do it. If it takes a lot of time, and the level of taste remains the same or doesn’t go up that significantly, do the quick way. If you feel the several minutes you get using Bisquick over making it from scratch is worth the taste difference (that is if they seem essentially the same to you) take the quick way. I know a microwave baked potato taking 8-10 minutes is better than 40-55 minutes in the oven (though I sometimes miss the crunchy skin). If you’re not eating the skin, why take 8-12 times longer using the oven? And the reverse is true too. To me, you have to make waffles by scratch because of the folding in the egg whites to get that “heavenly cloud” texture, so it’s worth it to me. The time is longer but the difference in taste is great.
Only exception to this is the number-three rule of experimentation. There’s a lot of things you should do at least once in order to expand your cooking techniques and skill. For instance, personally I found all the effort to deep fry french fries (using the traditional method not with an electric fryer) was not worth the effort. The set up, cook time and clean up was insane when an oven roast would have made almost as good french fries with a lot less effort and time. I did gain experience from it though, so while I wouldn’t do it again I’m glad I did it once.
#4. When buying food, do the math first
You think you do this already, don’t you? Well you probably do not take it far enough as you should. Pay attention. We’re all subject to initial “sticker shock” at the supermarket. Wow that’s too much money. That’s out of my budget, I’m never buying that, you’re thinking to yourself. Whoa! Next time that comes to mind, stop, think hard, and do the math first. You’ll find a brand new world opening to you.
Ok, 31-40 fresh shrimp is $7 bucks a pound (in this instance). Too much. Extravagant. Pass it by … No! What are you going to do with it? Cook it and serve it fresh like a cocktail? You could. For a party it might be worth it. Chances are you are going to mix it with rice and other vegetables or you are going to put it in a pasta with other vegetables. In short, you’re going to do something we all are familiar with, you’re going to “stretch it”. When you’re done you will then end up getting between six to eight servings out of it all. Spaghetti’s a buck. Sauce is maybe $3 and you’re only using half a jar, so a buck fifty. You already bought the produce. Ok, so in the end, at (let’s go with the lower six servings), you’re going to make a meal to feed six at under two bucks a head. Expensive? Hell no! In other words, buy the shrimp. It’s not as expensive you first thought it would be.
Here’s one that happened to me recently when I was buying mushrooms for my mushroom soup recipe. I wanted shitake. Holy moly it was $10 a pound. Yowsah. But then I stopped. I walk closer to the bin where they are all loose, unwrapped, unpackaged. I pick a handful up. Wow these were very very light compared to the button mushroom cousins. So I grabbed a plastic bag and started tossing in big handfuls. I filled up the bag, put it on the scale. 4 ounces. LOL. All of that and it was $2.50. See what I mean? One more quick example. Veal. Super lean cut. Very little or no fat. You’ll often get away with serving 3 or 4 ounces of veal as a serving when compared to 8 oz of steak or fat. That is, the waste factor is a lot less, you get more out of a similar weight. Suddenly more expensive veal is seen as being easily on par with beef or pork.
So the lesson is you just can’t go by the price alone, you have to think about it, and almost always you will find that yes, you can buy that. And still remain within or very close to your budget. All with expanding the quality and variety of food you eat.
#3. Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!
Try new vegetables, new proteins like various fish. Get a new hunk of cheese every time you go to market and see if you like it. Try new techniques, maybe deep-frying or slow cooking tougher but cheaper cuts of meat. Always eat meat, try a fresh not frozen fish. That’s right you, the one who’s intimidated by standing the fresh seafood area in the market. Next time, buy a different fish and try it Does the fish intimidate you? Don’t know how to cook it? You’re on the web. If you don’t find the answer here (and hey, I haven’t cooked every fish possible, yet) you’ll find many places that will tell you what to do with it. You can even do your homework prior to going to the store and look up the information ahead of time.
Keep passing by that odd shaped melon? Take it home, look up a recipe. Ditto with that strange green bunch of stuff next to the lettuce. Buy a different kind of rice besides “white” when you’re in the rice aisle. Try a Classico or other spaghetti sauce that is not Ragu (yuck) or Prego. Maybe a vodka sauce for your pasta next time, or a four-cheese red sauce blend. Just get out of your rut!
#2 Remember, recipes are merely guidelines
Yes, exactly like the Pirates of the Caribbean and the pirate’s code. Recipes are not written in stone. (Ok, baking recipes are much more written in stone because baking is more science than art. Other cooking is comparatively pure art.)
In fact you’ll often see with my recipes that I list spices and herbs and say “to taste”. Why? Because everyone’s taste buds are a at least a tad different. More so, there are many variables in cooking, because we’re dealing with nature, that can’t be standardized. Your frying pan my be made out of a different alloy, your stove burners might go higher, your conception of “medium heat” might be someone else’s “low heat”. Your oven works differently. Your chicken breasts from your market might be 20% more or less than the one the recipe’s cook used. And there are literally thousands of other variables.
And the number one rule …
#1. If you like it, do it!
In the end, does it work for you? (And those you’re cooking for?) If you like your red wine chilled, do it. On the contrary if you like it at 80 degrees, well, whatever floats your boat. Do you think despite what the recipe said that it needs to be sweeter? Do it. Think the recipe is too hot? Use less or maybe none. (Yes this also goes back to the item about “guidelines”.) Point it, it’s not necessarily wrong just because someone says it is. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard cooks bark on that a tomato should never be served cold. So one day, I tried a tomato cold from the fridge and a room temperature one. I didn’t like the room temperature one. Now, maybe it’s my taste buds. Maybe it’s solely because I have gotten used to having it cold. Bottom line though is the same I like them cold.
Now, there is a slight “back track” here. And that refers to the item about experimenting. Try it. Like I did with the tomato test. Why? They might be right. You might like your tomato at room temperature. It’s like the Dr. Seuss story of “Green Eggs and Ham”. If you’ve never tried green eggs don’t say you hate the taste. Try it. Then make your mind up. Now once your mind is made up, once you’ve tried that odd looking squash, that fruit at room temperature, etc … then tell “them” to stick it with their annoying advice. Go into that restaurant, order the red wine and tell them to put it in an ice bucket for 15 minutes prior to serving it. And don’t relent; the customer is always right. But … at least give things a try first. At least once. Then you’ll know.
