Communication is the key, so it has been said. Getting things
done right can be a virtue. Correcting a mistake so that is in a
retake is rewarding. In cooking, reading a recipe correctly could
mean food for dinner or not.
Communication is the key, so it has been said. Getting things done right can be a virtue. Correcting a mistake so that is in a retake is rewarding. In cooking, reading a recipe correctly could mean food for dinner or not.
Many times throughout a day funny things happen just because of simple mistakes. My idea for this article on accuracy came alive when I pulled into a gas station last week. For the first time in a long time I actually had cash on me and as I walked toward the cashier I glanced up to see which number pump I was using. I plunked my $20 bill on the counter and said “Twenty on Two” and walked back to my car.
After a roaring start, the gas dwindled to a trickle and I just could not make the darned pump work any more. Frustrated I went inside to get help. At the same time the cashier was handing me $18 in change. We laughed as we realized (and he acknowledged) that he had heard “Two outta Twenty”. People make mistakes with numbers often.
Recipes for cooking are full of numbers. New cooks in the kitchen often get things mixed up, mistaking teaspoons for tablespoons and even sometimes adding cups of a product instead of tablespoons. Most of the time these are just honest mistakes and the food can be saved with some creative adjustments. However, one may end up with gallons of a sauce in order to correct the spiciness of too many chili peppers for instance, so read recipes carefully.
Kids love to cook, and I would always encourage them to do so. Cooking can be a math, science and art project all in one. And be forewarned, every child that I have taught to cook has purposely put salt in the sugar bowl. Listen for the giggles and you will know.
With computers it is easy to take a recipe and convert it into proportions needed for your family or event, thus making less mistakes. Reading recipes and watching the cooking shows on television has become a favorite pastime for people of all ages.
We are all becoming more educated about foods and nutrition and with this knowledge it is fun and challenging to create one’s own recipes. Information is easy to glean from the Internet. Cooking is fun again, even with a few mistakes along the way. Make it a family event.
Perhaps it could be a family affair to have a cooking contest. Everyone should create their own recipe and then cook and present it to the other members of the family. Writing a recipe down, making sure the measurements make sense, is good accuracy training. Even selecting an exciting name for your creation can be fun.
Instead of the Internet or the television shows for your inspiration, perhaps an old cookbook will give you insight for your cooking project. Many old recipe books are history lessons in themselves, and certainly point out to us how our cooking and eating habits have changed.
Read this example from The New Art of Cookery, 1792. (Don’t get that number mixed up with 1972, it truly is from 1792.) “Beat up six eggs very well with spoonful of cream, and strain them through a sieve; boil half a hundred asparagus tender, cut the green part as big as a pea and put in, with a little pepper and salt; put about a quarter of a pound of fresh butter into a stew-pan, make it hot, put in the ingredients, and fry it as before; double it, put it into a dish, and garnish with the heads of asparagus boiled.”
BEEF BOURGUIGNONNE, by Francene Markle of Hollister as entered in the Beef Week Contest 1997.
3 pounds beef chuck or rump, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cognac
1 pound baby carrots
2 medium onions, chopped
1 leek, coarsely chopped
5 sprigs parsley
4 cloves garlic
1/3 pound bacon, diced
1 teaspoon thyme
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups burgundy wine
2 cups beef broth
salt and freshly ground pepper, to your taste
20 small white pearl onions
1 pound button mushrooms
1/4 pound butter
Dredge meat in flour, salt and pepper. In large heavy bottomed pan brown meat on all sides in butter and oil over high heat. Do this is small batches adding butter and oil if necessary. As meat is browned, plate it in a 5 quart casserole or deep roasting pan. Deglaze pan by pouring in cognac and stirring to loosen particles. Pour gravy over meat. To same pan add carrots, onions, leek, parsley, garlic, and bacon. Cook, stirring, until vegetables and bacon are lightly browned. Skim off bacon fat. Add thyme and tomato paste, stir and add to beef. Add wine and beef broth to barely cover beef. Mix well. Taste for salt and pepper. Cover casserole and bake for 1 hour in preheated oven to 325 degrees. Meanwhile, peel onions by dropping in boiling water for 1 minute and slip skins off. Brown them in 1/4 cup butter. Sauté mushrooms. Add all to casserole and bake 1 more hour.
BEEF RIBS RUBBED AND BAKED, a classic recipe from 2003
5 pounds beef ribs
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
freshly ground black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Schaschlik sauce or catsup
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange beef as flat as possible with meaty parts facing towards outside of roasting pan. In small bowl combine remaining ingredients and rub or brush all over the ribs. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until browned and smelling delicious.
TO FRICASSE A CALF’S HEAD, as reprinted from “The Frugal Housewife” 1792
“Take half a calf’s head that is boiled tender, cut into slices, and put it into a good stew-pan with some good veal broth; season it with mace, pepper, and salt, an artichoke bottom cut in dice, some forcemeat balls first boiled, morels and truffles; let these boil together for a quarter of an hour; scum it clean; beat up the yolks of two eggs in a gill ofcream, put this in, and shake it round till it is ready to boil; squeeze in a little lemon, and serve it up.” Who will be laughing at our recipes in 2792?
Dorothy McNett is the owner of Dorothy McNett’s Place, 800 San Benito St., Hollister. Phone: 831-637-6444 or fax 831-637-5274. Her column runs Fridays in The Times. Visit the store’s Web site at happycookers.com
