Cooking 101

I’ve written many times in this column about my early venturing into cooking and how much I enjoyed it. I think I even mentioned once that it was so much better than some other domestic pursuits, such as sewing or decorating because it always pleased loved ones so much. Well, I have made plenty of mistakes along the way.

I think perhaps everyone has to learn the hard way these days because basic cooking 101 isn’t a requirement in school anymore. I really think that’s a shame since, as the title of one of my books says, “Much Depends on Dinner.” People resort to eating out, fast food and highly-processed foods not only to save time, but many just don’t know the basics of how to cook.

I use to think that everyone who could read could cook—not so! It seems that because my mother had me cooking beside her at such a young age, I learned a lot of the basics without really realizing it. Then, as I mentioned already, schools required you to take at least one full year of foods. We didn’t just make Tater-tot Hotdish or the modern version, Taco Pie. We learned technique.

So what mistakes have I made that I learned from? Way too many to list, but here are a few that come to mind: fallen cakes, dry cakes, leaden bread, unset gelatins, burned bottoms—undone tops, inedible foods, tunnelly muffins, too much or too little spice (i.e. especially salt), too thin, too thick, unattractive, unset, ran over in the oven—shall I continue?

In order to become a good cook and—more importantly, I think—enjoy cooking, a number of hints and how-to’s can really help. Here are a few I think are the most important.

1. Mies en place—this French term means everything in place. First read the entire recipe through so you know that you have all the ingredients on hand and pick up any clues to the actual assembly process, such as “2 ½ cups flour, divided.” If you don’t do this step, you’re likely to put all the flour in the recipe at once. Next, take out some small custard cups or those cute little glass saucers that they always use on the Food Network to hold your measured ingredients. Measure everything and set it all out on the work counter. I know this dirties a lot of dishes and bowls, but it’s well worth it.

Measure very carefully. If the recipe says to sift; sift. If it says to dip and sweep; dip and sweep. Don’t tap measuring cups with flour in them to compress the flour—you’ll have too much. Use the right measuring device. There are liquid measuring cups and dry measuring cups. They measure slightly differently so use the correct one.

Don’t alter your recipe—at least not the first time you make it. Some foods interact differently with different ingredients so you will get a different result if you make substitutions. If you do make any changes in subsequent tries, write them down on the recipe.

Don’t double the recipe. Halving the recipe is not quite as tricky—but doubling doesn’t always work, especially with the chemical reactors such as salt, baking powder and soda.

Use the correct pan size. Modern recipes almost always give very precise pan sizes and weights (i. e., Use large, heavy saucepan). If the recipe calls for two 8” cake pans and you use 9” cake pans, you have to adjust the time and perhaps the temperature for baking.

Adjust the baking racks in your oven as the recipe directs and put pans or dishes on the correct rack. Do not try to put more than one pan or dish in the oven unless your recipe says to do so. If the recipe directs you to rotate two dishes from top rack to bottom half way through cooking, don’t fail to do so. Likewise a direction to turn dish by rotating back to front and vice versa.

Although gelatin dishes have gone out of favor to some extent, there are a few that are lovely to serve such as the following Vanilla Panna Cotta. There is probably no simpler, yet elegant dessert to make, but if you’re not sure about technique with gelatin, it can get messed up.

Vanilla Panna Cotta

¼ cup cold water
2 ½ tsp. (1 pkg.) unflavored gelatin
3 cups whipping cream
1 cup sugar, divided
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
4 ½ pint baskets of fresh berries, such as raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or a mixture. (You can use almost any fresh soft fruit in season.)
1/3 cup sweet white wine such as Moscato

Pour ¼ cup cold water into custard cup; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand for 10 minutes. Bring 1” water to boil in small skillet. Place custard cup with gelatin in skillet until gelatin dissolves completely (is clear throughout)—about 2 minutes. Combine cream and 2/3 cup sugar in medium heavy saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until sugar dissolves. Do not boil. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla and the gelatin. Divide into 8 dessert dishes. Cover and chill 6 hours to 1 day.

Combine berries, remaining sugar and crush the berries lightly. Mix in wine. Let stand at least 1 hour. Spoon fruit over puddings. Serve.