Liveblogging another no recipe cookbook
Jul. 17th, 2022 12:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutWe have a culinary instructor Gini saying:
“Western cuisine has been using spices for only 200 years.”
Wait. What does that even mean? “Western”? 200 years ago is, what, 1822? Dutch ancestry here. VOC was created in 1602 — a little more than 200 years ago! — _specifically_ to engage in the spice trade. What does Gini think they were doing with the spices?
I’ve visited Mt. Vernon, you know, where that slaver who was the first President lived. When you do the tour, they take you ‘round the place and tell you stories, like, about how Martha had all the spices locked up and measured them out for the cooking staff each day. She died in 1802, so, you know, all that measuring had to have happened more than 200 years ago. I mean, what was the cooking staff doing with the spices if not cooking with them?
This isn’t hard! That’s English AND Dutch. And also, French people use spices! And have for a really long time! Likewise, Spanish people use spices! They have for a long time!
Look, I suppose you could make some weird argument about how, well, herbs are not spices. And aromatics are not spices. But how do you answer the VOC thing! And the chest of spices that Martha had the keys for!
“We lack the expertise compared to Asian and Indian cuisines that have been developing spice blends for thousands of years.”
The advice embedded here is _also_ really not awesome! “If you want to prepare its dishes authentically, read about it.” *sigh* I mean, sure, if you are cooking something that’s made by people and you literally know absolutely no one who cooks that, I guess books are what you’ve got. We’ve all had to use them. Also, cook with friends and family. Hopefully, you have friends and family who do things different from you, and you can learn from them. And I don’t mean, different potato dishes to argue about which ones are mandatory components of T-day. Maybe you’ll get lucky and be at a cousin’s house when an unrelated to you elderly relative comes over and teaches you how to make mole.
Very, very, very unlike Pillay. The many contributors from the cooking circle sound like a bunch of people who had _no_ idea they were going to be making a meal, really, ever, and are time-crunched and madly improvising. While Pillay is calmly laying out how to shop for 2 weeks of at-home cooking including meals and snacks to take to work and school on an utterly predictable schedule, this lot is debating between using the avocados on the counter that are going brown vs. the apples that are “half-wormy”. The contrast is startling. While Pillay is telling you to put sheets between slices of ham in the freezer to make them easier to take out one at a time, and how to make logs of cookie dough and then cook 15, so your kid can have 3 per day, 5 days a week and you won’t be tempted to eat cookies yourself, this book has this insight:
“I’ve finally caught on. I used to freeze a whole batch in a single container, which took hours to thaw and then left us with too much food left over again.” I’m visualizing a copper tub full of … I dunno? Stew? Very, Very, Very different from making bread on Sunday and then freezing slices for sandwiches.
Eugene seems nice. “Tools like an instant-read meat thermometer make it much easier to improvise.”
Tools list includes the above mentioned meat thermometer; it also mentions a 12 inch whisk. I had one. I didn’t use it. I recently got rid of it. If something happened to the smaller, Rosle whisk, however, I’d replace it ASAP.
Publication date on this is May 2021. “If you wish you were relaxed about inviting people over spontaneously, or having drop-in friends stay for dinner”. Heh. Given the usual timeline on writing and publishing, there are decent odds that that was edited, and _might_ have been written during a period when no one was eating a meal with anyone not in their own household.
Zahra describes creativity coming from constraints, and tells the story of Sauce Varu Chicken (which sounds pretty yummy!): “Sometimes, I create shortages on purpose. Maybe … I’m going on a trip. Halting grocery shopping means I’ve got to be creative. … I love the process because, inevitably, I find things in the fridge, freezer or pantry that I’ve forgotten, but they’re still good and need to be eaten.” Very relatable! And what an aspiration to arrive where she does: “In the end, I begin a new cooking season with a nearly blank slate and a lot of ideas.”
“Western cuisine has been using spices for only 200 years.”
Wait. What does that even mean? “Western”? 200 years ago is, what, 1822? Dutch ancestry here. VOC was created in 1602 — a little more than 200 years ago! — _specifically_ to engage in the spice trade. What does Gini think they were doing with the spices?
I’ve visited Mt. Vernon, you know, where that slaver who was the first President lived. When you do the tour, they take you ‘round the place and tell you stories, like, about how Martha had all the spices locked up and measured them out for the cooking staff each day. She died in 1802, so, you know, all that measuring had to have happened more than 200 years ago. I mean, what was the cooking staff doing with the spices if not cooking with them?
This isn’t hard! That’s English AND Dutch. And also, French people use spices! And have for a really long time! Likewise, Spanish people use spices! They have for a long time!
Look, I suppose you could make some weird argument about how, well, herbs are not spices. And aromatics are not spices. But how do you answer the VOC thing! And the chest of spices that Martha had the keys for!
“We lack the expertise compared to Asian and Indian cuisines that have been developing spice blends for thousands of years.”
The advice embedded here is _also_ really not awesome! “If you want to prepare its dishes authentically, read about it.” *sigh* I mean, sure, if you are cooking something that’s made by people and you literally know absolutely no one who cooks that, I guess books are what you’ve got. We’ve all had to use them. Also, cook with friends and family. Hopefully, you have friends and family who do things different from you, and you can learn from them. And I don’t mean, different potato dishes to argue about which ones are mandatory components of T-day. Maybe you’ll get lucky and be at a cousin’s house when an unrelated to you elderly relative comes over and teaches you how to make mole.
Very, very, very unlike Pillay. The many contributors from the cooking circle sound like a bunch of people who had _no_ idea they were going to be making a meal, really, ever, and are time-crunched and madly improvising. While Pillay is calmly laying out how to shop for 2 weeks of at-home cooking including meals and snacks to take to work and school on an utterly predictable schedule, this lot is debating between using the avocados on the counter that are going brown vs. the apples that are “half-wormy”. The contrast is startling. While Pillay is telling you to put sheets between slices of ham in the freezer to make them easier to take out one at a time, and how to make logs of cookie dough and then cook 15, so your kid can have 3 per day, 5 days a week and you won’t be tempted to eat cookies yourself, this book has this insight:
“I’ve finally caught on. I used to freeze a whole batch in a single container, which took hours to thaw and then left us with too much food left over again.” I’m visualizing a copper tub full of … I dunno? Stew? Very, Very, Very different from making bread on Sunday and then freezing slices for sandwiches.
Eugene seems nice. “Tools like an instant-read meat thermometer make it much easier to improvise.”
Tools list includes the above mentioned meat thermometer; it also mentions a 12 inch whisk. I had one. I didn’t use it. I recently got rid of it. If something happened to the smaller, Rosle whisk, however, I’d replace it ASAP.
Publication date on this is May 2021. “If you wish you were relaxed about inviting people over spontaneously, or having drop-in friends stay for dinner”. Heh. Given the usual timeline on writing and publishing, there are decent odds that that was edited, and _might_ have been written during a period when no one was eating a meal with anyone not in their own household.
Zahra describes creativity coming from constraints, and tells the story of Sauce Varu Chicken (which sounds pretty yummy!): “Sometimes, I create shortages on purpose. Maybe … I’m going on a trip. Halting grocery shopping means I’ve got to be creative. … I love the process because, inevitably, I find things in the fridge, freezer or pantry that I’ve forgotten, but they’re still good and need to be eaten.” Very relatable! And what an aspiration to arrive where she does: “In the end, I begin a new cooking season with a nearly blank slate and a lot of ideas.”