Flavor: Forgotten kitchen skills

Posted: May 27, 2014 - 7:50pm
&quot;Forgotten Skills of Cooking&quot; was written by Darina Allen.  SUBMITTED
"Forgotten Skills of Cooking" was written by Darina Allen.

Processed and convenience foods and shortcut cooking methods have become so entrenched in our culinary culture, it is easy to forget just how much we have forgotten about real cooking.

But cooking instructor Darina Allen knows all too well. More and more of her students arrive having never cooked so much as an egg, or needing lessons in remedial onion chopping.

As cooking has been rendered optional, Allen and others say cooks are increasingly losing touch with skills considered basic, or even essential, just a generation or two ago.

And that is changing the way people like Allen teach, as well as how recipes are developed and written.

“Nowadays, we have to be more specific — ‘Fold it in with a rubber spatula.’ — because people don’t know what folding is versus stirring,” says Julia Collin Davison, executive food editor for books at America’s Test Kitchen.

America’s Test Kitchen, known for its almost obsessive precision in recipe development, isn’t the only one. During the last decade or so, most cookbook and magazine recipes have begun to reflect the change in reader knowledge.

Here is a list of essential skills experts say every home cook should have:

■ Chop. Knife skills are step No. 1 in any and all cooking. Cutting your own vegetables, rather than buying them pre-cut, makes a dramatic difference in the texture, flavor and price of a dish.

■ Sear. Searing is the act of quickly browning meat over high heat using a pan, broiler or grill. Certain small steps — heating the pan properly, patting the meat dry before putting it in the pan — help ensure success.

■ Saute. Sauteing is searing’s more delicate cousin. Used to soften and brown vegetables and meats to be eaten on their own or as a base for soups, stews or other dishes, sauteing involves quickly cooking ingredients in a small amount of fat. The process requires high heat and a pan large enough to avoid crowding the ingredients.

■ Emulsify. Emulsifying is the process of combining liquids that generally resist being mixed together, such as oil and vinegar. The trick is to drizzle the ingredients while whisking.

■ Temperature. Chefs test the doneness of meat by comparing its firmness to different parts of their palms. You can skip that exercise, and invest in a reliable shortcut: the digital thermometer.

■ Blanch and shock. You may recall Julia Child plunging her quickly boiled green beans into ice water. That is blanching (the boiling) and shocking (the ice), and it keeps vegetables crisp and green. It also pre-cooks vegetables that can be quickly sauced, browned or broiled just before serving.



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