Do you get tired of the smart-ass cooking experts telling you that you’ve been doing it wrong all along?
While I appreciate folks like Alton Brown and Joshua Weissman giving us tips and tricks, and some very good ones, usually. But let’s look at a couple of things they keep going on about.
The cheese dilemma
Picture this: You got a few minutes to make some breakfast before heading off to work and you’re tired of Raisin Bran or oatmeal or Cream Of Wheat. Today, you’re gonna make an omelette. Not hard to do, you beat the eggs, add something you’ve got handy — maybe some sliced ‘shrooms or dried basil or whatever. But when it’s getting done, you want some cheese on it. Do you dig through the cabinet for the grater, unwrap your cheddar, get out a plate to grate in on, then put all that shit back and toss the grater in the sink to clean later (when the cheese will have dried to the consistancy of five year-old latex paint), or do you just open your bag of Kraft shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese and drop a couple of big pinches over your eggy delight and grab your coffee while you finish watching that episode of Friends that you’ve seen fifteen times already before dashing off to make some bucks?
The choice is yours, not theirs.
Cracking an egg
I first saw Alton recommending this: Don’t crack the egg on the side of your mixing bowl or frying pan, crack it on a flat surface. So I tried it it and got egg all over the counter. Every. Single. Time. I went back to doing the way I’ve been doing it for FIFTY YEARS, on the edge of the bowl or the frying pan. Then, I saw this:
That is Julia Child, The French Chef on her TV show. I’m done.
Salt
I think that salt is way over-used by chefs and retail products. I never really think it should be a flavor; it should be a subtle enhancement. But the “experts” tell you to put it in ice cream, your morning oatmeal and I even saw one guy say that if your cake doesn’t have enough flavor, add some salt!
Why not just add more flavor? Arteries are exploding everywhere from this notion. I think this is a cultural phenomena; we’ve all been raised with a palate that expects a certain saltiness and we miss it if it isn’t there. I have watched european and asian cooks that use no salt. Julia didn’t use any in her omelette recipe and I never do either.
I’ve tried the pinch of salt in my oatmeal and I could not taste any difference. Instead of salt in your ice cream, try using more flavorful ingredients. And instead of more salt in your cake…I have no words. But salt in bread? Of course, but not so much for flavor as to control the rise; the yeast is what brings flavor to bread.
Do this: Try cooking with little to no salt for, say, a month. You’ll be surprised at how little you miss it after a very short time.
What do you think?