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I just learned by doing and following recipes and learned at an early age I might add. I've always heard experience is the best teacher but it's even better if you get that experience under the guidance of your mother or grandma.
This is definitely a good way to go, as long as you pay some attention to the results of what you get and judge them critically. Just be sure to use whatever time is available to you to better understand why it worked, why it may have gone wrong, or how you can improve it. You can use cookbooks, advice from friends, and the internet to learn more. I'm continually trying different things by trial and error, but I do it as an informed process based on some research.
Using the example of cooking chicken I think it's great that someone is throwing a chicken in the oven. The next steps are to look at how to improve it. You can brine it to make it juicier. The legs and thighs are a different type of meat, that should be cooked at lower temps to higher finished temp to make them tender. The breasts shouldn't be overcooked to avoid drying them out. Both should be browned/crisped at some point in the process to improve the flavor. Those are the basics, and then you can start messing around with throwing some ginger, chile powder, garlic, soy....whatever, to get some different flavors. Unfortunately I think too many recipes concentrate on the ingredients before the cooking techniques, and you need to get the techniques figured out before messing around with the ingredients to flavor it.
See the one thing about chicken is when I am in the mood for chicken, I call my neighbor.
I have not been able to master chicken no matter how many times I have tried.
I can grill a boneless chicken breast and put them in the slow cooker for chicken and noodles but anything that anyone wants edible after that they are not going to call me.
Well, for me personally, I find that elevating the importance of food too much leads to mental, physical and spiritual weakness. I think you can look around and see the results of people placing way too much importance on food and eating!
And I am just speaking for MYSELF. I am not judging others, I am not on some high horse...........I have been a piggish glutton most of my life.
I know this is not the religion-forum......but I believe The Holy Bible has very, VERY important guidance on keeping things like food in perspective.
You are correct this is not the religion forum however it is your opinion that the importance of food leads to mental, physical and spiritual weakness.
I have the God given gift of being able to teach myself how to cook and be very good at most of it.
I cannot make pancakes worth a darn most of the time, I could start the foundation of a home with all of the "bricks" of bread I have tried to bake and I couldn't serve up good fried chicken if the Lord himself was sitting at my table. I can give him a delicious meal though even if it is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of Milk.
Food is important and the only ones who are weak from the importance of food already have some other deep seated issues that they refuse to deal with.
My wife and I cook, and typically we eat a home cooked meal 5x p/week. We harvest a lot of game so we have some tried and true recipes and we also like to experiment with new ideas, especially with goose and duck. We make our own sausages and burger we used to have a pretty large garden (at least until we moved to Montana).
My son (16yo) enjoys cooking and preparing foods, even butchering. My daughter (14yo) hates it. All of it. She is very vocal that she hates to cook and would rather do something else with her time. She has always been that way with the rare exception of making cookies with mom. She likes to eat our prepared meals, but she hates to cook.
I know a few people that just hate to cook, or if they do it's always the same thing. One friend of ours will only eat orange roughy, chicken breasts, french fries and corn. That's about it. That was her diet almost every time we went to their place. I was pretty amazed at that, but in her mind we wasted a lot of time and effort making things that had no taste (or a foul taste) to her.
...we also like to experiment with new ideas, especially with goose and duck...
Several years ago I brought a duck home from the grocery story, and I asked my wife if she'd cook it for us. She asked me how to prepare it, and I replied "Just roast it like a chicken." Anyone familiar with cooking a duck probably already knows what happens next .
Anyway, she puts the duck in the oven and we go into the den while it's cooking. We're in the den when the fire alarm sounds. I run into the kitchen and there's smoke coming out of the oven. I open the oven door and I see an inflated duck with jets of duck fat spewing out from the end of both legs. I grabbed some oven mitts and yanked the pan out of the oven just as the fat burst into flames. Fortunately, closing the oven door put out the flames and we just let the oven cool down.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ToddATX
If you have special dietary needs that is fine, but anything you cook without salt and pepper could be cooked much better with. It is simple, universal cooking ... all cooking starts with proper seasoning. Maybe you use those other things to cook a better meal than, say, the very bland and underwhelming food from my mom growing up. Love her, great baker, but terrible cook. However, you are still handicapping yourself from a better product if salt were added. As I said, if you have dietary restrictions that is understandable ... but the point stands.
This is why I salt and pepper my cake batter.
See also; Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Apple Pie
See the one thing about chicken is when I am in the mood for chicken, I call my neighbor.
I have not been able to master chicken no matter how many times I have tried.
I can grill a boneless chicken breast and put them in the slow cooker for chicken and noodles but anything that anyone wants edible after that they are not going to call me.
And this shows how different we humans are: I would never put a chicken breast in the slow cooker, especially after grilling it.I like to use whole chickens for slow cookers, breasts dry out too badly. When I do chick and noodles, I do them on the range. I stew the chicken, just til it is done, then take it out of the pot, pull it apart and use some of the meat with the noodles. Of course I have veggies in the broth as well. Sometimes I use a cut up chicken, then I do not take it out of the pot. That is how my family always made Chick and noodles. Of course that was before electric slow cookers as well.
And this shows how different we humans are: I would never put a chicken breast in the slow cooker, especially after grilling it.I like to use whole chickens for slow cookers, breasts dry out too badly. When I do chick and noodles, I do them on the range. I stew the chicken, just til it is done, then take it out of the pot, pull it apart and use some of the meat with the noodles. Of course I have veggies in the broth as well. Sometimes I use a cut up chicken, then I do not take it out of the pot. That is how my family always made Chick and noodles. Of course that was before electric slow cookers as well.
I don't think he meant to grill and slow cook...but to grill or slow cook. You can use chicken breasts in a slow cooker...it just doesn't need to cook as long as a whole chicken.
Person I would find leaving skin and bones in chicken noodles to be very odd.
We cook the soup with skin and bones but before serving we take the meat out, discard skin and bones, strain the broth, re-season if needed, and add the shredded meat and veggies (so they won't have had a chance to overcook into mush). Then while that's reheating, we make the noodles (usually angel hair pasta) in a separate pot. We serve the soup over the noodles. Great. Don't forget the lemon.
I don't think he meant to grill and slow cook...but to grill or slow cook. You can use chicken breasts in a slow cooker...it just doesn't need to cook as long as a whole chicken.
Person I would find leaving skin and bones in chicken noodles to be very odd.
You could be right, but that is not how I took it. As for leaving skin and bones in the chicken noodles, it depends. If you use a cut up chicken of course you would have the bones, just like if you roast a chicken you have pieces and they do have bones. If you use a whole chicken, as i said, you remove the chicken, remove the bones and skin and add some of the chicken back to the broth.
All this depends on how and when you learned to cook. I am going back to how it was done on the farm, many years ago. My mother in law was raised on a very large farm, thus she cooked country style and my dad was raised on a ranch; same thing. I learned to cook from him. I will add, while majoring in foods and nutrition in college we did cook with the entire chicken or we cut it up. So, how one chooses to cook,does depend on ones upbringing. In fact I think you and I have discussed this many times in the past. There is no wrong way, that is why I mentioned how differently humans see things. It is the same as entering your home made preserves in a county fair: you can win a blue ribbon one year while the following the same recipe doesn't even place. I know, I have been there many times.
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