Critical Cooking Skills

[sanjuro]

I saw a commercial for a professional chef school, pretty ridiculous but the funny line was the last one:

You don't even know how to cook!

So I was thinking, what are the must know skills for cooking:

Fry an egg
Boil water
Bake a chicken

[Damo]

How to make toast and butter it while its still hot.

[Greyhound]

...a proper roux.

[BadDNA]

The difference between grilling, bbq and smoking.

[narlus]

So I was thinking, what are the must know skills for cooking:

Fry an egg
Boil water
Bake a chicken

one bakes confections and pastries...one roasts meats...

[OGRipper]

Fundamentals:

1. Choosing ingredients.
2. Understanding salt and seasoning in general, especially learning to taste and correct for balance of salt/sweet/tart/spice, etc.)
3. Understanding heat and how different foods react to different cooking methods.
4. Basic but solid knife skills.

[DRB]

risotto

[I Are Baboon]

Knowing the difference between minced, chopped, sliced, diced, pureed, crushed and ground.

[H8R]

one bakes confections and pastries...one roasts meats...

I've baked chicken. You put some chicken breasts on a sheet pan and salt/pepper the fvck outta them, then bake.

Doesn't "roast" like chicken in a roasting pan. Comes out much crisper on the outside.

[H8R]

Knowing the difference between minced, chopped, sliced, diced, pureed, crushed and ground.

I think the blender knows. It says all that sh1t by the buttons.

[H8R]

Fundamentals:

1. Choosing ingredients.
2. Understanding salt and seasoning in general, especially learning to taste and correct for balance of salt/sweet/tart/spice, etc.)
3. Understanding heat and how different foods react to different cooking methods.
4. Basic but solid knife skills.

Add to this:

5. How the ingredients react with each other (chemically, etc) to achieve desired effect.

6. Timing for all the above.

[syadasti]

Unboiling an egg:

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2855872&postcount=457

Direct link:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969723,00.html

[stinkyboy]

http://www.massiveunderstatement.com/photos/20070807/gv-perfectsteakagain.jpg

That is all.

[Dartman]

Cooking is an art.
Baking is a science.

[Damo]

Toast is science

[DaveW]

And swearing at the toaster is an art form. :twitch:

[TreeSaw]

Cooking is an art.
Baking is a science.

I concur, but some baked goods are also a work of art :think:

[Damo]

Toast can be art too....

http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/groups/greensheet/greensheet06/art%20show%20Toast-web.jpg

[Dartman]

Toast can be art too....

http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/groups/greensheet/greensheet06/art%20show%20Toast-web.jpg

Nah. All you gotta do is burn it all then scrape it down to the color you want with a knife. :p

[Cash-Money]

http://www.massiveunderstatement.com/photos/20070807/gv-perfectsteakagain.jpg

That is all.

Is it bad that I just got an erection?

[Cash-Money]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that being able to flip things in a frying pan just by 'schwa-ing' the handle is important as well. Works wonders for getting pasta to mix with sauce.

[geargrrl]

how to improvise is useful.

[OGRipper]

how to improvise is useful.

Yes, absolutely. I try to focus on technique rather than specific recipes for specific foods. I find that is really helps keep me flexible. I love being able to walk into a grocer or farmer's market and plan meals based on what looks good, rather than what I needed to find to make a recipe work. Plus, being able to whip up something from a nearly empty fridge is a great skill.

[DaveW]

Critical cooking skill?
If your not a genius like Damo?
Knowing who/when to run to for advise when it "suddenly all went horribly wrong"!

[Nobody]

one bakes confections and pastries...one roasts meats...

Q. What is the difference between baking and roasting in an oven?

A. There is no difference. If you want to be finicky or traditional, you can't actually roast food in an oven — to roast traditionally meant to cook food (meat) with an open flame, as on a spit in front of a fire (as opposed to grilling on a grate over a fire). But the fire and its radiant heat were the essential components of roasting. Nowadays, roast is bake and bake is roast.

Generally, I admit, most 'roasts' are called such because of a convention - you buy a roast.

On the other hand, you assemble a dish to bake it.

[Nobody]

Taste it!

I cannot tell you the number of people i have cooked for who don't taste while they cook.

And they wonder why it needs salt or has too much or is bland etc....

"Salt to taste" doesn't mean 'add salt for your lifestyle'...

It means that you add, little by little, salt until you can taste each primary component of the food, not 'salty' but 'tasty'.

/rant

[Damo]

Roasting uses higher temperatures (usually, but not always) than baking, but the biggest difference is the use of fat in roasting.

[narlus]

Q. What is the difference between baking and roasting in an oven?

A. There is no difference. If you want to be finicky or traditional, you can't actually roast food in an oven — to roast traditionally meant to cook food (meat) with an open flame, as on a spit in front of a fire (as opposed to grilling on a grate over a fire). But the fire and its radiant heat were the essential components of roasting. Nowadays, roast is bake and bake is roast.

Generally, I admit, most 'roasts' are called such because of a convention - you buy a roast.

On the other hand, you assemble a dish to bake it.

then why does my oven have both 'convection bake' and 'convection roast' options?

[narlus]

Roasting uses higher temperatures (usually, but not always) than baking, but the biggest difference is the use of fat in roasting.

bell and chile peppers have no fat.

yet you can roast them.


or do you bake them?

[Lowlight7]

Roasting and baking use the same process. Roasting generally involves higher temps and short cook times than baking. Roasting usually involves carmelization from the high temps.

:banana:

[Damo]

bell and chile peppers have no fat.

yet you can roast them.


or do you bake them?

Coat them in oil and you're roasting...

[OGRipper]

They're not the same, even if used interchangably and incorrectly sometimes. (Clambake, anyone?) I like this take, which makes the distinction between cooking flour-based foods to set structure (baking) vs. cooking meat or veg (roasting):

The term baking refers primarily to the cooking of flour-based foods in which the heat of an oven sets their structures. Thus breads, cakes, muffins, and loaves are all cooked by exposing them to particular temperatures that firm each specific dough to the center, with just the right degree of browning on the outside.

Roasting traditionally meant cooking a food by exposing it to radiant heat in the open. It was a term usually applied to meat as it turned on a spit in front of a fire. In contemporary cooking, we’ve expanded the meaning of the term to include vegetables and fish. An open flame, however, is now often an outdoor grill or barbecue.

The term roasting is also now used to refer to tender meats, fish, or vegetables cooked in the enclosed space of an oven. Roasting in an oven generally refers to a dry-heat method of cooking without water-based liquids. Meats, vegetables, or fish may be basted with a marinade, some form of oil, or meat drippings.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/11-10-03.html

[Nobody]

then why does my oven have both 'convection bake' and 'convection roast' options?

....marketing....