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   Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:23:02 JST Bethany Black

   i was thinking yesterday how terrifying cooking used to be and how I needed a recipe every time, and now I know that there is a loose structure to most dishes and you can improvise within that framework, yesterday was soup, whose framework is just fry a little onion and/or garlic in a soup pan then add veg, salt and pepper, stock and herbs and simmer until it’s soup.

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:26:21 JST Bethany Black

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     I remember the glee the day I discovered all good salad dressing is oil, acid, and sugar sometimes with salt and pepper.

     Olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey. Vegetable oil, cider vinegar and brown sugar. Avocado oil, lemon juice and agave syrup.

     It’s all oil acid and sugar and it all makes salad palatable

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:29:07 JST Bethany Black

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     Cooking is to baking as blacksmithing is to engineering. When you’re baking you need specific amounts and techniques. Which is why it’s so weird that we teach little kids baking first, the thing you can absolutely irreparably fuck up from having the wrong temperature, or a fraction too much of something.

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:32:33 JST Bethany Black

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     If you ever go to a restaurant and you can’t figure out what made something taste amazing it’s usually: loads more butter, loads more cream, loads more garlic, celery salt, lemon salt, mustard powder, monosodium glutamate, vinegar, or some combination of the above, so add those things one at a time until you figure it out.

     Want to know why that potato salad was amazing? They added a teaspoon of mustard powder and half a teaspoon of white wine vinegar to it most likely.

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:32:53 JST Bethany Black

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     • Rocketman

     @slothrop i have not read that, I’ll have to get it. Thanks :)

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     Rocketman (slothrop@chaos.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:32:55 JST Rocketman

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     @BethanyBlack I really like Samin Nosrat‘s „Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat“ - she explains cooking with exactly this approach.

     Plus it’s a lovely book.

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     Dr David Mills (dtl@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 16:47:51 JST Dr David Mills

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     @BethanyBlack we made a knock off of Dishoom's black dahl, it was good, but not great, then we added a ton of butter and cream and it just worked.

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 18:18:56 JST Bethany Black

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     • Another Angry Woman

     @stavvers haha, that’s why I started with the butter 😂

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     Another Angry Woman (stavvers@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 18:18:58 JST Another Angry Woman

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     @BethanyBlack Perhaps it's the French ancestors taking over here, but *always* start with the butter, because it's almost definitely a shit-ton of butter.

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     Sarah Farooqui (sarahf@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 19:11:27 JST Sarah Farooqui

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     @BethanyBlack There are two types of cooks-- those who develop an intuition & can improvise & those who need to be methodical & precise with the recipe, for it to make sense to them. I'm sadly the latter & no matter what, just can't develop a spice, salt, or or flame intuition!

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     Bethany Black (bethanyblack@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 20:02:06 JST Bethany Black

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     • Chris Jolly Holcomb

     @ReverendMoose ginger is amazing, the only reason I didn’t include it is that I always think it’s distinctive enough to recognise, but that’s probably just me

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     Chris Jolly Holcomb (reverendmoose@mas.to)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 20:02:07 JST Chris Jolly Holcomb

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     @BethanyBlack I feel like some of those are generally known, but more people need to know about mustard powder and celery salt. Another favorite of mine is ginger, and you don't even need much.