flour and eggs by hand, while in Florence, apprenticed (Location 253)
WHAT IS SALT? (Location 473)
The human body can’t store much salt, so we need to consume it regularly in order to be able to carry out basic biological processes, such as maintaining proper blood pressure and water distribution in the body, delivering nutrients to and from cells, nerve transmission, and muscle movement. (Location 476)
Does this mean you should simply use more salt? No. It means use salt better (Location 485)
you’re familiar with whatever salt you use. Is it coarse (Location 505)
if you’ve only got table salt at home, go get yourself some kosher or sea salt right away. (Location 525)
Since aroma is a crucial element of flavor, the more aromas you perceive, the more vibrant your eating experience will be. This is why you take less pleasure in eating while you’re congested or have a cold. (Location 564)
When food tastes flat, the most common culprit is underseasoning. If you’re not sure salt will fix the problem, take a spoonful or small bite and sprinkle it with a little salt, then taste again. If something shifts and you sense the zing! , then go ahead and add salt to the entire batch. (Location 597)
Note: Venni tengeri sot
dough, I could actually see the machine begin to strain. (Location 710)
Salt pasta water, potato cooking water, and pots of grains and legumes as early as possible to allow salt to dissolve and diffuse evenly into the food. Season the water for vegetables correctly and you won’t have to add salt again before serving. (Location 743)
My general ratios for measuring salt are simple: 1 percent salt by weight for meats, vegetables, and grains, and 2 percent salinity for water for blanching vegetables and pasta. (Location 791)
to imagine cooking without it. What would vinaigrette (Location 1002)
Besides being one of the four basic elements of good cooking, fat is also one of the four elemental building blocks of all foods, along with water, protein, and carbohydrates. While it’s commonly believed that fat, much like salt, is universally unhealthy, both elements are essential to human survival. (Location 1005)
While salt is a mineral, used primarily to enhance flavor, fat plays three distinct roles in the kitchen: as a main ingredient, as a cooking medium, and, like salt, as seasoning. (Location 1013)
Instead, use your nose and palate: does the olive oil smell like a box of crayons, candle wax, or the oil floating on top of an old jar of peanut butter? If so, it’s rancid. (Location 1069)
Olive oil is produced seasonally. Look for a production date, typically in November, on the label when you purchase a bottle to ensure you are buying a current pressing. It will go rancid about twelve to fourteen months after it’s been pressed, so don’t save it for a special occasion, thinking it will improve over time like a fine wine! (Location 1072)
If you’re starting with an egg straight from the fridge, bring it up to room temperature before you start. If you’re in a hurry, submerge the egg in a bowl of warm tap water for a few minutes to speed things up. (Location 1315)
the reason why everyone spoons so much cranberry (Location 1594)
me—acid is salt’s alter ego. While salt enhances flavors, acid balances them. (Location 1609)
W hen aspiring chefs ask me for career advice, I offer a few tips: Cook every single day. Taste everything thoughtfully. Go to the farmers’ market and familiarize yourself with each season’s produce. Read everything Paula Wolfert, James Beard, Marcella Hazan, and Jane Grigson have written about food. Write a letter to your favorite restaurant professing your love and beg for an apprenticeship. Skip culinary school; spend a fraction of the cost of tuition traveling the world instead. (Location 1924)
Simply put, heat is energy. Food is primarily made up of four basic types of molecules: water, fat, carbohydrates, and protein. As food is heated, the molecules within it begin to speed up, colliding with each other as they go. (Location 2000)
Water is an essential element of practically all foods. Cook most of its water out, and food will become crisp or dry. Leave its water in—or add water as you cook—to make food moist and tender. Cook water out of scrambled eggs, and they will be dry. Cook the right amount of water into rice, cornmeal, potatoes, or any other starch, and they will be tender. (Location 2009)
as long as food is wet and giving off steam, its surface temperature probably isn’t hot enough to allow browning to begin. (Location 2032)
Remember, the reactions that cause food to brown—caramelization and the Maillard reaction—don’t begin until food reaches much higher temperatures. So, if water is present on the surface of a food, it can’t brown. (Location 2033)
Fats are slow to cool and heat—in other words, it takes a lot of energy to heat or cool a unit of fat by even a few degrees. (Location 2074)
Found primarily in foods made from plant sources, carbohydrates provide food with both structure and flavor. In Acid, I described three types of carbohydrates—cellulose, sugars, and pectin. (Location 2080)
If fibrous or stringy is a word that comes to mind when you think of a particular fruit or vegetable, it’s rich in cellulose, a type of carbohydrate that isn’t broken down by heat. (Location 2084)
Leaves have less cellulose fibers than stems or stalks, (Location 2087)
As it turns out, the grannies were right: just a few hours at room temperature can deprive starchy vegetables like corn and peas of half of their sugars. Potatoes, too, are at their sweetest when first harvested—hence the indescribable pleasure of boiled new potatoes topped with butter. (Location 2127)
230°F—well past the boiling temperature of water and the coagulation point of proteins. Since the temperatures required to achieve this kind of tasty browning will dry out proteins, beware. Use intense heat to brown the surface of meats and quickly cook tender cuts such as steaks and chops through. After browning a tougher cut such as brisket, on the other hand, use gentle heat to keep its interior from drying out. Or do the opposite and cook it through with gentle heat. Then, once the meat is tender, increase temperatures to brown the surface. Browning is an invaluable flavoring technique, but it must be done with care. Heat that’s uneven or too powerful can take food straight past golden delicious to charred. But sear a steak too timidly, and you’ll overcook it before it has a chance to brown. Learn (Location 2184)
Learn to take browning fearlessly to the edge, because that’s where the deepest flavors lie. (Location 2191)
To begin with, the temperature—that is, the measure of heat, or of its absence—of an ingredient will affect how it cooks. Food at room temperature cooks differently than food straight from the fridge. (Location 2204)
Most of smoke’s flavor is in its aroma, and it’s one that triggers ancestral memories of the earliest kind of cooking: over fire. (Location 2243)