It takes a lot longer to make an omelette than it does to eat one. The imbalance resolves, at least in part, by slowing down to enjoy the meal. I associate this bit of wisdom with my experiences as a tourist in Europe and in particular visiting family in Italy and France. Meals both in homes and in restaurants are high points, even focal points, of the day in these countries. This should be an everyday sort of ethic. Good food means a good life.
Italy and France are the culinary champions of a continent full of all sorts of good food, and not coincidentally they are also the places where the “Slow Food” movement enjoys the most visible support. I love the ethic behind the movement even if I do not always live up to it. Below the fold, I have some not-all-that formally organized thoughts about implementing it here in the USA. I will suggest that in the comments you all share your own ideas for getting more devoting more time to increasing the pleasure of life based on what goes on your table.
There’s farmer’s markets everywhere these days. Take the time to go to them if you can. If you live in an urban area, you may be surprised at how much agriculture is going on in close proximity to your densely-built big city. Prefer local to mass-produced. Sure, you can take the responsible consumer side of this to take this to a silly extreme, but I don’t prefer local to mass-produced because I wish to be a responsible consumer.
Fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs taste better. I now know that this is true and not a function of paying more for the product, at least for eggs. I’ve become fortunate enough to get very fresh eggs for free. My friend keeps chickens and they produce more eggs than his family can eat. So I get fresher eggs from better-fed chickens than I could possibly get at the supermarket, and I get them for free. They taste better, and passed a blind taste preference test.
My eggs come with a quartet of seasonings: large-crystal salt, fine-ground black pepper, a dash of cayenne, and chopped chives. The best way to prepare an egg so as to maximize its taste is to poach it. But I like mixed eggs (scrambled eggs, omelettes, quiches and other custard dishes) very much too. I know it’s possible to have scrambled eggs without cheese. I just don’ t know why anyone would want to have them that way. Nor do I understand why anyone would want ketchup on their eggs; the ketchup would completely overpower the taste of the egg; this would be true for most tomato-based salsas as well. Hot sauce, however, I do understand and sometimes a dash of Sriracha or Tabasco (especially the chipotle Tabasco) is just the thing.
Americans typically wolf down their food. Before I got serious with cooking as a hobby, I too often wolfed down my food. And I confess that I still eat faster than I should when I’m very hungry. But something about eating food one has prepared oneself, and finding it pleasing, makes one wish to savor and prolong the experience — not at all unlike like sex. Knowing by experiencing the amount of preparation and cooking that goes in to making food really good infuses a speed limit into one’s consumption of the product emerging from the process.
If you eat better food, more slowly, you eat less of it because it’s more satisfying. As Leaguefest alumni know, I’m far from the most slim and trim guy out there — but I’m slimmer and trimmer than I used to be not so many years ago, and that’s in part a function of stepping up my game in the kitchen, and making better food and eating less of it. Stepping up my game in the kitchen has also increased the vegetable content of my diet.
I’ve not yet found a good solution for my hands. While cooking a meal, I’m likely to wash my hands a dozen or more times to avoid cross-food contamination. This leaves my hands very dry. Regular lotions are fine well after preparing a big meal, after eating it, and after cleaning up, but every lotion I try is too thick and oily to be suitable for kitchen use.
Coffee is better when it’s denser, and in my opinion, the Mediterranean styles of coffee-making — Italian, Turkish, Arabic — produce a superior product to what comes out of your typical North American coffee maker. But, that Mr. Coffee machine is really convenient. To make a good espresso, you either need a very expensive piece of equipment or something that takes time to prepare and operate. A Keurig can make American drip-style coffee as well it can be made, but it seems to me that the point of a Keurig is not that it makes really good coffee, but that it makes good-enough coffee, very quickly. I much prefer my slower Bialetti, because the end product is the best I’ve found that doesn’t come out of a high-pressure espresso steamer.
I prefer caffè corretto, using Bailey’s Irish Cream or better yet, Amarula from South Africa, to provide a mild relaxant against the stimulating effects of the caffiene. This isn’t true caffè corretto, of course; in Italy the coffee is “corrected” with stronger stuff than a cream liqueur, typically with grappa but also sometimes with brandy or an anise-flavored liqueur like Sambucca (damn do theose the Italians love the licoricey flavor of anise!). Obviously, adding something with even a moderate amount of alcohol to coffee isn’t for everyone, but the point is to take the coffee made well, take it in a way that you can enjoy it. I never put a moment’s worry into caffè corretto, because I’m not going to be driving a car immediately after drinking it anyway.
No matter how bad your life sucks at any particular moment, a world that has ice cream in it can’t be all bad.
I generally only eat a big breakfast with eggs and meats on the weekends or while on vacation. A typical breakfast for me these days is a cup of yogurt with some cereal or granola mixed in, and maybe a piece of fruit. The point is just to get the motor running, not to consume half of the day’s calories before you take your morning shower. About half the time, I have a big lunch and a lighter dinner; the other half of the time the last meal of the day is the big one.
I prepare nearly all of my meat in my sous vide water oven, and I only finish them on the grill or in a saute pan to get that nice browning color and taste of the char. In Ca’ Likko, only fish and ground-meat burgers meet the grill while raw. A gas grill is fine for me because I’m only using it to finish the meat and not to do the cooking. But I notice a lot of people have come to like the Big Green Egg or something similar, which looks right to me it’s deep to store a lot of coals, and it’s ceramic so as to absorb and radiate the heat. Barbeque is cooking by indirect heat, not direct exposure to fire — and it takes time if you’re going to do it right.
Pasta should be boiled in a large pot with lots of water. The water needs lots of salt. Mix in the salt while the water is cool, then boil it — this raises the boiling point of the water and thus causes the water to absorb more heat and that cooks the pasta better. A pound of pasta needs a gallon of water. Bring the water to a rolling boil before you add the pasta. Test the pasta by eating a piece of it and feeling for the resistance to the pressure of your teeth. Remember that the pasta will continue to warm and soften after you remove it from the boiling water, so if the center of the pasta still feels a little hard and crunchy, that’s good. Do not rinse your pasta before adding the sauce, any sauce.
Tomato-based sauces for pasta may need sweetening but don’t add sugar. Sweeten your sauce with balsamic vinegar or, you know, actual tomatoes, which have a high sugar content when they are fresh and ripe.
Bolognese sauce is not simply marinara sauce with meat added to it. Learn the difference, enjoy both. Carbonara is not Alfredo sauce with bacon added. There’s nothing at all wrong with pasta in a cheese sauce, but Alfredo sauce was invented in the United States, not Italy. Fettucine Alfredo is really only two steps removed from maccaroni and cheese — a different kind of pasta, a different cheese used for the sauce.
Wash your mushrooms with the gills down, facing away from the water. Don’t flood the gills of the mushrooms.
Sharp knives are safer than dull ones. Good knives are worth the extra money.
The house cocktail at Ca’Likko is the Aviation. 3 oz. gin vodka, 1 oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 oz. Creme de Violette, a dash of Maraschino, shaken over ice and served in a martini glass and garnished with a cherry. Bartending beginners, please use the links I’ve provided before going shopping: Maraschino is a clear liqueur, and it is not the sugary pink syrup in which one packs cherries destined for ice cream sundaes. But the Aviation is being challenged for supremacy at Ca’Likko by Hendrick’s gin and tonic water garnished with thinly sliced cucumber rounds served sparkling over ice. And if you come for dinner, you’re as like to be served wine with dinner as cocktails unless you express a preference along the way.
A good apron made of thick material is important.
Eating outdoors enhances the pleasure of food. Eating under stress or time pressure isn’t any fun at all, really; if life imposes stress on me at mealtime, I will opt for cheap and fast because my mind is elsewhere anyway. But I always regret eating like that. One day I will be dead and no longer able to enjoy good food, the experience of wine, and the society of friends to share these with. The Romans put skulls and other images of death on their artwork to remind themselves of this fact. Or, as Warren Zevon advised David Letterman (and thus the rest of us), you should make an effort to enjoy every sandwich.
It’s lunchtime. Go enjoy your sandwich.
When I was dealing with the massive and disorienting transition of moving from my beloved Manhattan to rural New England, the single greatest comfort I had was that in my new home I could find all manner of amazingly fresh, locally grown or raised food. I got to know all kinds of vegetables because of our farm share, trying to figure out what the hell to do with kohlrabi or lamb’s quarters. It brought a lot of satisfaction.
If you were a more religious type, I’d recommend the excellent book “The Supper of the Lamb.” It’s all about a more meditative, spiritual approach to eating. (I don’t think it would be your cup of tea, all things considered.)
And there are few pleasures I enjoy more than cooking a meal I know I make well, and presenting it to people I care about to eat. I hope to become a better home chef with time (I know both you and Kuznicki put me to shame), but there are a handful of meals I know I make really well, and I love making them, right down to the tedious tasks of peeling ginger or grating real cinnamon by hand.
I, too, know a handful of meals that I’m proud to serve to friends and family. (I get most of them from PBS food shows, I admit, but still….I take credit for them.)
Do you watch Alton Brown on Good Eats? His recipes generally aren’t special, but he teaches a lot of techniques and the knowledge he offers goes beyond a single recipe.
And Alton Brown doesn’t bother with all those gimmicky cooking toys or impossible ingredients, either.
I first started cooking out of my mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook, with the Andy Warhol illustrations. It was a wretched thing. Following the directions to the letter left me feeling like I was navigating an obstacle course. I could produce edible dishes but never felt any pleasure in it, beyond serving it.
Then I made Mom buy the Joy of Cooking cookbook. The best part of Joy of Cooking is the beginning of each section, where the cook learns the basic principles of that family of ingredients.
But my favourite gadget, without which I simply refuse to cook anything, well, there are two such gadgets: a real oven thermometer and a digital meat thermometer. I’ve yet to meet up with an oven where 350 degrees on the knob is 350 in the oven.
With you on the meat thermometer, though I’m slowly learning to cook most meats by feel. A true accomplishment if it can be mastered.
I enjoy Alton’s show quite a lot. He’s every bit as affable and charming in real life as he is on the show, or at least he was on the occasions I met him.
I gave everyone a copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything for their weddings/graduations if they’ve expressed the slightest interest in learning to cook, it doesn’t explain the ‘why’ nearly as well as Alton Brown, but it’s arranged in such a usable manner by type of main ingredient that it makes a great reference.
“I know it’s possible to have scrambled eggs without cheese. I just don’ t know why anyone would want to have them that way. Nor do I understand why anyone would want ketchup on their eggs; the ketchup would completely overpower the taste of the egg”
Preaching to the choir, on both counts.
“I generally only eat a big breakfast with eggs and meats on the weekends or while on vacation. A typical breakfast for me these days is a cup of yogurt with some cereal or granola mixed in, and maybe a piece of fruit. The point is just to get the motor running, not to consume half of the day’s calories before you take your morning shower. About half the time, I have a big lunch and a lighter dinner; the other half of the time the last meal of the day is the big one.”
That’s similar to my approach. For breakfast, I usually have a banana and a cup of coffee (which is usually my only cup of the day). I usually skip lunch and eat a large-ish dinner. This isn’t necessarily very healthy–for one thing, I tend to eat the dinner really fast–but it’s how I do things.
I’m probably all around not a slow eater. But if I were to try to slow down my eating, I would probably do the following:
1. Eat a couple of carrots or an apple before I cook or eat my dinner. These foods fill me up and make me less ravenous when dinner time comes around.
2. Drink a lot of water. I do this already, but it’s probably good advice.
3. Do dishes only after dinner is eaten. I have a habit of doing dishes as I cook in order to get them out of the way early. However, I suspect this prevents me from approaching the whole process in a deliberate and respectful (to my food) manner. I do suspect that saving all the dishes to the end can make the whole process more of a ritual.
Pierre-
To your point number one, I’ve seen research that indicates the ideal foods to eat to slow the appetite are those with a bit of fat in them. Fat apparently triggers the full reflex better than others. With this in mind, a small smear of peanut butter on your apple or carrots might put you in a better place to pace your eating.
Thanks for the suggestion!
In my experience, as someone who has struggled with his weight for all of his life, is that the best way to slow down eating and hunger is by way of magic* cereal. YMMV, but that just made a world of difference for me.
Another thing I do is brush my teeth early. At whatever point in the day I think it’s right to stop eating. Sometimes I’ll eat again and brush again, but it does discourage me. And after I brush, I’ll drink water instead of something else.
There are other things, some of which Dr. Saunders would probably not approve of (Dr. Wife doesn’t), but those are at least a couple of the tricks I have learned.
* – “Fiber”-rich, usually meaning inulin-rich. Fiber One, Kashi GoLean, Kelogg FiberPlus, and so on.
Brushing my teeth early usually works for me, too, although I don’t do it as much as I ought.
I think I’ve been fortunate in that my weight has not been as much of a struggle for me, but not for any virtue on my part: I eat too much junk food and drink too much beer, but for some reason, I tend to gain weight only slowly. I have succeeded in cutting soda out of my life almost completely, but I’m not sure how I did it. There was a time where I’d drink 3 or 4 (non-diet) cans of cola or dr. pepper a day, and then, for some reason, I just stopped. I’m not even sure why, but after a certain point in my life, soda just didn’t ‘t do it for me any more and I stopped, even though every now and then I’ll have some.
I realize my skipping lunch every day is probably not what most (or any?) doctors would approve of. But I do it.
There was a time where I’d drink 3 or 4 (non-diet) cans of cola or dr. pepper a day, and then, for some reason, I just stopped.
Envy. I’m stuck at 4-5.
That’s one habit I’ve thankfully never developed. Never had much of a taste for it, but will have it here and there (maybe a couple times a month). I have had good fortune when it comes to weight management. For me, healthy eating is much more about how I feel. Night-and-day.
I’ve don’t really like pop either. I usually only drink it if there is alcohol in it. I’m thankful that I’ve liked fruits and veggies since I was a small child. I could lose a few pounds, but I’ve never struggled with my weight like my sisters.
My adversion to going to farmers’ markets probably comes from the same spiteful part of myself that dislikes NPR, but I have heard that fresh, locally grown tomatoes are much, much better than what I buy in the supermarket. If that’s true, I’d be willing to try them.
Oh, they are. Seriously, what you buy in the supermarket is usually one step up from styrofoam. A good, fresh, fragrant tomato is a thing of beauty.
Also, what Burt said about good eggs. Worth the extra money. (If you’re lucky enough to get free duck eggs *polite cough*, all the better.)
During the summer, there’s a farmer’s market near my apartment here in Chicago. I’m almost afraid to try the fresh tomatoes for fear that I’ll never want to go back. As it is now, I don’t know what I’m missing.
My dad, who has long done amateur landscaping and gardening part time, has always said that tomatoes are the one thing absolutely worth growing in your garden because of the huge difference and the relative ease. Happy days are when I come home to find a bucket of tomatoes he’s grown on the door step.
I agree with virtually everything, and this surprises me. I’ll add one of my own:
If you are going to garden to support your cooking hobby, very few things repay the effort. Those that do include fresh tomatoes, and the herbs basil, chives, tarragon, thyme, and parsley. Fresh parsley in particular is a completely different creature from the dry stuff. An omelet with garden-fresh chives, tarragon, and parsley is good enough that you don’t need cheese, just salt and fresh ground pepper.
No cheese? I won’t hear of it!
I thought the definition of an omelette required cheese?
So many of the best moments in life revolve around cooking. Making gumbo and yeast bread are important rituals in my life. All religions are suffused with the metaphors of cooking. Once, Christianity put on huge feasts, not the parsimonious issuance of crackers and wine. Enter any Hindu temple and you will find offerings of food and fruits to the gods. All hospitality is a sacred act, though you may not hold with such superstitious thinking.
I especially approve of the comparison with sex. A nice afternoon of sex ought to be accompanied by snacks and drinks. And more sex, of course.
“A nice afternoon of sex ought to be accompanied by snacks and drinks. And more sex, of course.”
I like the way you think.
“Pasta should be boiled in a large pot with lots of water. The water needs lots of salt.”
Hear, hear. As Lynne Rossetto Kasper says, pasta water should taste like the sea. When I started salting the bejesus out of my pasta water my cooking went to a whole other level. And for those that are sodium-concious, the pasta actually absorbs very little.
“Carbonara is not Alfredo sauce with bacon added.”
My favorite carbonara recipe here. Guaranteed to bring down the house.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/09/cooking-with-ryan-pasta-carbonara/
And a no-fail omelet technique. After I saw this we ate a lot of omelets for next few weeks. Serve this to your significant other on a Saturday morning and you will be their favorite person for the rest of the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCHCsOBZ58M
I loved almost all of this, Burt, but I want to quibble with you about pasta – Harold McGee wrote a piece in the NYT a couple of years ago that changed the way I cook regular dried pasta. I recommend giving it a try:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25curi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=haroldmcgee
I am highly skeptical of Mr. McGee’s cold-water pre-rinse and low-water boils. The pasta needs to absorb a certain amount of water (admittedly not a whole gallon) and it need to absorb a certain amount of heat. And if you want to finish your sauce or oil with a thickener, I suggest a teaspoon of butter. Yes, even in tomato sauce — actually, especially in tomato sauce. My preferred method is to get the sauce right in the first place so it doesn’t need thickening.
You should try it, you might be surprised! Pasta absorbs water, of course, but not significantly differently than most other grains one cooks in water with a 2-4:1 water:grain ratio where the standard cooking method is nearly identical to the one Mr. McGee outlines.
I mainly do it now with spaghetti or other shapes that aren’t likely to stick to each other and I won’t do it with fresh, filled or whole wheat pasta (they’re all too exacting on done-ness for me to risk messing it up).
I don’t rinse first, just put them in half the cold water suggested, stir a bit, cover and turn the heat on. They only need an occasional stir until the water starts to boil and will be generally be done within two minutes of the boil, depending on the thickness/shape. I can’t tell the difference with the finished product.
When I’m making spaghetti or pasta with greens&beans for the family on a work night it saves me a good 10-12 minutes on a 30 minute prep time – boiling a whole gallon of water takes quite a bit of time.
I’ve never used the water for anything except reserving a cup or two to put back in the pot after rinsing for the occasions where I have more pasta cooked than we can serve. I have some recipes where the reserved water could be useful, but I mostly use chicken stock for additional liquid or a bit of arrowroot starch mixed in cold water as an emergency thickener in those.
http://www.smittenkitchen.com
Amazing recipes and even better pictures. Not a ton of meat, so I rely on this to add variety to our veggies.
You’re welcome.
I love this post.
How would adding vinegar sweeten a sauce?
Il balsamico è già dolce, il mio amico elettronica. Provare con le fragole.
Ho avuto piatti a base di aceto balsamico in loro. Nessuno erano dolci. A tutto.
Questa è una vergogna.
Seriously, don’t you think balsamic tastes sweet all on its own? Or maybe you don’t find a tomato to be particularly sweet, either, underneath all the acid? Seriously, provare il balsamico con le fragole! O un piu con lamponi. You’ll thank me later.
(That’s balsamic vinegar on strawberries and/or raspberries, for those of you playing the English-only version.)
I think balsamic is sweet all on its own.
I’ve had strawberries. Underneath their tartness they are a bit sweet at times. Vinegar is not sweet. Tomatoes I find more useful for texture in foods than taste, unless used to make a sauce.
White vinegar and balsamic vinegar are not really the same thing. I’m not sure if we covered that already in Italian.
I know they aren’t the same thing. Balsamic vinegar is in some vinagrette type salad dressings.
I don’t typically use white vinegar for anything, btw. Apple cider vinegar though as a component in a pork marinade I’ve done more times than I can count.
I tend to use acids like balsimic/red wine vinegar or lemon juice to add sweetness to certain dishes. Can’t necessarily explain why it works, but work it does. If I put too much into my tuna salad, I need to balance it out with salt and pepper.