Alternative Cookbook
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Wikibooks already has a cookbook. However, I intend to provide an alternative cookbook. This cookbook will help to provide a complete overview of how to cook. It can be used as a cookbook for beginners, for intermediate cooks, or for advanced cooks.
[edit] Equipment
It would be quite unthinkable for a carpenter or a dressmaker or even an amateur gardener to attempt to create anything worth while without the right tools for the job. Yet many people try to cook with second-rate, dilapidated, or sometimes with hardly any equipment at all. Whether you have to cook for a family every day or if you simply want to cook for pleasure, one thing is certain: good results will be achieved far, far more easily with the right kind of basic equipment.
Good kitchen equipment is expensive, but most items last a lifetime and will pay for themselves over and over again. So many people attempt to cook with battered saucepans with ill-fitting lids, with blunt knives and with makeshift scales - often in the homes of those who have spent a small fortune on the kitchen fixtures. But all the matching units in the world can't compensate for having to peel Brussel sprouts with a table knife.
It is inadvisable to go out and equip yourself with all of your essentials in one go. But they should be your priorities as and when you are able to add to your stock, and they should be distinguished from the mountain of gadgetry which clutters up the shops in the name of labour-saving: a great many of these supposedly convenient gadgets are often more expensive than the basic tool and a lot less efficient (even when they are not going wrong).
[edit] Saucepans
The market is innundated with saucepans, all shapes, sizes and colours of the rainbow. But they represent a big investment, so how does a beginner know what to choose? I believe that a matter of personal preferences comes into this, and often what a person is used to is what he or she likes best. Its probably fair to say that no one particular type of saucepan can answer every type of need. I myself own several different sorts of saucepan, and below are my opinions about them. But first, one important point, how do you prevent cookware from sticking? When it's new, always follow the manufacturer's instructions on how to season new saucepans, frying-pans and casseroles - this will vary depending on the make, but it makes a world of difference.
Heavy gauge aluminium
Not quite so glamorous as the others to look at, they offer all-round reliability and a good, even conducting of heat. They are easy to keep clean - sometimes the aluminium inside them blemishes, but this is easily remedied by boiling up water in them, to which a little lemon juice or vinegar has been added. They are are very hard wearing and should last a lifetime but a warning about these saucepans:food should not be allowed to stand too long in them as the metal can react unfavourably on the food and this has made them a less popular choice in the past few years, There has been some discussion of aluminium as being a health risk, but this has not yet been proven.
Enamelled cast-ironware
These are very heavy and for this reason they hold the heat extremely well - so a much lower heat is needed to keep up a gentle simmer. They come in bright jewel colours and look very attractive. But their heaviness can be a disadvantage: very often two hands are needed to life a large saucepan full of something. If they are dropped on a hard surface they can chip or even break. I have found that sauces tendto stick and catch if I'm in a hurry and haven't kept the heat as low as it should be. Finally, the inside enamelled surface can become badly stained (though an overnight soak in a biological washing-powder solution does help).
Stainless steel
There are a few professional cooks who prefer these sort to anything else, especially now that the bases can be made with layers of steel, copper and aluminium which, sandwiched together, prove an excellent conductor of heat. I have found, though, that the contents of the pan nearest the edges (say, while boiling milk or making a sauce) get hot more quickly than the centre, which means that cooks in a hurry will regularly find the edges of the pan are scorched. The advantages, however, are that they are easy to keep clean, look attractive even after years of use, and are light to handle.
Copper saucepans
I have a set of heavy, handsome copper saucepans hanging up on the wall of my kitchen - and that's where they're staying. I know that the great French chefs swear by them, but I couldn't manage them at all. The brass handles become very hot, and it is easy to forget to use a cloth. Also I found the tinned lining wore down quickly, exposing the copper beneath whose qualities make some foods become rancid more quickly.
Non-stick saucepans
For my own cooking I find it essential to use metal implements, and for that reason alone I can never recommend non-stick pans - all the ones I have ever used very soon abandon their non-stck surfaces. I have continued over the last ten years to try all the latest non stick surfaces, but all eventually become afflicted by too high a heat or the rigours of metal implements.
[edit] Steamers
I would say that another essential piece of equipment is a steamer. I actually like the classic steamer which sits on top of the saucepan and can take large pudding basins etc. But I also fine the fan-shaped steamer very useful: this one sits inside a variety of sizes of saucepans and is perfect for steaming vegetables (which sit inside it with the water boiling away underneath).
[edit] Frying-Pans
My choice here is definitely for a heavy, cast-iron pan - there is a particularly good French, imported which has a matt-black inside coating which remains unharmed by metal utensils. Every cook should have two frying-pans, one with an eight inch (20 cm) diameter base and another a 10 inch (25.5 cm).
[edit] Meat-Roasting Tins
Solidity is the most important thing here - the cheap, thing-gauge metal ones, when exposed to very high temperatures, simply buckle. And once the base of the tin has become uneven you might as well throw it away. I have practically abandoned all roasting tins and use oval cast-iron gratin dishes of various sizes.
[edit] Casseroles
I would definitely recommend cast-iron enamelled ware, One good 4½ - 5 pint (2.5 - 2.8 litre) casserole would be about right for a family of four. The advantage of this kind of casserole is that you can use it on top of the stove as well as inside - and it is attractive enough to be taken straight to the table. The less expensive earthenware casseroles are useful for certain recipes, but these are only suitable for oven cookery.
For baking you need: a long straight rolling pin, a flour dredger which sprinkles a dusting of flour over a flat surface very evenly, a pastry brush (preferably flat), and a set of pastry cutters, plain and fluted, which come in sets of seven ranging from 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 3½ inches (9 cm) in diameter.
[edit] Baking sheets
Good, solid and flat, these are a very necessary item as they conduct heat from underneath, so helping to cook the under-side of a quiche or tart. They are essential for baking biscuits and scones etc.
[edit] Patty tins
If you are buying these for the first time, make sure you buy your tins with a dozen sections and not just nine. If you are slogging through a batch of mince pies you save a lot of time cooking twelve in one go.
[edit] Quiche tins
Should be as solid as possible, with a loose base. The most useful sizes are 8 inch (20 cm) and 10 inch (25.5 cm) but I also now use a 7½ inch (19 cm) which gives a thicker quiche.
[edit] Pies and tarts
For these old-fashioned enamlled pie-plates are best, because being metal they conduct the heat, and cook the pastry, more evenly. One 8 inch (20 cm) and one 9½ inch (24 cm) plate should cover most needs. A deep-rimmed pie-plate with sloping sides, however, is useful for a recipe that calls for depth (like a lemon meringue pie). Here 8 inch (20 cm) diameter is ideal.
[edit] Bread tins
These come in a bewildering variety of sizes, but except for the most ambitious the old-fashioned bread tins (with pleated corners, rims and double bases) which come in 1 lb (450 g) and 2 lb (900 g) sizes seem to be the most popular. I do think a non-stick tin is useful in bread-making, Although it still must be greased, it is much easier to turn the bread out, For a loaf made from 1 lb (450 g) of flour, thebase of the tin should be 5¼ inches × 3 inches (19 cm × 9 cm), and for one made with 2 lb (900 g) of flour it should be 6½ inches × 3½ inches (16 cm × 9 cm).
[edit] Whisks
One of the prime functions of a whisk is to get air into something, and a balloon whisk (especially with egg whites) will obtain the largest volume of all: it whisks very evenly and can disperse lumps in a sauce in seconds.
[edit] Electric hand whisk
I have never felt the need to own a free standing mixer - partly, I think, because I like to get the feel of the ingredients I am mixing. An electric hand whisk allows me to this, and its other advantage is that it can be used anywhere in the kitchen - in a saucepan or bowl over heat, for instance. A hand rotary whisk is, of course, cheaper, but a lot more hard work. If however, you want to do a fair amount of bread-making and yeast cooking, a free-standing mixer will save a lot of strenuous kneading.
[edit] Kitchen fork
I use a wooden kitchen fork for fluffing and separating rice. It is gentler than a metal one, and is useful for starting off the mixing of bread dough, and perfect for scrambled eggs.
[edit] Kitchen spoons
Apart from the metal teaspoons, dessertspoons and tablespoons which are essential, a cook needs a variety of wooden spoons, including a very useful one with a pointed edge that you can delve deep into the corners and crannies of a saucepan quickly (e.g. for scrambled eggs). Other handy spoons are: a long-handled draining spoon with perforations in it to separate something solid from its liquid; an unperforated, long-handled spoon which will save you burning your arms when you want to baste something in a hot oven; a ladle.
[edit] Fish slice
Something of a misnomer, because this will come in useful when frying all kinds of things. Its flat blade should have plenty of flexibility in it - the rigid ones simply can't slide under such delicate things as fried eggs without damaging them.
[edit] Spatula
A flat-edged piece of hard rubber with a wooden handle: it clears a bowl of dough or other mixture in seconds and much more effectively than scraping with a spoon.
[edit] Knives
A set of good-quality kitchen knives can transform your culinary life overnight - and by this I mean the stainless steel ones with riveted wooden handles (the Swiss make excellent ones). Carbon steel knives are often recommended and lengths of knives are available, but you can build up your collection gradually with care. My priorities would be a couple of cook's knives, a small kitchen knife, a small curved pairing knife, a potato peeler, a good carving knife with either a serrated or straight edge (and a carving fork), a palette knife for smoothing icing or cream and lifting biscuits from a baking sheet, and a bread knife (though in fact my palette knife has a serrated edge and cuts bread beautifully).
[edit] Keeping knives sharp
This is vital. They ought to be sharpened regularly: a sharpening steel is best for this, although it requires a little practice. I was hopeless at first. The butcher's tip to sharpen a little and often is a good one, and remember always to sharpen the whole length of the blade, not just one section. (If you really can't manage a steel, there are knife-sharpening gadgets available: they just tend to wear out knives rather more quickly, that's all.) It also helps to keep knives sharp (and is a lot kinder on the fingers) if you store them on magnetic racks, which can be attached to the wall, rather than in drawers where they can come into contact with other implements. Never use your knives on a plastic or laminated surface - both the surface and the knives will be ruined in no time, Good knives need a wooden chopping board with a bit of give in it.
[edit] Kitchen scissors
A good, tightly riveted pair, kept strictly for kitchen use, will come in handy more often than you might imagine. They are so useful for snipping herbs, cutting string on puddings or scaling fish. My pair, made in Finland, are the best I have come across and (rather enterprisingly) they are manufactured for left-handed people as well.
[edit] Graters
Quite honestly nothing grates as well or as easily as the versatile, four-sided grater with each of its sides offering a different variety of grate. And one of its endearing qualities is that it is so easy to clean.The only other grater I use is a small nutmeg grater, which has a built-in compartment for holding a few whole nutmegs. It hangs on a hook within arms reach , ready for instant use.
[edit] Lemon Zester
This is a useful, and inexpensive, item which nothing can really replace. It extracts the outer 'zest' from a lemon, leaving the unwanted pith behind, and is so constructed it can get round the awkward curves of a lemon without difficulty.
[edit] Mincer
The cast-iron kind, with a clamp-base, is not really an expensive piece of equipment and is virtually indestructible. It comes with three different blades for different coarseness of mince and is invaluable for dealing with left-over meat, making hamburgers and a dozen other recipes, including chutneys. I emphasise the clamp-base because suction bases never seem strong enough - but make sure you have a suitable table edge to clamp it to.
[edit] Pestle and Mortar
A mortar is a heavy porcelain bowl and a pestle a rounded porcelain tool that crushes or pounds the substances in the bowl - use it for crushing whole spices or pounding garlic and salt together to a cream. I would not be without mine, and suggest the larger and sturdier kind you can buy the better.
[edit] Pepper mill
There are plenty of pepper mills around that don't work too well, so it is worth investing in a good, wooden one. The taller it is, the less often you will have to refill if with peppercorns. Elsewhere in the book I have enlarged on the virtues of freshly ground pepper, so let me only say here that it has 100 per cent more fragrance and flavour than the ready-ground stuff.
[edit] Lemon squeezer
In this case, the simpler the better. A strong plastic or a tough glass squeezer will do well: some of the plastic ones have a screw-on cup underneath to catch the juice and separate off the pips - so that the juice is easier to pour.
[edit] Sieves
I have three sieves at home. Two of them, in different sizes, are metal ones, because I have had to discard so many melted and disfigured plastic ones in the past. The only plastic one I still possess, with its fine mesh is used almost exclusively for sifting flour.
[edit] Colander
The same goes for colanders: never get a plastic colander - you are guaranteed a disaster sooner or later when it has been left too near the heat. The small aluminium or enamel ones will be sturdier and safer.
[edit] Salad basket
Although practically redundant in the winter, my wire salad basket comes into its own in the summer. When salad leaves require washing, you can put them wet inside one of these enclosed baskets then (outdoors) swing the whole thing, using circular movements and shake off most of the excess water. Then just leave it somewhere to finish drying.
[edit] Scales
If you have cooked for a lifetime with maybe a fairly modest repertoire, then perhaps you don't have to weigh anything - your 'instincts' are well developed. Lucky you. If you're a beginner then you simply must weigh everything to be sure of success. My advicer is to opt for a proper pair of balance scales (where the weights go on one side, the ingredients on the other): these are far more accurate than the needle-and-spring kind and sturdy enough to outlast you. Look for the largest pair possible. I have some antique balance scales like this that still register perfect balance. You can now buy a set of metric weights, as well as imperial - so the same scales can cope with either.
[edit] Measuring jugs
A glass measuring jug, with imperial and metric volumes marked on the side, will tell you in seconds what 3 fl oz is (otherwise it is impossible to know: milk bottles are not advised).
[edit] Skewers
Unassuming little pieces of equipment, but vital. Without one I just don't know how to tell if potatoes or vegetables are cooked, but the 'feel' or give of a skewer as it is inserted into the centre is a sure guide. Flat skewers are essential for kebab cookery.
[edit] Kitchen timer
Very often these are incorporated into modern ovens. But if yours does not have one built in, they can be bought separately. Memories are fallible, and a timer can save a lot of hard work from going out of the window.
[edit] Cooking thermometer
Sometimes described as a 'sugar thermometer'. Will save a great deal of agonising as to whether the fat is hot enough to put in the chips, or the jam has reached a set. Such information is printed alongside the appropriate temperature on a good kitchen thermometers. A meat thermometer is a gadget inserted in a joint of meat to help you determine when the joint is ready. However, they can be fallible if they happen to touch and rest against a bone.
There is only one other item I would include in this list. I find my food processor does all the work of a mincer and a liquidiser - and more, as it's excellent for shredding, slicing and grating in large quantities. But what you must bear in mind is that the blades do not last for ever, and if the machine is not performing well you probably need to get a new blade. For chopping things evenly, though, I still prefer a wooden board and a sharp knife. I also feel that pastry and cake mixes made in a processor don't incorporate enough air. Otherwise it's very useful. Alternatively a solid 2 pint (1.2 litre) capacity liquidiser will take care of the puréeing.
[edit] Eggs
In this book it's the egg - and not the chicken - that comes first. There are good reasons for starting with eggs, not least because they are such a basic ingredient and a real understanding of what they are and what they can do is essential before we progress to, say, pastry later.
But there's another problem. Someone who 'can't even cook eggs' is - to the rest of the world -someone who has either despaired of or totally neglected the art of cooking. Yet there is an assumption here that egg cookery is so basic it needs no practice of experience - it's intuitive. I don't believe that. And that's something I hope to demonstrate by starting with eggs. And anyway imagine if everyone from the age of nine to ninety could make an omelette correctly, they'd never lack for one delicious, interesting and nutritious meal at their fingertips.
