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‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

theatlantic.com

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Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#61

Post by markdown »

mlevental wrote: post #56
markdown wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I returned the book. Wait, what? You read the book, returned it, and feel no shame in admitting it?

wut. if the book isn't good why would one feel ashamed of returning it? is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product?

After you've used it, absolutely. I wouldn't dream of using something I paid for and then demanding money back after I've used the item.

> is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product?

No, but I feel there's a moral obligation to not ask for your money back for a product you didn't like after using it. This of course doesn't apply if the product is faulty/broken such that it can't be used.

Do you do that for other things in your life, like demanding money back after watching a movie you later decide you don't like, or do you just walk out of restaurants without paying if you decide you didn't like the food (after eating it)?

A cultural difference, I guess.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#62

Post by girvo »

trynewideas wrote: post #43

If you get nothing else from watching this show, try making your own focaccia. It's a relatively simple bread to make, doesn't require special ingredients or techniques, and bakes in a sheet pan. If you can make brownies, you can make focaccia.

So one of my favourite entrees (in the Australian sense of the word, not the American) is toasted focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip in it; I never made it often because focaccia is quite expensive here. You've just changed my world (and likely made me fat! I kid :P)

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#63

Post by cthalupa »

markdown wrote: post #61
mlevental wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wut. if the book isn't good why would one feel ashamed of returning it? is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product?

After you've used it, absolutely. I wouldn't dream of using something I paid for and then demanding money back after I've used the item. > is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product? No, but I feel there's a moral obligation to not ask for your money back for a product you didn't like after using it. This of course doesn't apply if the product is faulty/broken such that it can't be used. Do you do that for oth…

It's not a fiction book you read for entertainment. Books of this nature are meant to be a reference and resource you continue using.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#65

Post by papa_bear »

bobbyT314 wrote: post #57
papa_bear wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really a cookbook, but check out my website https://www.EatThisMuch.com/ You can set it to just one meal if you want (and something like 600 calories) and keep regenerating it until it looks like something you'll like. I started it because I'm terrible at thinking about what I want to eat :)

Some more (helpful) suggestions: For two meals I'd love to pick which meals, because I prefer eating a late breakfast and dinner, and the meal options seem to be dependent on the type of meal. Ability to limit sugar amounts (or carbohydrates) without limiting to paleo or no wheat. Being able to nix certain things (like protein shakes, not my thing). I know that you can just refresh, but I'd rather be able to veto som…

Thanks! You can do those things if you create a free account - once your account is set up, you can exclude recipes by ingredients or keywords, as well as customize the layout of meals or create your own meal types (there's a big "Edit week" button in the top right of the planner).

There's a lot of customizability, but it's been a long-time problem of ours figuring out how to make all the options intuitive to find/use without overwhelming the user. If you dig into it any more, let me know if you have any other feedback!

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#66

Post by cthalupa »

girvo wrote: post #62
trynewideas wrote: post #43

If you get nothing else from watching this show, try making your own focaccia. It's a relatively simple bread to make, doesn't require special ingredients or techniques, and bakes in a sheet pan. If you can make brownies, you can make focaccia.

So one of my favourite entrees (in the Australian sense of the word, not the American) is toasted focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip in it; I never made it often because focaccia is quite expensive here. You've just changed my world (and likely made me fat! I kid :P)

>entrees (in the Australian sense of the word, not the American)

Despite traveling pretty extensively, I somehow never noticed this.

For those that are as lost on this as I am, it looks like this is a result from the compression of meals from 5-15 courses down to the more standard 1-3. At the time, entree would not match its current use anywhere in the world - your meal would have both fish and a roast, and the entree would be the course in between the two. Something like chicken, lobster, ragu, etc.

When meals became less elaborate affairs, a lot of food items that would historically be the entree became acceptable to be the main course. In France and much of the English speaking world, to keep what was called the entree more in line with the French meaning of the root word (Apparently, specifically the entrance to a theater or musical performance), it became what Americans would call a starter or appetizer. America and most of Canada instead kept the word in line with the type of food item being consumed, which had shifted the previous pre-roast courses to being the primary course.

And no one uses it how it was originally used in France, to refer to a stage and related set of courses for the dinner, rather than for any one course.

(Sorry for the tangent, but hopefully this clears up the confusion for anyone else reading this)

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#67

Post by markdown »

cthalupa wrote: post #63
markdown wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After you've used it, absolutely. I wouldn't dream of using something I paid for and then demanding money back after I've used the item. > is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product? No, but I feel there's a moral obligation to not ask for your money back for a product you didn't like after using it. This of course doesn't apply if the product is faulty/broken such that it can't be used. Do you do that for oth…

It's not a fiction book you read for entertainment. Books of this nature are meant to be a reference and resource you continue using.

I feel that's beside the point. The vendor can no longer sell it as a new book. You've deprived them of some value, and you refuse to pay for what they've lost.

I feel there's in inherent risk in any trade. You rarely know for certain that you'll love what you're paying for, and you should accept that risk.

One shouldn't feel entitled to 100% satisfaction when one makes a purchase, and certainly shouldn't deprive the vendor of money just because you decided after the fact that you didn't like what you bought.

I suppose this is to be expected from people raised in an environment where multi-billion dollar corporations compete for customers and can afford to offer "just because I didn't like it" returns free of charge.

It's foreign to me.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#68

Post by mc32 »

Nition wrote: post #19
tptacek wrote: post #15

I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine. The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do. The book is better than the show. I have friends t…

In New Zealand that "one cooking book" is the Edmonds Cookery Book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonds_Cookery_Book Tells you all the essentials of how to cook meat and veges and make basic sauces and all that, plus has a whole lot of relatively simple recipes that use common ingredients.

Some of the more basic “the Good Housekeeping Cookbook” earlier editions (50s, 60s) are nice and basic; aren’t flashy, but you get the basics. Rabbit Stew, Gumbo, and 1000 others.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#69

Post by mbesto »

papa_bear wrote: post #27
methodover wrote: post #25

Does anyone know of a cookbook that provides complete meals? The ones I’ve had recommended all assume you kinda know what you want to make. But I want someone else to tell me what to make, and I’ll just put it all together.

It's not really a cookbook, but check out my website https://www.EatThisMuch.com/ You can set it to just one meal if you want (and something like 600 calories) and keep regenerating it until it looks like something you'll like. I started it because I'm terrible at thinking about what I want to eat :)

Thank you for making this...this is incredible! Sent to my sports nutritionist too.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#70

Post by xxpor »

markdown wrote: post #67
cthalupa wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a fiction book you read for entertainment. Books of this nature are meant to be a reference and resource you continue using.

I feel that's beside the point. The vendor can no longer sell it as a new book. You've deprived them of some value, and you refuse to pay for what they've lost. I feel there's in inherent risk in any trade. You rarely know for certain that you'll love what you're paying for, and you should accept that risk. One shouldn't feel entitled to 100% satisfaction when one makes a purchase, and certainly shouldn't deprive the…

>I feel there's in inherent risk in any trade.

And why should the consumer accept that risk and not the vendor?

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