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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

#91

Post by acomjean »

ilamont wrote: post #11

I started to watch the video series set in Italy featuring the author. I agree with the premise, thought a few scenes were interesting (particularly the butcher and harvesting olives in the first episode), but just couldn't get into the cooking and dining scenes ... too heavy on the "food porn" and too light on the "whys" of what they are doing. They just do something, and people are mostly left to their imaginations…

I watched the first episode. I really liked it and will watch the the rest shortly.

Her enthusiasm about food was pretty contagious. And it was interesting. If there is a complaint, its a little light on the how-to (it isn't "america's test kitchen), and it needed a little more content for the length. I found it interesting to see the Italian attitude to food and also found the "olives" and butcher interesting (as well as the pesto segment..).

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

#92

Post by Cd00d »

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 creating this.

Some feedback / feature requests: My family is 4 - a 4 yr old and a 1 yr old in the mix. They eat what we eat.

So, I put in one meal for 1800 calories, which is roughly dinner for two adults and half dinner for two toddlers. Ideally, one adult would have enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

The main results I got included egg dishes or oatmeal, so very breakfast heavy. The option to choose meal type would be great!

Planning our family dinners is a significant friction point in our lives - we have a very difficult time thinking about what we will want, getting the food ordered (we primarily do grocery delivery), and getting it on the table quickly (we pick the kids up from care at 6, do the playground, and then quick cook to try to have family dinner 7-730. This resource has so much potential to remove or minimize that friction and I really appreciate it!

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

#93

Post by acomjean »

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.

platejoy? Well its not technically a cookbook, but...

Its a y combinator company and does meal planning online. If you have some diet restrictions its useful. I does seem to grocery list/ knows what you should have in stock (digital pantry based on your shopping list). We've been using it a couple years now (after dealing with the overflowing vegetables from a CSA) and its been good. Lost a little weight too.

[1]https://www.platejoy.com/

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

#94

Post by somberi »

tptacek wrote: post #87
billfruit wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In India that single cookbook would be 'Modern Cookery' by Thankam E Philip.

I clicked around in the Amazon previews and Modern Cookery reads a lot like "New Pro Chef", the Culinary Institute textbook.

Indian here, who loves to cook.

I do not know the book the GP mentions about, but the best cookbooks happen to be in languages of the region of India, where the food is consumed. If you can find the English translations of these, that is your best bet. The other option is to buy regionally produced (often no photos, poor print) english books. You need to roll with the ingredients being called as-is, and need to repurpose it.

One such popular book, which has been in print for 65 years, is called "Samaithu Paar" (Loosely "Try to cook"). The original book was in Tamil, but Penguin has published an extract of sorts in English - https://penguin.co.in/book/non-fiction/the-best-of-samaithu-...

On the second school of "poorly produced, but in English" variety, at least for South Indian cooking, I suggest the books of Mallika Badrinath. https://www.amazon.in/Books-MALLIKA-BADRINATH/s?ie=UTF8&page...

Having read a few "award winning" Indian cookbooks, they are largely food-porn variety of books, and I find them bulky and of little use.

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

#95

Post by zhte415 »

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…

For the OP to have returned the book, the vendor must have accepted the book for returns.

By providing a returns policy, the vendor is presumably able to generate increased trust and provide sufficient value by doing so, as a customer may not have made the purchase at all without a returns policy.

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

#96

Post by Cd00d »

sincerely wrote: post #79
cantrevealname wrote: post #46

Has anyone else noticed that there has been a massive surge in cooking books, videos, and shows in the last 10-15 years? Especially on TV, it's wall to wall cooking shows. I remember that cooking was a big interest 20-25 years ago, but it seems so much bigger now. Anyone have any theories about why this may be, or if my impression is wrong? My own theory is that many more men are into cooking nowadays, so the market…

Alton Brown talked about this in his Hot Ones interview but basically Food Network became insanely popular directly after 9/11, as a sort of apolitical escape from the real world.

Interesting. The latest season of Serial claims that cooking shows are what's on the tvs in the waiting rooms for courts (in Cleveland) because they're so apolitical.

Makes sense, I guess.

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

#97

Post by billfruit »

somberi wrote: post #94
tptacek wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I clicked around in the Amazon previews and Modern Cookery reads a lot like "New Pro Chef", the Culinary Institute textbook.

Indian here, who loves to cook. I do not know the book the GP mentions about, but the best cookbooks happen to be in languages of the region of India, where the food is consumed. If you can find the English translations of these, that is your best bet. The other option is to buy regionally produced (often no photos, poor print) english books. You need to roll with the ingredients being called as-is, and need to repur…

Thangam Phillip is not like the typical food-porn Indian cookbook, it is a two volume encyclopediatic book which she wrote in the early years of independent India, originally to assist the nascent hospitality Industry.

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

#98

Post by knight17 »

amb23 wrote: post #29

If we're on the topic of how to cook rather than just what to cook: I just got A New Way to Dinner (a cookbook from Food52) earlier this summer and have been using it religiously pretty much every week since. It's a strategy guide on how to prep all your food on the weekend and have diverse meals throughout the week. You basically do 1-3 hours of cooking on the weekend to make the components for your dishes, and then…

Thank you for mentioning it. It is a useful way to organise a book for busy people who wants to cook. I found this aspect of the book interesting and searched for some reviews and found this critique of its ingredient list; that it is expensive:

>>> ... seem unaware of their privilege ... ask you to buy near industrial quantities of certain expensive ingredients. Worse, there’s often no suggestion as to alternatives if the budget cannot quite stretch to a kilo of black raspberries ... painfully unconscious of this element to their book ... an expressly upper middle class lifestyle cookbook. [] I usually discount criticisms of privilige but in this case of a cookbook it seems to be synonymous with expensive.

[] http://cookthesebooks.com/a-new-way-to-dinner-amanda-hesser-...

Anyone know of other books or resources along similar lines?

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

#99

Post by peterwwillis »

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.

Go to MapCrunch, click "Go", copy location into Google Maps, look for "restaurants", pick a restaurant, look for menu, select an entree that looks good, and put it together.

I got Perth, Australia, found a restaurant, found the menu, and found this entree: "Chicken Breast filled with Camembert Cheese & Spinach. Served with Mediterranean Vegetables, Pear potatoes, Broccolini & Sun-Dried Tomato Coulis".

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