Love the sentiment behind the post - cooking is great life skill to get good at, but I think the "Essential Gear" is definitely far from "essential" (and maybe this will help the new cook from being too scared of the list). Here's my version of the "minimum viable set": 1. big, sharp knife 2. cutting board 3. wooden spoon 4. pan. IMO, the particularly dispensable: "instant read digital cooking thermometer", "micro-pl…
Actually, that honing rod is very useful to keep that nog big blade serviceable for longer in between sharpening. I do agree with the mvs though bear in mind that having a few of these will greatly speed up cooking times.
Cooking for Founders
41–50 of 75 posts
Re: Cooking for Founders
#42this made me think of what my take on "Cooking for Engineers" would be- roughly based on what I do personally. essential gear would be a chef's knife, a stainless or cast iron pan, a nonstick pan, a large dutch oven, a sous vide circulator w a large bucket, a 10qt instant pot, and a vacuum sealer. learn braising, roasting, sauteeing, and baking (veggies and proteins) whenever you cook something where you can make ext…
I also always loved the tabular layout that included both ingredients and actions in the same format.
e.g. http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/60/The-Classic-Tir...
Re: Cooking for Founders
#43Re: Cooking for Founders
#44The key to understanding roasting is that every cookbook and Google result is lying to you. Roasting doesn't mean just putting something in the oven on high heat, the things you're roasting need to be far enough apart on the tray that there is space for air in between them. Otherwise you're steaming, not roasting. The point of roasting is to make the outside super crispy, while keeping the inside moist and chewy. E.g…
Excess fat won’t steam whatever you’re roasting.
Re: Cooking for Founders
#45This is not good advice, it's just an attempt to cash in on Amazon affiliate links. If you have someone who needs to learn how to quickly, you don't teach them theory, like the different kinds of heat transfer (which this says you should learn, and then names them, and then does not teach you about them). You teach them how to make some basic, healthy things that work with a bunch of ingredients. It's really easy to…
Elon would disagree: "One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to."
https://lifehacker.com/elon-musk-on-learning-new-things-view...
Re: Cooking for Founders
#46this made me think of what my take on "Cooking for Engineers" would be- roughly based on what I do personally. essential gear would be a chef's knife, a stainless or cast iron pan, a nonstick pan, a large dutch oven, a sous vide circulator w a large bucket, a 10qt instant pot, and a vacuum sealer. learn braising, roasting, sauteeing, and baking (veggies and proteins) whenever you cook something where you can make ext…
Skip the nonstick pan and get a "black steel" (high carbon) pan instead. Matfer is a good brand but there are others. Fairly inexpensive, can be seasoned like cast iron, but is much lighter and more responsive. Super response on induction too. These are not pretty cookware but are real workhorses.
Carbon steel cookware is good, too.
Neither is good for cooking acidic sauces for long periods of time, use stainless steel if you need to make a tomato or pan sauce.
Re: Cooking for Founders
#47Re: Cooking for Founders
#48Some good cooking shows. * Matty Matheson - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqH8-BBNTsluhcOzFKWLuw * French Cooking Academy - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0lG3Ihe4LGV851lODRIS5g * Bon Appetit - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpMy0Fg74eXXkvxJrtEn3w * J. Kenji Lopez-Alt - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqJQ_cXSat0KIAVfIfKkVA * Munchies - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaLfMkkHhSA_LaCta0BzyhQ
I'd particularly recommend Kenji. For home cooking I don't know many better at teaching (maybe Chef John from foodwishes.com). He's great at differentiating between the must-haves and the nice-to-haves in recipes, and what the trade-offs involved are. This helps me build intuition, which then helps me with all cooking. Watching Matty Matheson is fun but damn do I feel ill with some of his recipes. They are food porn…
Funny how you can hear written text.
Re: Cooking for Founders
#49This is not good advice, it's just an attempt to cash in on Amazon affiliate links. If you have someone who needs to learn how to quickly, you don't teach them theory, like the different kinds of heat transfer (which this says you should learn, and then names them, and then does not teach you about them). You teach them how to make some basic, healthy things that work with a bunch of ingredients. It's really easy to…
Re: Cooking for Founders
#50Lately I buy a healthy roasted nut butter (pistachio, walnut, pecan etc) and dip it (covered completely) in a mix of hempseeds/shredded-coconut/flaxseeds and eat that with a spoon. I'd buy a non-cookbook that gave me more paleo/AIP/low-lectin food-combinations like that. Or just info on how to make better salads. (I add a lot of fermented foods like pickled red onions lately)
I do sometimes bake a bunch of turkey meatballs and eat those over a couple days - but I've given up on making turkey burgers or chicken. It's just too much work. I'd rather heat up frozen broccoli daily with a side of canned tuna. I really hate cooking, it's a huge time-sink and extremely unenjoyable.