Techniques #1: Take This With A Grain of Salt

It’s the start of a brand-new week, here in quarantine land. I think we’re finally adjusting to how life is going to be for the next little while. The first week was kind of entertaining and new, almost like a little staycation. Week two was pretty tough, I got pretty down in the dumps and worried about our financial situation and the paranoia about the virus started to creep in. Last week I managed to centre myself and get back to a positive mindset that really helped my outlook. A big part of that was all the great food we got, which allowed me to do a lot of good cooking.

If you haven’t already got the message, I love cooking. It’s my absolute favorite thing to do and I’m happier nowhere than in a well-stocked and well-organized kitchen. I love to produce tasty food for myself and my loved ones. Not just the eating of it, either. I love the whole process; the prep, the cooking, even the cleanup (maybe not SO MUCH the cleanup).

I’ve gotten some wonderful comments and emails from people saying they’ve been inspired to try some of the things I’ve talked about here or learned something they didn’t already know. That’s a great feeling, and I hope you’ll keep commenting and emailing, letting me know what you like and what you’d like to see written about here. It’s a great joy to help spread the knowledge of good food.

Those who have been reading for a while might remember a tips and tricks post I wrote a while back. It listed off some handy things I’ve learnt over the years as a professional cook and chef, some of which I plan to dive deeper into. Already I’ve laid out a two-part pantry list, split into shelf-stable and perishable that puts a great deal of important ingredients at your fingertips. But, what to do with them?

How we turn staple ingredients into amazing dishes? One of my tips was to learn techniques, not recipes. And yet, I’ve provided several recipes here, but I’ve not told you about what I think are the important skills and techniques that every cook should be comfortable with. So, let’s remedy that.

This post will be the first of a series of the most important skills and techniques that you should endeavour to master, if you want to cook better food. For a home cook, getting more comfortable with each of these skills will allow you to cook more confidently and produce higher quality food, without the crutch of recipes. If you master the basic technique, then your own creativity will be allowed to flourish. For professional cooks, these are the most important base skills you need in the industry. So many young cooks come out of culinary school having only done these things once or twice, but still think they’re ready to be chefs. If you cannot confidently say you can do all of these things, you’re not ready to be a chef.

Let’s start with the most basic of all skills:

Seasoning Food Correctly

              This is the number one thing that will take your food from boring and bland to exciting, and it’s as simple as getting comfortable with salt and acid. Get some good quality kosher salt, put it in a crock or a jar so you can cram your fist in there and season with confidence. Taste as you go and don’t fear the salt. There’s a difference between eating a bunch of highly-salted and processed foods versus putting a healthy pinch of salt into your soups or onto your meat before cooking. Your heart will stay healthy and your tastebuds will thank you.

Once you know how to salt, and again this will come only by being conscious and tasting food as you season it, then you must learn WHEN to salt. What are we cooking? A thin minute-steak or veal scallopini? A girthy pork chop, chicken breast or ribeye? A whole chicken, pork loin or a prime rib? All of these items cook differently and thus have different seasoning needs.

While a thin to medium cut of meat can be seasoned just before going into the pan, a bigger or whole cut needs time to absorb the salt so it can permeate to the core, evenly seasoning all the meat. Salting a whole chicken or a roast the night before cooking and leaving it uncovered in the fridge on a rack set over a baking sheet to catch drips not only lets the salt get into the middle of these bigger items, it also helps dry the outside of the food making it easier to get lovely and flavourful browning action when the cooking takes place.

For long cooking soups, stews and braises where reduction takes place, you want to salt lightly or not at all until near the end of cooking. This is due to the fact that the reduction can over-intensify the salt. But once again, don’t be afraid of the salt, just be aware of it.

While we’re at it, a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice will often take the flavour of your food to new heights. When applied at the last minute, this adds brightness and vibrancy to so many dishes. Fish love having lemon juice squeezed over them when they come out of the pan or off the grill. A sprinkle of red wine vinegar in a stew right before you dish up helps cut through all the richness that develops over a long simmering. Remember, a dish is seasoned correctly when it tastes good to YOU and the people you’re cooking for. Don’t let me bully you into over-seasoning for your tastebuds.  Get confident in your seasoning and you’ll be miles ahead of the curve when it comes to good cooking.

One last word on seasoning: salt and pepper are two VERY different things. Salt enhances flavours while pepper is a flavour. While they often go together, it’s worthwhile to remember that they are different things. Where you apply one, you needn’t always apply the other.

I hope this helps you to see just how important and elemental seasoning your food is to the cooking process. Even a salad or a raw dish must be properly seasoned to bring the natural flavours to their peak. Just this one step takes your cooking to the next level and once you’ve mastered it, then the path to great food is open to you.