I cant stress enough how important it is to know your recipes. I dont mean just know how to make a particular dish but to know how to make a lot of things and the WHY. Why do you pair up certain things? How can I reapply this? What ingredients do I need, what can be left out if needed? What can be substituted? Can I make an edible product if I only used key items? I say that because while making our yearly contribution to the local pumpkin festival, I had an epiphany. I remember a thread I was reading on another board one time how you cant live off tomato paste and canned pumpkin. While seeing how incredibly simple my wifes's pumpkin cake is, I realized if all I had was canned pumpkin to add to my flour and current egg production, I would have something to eat any time I wished. This being the first time I ever helped her with the baking portion, I never knew how simple the recipe was. I could leave out vanilla, nutmeg, and substitute raw or granulated sugar instead of using powdered. Since I already have a chit load of sugar, flour, and the chickens lay eggs incredibly well, this is one recipe I could make happen even if I have to live off the preps. Gourds grow well up here and we can quite a bit of pumpkin anyway. I can also alter this recipe a bit and make a neat pumpkin bread.
been cookin since i was 5 most times i dont follow a recipe unless its something fancy the trick is knowing what you have and how to use it like feeding 5 people with 1 can of chickennoodle soup, 2 potatoes, a cup of flour and 1 chicken quarter what would you fix to do it?
I regularly feed 5 with a 1 can of pork and beans, 3 hot dogs, 2 restaurant packs of ketchup and 2 of mustard. I can easily sub canned rabbit meat for the hot dog. Little trick I do is when we eat at places that keep their condiment packets out (Chick-Fil-A, Wendys, etc.), we always grab extra and stash them in a tin in our pantry. I fed 5 this morning with 2 potatoes, 6 eggs, 1/2 an onion, 1 small bell pepper. Made Eggs & taters. Feed twice that with a dozen eggs, a whole onion, and a large bell pepper. I can make bread with flour, baking soda, salt and soured powdered milk or powdered buttermilk and water. Irish soda bread is easy as pie. Add raisins, and you have "spotted dick" which is traditionally served as a dessert with honey or treacle. Add raisins, eggs, baking powder, sugar or shortening, and suddenly it's "cake", not "bread." It is that basic. Ratios and cooking times will vary. That is the key. Knowing the ratios and measures, especially and very IMPORTANTLY with baking. Cooking is an art. Baking is an exact science.
Take 5 cups of water and boil down that chicken quarter until it is falling off the bone and the meat is falling apart. Take only the bone out and add in the potatoes (cut up). When the taters are near done add in the soup. Cook all that together and then add in the flour to thicken everything up to a nice stick to yer ribs stew. Toss in a couple handfuls of dried veggies and it will be a great meal.
Cooking is chemistry at its most fundamental but it is also art at its very best! The art of cooking is in the creative process of combining elements to produce a meal that looks, smells, tastes brilliant with a texture that will be appealing when eatingserved at the optimal temperature for consumption. The science of cooking is the art is getting the right combination of chemical constituents (aka ingredients) in the right proportions and processing them in the most appropriate apparatus (aka pots and pans et al) with the application of varying amounts of heat in a variety of cooking environments (aka steaming, frying, broiling, boiling, baking et al) using a variety of techniques. Indeed my kitchen at times looks like a combination of an artist's studio and a scientist's laboratory....I tend to follow a formula for preference when beginning with something new, untried and untested....and once the basic recipe is mastered, I'll do some heuristic experimentation. Most of my failures are due to inattention and getting the proportion of essential ingredients badly wrong. No biggy in contemporary life, but a crimminal waste in an austere environment......even so....some livestock may still find it appealing (unless you have gone insane with the salt) and if all else fails...there's always the worm farm and the compost heap! ; )
momma could feed all 8 of us with a 1/2 lb of beef..... Momma sure made good gravy.... try Squewnup.... left over biscuits a little sugar, cream and coffee.... crumple up the biscuits in a bowl, add the sugar , add coffee and cream to the bowl... enjoy....
flour, salt, water n grease bisquits n gravy in 10 minutes or less bakin powder makes em fluffy and ya get more bisquits but the flat ones fill ya faster....lol
Also knowing what can be substituted for ingredients that aren't on hand is helpful with many recipes.
