Written by adam on Jun 23, 2006
Learning From Our Cooking Mistakes
Filed Under: Tips
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Tonight I've been writing a review on this new cookbook, Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis, and I keep thinking about a topic that's been on my mind lately. This new books is marketed as a "help you be a better home cook" type of recipe collection, and I always think that screwing up royally is one of the ways we all become better cooks. That is, screwing up and learning from that screw up makes us better.
Boy, I've done some doozies in my day. I've given my family bloody burgers, burnt chili, and made gooey cornbread. She's going to kill me for this, but a few months ago, my wife forgot to put the sugar in a chocolate cake. Next the the chocolate, it's the most important ingredient. But it happens.
You can put al the recipes in face, force me to watch 96 hours of Julia Child reruns, and make me listen to the Joy of Cooking on audio tape, but the only person who ever taught me to check the meat before I serve it to my guests is me.
When I was dating my first love, I had her and my parents over for dinner in my tiny one-bedroom apartment and made them steak burgers ... fresh out of the skillet. I was so proud of myself that I didn't pay attention to my cooking, nor did I check the meat before plating up. When they cut into the meat, blood just poured out of the burgers and onto everything on their plates. I was so embarrassed.
But I learned from that experience, and my burgers have been perfect ever since. in fact, I was so embarrassed that day, I have been very obsessive-compulsive about the doneness of my burgers. But such is life. Think Julia Child was a perfect cook 100% of the time? Heck, even Giada has her bad days.
Lots of us food bloggers are not professional chefs or have any sort of training whatsoever. We cook for the love of the craft and it's fruits. We make mistakes, we screw up. It's how we learn to do better. We might ruin a meal or embarrass ourselves, but it sure beats the hell out of getting verbally abused by Gordon Ramsay.
Leave a comment and share your major screw-ups in the kitchen. You know you have 'em.
Responses to "Learning From Our Cooking Mistakes" ...
I've been learning to cook for about two years now and I've been able to avoid any MAJOR screwups (except for that time I set the oven on fire...)
I have however had a lot of meals that turned out to be, shall we say, less than a raving success. I make lots of notes in the margins of my cookbooks about what went wrong and how to modify the recipe to make it better the next time.
I also NEVER serve anything to guests that I have not already been successful with at least once before. It's like that rule about demos and presentations: Don't demo anything you have not already done before.
I am also one of those Type-A personalities that if something did not go well, I tend to work on it until I am satisfied. Tonight's crab-stuffed mushroom caps are a perfect example. Just not 'crabby' enough. Gotta work on that...
Well, now I have something to share as of this morning. I made lemon bars out of Kitchen Sense and against my better judgement, didn't grease or line the pan with parchment paper. The recipe had no instructions whatsoever for how to prep the pan -- oh how I should have known! They are good but nearly IMPOSSIBLE to remove from the pan. :(
adam
You need a pastry scraper! :)
Donna
Was that me or yo that substitued tablespoons for teaspoons of salt in the oatmeal cookies?
Alicat
dude -- I am so going to try it -- but that sumabitch is really stuck good. so.
Since winter of 2004, I have been exploring the world of cooking and helping out my fellow men in their quests to better themselves in the kitchen. My name is Adam Byrd, you can learn more about me and my mission on my