August 1, 2006
View Comments | Post CommentKooky Kitchen Behaviours
In an episode of "Sex and the City," Carrie Bradshaw expounds her theory of SSB--Secret Single Behaviour--a set of habits that individuals engage in when they're not in the company of their significant (or pseudo-significant) others.
It spurred my thinking about unusual kitchen behaviours. Those of us who are familiar with the whole cooking routine have probably developed certain kitchen behaviours that we've either imbibed from the kitchen masters we've learned from or that we've developed on our own over the years. These behaviours, or at least some of them, would likely remain under wraps in the company of others or in other kitchens.
When I was growing up, my father was my culinary guru. He always espoused the theory of not wasting food, as much as possible and even stretched this concept to getting the most from all his cooking ingredients. For instance, if a ketchup bottle or a can of tomato puree was on its last leg, Dad didn't throw it away. Oh no. He'd fill it just so with enough water and shake the ketchup bottle to lifelessness or get me to rub all the puree goodness out of the can with my finger. Then he'd add it to whatever he was making. To this day, I still do this and have found that it's almost an art, trying to get as much thai chilli sauce out of the bottle as possible.
Along this line of thinking, Dad always believed in reusing cooking oil and I've found that doing so lends a very interesting, rich flavour to the dish, considering it harbours the fatty goodness of pork and mutton and god knows what else. An exception would be reusing oil that's been used to fry fish. The remaining oil has a terribly strong fishy smell that's not always pleasing, and can only be used to fry fish in the future which is limiting, and hence not worth the effort of reserving.
Over the years, I've developed my own precious few KKB. As much as possible, I will try to not wash a pan. Unless a pan is smeared in a sauce that will crust over if subjected to repeat heating. Otherwise, a pan will be used at least a handful of times before being washed and my roommate and I have found that whatever we cook in it, picks up the cumulative residual flavours of what's been cooked in it before. Delightful.
My kookiest kitchen behaviour by far, would have to be my vocal stylings. Roommates and friends know that I hum and sometimes I'll actually sing all-out. Not terribly unusual. But it's my full-on stream-of-consciousness monologue creation that I will never display in front of anybody ever. There I'll be, chopping away with fervour, while reciting some spontaneous piece of dialogue that I make up as I go along, perfecting the expression and cadence just so. Strange, I know.
You got any KKB you'd like to share? Do tell.
Posted by Natasha D'Souza at August 1, 2006 3:14 PM | Comments (8) |
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When I am cooking completely alone, my ingredients often act out scenes while being made into dinner. The chicken might courtsey to the rosemary, before diving into the dry rub or continuing to converse with the butter. The marjoram is a bitch, but that molassas is a real conversationalist, where as no one can understand a thing that the edam cheese says, what with that accent.
Posted by: shiftlessbadger at August 1, 2006 4:20 PM
I do the "shake water in the crushed tomato/chilli/sauce container" thing as well!
Another thing that I do at times is run a commentary on what I'm doing. I find this helps me when I'm making more complicated dishes.
Posted by: E :) at August 1, 2006 4:40 PM
Oh, I never reuse pans without washing. I don't have any cast iron, otherwise I'd consider it. But I wash even between items in a single meal.
Fishy oil definitely can't be reused, but I will reuse oil otherwise, assuming that it isn't too inundated with fallen bits of batter or breading.
I have an odd distrust of dishwashers. If someone wants me to use a dishwasher, I will basically clean everything, then put it into the dishwasher and run the dishwasher cycle. I just don't try the magic that goes in inside the dishwasher to get things clean the way that I can manually. I like dishwashers, I just find them insufficient for cleaning. And I don't do as good of a job on the dishes if I'm putting them into a dishwasher afterward anyway.
I cook with a lot of butter. Even if I need to add a lot of butter (say, 3 or 4 tablespoons) to a pan, I almost never just dump the butter in and let it melt. Instead, I cut it into very thin slivers and put those into the pan. I think this started when I was cooking with high heat, and didn't want some of the butter burning before some of it was melted, but I always do it now, no matter what temperature I'm using.
I am very forgetful, so while cooking anything remotely time sensitive, I will keep my small kitchen timer in my pocket, and set it for all sorts of things. Like, I'll leave a pan to simmer, set the timer for 1 minute, put it into my pocket, and go do something else. It means there is constantly a beeping noise emanating from the kitchen when I cook.
Posted by: Barzelay at August 1, 2006 8:48 PM
Oh, and when I'm cooking chicken, I end up washing my hands like every 30 seconds, because I am super careful about getting raw chicken on anything.
Also, I go through like half a roll of paper towels per meal.
Posted by: Barzelay at August 1, 2006 8:49 PM
Thank you new commentators and keep the comments coming. Oh what fun KKB can be!
David, I think the appropriate acronym for your kitchen behaviours would be OCD. I have found that mixing a little bit of oil with butter enables it cook at a higher temperature without burning--just a little tip.
Posted by: Natasha D'Souza at August 1, 2006 10:17 PM
Oh, I'm not that bad about it. Only when handling raw chicken while juggling other dishes.
Posted by: Barzelay at August 2, 2006 2:18 AM
You can always just use clarified butter when cooking at higher temperatures.
Posted by: Adam Rugg at August 2, 2006 3:21 AM
According to Wolfgang Puck, sometimes not washing pans during meal preparation helps the flavors intermingle between dishes. He likes to cook steak on the same pan that he then cooks potatoes or something similar on - so that the potatoes gain some of the flavor from the steak... I've never tried it myself, so I cannot comment on the effect.
I believe that Dustin Hoffman's character in Meet the Fockers refrains from pan washing, as well...
Posted by: Cara Bohon at August 2, 2006 4:10 PM
