Friday, February 15, 2019

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat- The Book I've been looking for for a long time



My mom was a great cook. It was her hobby and she understood it.

Me? Not so much.

I'm not bad. I mean, I can follow a recipe and it comes out alright. But I often have no idea why one recipe is better than another.

I did read a book that went into very deep detail about baking bread many years ago, and since then, I do bake a good loaf with or without a recipe. And I can glance a a new idea for a loaf of bread and execute it on my own with no problem, because I understand how the ingredients work together. I understand the foundation.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat does this for meal cooking. I got it for my birthday in October and just now finished it (cough, cough, too much Facebook, cough cough). I now understand what salt does to food, how acid works and should be used more than it is, how and what fats to add to improve flavor, and why my meats don't always come out of the oven quite right.

Since starting this book our weekly spaghetti supper has improved in flavor 100%! Just three simple things I've changed: I doubled the water in the big pot (allows the pasta to bump around more, preventing clumping), I add a handful of salt to the water (most will go down the drain afterwards, but the pasta absorbs just enough to skyrocket the flavor), and I add butter to the water before the pasta (improves the flavor, too).

I've also greatly improved how our veggies taste. sometimes its not more salt that needed, but a splash of an acid (such as vinegar).

So all in all, if you cook regularly, you will likely really enjoy this book :-)

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