“Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.” - Marcel Boulestin
Intending to blog at least once a week, the level of my frustration with certain cooking quirks deflated my sense of purpose in blogging about food. Namely, that I don't measure. I can't follow recipes so I no longer bother. I crave accuracy, so my lack of measuring seems a bit of a deviation. But to me, measuring ingredients often muddles the accuracy of the flavor of the dish. We are trying to capture a certain sentiment, often a memory, often creation of a new memory that feels familiar.
Measurements are good--they allow us to accurately reproduce a certain flavor. They allow us to transfer that flavor, that dish from one to another, and the passing and revisions reflect the giver and receiver and on the dish goes until it becomes iconic. But it is the revisions and modifications and personalizations that make it iconic. It is the lack of measurements, not the presence of measurements. It is like music--the structure is needed but it must be dressed with something that cannot be taught or quantified--with soul and passion and that natural "it"ness.
A friend, who was teasing me for my inability to measure when I cook, said that if it's not repeatable it's only a whim.
Which made me realize. I can measure. Just not by standardized measurements. I measure by feel, sight, and taste. I eyeball, taste, smell, EVERYTHING. I can't follow a written recipe because as I'm reading I'm anticipating the color, texture, temperature, flavor, and I always know what I want to add, remove, increase or decrease. I know if I want to change a technique.
But when I make a dish, I remember how. And I can recreate the flavor. So it is repeatable, just maybe not transferable in the traditional sense. I say traditional sense because I have been able to show friends and they've been able to repeat the same dish. And folks will give me their ideas and ask for help, and we can walk through it together.
I will try to learn how to measure. And when you ask me questions, I will even go and get flour or water and eyeball and dump into a measuring device if we need to go that far.
So....starting today, I'm going to post the "recipes" I have--without measurements. Hopefully, they will inspire you to stretch and reach for flavors, techniques, styles that are yet to be yours. And hopefully, you will help me learn and grow and understand your own, too.
Happy eating!
Intending to blog at least once a week, the level of my frustration with certain cooking quirks deflated my sense of purpose in blogging about food. Namely, that I don't measure. I can't follow recipes so I no longer bother. I crave accuracy, so my lack of measuring seems a bit of a deviation. But to me, measuring ingredients often muddles the accuracy of the flavor of the dish. We are trying to capture a certain sentiment, often a memory, often creation of a new memory that feels familiar.
Measurements are good--they allow us to accurately reproduce a certain flavor. They allow us to transfer that flavor, that dish from one to another, and the passing and revisions reflect the giver and receiver and on the dish goes until it becomes iconic. But it is the revisions and modifications and personalizations that make it iconic. It is the lack of measurements, not the presence of measurements. It is like music--the structure is needed but it must be dressed with something that cannot be taught or quantified--with soul and passion and that natural "it"ness.
A friend, who was teasing me for my inability to measure when I cook, said that if it's not repeatable it's only a whim.
Which made me realize. I can measure. Just not by standardized measurements. I measure by feel, sight, and taste. I eyeball, taste, smell, EVERYTHING. I can't follow a written recipe because as I'm reading I'm anticipating the color, texture, temperature, flavor, and I always know what I want to add, remove, increase or decrease. I know if I want to change a technique.
But when I make a dish, I remember how. And I can recreate the flavor. So it is repeatable, just maybe not transferable in the traditional sense. I say traditional sense because I have been able to show friends and they've been able to repeat the same dish. And folks will give me their ideas and ask for help, and we can walk through it together.
I will try to learn how to measure. And when you ask me questions, I will even go and get flour or water and eyeball and dump into a measuring device if we need to go that far.
So....starting today, I'm going to post the "recipes" I have--without measurements. Hopefully, they will inspire you to stretch and reach for flavors, techniques, styles that are yet to be yours. And hopefully, you will help me learn and grow and understand your own, too.
Happy eating!
I tried to figure out how to do the Mobile Blogging to upload my photos. Yeah, that did not work...
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