PASSIONATE RATIONS

(From prior posts, you know I’m embarking on a tour through James Peterson’s Cooking. This post relates to that adventure.)

Mr. Peterson begins his Cooking tome with an intro to what he terms the “ten basic cooking methods:” roasting, braising, poaching, sautéing, steaming, frying, grilling, smoking, barbecuing, and boiling. This struck me as pretty basic, but—as I should know from dancing—it never hurts to revisit basics.

And it turns out I learned a lot. To wit, the following:

I had no idea what “braising” meant. I always thought of braising as related to grilling. The fault for that goes, I suppose, to the word “brazier,” which typically means the equipment in which food is exposed to heat through a wire grill. Gotta love the English language. But “braising” actually means—are you ready for this?—simmering foods in small amounts of liquid (as with stews). I now stand duly corrected.

Also, I had never heard the term “court bouillon,” though I now understand it’s been around for centuries. It refers, apparently, to vegetable bouillon, used most often in modern times to prepare fish. I have no idea why it has garnered such a royal appellation. Early on, it was apparently an expensive sort of preparation, so that could explain it. More likely it’s the bastardization of a French word.

The word “sauté” on the other hand, clearly derives from the French. From “sauter,” “to jump,” (analogize to tossing small items in the pan). Wonder why I never looked up that meaning?

And, I learned this in response to my long- and oft-asked question about whether to start stock with warm or cold water: Peterson’s rule for broths is to start with cold water to avoid cloudiness and ensure the fats, etc. float at the top for easy skimming (there are, of course, exceptions—as when you don’t want a small item to overcook while the water heats up.)

I take issue with one thing he mentions in this intro. He asserts that both gas grilling and a fire made with charcoal briquettes impart the same sort of grilled flavor.

We’ll have to see about that, Mr. Peterson. We’ll have to see…