What are “The Basics”?
Hello again! Hope everyone had a great long weekend. While spending time with my kids I got to thinking that I should make sure they know the basics of cooking. What are the basics? Everyone has his/her own opinion about what the basics might be. I think that knowing how to make simple things so you don't starve is basic. I'm not talking about putting bread in the toaster. I mean cooking eggs, steaming rice and veggies or cooking meat. You don't take the rice cooker or the toaster on a campout. Knowing the basics is knowing what to do when you don't have all the fancy appliances that are considered normal in today's world.
The basics of cooking are different in every culture. Each culture has things in common as well as things that are unique. In my culture, knowing how to cook eggs, steam rice, boil pasta, saute vegetables, stew chicken and peas, and making some kind of bread are all basic.
What are the basics in your culture and have you discovered any new things that you didn't think you needed to know but have turned out to be important?
16 thoughts on “What are “The Basics”?”
Well, I still don’t really know the basics in cooking. I mean, sure, I can cook, but it probably won’t taste any better than decent.
I think the basics of cooking are knowing how to make at least one dish from the food groups, including how to steam vegetables, use the oven with confidence AND caution, time cooking different things so they finish together, and basically know how to put together one proper meal.
The basics in my culture is definitely knowing how to make rice,knowing to make spicy dishes. I actually got lazy onetime and tried to skip adding some of the spices while I cooked, but i learned that if i got lazy I will only end up with a weird tasting chicken!
Knowledge of the basics of chemistry is essentials to cooking, the two are quite similar.
Tea and roti are definitely basic.
How to heat water
Making eggs, rice, and tea are the three pretty basic things i need to know. For actually cooking meals, i guess the most basic, first step that i had no idea i needed to know was chopping and frying onions. yeah i think thats pretty much it
My family is a cooking family, I’m the only exception. In my culture knowing how to make perogies “vareniki”, a soup called “borsch”, and a punch type drink called “uzvar” is something that everyone must love and know how to prepare.
I’m a big fan of perogies and I enjoy borsch. What’s in “uzvar”?
Frying onions as well as garlic and ginger brings out the flavour, it makes a big difference in taste.
Very true.
Yes but most people don’t think in that way. Perhaps you can give them a few examples of kitchen chemistry. I bet they’ll be surprised at what they know.
I agree, there’s no room for laziness in the kitchen. If you want to make something good you can’t cut corners. if it’s half hour or ten minutes, you should put in 100%.
I think you’ve got it covered.
Chemistry is behaviour of matter, it’s reaction to other matter and the subsequent transformation, that is quite similar to cooking.
*essential (correcting a typo in my previous comment)
It’s like punch but with dried fruits inside, (they usually remain inside). Uzvar is served during Christmas (January 7th) but during the year it’s fine too. Below is a recipe if you are interested:
http://www.food.com/recipe/ukrainian-dried-fruit-compote-uzvar-77529