Techniques Over Recipes

I rarely use recipes when cooking. Not to say that recipes are bad; they're a good starting point for learning and important for reproducibility. (Speaking of reproducibility, maybe modern scientists could take a page from recipe writers.)

However, recipes can be limiting when they're treated as a series of instructions to follow, like assembling an IKEA couch, rather than ideas to understand. Just do x, y, then z exactly, you don't have to care about the why behind each step. I'd argue a large part of cooking is about creative vision, not just the ability to implement it. But there's a practical argument as well: when I open the fridge after a long day at work (provided it's not like empty), I want to be able to think of a good meal and quickly figure out how to make it, not have to search online for a recipe with the mishmash of ingredients I have.

Cooking has two parts: 1) what ingredients you choose to put together, which is a matter of understanding how flavors work together, and 2) what you do to said ingredients, which is a matter of a relatively limited set of techniques -- e.g. pan searing, sautéing, etc. By learning both, you'll not only be able to understand why a recipe does what it does, but also be able to make great-tasting food, on the fly, by yourself. That is the point of this blog.

Instead of a recipe being viewed as a rigid series of instructions, it can be viewed as a series of fundamental techniques applied in a particular sequence. Once you understand that a recipe is nothing more than a few techniques applied to some ingredients, you can take one recipe and apply it to a multitude of dishes. For instance, steak with asparagus, pork chop with peppers, and salmon with kale are all variations of pan-seared protein + sautéed vegetable.

Focusing on these fundamental techniques and flavor pairings (along with the necessary practice) is how to build true comfort in the kitchen. Dinner goes from "I need to find a recipe that has the ingredients I have" to "What am I in the mood for, and what flavors go together".