[Sca-cooks] Sugar beets

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> One of the things I was taught, late in life (because my mom stopped
> having time to teach me to cook after I was about 13), was that a
> *small*, i.e. _spice_, quantity of sugar or salt can fix a flavor blend
> that isn't meshing, because both are flavor intensifiers. I still do
> this, and find that the spices of sugar and salt are definitely among
> those that can improve a spice blend.

There's a difference between a wee dab, and changing the flavor to sweet
and/or salty. I use a bit of sugar or salt (or cinnamon or a few other
things) myself.What I'm objecting to is the thought train, that if a bit is
good, more is better, as a sunstitute for good and knowledgeable cooking.

I'm remembering a particularly blatant example, where, in a recipe calling
for fresh spinach, the cook used frozen, and lots of the dark sesame oil,
rather than a touch of the light. When this didn't work to provide a
flavorful dish, they added sugar- lots of it.

I love spinach, and I am very tolerant of variations in cooking it, but this
stuff was downright nasty- worse even, than canned spinach <shudder>.

There are various techniques for improving the flavor of foods, and salt and
sugar are both very useful tools in your kit. But adding lots of any simple
substance is not going to bring a food to its optimum flavor, any more than
using a socket wrench to smash a nut on the end of a screw is going to
tighten the nut properly. You may peen it over, and make sure it doesn't
fall off, but that doesn't help bring the rest of the contraption to the
proper tension ;-)

It's a matter of balance, and of proper technique, and imbalance and
improper technique is what I object to.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



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