[Sca-cooks] 15th C. Ottoman Bulghur w/Chestnuts

[Lilinah]

Katira wrote:
>That made me laugh! Sometimes the simplest thing gets the most incredible
>praise.  I fixed plain scrambled eggs and had someone ask me what I had done
>to make the best scrambled eggs she had ever tasted.  The secret was just a
>little water to lighten them up, just like my mom used to do.  I also
>sometimes use milk or cream or sour cream but plain water does the job too.

Personally, what one cooks eggs in makes a difference, too.

At many if not most ordinary restaurants these days, they use 
butter-flavored oil. This does not taste like butter. It tastes like 
artificial flavor and it's nasty (in my opinion, of course; others 
may like the taste).

At home, many people use margarine. That, too, is artificially 
flavored, besides often having an unpleasant "mouth feel".

Then there are vegetable oils, which in the US are pretty denatured 
and often rather tasteless. Better i suppose than artificial flavor, 
but certainly doesn't add to the flavor of the eggs. And an awful lot 
of people, at least those whose kitchens i've been in, keep their 
vegetable oil on the counter, often near the stove, where it becomes 
rancid. But if one doesn't realize that's rancid, one may think 
that's how it's supposed to taste.

Or maybe they're used to "Pam"-like spray-on pan lubricants and/or 
non-stick pans (which do "leak" into the foods).

So if someone has mostly been eating eggs cooked in any of the above 
and you used real butter or a good quality fresh oil, they may have 
noticed an improvement in flavor.

And, to keep on yakking, i won't eat at the local Denny's (can't 
speak for others, since i won't eat there) because the eggs taste 
unpleasant - i know it's the eggs themselves because i can taste the 
not-fresh artificially butter flavored oil separately.

So if you used good eggs, and your guest was used to lesser quality 
eggs, that, too, could make a difference.

As i said in a previous long message, the quality of the ingredients 
makes a difference, and the quality stands out especially in simple 
dishes where there aren't a lot of additional ingredients.

Running off at the keyboard again,
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita