[Sca-cooks] Recipe Deal Breakers

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Fri Jun 6 17:12:07 PDT 2008


On Jun 6, 2008, at 7:22 PM, Laureen Hart wrote:

> I have a really low tolerance for "fiddly" cooking.

Does this mean "labor-intensive per unit"?

> Our mate Zillah can spend hours making cookies where you roll and  
> cut 2
> sides, put filling in the middle, and seal the pieces together. She  
> has
> done this for feasts...4 or 5 hours of little fiddly cookies. I can
> barely be brought to roll out a single layer and cut out shapes. Smash
> it in a pan and make bar cookies I say!

Scots shortbread rules!

> I like a good soup/pottage/stew. I am willing to make the base from
> scratch, roast the veggies and meat separately, precook the grain or
> whatever. But if you want it to be decorative, or anything not "hacked
> to gobbetts", I am not your girl. I can be coerced to work on fiddly  
> for
> a feast, but not at home.

50 million or more French grannies throughout history couldn't be  
wrong [about food]... ;-)

> I have nothing but admiration for those of you who make "pretty food"
> since most pretty food is fiddly.


I have what might be regarded as an interesting take on this. I don't  
do pretty food either, not actively, but I used to get raises and  
promotions on the strength of the appearance of my work. It's probably  
fiddly, but I like reasonable attention to be paid to things like  
knife work, stuffed dumplings that don't burst open in cooking, smooth  
sauces where applicable, but it's not because I want it to be pretty;  
it's a way of making it cook evenly, taste better and have a better  
mouth feel. If it's pretty, well, cool, whatever, I have no problem,  
but I'm not doing 600 cute, whimsical little chickadees out of  
starfruit. A fine chiffonade of flat parsley or chervil, OTOH, tastes  
good, feels nice in a bite of food, and, well, yeah, I guess it's  
pretty, too. <shrug>

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter



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