Learning the Language
I never understood it when someone told me that they can’t cook. I thought it was simple - you find a recipe and follow the directions. Easy, right? Not so, according to this article in the Washington Post.
At Kraft Foods, recipes never include words like “dredge” and “sauté.” Betty Crocker recipes avoid “braise” and “truss.” Land O’ Lakes has all but banned “fold” and “cream” from its cooking instructions. And Pillsbury carefully sidesteps “simmer” and “sear.”
When the country’s top food companies want to create recipes that millions of Americans will be able to understand, there seems to be one guiding principle: They need to be written for a nation of culinary illiterates.
For those who need some help, try these sites:
Cooking Glossary - a small list of common cooking terms with definitions.
The Cook’s Thesaurus - information (with photos) about ingredients and cooking tools. It includes information about measurements and substitutions where appropriate.
Food Network Cooking Guides - includes tips, food handling safety, temperature conversions, and measurements.
With the help of those sites maybe more novice cooks can avoid problems like these:
At a conference last December, Stephen W. Sanger, chairman and chief executive of General Mills Inc., noted the sad state of culinary affairs and described the kind of e-mails and calls the company gets asking for cooking advice: the person who didn’t have any eggs for baking and asked if a peach would do instead, for example; and the man who railed about the fire that resulted when he thought he was following instructions to grease the bottom of the pan — the outside of the pan.