Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering The Elements Of Good Cooking Quotes
"Anyone can cook anything and make it delicious."
"Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient."
"Learn to use [salt] well, and your food will taste good."
"Master [salt, fat, acid, heat]...and you will be able to cook delicious food of any kind."
"A well-written and thoroughly tested recipe might tell you how to produce the dish in question, but it won’t teach you anything about how to cook."
"Season food with the proper amount of salt at the proper moment; choose the optimal medium of fat to convey the flavor of your ingredients."
"If food isn’t salted properly, no amount of fancy cooking techniques or garnishes will make up for it."
"Food can only ever be as delicious as the fat with which it’s cooked."
"Without the flavors and textures that fat makes possible, food would be immeasurably less pleasurable to eat."
"While salt enhances flavors, acid balances them."
"Acid grants the palate relief, making food more appealing by offering contrast."
"By acting as a foil to salt, fat, sugar, and starch, acid makes itself indispensable to everything we cook."
"The true value of acid is not its pucker, but rather, balance."
"When something tastes bright and clean, then its acid balance is spot-on."
"The best way to use acid well is to taste, over and over again."
"If something is noticeably sour, it’s probably got too much acid."
"After a long day of cooking in a dry, hot, crowded kitchen, none of us had ever tasted anything so delicious."
"A salad should relieve your palate and leave it clean after rich, muddy foods."
"In order to make the best salad, you have to consider how it fits into the meal."
"Make a rich Thai curry, thick with coconut milk, but precede it with a crunchy, light shaved cucumber salad."
"Since the human body can’t produce certain essential forms of salt, fat, and acid, our palates have evolved to seek these three elements."
"Play to each element’s strengths: use Salt to enhance, Fat to carry, and Acid to balance flavor."
"Let Salt, Fat, and Acid work together in concert to improve anything you eat, whether you cooked it or not."
"Cook every single day. Taste everything thoughtfully."
"There is so much to learn from travel, especially as a young cook: you collect taste memories, understand the flavors of a place, and gain a sense of context."
"Travel offers another extraordinary value, too: watch and learn from cooks around the world, and discover the universality of good cooking."
"Heat is the element of transformation. No matter its source, heat triggers the changes that take our food from raw to cooked, runny to set, flabby to firm, flat to risen, and pale to golden brown."
"Food is primarily made up of four basic types of molecules: water, fat, carbohydrates, and protein."
"Exposure to heat changes foods in many different, but predictable, ways."
"The science of heat, luckily, adheres to common sense."
"When food is weak in flavor, it’s 'watered down.'"
"Water can also be a medium in which we cook other foods."
"As water is heated beyond 212°F, it transforms into steam, another of the kitchen’s most valuable visible cues."
"Fats are flexible; indeed, the broad range of temperatures fats can withstand allows us to achieve many different textures."
"Starches absorb liquid and swell or break down, so firm potatoes become delightfully creamy."
"Heat that’s uneven or too powerful can take food straight past golden delicious to charred."
"Resting gives the proteins in meat a chance to relax."
"Rested meat retains water better after carving, yielding a juicier piece of meat."
"For the most tender slices, cut meat against the grain."
"If you don’t know where to start, start at 350°F, the 'middle C' note of baking."
"Low temperatures offer enough heat to leaven and dry out Marshmallowy Meringues but are also gentle enough to prevent browning."
"Most baked goods prosper with the delicate heat medium-low temperatures offer."
"In contrast, higher temperatures swiftly lead to browning."
"High oven temperatures lead to rapid, though sometimes uneven, browning."
"Use high temperatures when achieving structure quickly is important."
"To achieve the most powerful oven spring, leave the oven door shut for the first 15 to 20 minutes of high-heat baking."
"Think of dehydrating as baking at the lowest possible temperatures."
"My ideal piece of toast is crisp on the surface, golden brown in color, and rich with all of the flavors produced by the Maillard reaction."
"Meats and fish that are rich in fat can be cooked slowly in the oven or on the grill at very low temperatures."
"Slow-Roasted Salmon is luscious and succulent—perfect for serving warm, at room temperature, or chilled in a salad."
"In a convection oven, one or two fans consistently circulate hot air."
"The surface of any food touching hot metal will brown via conduction."
"Flip, rotate, and move roasting foods around in the oven as they cook."
"Taste food as it cooks. Touch it. Smell it. Listen to it."
"Timely salting, combined with the Maillard reaction, leads to perfect roast vegetables."
"Resist the urge to combine vegetables with vastly different sugar, starch, or water contents on a single tray when roasting."
"For even cooking, remember to season roasts in advance."
"Invest in an instant-read meat thermometer for roasting meats."
"Use slightly milder temperatures for foods you expect to leave in the oven for long periods of time."
"Learn to break down the cooking process into chunks so that you can finish cooking delicate things at the time of serving."
"The best cooks I’ve ever met are careful observers."
"Cakes and quick breads develop a golden-brown color and pull away from the sides of a pan."
"Fish will change from translucent to opaque."
"Food should almost always sizzle when it’s added to a pan."
"Nothing is as important to the flavor of a ragù as browning, so take your time with the soffritto and the meat."
"The constantly circulating air of the walk-in—like that of any refrigerator—had dried out the chicken skin, and the birds looked scarily fossilized."
"The beauty of roast chicken is that you can serve it anytime, anywhere."
"Every time I make a decision at the butcher’s counter, a diagram of a flying pig flashes through my mind."
"High on the hog" used to denote wealth, is derived directly from butcher's terminology."
"Remember, overnight is best, but any time sitting with salt is better than none."
"For months after Bill Niman started raising turkeys, he’d bring a couple of birds to us each week at Eccolo."
"Cooking something a hundred times in a single night with total focus will increase your understanding of it a thousandfold."
"I love how this story illustrates the universality of economical cooking."
"As with all of your cooking, find inspiration in produce at the peak of its season."
"The more senses to which your food appeals, the more delight it’ll bring you."
"Every word he said was completely at odds with everything I knew about making biscuits."
"If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a food processor."
"Press plastic wrap onto the top of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming."
"The key, just as he said, is to keep everything ice-cold."
"Add the cream, pumpkin purée, sugar, salt, and spices to the bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine."
"Pour the custard mixture into the frozen shell."
"Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F."
"Allow to cool on a wire rack for an hour before slicing."
"Serve with Tangy Whipped Vanilla, Cinnamon, or Caramel Cream."
"Cooking is a language, through which one can express harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humor, provocation, and culture."
"The art of cooking lies not in its technique but in its philosophy."
"Ingredients are not just parcels of flavor, but messengers of a deeper connection to the soil, the sea, and the season."
"Every dish tells a story, weaving together the threads of tradition, innovation, and personal memory."
"In the kitchen, intuition and imagination walk hand in hand with precision and discipline."
"Food is the ultimate diplomat, bridging cultures, evoking shared memories, and creating new ones."
"Cooking is both an act of love and a means of communication, connecting us to the world and to each other."
"The true essence of cooking is to bring out the best in each ingredient, creating harmony on the plate."
"A recipe is a starting point, an idea to be interpreted, not a set of rules to be followed blindly."
"The kitchen is a laboratory, where curiosity leads to discovery, and discovery leads to joy."