"How to Boil Water" Cookbook?

Parent Cafe
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<p>When I was in college, I lived on hard-boiled eggs and Lipton cup-a-soup. I think my H married me just to feed me.</p>

<p>My mom is a scratch cook, but never liked help in the kitchen. I knew how to boil eggs, and make porkchops with scalloped potatoes. (Spray a casserole dish with Pam. Thinly slice potatoes and layer in casserole dish with onions, pats of butter, salt and pepper and a spoonful of flour per layer. Lay porkchops on top. Sprinkle also with the above. Pour milk over whole thing until you can see it coming about half-way up the side of the casserole dish. Bake at 350 for an hour or so. My mom never measured anything, so this is the kind of recipe I got from her.) </p>

<p>When I got married, I thought the only way to cook was to spend half the day at the grocer and half the day in the kitchen. (I didn’t know how to cook, but I did know how to read.) Then we would go out to eat that evening, because I would have burned or ruined whatever I was trying to make. (My H, bless him, would eat anything and say it was wonderful. But he had to take me out somewhere or I would starve.) It didn’t help that the thermostat in our apartment oven was off, and it took awhile to figure that out. So my family’s joke inevitably became, “Binx’s favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations.”</p>

<p>I did become a pretty good cook, but never learned to like doing it. I do get a lot of calls - mainly from my sisters and my oldest S - about how to make something. Every family gathering is held at my house, because I don’t get all uptight about entertaining. If I need help from Sam’s, my identity isn’t destroyed. But my favorite recipes are still the ones that are instant or nearly so.</p>

<p>I have a lovely chicken-noodle casserole recipe that is a family favorite (that I can’t do from memory, and I am writing this in California - where, by the way, I don’t care for the food. My Swedish/German roots can’t handle all these spices!) However, in a pinch, I can produce nearly the same results following the directions on a packet of Lipton chicken-flavored noodle mix, and throwing in a can of cooked chicken.</p>

<p>All those recipes that say they take 30 minutes (or whatever) never do for me. Takes me forever to prepare the food (run to the store to buy the thing I forgot the first time) and clean up. I find it harder to go to the trouble now that our family has shrunk. I will never be a foodie.</p>

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<p>As a product of mixed cultures, I have and I sure that you too have noticed that different cultures have a different method of cooking foods. Do you know why? </p>

<p>Anthropologically, cooking methods, could easily be a ph’d, master thesis or a capstone shortened project for a dedicated student. The Globalization of cultures will blurr cooking distinctions within the next couple of generations resulting in complete fusion of styles and much will be forgotten. </p>

<p>Suggested titles:
Relative cooking fuel abundence to method of food cooking.
Development of the POT in method of cooking.
(the Cannibal cooking the intrepid European explorer in a metal or clay pot nevered happened-they were roasted )
Intoduction of Metal for cooking. (stir fry)
Two great pasta nations: Why Instant Noodles developed in Japan rather than Italy.
Boiling Water: Development of the Lid
Boiling Water: Stove Development
Boiling Water: Better to Boil in a little water or a lot water. That is the question?
Boiling Water: Salt in water to cook faster or not.
Boiling Water: To Black Pot or Shiny Pot
Boiling Water: Stir the Pot.
Boiling Water: Watch the Pot.
Boiling Water: To Boil or to Simmer.
Boiling Water: Fuel efficiency Boil or Simmer.
Boiling Water: Slow boil or Fast Boil
Boiling Water: Who is better: Men or Women
Boiling: Who comes to boil faste, Men or Women?
Boiling: Denuding of the landscape and cooking methods.
Why boil 12 oz water to cook a 3 oz egg? </p>

<p>I’ve been think of these questions far too long (30+ years) and I wish someone would do some scholarly work.</p>

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<p>Ha ha ha. You might enjoy U of C’s yearly conference: the great Latke/Humantoshen (sp?) where scholars deliver pseudo-papers from their disciplines about this topic. Said research has been published in book form.</p>

<p>Also, cooking is center of very sophisticated anthropological argument – Claude Levi-Straus’ THE RAW AND THE COOKED which argues that cooking separates nature from culture.</p>

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<p>Oh, in my family there were many mock-epic battles between Litvok and Galiciana branches of the family which argued basic and profound questions such as “Salt or sugar on potato latkes?” Tempers ran high, I can tell ya!</p>

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<p>ROTFL!</p>

<p>There are currently two books on the market about how sushi conquered the world. There’s another book on Spice. And let’s not forget that Christopher Columbus was not interested in the New World. He wanted to get to India and the Spice Islands.
What would Western cuisine be without pepper, cane sugar; cinnamon; ginger and other spices? Don’t even want to think about it.</p>

<p>And wasn’t it Swift who wrote about battles fought over which end of the egg should be up? In my French childhood, it was the smaller end; in England, apparently, it was the bigger one.</p>

46

<p>Well, they did do some research on the generational tried and true method of cooking a roast. </p>

<p>Wife “Why are you cutting the ends off the roast before you put it in the oven?”</p>

<p>Husband: “Because that’s the way my mom did it?”</p>

<p>Son calls mom and asks why she cut the ends of the roast. Mom replies" Well, that’s the way my mom did it."</p>

<p>Mom calls her mom and asks “Mom, why do you cut the ends off the roast before you cook it?”</p>

<p>Mom answers: “because the roast was always too big for my pan.”</p>

<p>On another note, sent my son off to his apartment with a george forman grill and freezer bags filled with individual portions of steak, burgers and chicken. He and his friends “love me very much.”</p>

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<p>mythmom, when I was an ER doctor friends/family of skinny heart attack victims would often ask how this could happen to someone “in such good shape.” A daily pound of pasta doesn’t scare me with an active teen boy but the habit formation part does!</p>

<p>Don’t want to be a killjoy but the number of type II diabetics I’m seeing under the age of 12 scares me. These kids are sugar addicts. Their educated mothers tell me they eat no sugar, just healthy foods like pasta, bread, rice, and tons of fresh fruit.</p>

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<p>UCgradmary, Those moms probably have no idea of how much those kids are getting outside of the home.<br>
When mine were growing up, we had some candies and cookies around the house, but they weren’t treated as forbidden fruit and in general we used them sparingly, as treats. They had some friends who weren’t allowed these foods, and when they’d come over they’d act like addicts. “Hey, can we have some candy?” “Can we have some cookies?” would be the first things out of their mouths. </p>

<p>One day, when they were out playing in the backyard, I came into the kitchen and one of the friends had come into the house, opened the pantry, and was eating our food!</p>

<p>One of my kids friends was always very skinny growing up. His mom was very conscientious about his food- no sweets, low fat everything, the whole bit. Now he’s in college and has become very fat. Don’t know what happened, whether his body was so used to NOT having that kind of food, when he started eating it he just blew up? Or the lifetime of being deprived of treats has now caused him to “make up for lost time?” I don’t know…</p>

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<p>Starch converts into sugar; fruits contain a lot of sugar as well. This is what I think UCgradmary was trying to convey. It’s not enough, in other words, to ban candies, cakes and soft drinks. One also has to consider the sugar and salt contained in unprocessed fruits, vegetables and starch.</p>

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<p>Yes Marite, many don’t understand that carbs are sugar. Even too much of a complex carb like fruit is not a good thing. A glass of OJ in the AM is poison for lots of kids when had alone.</p>

<p>I’m not advocating low fat everything, it’s clear that doesn’t work for most. I giggle when I see a fridge with low fat mayo and 3 types of low fat cheese.</p>

<p>I love how the French eat, or used to before fast food arrived. Small portions of real foods.</p>

<p>We’re having 4 cheese lasagna tonight:)!</p>

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<p>Hard cheese has a lot of calcium which is good for you. I’d stay away from soft cheese. </p>

<p>

Have you been to France around Christmas/New Year and their 9-course meal, I couldn’t walk after that.:)</p>

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<p>UCgradmary: I do appreciate you taking the time to post. I agree with you, hence the sigh in my post. I can’t convince DS.</p>

<p>You are not a kill joy. I have actually conveyed your point to him many times. I guess I was just a little light-hearted here because it was a cooking thread. And don’t worry. We don’t eat potato pancakes more than once-a-year.</p>

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<ol>
<li><p>***Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book-14th edition most recent, I just replaced my old one and I give it as bridal shower gifts. Nice to get info on boiling eggs and corn on the cob, to mention the things your mom did and you never knew the details of. It’s the red plaid large paperback that is easy to use with pictures of all sorts of foods.</p></li>
<li><p>The Joy of Cooking- 75th anniversary edition. I have seen it at the public library over the years, this edition is worth owning, so I finally purchased it.</p></li>
<li><p>1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra- for those who want to do Indian cooking from any region. She does a good job for Americans. It is comprehensive with background on the dishes.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>***A definite must have, will last for years.</p>

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<p>Okay, I can report on how college kids cook for themselves as some of them have shown up in my kitchen to make a meal.</p>

<p>Steak (called dad long distance to find out how to grill one): sprinkled some fancy salt on it and stuck it in the toaster oven.
1 chicken breast, also sprinkled in fancy salt, saute in some oil in skillet.
Boiled water, dropped ears of corn in, used cell phone to time cooking.
Took out steak, spread some cheese spread over bread and toasted.
sliced one tomato.
Raided freezer for ice cream.
Voila.
It’s a huge improvement on my college period culinary abilities.</p>

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<p>LOL!! :D</p>

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<p>I second -triple-etc-the posts for the Joy of Cooking. This is the cookbook I used during my college days and gave a copy of same to my son during his first year off campus (when he was a Soph).
You can’t beat this book-it has everything. I wore my own college copy to a bone while using it for 30 years past my college undergrad days.</p>