FYI: I’ll be starting a new online No Recipe workshop series on May 1st, in collaboration with a store I love, Seed and Oil. We’ll be practicing the kind of cooking I describe in this post. Sign up here! You might also want to check out my recipe this morning for vegetable pie
Love this!!! Including my gentle roasting, lol—you’re right in that I’m considering creativity there in the context of selling recipes, not just cooking, and that’s what I’ve been trying to escape (and have!).
I am not this kind of cook, but really I am not a cook but a baker, and I like the stability. My fave thing, however, is when I am sure I have all the ingredients but I don't and I have either began the process or am determined to make something and then have to improvise. Although it is a strange contradiction (?) because I always "follow" a recipe because I can't bake without one, even if it's my own and yet I almost always have to substitute something (this is common since I bake gf and flour combinations/ratios are endless)... hmmm.
So beautifully written! Love the core concepts. Must "cook from reality" more often, although am occasionally forced to do so since am either too tired, lazy, or pressed for time to go out and buy the needed ingredients for a dish- and then have to substitute stuff on hand for what isn't there, or modify the plan. Thank you! (And thank you, too, to Charlie Brown for calling attention to your wonderful piece.)
This is exactly how I approach food and tell my subscribers to approach food.
You're right when you say it's an incredibly difficult way to write about food because it looks overwhelming. There's education in here - learning how to substitute, how to taste, and like you say, cooking until the food is ready, not when the timer goes off.
Love this piece! And I so agree - I love cookbooks for inspiration and have happily cooked from many in my extensive collection but the reality is I also hate food waste and often much prefer to figure out what to cook from the remnants in my fridge and pantry!
So much to think about in this. I live where there is nowhere to shop for ingredients, where I have to use what I have preserved, frozen, grown, or have stashed in my expansive pantry. I know I am creative. (Cookbook and recipe writers who call out variations for readers are nothing but helpful, maybe even prescient in this new age of growing inflation, climate change, shortages and constrictions that result from corporate consolitldation.)
Relatedly, other writers have recently brought up questions about what we look for in cookbooks, including the importance of photography. I could not, would not, shop for a recipe based on my attraction to its accompanying photo(s), generally finding them superfluous and distracting. And while they display creativity, I have thought they mostly stifle creativity in others. But now, I wonder. Do they support creativity when they open my eyes to other cultural touchpoints?
Yes to all of this. I struggle so much with sharing recipes because that's just not how I cook day-to-day, but it so often seems to be what others are looking for when they ask you to share your cooking know-how and how you arrive at the dishes you make.
Beautifully written and so well laid out! I love this.
Love this!!! Including my gentle roasting, lol—you’re right in that I’m considering creativity there in the context of selling recipes, not just cooking, and that’s what I’ve been trying to escape (and have!).
this is so good!
A great piece from start to finish
I am not this kind of cook, but really I am not a cook but a baker, and I like the stability. My fave thing, however, is when I am sure I have all the ingredients but I don't and I have either began the process or am determined to make something and then have to improvise. Although it is a strange contradiction (?) because I always "follow" a recipe because I can't bake without one, even if it's my own and yet I almost always have to substitute something (this is common since I bake gf and flour combinations/ratios are endless)... hmmm.
I love your substack, Kate. x
So beautifully written! Love the core concepts. Must "cook from reality" more often, although am occasionally forced to do so since am either too tired, lazy, or pressed for time to go out and buy the needed ingredients for a dish- and then have to substitute stuff on hand for what isn't there, or modify the plan. Thank you! (And thank you, too, to Charlie Brown for calling attention to your wonderful piece.)
This this this!
This is exactly how I approach food and tell my subscribers to approach food.
You're right when you say it's an incredibly difficult way to write about food because it looks overwhelming. There's education in here - learning how to substitute, how to taste, and like you say, cooking until the food is ready, not when the timer goes off.
Love this piece! And I so agree - I love cookbooks for inspiration and have happily cooked from many in my extensive collection but the reality is I also hate food waste and often much prefer to figure out what to cook from the remnants in my fridge and pantry!
So much to think about in this. I live where there is nowhere to shop for ingredients, where I have to use what I have preserved, frozen, grown, or have stashed in my expansive pantry. I know I am creative. (Cookbook and recipe writers who call out variations for readers are nothing but helpful, maybe even prescient in this new age of growing inflation, climate change, shortages and constrictions that result from corporate consolitldation.)
Relatedly, other writers have recently brought up questions about what we look for in cookbooks, including the importance of photography. I could not, would not, shop for a recipe based on my attraction to its accompanying photo(s), generally finding them superfluous and distracting. And while they display creativity, I have thought they mostly stifle creativity in others. But now, I wonder. Do they support creativity when they open my eyes to other cultural touchpoints?
Yes to all of this. I struggle so much with sharing recipes because that's just not how I cook day-to-day, but it so often seems to be what others are looking for when they ask you to share your cooking know-how and how you arrive at the dishes you make.