Seven Exercises To Immediately Improve Your Cooking Using Seasoning
You may have learned to make sourdough over quarantine, but how has your everyday cooking improved? These exercises will instantly get you into your senses and improve your kitchen intuition by teaching you to season your food better.
Learning to season your food better will instantly improve any dish (although probably using kosher salt instead of this chunky Himalayan salt!
How does your lunch taste to you? Is it rushed and hasty, or is it delicious and thoughtful? I know you don’t have a lot of time on your hands to make this meal a luxury, but I think that simple meals are more telling to the quality of a cook than the more intricate meals. Let me tell you why.
Over the past year, thousands of people flocked to the kitchen to feed themselves and flex some newfound skills. You likely know someone who has vastly improved at baking, made an elaborate feast for just one or two people, or even just learned how to boil pasta for the first time. New kitchen mastery is impressive—I love that people who could never find time to cook for themselves beforehand are learning new ways to nourish themselves. I hope this passion continues when we all no longer have to cook out of necessity. I do wonder, though, if home cooks are trying to learn to run before they can walk a bit. Learning to make bread or ferment things long-term is amazing and leaves the cook with the satisfaction of a job well-done, but it doesn’t necessarily improve your food (and your life) on an everyday basis.
What is the key to this kitchen genius? Seasoning your food properly. Learning how to use salt, herbs, spices, and acids will help you bring your dishes to their fullest potentials. These cornerstones of cooking are relatively easy to become competent with, but will make you seem like a master chef.
Whether you’ve become a Beef Wellington-savant this past year or are just learning how to fry an egg, here are seven exercises that will instantly improve your cooking:
#1: Practice with Bread and Butter
The next time you eat a baguette with butter, use unsalted butter and bring little dishes of kosher salt and finishing salt on the side. Experiment putting it on the bread and butter. What is the different in taste? Which way do you like it best? This simple exercise will help you to see how transformative salt is on your palate, particularly when combined with the fat of the butter. This exercise is a great way to train your instincts. Apply what you’ve learned with that baguette to everything you cook.
#2: Season Your Dishes with Salty Ingredients Instead of Salt
Maybe, for health reasons, you are concerned about the amount of salt in your food. Never fear! Get comfortable utilizing salty ingredients in the place of actual salt to imbue your cooking with more savory unctuousness. Add one of the following ingredients to your dish instead:
Anchovies
Olives
Feta
Bacon
Fermented Vegetable Brine (ie, pickle juice)
#3: Practice on Potatoes
Potatoes are a great way to get better at seasoning, both because they take to salt very well and because they are an excellent palate for seasoning. You have two different exercises here to help you out:
Cook mashed potatoes—mashed potatoes are typically cooked starting in cold water that has been seasoned with salt. Taste the potato water when the salt has dissolved but before the water is too hot. Taste the potatoes before you add any cream or butter to them-- you may not need any more salt! Add a subtle flavor like oregano or powdered garlic for a greater kick of flavor.
Make potato wedges— cut Idaho potatoes lengthwise into 6-8 wedge-size pieces. These pieces are the perfect way to practice your seasoning. Use salt to bring out the natural flavors of the potato. Add whatever spices you please to get used to practicing your own spice blends! Use the herbs and spice index at the back of this workbook help inspire you and your flavor combinations. Feel free to take notes on your creations on the next page so you can replicate them in the future.
#4: Make a Compound Butter
A compound butter is a mixture of butter and other ingredients (usually herbs) in order to enhance the flavor of another dish. Compound butters are excellent on vegetables, fish, and meats. To make your own compound butter, chop whatever herbs you have in your fridge reasonably finely, then mix them into a stick of room temperature butter either by hand or using an electric mixer. If desired, add lemon zest and microplaned garlic. Either use parchment paper to roll it into a log or put it into a ramekin or container to serve. Use within three days or freeze. This exercise will both teach you how to make the flavors your own as well as give you an excellent back-pocket finishing ingredient for weeknight dinners.
#5: Make a Green Goddess Dressing
This recipe will teach you how to incorporate more fresh herbs into your cooking. Less food waste an more reasons to incorporate delicious salads into your diet will ensue.
Start with equal parts sour cream, mayonnaise, and chopped herbs of your choice in a blender. Add roughly 2 teaspoons worth of anchovy paste and the juice of half a lemon. Blend until relatively smooth, about 30-45 seconds. Taste the dressing and adjust the seasoning according to your preferences. Put on a salad, shrimp, a veggie bowl, or a pasta salad.
#6: Play with Citrus and Vinegars
Acid is an important foundation to cooking that enhances the flavors already present in your ingredients. It helps to balance the fat in a dish, and makes the whole dish have greater dimension than otherwise. Here is one trick to demonstrate the power of acid in your cooking, and how choosing an acid can change the character of your food.
The next time you are making a recipe that calls for lemon juice, substitute in a different type of citrus juice or a cooking vinegar. Tangerine juice or blood orange juice will make a lovely intriguing change for your daily dinner, and you might be surprised by how delightful champagne vinegar can be as a substitute.
#7: Get Comfy with Umami
How much do you know about umami? Umami elements pack the savory impact often associated with "meaty" ingredients like a broth or cooked meat without actually having to actually incorporate meat into the meal.
Next time you make a vegetarian meal, try to incorporate umami elements into the dish (this list of umami ingredients is from Serious Eats— links explaining some of their uses are attached to each item):
That way you can satisfy both omnivores and plant-based diets alike!
Learning to balance flavors in this way is a simple way to instantly improve your cooking at home. Let me know how these tips worked out! Write in the comments below any other seasoning tips you may have.
