Prep Ingredients First

• No mid-recipe panicking

• Reassurance that you have everything

• You don’t have to frantically use a knife, which ends tragically

Timers Are Useful, But Always Trust Your Gut

• Cook times are the least trustworthy part of any recipe

• Pay attention to the “X minutes or when Y has happened”

• Pulling something away from heat at the right moment is critical

Sides Matter. Like a lot

• My #1 takeaway from using Blue Apron: the simplest meals can taste incredible if combined with the perfect pairing

• Making sides that combine with the main course is one of the main differences between normal and top tier food

Salt Fat Acid Heat

Written by Samin Nosrat (and made into a companion Netflix show), this book is a phenomenal teacher of the basics of cooking, especially from a more scientific standpoint. Samin boils down all of cooking into 4 simple categories: Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat. While you should absolutely buy/read this flawless book, here are some of the significant, easy takeaways:

A mineral. Which is obvious, but that means it creates chemical reactions when mixed with things. Samin’s policy is always to aim for the perfect amount of salt before it hits the table: more now, so that there will be less used later. But the timing is also a key component,since exposure to salt can create additional reactions over time:

• In Vegetables: Salt 15 minutes beforehand to make it more tender

• In Meat: Season for a couple hours (up to a day for high fat meats like steak) to create juiciness and tenderness.

• Pasta: Boil in salt water (that almost tastes like it could be seawater) to flavor. Be careful, this can definitely be overdone.

Samin splits the end goal of using fat into three categories:

• Crisp: Heating fat to high temperatures, then adding food to it so that the outside hits extreme heat without burning and the inside is cooked through. Heating the oil first is a must.

• Creamy: The end result of forcing fat to mix with things it doesn’t like, such as mayonnaise or butter. Always keep in mind what allows fat to break out of this fragile bond to achieve creaminess.

• Flaky and Tender: In pastries, adding fat will help you achieve tenderness or flakiness, but it’s all about how you’re treating the gluten. Especially keep temperature in mind and ingredient order.

*there are other reasons to use fat, these are just the most helpful*

In one of the most useful descriptions to me, the book describes acids as a balancing force in food, where it’s used as a contrast that highlights other flavors. Here’s a good cheat sheet:

• Too Little Acid: Are other elements overwhelming the flavor? Adding more acid can help you smooth over some of the rough edges of a dish.

• Too Much Acid: The most straightforward of the three, if it’s too sour it has too much acid.

• Perfect: When you can taste the edges of the acid, but it’s helping highlight and emphasize the other parts of the flavors. Like salt, it can help bring out the subtlety of other flavors, but only if you can keep a delicate balance.

The element of transformation in all of your cooking: heat is how you combine different ingredients of your dish together, bring out the crispiness of the fats, and all around finish your meal.

• Too Much Heat: Besides being burnt (because I doubt you need me to tell you), if one part of your dish is finished but other parts are still raw, especially when you’re baking. If you’re cooking on a stove, you can stir more rapidly to fix (but really just turn it down).

• Too Little Heat: If it’s taking too long or doesn’t cook even when left for a long time. Not a common problem.

• Perfect: When all the parts of the dish are cooked exactly right at the same time. This is the skill that sets great grilled cheese cooks apart from the rest.