Not a recipe this time

[walton_eats]

Tim wandered into the kitchen while I was doing some prep for tonight's dinner. I'm making Chicken Cacciatore, and I was breaking down a whole chicken. I rarely buy chicken parts. I learned to break down a whole chicken when the elder women of the family deemed it safe for me to handle the knife, and I'm very fast and very good at it. So I wait for whole chickens to go on sale ($.69/lb this week), then buy six or seven and keep them in the freezer. *Much* cheaper than buying chicken parts, with the added bonus that the necks, backs and wings go in the freezer bag for stock, the giblets get cooked and fed to my very happy cats, and the fat and some of the skin goes in the freezer bag for schmaltz.

I've gotten into the habit of buying meat, fish and poultry in its cheapest form, usually on sale, then cutting or chopping or grinding for whatever I need, freezing in portions.

Anyway, Tim watched for a minute and we started chatting about what kinds of kitchen skills people can learn in order to save money.

In a household supported mainly by self-employment while raising four kids, we've lived through some *very* lean times. My mother and my grandmothers taught me how to cook from scratch, how to shop, how to eat seasonally. They also taught me how to gut, clean and filet a fish; break down a chicken; make a stock; bake bread; can fruit and vegetables and make jam and jelly; make a roux. They taught me a-thousand-and-one ways to use beans, lentils and grains. They taught me me to be fearless in the kitchen, to dare to succeed, and to cook with love.

So I'm curious. What skills do you consider essential to *your* cooking?

Comments

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I love our butcher is that they'll do the cutting for us at no extra cost, but yes, it's good to know how to do it oneself.

Some of the skills my mom taught me that I'm glad I know about: how to make soup from bones; how to clean shrimp quickly and easily; how to make a roux, a white sauce, a cheese sauce, a creamed vegetable, a creamed soup; how to tell when chicken is done cooking; how to make a perfect steak or lamb chop or london broil; how to set the dinner table; how to make schmaltz; how to clean and cook almost any vegetable with minimal loss; how to make really good mashed potatoes; how to stuff and truss a bird; how to make matzoh balls and spaghetti sauce and lasagna; how to stretch dinner on a moment's notice even if you're serving individual game hens; and the most useful of all, how to eyeball food to see what needs to be done when

Some skills I've learned since, that I value: how to make jellies and jams; how to make kim chee; how to cut onions quickly and uniformly; how to bake bread; how to make really good chicken stock; how to incorporate whole grains into food in a yummy way

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I would *so* love to learn to make matzoh balls. They intimidate me; I've had too many that were dense and leaden, so I haven't yet tried. Recipe? Tips?

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

I will find the recipe that I've been developing as she teaches me, and post it here when I do -- I think I posted it to a Usenet group, but I have to go look. The key, says my mom, is threefold: Don't use too many eggs; use schmaltz and chicken stock, not that oil and water garbage; and sit a wet batter in the fridge for at LEAST three hours, preferably all day.

(My mom's knaedlachs were different every time, but they were never dense -- in fact, from time to time they were so loose they fell apart, but I didn't mind. :-)

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

For those who are not purists: I have a Japanese-American colleague who's a wonderful cook. She makes her matzoh balls with green onions and water chestnuts, and they are outstanding!