Gravy's Cooking Thread

popsicledeath said:

So, yeah, the downfall of western civilization like Aldarion said?

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I don't necessarily know if it's the downfall of civilization. I find it to be more of a knees too sharp deal. At the end of the day if you use something like a cream of whatever soup as an ingredient, and the dish turns out fine and everybody enjoys it, who the hell cares. If it's good food and tasty then mission accomplished.

Yeah amazing technique and Michelin star fine dining is all wonderful, but if you're just making a meal for family or friends, can you use simple off-the-shelf ingredients, and at least execute it well, I could give two fucks if you had to use cream of mushroom soup, as long as it tastes good.

This American Life did a bit on the origin of the MSG myth. Not sure if it's true but it's interesting. It's in the first 6 minutes of the episode.

popsicledeath said:

A pedant might argue that ultra processed cream of factory soup isn't "good food," but I'm not that kind of dick.

What I thought was part of the funny was right after frying 7 strips of bacon would have been a pretty easy step to just stir in flour for a few minutes. Would have been cheaper, fairly easy, and maybe even faster because adding that much cold soup would take a while to get the chowder back to cooking temps.

Interesting different recipe I saw boiled the potatoes in clam juice. Smelly, though? Or make the potatoes too overpowered with clam flavor? Not sure how I feel about that, but might try it.

I also always wonder about doing skillet browned potatoes for any soup with potatoes in it. Might be a reason I never see that though.

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I do a lot of aromatics when I boil potatoes for mashing or whatever. Will normally throw maybe a clover to a garlic or do a bouquet garney of whatever herbs I have on hand. It doesn't typically overpower the flavor of the potatoes but it just adds a subtle difference.

I could see you boiling potatoes and clam juice or maybe a seafood stock really making it next level. I'm sure there are professional chefs that probably do something like that. It's almost no different than when you have boiled potatoes in a shrimp crawfish boil to soak up that flavor. If you did seafood stock you're just reinforcing that taste of the sea type deal.

Searing the potatoes, or Skillet frying would definitely give you some good crunchy bits instead of them just being soft, especially done in some butter for more richness. You could fry your pork fat, and then cook your potatoes in that along with your aromatics, and then do your roux. I guess it really just depends on what flavor profile you're going for, or if you're wanting to get just that contrasting texture. Hell you could even fire up the grill and bake the potatoes over charcoal first to give them some smokiness and then cut them up and toss them in the pot. You could even put your stocks of celery and onion or leeks and toss them on there too.

mkopec said:

Yeah unless youre gonna sit there for hours and hours, and make your own stock, reduce it, etc...To build up those flavors? We all use cheats. I know I use the shit out of Knorr chicken bullion base. Isnt that cheating?

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Yeah I use better than bouillon, and it is perfectly fine. The wife actually got me over a dozen of these for a buck each on clearance, normally $4 a pop. I think she bought every one of them they had on the clearance rack. They're fantastic for sauces or whatever other dish requiring stock. I believe I've also used that same brands demi-glace. Shits not cheap but you get a lot of mileage out of it and it has an extremely long life in the fridge. Nothing wrong with taking shortcuts as long as the dish comes out tasty.

mkopec you posted that recipe and I wondered about my cookbooks which ones had clam chowder. Pulled out some of them and they really vary quite a bit. Some are also lobster or fish but I would imagine you could easily substitute clams.


Same goes if anyone is hunting recipes. I don't even know how many cookbooks I have but I've got a massive variety for pretty much any type of cuisine. Happy to dig through the shelves.

popsicledeath said:

I've been collecting free (to me) cookbooks that come through the library donations. It's fun looking up a recipe for something pretty standard and seeing so many variations. Got some old, terrible ones a well that are interesting too.

Now I'm curious how many different chowder recipes I have on hand. Should probably ignore the compulsion to check.

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Yeah our collection is grown since my wife goes and volunteers at our local library for a couple of hours once a week. All kinds of interesting stuff comes in and typically she'll bring home cookbooks for me for maybe a buck or two a piece. Hell I think I posted it before but I've gotten things like Thomas Keller's French laundry cookbook which I think is like 50 bucks for $3 and it's in great shape. So every Tuesday I kind of expect something interesting to come home.

Aldarion said:

Yeah thats my current favorite too.

Look, everybody can rant about my hyperbolic language on the end of civilization, but I'm not even opposed to shortcuts. Fuck yeah I'll use chicken broth canned or paste any day, I'm not insisting on making my own stock each time.

I'm saying dont show me a recipe for chicken broth that goes

• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon better than bullion
• salt and pepper to taste

Thats it. Shortcuts are great. Its just not a recipe - its the opposite; its the thing that makes you not need to cook something. Thats the whole point of a shortcut, to take out that step. Its cheating, and thats ok, but lets also not pretend its something its not. Thats all.

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So let me ask you a question what specifically constitutes a recipe. My view on it is you got a list of ingredients, you got a handful of steps you have to follow to use set ingredients, follow the instructions and you have a dish that results from it.

I mean that's a goddamn recipe. Doesn't have to mean it's a good recipe, but it's still a recipe. You follow a recipe that has more traditional and tried and true techniques using better ingredients that will probably result in a better product but requires a higher level of skill, and you'll probably be adequately rewarded for all the effort. That's all what you want to invest in what the hell you're cooking. Sometimes you just want to make it easy, but that doesn't mean it's not a goddamn recipe. I mean does a recipe have to have a massive amount of prep and steps for it to be acceptable?

Again I think to me this is a news too sharp situation. If the recipe works and produces something people enjoy eating then it's still a goddamn recipe and a good one at that. Might not be for everybody but who the hell cares, it's a free country or at least it used to be.

I think the last sort of back of the box recipe I followed was some Goofy frozen hash brown potato casserole thing I saw on YouTube, and I want to say I actually posted a picture of it. It was literally frozen hash browns some butter a can of cream of chicken soup whatever cheese I had on hand, baked in the oven and it was kind of like a gratin, and it was utterly delicious. I've never made anything like it before, but I followed the basic steps and tweaked it by adding some leeks or green onions. Yeah the recipe is made for people that don't know how to cook but it was delicious, and I'll happily make it again if I have the stuff on hand.

I think that's one thing to consider that a lot of these types of recipes require just crap that you might have in your pantry, and you can swap out whatever vegetables and stuff like that to clean out the produce bin. I finally do a lot of that sometimes just to use stuff up before it goes bad, and most of these recipes are pretty versatile as long as you've got a little bit of skill.

Lanx said:

does Aldarion think recipes are bs or something?

whats the malfunction this week?

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I don't fucking know. A recipe is a recipe, whether it's a good one or not. Pretty simple. I'm not quite sure what the situation is but maybe it's because I'm a simple person and I follow the stuff on the Betty crocker box sometimes.

Lanx said:

we were just talking about seed oils and this betty crocker bitch is calling for 1/2 of oil in her cake

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I don't know much about baking but pretty you got to have oil or at least some type of fat in your cake batter. I think the pre-made boxes is basically all of the dry ingredients measured out where you just dump it and then all you add is the wet stuff like fat and eggs.

I think there are cake recipes out there that actually use olive oil.