Culinary Rules You Keep & Ones You Break

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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The "pasta al dente or not" conversation got me thinking in a broader sense about "rules" in the kitchen.

What I mean by that are generally-accepted conventions like the temps that wines are served at, or how cheese should be allowed to come to room temperature before serving.

I'll start...apart from something like cheese on a pizza or a baked Brie, I do like my cheese to have a bit of chill on it, so instead of letting it sit out for an hour or two, I prefer it at about 30 minutes out of the fridge.

What about you? Do you like your Cabernet chilled? Do you prefer your beefsteak well done? Let's hear about what rules you follow and where you're a rebel.
 
I think the whole idea of "rules" in cooking is silly. They tend to assume everyone has the same preferences, or places the same value on things like cost, effort, time, nutrition, and taste. So I disregard pretty much all of them. The only real exception is if you're cooking for a crowd, you'll want to make choices that your audience is going to like.

The only really "good" rules, in my opinion, are the ones that are more like the rules of physics. They don't judge you and tell you what you should do, rather they tell you what will happen if you try something. "If you cook a steak a certain amount of time, it will become tough" is a fact, that's just how cooking works. Whether that makes the steak more or less desirable, though, that's up to the person. You might ruin MY steak if you cook it well-done, but why should my tastes make a difference to how you like to cook yours?

A rule like "never mix cheese and fish" are just overly broad version of the much more useful rule "don't overwhelm flavors". It's just a basic fact that you'll enjoy two flavors better if they compliment each other instead of clashing with each other. You can definitely mix cheese and fish if you know what you're doing with your flavors, but if you haven't yet learned how to balance your flavors, you might be better off leaving cheese and fish separate.
 
Let's see... first one is, bring your steak to room temperature before cooking. I wave the BS flag on that one.

They say your pasta boiling water should be the salinity "of the sea." I generally salt my pasta boiling water, but to be completely honest, I really can't taste the difference if I don't salt the water, once the pasta is sauced and served.

I'll have to think about this one for a while.

CD
 
Let's see... first one is, bring your steak to room temperature before cooking. I wave the BS flag on that one.

They say your pasta boiling water should be the salinity "of the sea." I generally salt my pasta boiling water, but to be completely honest, I really can't taste the difference if I don't salt the water, once the pasta is sauced and served.

I'll have to think about this one for a while.

CD
I've never salted pasta water in my life and can't tell a difference either.
 
I wave the BS flag on that one.
Someone (Jack What's-His-Face from ATK/CC, I think) summed that one up this way:

"Just don't do it."

I never bring it up to room temp, either.

I do salt my pasta water, but I don't make it "as salty as the sea."

For one thing, I've never tasted sea water in my life, and I hope to keep it that way, so I have no idea how salty "as salty as the sea" would even be. I just grab a couple of big pinches and put that in.
 
Let's see... first one is, bring your steak to room temperature before cooking. I wave the BS flag on that one.

They say your pasta boiling water should be the salinity "of the sea." I generally salt my pasta boiling water, but to be completely honest, I really can't taste the difference if I don't salt the water, once the pasta is sauced and served.

I'll have to think about this one for a while.

CD
It's the after saucing that can make it confusing.

As most know salt is essential to bring out or accentuate the flavor of food in general, and that includes chocolate cake lol. When we salt the water for pasta the salt penetrates the pasta as it becomes more cooked and the final result is a seasoned pasta. If the pasta is going into a sauce which is basically the only reason to cook pasta in NA in the first place, it appears, then you'll never really notice a difference, the salt in the sauce is the dominant factor. Italy for example do have their sauces for pasta but generally it's quite a bit less or no sauces at all and just other ingredients with olive oil as the sauce and in that regard salted pasta will be the preferred method and essential in my opinion.

Salted pasta or really anything to do with cooking for a home cook is a do what you like mantra. In a professional kitchen, not so much.
 
Someone (Jack What's-His-Face from ATK/CC, I think) summed that one up this way:

"Just don't do it."

I never bring it up to room temp, either.

I do salt my pasta water, but I don't make it "as salty as the sea."

For one thing, I've never tasted sea water in my life, and I hope to keep it that way, so I have no idea how salty "as salty as the sea" would even be. I just grab a couple of big pinches and put that in.

I grew up going to the beach, and at some point, whether you want to or not, you get a mouthful of seawater. It is not pleasant.

CD
 
I think the whole idea of "rules" in cooking is silly. They tend to assume everyone has the same preferences, or places the same value on things like cost, effort, time, nutrition, and taste. So I disregard pretty much all of them. The only real exception is if you're cooking for a crowd, you'll want to make choices that your audience is going to like.

The only really "good" rules, in my opinion, are the ones that are more like the rules of physics. They don't judge you and tell you what you should do, rather they tell you what will happen if you try something. "If you cook a steak a certain amount of time, it will become tough" is a fact, that's just how cooking works. Whether that makes the steak more or less desirable, though, that's up to the person. You might ruin MY steak if you cook it well-done, but why should my tastes make a difference to how you like to cook yours?

A rule like "never mix cheese and fish" are just overly broad version of the much more useful rule "don't overwhelm flavors". It's just a basic fact that you'll enjoy two flavors better if they compliment each other instead of clashing with each other. You can definitely mix cheese and fish if you know what you're doing with your flavors, but if you haven't yet learned how to balance your flavors, you might be better off leaving cheese and fish separate.
I like where your going with this and I agree that we shouldn't be held back by conventional wisdom because as I've found out in cooking that necessity is truly the mother of invention. Mistakes are also a mother of invention, but to understand the necessities and the mistakes we need a platform that is quantifiable, one we can measure as a standard to understand, then with some knowledge and skill we can make changes that make sense and taste better, so in that regard we need rules. imo of course. Fish and cheese is not a rule it's a preference and one I don't and haven't adhered to.
 
Everyone tells you that rice should be cooked 1 part rice, 2 parts water.
Nah - I cook it like pasta, for exactly 15 minutes. No-one has ever complained.
These days there are very few "rules" as to what goes with what, so what ever rocks your boat. Fish and cheese doesn´t rock mine, but still.
However, if you´re walking behind someone in a kitchen with a hot dish, you scream something.
You NEVER try to catch a chef´s knife if it bounces off the tabletop (been there got the scar).
You ALWAYS keep your cooking area clean.
 
I like where your going with this and I agree that we shouldn't be held back by conventional wisdom because as I've found out in cooking that necessity is truly the mother of invention. Mistakes are also a mother of invention, but to understand the necessities and the mistakes we need a platform that is quantifiable, one we can measure as a standard to understand, then with some knowledge and skill we can make changes that make sense and taste better, so in that regard we need rules. imo of course. Fish and cheese is not a rule it's a preference and one I don't and haven't adhered to.

Just to clarify, most of us on the forum do adhere to most rules, but also break some rules. I think that is the spirit of this thread. Are there longstanding rules you toss out the kitchen window? At least, that's how I take it.

CD
 
Just to clarify, most of us on the forum do adhere to most rules, but also break some rules. I think that is the spirit of this thread. Are there longstanding rules you toss out the kitchen window? At least, that's how I take it.

CD
Maybe it just the wording.....what the difference between a rule and a preference? If there's no difference then we don't need rules at all.
 
Maybe it just the wording.....what the difference between a rule and a preference? If there's no difference then we don't need rules at all.
Maybe there's a better word than rule...or preference...and I just don't know what it is. I was just thinking along the lines of the "pasta must be cooked al dente" - if you watch just about any cooking show on TV, if they're making spaghetti or penne or whatever, they will always, always make a point to say, "Cook the pasta until it's al dente, which means 'to the tooth'," which I always find a little patronizing, but that's another topic.

Anyway, is that a rule? A preference? It's always marched out like a rule, that's for sure, but we're just having a fun little conversation on some of those old cooks' tales, rules, whatever you want to call them.
 
I like cold red wine.

Re: steaks up to room temperature, in Kenji's 'The Food Lab' book he did a side-by-side experiment of steaks left out and steaks kept in the fridge. After 2 hours there was only about 1-2 degrees of internal temperature difference - so little as to make no difference during the cooking.
 
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