Matters of Trust

I'd never have thought that trust would have such an important role in learning to cook, but I find that I've been thinking about just that.

There are cookbook authors/publishers that I trust, that I don't trust, and that I trust on some things but not on others. Once I bought a magazine - not from a big-name publisher, but they publish a lot of recipes from home cooks - and made four recipes from it in the same weekend. None of them worked. Although I know I made mistakes, I've not bought anything from them since. This may not be fair - but I just don't trust them.

There are food brands I trust and food brands I don't. This is especially important with ingredients I'm less familiar with, because I'm not going to be able to judge quality for myself.

I struggle, sometimes, with trusting a recipe even when I have every reason to do so. The other day I was following a procedure for making fried eggs, that being one of the everyday cooking skills I have yet to master. This procedure (from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook) called for preheating the pan over low heat, adding butter, adding the eggs, and covering. About two-thirds of the way through the time designated for the doneness I wanted, I became convinced that the sounds coming from my pan didn't indicate that my eggs weren't burning to a crisp and pulled my pan off the heat. No burning, runny yolks.  (I tried this again a day or two later, maintained my faith, and had lovely eggs.)

(Early on in my cooking adventures, I followed a home cook's recipe for a particular item. The writer noted that, at a particular point, it was going to look like it was going to go horribly wrong, and what was going to happen, and that it was okay. I was grateful, because exactly that thing happened and I would have paniced without the writer's assurance. Now THAT's a well written recipe!)

On the other hand, sometimes I need to trust my instincts and I'm sorry when I don't. I am just not experienced enough to have this kind of instinct on my own hook, but I think sometimes my brain will call up a tidbit I've seen on cooking shows without telling me about it. I broiled some eggplant slices recently, following something I'd seen the day before. Something told me to salt the slices and let them sit to reduce the moisture, but it wasn't done in the previous days show, so I didn't. Annnnnnnd my slices were mushy rather than crispy. I should have trusted my instincts. That's often the case. (Except for those times when I did and shouldn't have.)

It's just a matter of trust.