Unsalted butter and sifted flour are dead to me. (I do have a suspicion that salted butter in the UK is saltier than it is in the USA, hence all their baking recipes calling for unsalted butter, but I cannot confirm.)
My personal pet peeve is "Baking is an exact science." No, it isn't. I have butchered recipes to within an inch of their life and still produced something tasty. I can appreciate the dependability of weighing all the ingredients, but it is not as sacred a road as professional bakers would have me believe.
Oh I am very with you about the meat fat! The other one for me is mayonnaise, I despise it and how it gets infused into so many American holiday dishes for the sake of “moist”
1. What is the point of blueberries? Look so inviting, but such a thin dreary flavour. More widely anything advertised as a superfood, means that you wouldn’t think of eating it without the erroneous notion that it is somehow “healthy”
2. The overemphasis (esp in TV) on show off restaurant style dinner party food. I like good restaurants, but it’s not what I want to eat every day, even if I could afford it. A proper kitchen supper with generous platefuls of delicious food is where it’s at. I like Simon Hopkinson’s credo that he cooks to please, not to impress. And they should ban anyone who talks about “plating up” outside of a restaurant kitchen
I learn so much from you about food. I have to google images every time, and then walk all day hungry haha. I'm sorry but I'm not eating cucumber peels that may or may not be growing mold at this point (the ones we buy get rotten fast and the taste of the skin is rough if I keep it). I also adore salted butter!
Some of the most irritating things (to me) in the cooking world are infantilized words: "veggies", "sammies", and "nom nom nom" all come to mind.
Also, I am very, very tired of all-hard-surface restaurants. Reclaimed wood, concrete, and metal. Uncomfortable chairs, naked Edison bulbs, and servers who ask if I need their menu concept explained to me but don't have the sense to know I might want another glass of wine to replace the empty one in front of me when my main course arrives.
Oh, and any food blogger/Instagrammer/Substacker/TikTokeuse who claims to offer "The Perfect (fill-in-th-blank) for Summer! Or any other season/occasion, for that matter.
I could go on, but I haven't even had my coffee yet.
P.S. Burrata isn't as interesting as most people seem to think it is.
I think your dislikes are pretty sensible. I like steak, but wouldn’t want to proselytize on its behalf.
Same with pork belly and that hardcore fat component. I like it, and I eat it once in a while, but it’s not a hill to die on. Giving someone grief for not loving it-- I can’t get behind that.
Undercooked vegetables? I am gradually learning to tolerate vegetables when they’re cooked the way you prefer. But undercooked?
“What fresh hell is this?”, as Dorothy Parker used to say. “No way, José,” to quote Will Shakespeare.
I recently had an opportunity to do an A/B comparison of salted and unsalted butter on fresh bread. My conclusion: sure, I guess you should go with the salted, if you’re one of those lost souls for whom “flavor” is important.
Ha ~ thank you for the mention, Wil. I am sort of with you on the butter. I will say that my favorite thing to eat for breakfast when I was young was a rosetta ~ a crusty, half hollow bread bun (another Roman specialty ~ did you encounter any?) ~ spread thickly with sweet (unsalted) butter and then generously sprinkled with salt. Actually, it’s still my favorite breakfast!
In the States, cucumbers sold in most shops have been aggressively waxed in order to prolong salability (note that I don’t say freshness). I remove those skins. They’re irredeemable. Wouldn’t be caught using them to color pasta after, though.
I am glad to agree with you on all of this and especially the salted butter. (I shall have to write up my US butter rant sometime.)
Unsalted butter and sifted flour are dead to me. (I do have a suspicion that salted butter in the UK is saltier than it is in the USA, hence all their baking recipes calling for unsalted butter, but I cannot confirm.)
My personal pet peeve is "Baking is an exact science." No, it isn't. I have butchered recipes to within an inch of their life and still produced something tasty. I can appreciate the dependability of weighing all the ingredients, but it is not as sacred a road as professional bakers would have me believe.
Oh I am very with you about the meat fat! The other one for me is mayonnaise, I despise it and how it gets infused into so many American holiday dishes for the sake of “moist”
1. What is the point of blueberries? Look so inviting, but such a thin dreary flavour. More widely anything advertised as a superfood, means that you wouldn’t think of eating it without the erroneous notion that it is somehow “healthy”
2. The overemphasis (esp in TV) on show off restaurant style dinner party food. I like good restaurants, but it’s not what I want to eat every day, even if I could afford it. A proper kitchen supper with generous platefuls of delicious food is where it’s at. I like Simon Hopkinson’s credo that he cooks to please, not to impress. And they should ban anyone who talks about “plating up” outside of a restaurant kitchen
Porridge is the devil's semen as far as I am concerned.
I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world who had a preference for salted butter. Even in baking!
I learn so much from you about food. I have to google images every time, and then walk all day hungry haha. I'm sorry but I'm not eating cucumber peels that may or may not be growing mold at this point (the ones we buy get rotten fast and the taste of the skin is rough if I keep it). I also adore salted butter!
Your last point here is spot-on. Apologies for any harm my comments about brioche may have caused. ;)
Some of the most irritating things (to me) in the cooking world are infantilized words: "veggies", "sammies", and "nom nom nom" all come to mind.
Also, I am very, very tired of all-hard-surface restaurants. Reclaimed wood, concrete, and metal. Uncomfortable chairs, naked Edison bulbs, and servers who ask if I need their menu concept explained to me but don't have the sense to know I might want another glass of wine to replace the empty one in front of me when my main course arrives.
Oh, and any food blogger/Instagrammer/Substacker/TikTokeuse who claims to offer "The Perfect (fill-in-th-blank) for Summer! Or any other season/occasion, for that matter.
I could go on, but I haven't even had my coffee yet.
P.S. Burrata isn't as interesting as most people seem to think it is.
Ha! Terrific post, Wil!
I think your dislikes are pretty sensible. I like steak, but wouldn’t want to proselytize on its behalf.
Same with pork belly and that hardcore fat component. I like it, and I eat it once in a while, but it’s not a hill to die on. Giving someone grief for not loving it-- I can’t get behind that.
Undercooked vegetables? I am gradually learning to tolerate vegetables when they’re cooked the way you prefer. But undercooked?
“What fresh hell is this?”, as Dorothy Parker used to say. “No way, José,” to quote Will Shakespeare.
I recently had an opportunity to do an A/B comparison of salted and unsalted butter on fresh bread. My conclusion: sure, I guess you should go with the salted, if you’re one of those lost souls for whom “flavor” is important.
Ha ~ thank you for the mention, Wil. I am sort of with you on the butter. I will say that my favorite thing to eat for breakfast when I was young was a rosetta ~ a crusty, half hollow bread bun (another Roman specialty ~ did you encounter any?) ~ spread thickly with sweet (unsalted) butter and then generously sprinkled with salt. Actually, it’s still my favorite breakfast!
In the States, cucumbers sold in most shops have been aggressively waxed in order to prolong salability (note that I don’t say freshness). I remove those skins. They’re irredeemable. Wouldn’t be caught using them to color pasta after, though.
I am glad to agree with you on all of this and especially the salted butter. (I shall have to write up my US butter rant sometime.)