So, what are you?
A cook or a baker?
Generally speaking, if you’re good at one, you’re usually not terribly good at the other. In fact, some cooks are terrible with a bundt pan and some bakers turn tail at the sight of a roasting pan. Although both qualify as cooking, bakers and cooks have decidedly different skills. But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe bakers and cooks are two completely different sorts of people.
Clearly, one is good at following instructions and it could be argued that the other is more instinctual. One wants a clear pathway described; the other wants to blaze a trail by himself. One relies upon a relatively narrow field of ingredients, the sky’s the limit for the other. Scientist versus artist.
So, which are you?
So, what are you?
A cook or a baker?
Baking, at its core, is all about air. If there’s one skill that bakers try to excel at it’s incorporating air into liquid ingredients. A serious baker will look for the ‘ribboning’ of the butter and sugar mixture. When it’s properly blended, the mixture should run in ribbons off the beater. Ribboning is the presence of air binding with the fat and the incorporation of the sugar. An accomplished baker rarely uses a cold egg. When you beat an egg, the protein in the egg traps air bubbles. Room temperature eggs make a big difference because egg protein at room temperature will trap more air than an egg straight from the fridge. What makes you go “yum” is the combination of all those air bubbles as they’re the thing that expands in a hot oven.
I once sat with a master baker while he dissected a loaf of bread. This guy had serious chops; he teaches Advanced Baking Principles at the Culinary Institute of America so, basically, he’s a bread detective. Like Sherlock Holmes, he performed baking forensics on the slices of sourdough and explained why the bread was so holey, why the crust was lame and why the general texture wasn’t up to snuff.
“Amazing,” I cried.
“Elementary,” said he.
… so, basically, he’s a bread detective.
Cooking, however, is more about art. Cooking relies upon an amalgam of experience and instinct. A really good cook is like a jazz musician. Sure, she’ll know how to play the Für Elise, but she can improvise. There are fundamentals like knowing what’s too hot and what’s not hot enough, like knowing why you salt the water. But true kitchen sorcery lies in knowing how to make a perfect reduction, or what to do with parsnips that have seen better days.
This knowledge can’t be entirely communicated by a book. You have to have boots in the ground in order to really know your way around in a kitchen. A real cook is like an experienced animal tracker in the jungle. They’ll sniff the air and tell you a pot needs more liquid. A thumb will be gently pressed into an eggplant. The pronouncement: “One, maybe two, days past prime – we’ll need more fennel to compensate. Carrot tops will be saved for a pistou.
You learn how to cook by cooking. A maiden effort in baking can result in victory but cooking has vagaries that can thwart a good, initial outcome. Fewer and fewer people, however, are acquiring either of these skills. Instead of spatulas and basters, they rely upon boxcutters to access pre-cut and measured ingredients. Their meals come in insulated cardboard boxes, right to their doors. The meal kit delivery segment of the grocery market is expected to show an annual growth rate of almost 17 per cent in Canada. According to Statista market research, the number of users is expected to be in the three million range by 2027.
So, baker or cook; scientist versus artist? Maybe we need a new category for meal assembler?
This week’s question for readers:
ARE YOU A BAKER OR A COOK AND HOW DID YOU ACQUIRE THAT SKILL?
Leave your Comments below!
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Submissions to last week’s question:
ANY POLICIES THAT YOU BELIEVE NEED RE-THINKING?
Maple Ridge Bylaw Dept. doesn’t accept photos of green lawn and adjacent wet pavement as ‘proof’ of illegal lawn watering, even a full month after ALL lawn watering was banned because of drought conditions. Photos of watering in the act, or swearing that illegal lawn watering has actually been seen are required before warning letters are sent out. Even when the watering is done after midnight, every single night, all summer long, and the grass is green, green, green, it’s the public who must provide the proof. Bylaw enforcement does not seem willing to attend the site in person and see the excess water running down the street. Do they not want to enforce the water restrictions? Appears not.
Susan Haworth
Introduction to kindergarten is an absolutely insane two weeks of gradual entry! I don’t know how working parents manage. My youngest son, luckily, has us to pick up the grandchild in kindergarten. My other son and his wife have had to take entire days off work so their daughter could go to kindergarten for an hour and half!
At the risk of sounding like a cranky Boomer, I can’t help but wonder what sort of marshmallow generation we’re raising! When my boys went to kindergarten, the first day or two may have been a half day, but it certainly didn’t go on for two weeks before the little dears went to school full time!
The school district is out of touch with the modern world of working parents. In the district we live in, the parents were required to stay for the first three days of kindergarten. I can only assume some parents have had to use up holiday days, for shame.
Jo-Ann Hillis
I recently had surgery. Upon discharge, I was given prescriptions for painkillers and antibiotics. Now, the last thing a person who’s just been under a general anaesthetic and had surgery wants to do is wait in a car while the person who kindly picked them up waits – and waits – to have their essential prescription filled. Can you think of any reason why this procedure isn’t taken care of well in advance of surgery?
M. Wong
I like to read product reviews on Amazon before purchasing an item, especially critical reviews. It’s great that with one click you can quickly translate reviews from other languages to English but there’s one big frustrating exception – reviews in French. Reviews from France can be easily translated but a review in French from Canada has no translation option. Amazon.ca clearly assumes we’re a totally bilingual country. How hard would it be to add the translation choice for both French and English Canadians?
Wendy Dubois
Although I have several issues that I find objectionable these days, my biggest complaint at the moment is self-checkouts. Aside from the fact that each system is different and takes tech-savvy people to operate, not having the opportunity to have a friendly exchange with a human being makes me feel obsolete. I’ve lived in West Van for over 40 years and frequent many of the same businesses on a regular basis and enjoy a short, friendly conversation with a checkout/clerk/assistant/etc. when I do. For many of us, it may be the only time we actually exchange a few words with someone all week! I don’t even mind waiting in a line-up for a short while; many times one begins a brief exchange with others also in the line!
Barbara Waldbillig
There aren’t enough years left in this century to list all the policies I think need changing but here’s two. First, why does every government department at every level need me to fill out the same information on paper every time I need a new government service? Look at Finland! You turn 21, enter your data once, get your citizenship card and that’s it; you can now access all government services at every level – library card to federal export licence – one and done. Just update your vitals online as needed. That’s it.
Second, as an enthusiastic baseball fan, I double-double-dog hate, hate, hate the intentional walk. Teams should live by the pitch, die by the pitch. Make me MLB Commissioner for just one hour and the intentional walk is so gone, baby, gone over that centre field fence.
Michael Price
As a former customer relations representative for a world class Canadian airline, I was left shocked and considering a small claims action against Westjet when I was struck too sick to travel with an E. coli infection that left me cancelling a non-refundable ticket. Disappointed, but not surprised, they refused any goodwill consideration on the fare. I couldn’t comprehend that they also refused to return my taxes and airport fees! Unjust enrichment seems to be an acceptable policy at Westjet. It seems nothing short of government regulation requiring them to refund the taxes and unused fees, as do airlines in France, for example, or a class action lawsuit will cause a change in this policy.
Brad Gloux
Good points about wheelchairs at the Fair. Also worth general consideration are gravel pathways and the dearth of wheelchair accessible parking spots.. Aren’t both the Fair and city beaches the responsibility of Vancouver city council? Don’t we have accessibility laws in Vancouver? Not just elderly folks have need of a wheelchair – anyone, any age, could have an injury or condition where using a wheelchair during a special outing would be best. And not just seniors feel disappointed when conditions to use or borrow a wheelchair haven’t been well thought out by the “abled” person in charge of providing wheelchairs. Good topic!
Helen Aqua