Minimal Necessary Cooking Instructions

[ertyu]

I define minimum necessary cooking instructions as the simplest instructions that will result in baseline edible food.

Minimum necessary instructions allow one to grasp the basic principles behind how a type of meal is cooked. Benefits to minimum necessary instructions:

- minimize bar to entry when it comes to cooking by loweing the intimidation factor
- lower the cognitive load, executive function, etc. required to cook, thus being non-nt-friendly
- eliminate "get these 50 exotic spices" / "follow this elaborate multi-step process" sort of instructions that online recipes often use to differentiate themselves and which can be unnecessary spending traps to a beginner
- create a core of understanding that one can then tweak or elaborate on as one progresses in experience and/or based on the (non)availability of certain ingredients

Minimum necessary cooking instructions will not necessarily result in the best-tasting food, but they will result in edible home-cooked low-cost meals approachable for anyone and a solid base of competence that one can build on.

Example: roasted vegetable minimum necessary cooking instructions

1. Turn on the oven to 200C
2. Wash and cut vegetables to roughly equal-sized bite-sized chunks
3. Put in a roasting dish etc. Drizzle salt and cooking oil.
4. Stick in oven. 30 min for most vegetables, but do check on your veg because cooking time might vary based on size of chunks and type of vegetable.
5. Profit.

Possible future tweaks might include adding pepper and other dry spices to taste, adding garlic, varying chunk size based on veg density, adding cubed chicken breast, and so forth. But these are for later and can be arrived at by iterative improvement of the basic cooking instructions ("oh, potatoes aren't v well done -- might cut them up smaller next time" // "I wonder what would happen if I added some of that X Spice I have sitting around" etc)

Please contribute with minimum necessary cooking instructions for types of food you're proficient in or make often. This can be either according to cooking method/type of dish (grilling, soup, stew, stir fry ...) or according to cuisine type (many regional cuisines have a basic set of ingredients or spices that form a standard "base" which other ingredients are added to.

[icefish]

A default blueprint for pasta sauce in Casa Icefish:

1. Heat a pot, then add a choice of aromatics (onions, garlic) in a choice of oil (butter, oil, fat) until it smells good
2. Add a choice of protein (meat, a firm tofu, halloumi) until browned (if meat)
3. Add a choice of tomato (canned, passata, whole ones blitzed up)
4. Add choices of vegetables and/or legumes (capsicum, carrot, mushrooms, peas, pumpkin, spinach, lentils, beans)
5. Add choices of seasonings (basil, bay, thyme, oregano, chili, paprika, salt, pepper)
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer (approx twenty minutes)
7. While that's simmering, prepare a choice of base (cook pasta, bake potatoes)
8. When both topping and base are done, combine, add cheese or further seasonings if wanted

This takes zero mental effort for me by now, and just uses whatever I have available. I like having something that's consistent in process, but has different enough outcomes that it feels like multiple recipes.

[jacob]

Almost all slowcooker recipes:

Cut all ingredients to size (size rarely matters).
Put them in the slowcooker.
Set the timer.
Wait until near the end ... start tasting to see if done.

Almost all breadbaking:
Combine water or milk with flour. Oil or butter is optional. If yeast, requires about 30C to rise. If baking powder, requires something sour to activate. The various ratios between all these determine which kind of bread you get. If you add sugar, you start getting cake instead.

[Ego]

Most of our meals include a grain:
(liquid/grain ratio, cook time)

Quinoa (2/1, 15 min)
Brown rice (2.5/1, 40 min)
Bulgur (1.5/1, 10 min)
Farro (3/1, 20-40 min)
Couscous (1/1, 10 min boiling water no heat)

.... and a bean:
Rinse, soak overnight, (cook time)

Lentils (5-8 min)
Red (25 min)
Adzuki (35-40 min)
Garbanzo (hours, check)
Black (50 min)
Pinto (60-90 min)

We usually have a dozen small bags of cooked grains and beans in the freezer which we mix and match for various meals. Serve hot or cold in salads with a variety of spices, sauces, vegetables and dressings.

These are the base for hundreds of variations. They are on-the-go meals that can be eaten as a cold salad or reheated in a microwave.

[jennypenny]

In no particular order ...

• You can get pretty far with just salt, pepper, and oil. Almost anything will taste better with a little salt and pepper before cooking. If you want to venture further, add a trio of spices from your preferred type of ethnic food (usually hot, savory, sweet).
• Learn how to cook a good omelette or Korean egg roll. You can add anything to it and you can find eggs almost anywhere.
• Learn how to make a basic soup base. It's easy if you roast something and make the stock out of that. You can get almost a week of meals out of a roast, with the last meal being the soup.
• Per above advice, learn what temp meats should be cooked to and buy a meat thermometer. In my experience, it's easier to learn how to cook whole pieces of meat and use them multiple ways compared to learning what to do with every cut.
• Learn how to saute/stir fry and make sure the oil you choose (above) is appropriate.

Personally, I find spending 2-3 hours cooking at once for a week's worth of food preferable to cooking for 30 minutes every day. Plus, it allows time for things like roasts and bread baking.

I don't find vegetarian cooking to be any easier, but it rarely requires refrigeration which is nice. Without meat, I'd live on soups, stir fries (sp?), and omelettes (if you eat eggs), and do all the prep once a week to make it easier (learn how to blanche).

[7Wannabe5]

I agree with jp's salt/pepper/oil combo. In fact, one of my tricks is that I can whip up a variety of palatable options out of any random ingredient/tool kitchen/travel-airbnb/garden-foraging situation by just purchasing a jar of commercial mayonaisse. Oil/eggs/vinegar or Oil/soy milk/vinegar (vegan) being base ingredients of mayo. Salt might be even more critical, but salt is more likely to be available or found for free in any random situation.

[jacob]

More generally, I think one will be happier mastering 1-3 recipes than getting a general(ist) understanding of cooking methods. The latter will allow you to walk into a kitchen and make food. But the former will allow you to make the food you prefer in your own kitchen.

[daylen]

I suppose it may depend on if one takes enjoyment more in the act of cooking or the act of eating. Me personally I tend to like experimentation in the kitchen more than I actually enjoy eating the food I cook. Though, if your goal is to minimize time in the kitchen then some low-variety, high-satisfaction trade-off makes a whole lot of sense.

[Sclass]

Playing back student life I’d say get some machines. I do slow food now and don’t eat like this but this is how I ate when I was a kid.

A rice cooker is a really versatile thing. I fill mine with rice and dump in some Knorr chicken tomato powder and bam, Spanish rice. I know that stuff is unhealthy but it sure simplifies Spanish rice. Actually Knorr powder makes all kinds of food taste great and the recipe is scoop out one teaspoon and toss it on food. The big bottles are dirt cheap at Walmart.

Instant pots are amazing too. We used crock pots back in the 80s but the instant pot is superior tech. I love stews. We are blessed with cheap beef in the US. If you cannot come up with a stew spice or chili recipe just go buy premade spices. In school I’d just dump in BBQ sauce or salsa from a bottle and slow cook (crock pot) the stew. There’s always leftover bottled sauces at department BBQS. I collected half full bottles. As I got a little smarter I learned how to mix bulk spices to save money. Why dump salsa in the instant pot when you can toss in some fresh green chilies, garlic, onions, cumin and salt. But hey if you want easy just get a bunch of premixed spice or a bottle of sauce and dump it in.

You can make a surprisingly large number of dishes in a microwave too. Salt and pepper like JP said and dial in the electromagnetic waves. I cooked veggies, chicken quarters and potatoes in the dorm microwave all through school. My friends said gross but it was just another way of cooking food. It is the lowest common denominator of cooking - break down proteins and cellulose with heat.

I ran a bread machine all the time too. My school provided electricity so I ran that bread machine every other night. Yeast was my biggest expense. I never mastered diy yeast. Flour and dry milk and sugar are nearly free. Rosemary grew wild on campus. When that thing beeped you were everyone’s best friend.

I never owned one by one of those electric deep fry machines are another dorm miracle. My friend brought one and he always had a supply of fresh tortilla chips at short notice. He’d be everyone’s best friend in the dorm on a study break. He’d literally just bust out the dried up nasty corn tortillas he didn’t eat all week and put slices of them in the hot oil. We loved him (this should be in the how ERE men can attract women) till we cleaned the fat fryer and found a dead mouse in it.

Check out the boy school camp recipes too. The scout manual had some really simple camp food that a prepubescent boy could whip up in the middle of nowhere. I recall a lot of salt, pepper and onions. Good enough if you don’t want to get sophisticated.

Raw is also a big simplification. I lived on raw, pickled and salted fish as a student. No cooking. Just unwrap and eat in many cases. Raw veggies like celery sticks and carrots don’t need cooking. Raw broccoli. Radishes. And fruit for dessert. Just wash and eat.

[Walwen]

You guys would probably appreciate based.cooking . "Founded to provide a simple online cookbook without ads and obese web design." It is a treasure trove.
edit: I guess the blue URLs are only for on-site links?

[ertyu]

You guys would probably appreciate based.cooking. "Founded to provide a simple online cookbook without ads and obese web design." It is a treasure trove.

Link doesn't work but I googled them.Thanks! New to me.

[Seppia]

@OP I call that a well written recipe.
I hate writers that do not respect their readers enough to make the effort to be concise*

It is curious to see Jacob advocate for specialization vs breadth of knowledge in the kitchen.
I am of the complete opposite belief.

Learn to cook reasonably well as many dishes that are as different as possible (bonus if they are from other cultures).
You will learn very different cooking styles, how to intuitively pair stuff and how to choose ingredients (what is the best tomato on this shelf?) by looking at them.

For example I intuitively paired fatty pork + ginger + cilantro because I know ossobuco (similar in concept to fatty pork) needs a bit of lemon peel (ginger) and parsley (cilantro).

If you only know how to make the perfect X, you’d be lost the moment you can’t cook X

*for example, I believe that those who send pages long emails should not be allowed to vote

[ertyu]

Does anyone have minimum necessary instructions for stir-fry? I have tried cutting up veg, tossing them in a pan, and putting salt on them but they come out soupy.

[7Wannabe5]

@ertyu:

Heat couple T oil over med-high to high burner. Add chopped onion, then garlic, then chopped sturdy veg like carrots, let go until a bit brown*, stirring frequently because high heat, add soft veg, ginger, soy sauce, bit of cayenne, bit of sugar to taste. Continue to stir while frying for another minute or two.

Salt will cause veg to weep out their water content if not coated with oil first.

*If I'm using meat or tofu will add after thick veg. OR( better )cook on its own first then combine at very end. This is not the easiest dish to produce with minimal recipe, because the combination of exact ingredients you are using and how you cut them will make a difference in result and different stoves, pans, oils used will also vary process somewhat. It's easiest in a wok on gas stove with oil that heats well to a high temperature, but I've made it in cast iron on electric stove with olive oil.

[Walwen]

Another thing I would recommend that I think is in line with this topic is to watch some youtube videos/read about the differences between oils and types of cookware and general "how cooking works" videos. You can have a recipe that says "add flour and oil to a hot pan" and this could mean dozens of things: peanut oil, olive oil, canola oil? What's a "hot pan"? Can you make that sauce in a wide pan, or will it burn and get all messed up if it's not in a pot so it can be deeper? Does it have to be white flour, or will whole wheat flour, or gluten free flour work?

I made my own butter and it was simple and easy, and it tasted great as a spread, but when I tried to cook a grilled cheese with it, it was a terrible experience. I learned that my homemade butter had a WAY higher water content and so it was not cooking like normal butter.

My favorite way to make stir-fries is using frozen veggies, which are very cheap and don't rot in the fridge when I look away for two minutes. The kind you steam in the microwave. After I microwave them, I drain the water the best I can, and I add them to a very hot pan, then add olive oil or sesame oil and if I have it, bacon fat. For seasoning I usually do soy sauce, ginger, garlic, pepper, and seasoned rice vinegar and table sugar, and a little cornstarch will give it that "coated in sauce" feeling like chinese take-out sauces have. Sometimes I add various "better than bouillon" products or liquid smoke.

[jacob]

If you only know how to make the perfect X, you’d be lost the moment you can’t cook X

Most people cook in their own kitchen, so not being able to cook some relatively exotic X is rarely a problem(*). Whereas "perfect X" (cf. "okay X") strongly reduces the desire to eat out and suffer through people, expenses, waiting, and a less than a perfect X.

(*) In my case, it happens when visiting MIL and trying to figure out what/how to make something being limited to frozen slabs of meat, frozen bags of vegetables, a pantry full of powders and mixes, and a fridge full of condiments. Think e.g. pork chops, frozen broccoli, mashed potato powder, and ranch dressing. It's the antithesis of "vegetarian from staples" from which I can combine anything.

The main advantage I can see to being broad rather than deep is the ability to impress people with one's culinary skills when playing away games. Basically, my ability to cook for others is limited unless they happen to like what I like.

[Frita]

Potatoes, regular or sweet, make a base for healthy meals.

Oven fries formula:
•Scrubbed and dry potatoes (about 8 ounces per person for an entree or 4 oz. for a side for us, +/- depending on potatoes available)
•Cut the potatoes into sticks, 1/4” to 1/2” (or cubes, 3/4” to 1”) and put in a recycled empty bag (no need to wash before or after) or bowl.
•Pour 1-2 tablespoons (based on amount of potatoes) of oil onto the potatoes. Add a generous amount of salt and any other spices you’d like: parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, etc.
• Close the top of the bag, leaving space with air, and shake until coated. If using bowl, toss ingredients.
•Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes (based on thickness) in a preheated 450 degree oven (425 for sweet potatoes). Throw away bag or was bowl. You will know when they are done because they’re brown, crispy, and kind of puff up. Eat right away. Best fresh, not a good leftover.
* Use as a snack, side, or poutine base. Poutine with leftover seasoned black beans, cheese, fresh tomato-based salsa, sour, and chopped fresh kale (stems, yum!) is my current favorite.

Baked potato formula:
• Scrubbed potatoes (one good-sized on per person)
• Prick the potatoes all over with a paring knife (or fork), place on a baking sheet, and bake at 425 degrees (400 for sweet potatoes) for 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and brush/rub with oil/fat. Generously salt and pepper both sides.
• Bake for another 20-45 minutes depending on size (7-8 ounce takes about 50 minutes).
* Use as a side or base for a meal. Like poutine, this is a great way to use up leftovers and odds and ends. I admit that my favorite is old school with a locally produced, nitrate-free bacon, cheese, sour cream, and tons of fresh green onions.

[ertyu]

I was given a bread machine. Below is the closest I've found to "basic white bread minimal necessary bread machine instructions." Includes explanations of what can and can't be skipped/altered and why.

https://littlesunnykitchen.com/bread-ma ... ad-recipe/