Cooking is fun and interesting and can be relaxing, exciting, and even therapeutic. Cooking is a life skill, but it can also be a hobby and a passion. When you cook at home, you can eat for less money than you’d spend ordering take-out or dining in a restaurant every night, and you control the ingredients, flavors, and health profile of your food so you know exactly what you’re eating.
Cooking gives you options, allowing you to adapt your meals to suit your own nutritional and taste preferences. When you cook, you can always get exactly the food you want. Plus, cooking the food you eat makes you more aware of your food, your health, and your environment.
Whether you have a cramped apartment kitchen with counter space the size of a cereal box or a sprawling country kitchen with a commercial stove and a work island, this chapter helps you set up an efficient and comfortable environment. Knowing how to use what you have efficiently is even more important than square footage. You’d be surprised to see how small some restaurant kitchens are; they work, however, because everything is in its place and is easily accessible.
In this chapter, we give you a broad overview of what you need to know to be an effective cook. We talk about how to set up your cooking space and introduce you to the major appliances of a kitchen. Then we discuss kitchen safety and help you get started with a nice, easy, practical recipe.
Creating a Cook-Friendly Kitchen
You don’t need a fabulous kitchen to prepare fabulous food, but a well-designed workspace sure makes cooking easier and more pleasurable. Chances are, you aren’t in the process of remodeling your kitchen, and you have to make do with the basic kitchen design you have. However, if you are at liberty to shift some things around or you’re designing your cooking space, consider the concept of access. If you want to spend the day running, join a health club. If you want to enjoy an efficient and pleasurable cooking experience, consider where your main appliances are located and where you store the equipment and ingredients you use the most. Do you have to walk 10 feet from the stove to get the salt? That’s not efficient. Although nothing is wrong with a large, eat-in kitchen, the design of the cooking area in particular should be practical.
You should be able to move from your working counter space to the stove/oven, refrigerator, and sink in a smooth, unobstructed fashion. This working space actually has a name: the kitchen triangle (see Figure 1-1). It applies whether you have a long narrow kitchen, a U-shaped kitchen, or an L-shaped kitchen. Consider the positioning of these three major appliances and jettison any obstacles — if a table, plant, or small child is blocking the way, move it. Even if you can’t redesign your kitchen space or move your refrigerator to another wall, you can arrange what you need in a way that works for you. Here’s how to do that.
Declutter your countertops
You can’t chop vegetables, slice meat, or whip up a cake batter if you can’t even fit a cutting board or a mixing bowl on your counter, so take a good look at your countertops. What’s on them? Coffeemakers, blenders, food processors, racks of spice jars or canisters of flour and sugar, stacks of bills, permission slips, and grade school art projects? Is your countertop doubling as a magazine rack, plant holder, or wine rack? Consider this: Your kitchen counters aren’t meant to be storage units. They are meant to be food preparation areas. A clean, clear counter space can inspire the creation of a great meal. A cluttered one is more likely to inspire a call to the pizza delivery guy. If your kitchen counter is cluttered with paraphernalia beyond usefulness, that’s a problem you can fix.
The ultimate test for whether something should be allowed valuable countertop real estate is how often you use it. If you use an appliance or food ingredient (like coffee or flour) almost every day, then go ahead and give it hallowed ground. Otherwise, stow it. Be ruthless. Put away the mixer, the food processor, the bread machine, and the rice cooker. Away with the herb and spice rack, the bottles of nut oil and fancy vinegar. Find a better spot for the mail and the bills. As you rid your counters of this clutter, you also get rid of your excuses for not having the space to cook dinner.
In addition to keeping your countertops clutter free, take steps to care for them. Use cutting boards for cutting and trivets for hot pots and pans, and wipe up spills quickly to prevent stains. The nicer your counters look, the more you’ll enjoy being in the kitchen. (Flip to Chapter 22 for more information about countertop care.)
Let there be lighting
Efficient kitchens should be well lit so you can see what you’re doing. Poor light ing increases mistakes, especially over the workspaces and stove. Lights under the stovetop hood can really help when stirring sauces or browning meat, and a nice bright oven light makes it much easier to assess the state of doneness of your cas serole or cookies. You haven’t replaced those burned-out bulbs in years? Time to do it! Get out your screwdriver and remove the panel over the lights. Unscrew the bulbs and take them with you to the store so you’re sure to get the right replacement
Another option is to have special lighting for the cooking area, either inset into overhead cabinets or in the ceiling. If your kitchen is poorly lit over the cooking area, the least expensive solution is a wall-mounted supplementary light — or a hard hat with a built-in flashlight.
Organize your pantry
The pantry is the place where you store your basic cooking staples, as well as other dry goods. (Dry goods are foods that aren’t refrigerated or frozen, including staples like flour and sugar, and packaged foods like crackers, cookies, pasta, and rice.) If you’re lucky enough to have an entire room or closet dedicated to a pantry, keep it well organized so you can see and easily reach the staples you use most, like f lour, sugar, and cooking oil. Even if you have only a cabinet or two for your pan try, organization is the key to efficiency. (For tips on what to keep in your pantry, turn to Chapter 3.)
The first thing to consider in organizing your pantry is the kind of closet or cabi net you decide to use and whether the food you store inside of it is easily accessible.
We’ve seen many ingenious kitchen cabinets on the market, such as those that have extra storage shelves on swing-out doors; Lazy Susan–type cabinets that rotate for full access to round shelves; and cabinets with shelves, drawers, and baskets that roll out on tracks so you can easily reach even those things you store at the back. If your cabinets don’t have these convenient features, you can impro vise by mounting racks on the inside of the doors or installing those handy roll out shelves yourself. Look for such kits in hardware or kitchen stores
A good cabinet or closet system enables you to see exactly what’s in your pantry, thus helping to inspire your culinary creativity and allowing you to grab what you need without knocking over vinegar bottles and stacks of spice jars. Store dried beans, pasta, different kinds of rice, flour, sugar, tea, and coffee in large glass or clear plastic jars with lids, or in containers with clear labels — it’s practical and looks professional, too
If you use something all the time, consider taking it out of the pantry and storing it closer to your stove or workstation, in a “satellite” pantry like a cabinet or shelf. You may want to do this with your cooking oils and sprays, your spice rack, or (if you like to bake) your baking supplies, such as baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla.
Kitchen islands are efficient food preparation stations, and they can also house considerable storage space. Moreover, they can double as a kitchen table or a place to serve party food. If you don’t have an island (and you have the space), consider buying a butcher block–style table to act as one — with shelving underneath to store your stuff for easy access.
Introducing Major Appliances: Friends, Not Foes
Major appliances are your allies in good cooking if you work with them, not against them. Until you make friends with your stove, oven, refrigerator, and small appliances (which we discuss in Chapter 2), you’ll never really feel at home in the kitchen. To know your appliances is to love them, and knowing each appli ance’s relative strengths and weaknesses can help you make the most of what they can do for you
Most major appliance companies have websites and toll-free customer service numbers with appliance experts on hand to answer questions about using and caring for any major appliance
Stovetop and oven
Whether you have an old gas stove that looks like it belonged to your grandma or a fancy space-age-looking glass cooktop, your stovetop may be the cooking appliance you use the most. Right under it, or sometimes over it, or possibly off to the side, is your oven, which you’ll probably use almost as much for baking, roast ing, and warming up leftovers. Your stove and oven are your best friends in the kitchen, and if you’re buying new ones, you have all kinds of new technology to choose from. Even if you won’t be going appliance shopping any time soon, know ing exactly what kind of stovetop and oven you have and how to use them may help your cooking efforts.
Gas
Most serious cooks prefer gas stoves because the gas flame is ultimately adjust able, allowing you to turn the heat up or down quickly and to make minute varia tions in the size of the flame. Commercial gas ranges can cut your cooking time by as much as one-fourth, but simple home ranges work just fine for most purposes. New cooks may feel intimidated by gas because they fear the presence of gas in the kitchen, and that cooking flame is actual fire. Because gas stoves can produce higher heat than some electric stoves, they take a little more practice to use; it’s easier to burn the food when you cook with gas. However, when you know what you’re doing, there is no substitute for gas. When you can confidently proclaim, “Oh, I much prefer my gas stove,” you know you’ve reached a whole new level of culinary prowess.
Newer gas ranges should not smell of gas from flaming pilot lights. Newer models no longer have standing pilots. They ignite electronically; therefore, gas doesn’t f low through the system unless the range is turned on. If you do smell gas, you have a leak in your system. This situation is dangerous — call your gas company immediately. Do not use the stove or any other electrical appliances, even your lights, because doing so can spark an explosion. This situation is rare but possible. Older gas ranges smell like gas, but the smell shouldn’t be overpowering. Have your gas range serviced periodically to guard against any problems
Electric heat
After all our fancy-shmancy talk about gas stoves, you may be eyeing your electric range with suspicion: Can it really produce anything worth eating? Of course! If you have an electric range, you can still love your stove and cook anything on it. You just have to realize that the burners will warm up (and cool down) more slowly and you may not be able to get quite the heat intensity you could on gas. But that’s no big deal if you’re used to cooking on electric
Electric ranges became all the rage after World War II. They were considered clean, easy to use, and modern. The drawback to electric ranges is their slow response time. Reducing heat from high to low can take a minute; gas can do it in seconds. However, many professional chefs prefer electric ovens, especially for baking, because they’re very accurate and consistent. Today’s gas and electric ovens generally hold and maintain oven temperature within a variance of about 5 degrees. If you have a choice, gas is slightly preferable for stoves and electric slightly preferable for ovens.
Induction
Some professional chefs prefer induction heat, and some even predict it will soon replace all other systems. Whether that is true, induction cooking is pretty cool. Basically, it works on a magnetic transfer principle — heat passes via magnetic force from the burner to the pan. If you place a paper towel between the burner and the pan, the towel doesn’t get hot. For that matter, neither will your hand — an induction burner turned on high will not burn you. Induction is just as adjustable and quick as gas, if not more so. A 2-quart pot of water comes to a boil in about a minute
An induction cooktop uses only selected metal pans to which a magnet adheres, such as stainless steel. Copper and glass cookware, for example, don’t work. Induction cooktops run on electricity, so they’re a great option when you want precision in your range but don’t want to install a gas line. They are expensive, however, and can cost twice as much as an equivalent standard electric or gas cooktop. Even so, plenty of home cooks say they are worth every penny.
Convection ovens
Convection ovens cook food more rapidly and evenly than standard gas or electric ovens due to a small fan in the rear of the oven that circulates air all around the food. This efficient circulation means that your cooking time and/or temperature setting may be reduced. For example, a cake meant to bake for 30 minutes may be done after 20, or you may be able to set that 350-degree oven to 325 degrees. You always adjust recipes according to the manufacturer’s instructions for your indi vidual unit (and check for doneness at least 15 minutes earlier than you would when using a standard oven). Some oven manufacturers offer both regular and convection cooking at the flick of a switch. Do you need a convection oven? No. But if you bake often, you may learn to love one.
If a convection wall oven is over your budget, consider the smaller, less expensive convection toaster oven, especially if you’re cooking for one or two. It can toast, bake a cake, broil a burger, and roast a small chicken. And cooking times are shorter than in conventional ovens. Small convection ovens can cost as little as a few hundred dollars, while larger, full-sized convection ovens can range from a couple thousand dollars to $10,000 or more, depending on the model and brand
Microwave ovens
Microwave cooking is unlike any other kind of conventional cooking. You must follow a different set of cooking rules. Although more than 90 percent of American kitchens have a microwave, most people use the microwave only as a reheating and defrosting device — and maybe to make popcorn. If this is your intention, you don’t need an expensive, fancy microwave with a lot of different settings. If you’re short on counter or wall space, consider a microwave–convection oven combina tion that allows you to cook by using either method
Microwaves can’t pass through metal, so you can’t cook with traditional metal cookware. You can, however, use flameproof glass, some porcelain and ceramic, paper, and some plastics. (Be sure the plastic container or plate says “microwave safe”; recent research suggests that plastics can leach chemicals into the food and shouldn’t be used in the microwave.) Some microwaves permit you to use alumi num foil to cover dishes, as long as the foil doesn’t touch the oven walls or the temperature probe. Check your operating manual to see whether your appliance allows using foil in this way.
A microwave isn’t a replacement for conventional cooking of grilled meats, baked breads, cakes and cookies, and other foods that need browning — unless it has a browning unit. Use your microwave for what it does best in combination with other appliances. For example, you can precook chicken in minutes in the microwave and finish it under the broiler or on an outdoor grill. Following are some other microwave tips:
Refrigerator
Refrigerators are the black holes of the kitchen — objects drift in and are never seen again, at least until the next thorough cleaning. At that time, your leftovers may resemble compost. And what’s in this little ball of aluminum foil? Do not open!
Refrigerators come in many sizes and shapes. A family of four needs a minimum of 16 cubic feet and should probably buy one that’s at least 18 cubic feet (unless you have a teenage boy, in which case you need a second refrigerator). If you use the freezer a great deal, having the freezer compartment on the top or to the side is more convenient. If you are more of an “open the fridge and see what looks good in there” type, you may prefer a model with a bottom freezer, maybe even with expansive French doors. Make sure that the doors open in the most convenient way for your kitchen. If the entrance to the kitchen is blocked every time you open the refrigerator door, you’re going to get irritated. Also check the door compartments to see whether they can hold a bottle of wine or a jug of milk. Door space should be spacious, not cluttered with little compartments that just eat up space.
Try not to pack the refrigerator too densely. Cold air needs space to circulate around and cool the food. Store foods in the same spot each time so you don’t have to search for that little jar of mustard or jelly every time you open the door. Most refrigerator shelves are adjustable, so play around with the spacing until it works for the items you generally keep on hand. Transparent shelves and bins make it even easier to see where everything is.
Freezer
Most of us buy more at the store than we can eat in a week. What you won’t eat this week, your freezer can keep for you until later. It can also keep leftovers fresh longer so you can reheat them on days when you want a home-cooked meal but don’t have time or energy to make one from scratch. Package your leftovers in individual serving-sized containers or in freezer-friendly baking pans you can slide straight into the oven.
If you’re lucky enough to have a stand-alone freezer, you can take advantage of sales on meat, frozen vegetables, and fruits. You can also cook in bulk, freezing leftover soups, stews, sauces, and desserts. You’ll always have food handy at the touch of the microwave’s defrost button.
Dishwasher
Because you probably have better things to do with your evening than wash the dishes, you likely want a dishwasher, especially if you cook for more than one or two. Your dishwasher may be built in, or it may be portable. You can even buy tabletop dishwashers for modest dishwashing needs. Dishwashers use a lot of water and electricity, but for people who’d rather load the dishwasher and then relax with their families after a good meal, the expense is probably well worth it
Most major brand dishwashers get the job done in more or less the same fashion. Some have more controls for cycles, times, and power. Top-line machines use less water and power and, not insignificantly, are quieter.
Today, some models sanitize 99.9 percent of bacteria, which may be desirable if you have infants or are concerned about the cold and flu season. And if you don’t like prewashing items before placing them in the dishwasher, ask about models that have a steaming function. Some machines even come with soil sensors, which measure the amount of food particles in the batch and automatically adjust power, temperature, and timing.
Garbage disposal
Garbage disposals are handy for the home cook. These grinders, housed in the underbelly of your sink drain, grind up the food that goes down the drain. If all you eat are frozen dinners and take-out, you probably won’t need a disposal very often, but if you’re always peeling, chopping, and wiping counters of the residue of cook ing a good meal, you’ll appreciate the convenience of a garbage disposal. Note: This doesn’t mean that garbage disposals are the lazy man’s trash bin. They’re designed for only small scraps of food that can be ground up easily. Never toss in hard root vegetables, tough skinned foods like leeks, mounds of coffee grinds, or socks.
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