Homemade Cooking: Is it Becoming a Lost Art? Don't People Really Know How To Cook Anymore?

IMAGE SOURCES: ©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTOS

Quiche Lorraine
Chicken Alfredo
Bœuf Bourguignon
Homemade Minestrone Soup

ABSTRACT: In today's society, many people have resorted to shortcuts in cooking, from getting processed foods, frozen dinners, and relying on fast food restaurants. Sadly, this means it seems the people have forgotten how to cook good old fashioned homemade meals.

CONTENT:

Once in awhile I reflect on different things, and only recently I was thinking of how real genuine, homemade cooking from scratch has become a lost "art' form. And yes, homemade cooking can be considered an art form, as it can take skill, time and patience. However these were qualities our ancestors seemed to have naturally; they had whether they liked it or not since there weren't the conveniences we have nowadays. Did one want to serve piping hot biscuits with their dinner? Well one couldn't simply go to the supermarket and get that pop-able Pillsbury canister, our ancestors had to make them from scratch. Did one want some kind of soup, no matter what kind? Yes, back in the old days one had to spend perhaps hours making it, from first making the homemade chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, then later adding in all the other ingredients. One couldn't simply open a can, pour into a saucepan and heat the soup on the stove or pop in a container and place into a microwave.

Another thing that kind of sparked my recent reflection of how cooking has become a lost art form was when one day I was talking to someone and I mentioned that I was planning to make homemade chicken pot pie. So here I was rattling on how I make the dough for the crust part from scratch, chop up the onion and garlic, cook up the chicken and vegetables and make a white sauce for it. The person listened to me with a great deal of interest and when I finished yakking about it, but she asked me, what is a white sauce? At that moment, I swear I was having a Hell's Kitchen Chef Gordon Ramsay moment and rolled my eyes up in disbelief.

As for myself, I must be one of those rare breeds of people. I absolutely love cooking and yes, I do things the old-fashioned way: I prefer to make everything from scratch. I must have inherited my great grandmother's skills in cooking, as she was known as THE cook of the family, while ironically my grandmother nor my mother could cook to save their lives. I had been told that in her younger days, my great grandmother would get up literally at the crack of dawn just to start making the homemade bread for the day. I do happen to know the joy of real, authentic homemade bread as I've done it myself in the past, and nothing beats smelling that yeasty aroma as the bread dough is rising, and then to actually bake it in the oven. I plain couldn't wait to "sample" a slice as the homemade bread came out of the oven and have it literally dripping with a lot of butter.

For awhile there, up until I was about five years old, my great grandmother, grandmother, mother and I all lived together. No one was really allowed to go into the kitchen as that was considered my great grandmother's domain, save for myself that is. Since both my grandmother and mother worked, my great grandmother became something of a babysitter to me, so I supposed to keep me busy and amused she actually would allow me into the kitchen to help out so to say. I remember her teaching me very, very basic things to cook at that young age, like scrambling eggs or frying up the bacon; she'd let me stir her homemade soups as they were simmering, and even taught me how to make something like homemade mashed potatoes.

After age five, my grandmother, mother and I moved out from my great grandmother's home. Well things changed. As I mentioned neither my grandmother nor mother could cook to save their lives. And yes, by that time there were more convenience foods, especially frozen TV dinners like Swanson's, other types of frozen foods like vegetables, canned soups like Campbell's, even instant mashed potatoes once could buy in a box. Yes, of course on occasion my mother would perhaps roast a chicken or form ground beef into hamburgers and fry them up, but my mother had a habit of burning everything she cooked, even the frozen dinners. Let's put it this way, growing up I often ate foods in various shades of grey or black. It's a wonder I survived my childhood!

As I got older, say in my teenage years and a bit older, yes I started to do some cooking, but very, very basic things. In other words, nothing fancy schmanchy, but at least I didn't burn anything. Then came my college years and I was about to embark on a journey so to say. It was during college that I decided to take a basic course in French. The course was entirely conducted in French by the professor but on occasion she would then speak in English and tell of various aspects of the French culture, which of course included French foods. By a coincidence one time I was watching an episode of Julia Child and she was introducing an upcoming new French chef, Jacques Pepin. Well that cinched it. I had become inspired by the talks about French foods via my French language professor and now with Jacques Pepin.

After buying a good number of French Cuisine type recipe books, including ones by Jacques Pepin of course, I now started my new "journey", that of attempting real cooking, not just scrambling eggs, frying up bacon, cooking up hamburgers and fries, I was to embark on real cooking journey and entirely from scratch. It didn't seem to take me long to acquire my new culinary skills, for as I said, I must have inherited my great grandmother's skill in cooking. Yes it did take skill, patience and time, but out of it all I was having fun with my new skills. I was making Crêpes, French Onion Soup, Bœuf Bourguignon, a myriad of French styled desserts and yes, I even did a few Soufflés.

It didn't stop with French cooking however, but I also ventured at making Italian, Oriental, German, and Mexican cooking, heck it really didn't matter what nationality, if it was food and a recipe sounded good to me I would make it. Even when I did old-fashioned American type cooking, I still would do everything from scratch, no short cuts. For example, if I were fixing a Thanksgiving Dinner, I would make some kind of homemade soup, usually Cream Of Celery, homemade stuffing of some kind, no Stove Top here! I would make homemade mashed butternut squash, the homemade biscuits, and no, Bisquick was never used and to this day, some thirty five years later i still won't use Bisquick. For dessert I would usually opt for sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin.

Don't get me wrong however since I'm not saying I don't use any kind of processed foods at all, I do as its not as if I'm making homemade pasta for instance, nor am I churning my own butter, but I do try to eliminate as many shortcuts and processed foods as possible. My freezer hasn't seen any kind of frozen foods stored in it in decades. Swanson? Lean Cuisine? Banquet? Healthy Choice? You might as well be speaking a foreign language to me. The only frozen foods I have stored are my own food that I cook in volume and and maybe some frozen vegetables, but that's it. Also, now that I'm on my own since both my grandmother and mother have passed on, I'm not exactly cooking the way I used to, but I'm still a stickler that when I cook for myself I still cook from scratch.

Now…I just might have another Hell's Kitchen Chef Gordon Ramsay moment and roll my eyes up as I wouldn't be surprised if you are wondering what a white sauce is. It's one of the most basic of all sauces to make, and basically it is a combo of melted butter, flour, milk or cream, salt and pepper; also by adding ingredients to it, it can also become Sauce Mornay, Alfredo Sauce and so forth. It's the type of sauce that is used when making chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, the base for creme-styled soups, potatoes au gratin and scalloped potatoes; goodness, the list is nearly endless.

To give you an idea of just how versatile white sauce can be, I've done a good number of articles in the past using white sauce and I have them listed in my Sources section.

Image Sources: ©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTOS

Quiche Lorraine
Chicken Alfredo
Bœuf Bourguignon
Homemade Minestrone Soup

Sources:

Former articles of mine using white sauce which have been published. Originally at Yahoo.voices, now on my blog:

The Many Uses For White Sauce in Recipes: Cream Soups Without the Cream

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-many-uses-for-white-sauce-in.html

Old-Fashioned Baked Macaroni and Cheese

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/old-fashioned-baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html

Two Special Potato Recipes to Enhance Any Meal

Part Two: The Versatile Potato

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/article-two-special-potato-recipes-to.html

The Art Of Making Croquettes:

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-art-of-making-croquettes-special.html

The Skill and Art Of Making Crepes
Part Two: Creative Ideas for Using Leftovers by Making Crepes

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/article-skill-and-art-of-making-crepes.html

This article had been originally published on May 23, 2014 on the Yahoo.Voices website,which no longer exists

How I Got Interested In Cooking French Cuisine

(Article first appeared at Bubblews on April 19, 2013)

Article At Bubblews

It was sometime a little after I graduated college that I took an interest in French Cuisine however, my interest may have started sooner as I had taken a French language course the last term of my college life. The class was entirely conducted in French by the professor, who by the way, actually was from France. On occasion she would break that rule of hers and talk about life in France in English, and among things would give wonderful detailed talks about French food that made my mouth drool.

Then, on one occasion, I happen to tune into Julia Child's cooking show, it was a show I normally didn't watch since to be honest, I just didn't care for her; to me she always sounded as if she had been dipping into the cooking sherry a wee bit too much. However, on that day I happen to catch her show, she was introducing a then up and coming French chef, Jaques Pepin. O la la! Not only was he demonstrating his own techniques for cooking French foods, but hey, he wasn't bad to look at either. Now when I think of it, what then happened next was almost similar to that movie Julie & Julia, where the one character, Julie Powell decides to cook every single recipe in Julia Child's cookbook, but instead of cooking up recipes from Julia Child's cookbook, I began collecting not only Jaques Pepin's cookbooks, but other French recipe cookbooks and began cooking up a storm.

Now you have to realize that in years prior, if and when I did cook something, it would be very basic, mainstream foods, you're typical meat and potatoes type of thing, nothing fancy schmancy. In my childhood and teen years, I relied on whatever food my mother or grandmother cooked up, and let's put it this way, cooks they weren't. If they could have burned water they would have, yes, their cooking was that bad. The only real cook of the family had been my great grandmother, and praise be, there is a God, I must have inherited her skills rather than either my mother or grandmother.

I have to admit I didn't cook every single French recipe in the cookbooks I had, as the idea of say preparing and fixing something like escargot or Tripes à la Niçoise (Tripe stew) just repulsed me. I did however start my journey into French cooking by preparing known classics, such as Crêpes, Boeuf Bourguignon, and yes, I even made the all elusive and difficult Soufflé.

When I realized I had a real knack for cooking French foods, it was like full steam ahead. After a little time had passed by and as I became more confident in my skills, and since Thanksgiving was fast approaching, I ditched the idea of the usual and more traditional Thanksgiving dinner and instead did a full French gourmand feast consisting of French Onion Soup Gratinée, Crêpes filled with chicken and mushroom with Sauce Mornay, Boeuf Bourguignon, and for dessert, Poires pochées au vin (Poached Pairs in Wine Sauce). How I didn’t gain a hundred pounds with that one dinner, I’ll never know.

As the years passed by I would later embark on cooking other types of cuisine as well, such as Oriental, Mexican, Italian, and so forth, but to this day, my first love is to cook French food and while I don’t knock myself out as much as I used to, as I did with that Thanksgiving dinner I had cooked so many years ago, I still love to make up something special from time to time, like my Boeuf Bourguignon which I serve on a bed of Couscous as seen in my photo of it when I made it as my birthday dinner.

If you would like my recipe version of Boeuf Bourguignon you can find it here:

voices.yahoo.com/how-great-boeuf-bourguignon-meal-2294943.html?cat=22Recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon

To coin a phrase Julia Child would say at the end of her show: Bon Appétit

How to Make a Great Boeuf Bourguignon Meal: A True French Culinary Feast

(ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 4, 2008 AT Yahoo.voices however Yahoo.voices no longer exists)

{This first appeared at Ciao.com under my pen-name of pyewacket} This was one of the very first French cuisine meals I made some twenty-five years ago, and make it a point to fix it at least once a year. This can be a great alternative if you're looking for something truly different for a holiday meal, or any special affair. For the past few years, I've made it a point to make this as my special dinner for my birthday, which is coming up soon and I look forward to making it each and every year as my birthday dinner.

UPDATE: I no longer use bacon as I don't eat pork of any kind, nor the beef bouillon cube in my recipe, but if you wish you can still use both)

Boeuf Bourguignon can be looked at as a fancy way of making a beef stew, but instead of adding water or beef stock to simmer the meat, one uses red wine instead. And yes, this is one of those French meals that one uses brandy as well and ignites it. I have a confession too. The very first time I made this I was a bit skiddish about that igniting part, thinking I was going to contend with a really large flame of fire and contend with a potential fire hazard. The original recipe calls for only 2 or 3 tablespoons of brandy, yet I use about a ¼ of a cup--I really don't measure, I just pour it in.

Since you are using wine to cook this meal, be sure NOT to use an aluminum or iron stockpot, but instead use a stainless steel one.

For an added touch I also cook up Couscous to serve as a "bedding" for the Boeuf Bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon

4 ounces of bacon sliced chunky style (that is several sliced pieces of bacon but cut into chunks)

1 medium onion or 3 to 4 shallots, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 or 3 pounds of stewing beef cut in 1 ½ cubes

2 or 3 tablespoons brandy ( I use more about ¼ cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon parsley

3 cups dry burgundy wine

½ pound mushrooms, washed, stem removed and sliced

1 beef bouillon cube

1 or 2 carrots, washed, pared and sliced

Cooked Plain Couscous

In a stainless steel stockpot, add the chunks of bacon and allow to cook awhile until done. Add the onion (or shallots) and garlic and sauté until done. With a slotted spoon take out the bacon and garlic and set aside on a plate. Add the cubes of beef and let beef brown awhile. Stir the meat as it browns.

When meat is brown, turn off heat from pot and pour in the brandy, blending it in with the meat. Using a match (one of those long wooden kitchen matches works best), ignite the "brandied" meat, and stir with a spoon until flame goes out naturally. Not only does the brandy add flavor to the meat, but by igniting it, will reduce the fat content of the bacon fat.

Put flame back on low and sift in the flour over the meat and stir to blend an even coating over the meat and remove any lumpiness from the flour. Return the bacon bits and onion and garlic to the stockpot, then slowly add the wine. Add the sliced mushrooms, carrot slices, beef bouillon cube, salt and pepper to taste, thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Cover and simmer for at least four hours or until meat is tender. Keep checking as the wine broth reduces and you may add even more wine to it...I do.

When done, to thicken the sauce a bit, add some cornstarch to water and slowly add and stir to a desired consistency as thick or thin as you wish and let simmer for a few more minutes.

While the Boeuf Bourguignon is still simmering, cook up couscous according to the package directions and for the amount you want depending how many people you are serving. I use the 5-minute type of Plain Couscous such as the Near East brand by boiling the correct amount of water with added butter. Once water is boiled turn off heat and add the couscous, cover and remove from heat. It will "cook" in five minutes.

Take a plate and spoon some of the Couscous on it, spreading it out a bit in a circle and making a centered well for the Boeuf Bourguignon. Spoon in a portion of the Boeuf Bourguignon in the center of the Couscous.

Instead of Couscous one can also use noodles or rice, but somehow I much prefer the Couscous as it gives the meal a bit of added elegance and finesse.

Bon Appetít