cooking schools

[champ74]

Does anyone know of a good online cooking school? I am a decent cook, but I am looking to learn more techniques. For instance, when do you sweat and when do you sauté aromatics? I have many other questions that I think can be covered with a simple online course. I am a good cook, but I need to know if I am cooking things to their full taste potential.

[Mama Mangia]

you can find the same info in a book or by doing a search on line - hands on is the best techique

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Joe you can also learn alot right here on SpicePlace! Just do a search on the subject and viola!!! it may just be here...I will pull up an old thread on saute and sweting veggies and get it to show up under Today's Posts" for you to see>>>>>go see for yourself The post is called "Let The Liquid Do It" and was started by our very illustrious KYHeirloomer, one of our very informative members! You can find lots of stuff here if you just spend time looking!

CCCathy

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Hi champ74- and welcome to Spice Place!

We're a fine bunch of folks made up of people from all regions and all walks of life. And we're glad you stopped by!

One can learn certain things about cooking from many different sources- online, books, magazines... but most good cooks learned best, and most fully by watching Mom when they were kids- and then eventually being allowed by Mom to touch food and start cooking w/ baby-steps w/ her guidance. Or grandma, or an aunt or uncle- or a neighbor. Or if you're older- it's still not too late... visit a friend and just sit in their kitchen and watch as they make their way 'round.

Another great way is working in an entry-level position in a commercial kitchen. As with most arts, the very best approach is a hands-on one. Afterall, can one REALLY learn how to sculpt w/out actually touching clay?

[KYHeirloomer]

I don't think that information is gathered anywhere all in one place, Champ.

The best way to learn, though, in addition to asking questions and doing searches, is to run through the changes hands on.

For instance, think of all the ways you can cook onions. You can sweat them, saute them, caremalize them, boil them, etc. To understand the differences, get you some onions, and go through those changes. Taste the difference between, say, sweated and carmelized onions. And ask yourself why one or the other of those flavors would be better in a particular dish.

Then broaden it out, and prep a mirepoix the same way, and, again, decide which method works best in various recipes.

Something else to explore: The timing of flavorings. There really is a difference between layering your herbs and spices and adding them all at one time. But there's no way to determine that difference except by trying it. Your mouth tells you what's going on.

A lot of good cooking is simply the culmative effects of a lot of trial and error, and once you get through the basics I don't think you can really learn it except by doing it.

And always remember Julia's sage advice: At least you can eat your mistakes.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

To add a bit more dimension to Brook's words, champ- think of it on this level: making toast.

The taste of toast varies GREATLY depending on which brand of toaster you use. What setting you place the toaster on. How many times you push the handle down. The size and thickness of the bread you insert into the slots- not to mention the type of bread it is. Next- to butter or not to butter? Jam/jelly, peanut-butter, cheese?

Now think in those terms for every food/dish/recipe in existence. And there you have what it is that Moms and grandmas learn and chefs learn and develop over a lifetime. Hard to learn all that in an online course. It takes several loaves of bread to learn how to make good toast!