Every stage of cooking is vital: meal planning, meal preparation and presentation, yet before any of this can take place it is essential to choose the items that you are going to cook. The ability to select high quality foodstuffs is also vital. Food deteriorates after a certain length of time so knowing which signs to look for is the art to this specific aspect of cooking.
There are several considerations to produce choice. For example, the cook has to estimate whether the produce is fresh, ripe or more than ripe. Is the amount of waste associated with this produce acceptable? Will this produce provide the necessary amount of nutrients? Do the destined consumers like it or will they like it? Does the cost validate selecting this option?
Balancing all these considerations is really some feat that maybe a billion people carry out every day and perhaps a number of times a day. It is just remarkable. However, the best cooks or household managers need experience to do it correctly most of the time yet you can only get experience by ‘doing’ and doing involves making mistakes from time to time. There is nothing wrong with that - making mistakes is a standard part of the learning process.
There are in essence three elements to the successful selection of food. These are: 1] the material of which it is composed; 2] its worth or potential to provide energy and or nutrients and vitamins and 3] how readily these qualities can be extracted in a digestible way.
It is just when you have solutions to these three questions that you can know whether a foodstuff is worth the money. In other words, although you may always know the cost of an item of food, you might not always know its value.
It is obvious from the above that the cook who takes his or her job seriously has a mammoth quest on hand to know what human bodies require at the various stages of growth, illness and even just recovery from normal wear and tear; to know what articles of food can supply those needs; how to choose foods that are at the peak of condition and how to prepare those foodstuffs so that you gain the most of that products potential.
Then there are the other considerations of whether you or your family will eat those products at all or whether they will only eat them if prepared according to particular recipes and finally, whether you can afford those foods.
As far as preparing children to eat or at least try different foodstuffs is concerned, it is important to get going as soon as you can. Children do not know what is good for them and permitting them to eat hamburgers and chips every day, because it is ‘all they will eat’ is rubbish. Children have to be taught to eat what is put in front of them until they are qualified to make their own choices.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several topics, but is at present concerned with French dip sandwich recipes. If you want to know more or check out some special offers, please go to our website at Vegetarian Sandwich Recipes.