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 selection. For instance, the cook has to estimate whether the product is fresh, ripe or more than ripe. Is the amount of waste associated with this produce acceptable? Will this product supply the required amount of nutrients? Do the destined consumers like it or will they like it? Does the cost validate selecting this alternative?
Balancing all these considerations is quite some feat that perhaps 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 have to have experience to do it correctly most of the time yet you can only acquire experience by ‘doing’ and doing involves making gaffs from time to time. There is nothing wrong with that – making errors is a normal part of the learning process.
There are in essence three elements to the successful selection of food. These are: 1] the substance of which it is composed; 2] its worth or potential to supply energy and or nutrients and vitamins and 3] how readily these qualities can be extracted in a digestible form.
It is only after you have answers to these three questions that you can know whether a product is worth the money. In other words, while you might always know the cost of an article of food, you may not always know its value.
It is clear from the above that the cook who takes his or her task 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 regular wear and tear; to know what articles of food can provide 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 cooked according to certain 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 vital to get going as soon as you can. Children do not know what is healthy for them and permitting them to eat hamburgers and chips each day, because it is ‘all they will eat’ is rubbish. Children have to be trained to eat what is put in front of them until they are competent to make their own choices.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on many 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.