Section 01 of 06 · 5 guides

Foundations

The techniques everything else is built on. Every entry says what the technique or the dish is FOR before it says how it is done, and where households disagree it says so.

Two people prepping vegetables at a table, from above — FIG. 01Two boards and two knives — most of the work in this repertoire happens before any heat is involved.Photo: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels

1.1
Stock is not soup

A stock is an extraction, not a dish: bones and aromatics held below a simmer for hours so the collagen converts and nothing emulsifies. Boil it and you get cloudy liquid with the fat beaten into it. Skimming, temperature, and why the pot is never covered.
1.2
The emulsion that holds

Fat suspended in water, held there by something that likes both. Why it splits, and the two ways back.
1.3
Braising a cheap cut

Long wet heat converts connective tissue to gelatine. The cuts worth buying are the ones that did the most work.
1.4
Roux, and what it costs

Flour cooked in fat thickens and thickens less the longer you cook it.
1.5
Cold hands for pastry

Butter that stays in pieces makes layers; butter that melts makes a biscuit.

The whole register, all 25 guides →

Foundations

Stock is not soup

The emulsion that holds

Braising a cheap cut

Roux, and what it costs

Cold hands for pastry