My version of slow cooking isn’t using a slow cooker, it’s not rushing the process. If you’re a fan of cooking shows, or any reality TV, you’ve probably seen many shows that feature challenges that race the clock. The time challenge is a device used to build tension and keep us tuned to a particular program through yet another pharmaceutical ad.
I realized years ago that I found clock racing especially distasteful in cooking shows. It gives the impression that you can’t be a great cook or make delicious food unless you’re also a fast. But that’s simply not true. In fact, you’ll get a lot more out of the sensory experience of cooking when you take your time to savor the tastes and aromas. Presenting food preparation as a constant race feels less than inviting to me.
When we began developing recipes at Cooking2Thrive, we considered inclusion of overall preparation time with each recipe. After comparing the prep time listed on other people’s recipes to the time it took us to prepare them, we recognized how widely this varied depending on the chef. And we found the time listed on most recipes was not a realistic representation of what you can expect in a home kitchen.
Makes you wonder whether the developers believe no one will prepare the recipe if they know how long it really takes or whether they are just retroactively recording how long they thought it took instead of making meticulous notes.
Time can be deceptive. We often have to add a fourth recipe test because the timing turns out to be very different than what we thought it was. And while we don’t list overall prep time on our recipes, we do include some specific cooking times that we want to make sure are as accurate as possible.
I made a salad from someone else’s recipe today that listed the prep time as five minutes. It took me thirty. Am I just slow or was that unrealistic to begin with?
I had to locate the bowls, utensils, measuring devices, and vegetables. I had to pick some herbs. That took 3-4 minutes, and I still needed to clean, peel, chop, and measure six ingredients. Keeping prep time to five minutes would leave me 20 seconds to complete each item. And I’d still have no dressing.
It could be that I’m just a slow cook, but five minutes doesn’t seem realistic to me unless most of the prep has already been done and you begin timing when everything has already been gathered, cleaned, and peeled. Listing prep time that leaves out half the prep isn’t particularly helpful.
I don’t mind being efficient with my efforts, but I’d rather fully enjoy being in the kitchen than rush through the tasks as quickly as possible. I mean, if you don’t take time to lick whipped cream off the beater, you can’t be fully enjoying the process. And if you’re cooking with someone you enjoy, there’s even more reason to linger.
I tasted and adjusted the dressing several times. Fresh lemons, limes, and ginger may taste slightly different on different days even when the measurements are the same. Then I tasted the salad ingredients as a combo bite with the dressing and adjusted again. In between, I got a drink and ate a palette cleanser. Did all of that add time? Of course. But it was pleasant. And it will elevate the flavor of the salad.
I won’t say that savoring time in the kitchen means I jump up and down to get started on each and every meal of each and every day. But it does give me positive motivation to cook fresh food that takes more prep. Whenever I dread getting started on a meal, I come back to all the wonderful sensory memories I’ve made taking my time with slow cooking.
It doesn’t get any better than that!