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So we’re not planning on quitting our day jobs anytime soon, and since we do this stuff in our spare time anyway, we thought we’d share some of it with you.  People sometimes decry the disappearance of the home cook, saying that nobody cooks from scratch anymore, that it’s all fast food and processed crap.  There’s definitely a lot of that out there.  But there’s also a movement in the other direction.  People ARE cooking, taking the long way around even.  There’s a great line in Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, in his headnotes for Cassoulet: “This is a great, not very difficult dish to make, and it doesn’t take much time — if you spread the work over three days: a few easy, fairly uninvolved small tasks per day.”  And you learn how to make duck confit in the process!  Along the same lines, how hard is it to brine your own brisket?  It just sits in your fridge for a couple days.  You can do that.  Same goes for pickles.  Can you put salt and spices in a plastic bag, add fresh pork belly?  Yep.  This is not fussy, complicated cooking.  Okay, some of it’s complicated: see future post on Ruhlman’s Chicago-style hot dogs, which are terrific! We’re not the only ones cooking like this, but we’re happy to be in good company and to share what we learn as we go.  Feel free to chime in!

Scott, Chris, Paul, and Eric