12. Easy Cooking Without Recipes

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So far in this course we’ve covered some of the major fundamental concepts in cooking— how to use salt, how to use heat, etc. Those are all important meta-skills that allow you to think like a chef. Knowing those fundamentals will give you a greater understanding of what is actually happening as you cook and will allow you to move towards a form of cooking that’s less constrained by recipes and more intuitive. In this lesson, I’ll talk about some frameworks and practical tips that will help you make this transition more easily.

Let’s dive in!

There’s a simple framework that I love to use when cooking that I learned (and slightly tweaked) from Yottam Ottolenghi, a legendary chef, recipe developer, and cookbook author. It’s called PPP— product, process, pairing (PPP).

These days, I rarely cook using recipes. When I do, it’s usually because I’m cooking a specific dish that I’ve never cooked before, and I use the recipe as a general guidepost to take note of ingredients, techniques, and flavor profiles. Most of the time, I take a more freeform approach where I simply find the best ingredients I can acquire and then use what’s in my pantry to build those into more flavorful meals. PPP is a good framework that helps illustrate how this works in practice.

There are three core elements here:

• Product

All great cooking starts with great product. Seeking out and starting with high-quality primary ingredients will get you further than any specific recipe or technique. So I always focus on sourcing the freshest, best-quality products I can afford.

• Process

Process refers to the combinations of methods and techniques that you’ll use to cook those products. Often, this is inspired by the products themselves. If I find a great ribeye, I’ll use the reverse sear steak method. If I can only find ground beef, I might make meatballs. When you know the end result that you want, you can pick which methods and techniques you’ll use (based on what’s in your repertoire) to get there.

• Pairing

Pairing refers to the additional flavors and ingredients you’ll use to build out a complete dish or meal. If I’m making a ribeye, I might pair that with a chimichurri sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. If I’m making meatballs, I’ll often pair them with a yogurt sauce and some bone broth rice. Pairing is important because it allows you to utilize fats, sauces, condiments, pantry staples, and additional secondary components to craft a dish that’s balanced and flavorful.

The vast majority of the time when I’m cooking, I utilize this framework.

• I find great ingredients, then mix and match them with a few others based on the flavor profile I’m going for.
• I decide what I want the final form of the dish to be, and then I decide on a technique, combination of techniques, or method I’ll use to get there.
• I execute on those techniques or methods, using my senses as my primary guide.
• I season properly (salt and acid).
• I use pairings to round out and balance the final dish.

To take a recent example— I found some beautiful pork chops at my local farmer’s market, and bought some broccoli that was in season (product).

I decided that I wanted to sear the pork chops, and then finish them in the oven to develop a nice crust and allow them to cook through evenly. I decided to roast the broccoli in a hot oven because I wanted to develop some crispy edges and browning (process).

Finally, I decided to pair the pork chops with a lemon mustard sauce because the acidity in the sauce contrasts nicely with the richness and fattiness of the pork chops. I roasted the broccoli with olive oil and salt and then finish it with a big squeeze of lemon juice (pairing).

As you can see, this example doesn’t involve specific recipes, but rather combinations of techniques and pairings. This framework is simple but powerful, and it reflects how most great cooks operate.

Moving from using recipes to a more freestyle form of cooking can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to happen all at once.

When you’re using recipes, start by diving into the how and why of the recipe, rather than following the instructions blindly. Take note of what techniques are being used, how they’re being used, and the outcomes they’re used to achieve. Draw parallels between different recipes and take note of which elements of the process are being used again and again. Then, use that pattern recognition to start building your kitchen intuition.

When you’re first getting started, follow recipes as closely as you need to feel comfortable, then start changing parameters based on your own tastes and sensory perceptions. There are a bunch of recipes in the section of the course that follows, and many of them serve as starting points that leave a lot of room for customization.

Continue To Master Seasoning and Heat

Remember that seasoning and heat management are the two most impactful practical skills for cooking. Work on those every time you cook.

• Season in stages, and taste as you go.
• Measure salt by feel.
• Take note of the types of heat being used, the heat levels, and the outcomes being achieved with each.
• Utilize your sensory awareness.

Build a Repertoire of Techniques and Methods

Every time you cook a dish, take note of the technique being used and the outcome it achieves in the dish. Then you’ll be able to use that same technique to achieve a similar outcome in a different dish in the future.

Building these connections allows you to develop a sense for which techniques you should use and why. This is core to understanding process.

Stock Your Pantry

Great cooking happens at the intersection of fresh product and a well-stocked pantry. If your pantry has the right things in it, it’s easy to take simple ingredients and turn those into full, flavorful meals. All of these things can be leveraged to bring more complexity and balance to a dish. They help with the pairing part of the process.

• Oils and fats (olive oil, ghee, tallow, etc)
• Various forms of acidity (citrus, vinegar)
• Sources of umami (soy sauce, fish sauce, miso, anchovies, parmesan cheese)
• Pantry staples like rice, pasta, onions, and garlic.

Use Sauces, Condiments, and Spices

Sauces, condiments, and spices are all secret weapons for easier, more flavorful cooking. Spices (especially blends) allow you to easily build new flavor profiles with almost no added overhead. Multi-purpose sauces and condiments are great for pairing and can be used across lots of different meals.

For example— if you make a simple herb sauce at the beginning of the week, that might find its way into all sorts of dishes. You can spoon it over roasted vegetables, chicken thighs, or pork chops. You can mix it into some yogurt and use it as a side sauce for meatballs. You can add a bit more olive oil and vinegar and turn it into a flavorful dressing for a salad. There are a few recipes in the practice section for easy, multi-purpose sauces and condiments to help with this.

Build a Repertoire of Basics

Before diving into more complex recipes and dishes, start by just mastering the basics. Learn how to make a few versatile sauces, master techniques for rice, pasta, and potatoes, and learn a few go-to methods for cooking different vegetables and basic cuts of meat. A lot of the recipes in the practice session are built around things like this.

If you have all of these in your repertoire, along with some creative pairings, you can feed yourself and your family delicious, flavorful food pretty much indefinitely. Once you’ve got that, start to branch out and get creative.

PRACTICE

As I’ve mentioned before, this is a gradual process, and one that requires practice. Reading through these lessons will allow you to establish a strong baseline, but only by putting this knowledge into practice in the kitchen can you really develop these skills. Pure studying won’t make you a great cook. Cooking regularly and intentionally will!

The next section of the course is a collection of 18 recipes, methods, and techniques to get you started. This section is designed so that, once you complete all of the recipes, you’ll have a really solid foundational repertoire to work with. It includes a few recipes each from major categories— eggs, vegetables, meats, grains and starches, etc. Each recipe has notes on techniques and step-by-step photo instructions to guide you though. They’re all about putting the learnings from these lessons into practice.

There’s no specific order I recommend doing these recipes— feel free to take them in any order you’d like depending on what calls to you. If you’ve got questions, feel free to ask the AI chatbot or hop into Telegram!

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