There are many things in life you can learn to do acceptably. But often, perfection requires real skill, care, and knowledge of the craft. For example, you may be pretty good at making a tasty coffee with your coffee machine at home, but making one of high-end French restaurant quality that a barista might need training for can take a little time. It all depends on what outcome you hope for.
As home cooks, it’s nice to learn different practices and to put our own small spin on them. You may love how your friend grills meats in their garden barbecue, for example, even if you know it’s not quite up to the standard of Texas or Korean BBQ where the meats are cooked for long periods to become ever-so-tender.
In this post, we hope to inflame your imagination further by discussing three simple foods that are surprisingly hard to perfect, which you may need specialist equipment or know-how for, or give a brief explainer regarding how the best do it:
Pizza
You can get pretty far with some dough, a jar of passata, and a handful of mozzarella. But once you’ve tasted how restaurants make proper Neapolitan, baked in a wood-fired oven and blistered just slightly at the edges, it’s difficult not to notice the wide gulf in what pizza can be. While a home oven will certainly do the job for comfortable nights in, replicating that thin, soft-yet-charred crust tends to require a bit more.
That’s why a lot of home pizza fans invest in a stone or steel plate that sits inside the oven, or better yet, a small outdoor oven that gets hot enough to really crisp the base in sixty seconds flat. Some even ferment their dough over a couple of days for added depth of flavour. It’s a fun practice to focus on, but remember that some of the best restaurants use stone ovens that have been tempered over decades or even over a century, making those restaurants worth a trip.
Boiled Eggs
You would be amazed at how many people argue over how boiled eggs should be prepared, and depending on how you like them, you may have your own preferences too. Most professional chefs will have their own method too. Some start with cold water and bring it to the boil, others add eggs only after it’s already bubbling. There are even debates about whether to salt the water, prick the shell beforehand, or leave them to cool in an ice bath immediately after. Some use egg timers, some can just feel it out. Some may even suggest a slight dollop of oil in the water to make the shell easier to peel. To avoid worrying about the wrong way all your life, we’d recommend going for the method that suits you. Dropping into boiling water gently and leaving for six minutes and a cold rinse from your tap is often enough.
Rice
You can make edible rice by throwing it in a pot and hoping for the best, but anyone who’s tried to copy the texture of high-quality sushi or even a good biryani knows it’s a bit more than that. Different grains need different water levels, and cooking times can vary even by a couple of minutes depending on your stove.
Rinsing the grains first can help remove surface starch and keep it from clumping, and letting it steam under the lid at the end avoids that half-burnt texture you sometimes get. Rice cookers do make life easier, but even then, slight tweaks to the ratio or soaking time will depend on the type of rice you used and where it’s sourced from. If you nail good rice, many of your dishes will be delicious.
With this insight, you’ll no doubt learn how to perfect the basics.
