Peasant cookery

[abifae]

You know, to me that isn't "foodie", it's just "neatnik"

To me what distinguishes foodie-style cooking is that it is very precise and/or pretentious about the ingredients specified in the recipes; that it expects you to go search out the ingredients for that special recipe, rather than doing what you can with what you got; that it tends to obsess on some exact technique or other being aesthetically-superior, in an allegedly absolute and universal way, over all others; and that it has a bit of a tendency to burst into spasms of joy over things like larks' tongues and obscure cheeses made only in one particular valley in Greece and only in the month of April.

As opposed to "gee, we mostly have potatoes now and a bit of cabbage and pork, now what is something tasty we could do with them?"

Pat

Part of being a food is loving food. Loving food and all the ways it is put together, and the various ways people interact around food... Even saveur has regular peasant recipes because they're just so good to eat.

Like a wine connaseur (butchered that spelling) doesn't ONLY drink really aged wines. They drink the best wines. Sometimes the best food is simple.

 

[Dirk Chesterfield]

My favorite peasant dish is Ham and Cabbage. Sometimes called New England Boiled Dinner or Irish Ham and Cabbage Dinner.

Ham or cured pork shoulder (must be bone in) boiled until the water turns into a hearty broth and the meat is readily pulled from the bone.
Add peeled and quartered carrots, boiling 1/2 hour before serving.
Then add a cabbage cut into 1/6ths, peeled potatoes and onions (both quartered), boiling 20 minutes before serving.

The coarse cut vegetables and long pieces of pulled flesh served swimmingly in the delicate shimmering iridescent ham stock is one of the most scrumptious meals on the planet. This dish truly makes my knees weak. It's simplicity is grandiose without pretension.

I gratefully thank our forefathers, or more correctly our foremothers for inventing this heavenly peasant meal.

 

[Wifezilla]

Hi Dirk! Welcome

Technique can make a big difference between "peasant food" and "foodie food". Take the same ingredients without a knowledge of how to bring out the best flavors or what causes what to react, etc..., one would be edible and nourishing but not memorable. The other ends up as the cover photo in Saveur.

My mom and grandma DID NOT know good techniques. Thanks to abi, the internet, Julia Child, my friend Beth (master of Southern cooking), and borrowing some of Abi's magazines, I almost know what I am doing

 

[framing fowl]

Wifezilla... you are so right! In the past, I have made edible food. Now I'm curious about it... such as why did that recipe for ham & cauliflower au gratin call for nutmeg? I wouldn't go to the grocery for it if I didn't have it, but it's in the cupboard, so why not? And my husband is loving my newfound interest!

 

[patandchickens]

Technique can make a big difference between "peasant food" and "foodie food". Take the same ingredients without a knowledge of how to bring out the best flavors or what causes what to react, etc..., one would be edible and nourishing but not memorable. The other ends up as the cover photo in Saveur.

Yeah but which is which, photo-shoot styling aside

Sorry, but I think it is utterly, utterly incorrect to ascribe to "peasant cooking" a lack of good technique or succulent results. That is not "peasant cooking", it is POOR (or at least just prosaic) cooking.

(e.t.a. - to a large degree, "real" French cooking, gourmet-ness and all, is peasant cooking. I don't mean Escoffier and I don't mean modern restaurant fare, I mean the sorts of things that in significant part originally gave the cuisine its reputation and (everything eventually coming round full circle) has once again become considered by many to be the best of the best. It's basically "things you can do with rather limp old vegetables and weeds/snails you can scavenge from nearby". Really GOOD things you can do with them, via a combination of technique and recipe. Fundamentally peasant cooking yet HARDLY in any way "edible and nourishing but not memorable"

I think this is more of a European concept than an American one, if one doesn't have grand- or great-grandparents cooking according to the old ways (and doing it *well*) it might be a strange concept I suppose.

Pat

 

[AnnaRaven]

Pat -

You seem to have a definition of "foodie" that doesn't fit for many of us who call ourselves foodies. I realize there are pretentious jerks out there calling themselves foodies. There are idiots calling themselves self-sufficient as well. Foodie!=pretentious jerk.

Being a foodie is about caring about the food ingredients, process and outcome, whether it's a peasant-style stew or a haute-cuisine fancy dish. It's about caring about the ingredients and the technique, not just throwing things together just to get something on the table. Peasant food can be deeply foodie, and haute-cuisine can be poorly-done.

I'd rather have a foodie's peasant cooking than a fancy restaurant meal done without love and consideration for the ingredients.

You can disparage "fancy pretentious" cooking all you want, but please stop equating that with "foodie".

 

[patandchickens]

Peasant food can be deeply foodie, and haute-cuisine can be poorly-done.

No disagreement here!

I am sorry you feel I am disparaging the whole foodie thing. I was merely trying to refer to some *excesses*.

<shrug>, Sorry,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

My favorite peasant dish is Ham and Cabbage. Sometimes called New England Boiled Dinner or Irish Ham and Cabbage Dinner.

Ham or cured pork shoulder (must be bone in) boiled until the water turns into a hearty broth and the meat is readily pulled from the bone.
Add peeled and quartered carrots, boiling 1/2 hour before serving.
Then add a cabbage cut into 1/6ths, peeled potatoes and onions (both quartered), boiling 20 minutes before serving.

The coarse cut vegetables and long pieces of pulled flesh served swimmingly in the delicate shimmering iridescent ham stock is one of the most scrumptious meals on the planet. This dish truly makes my knees weak. It's simplicity is grandiose without pretension.

I gratefully thank our forefathers, or more correctly our foremothers for inventing this heavenly peasant meal.

This was always made with corned beef in my house!

 

[abifae]

Wifezilla... you are so right! In the past, I have made edible food. Now I'm curious about it... such as why did that recipe for ham & cauliflower au gratin call for nutmeg? I wouldn't go to the grocery for it if I didn't have it, but it's in the cupboard, so why not? And my husband is loving my newfound interest!

Nutmeg has a very earthy deep flavor that really pulls out other flavors. So it makes the meat taste richer and gives a subtlety to the cauliflower

Also it's amazing with sharp cheeses. Feta and nutmeg... mmmmmm....

eta: I keep trying to explain to my cooking friends to not over spice (otherwise known as "go spice happy") where they mix spices just because the spices are there. A good marinara can focus on just ONE herb. The entire meal then refocuses to show off that herb. You don't need 15 herbs in your sauce to be "fancy" LOL. Ditto chili. If you are adding your chilis and cumin and a few others.... you can stop now. You don't have to add turmeric (wrong part of the world!! gah!!) or a bunch of herbs.

I'm not sure why fancy = spice happy to so many people

 

[AnnaRaven]

Peasant food can be deeply foodie, and haute-cuisine can be poorly-done.

No disagreement here!

I am sorry you feel I am disparaging the whole foodie thing. I was merely trying to refer to some *excesses*.

<shrug>, Sorry,

Pat

Sorry if I misunderstood. I appreciate seeing that you weren't tarring us all with the same brush.

Anna