Preparing to Meet the Challenges of 24/7 Home Cooking in a Societal Collapse

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” opens the Charles Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities, a novel set at the time of the French Revolution.  It marked a period of great chaos—economic upheaval, political instability, famine, ignorance, and more.  Lower classes were demanding free stuff and change.  Members of the upper classes lost their heads over it. 

Save for the guillotine, it sounds a bit familiar.  However, with principled individuals losing their livelihood for failing to yield to leftist demands for whatever, you have an economic guillotine that threatens the financial and emotional stability of the foundation of this country.  The economic guillotine spreads its bloody work as people lose jobs over the actions of a spouse or child, political beliefs, affirmative action, and more.  No doubt it will be coming for more of us in time.

We’ve enjoyed the best of times for the past several decades—travel, information, experience, education, comfort, and so much more.  And let’s not forget the food—really good food.  Not only have we been far removed from famine, Americans have been blessed to experience an abundance (and an overabundance for many) of the best food on the planet.  We can find spices and staples from all over the world at the grocery store, at ethnic markets, and at our fingertips.  Anytime we feel like it we can find exotic recipes and helpful how-to’s on Youtubes, PBS, blogs from around the world.  East Indian, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Tex-Mex, Italian, etc. Good food from just about everywhere.  (Except England and Russia.  English and Russian restaurants are really hard to find.  For good reason.) 

Unfortunately, we will soon be staring down some pretty formidable challenges like nothing previous generations have ever experienced.  The blessing of enjoying sensational dishes whenever we want will likely turn out to be a curse for many.  You see, even if we have recipes (make sure you’ve got hard copies) and all the ingredients (no small task), we can fail. 

And then our family members may start to fuss.  They might comment that previous generations of American women had their recipes memorized and at their fingertips. They knew the exact consistency of the dough, the temperature of the oven by feel, how much water to add, how long to cook, whether to add a pinch of this or a dash of that.  They could do anything.

What our husbands and children forget, though, is that for previous generations, especially colonials and pioneers, the recipe repertoire was surprisingly narrow.  Bread, biscuits, pancakes, oatmeal, a couple of soups and stews for dinner.  Bread didn’t have much variety—mostly sourdough and single acting baking powder and baking soda for leavening.  Dishes were seasoned with salt and pepper, and maybe an herb or two from the garden.  There wasn’t much in the way of exotic spices and only very limited amounts of sugar.  That history is worlds away from our current reality.  And yet, we know what’s coming, and it ain’t pretty.

So we prepare and gather lots of food, herbs and spices, and recipes.  And even if we follow those recipes perfectly, we can fail. 

How’s that, you ask?  It’s mostly in the measurements, but there are other factors that come into play as well.  And unfortunately, they can make a huge difference in how our dishes turn out.  So what are these factors and what can we do to improve our odds of success when working with unfamiliar recipes?  After all, we will likely find ourselves preparing a lot of unfamiliar foods as we try to duplicate what we used to buy at the store, or as we try to use unfamiliar ingredients to create satisfying meals for our families.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few hours reading The Science of Good Cooking, which was supported by the folks at Cook’s Illustrated.  For the more audio-visually inclined population, they’re also the folks behind America’s Test Kitchen on PBS.  (Many of the episodes are quite informative, though the program isn’t something I would ever turn on myself—I prize quiet.  But for some reason, my husband gravitates to it, becomes an expert, and then tells me how to become a better cook.  I just smile.  Or I try to.)

As the title suggests, the book focuses on the science behind good cooking—with loads of experiments that explain why this method or that technique works to yield perfect results.  Really good information is sprinkled throughout the book, but what was truly eye-opening for me were the first several pages.  They cover the bare basics of cooking—things we all need to know (and think we already know), and which we often forget or dismiss as not being too important.  These “little” things make a difference now when we’re in our own kitchens doing things the way we’ve always done them.  However, they can all become really big things when we’re facing challenges.

So here are important factors to keep in mind.

History.  Previous generations of women became very skilled in food preparation because that was their duty—to feed their hard-working husbands and busy children, all without modern conveniences of grocery stores and refrigeration and electricity.  And doing it every single day.  At the same time, the range of recipes was really narrow.  They only had a relatively few recipes to perfect, recipes that relied on local ingredients.  And they had years to learn how to do it at their mother’s side. 

Measuring.  America’s Test Kitchen asked their professionally trained chefs to measure 1 cup of flour.  They all used the same measuring cup and the same method.  And yet, the weights of the flour they measured differed by 13%.  If you spoon the flour into the measuring cup, you might end up with 20-25% less flour. 

However, most people cooking at home aren’t professionally trained; their measurements might differ significantly.  This is why professionals prefer recipes to list ingredients by weight rather than volume.  But it’s a luxury we may not have.  Unfortunately, it can affect our results. 

Then there is the issue of dry versus liquid measures.  Did you know there is a difference between dry measuring cups and those for liquid measuring?  And that there is a reason for this difference?  Dry measuring cups have long handles and flat tops that make it easy to skim excess off the top.  Liquids should not be measured in dry cups because you either don’t fill all the way (to prevent spilling) or you do fill to the top and then spill some along the way.  Either way, there is too little liquid in the recipe.

Liquid measuring cups have handles and pour spouts.  Because you’re not filling the cup all the way, you don’t spill as you work.  However, these cups are not meant for dry measuring, either.  The same chefs from the dry measuring cup experiment were asked to measure flour in the liquid measuring cups.  Their results varied by 26%.

Another set of experiments was performed by asking the test kitchen cooks to measure water in both dry and liquid measuring cups.  Measurements in the liquid cups varied by only 10%, based on different interpretations of when the 1-cup mark was reached.  But measurements of water in the dry measuring cups varied significantly more—an astonishing 23%. 

Measurements alone can widely impact our results, but there are still more factors that come into play with recipe success.

Time.  Time is the easiest component to measure accurately.  Unfortunately, it is also the least reliable.  That’s why recipes often say to bake until firm, sauté until tender, etc.  Time isn’t a reliable indicator of a recipe’s doneness.  And that’s not only because of variations in the amount of liquid in the ingredients; it’s also due to the cooking temperature. 

Temperature.  Not only does the temperature vary greatly in ovens and ranges that we can control and adjust so easily now (just imagine what it will be like when using camp stoves, Dutch ovens and briquettes in a fire pit, sun ovens, or other alternate cooking methods), but it also is affected by the weight and diameter of your cookware. 

Furthermore, oven temperature isn’t even all that reliable.  Ovens at America’s Test Kitchen are serviced and calibrated regularly.  I’ve never even heard of people doing that at home.  And that’s because we generally don’t.  Another experiment the test kitchen performed was to send a top-rated oven thermometer home with 15 of their cooks.  They set their ovens to 350°F and preheated for 30 minutes.  Actual temperatures ranged from 300°F to 390°F.  Only two ovens actually baked at 350°F.  Three were too hot, and the rest were on the cool side.  That’s a huge range, and it could significantly impact results.  Invest just a couple of dollars for an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is performing well. 

Keep in mind, however, that as the heating element in the oven operates, it doesn’t actually maintain a perfectly consistent temperature.  The temperature will often range 10-15 degrees to either side of the desired temperature.  This is normal, and all ovens do it.  So you’ll need to take several readings and average them to determine whether your oven is operating at its ideal temperature.   

The temperature of the ingredients can also substantially affect the recipe results.  Some people freeze or refrigerate whole grain flours to prevent them from going rancid.  However, cold flour retards the rise and will make baked goods dense.  Flour should always be at room temperature when it is used.  Of course, frozen foods take longer to cook than those that are thawed and at room temperature.  Butter should be softened for most baking, but it produces the best crusts when well-chilled. 

Humidity.  One factor that the test kitchen did not address was humidity, and yet it also influences the outcome of baked goods, especially breads.  Humidity affects the water-flour balance.  If the air is humid, less water needs to be added to the bread dough, and the dough rises much more readily.  Those living in dry environments often choose to raise their dough in the laundry room when the dryer is running or to add a pan of water to the oven and let bread rise in there. 

So you see, there are several factors that affect our results when cooking.  That’s when cooking on a normal day, with our normal ingredients, with all the utilities and appliances working properly.  Now imagine that life is not normal. 

Are you using electricity to power appliances or doing everything by hand?  Are you cooking over a fire or using a sun oven?  If cooking outside, is it cold or windy?  If grinding whole grains, how fine is the flour?   

It is so important to recognize that there are a myriad of elements that influence the outcome of our recipes, and that future conditions will likely multiply our challenges in feeding our families well.  Being able to mitigate changes will reduce the challenges we face and improve our recipe outcomes.  Doing so—understanding what the weaknesses are and preparing to address them—will help us prepare better for the future.  It will let us prepare now so that the worst of times facing this country and world won’t be the worst of times for our families. 

 04.24.21