Thoughts and Deeds in the Kitchen

Introductory Remarks of No Special Significance

I first learned that food could be something more than fuel when I was five years old. My mother hired a Mrs. Bell as our new cook at Laverockdale. The first meal Mrs. Bell prepared for us children was mince and mashed potatoes. I can still remember the taste of her mince, nearly 60 years later, the rich gravy with the small dice of carrots added just before the end, so they were still crunchy, and the whole dish smelling of thyme. Mother was horrified; the woman had used herbs in the children's food. Alas, Mrs. Bell did not last very long, but she had seduced me. I spent many hours in the kitchen with Mrs. Bell's successors, pestering them about their craft, until my father deduced from my developing working class accent that I was spending too much time with the servants and sent me off to boarding school to have it beaten out of me.

Alas, as a small boy, I really didn't learn very much from all the time I spent in the kitchen, and cooking was not considered a proper subject of study for young gentlemen. However, I was so dissatisfied with boarding school food, that I began my own culinary experiments as soon as I could.

With no one to guide me, it was slow going, with many failures, but I made gradual progress, and, by the time I left university, I could feed myself and others with general satisfaction and the occasional triumph.

I am no great chef, but a decent home cook. These pages are supposed to supply the grounding I lacked, to cover all the information I wish I had had when I was young. They include most of the recipes I prepare at home every day, with the reasons why I do things a particular way. They are not supposed to provide infomation already available in such masterly works as "The Joy of Cooking," a book that belongs on a shelf in every kitchen, but my thinking, for whatever it may be worth.

Certain idiosyncracies may be worthy of mention:

• I'm not in this for the money. You will find no advertisements here. You do not need to log in, enter your credit card number, or allow javascript or cookies.
• I like garlic—a lot; if you do not, just leave it out.
• My wife and I are slowly getting older, and we do not eat as much as we used to, so many of these recipes reflect that in their portion sizes; feel free to double or triple portions if you are young and hungry or are entertaining guests. You may need to increase cooking times when you do this.
• I left the U.K. for California in 1981, so all the measurements are in the Victorian imperial measuring units I grew up with, mostly shifted into their later colonial variants. If you prefer the Napoleonic imperial units of measurement, the conversion is trivial. 'Nuff said.

All that said, there is no substitute for your own experience in the kitchen. If you like to eat good food, and you want to provide it for yourself and yours, get at least one good knife, learn how to keep it sharp, and just do it.