November, 2019 | Chris Aldrich

Checked into Dr. Domotor's Animal House Veterinary Hospital

Checked into Rose Bowl Aquatic Center

🎧 Fifty ways to cook a carrot: More than a snack, Jack | Eat This Podcast

Listened to Fifty ways to cook a carrot More than a snack, Jack by

Jeremy Cherfas from Eat This Podcast

A rainbow handful of carrots graces the cover of Peter Hertzmann’s new book. But, as I discovered when I spoke to Peter, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Or even, apparently, by its title: 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot. Because although all the methods (not recipes!) feature carrots in one form or another, they’re intended to offer techniques that, Peter insists, you can apply to many other vegetables, fruits, and even meat and fish.

There is, indeed, much to be learned from the book, even for an experienced cook, and I have already successfully applied one of the methods to some leeks. The UK edition of the book, published by Prospect Books, is available now, but it won’t be available in the US for a couple of months. However, Prospect kindly agreed to send a copy to one lucky winner.

Next Monday (28 October) I will pick someone at random from all of those who subscribe to Eat This Newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber, you don’t need to do anything, although I would appreciate if you spread the word and thereby diminish your own chances. If you’re not a subscriber, do sign up now, and feel free to diminish your chances too by persuading friends to sign up.

Notes

Peter Hertzmann’s website is à la carte

You can order 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot directly from Prospect Books.

Banner photo by Dana DeVolk on Unsplash

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This podcast always sparks such joy for me. Sadly I love it so much that I can not just consume it in the same gourmand way I do the vast majority of the podcasts I listen to. I always feel the guilty-pleasure-need to carve out specific time to sit down and listen to it so that I can be a far more active listener than not. The worst part is that it means I’m not listening to it as frequently as I’d like. Sometimes you just can’t win.

I have to say that I whole-heartedly agree with Peter Hertzmann’s view of cooking pedagogy. It’s NEVER about the recipe, instead it’s all about the method. If you have the knowledge of the methods of cooking and know some ingredients then you’re set. Now of course when it comes to baking and a few other small sub-areas then having the proper ratios of ingredients becomes useful too. The rest is just taking the science of cooking and bring it up to the sublime level of art.

I’ve got a copy of the book on pre-order for it’s release on January 14, 2020 and based on Jeremy’s interview I suspect it’ll take up residence on the shelf right next to McGee’s On Food and Cooking and Ruhlman’s Ratio.

🔖 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot by Peter Hertzmann

Bookmarked 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot by Peter Hertzmann (Prospect Books)

Peter Hertzmann's mission is simple - to make as many people as possible realise that if you can manage 50 ways of cooking one simple ingredient - the carrot - you can cook almost any dish, and cook it to perfection.

Every method presented in this book is approachable for both novice cooks and those with many years’ experience. He gives prescriptive advice, such as the salt concentration for pickling a carrot should be 3%, but his book is easy to put into action in the kitchen.

Some of the methods:

Simple slices — Matchsticks, julienne, or bâtonnets — Dicing — Roll cut — Grating carrots — Mandolins — Juicing carrots — Blending carrots — Immersion blenders — Processing carrots —

Making sauerkraut — A new-fangled pickling container — Salt fermented carrots — Miso-pickled carrots — Acid fermentation — Keeping pickles crisp — Acid fermented carrot pickles — Determining liquid quantity — Salt for acid pickling — Sugar for pickling — Pickling spices — Processing acid-fermented carrots

Modern, sous-vide cooking — Why sous-vide cooking works— Set-up your equipment — Choose your bag — Prepare your carrots — Cook your carrots

Peter Hertzmann is a passionate cook, and educator on food cooking, with years of teaching to his name. He is a professionally trained cook, completing ‘stage’ placements in several high end restaurants in France, then worked in restaurants, and produced complicated seven course menus as part of a team over many years. He has taught in prisons and colleges of further education. Peter lives in the USA and is a regular contributor to the Oxford Symposium on Food.

This should be released in mid-January 2020 in the United States. I can’t wait!

Later today, Jared Pereirah will be interviewing me about my website BoffoSocko.com as part of his course Learning with Personal Websites within the Hyperlink Academy.

Join us this afternoon on a live stream at 3PM EST / 12PM PST to chat and ask questions about my website, how I use it as a digital commonplace book, and the IndieWeb movement.

RSVP and Zoom link here: https://www.mixily.com/event/2998111357898639657