Well Done is an Oxymoron!
A Properly Baked Loaf of Homemade Bread, Circa 2022.
You might be surprised to learn that I was a picky eater for most of my early years. The list of foods that I didn't like was equal to or greater than the list of foods that I like, and for the most part, could easily be organized into a few well-defined categories. Then I got a little older, got a job at a local Chinese restaurant, was no longer required to keep kosher, and, of course, didn’t want to embarrass myself on dates. The next series of culinary epiphanies occurred during international travel and, of course, culinary school.
I like to think of my palette as a series of preferences today. How does that differ from saying, “I don’t like or won’t eat something?” Given the choice between eating and going hungry, there aren’t that many things I won’t eat.
If you find yourself becoming defensive, please don’t. You have a G-d given right to your preferences, and that includes what you choose to eat. And your preferences may also apply to what I am writing about: not liking certain foods and not liking the way that they were prepared aren't the same.
I could go on and on about realizations that accompanied tasting properly identified, properly prepared food. One example is that fish cakes made from leftover scraps, gefilte, and canned aren't representative of fresh seafood. Instead, I'll venture into the world of well-done, which is not reserved for a preference for steak and seafood.
Well-done is the misconception that food only exists in two states; raw and cooked to the consistency of a hockey puck or mush.
Vegetables, for starters. Instead of saying there are right and wrong ways, let's phrase it that there are methods to make greens, cabbages, beets, and vegetables that many detest taste quite good. You don’t need to smother them in cheese or batter and deep fry. If a vegetable can be squished by gently pressing on it with the back of a utensil, or if it came out of a can, jar, or freezer, there are probably much better ways to prepare them.
Roasting works wonders for most vegetables, and cooking stovetop doesn't have to mean steaming or boiling. A small amount of olive oil, a splash of good balsamic vinegar, and removing vegetables from the heat well before "mush" is reached are some basic guidelines. Not convinced? How is it then that Brussels sprouts are about as ubiquitous at restaurants as French fries?
Eggs are another good example. There is a state before hard if you are going to boil or steam them. Boil water, add eggs and boil for exactly 6 minutes, then put them in a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. That is the reason the eggs look so tasty in ramen, they aren't cooked until the yolks dry out.
At some point, they started telling us to cook pasta al-dente. The direct translation from Italian is “to the tooth”, with a literal interpretation that pasta should be slightly firm. The "safe" temperature for cooking whole cuts of meats and seafood (excluding packaged ground varieties) is widely accepted to be medium-rare.
Fresh food and fresh food properly prepared just taste better. A benefit of current diet trends is that canned fruits processed with sugar have been placed on the endangered species list. This fact doesn’t contradict my stance that diet is a four-letter word; I am just willing to recognize a benefit. I am reminded of the bad every time I search for a decent loaf of bread.
The bottom line is to cook food properly, and if you are going to try something new, try a properly cooked version of it. Well and done usually don't go together. If you need to go to cooking school to learn how to cook food properly, go! It is well worth it.
I'll make one generalized exception to all of this, and that is that well and done are the only way to bake a loaf of bread. Most of the sold today bread is removed from the oven prematurely. I can remember back in grade school when the number of kids that didn't eat the crust outnumbered those of us that did. They didn’t eat pizza crust, either. Those aren’t my fondest memories. Did those kids become bakers?