Читать книгу Buns and Burgers - Gregory Berger - Страница 11

How to Use This Book

I’m often inspired to bake or cook because of an Instagram photo, or a recipe I see while flipping through a book. Most of the time, when I look at a recipe, I only need to grasp the basics and then make it without referring back to the specifics. Or I see a photo and try to recreate a version of what I saw with whatever I have on hand.

Most of the recipes in this book lend themselves to that style of cooking. They are mainly a starting off point or a suggestion. If you can’t find pea sprouts, use lettuce. If you have arugula, but the recipe calls for leaf lettuce, go for it! The greens are simply to provide a nice cool crunch, and a break from all the meat and carbs. Also, most of the cheeses in this book are interchangeable. Cheddar, Swiss, manchego, even American, can be used equivalently on just about any burger, should you like one but not another. Or, just use what you already have!

For the beef, try to use a little less, and get the best you can buy. Go to a butcher or grocery store that carries sustainable, grass-fed beef. You can easily make one pound of good beef stretch into four burgers.

A lot of recipes say, “Add salt and pepper to taste.” I recommend that you salt everything, and salt often. When cooking, add a little throughout the cooking process, not just at the end. This helps flavor the food from the inside, not just the outside. I keep a small bowl of kosher salt nearby, and I throw in a pinch here and there. Using pinches instead of a shaker helps ensure that you aren’t over-salting.

In the baking part of this book, however, you do need to be a little more precise. The measurements and the basic ingredients can be pretty important. You can’t just sub almond milk for regular milk, or oil for butter. But the baking part is also a great place to let your creativity shine! Many people will tell you that baking is an exact science, but don’t let that intimidate you. Most bakers and baking books use the metric system, digital scales, and ratios to write the recipes. If you seriously get into baking, metric is great! I use a digital scale most of the time. But I wanted this book to be as easy for you as possible, so I stuck with the tried-and-true cups and teaspoons. All the recipes here have been tested, but sometimes I didn’t precisely remember the measurements. Did I use exactly a quarter cup of sugar? Did I pack the flour into the cup, or was it spooned in? Don’t worry; the recipes will work, regardless. They’re just buns.

But there are some things that I do and use that you probably should as well, in order to improve your success. Here’s a list of equipment and ingredients that I use when baking and cooking.