fandomhigh | Beginning Gourmet Cooking Techniques

Hannibal nodded at the students as they took their seats. "Good morning. I hope you all had a very good break. Today we'll be speaking about utensils once again. While a good knife is perhaps the most important, there are other things which also make cooking substantially easier. Among them, pots and pans."

He nodded at the assortment in front of him. "There are a number of basic types, and if you're planning on cooking at all, it's good to have at least one of each." He held the handles of the first two, lifting them so everybody could see. "A sauté pan, and a skillet."

"The sauté pan is deeper and has straight sides; it's best for searing meat, and for reducing sauces. It has more surface area at the bottom, and meat and other things are less likely to escape." He smiled and turned the other one. "The skillet's sides are sloped, so you don't have as much room. But if you're cooking anything that takes a lot of movement, such as stir fry, or that requires serving from the pan, it is easier to work with."

He picked up and turned the next item.

"Saucepans come in many sizes; if you're stocking a kitchen, you'll probably want several. The size of your pan can determine how quickly and evenly your food is cooked. Similar to those is a double boiler."

"The top pot is simply a shallow saucepan; the bottom, as you see," he demonstrated, "has a ridge in which the other sits. This way you can cook things for which direct heat is too delicate. Water in the bottom steams the food in the top."

He tilted the largest pot forward. "Lastly, a dutch oven."

"Larger than a sauce pan, with thick walls. Very useful for soups or for larger roasts."

He flicked the dutch oven, which made a fairly dull thud, and the double boiler, which rang at a higher pitch. "You will also note the various metals. Cast iron is traditional for the dutch oven; also many saucepans, including this one. However, the iron may react with strongly acidic or alkaline foods, so it's good to have something nonreactive as well. Stainless steel is nonreactive, but it doesn't conduct heat well. This double boiler and skillet are all-clad; that means they have a copper core surrounded by stainless steel." And that they cost more than some people's paychecks.

"You want to be careful when choosing metals to get something that will last, and preferably that will not poison you. Also, you should take good care of the pans that you get; they'll last much longer and your food will taste better."

He eyed them all. "I had considered that for this class it would be appropriate to have you wash dishes instead of cooking, but that seemed too cruel after vacation. Count yourselves lucky. Instead, you will be making eggs." He tapped each pan or pot in turn. "Fried, scrambled, poached, and hard boiled. The same food, very different ending points, and different cookware for each. Please ask if you have any questions."

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Seriously, the prices on these things? They're art in their own right.

Rilla, wearing a simple white dress and a pale, drawn look on her face, was focused incredibly intently on the pots and pans, in that "dear Lord, give me something to focus on" sort of way.

She looked like she'd dropped ten pounds in a week. Her trip home had lasted longer than that, but the weight loss was accurate.

"Miss Rilla." Hannibal nodded at her. It seemed pointless to ask how her time at home had been; he could see that for himself. "How is Ms Baker?"

"Miss Baker is well," Rilla said, rummaging through her bag until she found an envelope that she handed to him. "She sent you a thank you note for the pies, which she said were 'quite adequate for a Yankee.'"

Hannibal took the envelope and chuckled. "I shall take that as high praise; thank her for me. And how is your family?"

Rilla's face crumpled for a moment in reply.

So...not wonderfully.

Isabelle was trying to pay attention. Honestly, she was. But her mind kept drifting to other things. Like training. And what accessories would go best with her dress for the dance.

It was possible that all she'd be taking away from this lecture would be that cooking involved pans.

"Using the proper pan or pot can keep you from turning your food into an inedible mess," Hannibal said rather pointedly.

Had he forgotten the pasta that first week? No, he had not.

Unfortunately, he hadn't healed overnight. So, he was still looking fairly worse for the wear with the bruises crisscrossing his body, the useless arm in a sling and the leg that he could only limp on.

But, he was paying attention for the most part. Every so often, he'd drift away, thinking about other things or focusing on blocking out his pain but pots and pans and cooking. He was in the now.

Sort of.

Emma maybe wasn't paying as much attention as normal, since she doubted she'd ever even have a kitchen to put any pots and pans in.

"Emma." Hannibal greeted her. "Did you enjoy Italy?"

Emma looked up. "It wasn't what I expected." Not that she'd ever expected to go there. "In a good way."

"Oh? What had you expected?"

"I don't know." Emma shrugged. "Like on the tv, I guess. Old and stuff."

"There are certainly very old parts of it, if you go looking for them." Hannibal shrugged. "But quite a bit of new as well."

They were ... pots. And pans. They were nice, Alana guessed, but she really didn't see the big deal. She passed part of the lecture sketching ideas for her homecoming dress in her notebook.

Hannibal watched for a moment, then interrupted. "While I may at some point teach a sketching class, Alana, this is not that class."

Alana went pink as she fumbled her notebook to a blank page. "Sorry," she muttered, and tried to focus on the kitchenware.

Now this, Anna was familiar with. The cookware at her home had never been of such high quality, and they'd certainly never owned a double boiler, but the cast iron--well, cast iron was cast iron, and it wouldn't steer you wrong. She could have prepared all the forms of egg in the dutch oven if she had to. But the others were all so shiny.

Edited 2013-10-23 01:33 (UTC)

"Hello, Anna," Hannibal said. "I trust you enjoyed the break?"

Anna hesitated, considering how to respond. "Not particularly," she finally admitted. "It gets very quiet around here." And it was easy to be jealous while one's classmates were gallivanting around Tuscany.

"Not a fan of quiet?" Hannibal asked, smiling gently.

Beginning Gourmet Cooking Techniques | Tuesday, 1st Period

Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans

Re: Listen to the lecture, look at the pots and pans