Quality ingredients

 

a little green on a cloudy day

It has been a nice day here in Kansas City.  Not too hot, a bit too humid, though, but overall considering this is August, the weather has been mild.  In fact, looking ahead at the forecast for the next 10 days, it almost seems like autumn is trying to make an early appearance.  Every time fall starts, I lament the fact that once again I haven't managed to put in a permanent herb garden.  You'd think with the amount of time that I spend cooking it would be something that would have been done a long time ago.  But once again as summer is beginning to wind down I seem to have neglected that project.  Oh, well.  C'est la vie.

With every food I make, I try to use high quality ingredients.  There are some chocolates I simply will not procure because they won't be able to give the flavor and texture that I want in a certain dessert, for example.  When I find a specific excellent ingredient from a specific supplier, then I always try to use that.  It's a bit more expensive sometimes, but it's well worth it in the end.

Vanilla extract and vanilla beans are something that should always be high quality, in my opinion.  Not long ago, I ran dangerously low on vanilla extract.  If you know anything about good vanilla, you know how varied the quality of product is from different purveyors.  Anyway, I was using quite a bit of it as I as I was tweaking a couple recipes over and over again, and didn't realize how low I was.  No problem, I thought.  I'd get some more.  Well, then I found out that the place that made the brand I preferred to use was running way behind both in terms of shipping and also in terms of available product.  All this was due to the challenges that our current global health crisis has created.  I put my order in but knew I wouldn't be getting it for several days.  

What to do?  What to do?  I got a different brand from the my local grocery store.  They were also short of some of the better possible secondary choices.  I had to settle for a brand I had used a long long time ago, back in a day before I really knew very much about cooking with high quality ingredients.  It was pure vanilla extract, at least, not artificial.  However, when I put in this recipe that I was tweaking, it was amazing to taste the difference between this very inexpensive brand and my little-bit-pricier first choice for which I was waiting days.  I was not at all happy with this replacement for the usual vanilla I try to keep around, but what I was really amazed at was that I could taste such a clear distinction between the top-rate and the not-so-top-rate product.  First of all, it told me how much my own preferences had changed over the years.  Second, it really reinforced how much it matters to have a high quality ingredient for certain things.

Now, I don't think one has to pay top dollar for everything.  Granulated sugars, for example, I have found give pretty much the same result when you're working with a generic inexpensive brand compared to a heavily-marketed name brand.  And sometimes, the "house" brand that a grocery carries of some products are actually far superior to other more well-known name brands.  But when it comes to certain things -- vanilla, chocolate, butter, et al -- I always find it important to be very selective.

I was very glad when my vanilla extract order eventually arrived.  I placed another order right away so that I would have an extra bottle.  Now when I get down to one unopened bottle, it actually means I'm "out" and have to order more -- at least that's how I will think of it

Now after writing about that, I feel like going grocery shopping.  I don't know why, but I do.  Have a great evening, everyone.