It’s not like we’re born with the ability to know exactly when a cake is done in the middle, or how to make noodles from scratch. But, we get there. We learn over time. So, I talked to people about their lives. The interviews were intensive, going in to family life, pocket books and spiritual views. I talked to people who have a reputation for their cooking passion. To truly find out why cooking at home is what it is I had to have voices of people who knew what they’re doing. I judged whether or not they knew what they were doing by how they talked about food before the interview, what they were making at home, or prior advice on meals. I tried to focus on men and women. I believe it’s a stereotype to see women in the kitchen and men not caring about what they eat at all. This isn’t true. Men can and do like to cook at home, so they’re a part of the research as well.
I don’t consider myself an expert, but I’m at least enthusiastic enough to know the difference between someone who can measure a tablespoon and someone who knows what whipping egg whites means. Because of this knowledge base I also used personal experience. I’ve cooked many things and know for a fact I feel differently about cooking than lots of other people I’ve talked to. Some people would rather have their food handed to them and prepared. I wouldn’t mind if I were stuck in my kitchen day in and day out making meals for my future children and anyone else who walked through my door. My blog was used heavily for voice in the research. You learn a lot about how a person views food by how they talk about it. I, as you’ve seen, get a little bit of an ego and think all my jokes are funny all while oohing and aahing over the flavors in my filet mignon.
Since I wanted to hear everyone else’s’ voice as well I read other people’s blogs. This not only gave me a feel for why people cook but how. It’s an important aspect. Anyone can microwave something, but can you cook it? It was all fun and no work when it came to this. I got so many recipe ideas! There are so many ways to describe putting your meal together. There are different ingredients, and substitutes for those as well. I know my knowledge is no where near as extensive as necessary to write on this topic alone, so as often as possible I read articles about different foods or tried out different recipes. It’s important to read other people’s work because it allows for new perspectives to be shown. Without personally knowing these people I still had the chance to see why they cook at home.
With all of my new recipe ideas I definitely had some meals to try out. This was integral to my research. What if I used someone’s idea for an example but the food was totally crappy? I needed to have quality standards and a deeper understanding of what ingredients go in to certain dishes. I believe this research only gives me a tighter grasp on home cooking and makes it easier to write about in the end. I want to be completely immersed in this culture, so all of these research methods were needed.
Because I was so surrounded all the time by food and people who love it I also wrote a glossary. It is by no means extensive to what cooking at home looks like. That could be a book in itself. But, it is a guideline of archival materials that play a repeating role in most people’s home cooking experience, or at least with the people I talked to. This will be helpful to the non-informed reader as a reference. I don’t expect all of you to know what boning a duck even refers to. That’s ok. That’s why I’m writing about this.
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