Just letting you know where I'm coming from

Ear? – and cooking, you ask?  One usually associates the term more often with the musical and rhythmic realms -- working a great beat with a pleasant melody, a nice bridge lift, and a great finish.  Hmm, and just with music you say?  Why is the term ‘by ear’ used?  It must refer to music that has been heard – however, Beethoven proves that differently.  Playing music by ear is more than hopefully picking through a variety of notes until the right combinations and sequences are heard.  The ear comes to those who are moderately acquainted with the instrument, and feel relatively comfortable with melody, chords, rhythm, and balance.  The ‘feel’ of the arrangement of notes and the sequence of one chord after another makes sense to the ear-player while it’s all still in their mind, even before making contact with the instrument.

We work this concept in everyday life.  Specifically I’m sure you’ve been posed the question:  ‘How’s that sound to you?’   The word chosen, sound – interesting use here.  We are asked to make a logical assessment by ear – and then give a response as to how we feel about it, based on our own personal experiences, abilities, knowledge and wisdom.  There’s a basic understanding in using the sound and ear references.  In music, when the choices mentally work, then the ‘rightness’ is felt even before the melody is played.  Then likewise with cooking – feeling the variations of combinations of beat, melody, bridge and finish is presented with aromas, background flavors, textures and seasonings – the ‘harmony and melody’ concept with food isn’t really all that different.  If one is acquainted with flavors and taste combinations through their associated senses – coupled with technique, visual essences and utensil savvy – then one can sense when associations are right before actually beginning to cook.  Yes, that’s what I would call cooking by ear.

Me, I’m no gourmand.  I cook because I love to create; in fact I’m an artist, and that ear thought plays in my life as much in the visual color comparison as well.  With art in mind, I believe that flavor associations can likewise relate to color associations, as we surmised with sound creativity – with similar harmonies, accents, contrasts, emotions and reactions.  That’s how it sounds to me, at any rate.  I’ve cooked for friends and their friends, hosted parties of multitudes of folks eating my grub, but no real ‘professional’ stuff.  As a youngster, I sure enjoyed eating and all that went with it, creatively.  My culinary efforts as a teen were usually successful, but sometimes things came out that even the dog wouldn’t touch.   Some of my roommates and buddies from my later world turned to ordering-out and fast food, while some paired up and let someone else worry about the food preparation and culinary successes.

I had the perfect art job just after college, and ended up living in Paris, France.  This period of time was the proverbial turning point where I really started learning how to think of blends, preparations and tastes – to begin to get ‘it’.  Here, the world of cuisine before me was completely new, all quite actually foreign, and all a bit frightening.  Names of products and ingredients were literally Greek to me.  Cuts and presentations of meats, fowls and fishes were unfamiliar, and my Franco fluency with the venders and marketers was humorous at best.  I had no practical funds to dine out, so it was essentially an issue of survival.  My workplace oftentimes served lunch (my source for some of these recipes), and bit-by-bit I began to absorb from my Paris friends, and catch on to what it was all about . . . to get my ear.

I don’t own a French artisan-crafted enamel cookware set or have command of the single-handed egg crack.  I wish I had a standing mixer, but a wooden spoon and a wire whisk is pretty much it for me.   I use a ten-dollar chef’s knife with a partially melted plastic handle, and get by with a four-burner stovetop and small oven.  I use hyphens far more than I use a broiler, and expensive meats and rare wines have eluded me for years.  I have no idea what fresh chervil looks like – or what a truffle tastes like (except the chocolate kind) – nor have I ever split a vanilla bean to make puddin’. 

But I do have the ear.  I can mentally smell and even taste in my mind what things will be like before they’re prepared.  There is a sizable library of aromas stored up in the smell department of this old cranium.  I like to explore flavor combinations and make things that are different and memorable – but foremost tasty.  Every recipe in this blog had been formed first in my brain, meticulously gone over in detail and how it ‘sounds’, then tested in fact in the kitchen.  This blog is my effort to pass along those ear ideas.  Although some of these recipes may seem generous in ingredients or directions, I feel there are plenty of other blogs out there directing the home cook in a ‘quick and easy’, or semi-pre-packaged meals.  This blog is to help encourage the basic concepts of fresh flavor enhancement and textural enjoyment, along with ideas varied enough to be inspirational and foundation for other ‘break-away’ edible creations.

There is an honest enjoyment found when working enhanced flavor using herbs, spices and combination techniques instead of easily loading up on fats, empty carbs, or salts.  Basically I really love to create.  And happily I love to see those I care for enjoying what I’ve created.  Sharing those basic ‘sound’ senses of when it feels right, and that the choices made are good ones:  those lovely colorful flavors, aromas, aftertastes, backgrounds, peaks, and subtleties – all contributing to a happily sated, friendly, talkative, laugh-filled dining table.  

So to you I’ll give what I know, I’ll lend you my ear.  How’s that sound to you?