Core Ingredients

Most dishes will contain four key components: a protein, some vegetables, a carbohydrate, and a sauce. There are exceptions of course (some meals only have two or three of these) but it's a good general rule.

Today, we'll be looking at protein. It's essential for many bodily functions, including building and repairing tissues. It's also rich and tasty, and often the star of a meal. Think a juicy steak, or a piece of delicious fish.

Humans traditionally get protein from meat. There are other options available, but that's what we're going to focus on. Apologies to people who don't eat meat – feel free to skip this orb.

Meat has three main parts: muscle, fat, and connective tissue. These are all important for cooking. Muscle is made of moist, protein-rich strands; fat contains drops of oil; connective tissue is bursting with flavor molecules.

The darkness of meat depends on a protein called myoglobin, which varies based on how much the muscle is used. Higher myoglobin content also results in more fat, and richer flavors.

Because of this, whiter meat is often less tasty, and also naturally drier. Chicken is good example – its whiter breast meat is less moist and flavorsome than its darker wings and thighs.

To get great tasting white meat, you'll need to add some fat and flavor yourself. For example, you can cook your chicken breast into a rich stew, or cover it in butter before roasting.

Whichever technique you use, you want the center of your chicken to reach 75°C (165°F).

When you're working with fish, here's a helpful tip: these animals evolved to live underwater, in much cooler temperatures than land animals. Because of this, their meat will cook and break down at a lower temperature than a land animal.

Pan frying is often a good option. It's fast, which makes it easy to avoid overcooking. If you're pan frying a fish with skin on it, that skin will also turn crispy and brown through the Maillard Reaction.

Poaching is another good option. It lets you cook your piece of fish at a slightly lower, more delicate heat.

Whichever technique you use, you want the center of your fish to reach 65°C (145°F).

Red meats, like beef and lamb, are versatile. They can be cooked in a number of differents ways, including pan frying, barbecuing, roasting, and stewing.

Perhaps the hardest red meat to cook consistently well is a beef steak. But there's a knack to it, which can definitely be learned.

Always make sure that your steak is thick, with plenty of marbling. Marbling is just the fat content – it will help to keep your steak moist. Make sure your frying pain is nice and hot (carbon steel works great for this), then fry your steak in oil, flipping it often, and using a meat thermometer to track internal temperature.

Depending how you enjoy your steak, you'll want to wait for a different temperature:

• - For rare, you'll want 57°C (135°F)
• - For medium, you'll want 70°C (160°F)
• - For well done, you'll want 75°C (165°F)

Along with protein, which we talked about last time, it's also important that our cooking uses fruit and vegetables. They bring flavors, textures and vibrant colors, which you can't find in a piece of meat.

They're also extremely good for you. People used to say, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", but now it's generally recommended to eat five different servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

These servings should be a mixture of cooked and uncooked, because you'll get different benefits from each. For example, raw tomatoes are full of vitamin C. If you cook them, this delicate vitamin breaks down – but you'll unlock another nutrient called lycopene instead.

Boiling is a popular method for cooking vegetables. But as we've already learned, a lot of nutrients will leach into the water. Steaming is definitely a better option if you want to retain those nutrients.

If you're more interested in taste than nutrient retention, frying is another option. Just make sure to keep the vegetables moving in the pan – we call this method stir frying.

Roasting is another option, but there's a risk that your veg will dry out. To stop this from happening, try covering the vegetables with foil. This will trap some steam, and keep the vegetables moist. After 15 minutes, remove the foil, and the vegetables will nicely crisp up.

As a general rule, fruit is best enjoyed raw, but you can definitely cook it if you want to.

Heat will soften a fruit, by breaking down a fiber called pectin. Just bake it in the oven, or stew it in a saucepan. Cooked fruit tastes amazing in hearty desserts, especially pies and crumbles.

If you've bought some fruit, and it isn't ripening fast enough, here's a trick to speed things up. Just put the fruit in a bowl with bananas. Bananas release a gas called ethylene, which speeds up the ripening of other fruits.

But bear in mind: this trick only works for climacteric fruits, a category which includes apples, avocadoes, and peaches. It doesn't work for non-climacteric fruits, like oranges, pineapples and strawberries. If in doubt, just look it up: is this fruit climacteric or not?

Along with fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds can bring a lot to your cooking. They're full of nutrients and protein – but they're also high in calories, so they should be eaten in moderation.

Most nuts and seeds can be eaten raw, but you can also toast them in a pan or roast them in the oven. For best results, try doing this at home, instead of buying your nuts pre-roasted.

Cooking results in a crispier texture, and more complex flavors, all thanks to the Maillard Reaction. As an added bonus, the nuts will release delicious oils, which make them much more moist and rich.

If you take your cooked nuts, and sprinkle them on a meal, you'll add a nutritious, buttery crunch. For example, toasted almonds go great on top of a salad.

We've seen what meat and vegetables bring to a meal. But in most cases, you'll also need a carbohydrate – a hearty foundation that ties the whole dish together.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. You can either integrate the carb into the meal itself (for example, pasta) or you can put it on the side (for example, bread). A carb on the side can actually be used as a tool for eating. You can use it for dipping, and scooping, and wiping up juices.

Either way, whether you include it on the side or in the actual dish, a meal probably won't feel complete unless some kind of carb is present.

Rice is the staple carbohydrate for more than half the world's population. It's nutritious, filling, and (if properly cooked) delicious. But what's the best way to cook fluffy rice?

Start by rinsing it in cold water. This gets rids of any excess starch, which will otherwise become sticky when you cook it. Next, put it in a saucepan, and add water up to a level 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) above the rice.

Bring the water to a rolling boil, and keep an eye on it. Once most of the water has evaporated off, and the rice is looking soft and plump, cover the pan and leave the rice to absorb some steam. 15 minutes later, uncover the pot. Stir the rice with a fork, then leave it to sit for a few more minutes.

After that, your rice should be deliciously fluffy, and ready for you to eat.

Another staple carb is pasta. It comes in hundreds of different forms, and everyone has a different favorite. Penne, spaghetti, fusilli, macaroni...

Annoyingly, when you boil pasta in water, the starch in pasta starts to turn into a gel, which makes the pieces stick together. But there's an easy solution to this: add some salt to the water. This raises the temperature at which starch turns to gel, so the pieces won't get as sticky.

Some people also recommend adding olive oil to the water, but actually that's a bit of a myth. Oil and water don't mix with each other, so the oil will just float on the top.

After cooking your pasta, and draining the water, you can add a dash of olive oil to stop the pieces from sticking together. But you should only do this if you're not using a sauce. If you do use a sauce, and you've oiled your pasta, the sauce will keep slipping off the pieces.

Last but not least, we have potatoes. These are a type of tuber, which is essentially an underground stockpile of energy, that you find in some species of plant.

Potatoes are super versatile, and can be cooked in so many ways. It's useful to match them to the textures of your other components: rich creamy mash for a rich creamy stew, fried chips with fried fish, roast potatoes with roast chicken, and so on.

Depending on how you're using them, you'll want a different type of potato. The two main categories are starchy (e.g. russets) and waxy (e.g. new potatoes). Starchy potatoes are great for mashing and crushing, because they break down easily when cooked. Waxy potatoes keep their shape a lot better, and are best for salads or roasts.

We've seen how most meals have a carbohydrate, a protein, and some vegetables. Now, let's talk about sauces.

Sauces aren't always essential, but a good one can tie all those other components together. If done right, it can also bring so much to a meal's overall taste. Imagine you were serving some beef, for example; a rich meaty sauce might add to that flavor, or an acidic red wine sauce could provide some delicious contrast.

As well as flavor, consistency is key to a good sauce. It should be thicker than water, so that it coat ingredients effectively, but it shouldn't be so thick that it becomes gloopy.

So how do you go about making a good sauce? Let's take a closer look.

A sauce will usually need three parts: a liquid, a thickener, and some seasoning.

You should always start with the liquid, which serves as your sauce's foundation. This can be water, wine, milk, cream, or stock (more on that in a second). Water is the blandest option, so it will usually need more added to it.

Next, you add a thickener to the liquid. On a scientific level, liquids molecules slide around easily, but thickeners slow them down. A roux is a classic thickening agent made by mixing flour into melted fat, like butter. Other good examples include cornflour and cheese.

Last but not least, we have some seasoning. Sometimes, the thickener will bring flavor on its own – for example, a good bit of cheese. But if not, you can add some herbs, spices, or other ingredients to improve the sauce's taste.

A moment ago, we mentioned stock. This is essentially hot water infused with flavor and aroma molecules from ingredients like meats and vegetables.

You can buy pre-made stock cubes, ready to mix with water, or you can make stock yourself at home. To do this, you'll need to cut some pre-cooked ingredients into pieces, then simmer them for a couple of hours: for example, you could use some pieces of cooked meat.

Once it's finished simmering, allow your stock to cool. Skim off any scum and fat. Then pour it through a sieve, to remove the ingredients, but leave the delicious liquid behind.

This stock then be used as the liquid base for a sauce – just add some thickeners, and some seasoning (if needed).

While you can get creative, and come up with hundreds of different sauces, some chefs believe there are five key 'mother sauces' from which all other sauces are derived. If you learn how to make them, you can't go too far wrong.

The five mother sauces are Béchamel (velvety and buttery), Velouté (white and silky), Hollandaise (buttery and lemony), Espagnole (rich and earthy), and Tomato (acidic and herby).

It isn't strictly true that all other sauces are derived from these, especially when you take into account non-European cuisines. But they're definitely a good foundation. You can find recipes for all of these sauces online – notice how all of them are made by combining a liquid, a thickener, and some seasoning.