Samin Nosrat

Cooking is part artistry, part chemistry.

My general ratios for measuring salt are simple: 1 percent salt by weight for meats, vegetables, and grains, and 2 percent salinity for water for blanching vegetables and pasta.

food can only ever be as delicious as the fat with which it’s cooked.

A few secret drops of lemon juice will produce creamier, more tender scrambled eggs.

Think how much more we learn—and retain!—when a teacher doesn’t just enumerate the step-by-step instructions but explains the principles behind them. Armed with reasons, we no longer have to cling to a recipe like a lifeboat; now we can strike out on our own and begin to improvise.

four essential elements—or five, if you count the core principle of tasting along the way. Master these principles, she promises, and you will be able to cook delicious food of any kind, in any tradition, whether a salad dressing or braise or a galette.

there are only four basic factors that determine how good your food will taste: salt, which enhances flavor; fat, which amplifies flavor and makes appealing textures possible; acid, which brightens and balances; and heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food

Tough cuts of meat were salted the night before, while delicate fish filets were seasoned at the time of cooking

Oil for frying had to be hot—otherwise the food would end up soggy—while butter for tart dough had to remain cold, so that the crust would crisp up and become flaky

A squeeze of lemon or splash of vinegar could improve almost every salad, soup, and braise