I love the sound of onions hitting hot oil in the pan. It's not as universal, but for me, it is right up there with laughing babies, or purring kittens. Where others might hear hissing, I hear a contented sigh. Dinner is underway.
Cooking is about the senses, and not only the obvious application of smell and taste, but touch, sight, and hearing. It is the feel of a bread dough when it's been properly worked and is ready to ferment, or the sound of a searing steak when it's released from the pan and can be turned to brown the opposite side. It is judging everything from cookies to a roast chicken as "golden brown and delicious" just by looking at it. And it's poking a chicken breast to judge it's doneness, or the slapping sound a cake batter makes when the eggs are fully incorporated, and it is ready for you to add the flour.
I get very frustrated when I hear people say they just cannot cook. Yes, there are some who have a certain instinct (maybe a sixth sense) for cooking, but it really is as simple - and as complex - as organizing a few ingredients, heating them, and paying attention to the details. Cooking, is most tightly defined as the application of heat for the purposes of transforming raw foods into safer, more appetizing, or more digestible, cooked foods. That's it! OK, not everyone gets a kick out of frying onions, like me, but anyone can do it, and do it successfully. It does require practice, but then no human baby ever stood up, and walked, on its first try either.
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