Basic Ingredients and Preparations

A word about some basic ingredients. As you cook your way through the recipes that illustrate the techniques in this book, you’ll be asked to reach for salt, pepper, butter, brown sugar, sesame seeds, and other familiar flavorings. As you probably expect by now, I have strong opinions about even the most commonplace of these ingredients. But I also believe in common sense and I’d hate to see you make a special shopping trip to get unsalted butter or light brown sugar, when you have salted butter in your refrigerator or dark brown sugar in your cupboard. So here are my thoughts on some of the basic seasonings, as well as instructions on toasting pine nuts and sesame seeds.