An Everlasting Meal
by Tamar Adler · first published 2011
6mentions
5recommended by
6HN commenters
2014–2024first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
An essay-style guide to cooking without recipes, built around leftovers, scraps and pantry staples. It reframes how to run a kitchen day to day.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have.
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In terms of running a kitchen, and how to think about food, I really liked the book The Everlasting Meal [1] It was a bit fluffy, but gets at the heart of how to run a kitchen as an ongoing concern, rather than as a place you dive into as a one-off recipe, and leave when done. [1] http://smile.amazon.com/An-Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-Economy/...
on “What kids around the world eat for breakfast” ↗> Also, in places like Africa,food is stored! Indeed. And, in savvier kitchens. See MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf and the nicely written modern interpretation by Tamar Adler: The Everlasting Meal.
on “A free cookbook for people living on $4/day” ↗…and shift my focus from work back to spending time with my family. Our apartment is right next to a grocery store, so it's easy to grab stuff for a recipe on my way home from work. I'm a big fan of An Everlasting Meal by Tamar E. Adler. For instance, last week I prepared pork tenderloin w/ sage and lemon (browned in a skillet and then 20 min. in the oven at 450°F) on Sunday with a spinach and mushroom sauté w/ a garlic…
on “Ask HN: Hackers who cook” ↗Anyone intrigued by the idea of meals and flavors evolving over time from leftovers should read An Everlasting Meal, which describes similar techniques. https://www.amazon.com/Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-Economy-Grac...
on “The ‘Perpetual Broths’ That Simmer for Decades” ↗If the extemporaneous style of cooking from the article sounds interesting to you, the book "An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler teaches it. (She quotes M. F. K. Fisher often, who was edited by Judith Jones.) Personally, for everyday cooking I find that way of cooking much more engaging – and much less like drudgery…
on “My lunches with the queen of cookbooks” ↗Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management System (Sobek II and Smalley) Data Smart: Using Data Science To Transform Information into Insight (Foreman) An Everlasting Meal (Waters and Adler) Product Design and Development (Ulrich et al)
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗