Serves: 5
Most of the new generation of products falls into one of two broad groups:
* Bulk ingredients that have been processed to be easier to use (bags of washed and cut lettuce leaves, precooked meats, sliced mushrooms, and already mashed potatoes)
* Exotic or complex preparations that have been made more readily available (curry sauce, pesto, bruschetta, jerk, and satay sauce)
With regard to the first group, you probably already purchase the same ingredient in a less prepared state (whole unwashed heads of lettuce, fresh meat, and unpeeled whole potatoes), and you might notice that the processed products seem much more expensive. For example, a 3-ounce package of ready-to-serve precooked bacon costs the same as a whole pound of raw bacon. But once you realize that bacon shrinks to 20 percent of its original weight during cooking, the two products end up having nearly identical use costs, and the ready-to-serve product doesn't require cooking, which saves you time, mess, and the nuisance of getting splattered with grease.
The second group of ingredients is a different matter. Not only is buying a jar of peanut sauce cheaper than buying the ingredients you would need to make it, but you are unlikely to ever prepare peanut sauce, or tapenade, or curry sauce, or demi-glace outside of a specific recipe. When you have an arsenal of fully prepared sauces and condiments in your pantry, the next time you grill a chicken breast, instead of topping it with salt and pepper, you can reach for that jar of basil pesto, or stir-fry sauce, or tomato bruschetta. Just having these ingredients on hand will revolutionize the way you cook.
This 03-The Ingredients recipe is from the Homemade in a Hurry Cookbook. Download this Cookbook today.
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