Michelle McKenzie - The Modern Larder - From Anchovies to Yuzu, a Guide to Artful and Attainable Home Cooking

What Is the Modern Larder?

Before my son was born, most of my waking hours were spent shopping for, prepping, and cooking food. It was my job, my pleasure, the way I cared for and connected with others. My first cookbook, Dandelion & Quince, reflected this passion. In it I set about showcasing all the unusual produceremarkable fruits, vegetables, and herbsthat are increasingly accessible but often overlooked by the everyday shopper. On every page I aimed to compel readers to take risks with new foods and techniques. It was invigorating, a teaching high. And then, halfway through the writing, I realized I had a parallel story to tell about my larderthe oils, vinegars, sauces, syrups, spices, and preserves I rely on every day. Items such as capers, crme frache, miso, shio koji, preserved lemons, date syrup, fish sauce, rice flour, ghee, yuzu, and so on.

This was a larder Id been expanding most of my adult life. But when I spoke to culinary students and friends about it, they blanched. Michelle, I wouldnt know what to do with chickpea flour or kefir, they said. Their reactions convinced me I was on to something, specifically cookbook number two. For my students, friends, and readers, I would take each of my larder favorites and give it a 360-degree treatment. For example, Id show readers how shio koji can be used as a dressing, a marinade (that transforms meat and fish), a pickling medium, or simply liquid supersalt.

Then I had that baby boy I mentioned. Everyone told me hed change everything. He did. Now, the constraints of motherhood have shown me another reason why this cookbook is needed: mining the larder is the ultimate efficiency. It saves time. It saves my family every day.

I revere the traditional French and Italian approach of bottom-up cooking: an initial sear of meats and sweating down of vegetables; the subsequent deglazing of the pan; careful tending. These methods create fully developed flavor and provide a dependable foundation on which to build a dish. While cooking remains a redemptive pleasure and I look forward to my time in the kitchen, nowadays Im prone to bypassing a lengthy building process and instead employ hardworking ingredients from my larder. I saut in umami-rich schmaltz, toss dried limes into simmering beans, shower homemade spice blends on roasted vegetables, bake with cultured dairy and charismatic flours, and spike many things with fish sauce. In this way, I get maximum impact for minimal effort.

By offering you a fresh and freeing perspective on some powerful ingredients while arming you with pro tips and solid techniques, I aim to loosen up the cook in you. Instead of big weekend or monthlong projects like preserving lemons, infusing vinegar, or making jam, I have spent my ink on less intimidating matters, demystifying kitchen keystones from a cross section of cultures and influences, and showing that theres no authentic or inauthentic usageif a combination makes sense to the palate, its right. I dispose of sacrilege entirely (I braise my holiday brisket with mole spices, mix fish sauce with olive oil, and pair miso with dill) and encourage you to use everything at your disposalbecause when you do, magic is made. These recipe ideas are meant to free you from monotony and guide you in finessing already fine ingredients into inspired versions of themselves.

If The Modern Larder came with a thesis, it would be: one ingredient can change the nature of a dish, elevating it from flat to transcendent. Many of the featured ingredients are those secret somethings in the dishes at your favorite restaurants. Some have recently becomeor are likely to becomemainstream in American food culture and available to all home cooks. Most can be easily found online or, especially if youre near a big city, at a brick-and-mortar. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it contains the ingredients I find the most compelling, those that have most changed and improved my cooking.