03The Notebook · Ingredients
What we cook with,
and why.
The Ingredient Library is a culinary reference, written to be read: what an ingredient is, where it comes from, how it tastes, how to choose, keep and use it, what it works with, and what it connects to elsewhere in DUKAI. It grows one ingredient at a time.
The families
Fourteen shelves,
filling slowly.
Every ingredient belongs to one family. The shelves are set out now; the articles arrive as they are written.
- Herbs·
- Spices·
- Vegetables·
- Fruit·
- Grains·
- Flours·
- Legumes·
- Seafood·
- Meat·
- Dairy·
- Oils & Fats·
- Fermented·
- Preserved·
- Other·
An ingredient article
One ingredient,
properly understood.
Each article carries the same twelve parts, so sage reads the way saffron reads, and a cook always knows where to look.
- 01
What it is
A concise explanation.
- 02
Origin and history
Where it comes from and its culinary history.
- 03
Flavour
Aroma, taste, intensity and character.
- 04
Season
When it is at its best, where that applies.
- 05
How to select it
What good quality looks, smells or feels like.
- 06
Storage
How best to keep it.
- 07
How to use it
Practical culinary applications.
- 08
Techniques
Fresh, fried, infused, dried, ground, fermented, preserved, roasted or steeped, as the ingredient allows.
- 09
What it works with
Ingredient and flavour pairings.
- 10
What to avoid
Where it can overwhelm, conflict or be mishandled.
- 11
Preservation
Where applicable.
- 12
Related
Techniques, recipes and Notebook experiments that use it.
Food, tradition and research
Kept apart,
on purpose.
Herbs, spices and ingredients carry long traditions of use. The Library records those traditions, and separately records what research has looked at and what it has actually established, so one is never mistaken for the other.
- 01
Traditional use
Historical or cultural uses of the ingredient.
- 02
Current research
What credible contemporary research has investigated.
- 03
Established evidence
Only what reliable evidence supports.
- 04
Safety and interactions
Known cautions, where relevant.
Culinary and historical information on DUKAI is educational. It is not medical advice.
The articles
The first articles are being written. They will appear here, family by family, as each one is checked and ready.