Things are easier to cook when they’re thin. You don’t have to cook them as long, so there’s less risk of overcooking if you watch what you’re doing. And more importantly, less risk of some shit being burnt on the outside and raw or cold on the inside, which is an absolutely vile result. I’m willing to bake or nuke something that comes with simple instructions, but otherwise it’s slicin’ and using a frying pan.
It’s also cool because you can get more of that crisp element of frying. The outer edges and surface get crisp, and the thinner what you’re cooking is, the more of each bite that will posses that quality. If it’s a vegetable I’m cooking, thin slices. I don’t like the crunch of veggies, and thin veggies get soft faster in the pan. Soft veggies for flavor, crisp meat or cheese… That’s the goods.
Even when cooking isn’t a consideration, I cut thin. I got the idea from David Lynch. Not to sound like a freak; feel like I’ve been mentioning him too much recently. Some years ago I was watching an episode of Twin Peaks where Joan Chen was being tormented by (spoiler), losing her mind in the kitchen. Her mental state was illustrated by having her slice an apple. In America we almost always slice apples in wedges of roughly equal dimensions, but she was slicing it thin, like cheese or deli meat.
The scene had a sensuous quality, but maybe I just imagine that because Joan Chen is too beautiful. Surely, she wasn’t supposed to be seen as erotic or romantic in that moment, not exactly. But she can thin slice me any day, I tell you whut.
There’s an Electric Six song called Slices of You, and it’s not one of their best. It’s fine. But I think of this part from the breakdown, sometimes when I’m joanchenning an apple: “Everywhere I go, people ask me Valentine, what’s your recipe for love? And I always tell them the same thing. Cook the hell out of it, and SLICE IT.”
Anyway, I think about this often enough that I wondered if I’d already written a blog post on the subject, and I searched the archive here. You know how many occurrences of the word “slice” there are on this blog? I haven’t written about this exact subject before, but I’m starting to wonder if I have a problem here.
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I think about this often as well. Cooking delicious food almost always comes down to proper management of moisture levels. Different types of ingredient have different moisture contents, and also the property of losing or gaining moisture faster or slower, under varying conditions. And the thickness of the ingredient (or more specifically, its surface area to volume ratio) is one of the ways you can control the transfer of moisture, modulating not only the hydration level in the final product, but also how much your ingredient undergoes caramelization or Maillard reactions. It’s easier to make crispy potatoes than crispy cantaloupe…but if you cut cantaloupe thin enough, and used some paper towels to pat it dry as possible…you could probably make it crispy. Maybe not watermelon though…?
i’ve thought of this a few times, but always dismissed it without giving it an earnest try. i imagine you could crispy fry some thin sliced dried fruit, but they’d have to be fruit jerky before it would work… or i’m wrong! it’d be interesting to know.
Well, you guys are in luck…
https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/crispy-dried-watermelon-076897
More like freeze dried watermelon, I suppose, but thin sliced and crispy.
I learned that slicing thinly can be a taste enhancer while working at a pizza place long ago. We made tomato bread there and the name sounded kind of silly to me and not particularly tasty. But a coworker convinced me to try it and it.
It can be really good when made well!
I think it’s also pretty easy to make at home. I think you would just put minced garlic and a little salt in some oil and refrigerate it for at least a few days. If you buy the refrigerated garlic that’s already in a jar with oil, just add a little more oil and salt to some of it. I’d guess a roughly 1:1 ratio on garlic to added oil. Slice a bun in half and cover the sliced part with your garlic oil. Put very thinly sliced tomato on top and provolone cheese slices on top of that. Add a little oregano and/or parmesan sprinkles on top if you like. Cook a few minutes to melt the cheese, let cool a bit, and eat.
I used to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant.
I still don’t know how they sliced tuna that thin.
chigau – special knives are part of it, but even with those, probably some practiced technique.
lanir – recipes welcome on cooking posts, for sure, as rare as i make these.