30 January 2008 re: impatience

Chrissie:

Why do you keep warning us not to be "impatient" in your explanation about caramelizing onions? Don't you mean that we shouldn't be "absent-minded" or "distracted" or "inattentive"?

m-c:

Hmm, good question.

This must be a cooking-personality thing. I get impatient and turn up the heat. Doesn't everybody do this? Apparently not. Maybe this is why I burn things?

I've added an explanation to the piece on caramelizing onions, and I've added to my brain the information that some -- many? most? cooks don't need to be warned not to up the temperature. It would never occur to them.

I don't mean to imply that I never burn things through inattention -- I do that too. It's just for this particular recipe the last time I burned a whole pan of onions I was hoping to caramelize I did it through impatience, turning the heat up, rather than distraction.

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