HOW YOU COOK IS HOW YOU CREATE

At about the time my gas grill was starting to show signs of rust and malfunction, some neighbors who were dear friends gifted me a spare gas smoker. A simple device requiring only a tank of propane and a bit of education.

Over the course of the last eight years or so, I created my own spice rubs for pork and chicken, as well as a cure to create gravlax-style salmon. I am nowhere near the level of those who enter competitions. However, family and friends have enjoyed several delicious meals.

There is a process to smoking, one that requires patience, attention to detail, and a sense of timing. The very first thing I smoked was a 10 lb. Boston Butt. My grocery store had it on sale at .99/lb. It was too good of a deal. I brined it for a day, rubbed and wrapped it for a day, and then woke up exceedingly early on a weekend morning to prep the smoker and get it cooked. It took about eleven hours.

Needless to say, we had plenty of leftovers and I have not smoked anything of THAT size since. Nevertheless, I learned what is required. For a chicken fryer or pork roast, I will likely put the rub on at least a day prior. Choice of wood is significant to create a particular flavor profile. I have a digital thermometer with a separate device to read it remotely.

For the salmon, I developed a cure based on various recipes I encountered. My notes indicate it should be cured a minimum of three days but up to seven. I typically use the latter. This means the salmon I buy this weekend is getting smoked the next. That takes planning.

My new stainless-steel cookware set requires a different technique than the old cheap non-stick set it replaced. I don’t need to crank up the heat as it is bad for the cookware and worse for what is being cooked. Cleaning is a completely different consideration.

I could provide countless more examples of the greater care I now take in cooking and all things culinary. Perhaps they are related to growing older. I have noticed they all translate to creative aspects as well. Care and attention. Planning. While I may be considered more of a pantser as a writer, this does not preclude a consideration of the work in progress. There will have been enough written down in the beginning to allow a process to continue.

Rewriting is the fine-tuning process, when the work has simmered for a bit and needs to be seasoned to bring out its inherent qualities. Editing, on the other hand, is the cleanup portion where all the errors (previously advised to me by my editor!) now get a good scrubbing to hopefully eradicate the major identifiable flaws.

I have primarily focused on historical crime fiction for the past nine years but previously wrote poetry, screenplays, and other literary “cuisines”, some of which I would like to go back and re-explore. Some fry cooks have dreams of being pastry chefs. It is only natural to consider other literary endeavors.

The kitchen and the office are the two places where I “create”.  The tools may be different but the steps that are needed to be taken are quite similar.