I've been in the process for, well, years, of compiling a list of staple recipes that I'm happy with making over and over again. There have certainly been some go to recipes that I've revisited with high frequency, but I've never been able to compose a reusable set list that I can use with the consistency I desire.
There are a few reasons for that - first, I want to make sure I have a pretty wide list to choose from. When I think about compiling a list, I think about it in terms of recipes I can make over the course of the year without getting bored. When I first got out of school, I had a pretty set schedule. Monday was fettucine with parmesan, dried basil, and canned tomatoes along with a baguette. Tuesdays and Thursdays were some rotation of pastaroni. I don't remember what the other nights were. While I liked the predictability of the meal planning, the routine did get a bit tedious and the ingredients weren't the best I could obtain. Luckily, at 21, my taste was pretty simple, so I wasn't lost in some sort of culinary Sisyphean experiment. Now, assuming that I cook 4 times a week, which isn't unreasonable, 52 recipes seems like a nice round number. That means I'd rotate through meals on a 13 week basis. I also know that I'd likely eat certain staples - like cheeseburgers, pizza, and fried chicken sandwiches - more often than 4 times a year, so that leaves room for special dishes that may require more care or pair with special occasions.
Second, I like preparing food in 30 minutes - 1 hour. I don't mind if I'm active the entire time, but I don't really like doing a lot of prep work with a million ingredients simply to have a dish (especially if it's one I'm trying for the first time) turn out flat. There are certain things I don't mind letting sit a bit - bread, for one, or chicken in brine - as the effort is minimal, and I simply need to remember to prep one small thing ahead of time. In addition, though my taste buds have matured since 21, I don't think they have anywhere near the complexity that the taste buds of the writers for something like epicurious.com do. I'm certainly not as simple in my philosophy as "I eat to live," but I'm not going to be able to tell if you swap out parmeggiano-reggiano with domestic parmesan. I'm fine with this.
Finally, it has to be a recipe I like. As mentioned above, I hate long, complex recipes that don't yield a good payout. But I also don't want to slap mayonnaise on a bagel and call it eggs benedict. Canned tomatoes are still a big staple of my diet, but I now make my own cheese sauce for macaroni instead of relying on powdered sauce from a box. This, more than two previous points, has delayed me from compiling my desired set list. It's literally taken me 15 years to find a blue cheese pasta that reminds me of one I had at a restaurant in Wisconsin when I was in my mid-twenties. I'm sure that pasta wasn't what I remembered it, but I've finally found something that comes close to matching that memory, which makes me extremely happy.
I'm excited to say, as of this writing, I'm close to having my cherished 52. I think I have about 42 recipes that I'm willing to make consistently and have quite a few leads on rounding out the list. The benefit of cooking for the past 20 some odd years is I can pick out bad recipes or know how to modify them to suit my tastes without having to go through the hassle of having to make mediocre food several times over. I'm not sure what I'll do once I settle on 52 recipes. I'm pretty sure I'll try and expand the list to 104 for more variety, but I'll be able to feel a sense of accomplishment that I've met a goal I've been dreaming about since I added my first basil flakes to my first can of tomatoes.
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