So Can There Be Parallels Between System Building and Your Grandma's Cooking?

Mister Pig

Pigamus Maximus
Have you ever had someone in your family that cooks the best of something? Be it meatloaf, lasagna, a cake, perhaps fried chicken? There is something about her recipe or technique that is unique? Heard the stories where others tried to follow Mommas recipe and it never tasted the same? One thing Momma would often say is its in the ingredients she chooses, and they have to be certain ingredients to get the right taste. They may or may not be expensive, but they do have to meet a certain quality threshold. Momma never uses sub par ingredients.

In some ways I think system building can be the same thing. You can pick gear or accessories that check certain boxes. The right power, the right number and size of drivers, the right specs, the right pedigree, or the right price. Yet its how you combine those ingredients that result in something that is special. Some people call this synergy, but I think it moves past that catch all term. It doesn't mean the components are expensive, or that a less expensive one cannot eclipse a more expensive piece in the right application. But on the other hand these components have to meet a quality level, after all Momma does not use junk to make her specialty. I currently have a pre amp that is 1/3 of the MSRP of another one I got, and I prefer the less expensive one. Yet it still sold for $4K new. So how these components, and the bits and pieces, the tubes, the cables, the footers, the power cords, the cabinet, the room, the acoustic panels, and gear placement, well they all contribute to the end product. Much like Mommas spices, and how she blends them in.

Now you can make something that tastes good. You can make an audio system that sounds good by spending a bit of care selecting pieces. However, if you want special, and if you can discern and care about special...then system building might be as much a craft and an art as a selection of pieces by checking certain boxes off a list.

Cheers
Mister Pig
 
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My mom was a great cook (still with us, but not cooking), best known for her coconut cake, which began with whole coconuts, hand grated. Every Christmas she baked about twenty or thirty, bought by friends and relatives who placed orders ahead - it became a tradition for them. Simply an outstanding cake.

Is my system up to mom's coconut-cake standards? Maybe. Maybe not. She set that bar high.


PS: Yesterday we received ten jars of her delicious tomato relish. I called her, and she said yes, I cooked it myself. I had just emptied my last jar. Couple tablespoons over Brown Crowder peas with fresh, hot, buttered cornbread, and it's a meal.
 
Great analogy. My Great Grandmother (German immigrant passed in early 1970's) was an old school cook .. everything from scratch. Every family get together or Holiday .. she would start cooking in the early morning & not finish till noon at the earliest. As I recall .. best home made chicken & apple pie (other recipes as well) I ever ate .. bar none. No family member was ever able to replicate her cooking .. even though they have some of her recipes.

It was more art than science. Like putting together a good stereo rig.
 
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My mom could cook a great, pre-planned meal. She could also whip something delicious up on the spot. She has made these cookies (we call them brown rims) since my siblings and I were kids. My favorite cookie ever! She has shared the recipe with both my ex-wives and a few of my girlfriends over the years. None can compare to mom's. :( Oh, yeah... stereo equipment... sometimes even inexpensive stuff can be cobbled together to sound pretty good in the right room with some judicious tweaking. At least, that's what I like to think with my humble little system. ;)
 
Yep. Grammaw and gramps used to crack up laughing when she would shake her ass in the process of whipping up the best homemade mashed potatoes in the world.
I can live with toe-tapping involvement with my system as a daily staple, but crank it up and it has to "Whip up the taters" to pass muster.
 
If Granny cooked anything like my mother, no-one would be lining up to partake except those with no alternative. Thankfully my mother did a great meatloaf and nothing was burnt or undercooked. Seasoning, as a concept, meant Ketchup at our place. I envied my schoolfriends who migrated from foreign cultures. The food at their homes was bursting with interesting flavour. I understand now why my father used to treat us all by taking us out to restaurants.
 
No, both of my Grandmother's were can cooks. If it didn't come in a can it wasn't getting cooked. On the other hand my Mother was one hell of a cook and she passed a few of those skills to me. My Grandmother's raised families during the Depression and would have considered my system a complete waste of money! Heck my parents waited until the TV repair man said there old Black & White TV could not be repaired until the broke down a bought a Color TV and that was in the mid 70's.
 
No parallels for me.

I loved whatever they fed me and ate it all, but there was no 'secret sauces' or 'magic combinations', just good classic recipes, mostly gleaned from cookbooks and women's magazines.

Being in the kitchen with my mum while she cooked was the best bit, raiding the mixed fruit, licking the bowls, tasting the mixtures and stealing whatever I could from the pantry when she wasn't looking. I dodn't apply those practices to my system building.
 
If one can accept that one of the shades of meaning which are associated with the word cook, is to put raw food through a process to render it via heat conversion from the raw state, there you have my mother's version of cooking. Everything was cooked to an edible state.

Recipe? What is that?

Flavourings: Salt Pepper and Ketchup(Tomato Sauce). Nothing else.

Nothing undercooked. Nothing overcooked. Just plain ole "It's cooked!". Healthy food. The right amount. Almost zero flavour(Mum's meat loaf was the exception). Via an almost complete denial of herbs spices and flavourings, my mother's cooking gave me an appreciation for herbs and spices and the cooking styles which master the use of the same.

GOD bless her. I know owe her more than it might appear I appreciate. We had good food. I had the rest of my life to explore flavours.
 
If one can accept that one of the shades of meaning which are associated with the word cook, is to put raw food through a process to render it via heat conversion from the raw state, there you have my mother's version of cooking. Everything was cooked to an edible state.

Recipe? What is that?

Flavourings: Salt Pepper and Ketchup(Tomato Sauce). Nothing else.

Nothing undercooked. Nothing overcooked. Just plain ole "It's cooked!". Healthy food. The right amount. Almost zero flavour(Mum's meat loaf was the exception). Via an almost complete denial of herbs spices and flavourings, my mother's cooking gave me an appreciation for herbs and spices and the cooking styles which master the use of the same.

GOD bless her. I know owe her more than it might appear I appreciate. We had good food. I had the rest of my life to explore flavours.

Although Mom's meatloaf does seem to be the exception. Now the question is if you can have meatloaf that was cooked by Wolfgang Puck, or one last helping of Mom's cooked meatloaf. Which one would you take?

Cheers
Mister Pig
 
I'm actually the best cook in my immediate family

My moms mother was a good cook, baker and canner, she had three girls.
My dads mom was a boring cook and would kill the Turkey every year making it so dry, and my dad didn't cook much but BBQing. My mom did really simple things basically but many I like and still do today, in fact right now. I have three older sisters and I have always cooked better than them.

My mom went to work when I got to junior high and she wanted me to learn to cook. She had her recipes all typed out for us to use and get dinners going after school. My first experiment on the family was a beef stew and everybody raved about it for years. Now this could be because no one wanted to cook and maybe if they encourage the baby of the family he'll do it.

I have had girlfriends and long term relationships and always get the cooking duty. Holiday dinners even at my moms before she died and my sisters, when Dan gets there he'll take over.

So I guess I can put a system together :p

Back to my moms simple dinner that I'm cooking tonight just like she did.

Beef Stroganoff
Brown a pound of beef stew meat (or cut up Stake) in a electric fry pan.
One package of Lipton Onion Soup ...throw it in
One can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup....throw it in.
One can of Mushrooms....throw it in...
Simmer for around 2 hours

Boil water for the corkscrew pasta, cook and drain... and throw it in the meat mix

Done

Of cource this can all be ad-libbed but it wouldn't taste like moms:D
 
My wife is an outstanding cook, but she can't hook up my audio gear! :banana:

No really as in all things, it really is about learning, practice, and loving what you do, and it isn't limited to cooking or audio gear, and it can be used in most all activities in your life.
 
BTW I don't use cook books or really recipes I just make things up. I still have all my moms typed recipes on index cards for old family dinners, soups and various things she used to make as a reminder of how to.
 
My wife is an outstanding cook, but she can't hook up my audio gear! :banana:

No really as in all things, it really is about learning, practice, and loving what you do, and it isn't limited to cooking or audio gear, its about how you approach things in life.
Pretty much, my fortey is attention to detail at home and at work.
 
Although Mom's meatloaf does seem to be the exception. Now the question is if you can have meatloaf that was cooked by Wolfgang Puck, or one last helping of Mom's cooked meatloaf. Which one would you take?

Cheers
Mister Pig
You hear people ask those questions and to many the answer seems obvious, but do you really wish to ask those questions? My relationship with my mother was rocky after 1982. By that I mean on the rocks. That's where it remained by her wish. I acknowledge that I owe her. Given things that took place which I won't elaborate upon here, I have asked GOD that if reincarnation is a reality(as I truly believe) I don't want any future asociation with either my father nor my mother again.

I live a charmed life. If I stub my toe it is because there is a gold nugget trying to get my attention. This is not a tale of woe. The difficulties in our life are put there to temper the steel in our spirit. I was fortunate to have been given the simpleness to avoid over complicating life.
 
We had good food. I had the rest of my life to explore flavours.

Exactly. I've tried and explored tons of flavours and cuisines and there's still a lot more to try.

If she'd given me the culinary equivalent of a High End System every night when growing up, I'd be well and truly bored with food by now
 
Exactly. I've tried and explored tons of flavours and cuisines and there's still a lot more to try.

If she'd given me the culinary equivalent of a High End System every night when growing up, I'd be well and truly bored with food by now
You hear people ask those questions and to many the answer seems obvious, but do you really wish to ask those questions? My relationship with my mother was rocky after 1982. By that I mean on the rocks. That's where it remained by her wish. I acknowledge that I owe her. Given things that took place which I won't elaborate upon here, I have asked GOD that if reincarnation is a reality(as I truly believe) I don't want any future asociation with either my father nor my mother again.

I live a charmed life. If I stub my toe it is because there is a gold nugget trying to get my attention. This is not a tale of woe. The difficulties in our life are put there to temper the steel in our spirit. I was fortunate to have been given the simpleness to avoid over complicating life.

Actually, I think both of you understand the point of the original post. I chose to follow you down the path of that interlude, knowing that it was off topic. Perhaps that is a mistake on my part, as I was wanting to establish an anchor point to a time when someone in our life was extraordinary at what they do, and they did it in a way that others could not imitate, and that there is a correlation to what we do in this hobby Now I certainly can understand not seeing this through the same lens. Actually restorer-john and I agree about absolutely nothing in life it appears, and probably never will. But I do believe the intent of my post is easy to discern, and more than one member seems to have done so.

Perhaps it makes for interesting discussion, perhaps not.

Cheers
Mister Pig
 
As my old Polish busia always said ... make sure you have plenty of headroom ... ;-}

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