For the New Year, chicken thighs boiled in a bath of chicken broth. Canned tomatoes mashed together with a little salt and boiled in a separate pot to create the sauce. Boiling is, if not the easiest, at least the first kind of cooking most of us learn how to do. “The natural progression from boiling water to boiling water with something in it can hardly be avoided, and in most cases is something heartily to be wished for.” That’s M.F.K. Fisher in her essay “How to Boil Water,” written for the era of World War II food rationing. The only disadvantage to boiling food is it might end up tasting too much like water.
(Photo: Decorative stockings in Des Moines, Iowa, late 2000s.)
365 Days of Food 