One line from M.K. Fisher’s piece “The Secret
Ingredient” was especially powerful to me: “we are so conditioned to the
threat of the Secret Ingredient, and the acceptance of trickery, that even
honesty has become suspect when we are brash enough to ask for recipes” (105).
It spoke to something bigger than simple ingredients, I think, but then again I’m
an introspective kind of thinker. While a recipe is literally a list of
ingredients along with the process of how to put them all together to create a
certain dish, they tell you something about how a person likes to be. Some
people memorize them, others keep them in a box by the stove, and still others
don’t have the time or care to know them. It also speaks to family life and
tradition. My mom one year ordered Thanksgiving dinner all from Meijer. All we
had to do was heat things up. It was good, but it felt impersonal that year. As
if we were just going through the motions. Food is also ritual. Some say food
is spiritual. I know some days, I’d come home and my mom would be making Gulab
Jamin (Goo-lob Jah-men) on the stove. This is an Indian sweet, which is basically a donut hole
that is a bit smaller than a baseball. Drenched in a brown syrup, and heated up
– It tastes like home, and quiet nights in with my mom and I sitting on the
couch, and cavities at the dentist office. Gulab Jamin is surely a ritual with
me and my mom. One reserved for hard days, or when we need a taste of
indulgence to get away without leaving our house. My mom loves through food –
more butter the better, more sugar the sweeter.
Coming back to Fisher’s piece, he notes how secret
ingredients are generally perceived, saying that folks expect the “threat” of
what it may hold, and assume recipes shared bluntly are not to be trusted. What
does this mean? Perhaps it means that realness, raw vulnerability, is reserved
for certain people in our lives. It, like secret ingredients, are typically
off-limits for the public. For example, in one episode of Spongebob, they are
obsessed with the concept of secret ingredients. The owner of the restaurant
where Spongebob works, Mr. Krabs, tasks Spongebob with keeping the recipe safe.
Safe meaning hidden. After a lot of shenanigans occurs to find the recipe and
learn the secret ingredient, one finds that there is not a secret ingredient at
all. The idea or the mystery was the ingredient in the first place. This goes
to show, in a strange way, just how much, in Fisher’s words, “… even honesty
has become suspect” - Mr. Krabs felt
saying there was a secret ingredient, putting up that mask, made people want
Krabby Patties more than if they were to say exactly what was in the beef.
Interesting.
Sarena, I love that you think of secret ingredients in relation to family and tradition. Your example of Thanksgiving dinner ordered all from Meijer as being impersonal is interesting. It was lacking the love and care that usually goes into a family meal. Your comparison to SpongeBob is priceless, but it is a great example of a modern-day example of secret ingredients. Like you said, there is something so secretive and off-limits to a secret recipe or secret ingredients that even SpongeBob illustrates.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that holidays are more personal when the food is actually made by hand. I've also had Thanksgivings where my family just bought everything essentially remade from the store, and I had a similar experience as you. For some reason the long day of preparing all the food just right makes it that much more enjoyable to eat once it's done. If you don't have to work for it, it doesn't always mean as much.
ReplyDeleteSarena, I enjoyed your thoughts about the cult of the secret ingredient. It's something I'm aware of but haven't interacted with much. My mom was always very upfront with her recipes and let me cook along with her--however, my dishes never taste like hers. This idea of the Meijer thanksgiving dinner being "impersonal" interests me. Food without a connection, especially one rooted in family, is most definitely less satisfying for me.
ReplyDeleteSarena,
ReplyDeleteYour quotation is very acculate to express what is a secret ingredient. As you say, cuisine and secret ingredients move people' emotion. The author was one of the people who are attracted to secret ingredients. From the Fisher's piece, it can be said that foods must have a spiritual atraction, as you mentioned. Your opinion that people love the cuisine very much, and that is why they become suspectful is very persuasive, and interesting.
Sarena,
ReplyDeleteI loved that line from M.F.K Fisher's piece, too. There are so many expectations and emotions revolving around secret ingredients in a dish. I enjoyed reading about how your family felt after having a "Meijer Thanksgiving." It goes to show that the personal touch really transforms a dish and is often more important that the actual "secret ingredient."