Don Tillman's Standardized Meal System
Graeme Simsion
About The Book
‘So, you cook this same meal every Tuesday, right?’
‘Correct.’ I listed the eight major advantages of the Standardised Meal System.
1. No need to accumulate recipe books.
2. Standard shopping list–hence very efficient shopping.
3. Almost zero waste–nothing in the refrigerator or pantry unless required for one of the recipes.
4. Diet planned and nutritionally balanced in advance.
5. No time wasted wondering what to cook.
6. No mistakes, no unpleasant surprises.
7. Excellent food, superior to most restaurants at a much lower price (see point 3).
8. Minimal cognitive load required.
‘Cognitive load?’
‘The cooking procedures are in my cerebellum–virtually no conscious effort is required.’
‘Like riding a bike.’
‘Correct.’
Here at last, by popular demand, is the weekly system of food preparation that Professor Don Tillman, star of the Rosie trilogy, lives by–everything from his signature lobster salad to the world’s best risotto, across the four seasons. This essential guide also includes handy tips about losing weight, mixing cocktails and stress-free entertaining.
Don Tillman’s Standardized Meal System will not only show you how to make delicious meals: it will open your mind a different way of shopping, cooking and living. The Don Tillman way.
Contents
Cover Page
About the Book
Title Page
Rationale
Principles and Rules
General Advice
Breakfast
SPRING MENU
SUMMER MENU
AUTUMN MENU
WINTER MENU
Collaborators
Shopping and Equipment
About the Author
Copyright Page
Rationale
“So, you cook this same meal every Tuesday, right?”
“Correct.” I listed the eight major advantages of the Standardized Meal System.
1. No need to accumulate recipe books.
2. Standard shopping list – hence very efficient shopping.
3. Almost zero waste – nothing in the refrigerator or pantry unless required for one of the recipes.
4. Diet planned and nutritionally balanced in advance.
5. No time wasted wondering what to cook.
6. No mistakes, no unpleasant surprises.
7. Excellent food, superior to most restaurants at a much lower price (see point 3).
8. Minimal cognitive load required.
On my first date with Rosie Jarman, the woman who would, incredibly, become my (remainder of) life partner, I was unsure of her retention capabilities and selected the number of items according to Miller’s (1956) “seven plus or minus two” rule. Had I known she was at the high end of neurotypical memory function, I would have added:
9. Rationalization of kitchen equipment – no cupboards and drawers full of items that are “hardly ever used.” The financial savings allow me to own a smaller set of high-quality cooking tools and invest in leading-edge barbecue technology.
10. Ability to optimize recipes, quantities, and cooking times through continuous feedback.
I would not have added “Improved mental health through reduced anxiety and the comfort of routine,” as I was not conscious of that benefit at the time.
Nor was I aware of the disadvantages of the Standardized Meal System. Rosie and our son, Hudson, filled that gap in my knowledge. The problems included (note past tense):
1. Failure to accommodate a partner who did not want to eat lobster every Tuesday. After my first attempt at rectifying the problem, Rosie clarified that this quite clear and specific statement was to be interpreted as not wanting any immutable meal assigned to any day of the week, and “certainly not forever.”
2. No allowance for partner’s, child’s, or guests’ food preferences, allergies, or ethical restrictions.
3. Perception of the Standardized Meal System as a symptom of rigidity rather than efficiency.
4. Inability to expose a child (or adult) to a wide variety of foods.
5. No allowance for random, short-notice decisions by partner to invite guests or eat out.
6. No contingency plan in the event of disasters such as unavailability of a key ingredient, child-related crisis, or university meeting scheduled during time allocated for shopping or cooking.
7. No process for ongoing evolution of the system.
All problems have now been solved. In the case of item 3, no change to the system was required; instead, I stopped worrying about what unrelated people thought of me. Virtually all meals now allow for variants; no meal is current for more than thirteen weeks (a season); emergencies and dining out are explicitly catered for; and there is provision for both incremental improvement and the introduction of new meals.
Also, since the publication of the three Rosie memoirs, multiple people have contacted me, not to call me rigid or boring or obsessive, but seeking details of how to implement the Standardized Meal System. Hence this book, applying thirty-six years of experience and feedback to what was already an excellent design.
I recommend this fully revised Standardized Meal System as a tool for modifying the behavior of people who irrationally and compulsively devote unnecessary resources to food shopping, meal design, and cooking, with consequent negative impact on their performance in social, occupational, or other important areas.
Principles and Rules
The principles behind the Standardized Meal System are simple:
1. A standard menu for each week of each season (I recommend commencing on the Saturday closest to the first day of the season).
2. Lunches not specified, except for Saturdays. Weekday lunches are purchased at work or sourced from deliberate creation of leftovers. Sunday brunch is eaten at a cafe or replaced by a late breakfast.
3. Consistent breakfast throughout the year (with seasonal fruit adjustments).
4. Recipes (except for guest nights – refer item 7) are for two people but readily scaled up or down (number chosen to facilitate scaling calculations for people who are incompetent at mental arithmetic).
5. Two shopping expeditions (Tuesday and Saturday) each week, using standardized shopping lists for each season.
6. Common Resources (e.g. salt, lemons, tequila) purchased in economic quantities and added to the shopping list when the last container is opened or the quantity remaining is insufficient for the next meal. Purchases can be made at other times to take advantage of discounts.
7. Tuesday is guest night. Recipes allow for four people, i.e. two guests (optimum). A weekday is nominated, as invitees are less likely to have conflicting dining-out commitments and it supports the social convention of announcing “It’s a school night” when you want guests to leave.
8. Friday is restaurant night. An alternative (typically frozen) meal is available as backup if you decide to eat at home. These backup meals can also be used in emergencies.
9. Sunday is the major cooking day for replenishing resources such as chicken stock and frozen meals, and preparing for the week ahead.
10. Alcohol is specified on Saturday, Tuesday, and Friday nights. If you don’t drink alcohol or want to drink less (or more1), this is easily varied.
11. The menus and schedule should be seen as a starting point for tailoring to include your own dietary rules, food preferences, and quantities.
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1 I do not recommend drinking more. I do not recommend drinking alcohol at all.
General Advice
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1. Very important: the adjective “approximately” can be inserted into all recipes, wherever it will reduce effort and stress. I incurred incredible amounts of both before learning this fact, which applies to sizes, shapes1, quantities, and timings. Precision is necessary only in baking (bread, biscuits, cakes – which do not feature in this book, with the exception of gougères on Winter Tuesday). Otherwise, variation of 20%, and even the omission of one or two ingredients not included in the name of the recipe, is almost always acceptable.
Conversely, if there are obvious signs that a temperature or process time should be varied (e.g. items burning, boiling over, exploding2), rectification of the problem should take precedence over adhering to the recipe and the instructions should be modified for future use.
2. Virtually all cooking requires a general-purpose “kitchen” knife, wooden spoon, spatula, chopping board, vegetable peeler, plastic cling wrap, paper towels, scales, measuring spoons, and measuring jug. Many recipes require cooking oil, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I also recommend use of an apron and onion-peeling goggles, the latter with prescription lenses if you wear glasses. These items should be stored where they can be easily accessed, and are not listed under the specific equipment and ingredients for each recipe.
If you are using a barbecue (highly recommended), I suggest keeping a second set of items at that location, as well as a barbecue spatula and tongs.
3. Assemble ingredients and equipment before commencing cooking.
4. A timer is essential. Use it whenever there is substantial time between steps, particularly if food is left to cool before refrigerating (easily forgotten while bacteria multiply). I use my smart watch under voice command.
5. I have provided detailed timings (in minutes, in the left column of the Process section) only when I consider them likely to be helpful. All times are approximate: if you become anxious, ignore all but the cooking durations. A dinner served late or early is not a disaster, and the problem will disappear as you become familiar with the process through weekly repetition.
6. Most meals are designed to be served on shared “central” plates, from which diners can take the amount that they want. This improves diner autonomy and eliminates “plating” effort. An examination of leftovers will assist in tuning quantities for the future.
7. I recommend always having salt, pepper, and a chili-based condiment on the table, to allow diners to add the quantities they prefer. Published recipes frequently suggest adding salt and pepper “to taste,” implicitly acknowledging that tastes vary but allowing the chef’s taste to override those of other diners. In my experience, most diners will want to add salt (the spaghetti puttanesca is a notable exception).
8. I recommend becoming a regular customer of specialist vendors: greengrocer, delicatessen, baker, butcher, fishmonger. Your loyalty will prompt high-quality service and satisfying social interactions, with consequent benefits to your – and their – mental health.
9. I make extensive use of the barbecue (more accurately, barbecues), but the translation to burner / hotplate, grill, or oven is simple and obvious. Instructions are for a gas barbecue, but equivalent (and often better) results can be achieved with a charcoal-burning device. Once you are familiar with the operation of your barbecue, translation is again simple and obvious.
10. Some Common Resources items are most economically obtained from supermarkets, which I find noisy and unpleasant. If you have a housemate, I suggest they take responsibility for all supermarket shopping.
11. I have not included individual cutlery, serving implements, or plates in my equipment lists. If you have housemates, I recommend you delegate one to set the table and clean up in (partial) exchange for you taking responsibility for cooking and most of the shopping.
12. You should not refuse offers by other household members to cook. I suggest Friday, when they can prepare the meal as an alternative to restaurant dining. The stress levels are likely to be even higher, but alcohol is permitted on Fridays. If they want to contribute more frequently, they should participate in the Standardized Meal System.
13. I am Australian, hence accustomed to American reviewers of my publications pointing out “spelling errors.” The reverse (as I discovered during my time in the US) does not seem to happen to American academics. To avoid being considered sloppy or unfamiliar with English, I now write my papers in American English and have adopted this practice here, along with the Oxford comma, which I am in favor of in any case. However, I have retained Australian usages such as “minced beef,” “coriander” (in reference to leaves), and “autumn” in the hope that they will encourage greater awareness of language differences and appreciation / understanding of non-American cultures.
14. As a scientist, I use the metric system. In this book, I have supplemented it with universal cooking measures: spoons and cups. If you are accustomed to imperial measures, I recommend purchasing a set of metric scales, and small and large liquid measures – a relatively small investment and more convenient than referring to conversion tables1. All temperatures in this book are degrees Celsius. You can convert mentally (recommended) using the simple formula Degrees (Fahrenheit) = Degrees (Celsius) x 1.8 + 32. Alternatively, you can memorise conversions for the few commonly used temperatures, replace the barbecue thermometer, and / or note the conversions on your kitchen whiteboard.
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1 It is impossible to cut an irregularly shaped vegetable (i.e. any vegetable) into cubes, for example.
2 I have only had explosion problems in the case of chestnuts (refer The Rosie Result), which are not used in this book.
1 Conversion tables are of course widely available; if you prefer this option, you can download one. Better, memorize the conversion rates and calculate mentally. There is some evidence that brain exercise of this kind may slow the onset of dementia.
Breakfast
Research on the criticality of breakfast is inconclusive, as is much research on nutrition.
In formulating the Standardized Meal System, I was overwhelmed with dietary advice, much of it unscientific, contradictory, or exaggerated in terms of its potential benefits. It became obvious that my original goal of making the system nutritionally perfect, based on universally accepted research, was not feasible.
Instead, I identified five principles likely to provide a high proportion of the health benefits available from food choices1. Obviously, if you are (probably irrationally) convinced of the benefits of some “superfood” item or category, you will tailor the system to accommodate it. It is unlikely your health or weight will be significantly affected2.
The principles are:
1. No junk food.
2. A variety of fruit and vegetables every day.
3. Red meat once or twice a week, with remaining meals based on poultry, seafood, and / or vegetables.
4. No alcohol (strongly recommended but ignored in my case).
5. No rigid rules (hence, ice-cream is permitted on Autumn Sundays and chocolates once a week).
I decided to eat breakfast regularly because it provides a consistent start to the day; is a useful vehicle for delivering fruit, fiber, and caffeine; and reduces the impact of missing lunch if I become occupied with an interesting task.
I eat the same generic breakfast every day, all year, potentially forever, only varying the fruit component. I receive no criticism for this. People who consider the repetition of a dinner after an interval of seven days to be “boring” or even indicative of mental illness are prepared to eat the same breakfast after a delay of only twenty-four hours.
My original breakfast consisted of uncooked oats, to which I added dried fruit and nuts, plus fresh fruit. Rosie added yogurt to hers. I didn’t, due to not liking yogurt. I have now upgraded to granola, using largely the same ingredients, but with the addition of a toasting process. It has three major advantages:
1. Assembly (excluding the fresh fruit) is done in bulk, in advance, in a relaxing context.
2. By for
malizing the recipe, consistency is improved and ongoing refinement is more easily managed.
3. Superior flavor.
The average number of serves from the specified quantity is 71, i.e. 35 1/2 breakfasts for two people. Granola production can be undertaken at any time, though Sunday is the obvious choice.
COMMON RESOURCES: GRANOLA
4 tbsp vegetable oil
300 g pepitas
750 g oats
60 g brown flaxseed
400 g pecans
750 g almonds
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla essence
250 g Turkish dried apricots
300 g dried cranberries (“craisins”) – dried cherries are superior but more expensive
EQUIPMENT: GRANOLA
3 sheets baking paper
3 oven trays
Large bowl
Airtight jars for storage
Food processor
PROCESS: GRANOLA
Time: 68 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175 degrees and cover 3 oven trays with baking paper.
Put almonds and pecans in the food processor, and use chop mode briefly to halve size. Or chop manually.
Chop each dried apricot into 8 pieces.
Mix all ingredients except dried fruit together in a bowl.
Spread 1/3 of bowl contents onto each of the 3 oven trays.
If you are confident that the temperature of your oven is uniform across 3 shelves, you can use 3 oven trays concurrently, thus saving 32 minutes, minimum. But many ovens produce different temperatures at different levels and depending on what shelves are in use, creating a nightmare.
Ideally, you would purchase an oven without this problem, saving at least 5 hours and 29 minutes per year. If you are, for other reasons, replacing your oven, you could insist on a granola test. But I would not recommend replacement for this reason alone. The 5 hours and 29 minutes is not wasted if you timeshare other tasks, including unstructured reflection, and the money (in my opinion) would be better served in expanding barbecue options. Most of my oven use is simple, and a superior appliance will make minimal difference to the result.
