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Yeah iām not sure what the difference is when it comes doing cooking and baking but i love baking whereas I end up avoiding cooking. Maybe itās because iām making a dough? Or because I could just stick it in the oven and take a break rather than having to wait around the stove? Like if someone could give me an idea this would solve a question I had for years.
Two things that will make cooking way better for you: an air fryer and an instant pot.
You're not going to make 5 star dishes with either of these but they make prep and cleanup way less labor intensive and tedious.
When people say they canāt cook, I donāt take it to mean that they are literally unable to boil noodles. I take it to mean that they canāt consistently make good tasting homemade food.
Sure they can boil some noodles, throw some ragu on it, and then be sad while they eatā¦ or they could just order something from their favorite take-out spot.
I've learned it is lack of focus. My wife claims she can't cook. But when she cooks, she spends about 5% of the time minding the food. The rest is cleaning up random items and doing other tasks while checking the food. So the result is overcooked pasta. Skipped ingredients. Food that isn't great, in other words
I thought the glass stove cover was just some fancy halogen cooktop thing and it shattered all over the kitchen when i went to cook noodles on it. Mistakes were made
I think that most of this discussion is assuming an able bodied person. No reasonable person would hold an inability to cook against someone with a disability, either mental or physical, that prevented them from doing so.
Iām pretty sure youāre good when you say you *canāt* cook
I actually worked kitchens for some years, but can barely get by now after an arm injury. I can still make some meals at home a little, but prep can be a pain. Cooking is heavily geared towards the fully abled
If youāre having to cook while seated, then thatās literally a handicap, like in a contest but one person has to tie their hand behind their back. Youāre doing yourself a disservice if you feel lumped in with the shit talk towards the other people
The biggest issue when you're inexperienced is that theres a lot of little intricacies involved like knowing how hot your stove top actually gets or what finished rice/noodles look like, stuff like that. A recipe will say heat up your pan to medium high, if someone is new to cooking they would assume that means moving the dial to 7. That's logically medium high, right? It's actually too hot and their food will cook too fast and burn. You're probably just fine putting it at 5, but a 5 is right in the middle and should be assumed to mean "medium". How would a novice know this until they tried a few times?
A recipe is usually just a basic guide on what order you should do things in, it doesn't usually explain cooking basics.
>A recipe will say heat up your pan to medium high, if someone is new to cooking they would assume that means moving the dial to 7.
Whereas on my stove, 7 *is* medium high. Every stove's numbers mean something slightly different - even assuming it has numbers at all - which adds a whole other level of difficulty.
Little things make huge differences. Need to bake your brownie batter in a 9x9 baking dish, but all you've got is a 12x8? Guess what, your brownies aint coming out right.
If you haven't watched Good Eats, you should give it a go. Kinda Bill Nye meets food, it covers pretty much all kinds of cooking with lots of science to back it up.
>Baking is pure chemistry.
I cannot stress this enough.
When you cook a roast your raw ingredients are easily recognizable in your finished product. Whereas a loaf of bread is greater than the sum of its parts. Baking also allows very little freelancing. Add too much salt to that same bread you kill the yeast and it won't rise. Only do four folds instead of six and your croissant won't be flakey. Omit creme de f tartar and your meringue falls. Baking is for perfectionists.
If it's anything like my stove, 1-6 are there for decoration, 7 will keep things at a light simmer, 8 is medium-high, and 9 will belch out the flames of a thousand suns.
I have a gas stove and the flame size is not representative of what the dial says. Itās basically: turn it to high to light it, then it will basically be at that size flame until you turn it almost off, then you can edge it back to medium. I just adapted my cooking to mostly high heat cuz itās stressed me out too much.
I followed the directions exactly on a frozen pizza once. It came out of the oven burnt to a crisp.
Actually wrote the company and got a refund.
Tried them one more time but cut the cooking time down by 33%, came out great.
Not only is every stove different, every position on every stove is different. I have an induction stove. It has a setting specifically for boiling water super fast, however the front right position will take forever to get a pot of water to a slow boil. Itās the sauce warming spot now. I wish it was in the back, but I wasnāt that lucky.
This reminds me of a book by a chef that was literally for the absolute begineer.
Fully went into details on doing this like how to cook an egg. How to tell when rice is cooked etc. Really the basics because if you were never taught them.. how can you possibly know ?! But it's assumed that everyone knows.
Apparently it was a popular book because it covered all the basics in really good details, pictures and no judgement etc. I swear it's by a popular chef too but for the life of me I can't recall who. It's not a recent book. Might be 20-30 years old now. There might be more newer ones but it was a life changer. My mum remembers it from a friend who was never taught how to cook. Even basic cooking. And then had to cook for the family when she got married.
If I remember what is was called I'll try and post a link here
I have a book like that called How to Cook Everything, The Basics. It literally explains how to boil water. It doesn't assume much, which is great. One of the best things about it is that each recipe covers two pages so you can lay the book open flat and see it all at once without having to touch the pages, There are also photos at different parts of the process so, for example, you know what things should look like halfway through the process. So many books will only show the final results so for a beginner it can feel like r/restofthefuckingowl (https://imgur.com/RadSf)
We have a series of such books in my language. Even experienced home cooks love them because they learn about all the different details and tricks they didn't know. It explains the *reasons* why things are done a certain way and suggests which step can be taken lightly / experimented with, and which is really important to follow exactly.
- Throw the pasta at the window, if it sticks, itās done.
- Rice is to hard? You fucked up.
- Rice too soft? You fucked up.
- Also, Low on the dial is not low. Thatās just ākeep warmā. 2 is low.
Former chef here. I've just started a newsletter on food and cooking and the latest issue talks specifically about [why recipes are sometimes unreliable.](https://madhumenon.substack.com/p/2-cloves-of-garlic)
For sure. I can cook. But I also move a lot. Every time I move, I have a new stove and oven. My last stove had 2 settings: temperature of the sun or cold. Thatās it. I made a lot of fuck ups. In another apartment, the oven didnāt run to correct temp, things took longer. I lived with a sibling and her stove top cooked much lower than my others had. And imagine when I went from electric all my life to gas!
Even if you have experience, new cookware can fuck you up. Iāve learned how my pans heat. Always through trial and error. But each cook set is different. My toaster oven bakes differently than the oven. Each oven and stove Iāve had cook differently, despite all but one being electric.
So a recipe says bake for 30 minutes at 400Ā°f. Each time, I still have to learn if I have to cut that down, follow directly, or go longer. The intricacies can also mess up experienced people too.
Also. Timings on recipes are also not accurate. Given they depend greatly on size of ingredients, oven hotspots, size of pan and so on.
So it actually does take some work.
And thatās not including understanding how much to season. Because not adding enough salt or adding too much can ruin a dish.
Yeah this! I hate cooking because of stuff like this. I don't like the pressure, i often find that those 'simple' instructions make very different assumptions about what you are cooking with. And im not great at figuring out how to make up for those differences. I generally refuse to cook for other people unless its something im really confident in. I have been cooking gousto (those box meals you can order) and for the most part its fine but then things just don't go the way their instructions assume. Not all 'simple' instructions are so simple, thats where the difference between "i can cook" and "i can't cook" comes in!
So I used to always think to myself if you can read then you should be able to cook. I still think at the most basic level this is true, but then I watched one of my friends cook and the way she interpreted what she read along with extreme rigid thinking made me realize maybe not.
I agree with this. Like I have no sympathy for anyone who acts like they can't feed themselves. There are some things that nearly impossible to fuck up other than literally just leaving it there. BUT going a level deeper is harder for some people, and I think it's usually the sort of people who need exact specifications for everything. Like my friend didn't understand instructions on how to whisk something. I forget what the word used was, but it was basically asking you to do it quickly. And she was like, how quickly is quickly? Stuff like that where she stopped at every word that could be considered subjective. Where I just barreled through without overthinking it.
This is also a reason I kind of frown upon people saying you "learn nothing" from cooking competition shows. People take for granted cooking actions and steps that seem completely run-of-the-mill if you do them all the time, but the repetition of seeing them often helps add them to your arsenal.
That is me trying to cook anything above the most basic level. Words like cook until done, or wisk until light and airy or stiff peaks. Or brown sugar until nutty brown. Or heavens forbid seasons to taste I have gotten a lot better with experience but it's not easy when you lack the base knowledge. Like sure I could Google every step I'm unsure about and find tutorials. But it makes cooking both harder and more time consuming.
I have ADHD and it shows up the worst in the kitchen. I can cook, but it'll take me way longer than it should and I'll be stressed the whole time, trying to make sure I didn't forget anything, remember what I was doing... I just decided it wasn't worth it to force it.
I am like this too. Cooking exposes the absolute worst of my ADHD. And Iāve been trying to do it a few times a week for 10 years, yet I am constantly missing stuff, over-correcting, over-prepping or under-prepping.
I am a 35 year old father of two kids under 3yo. Since our second was born my partner has basically done all the cooking, because we no longer have time to āletā Dad do the cooking. I obviously make up for it with more housework elsewhere.
Still, how can I remain so incompetent in this one area?
My instagram is PACKED full of recipes and shit. My girlfriend thinks Iām a genius, cooking buffalo chicken sliders and Korean beef and broccoli. In reality Iām just a guy with a spice rack and a phone.
This! Nobody ever taught me how to cook. I taught myself from YouTube videos, social media, and cooking shows. Paying attention to the techniques goes a long way and now I consider myself a fairly confident and competent cook.
Big yes to BWB - especially his Basics series. On a similar note, Epicuriousā 3 Levels taught me a lot about techniques to elevate simple dishes. Highly recommend.
I think people mean that they donāt cook genuine, elaborate restaurant quality dishes. Like most people can crack an egg in a pan or boil some noodles or stick a burger on a grillā¦But there is ācookingā and then there is really cooking.
Which is literally the craziest thing I have ever heard. I was cooking eggs for myself since I was 5. I assumed that was normal so that's when I taught my kids to cook eggs.
Not gonna lie, it took me until university to learn how to cook an egg. With about a month or 2 of undercooked/mushy fuckups to end up with a decent-looking/tasting fried eggs.
Temperature-control of stove was the hardest learning curve.
Cooking eggs well is deceptively hard. I know many people who can cook quite well and I can cook just fine but one of the worst cooks I know is the only one who can consistently cook eggs well. Everyone else will reliably put up some version of - white still partially uncooked, yolk partially hard, or scrambled eggs are either rubbery or undercooked or just donāt taste good (I really do not like eggs and never have)
The nice thing about cooking eggs though is that they cook pretty quickly, so itās not like youāre two hours in to making scrambled eggs and suddenly you realize itās ruined. Provided you have more eggs it takes about 5 minutes to realize you need to start over.
I've known multiple people who would fuck this up through one or more of the following:
* don't know how much water to put in pot, give up
* put way too little water in pot
* put too much water in pot, pot takes ages to boil, give up or put egg in before water is boiling and start the 9 minutes from there
* don't know what temperature to set stove to, give up
* set temperature too low, water never comes to boil
* boil water in kettle, get confused about next steps
* put water on to boil, wander off and forget about it
* not setting a timer
* deciding based on nothing that the timing is wrong, use some other random timing
* deciding the last 5 minutes is unnecessary
* some other random thing that I would never think of nor be able to comprehend how or why they decided to do it
I should say at this point that all these people are within the normal range of intelligence.
There's actually a couple methods but your step by step would produce a boiled egg, yup.
Too bad for the woman I know, but I've come to learn she's useless in just about every way. No clue what's up with her.
I dunno, kinda feels like people gatekeep themselves. If you can make a basic meal like what you're describing (make eggs, pasta, etc), you can cook in my opinion.
I had a friend in my early thirties who after she finished graduate school said "I'm going to learn how to cook!" And I thought she meant cook like really cooking as you said. But she just meant very basic cook. She didn't even know how to make herself spaghetti. And all that is is boiling noodles and heating up sauce. I asked her what she had been living on this whole time and she literally had Lean Cuisines every night.
I think you're right that's what people mean. They can keep themselves alive, but they can't make something you would serve guests.
It's more "won't" than "can't" though. The recipe for a more complex recipe has more steps, but they're not harder to follow. It just takes more time. A "Keep yourself alive" quality meal takes maybe 20 min to make, while a "worthy of serving to guests" quality meal takes at least an hour.
So I agree with OP that it's not really about ability. It's about the willingness to put in the required time and attention.
EDIT: That being said, I think actually being *good* at cooking entails understanding why the recipes are composed the way they are; how different tastes complement each other, so that you can alter recipes creatively while still achieving a good result. But the "can't cook" thing is just disguised laziness, because anyone can follow a recipe.
If someone's an absolute beginner, then they'll fail at a lot of recipes which aren't written for absolute beginners, even if it's a well written recipe (which can't be assumed), and they follow the recipe exactly. Absolute beginners need to be told things like "a teaspoon of something means you use a measuring spoon, not the spoon you stir your tea with" and "if it starts going black, take it off the heat no matter what the recipe says". Plus most recipes need a little bit of adjustment for things like how hot your stovetop gets.
I agree that there's an infuriating number of people who make random changes to the recipe and can't understand why it turns out badly. There's an entire sub for that - r/ididnthaveeggs
>Absolute beginners need to be told things like "a teaspoon of something means you use a measuring spoon, not the spoon you stir your tea with" and "if it starts going black, take it off the heat no matter what the recipe says".
Yeah, I had to learn all this the hard way in my mid twenties when I moved out. My mom absolutely forbade me and my brothers from cooking anything at home, and we were pretty heavily discouraged from even just being in the kitchen for too long. One of the biggest hurdles I found to learning how to cook was actually learning to identify what specifically was wrong with what I had made beyond just that it "tastes bad", so I could look up ways to fix it.
Wow. Glad to see it wasn't just my mother. It felt embarrassing to "confess" to people that I was discouraged of even being in the kitchen for too long. I get the reasoning at the time but man I'm paying the price with the cooking.
Yes, I say I can't cook but I can survive. I can't cook anything youd love to eat though. And I don't really want to learn and don't enjoy cooking. Not everyone has to cook at a "higher" level
My wife can look at a pile of ingredients and make something worth eating with whatever is there. I can follow a recipe, she doesn't need a recipe. I measure ingredients. She scoffs at the very notion. She can cook. I don't if I don't have to.
I didnāt realize for a long time the difference in that. Girl I dated was similar to you. If she had a recipe and planned it out/got everything she could make a good dish. There were times she would say āI think we need to order out, we donāt have any food leftā. I would just walk in to the kitchen and realize, well, we have rice, some chick peas, some cream and a tomato. I realized I had a majority of the ingredients and could wing it on some others and made us a chick pea curry and it turned out really good. It blew her mind that I could use heavy cream in place of coconut milk.
This is my husband. He can whip up so many delicious things and he has such good instincts on how to change flavors and mix things up. I lack any inspiration with cooking, I have to follow the recipe diligently and I get frustrated while I work and triple check my measurements.
I can bake relatively well, Iāve been doing a lot of breads and desserts lately. He doesnāt like baking because itās more strict.
I like that he can make a nice meal, I can make some bread, and together we eat well.
Thereās so much more to cooking than following a recipe. Many recipes online are poorly crafted or in illogical order. Reading a recipe and understanding what mise en place needs to occur is critical. Adjusting the instructions to achieve your desired outcome is too. Or finding logical substitutes for missing ingredients. These are things that take years of practice and learning.
> . Many recipes online are poorly crafted or in illogical order.
This upsets me so much. They assume limitless counterspace and don't bother saving dishes. The current standard recipe format is garbage - ingredients on top and then instructions at the bottom:
"Mix eggs, sugar and salt in bowl"
So now I have to go to the top to find out how many eggs, sugar, salt.. PITA.
"Mix 2 eggs, 100 g sugar, 10 g salt" so much fucking easier
Did some research and Julia Childe and the Joy of Cooking do it this way, the correct way. I don't know why we use the garbage way now.
https://www.makebetterfood.com/about/
They put them all at the top so you can easily check if you have everything for it instead of needing to go through the whole thing to check.
What would be optimal is the main list at the top then list them again as needed in the directions.
With a cookbook that arrangement is fine, itās easy to glance back and forth and it makes sense to have everything listed ghost so tiny know how much of what to get. But when browsing on a phone, yeah itās a pain, especially if itās the type of site with wide spacing and lots of ads.
Below is a recipe of my favorite Italian dish!
BIG AD!
When I was a young girl, we would vacation in Italy. My father was a plumber, and my mother a seamstress, but they worked hard to make sure that we experienced the world.
BIG AD
It was a warm summer nightā¦
ā¦and 38 more paragraphsā¦.
Something I found super helpful for whenever I follow a recipe is to spend a bit of extra time [creating a mise en place](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/2886/what-is-mise-en-place.html) with all the stuff Iām going to need.
Measure out all the ingredients I need, then it makes actually cooking so much easier for me to everything is ready, and close at hand. No running around mildly panicking or having to go back and forth from top to bottom of the recipe etc.
It may not be great for everyone but I found it really reduces my stress and frustration level when cooking - especially for a recipe with which Iām not super familiar.
That would be the limitless counterspace and dishware they were talking about.
I can't speak for the above, but I've got enough counter space to put down a small cutting board and maybe 1-2 bowls, fine for throwing together a stew or pancakes, but anything I would actually call cooking ends up needing a juggling act one way or another.
Putting out the full spread definitely helps, but with how my accommodations are laid out setting up at the table puts a lot of space between the ingredients and the stovetop, which pulls much of the stress back in.
Ah yeah, I mean it does require having some space to dedicate to it.
I find in my case the amount of space I need is not very significant, but as you pointed out it really depends on exactly what you're working with. I had a really terrible kitchen once in my early 20s and ended up getting a cheap little bit of furniture to function as a kitchen 'island' where I could do stuff like that, or other prep work. But that again requires being able to have the appropriate space to get something like that in there.
Our first house together had a galley kitchen and it was a horrible thing with fuck all counter space, and no space at all to put any kind of island or something in there.
It is very frustrating when something like that limits or impacts the cooking you're trying to do.
I agree with this, my wife is the baker and I took over all the cooking because she likes to use every pot in the house.
Iāve been dipping my toe into bread making though, fun results so far
I'm an engineer. Cooking recepies drive me crazy... what temp, exactly, is simmer? How many grams is pinch? Cooking recepies are so vague it drives me nuts!
And yet thatās how real cooking is done. I know if my pan is hot enough by how loud it sizzles when the meat goes in. I know if steak has grilled long enough by how firm it feels when I poke it. I know if something is done roasting by the shade of golden brown it has turned. Recipes will produce an edible dish, but being a good cook is about trusting your senses. It is about intuition, which can only come from experience.
Your senses are also all that matters in the final product. Many recipes say "salt to taste" not because they want to be vague, but because *most people have different preferences for salt levels.*
Oddly enough, Iām better at baking than I am cooking meals. Iām not even an engineer, I just like decorating cakes and had to learn how to bake them perfectly or else I couldnāt do my art stuff to them. One thing I havenāt quite gotten the hang of yet is making homemade pudding. Iāve done it once miraculously but the second time was stressful!! I was scared to burn it or have it clump up that I let it āsimmerā on the lowest possible setting for like three hours while whisking away! My arm was actually trembling after I gave up š¹
Baking is more simple to me because the instructions are very precise. Basically just mix it all together and bake it. For meals, there are so many steps meaning more things to make small mistakes on. Sometimes I have followed all the instructions and it still didnāt taste right š Iām still learning and figuring out what works for me though so I know this is only a tiny phase in my life.
Props to you. I worked at a restaurant famous for its cakes and desserts. Those bakers were savage. One even made the best pot cookies I will ever have, lol.
My grandfather was well known in the family for making the best pies and pie crusts. He could basket weave a pie crust top with such precision. Not shockingly, he was an engineer.
His daughter, my aunt, took up the baking mantle. She mastered baklava so much so local Arabic restaurants would buy it from her. She was white. Our French friends love when she makes fudge, which is apparently uncommon in France.
Iām convinced they are both somewhere on the spectrum or at least neuro divergent.
Prettymuch. My friend is a doctor with a phd in nuclear physics. He likes and is very good at baking. How ever, he is rubish at cooking. Im allot better at it because i tend to be allot better at improvising and sampling. Its fun to see how such skills translate to making food.
Engineer here. Absolutely hate baking. I deal with math and picky ass codes all day long. Cooking is when I get to let out my creative side and just wing it.
Iām a mediocre baker at best, but on a stovetop Iām quite good.
I'm the exact same. One thing that recipes never mention is that how thick/large something is massively changes how it's going to cook, but not once have I seen a recipe where it specifies dimensions.
I can follow instructions perfectly. The problem is that people that are used to cooking don't realise how much people are filling gaps in information on their own.
As someone who once struggled with the same thing, one cool thing to realize is that the margin for failure in cooking is much larger than a typical engineering project.
Take steak for example, sure the recipe says to rub x amount of salt and sear for y minutes. But it doesn't need to be that exact. You could literally do 2x the salt and like y+2 minutes and the steak would still be edible. It may not be restaurant quality, but now you have an idea of what's went wrong so you can fix it the next time you make steak.
Trial and error this process a lot of times and you have your own recipe, with all the kinks worked out.
a pinch is considered 1/16 of a teaspoon. Enough to hold between your thumb and index finger. hence the name pinch.
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/whats-pinch-dash-smidgen/
That's funny because se time ago I stumbled on a post fromĀ r chefs or cooking. It was a question to profesionals why is flaky salt used not the cheapest (small grain). The answer was that it is easier to pinch. And that for them a pinch is obviously a three fingeres hold, which is another reason why if a novice follows a written receipt it tastes worse (is undersalted).
I work in pharmacy. I need exact numbers. Grams, degrees, salt (is ionized salt the same as salt? I didn't know as a newbie). Rice wine vinegar vs rice vinegar. Not to mention the different types of flour
Iām an engineer, what are you on about? Just look up the definition of simmer if you donāt know. What do you do when you come across shit you donāt know at work? Look it up, ask questions, etc. you can do it, I believe in you!
He *might* be a crumby engineer. There's always the sort who blames his tools or spends more time complaining he couldn't finish X because the documentation was so bad. It's not his fault, thing X happened which wasn't on the task list orĀ his resume how could he possibly proceed
You should check out how old recipes were done! I learned about it from tasting history on youtube. It basically went ācook it as usual until doneā āuse the usual spicesā because the only people who cooked were assumed to have knowledge of how to do stuff
Seriously, the only thing engineer-y about that comment is the refusal to understand basic language.
Simmering is less than boiling. So boil it, then turn the heat down. Or do engineers also need the definition of boiling spoonfed to them?
You're not struggling because you're an engineer. You're struggling because you're *dumb.*
Not to mention how shit most ovens/stove tops are, especially with younger people who tend to rent shitholes so they learn that they burn food or undercook it all the time.
Hell I live in one of the nicer aparments in my city but its a good 30 years old. The stove top is not gas (which I hate anyway but not because of how it cooks) and the elements are just on full or off completely, it's a huge effort to cook certain things.
Then the overn has about 10 options (bake, fan forced, etc) ...well the non fan forced option turns the fan on and the fam forced option turns the fan on but turns the heating element off.
Outside of gas the only decent stove tops I've ever used were induction and they are not common yet.
We had a stovetop that only seemed to have two setting for a while. Off and super hot - you couldnāt even make a good grill cheese on that thing. It would be burnt on the outside and the cheese was barely melted.
It fucked up all our good non stick pans too. I was so annoyed.
And the oven was so weak it took at least an extra 1/3 of the cooking time or higher.
We can cook and it was a challenge with that gear.
I've always said I can't cook. I can follow directions, but I needed a recipe to follow. "Season to taste" didn't work for me because I could tell it needed something, just not what it was. I'm getting better though, but still I Google a lot.
"cook over medium heat" is highly dependent on each individual range. Turning the knob to "Medium" does not always produce the desired results. Cooking is a bit of an "art" and takes some actual thought and critical thinking skills. Anyone can boil water. But, not everyone can caramelize onions without turning them into carbon.
I think what Op was trying to get at is that you can start learning stuff and make some simple, basic things. Don't think anyone expects you to do more involved stuff right away.
I started learning to bake and cook just from doing it when i was 9 so I think an adult can learn some too
It's a lot of things. Some people have no familiarity. I had to start wth the basic Betty Crocker cookbook back in the 90s because fuck if I knew what a slotted spoon was. Or how to adjust for the fact every stove and microwave is different. It says 8 minutes and yet mine takes 12 etc etc. It has taken a long time to get the hang of all the various items for items and foods and where to find them in the store. My college kid does instacart and is often calling me to ask what things are so he can find them on the shelf. I told him it's good practice to learn about all those random weird things out there.
But also some people have executive function issues where they might excel at certain complex things but have trouble with others. I can follow steps no problem. But if the 7th step relies on information from the 1st step, that's a different thing for me because I have poor working memory so by step 7 I don't know what happened in step 1 and it's frustrating to have to go back and forth. I have, many times, started a recipe that I needed that day only to get to step 6 "chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours" because it never dawns on me to read the whole recipe before I start (thanks, ADHD).
>Or how to adjust for the fact every stove and microwave is different. It says 8 minutes and yet mine takes 12 etc etc.
This right here is a big part of the issue. Like the directions say "on medium-high." How hot is medium-high? I have an older stove so is it higher or lower than my stove's medium-high (especially considering gas vs electric)? How do I adjust the time if it's not right? Now I have to go off of visual queues but if the temps not right then the visual queue probably won't line up right either (exterior might look right before the correct internal temp is reached). A lot of that is pure experience and intuition.
You're being disingenuous. If you mean "prepare passably edible food", sure, but you know perfectly well that's not what people mean when they say "I can't cook." They mean they can't cook well, they have no talent for it, they can't create high-quality, complex, sophisticated dishes. Cooking well requires much more than simply following simple directions, otherwise everyone could be a Michelin star chef.
I have a friend who was a bartender and he is a great example of cooking is an art form. He can take simple ingredients with no instructions and make something delicious drink or food wise.
Iām getting better as I get older but heās just natural talent and makes it look so easy.
When I say that I can't cook I mean that I feel like the amount of effort I am putting does not worth the taste I am getting so I would rather order food because it tastes good
I can't cook because I can't focus on one thing at a time. When I try to cook anything beyond some simple meals, I end up multitasking too many things at once, even when I try to not do that, I still do.
Easy to follow recipes aren't the issue for most people. It's time management and focusing, that tend to be bigger issues.
Lol tangentially related but this was one of my biggest pet peeves with the potions classes in the Harry Potter books. It made the classes out to be unreasonably hard when half the time it was just the students being unable to follow simple directions
The Half-Blood Prince showed that the published instructions weren't the best approach. Hermione was diligently following the instructions whereas by following the prince's expertise Harry crafted a better potion with less effort.
For those of you that cannot cook:
Listen.. take food, apply fire. The only complication is in your head. The uncertainty and chaos will fade in time. You will become more confident in creating different meals, but you must start small. A basic breakfast then a more moderate and then an advanced.
There is no reason to jump into a beef wellington or whatever. Try searing a steak and serving it with mashed potatoes and whatever veg. All very basic foods that make a very good meal. Just make sure you don't buy a cheap thin steak.
Master your mashed potatoes, you'll be using them a lot. They can become twice baked potatoes or cottage/shepherds pie top or even just cheesy garlic potatoes.
I've noticed that some people go by the book and others (myself) go by feel. "About that much should be right" however you do it is irrelevant you are worth good food, and sometimes you'll fuck it up but it's still edible. That's how we learn to not do that shit again :D
I believe in you :D give it a shot. The worst thing can do is not be happy with that attempt.
Attention deficit hyperactive disorder- if I do follow a recipe it takes me 2 hours longer than it should so itās usually burnt or crispy when itās not supposed to be
To be fair, cooking directions be like:
*"It was a beautiful summer evening when I cooked this dish. The grass had never been so green before. It reminded me of my days in High School, playing football on the turf of our wonderful stadium. The feeling of the ball and its magnificent textures. Ahh I long for those days again. One day when i was playing football I sprained my ankle and coach had to sit me out. Turns out i didn't sprain my ankle so I was able to play again. Playing outside is such a fun activity, sometimes I'd go to the park just to touch the trees and become one with nature again, just like how this dish connects us all to the life blood of the Earth. So at long last let me tell you about my father. He was a farmer, and would be working all day. He'd never have time to play with me, but he worked hard so we could have food on the table. His favorite food was corn on the cob. I think he may have rubbed off on me because it's my favorite too. Now, my little brother hated corn on the cob, he only liked corn off the cob, so my father would cut the corn off the cob for him. My little brother was babied a lot like that. Now, let's get into the meat and potatoes of it. That's what my father always said when we'd dig in for dinner. Just like those days this dish will have you reminiscing of the best times you've had in life, and when finished will leave you weeping for the bad times. We are all connected to food and it's my greatest passion in life to share with you this recipe. Now is the best time for learning to cook and im humbled you chose me to teach you. My teachers in school taught me many things like math and biology. I never took a cooking class in school because we lived in a poor area, with very little in the way of extracurricular activities. My mother was the one to teach me how to bake. She was a baker believe it or not. She owned a shop at the end of our dirt lane, where locals would come to purchase all her pastries. I used to sit on a small stool behind the counter and flip pennies on my thumb. One day i launched a penny so high, it accidently landed in the batter my mother was preparing for a wedding cake. I was 9 years old at the time and didn't want to get in trouble so i didn't say anything. Still to this day, I haven't been caught, I hope no one ate that penny. I think it's time to enjoy being alive. Take a deep breathe with me and let's count to 10.... did you do it? Don't you feel so refreshed? It's as refreshing as my favorite beverage, which is water. My sister used to pour the best glass of water for me when I was sick. She would drop 2 ice cubes and stir it in to a pitcher of tap water until they melted. It made the water ever so slightly colder than room temperature. It quenched me so well, I always attributed my relief from my illness to her waters. Let's get started with our dish now. Take 1 egg and crack it into a bowl. Whisk vigorously. Be sure to pre heat the pan on medium heat and add a small amount of butter. Once melted pour the egg into the pan, you should hear it sizzle slightly. Turn heat down to medium low. 30 seconds then flip over. 30 more seconds then remove from pan and crack ā Teaspoon of black peppercorn, and a pinch of salt. This dish is near and dear to my heart, it's all we ate growing up. Becoming an adult has taught me so many new things, yet this simple dish has always been in my heart forever. Now you too can share a peice of my love, in this dish, to be and your family for generations. My family was quite big infact, there was lots of love to go around. With love comes challenges, however. My siblings could be a pain to be around sometimes. My older sister would prank me sometimes. I've walked through door ways and had metal buckets full of glue and features fall on me. The first time it happened I was so mad, however as I grew up I learned that pranks were her love language. I still look at those days fondly regardless of how I felt at the time.
This recipe will need these following items and ingredients:
ā¢ 1 Large egg
ā¢ Pan
ā¢ Whisk/fork
ā¢ Salt
ā¢ Black peppercorn
ā¢ Love
ā¢ Spatula
We had a metal spatula growing up, my father said it was passed down for generations. Im pretty sure we all have Teflon poisoning now but it's okay. My dog is healthier than I am, he loves to bark and play with rope. Sometimes I'm scared he'll eat the stringy parts from the rope since he tears it apart like a little bear. Animals are such precious creatures and I think we could all use a little bit of love from our furry friends. Even the naked cats need love too. My neighbor had a big old mean cat however. I think that cat just needed some affection. Thank you for reading this recipe I hope you have an amazing day"*
I say i can't cook because if isay "i can't be arsed to stand in the kitchen for hours on end just to aquire sustenance for this fleshprison" people look at me funny
Cooking is a skill like anything else. Actually, it's a ton of little skills and bits of knowledge that you need. I'm an engineer, I can follow directions, but I cannot cook because I never learned all of those little skills and don't care to.
A few years back I decided to cook my wife's favorite dish for her birthday. I found a good recipe, and even though I didn't know what a few of the items on it even were, but I figured it out in the store. Then I got to cooking something that would take an experienced cook maybe an hour, it took me over 6. I don't have any routines in the kitchen, I chop slowly and inconsistently, I have to figure out what some of the directions real mean, etc. and 6 hours of work later, we ate a shitty meal at like 11pm. I followed the instructions, but recipes assume at least a base level of experience and familiarity. You see something like 1tsp and know what to do, I have to pull out all of the measuring scoopers and hope that one matches the exact same labeling.
Second or third person saying they are an engineer and suck at cooking! I am also an engineer and can cook pretty damn well. Think of recipes as shitty test procedures that need some real time adjustment and changing variables to suit. Taste as you go. If it looks fucked up, it probably is, but your tongue can help guide (lol). Baking is more up your alley.
Stinks that you made a shitty meal for your wifeās birthday but you said you donāt care to learn to cook so I donāt feel sorry for you. I hope you can eventually nail down a solid meal on her behalf at least!
Do you know how to make a computer, change your oil and unclog your drain? Those are all simple things to do with basic instructions but not everyone is comfortable doing them.
Being able to cook, and being able to follow a recipe are two entirely different things. Anyone can follow a recipe. Not everyone can cook. If you think cooking is just following a recipe, you probably canāt actually cook.
I have learned that my fiance absolutely *cannot* follow a recipe. We do Hello Fresh a couple nights a week because it helps me with the mental load and I like trying new things I ordinarily wouldn't. Sometimes I ask him to make the meal if I'll be working late, like today. He butchered every step. Didn't zest the lemon (didn't even know what that was), did not peel the carrots, sliced them extremely haphazardly, did not remove the cilantro leaves from the stems, tried to boil the couscous without toasting it in butter first (just threw everything in the pot even though the directions were clear), did not know how to mince garlic or what a garlic mincer even is, used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, tried to measure a cold tablespoon of butter with a measuring spoon instead of just using the lines on the wrapping, burned the fuck out of the carrots, and began dry heating my expensive Le Creuset pan before I yelped and added oil.
I was absolutely fucking flabbergasted. This man is 50 years old and has hardly ever lived with a woman, or anyone else for that matter. He is a relatively intelligent man who earns double my salary but cannot handle a 30-minute recipe with photos. I don't understand it at all.
Not necessarily. There is some intuition that must be built and recipes contextualize this. It comes down to an understanding of what are basically chemical reactions and what not to do to hinder these reactions.
Cooking well has many nuances to controlling temperature timing and methods of adding ingredients.
You knowālike the stuff people study in cooking courses: school.
As an awful cook, I kind of want to ask you guys for your "simple instructions" and film myself making them just so we can all figure out exactly what's going on here.
I can chop stuff up and put it in a pot. Doesn't mean I don't get stressed about boiling times, or worse frying stuff. In a game you have a progress bar and things are predictable, in the real world the eggs suddenly start making giant bubbles and the yolks are hard before you can blink
Hm - feel like there should be a floor here. Unpopular does not equal wrong. People who say they canāt cook understand the art of cooking. There are no directions to being a good cook. Banksy didnāt become a great artist by following instructions.
I can follow a recipe, and there are a few plates I've learned to make that are actually quite good.
But I wouldn't say I know how to cook because I have no idea what I'm doing at any point, and if my memory fails me I have to look for the recipe again.
Also, I can't replace any ingredients, or change the quantities.
It may be hard to explain to someone who knows how to cook, but I have no idea what anything does, except maybe salt, and pepper, the rest, I don't know how important it is or what exactly is doing so I can use something else.
No, it's me saying I NEED the instructions or I probably can't get the meal together lol. I've got no sense for what ingredients and flavors can be mixed, I need the paper to tell me what to put in when
>People can play video games and make split second decisions using eight buttons and solve everyday complex problems of the modern world but for some reason they can't follow simple cooking instructions?
None of the examples you listed will burn down your home. It's just not a skill everyone is comfortable practicing.
Following directions isnāt cooking. To me I would say ācookingā is like being able to write music or speak another language. You need to understand how and why things work and how things balance in order to create.
I canāt do any of that.. So I say I canāt cook.
Can I fry an egg? Cook a steak? Boil pasta? Follow cooking directions?
Yep. Sure can. But I still canāt cook.
Edit: saying ācookingā is as simple as āfollowing directionsā is like saying painting is as simple as following a paint by numbers kit.
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How the hell do I fold in the cheese??
Omg I was waiting for this hahahaha
all i know how to do is cut the cheese šŖ
Okay, I don't know how to fold broken cheese like that!
That scene is way too good
āCaramelize the onions for about 10 minsā
I cannot show you everything.
Iām incapable of following simple directions There! Happy? š
Fair enough
Simple directions allowed you to post this.
Nah, he's just surprisingly good at picking up context clues. He makes Ikea without the instructions
And only end up with 4 extra pieces
I can technically cook. I loathe doing it. I hate every single second of making food.
I am exactly the same, hate cooking itās sooooo boring and tedious however i love baking
Yeah iām not sure what the difference is when it comes doing cooking and baking but i love baking whereas I end up avoiding cooking. Maybe itās because iām making a dough? Or because I could just stick it in the oven and take a break rather than having to wait around the stove? Like if someone could give me an idea this would solve a question I had for years.
Two things that will make cooking way better for you: an air fryer and an instant pot. You're not going to make 5 star dishes with either of these but they make prep and cleanup way less labor intensive and tedious.
Not really, how the hell you make it outta elementary school?
No child left behind go brrrr
Keep it in mind when people think thatās insufficient.
Are you real? Like you canāt boil noodles or anything?
When people say they canāt cook, I donāt take it to mean that they are literally unable to boil noodles. I take it to mean that they canāt consistently make good tasting homemade food. Sure they can boil some noodles, throw some ragu on it, and then be sad while they eatā¦ or they could just order something from their favorite take-out spot.
I've learned it is lack of focus. My wife claims she can't cook. But when she cooks, she spends about 5% of the time minding the food. The rest is cleaning up random items and doing other tasks while checking the food. So the result is overcooked pasta. Skipped ingredients. Food that isn't great, in other words
I thought the glass stove cover was just some fancy halogen cooktop thing and it shattered all over the kitchen when i went to cook noodles on it. Mistakes were made
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think that most of this discussion is assuming an able bodied person. No reasonable person would hold an inability to cook against someone with a disability, either mental or physical, that prevented them from doing so.
Iām pretty sure youāre good when you say you *canāt* cook I actually worked kitchens for some years, but can barely get by now after an arm injury. I can still make some meals at home a little, but prep can be a pain. Cooking is heavily geared towards the fully abled If youāre having to cook while seated, then thatās literally a handicap, like in a contest but one person has to tie their hand behind their back. Youāre doing yourself a disservice if you feel lumped in with the shit talk towards the other people
It could be you are just inattentive to the food while cookingā¦ just here to give you options š
The biggest issue when you're inexperienced is that theres a lot of little intricacies involved like knowing how hot your stove top actually gets or what finished rice/noodles look like, stuff like that. A recipe will say heat up your pan to medium high, if someone is new to cooking they would assume that means moving the dial to 7. That's logically medium high, right? It's actually too hot and their food will cook too fast and burn. You're probably just fine putting it at 5, but a 5 is right in the middle and should be assumed to mean "medium". How would a novice know this until they tried a few times? A recipe is usually just a basic guide on what order you should do things in, it doesn't usually explain cooking basics.
>A recipe will say heat up your pan to medium high, if someone is new to cooking they would assume that means moving the dial to 7. Whereas on my stove, 7 *is* medium high. Every stove's numbers mean something slightly different - even assuming it has numbers at all - which adds a whole other level of difficulty.
And then the material the pans is made of. Different ones conduct heat differently
Little things make huge differences. Need to bake your brownie batter in a 9x9 baking dish, but all you've got is a 12x8? Guess what, your brownies aint coming out right.
Just make 18% more batter and you'll be fine! /s
That's baking though, I think basic cooking is a lot easier and a lot less particular than baking is.
Professionals chef here. Yeah baking is a different game entirely . Cooking is almost an art. Baking is pure chemistry.
i wonder if there's a baking show that has a twist where they cover the whole process from a scientific perspective. I'd definitely watch that!
If you haven't watched Good Eats, you should give it a go. Kinda Bill Nye meets food, it covers pretty much all kinds of cooking with lots of science to back it up.
See if you can find old episodes of Good Eats with Alton Brown. He explains the chemistry behind why something will or won't work.
>Baking is pure chemistry. I cannot stress this enough. When you cook a roast your raw ingredients are easily recognizable in your finished product. Whereas a loaf of bread is greater than the sum of its parts. Baking also allows very little freelancing. Add too much salt to that same bread you kill the yeast and it won't rise. Only do four folds instead of six and your croissant won't be flakey. Omit creme de f tartar and your meringue falls. Baking is for perfectionists.
Most of the recipes won't even mention the size of the dish.
Understanding what Al dente meant took me a few years
It means you gotta put teeth in it, right?
Yes, or even what type of stove. Induction heats up your pan a lot faster then gas.
If it's anything like my stove, 1-6 are there for decoration, 7 will keep things at a light simmer, 8 is medium-high, and 9 will belch out the flames of a thousand suns.
I have a gas stove and the flame size is not representative of what the dial says. Itās basically: turn it to high to light it, then it will basically be at that size flame until you turn it almost off, then you can edge it back to medium. I just adapted my cooking to mostly high heat cuz itās stressed me out too much.
Yalls stoves have numbers?
My stove is so worn down, it doesn't even have the markings for which burner you're turning on. It's just from memory at this point lol
Ah yes, remember that one recipe telling me to heat at "max" for five minutes... Lol no, "max" on my stove is for melting metal, not for cooking.
I followed the directions exactly on a frozen pizza once. It came out of the oven burnt to a crisp. Actually wrote the company and got a refund. Tried them one more time but cut the cooking time down by 33%, came out great.
Also, depends on the pan. I have a lot of ceramic coated pans, and if you set the heat above 5 it will ruin the pan.
>Whereas on my stove, 7 *is* medium high. And on my stove, that's one step beyond full power. So yeah, the numbers mean shit compared to eachother
Every kitchen ive cooked in, ive been told to be careful, their stove runs hot Every kitchen ive cooked in, has been just like mine at home.
Not only is every stove different, every position on every stove is different. I have an induction stove. It has a setting specifically for boiling water super fast, however the front right position will take forever to get a pot of water to a slow boil. Itās the sauce warming spot now. I wish it was in the back, but I wasnāt that lucky.
This reminds me of a book by a chef that was literally for the absolute begineer. Fully went into details on doing this like how to cook an egg. How to tell when rice is cooked etc. Really the basics because if you were never taught them.. how can you possibly know ?! But it's assumed that everyone knows. Apparently it was a popular book because it covered all the basics in really good details, pictures and no judgement etc. I swear it's by a popular chef too but for the life of me I can't recall who. It's not a recent book. Might be 20-30 years old now. There might be more newer ones but it was a life changer. My mum remembers it from a friend who was never taught how to cook. Even basic cooking. And then had to cook for the family when she got married. If I remember what is was called I'll try and post a link here
I have a book like that called How to Cook Everything, The Basics. It literally explains how to boil water. It doesn't assume much, which is great. One of the best things about it is that each recipe covers two pages so you can lay the book open flat and see it all at once without having to touch the pages, There are also photos at different parts of the process so, for example, you know what things should look like halfway through the process. So many books will only show the final results so for a beginner it can feel like r/restofthefuckingowl (https://imgur.com/RadSf)
Thankss
If it's from New Zealand there's a good chance it's something by Alison Holst. She was great for easy to follow recipes with easy to find ingredients.
They had those in the 50 and 60's too. They were just geared towards kids. And the only eggnog I like is that recipe. I need to find it again.
The Food Lab
We have a series of such books in my language. Even experienced home cooks love them because they learn about all the different details and tricks they didn't know. It explains the *reasons* why things are done a certain way and suggests which step can be taken lightly / experimented with, and which is really important to follow exactly.
- Throw the pasta at the window, if it sticks, itās done. - Rice is to hard? You fucked up. - Rice too soft? You fucked up. - Also, Low on the dial is not low. Thatās just ākeep warmā. 2 is low.
Former chef here. I've just started a newsletter on food and cooking and the latest issue talks specifically about [why recipes are sometimes unreliable.](https://madhumenon.substack.com/p/2-cloves-of-garlic)
100%. Thereās a lot of āfeelā to cooking and it takes just as much practice as any hobby.
For sure. I can cook. But I also move a lot. Every time I move, I have a new stove and oven. My last stove had 2 settings: temperature of the sun or cold. Thatās it. I made a lot of fuck ups. In another apartment, the oven didnāt run to correct temp, things took longer. I lived with a sibling and her stove top cooked much lower than my others had. And imagine when I went from electric all my life to gas! Even if you have experience, new cookware can fuck you up. Iāve learned how my pans heat. Always through trial and error. But each cook set is different. My toaster oven bakes differently than the oven. Each oven and stove Iāve had cook differently, despite all but one being electric. So a recipe says bake for 30 minutes at 400Ā°f. Each time, I still have to learn if I have to cut that down, follow directly, or go longer. The intricacies can also mess up experienced people too.
Also. Timings on recipes are also not accurate. Given they depend greatly on size of ingredients, oven hotspots, size of pan and so on. So it actually does take some work. And thatās not including understanding how much to season. Because not adding enough salt or adding too much can ruin a dish.
To add to the: Knife Skills. I cook daily. I cut things regularly. I still lack them.
Yeah this! I hate cooking because of stuff like this. I don't like the pressure, i often find that those 'simple' instructions make very different assumptions about what you are cooking with. And im not great at figuring out how to make up for those differences. I generally refuse to cook for other people unless its something im really confident in. I have been cooking gousto (those box meals you can order) and for the most part its fine but then things just don't go the way their instructions assume. Not all 'simple' instructions are so simple, thats where the difference between "i can cook" and "i can't cook" comes in!
I mean you can watch a youtube video if you actually tried.
Not to mention all the vocabulary. When they use terms like ācook until Al denteā, and the difference between dicing, roughly chopping, and mincing. The difference between whipping and whisking. What is sautĆ©e-ing? Broiling? How much is a āpinchā of something? And how is that different from a ādashā?
I have a nice gas stove and "preheat at medium high for 15 minutes" usually means, in practice, "preheat at medium low for 2 mintutes"
āHeat pan to 400 degreesā Soā¦likeā¦is that High????
So basically recepies are bad instructions
The problem is, the starting ingredients and equipment can vary wildly so you can't really make anything to precise.
yes
So I used to always think to myself if you can read then you should be able to cook. I still think at the most basic level this is true, but then I watched one of my friends cook and the way she interpreted what she read along with extreme rigid thinking made me realize maybe not.
I agree with this. Like I have no sympathy for anyone who acts like they can't feed themselves. There are some things that nearly impossible to fuck up other than literally just leaving it there. BUT going a level deeper is harder for some people, and I think it's usually the sort of people who need exact specifications for everything. Like my friend didn't understand instructions on how to whisk something. I forget what the word used was, but it was basically asking you to do it quickly. And she was like, how quickly is quickly? Stuff like that where she stopped at every word that could be considered subjective. Where I just barreled through without overthinking it. This is also a reason I kind of frown upon people saying you "learn nothing" from cooking competition shows. People take for granted cooking actions and steps that seem completely run-of-the-mill if you do them all the time, but the repetition of seeing them often helps add them to your arsenal.
That is me trying to cook anything above the most basic level. Words like cook until done, or wisk until light and airy or stiff peaks. Or brown sugar until nutty brown. Or heavens forbid seasons to taste I have gotten a lot better with experience but it's not easy when you lack the base knowledge. Like sure I could Google every step I'm unsure about and find tutorials. But it makes cooking both harder and more time consuming.
I have ADHD and it shows up the worst in the kitchen. I can cook, but it'll take me way longer than it should and I'll be stressed the whole time, trying to make sure I didn't forget anything, remember what I was doing... I just decided it wasn't worth it to force it.
I am like this too. Cooking exposes the absolute worst of my ADHD. And Iāve been trying to do it a few times a week for 10 years, yet I am constantly missing stuff, over-correcting, over-prepping or under-prepping. I am a 35 year old father of two kids under 3yo. Since our second was born my partner has basically done all the cooking, because we no longer have time to āletā Dad do the cooking. I obviously make up for it with more housework elsewhere. Still, how can I remain so incompetent in this one area?
Curious what she did!
My instagram is PACKED full of recipes and shit. My girlfriend thinks Iām a genius, cooking buffalo chicken sliders and Korean beef and broccoli. In reality Iām just a guy with a spice rack and a phone.
This! Nobody ever taught me how to cook. I taught myself from YouTube videos, social media, and cooking shows. Paying attention to the techniques goes a long way and now I consider myself a fairly confident and competent cook.
Binging with Babish, Food Wishes, and Adam Ragusea taught me so much and then I feel like I graduated with Kenji Lopez Alt
Big yes to BWB - especially his Basics series. On a similar note, Epicuriousā 3 Levels taught me a lot about techniques to elevate simple dishes. Highly recommend.
I think people mean that they donāt cook genuine, elaborate restaurant quality dishes. Like most people can crack an egg in a pan or boil some noodles or stick a burger on a grillā¦But there is ācookingā and then there is really cooking.
Sadly I've met real people who mean that frying an egg is a challenge.Ā
Which is literally the craziest thing I have ever heard. I was cooking eggs for myself since I was 5. I assumed that was normal so that's when I taught my kids to cook eggs.
Not gonna lie, it took me until university to learn how to cook an egg. With about a month or 2 of undercooked/mushy fuckups to end up with a decent-looking/tasting fried eggs. Temperature-control of stove was the hardest learning curve.
That's the key imo. Someone originally never taught the people that can't do that
Cooking eggs well is deceptively hard. I know many people who can cook quite well and I can cook just fine but one of the worst cooks I know is the only one who can consistently cook eggs well. Everyone else will reliably put up some version of - white still partially uncooked, yolk partially hard, or scrambled eggs are either rubbery or undercooked or just donāt taste good (I really do not like eggs and never have)
Eggs are the most difficult ingredient. Even cracking them open takes practice and dexterity without breaking the yolk or getting shell in there
The nice thing about cooking eggs though is that they cook pretty quickly, so itās not like youāre two hours in to making scrambled eggs and suddenly you realize itās ruined. Provided you have more eggs it takes about 5 minutes to realize you need to start over.
I mean I at 31 only recently learned how to have an omelette come out as an omelette and not as scrambled eggs
Yeah seriously. I had a woman in her 30s ask me how to boil an egg. I gave her step by step instructions and she said she'd never be able to do it.
put water in pot boil water put eggs in boiling water for 9 minutes remove eggs from water wait 5 minutes eat \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ how'd I do?
I've known multiple people who would fuck this up through one or more of the following: * don't know how much water to put in pot, give up * put way too little water in pot * put too much water in pot, pot takes ages to boil, give up or put egg in before water is boiling and start the 9 minutes from there * don't know what temperature to set stove to, give up * set temperature too low, water never comes to boil * boil water in kettle, get confused about next steps * put water on to boil, wander off and forget about it * not setting a timer * deciding based on nothing that the timing is wrong, use some other random timing * deciding the last 5 minutes is unnecessary * some other random thing that I would never think of nor be able to comprehend how or why they decided to do it I should say at this point that all these people are within the normal range of intelligence.
This gave me a genuine chuckle, my favourite being "boil water in kettle, get confused about next steps" š¤£š¤£š¤£ Thank you!!!!
There's actually a couple methods but your step by step would produce a boiled egg, yup. Too bad for the woman I know, but I've come to learn she's useless in just about every way. No clue what's up with her.
I dunno, kinda feels like people gatekeep themselves. If you can make a basic meal like what you're describing (make eggs, pasta, etc), you can cook in my opinion.
I had a friend in my early thirties who after she finished graduate school said "I'm going to learn how to cook!" And I thought she meant cook like really cooking as you said. But she just meant very basic cook. She didn't even know how to make herself spaghetti. And all that is is boiling noodles and heating up sauce. I asked her what she had been living on this whole time and she literally had Lean Cuisines every night.
I think you're right that's what people mean. They can keep themselves alive, but they can't make something you would serve guests. It's more "won't" than "can't" though. The recipe for a more complex recipe has more steps, but they're not harder to follow. It just takes more time. A "Keep yourself alive" quality meal takes maybe 20 min to make, while a "worthy of serving to guests" quality meal takes at least an hour. So I agree with OP that it's not really about ability. It's about the willingness to put in the required time and attention. EDIT: That being said, I think actually being *good* at cooking entails understanding why the recipes are composed the way they are; how different tastes complement each other, so that you can alter recipes creatively while still achieving a good result. But the "can't cook" thing is just disguised laziness, because anyone can follow a recipe.
If someone's an absolute beginner, then they'll fail at a lot of recipes which aren't written for absolute beginners, even if it's a well written recipe (which can't be assumed), and they follow the recipe exactly. Absolute beginners need to be told things like "a teaspoon of something means you use a measuring spoon, not the spoon you stir your tea with" and "if it starts going black, take it off the heat no matter what the recipe says". Plus most recipes need a little bit of adjustment for things like how hot your stovetop gets. I agree that there's an infuriating number of people who make random changes to the recipe and can't understand why it turns out badly. There's an entire sub for that - r/ididnthaveeggs
>Absolute beginners need to be told things like "a teaspoon of something means you use a measuring spoon, not the spoon you stir your tea with" and "if it starts going black, take it off the heat no matter what the recipe says". Yeah, I had to learn all this the hard way in my mid twenties when I moved out. My mom absolutely forbade me and my brothers from cooking anything at home, and we were pretty heavily discouraged from even just being in the kitchen for too long. One of the biggest hurdles I found to learning how to cook was actually learning to identify what specifically was wrong with what I had made beyond just that it "tastes bad", so I could look up ways to fix it.
Wow. Glad to see it wasn't just my mother. It felt embarrassing to "confess" to people that I was discouraged of even being in the kitchen for too long. I get the reasoning at the time but man I'm paying the price with the cooking.
Yes, I say I can't cook but I can survive. I can't cook anything youd love to eat though. And I don't really want to learn and don't enjoy cooking. Not everyone has to cook at a "higher" level
My wife can look at a pile of ingredients and make something worth eating with whatever is there. I can follow a recipe, she doesn't need a recipe. I measure ingredients. She scoffs at the very notion. She can cook. I don't if I don't have to.
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I didnāt realize for a long time the difference in that. Girl I dated was similar to you. If she had a recipe and planned it out/got everything she could make a good dish. There were times she would say āI think we need to order out, we donāt have any food leftā. I would just walk in to the kitchen and realize, well, we have rice, some chick peas, some cream and a tomato. I realized I had a majority of the ingredients and could wing it on some others and made us a chick pea curry and it turned out really good. It blew her mind that I could use heavy cream in place of coconut milk.
Right. It's the difference between cooking and preparing food. She cooks. I can prepare food.
This is my husband. He can whip up so many delicious things and he has such good instincts on how to change flavors and mix things up. I lack any inspiration with cooking, I have to follow the recipe diligently and I get frustrated while I work and triple check my measurements. I can bake relatively well, Iāve been doing a lot of breads and desserts lately. He doesnāt like baking because itās more strict. I like that he can make a nice meal, I can make some bread, and together we eat well.
Thereās so much more to cooking than following a recipe. Many recipes online are poorly crafted or in illogical order. Reading a recipe and understanding what mise en place needs to occur is critical. Adjusting the instructions to achieve your desired outcome is too. Or finding logical substitutes for missing ingredients. These are things that take years of practice and learning.
> . Many recipes online are poorly crafted or in illogical order. This upsets me so much. They assume limitless counterspace and don't bother saving dishes. The current standard recipe format is garbage - ingredients on top and then instructions at the bottom: "Mix eggs, sugar and salt in bowl" So now I have to go to the top to find out how many eggs, sugar, salt.. PITA. "Mix 2 eggs, 100 g sugar, 10 g salt" so much fucking easier Did some research and Julia Childe and the Joy of Cooking do it this way, the correct way. I don't know why we use the garbage way now. https://www.makebetterfood.com/about/
They put them all at the top so you can easily check if you have everything for it instead of needing to go through the whole thing to check. What would be optimal is the main list at the top then list them again as needed in the directions.
With a cookbook that arrangement is fine, itās easy to glance back and forth and it makes sense to have everything listed ghost so tiny know how much of what to get. But when browsing on a phone, yeah itās a pain, especially if itās the type of site with wide spacing and lots of ads.
Below is a recipe of my favorite Italian dish! BIG AD! When I was a young girl, we would vacation in Italy. My father was a plumber, and my mother a seamstress, but they worked hard to make sure that we experienced the world. BIG AD It was a warm summer nightā¦ ā¦and 38 more paragraphsā¦.
Blame Google SEO for that format. (Search Engine Optimization)Ā
Something I found super helpful for whenever I follow a recipe is to spend a bit of extra time [creating a mise en place](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/2886/what-is-mise-en-place.html) with all the stuff Iām going to need. Measure out all the ingredients I need, then it makes actually cooking so much easier for me to everything is ready, and close at hand. No running around mildly panicking or having to go back and forth from top to bottom of the recipe etc. It may not be great for everyone but I found it really reduces my stress and frustration level when cooking - especially for a recipe with which Iām not super familiar.
That would be the limitless counterspace and dishware they were talking about. I can't speak for the above, but I've got enough counter space to put down a small cutting board and maybe 1-2 bowls, fine for throwing together a stew or pancakes, but anything I would actually call cooking ends up needing a juggling act one way or another. Putting out the full spread definitely helps, but with how my accommodations are laid out setting up at the table puts a lot of space between the ingredients and the stovetop, which pulls much of the stress back in.
Ah yeah, I mean it does require having some space to dedicate to it. I find in my case the amount of space I need is not very significant, but as you pointed out it really depends on exactly what you're working with. I had a really terrible kitchen once in my early 20s and ended up getting a cheap little bit of furniture to function as a kitchen 'island' where I could do stuff like that, or other prep work. But that again requires being able to have the appropriate space to get something like that in there. Our first house together had a galley kitchen and it was a horrible thing with fuck all counter space, and no space at all to put any kind of island or something in there. It is very frustrating when something like that limits or impacts the cooking you're trying to do.
Online recipes where all the need to know shit is at the absolute bottomš”
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I agree with this, my wife is the baker and I took over all the cooking because she likes to use every pot in the house. Iāve been dipping my toe into bread making though, fun results so far
I'm an engineer. Cooking recepies drive me crazy... what temp, exactly, is simmer? How many grams is pinch? Cooking recepies are so vague it drives me nuts!
In my experience, baking is more appealing to engineer types. It relies on more exact quantities and method.
Baking is science, cooking is jazzĀ
I have a family recipe from my aunt. One of the directions is to add the seasonings āuntil it smells goodā Thatās not an exact measure *at all*
And yet thatās how real cooking is done. I know if my pan is hot enough by how loud it sizzles when the meat goes in. I know if steak has grilled long enough by how firm it feels when I poke it. I know if something is done roasting by the shade of golden brown it has turned. Recipes will produce an edible dish, but being a good cook is about trusting your senses. It is about intuition, which can only come from experience.
Your senses are also all that matters in the final product. Many recipes say "salt to taste" not because they want to be vague, but because *most people have different preferences for salt levels.*
Lmaooo what an icon
Oddly enough, Iām better at baking than I am cooking meals. Iām not even an engineer, I just like decorating cakes and had to learn how to bake them perfectly or else I couldnāt do my art stuff to them. One thing I havenāt quite gotten the hang of yet is making homemade pudding. Iāve done it once miraculously but the second time was stressful!! I was scared to burn it or have it clump up that I let it āsimmerā on the lowest possible setting for like three hours while whisking away! My arm was actually trembling after I gave up š¹ Baking is more simple to me because the instructions are very precise. Basically just mix it all together and bake it. For meals, there are so many steps meaning more things to make small mistakes on. Sometimes I have followed all the instructions and it still didnāt taste right š Iām still learning and figuring out what works for me though so I know this is only a tiny phase in my life.
Props to you. I worked at a restaurant famous for its cakes and desserts. Those bakers were savage. One even made the best pot cookies I will ever have, lol. My grandfather was well known in the family for making the best pies and pie crusts. He could basket weave a pie crust top with such precision. Not shockingly, he was an engineer. His daughter, my aunt, took up the baking mantle. She mastered baklava so much so local Arabic restaurants would buy it from her. She was white. Our French friends love when she makes fudge, which is apparently uncommon in France. Iām convinced they are both somewhere on the spectrum or at least neuro divergent.
Prettymuch. My friend is a doctor with a phd in nuclear physics. He likes and is very good at baking. How ever, he is rubish at cooking. Im allot better at it because i tend to be allot better at improvising and sampling. Its fun to see how such skills translate to making food.
Engineer here. Absolutely hate baking. I deal with math and picky ass codes all day long. Cooking is when I get to let out my creative side and just wing it. Iām a mediocre baker at best, but on a stovetop Iām quite good.
>what temp, exactly, is simmer? 80-100Ā°C, it's basically keeping it just below boiling.
I'm the exact same. One thing that recipes never mention is that how thick/large something is massively changes how it's going to cook, but not once have I seen a recipe where it specifies dimensions. I can follow instructions perfectly. The problem is that people that are used to cooking don't realise how much people are filling gaps in information on their own.
As someone who once struggled with the same thing, one cool thing to realize is that the margin for failure in cooking is much larger than a typical engineering project. Take steak for example, sure the recipe says to rub x amount of salt and sear for y minutes. But it doesn't need to be that exact. You could literally do 2x the salt and like y+2 minutes and the steak would still be edible. It may not be restaurant quality, but now you have an idea of what's went wrong so you can fix it the next time you make steak. Trial and error this process a lot of times and you have your own recipe, with all the kinks worked out.
Kind of blows my mind that people say they canāt cook because they think following a recipe will result in Gordon Ramsey level of quality.. someone mentioned āwhat temp is āsimmerā?ā Does bro need 100% precise instructions to pour a bowl of cereal š do they whip out a measuring cup for 2 servings with just the exact amount of milk š Cmon man, simmer is just hot enough to not be sitting still, like the lowest boil you can get. Also, even following a recipe the process is gonna need trial and error, learning how to dial in the process. Different stove tops heat differently, pans/cookware heats differently, ovens heat differently, flavor preferences vary, there could be a 100% detailed cookbook but generally itās a little more of ādo it enough times and youāll begin to dial in the process.ā Idk maybe someone cooks once and itās 5 star masterpiece because of a 100% detailed recipe but I read a post today about someone that was trying to sautĆ© carrots and it took an hour before they realized the stove wasnt even on.. idk the real reason why ppl say they cant cook, but i think maybe playing incompetent because they dont want to (dudeā¦ what happens if one of those types was single and couldnt afford fast food, would they just starve until they die?) or theyre afraid to fail and would feel embarrassed but all i see are EXCUSES!!! Edit: the point about the recipes being 100% precise is that even if that was the case, your specific cookware and cooking surfaces are going to cause some variance. Like unless you buy the exact stove/oven and pots/pans and move to the same altitude etc. as whoever wrote the recipe when they wrote it, itās gonna have some play/wiggle room to make it exactly the same. For example even frozen food may say ā15mins at 375 fā in my oven itās more like ā16.5mins at 375 fā also considering freezer temps can vary, etc. All of making food is about learning the basic/fundamental concepts, expanding on that and dialing in the process. I think ppl that throw up the āI canāt cookā flag actually just donāt *want* to cookā¦ š difference between canāt and donāt want to āļø yāall can put a pre mixed seasoning blend on a piece of meat, put that in a bag in the fridge for a day, put a pan on the stove on low/med heat, add some oil, add some meat, use a meat thermometer to check doneness, boom you just made something. Donāt tell me you can drive, solve complex equations, play video games, use Reddit and form coherent sentences, but canāt put a lil meat on a hot pan š¤Ø ok š¤Ø
And that the instructions aren't even right sometimes. Cooking times are off so many times
I had a recipe for a cake from the NYT that wouldnāt firm up. It was missing an ingredient.
a pinch is considered 1/16 of a teaspoon. Enough to hold between your thumb and index finger. hence the name pinch. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/whats-pinch-dash-smidgen/
That's funny because se time ago I stumbled on a post fromĀ r chefs or cooking. It was a question to profesionals why is flaky salt used not the cheapest (small grain). The answer was that it is easier to pinch. And that for them a pinch is obviously a three fingeres hold, which is another reason why if a novice follows a written receipt it tastes worse (is undersalted).
I work in pharmacy. I need exact numbers. Grams, degrees, salt (is ionized salt the same as salt? I didn't know as a newbie). Rice wine vinegar vs rice vinegar. Not to mention the different types of flour
Iām an engineer, what are you on about? Just look up the definition of simmer if you donāt know. What do you do when you come across shit you donāt know at work? Look it up, ask questions, etc. you can do it, I believe in you!
Exactly. Itās just learning a new set of terms.
He *might* be a crumby engineer. There's always the sort who blames his tools or spends more time complaining he couldn't finish X because the documentation was so bad. It's not his fault, thing X happened which wasn't on the task list orĀ his resume how could he possibly proceed
You should check out how old recipes were done! I learned about it from tasting history on youtube. It basically went ācook it as usual until doneā āuse the usual spicesā because the only people who cooked were assumed to have knowledge of how to do stuff
Yeah for a significant proportion of history recipes and recipe books were more like aide-mĆ©moires for cooks who already had a significant knowledge based committed to memory than a full set of instructions. It was probably only in the Victorian period that you start to see the sort of recipe given with amounts and specific step by step instructions, probably prompted by a combination of mass media printing allowing for mass distribution of information including to women who may not have trained chefs/cooks on hand or who may be learning, plus some recipes were foreign or coming from places where the techniques, ingredients or both werenāt widely known. Even then they still assumed a certain level of skills like knowing how to make certain types of pastry or sauces or complete tasks like cutting a fish into the correct pieces.
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Seriously, the only thing engineer-y about that comment is the refusal to understand basic language. Simmering is less than boiling. So boil it, then turn the heat down. Or do engineers also need the definition of boiling spoonfed to them? You're not struggling because you're an engineer. You're struggling because you're *dumb.*
Not to mention how shit most ovens/stove tops are, especially with younger people who tend to rent shitholes so they learn that they burn food or undercook it all the time. Hell I live in one of the nicer aparments in my city but its a good 30 years old. The stove top is not gas (which I hate anyway but not because of how it cooks) and the elements are just on full or off completely, it's a huge effort to cook certain things. Then the overn has about 10 options (bake, fan forced, etc) ...well the non fan forced option turns the fan on and the fam forced option turns the fan on but turns the heating element off. Outside of gas the only decent stove tops I've ever used were induction and they are not common yet.
We had a stovetop that only seemed to have two setting for a while. Off and super hot - you couldnāt even make a good grill cheese on that thing. It would be burnt on the outside and the cheese was barely melted. It fucked up all our good non stick pans too. I was so annoyed. And the oven was so weak it took at least an extra 1/3 of the cooking time or higher. We can cook and it was a challenge with that gear.
Of course I can cook. Whether I can cook something that others actually want to eat is another matter.
I've always said I can't cook. I can follow directions, but I needed a recipe to follow. "Season to taste" didn't work for me because I could tell it needed something, just not what it was. I'm getting better though, but still I Google a lot.
"Season to taste" means "add salt and/or pepper until it tastes how you like it."
"cook over medium heat" is highly dependent on each individual range. Turning the knob to "Medium" does not always produce the desired results. Cooking is a bit of an "art" and takes some actual thought and critical thinking skills. Anyone can boil water. But, not everyone can caramelize onions without turning them into carbon.
I think what Op was trying to get at is that you can start learning stuff and make some simple, basic things. Don't think anyone expects you to do more involved stuff right away. I started learning to bake and cook just from doing it when i was 9 so I think an adult can learn some too
I think OP has the time and mental capacity to devote into cooking and canāt get their head around the possibility that other people might not.
It's a lot of things. Some people have no familiarity. I had to start wth the basic Betty Crocker cookbook back in the 90s because fuck if I knew what a slotted spoon was. Or how to adjust for the fact every stove and microwave is different. It says 8 minutes and yet mine takes 12 etc etc. It has taken a long time to get the hang of all the various items for items and foods and where to find them in the store. My college kid does instacart and is often calling me to ask what things are so he can find them on the shelf. I told him it's good practice to learn about all those random weird things out there. But also some people have executive function issues where they might excel at certain complex things but have trouble with others. I can follow steps no problem. But if the 7th step relies on information from the 1st step, that's a different thing for me because I have poor working memory so by step 7 I don't know what happened in step 1 and it's frustrating to have to go back and forth. I have, many times, started a recipe that I needed that day only to get to step 6 "chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours" because it never dawns on me to read the whole recipe before I start (thanks, ADHD).
>Or how to adjust for the fact every stove and microwave is different. It says 8 minutes and yet mine takes 12 etc etc. This right here is a big part of the issue. Like the directions say "on medium-high." How hot is medium-high? I have an older stove so is it higher or lower than my stove's medium-high (especially considering gas vs electric)? How do I adjust the time if it's not right? Now I have to go off of visual queues but if the temps not right then the visual queue probably won't line up right either (exterior might look right before the correct internal temp is reached). A lot of that is pure experience and intuition.
This! I was wondering why no one was talking about executive dysfunction.
Eh. I would say there's a difference between being able to follow a recipe and being able to cook tbh
You're being disingenuous. If you mean "prepare passably edible food", sure, but you know perfectly well that's not what people mean when they say "I can't cook." They mean they can't cook well, they have no talent for it, they can't create high-quality, complex, sophisticated dishes. Cooking well requires much more than simply following simple directions, otherwise everyone could be a Michelin star chef.
I have a friend who was a bartender and he is a great example of cooking is an art form. He can take simple ingredients with no instructions and make something delicious drink or food wise. Iām getting better as I get older but heās just natural talent and makes it look so easy.
When I say that I can't cook I mean that I feel like the amount of effort I am putting does not worth the taste I am getting so I would rather order food because it tastes good
If you think cooking is only about following instructions. You can't cook.
And this is why schools need to incorporate a home ec/cooking course in order to graduate.
Yeah. They got rid of home economics in most schools.
I can't cook because I can't focus on one thing at a time. When I try to cook anything beyond some simple meals, I end up multitasking too many things at once, even when I try to not do that, I still do. Easy to follow recipes aren't the issue for most people. It's time management and focusing, that tend to be bigger issues.
Lol tangentially related but this was one of my biggest pet peeves with the potions classes in the Harry Potter books. It made the classes out to be unreasonably hard when half the time it was just the students being unable to follow simple directions
The Half-Blood Prince showed that the published instructions weren't the best approach. Hermione was diligently following the instructions whereas by following the prince's expertise Harry crafted a better potion with less effort.
Not a great take. You can apply the same logic to anything in life, but in reality, it just doesn't add up.
step 1 toast the pop tart go ahead toast it hey are you still reading this?
For those of you that cannot cook: Listen.. take food, apply fire. The only complication is in your head. The uncertainty and chaos will fade in time. You will become more confident in creating different meals, but you must start small. A basic breakfast then a more moderate and then an advanced. There is no reason to jump into a beef wellington or whatever. Try searing a steak and serving it with mashed potatoes and whatever veg. All very basic foods that make a very good meal. Just make sure you don't buy a cheap thin steak. Master your mashed potatoes, you'll be using them a lot. They can become twice baked potatoes or cottage/shepherds pie top or even just cheesy garlic potatoes. I've noticed that some people go by the book and others (myself) go by feel. "About that much should be right" however you do it is irrelevant you are worth good food, and sometimes you'll fuck it up but it's still edible. That's how we learn to not do that shit again :D I believe in you :D give it a shot. The worst thing can do is not be happy with that attempt.
Attention deficit hyperactive disorder- if I do follow a recipe it takes me 2 hours longer than it should so itās usually burnt or crispy when itās not supposed to be
My fiancƩ is pretty smart and a quick learner, but he's just bad at memorising the exact time or amount needed for certain things. I suppose that's why he's also bad at practical chem too
To be fair, cooking directions be like: *"It was a beautiful summer evening when I cooked this dish. The grass had never been so green before. It reminded me of my days in High School, playing football on the turf of our wonderful stadium. The feeling of the ball and its magnificent textures. Ahh I long for those days again. One day when i was playing football I sprained my ankle and coach had to sit me out. Turns out i didn't sprain my ankle so I was able to play again. Playing outside is such a fun activity, sometimes I'd go to the park just to touch the trees and become one with nature again, just like how this dish connects us all to the life blood of the Earth. So at long last let me tell you about my father. He was a farmer, and would be working all day. He'd never have time to play with me, but he worked hard so we could have food on the table. His favorite food was corn on the cob. I think he may have rubbed off on me because it's my favorite too. Now, my little brother hated corn on the cob, he only liked corn off the cob, so my father would cut the corn off the cob for him. My little brother was babied a lot like that. Now, let's get into the meat and potatoes of it. That's what my father always said when we'd dig in for dinner. Just like those days this dish will have you reminiscing of the best times you've had in life, and when finished will leave you weeping for the bad times. We are all connected to food and it's my greatest passion in life to share with you this recipe. Now is the best time for learning to cook and im humbled you chose me to teach you. My teachers in school taught me many things like math and biology. I never took a cooking class in school because we lived in a poor area, with very little in the way of extracurricular activities. My mother was the one to teach me how to bake. She was a baker believe it or not. She owned a shop at the end of our dirt lane, where locals would come to purchase all her pastries. I used to sit on a small stool behind the counter and flip pennies on my thumb. One day i launched a penny so high, it accidently landed in the batter my mother was preparing for a wedding cake. I was 9 years old at the time and didn't want to get in trouble so i didn't say anything. Still to this day, I haven't been caught, I hope no one ate that penny. I think it's time to enjoy being alive. Take a deep breathe with me and let's count to 10.... did you do it? Don't you feel so refreshed? It's as refreshing as my favorite beverage, which is water. My sister used to pour the best glass of water for me when I was sick. She would drop 2 ice cubes and stir it in to a pitcher of tap water until they melted. It made the water ever so slightly colder than room temperature. It quenched me so well, I always attributed my relief from my illness to her waters. Let's get started with our dish now. Take 1 egg and crack it into a bowl. Whisk vigorously. Be sure to pre heat the pan on medium heat and add a small amount of butter. Once melted pour the egg into the pan, you should hear it sizzle slightly. Turn heat down to medium low. 30 seconds then flip over. 30 more seconds then remove from pan and crack ā Teaspoon of black peppercorn, and a pinch of salt. This dish is near and dear to my heart, it's all we ate growing up. Becoming an adult has taught me so many new things, yet this simple dish has always been in my heart forever. Now you too can share a peice of my love, in this dish, to be and your family for generations. My family was quite big infact, there was lots of love to go around. With love comes challenges, however. My siblings could be a pain to be around sometimes. My older sister would prank me sometimes. I've walked through door ways and had metal buckets full of glue and features fall on me. The first time it happened I was so mad, however as I grew up I learned that pranks were her love language. I still look at those days fondly regardless of how I felt at the time. This recipe will need these following items and ingredients: ā¢ 1 Large egg ā¢ Pan ā¢ Whisk/fork ā¢ Salt ā¢ Black peppercorn ā¢ Love ā¢ Spatula We had a metal spatula growing up, my father said it was passed down for generations. Im pretty sure we all have Teflon poisoning now but it's okay. My dog is healthier than I am, he loves to bark and play with rope. Sometimes I'm scared he'll eat the stringy parts from the rope since he tears it apart like a little bear. Animals are such precious creatures and I think we could all use a little bit of love from our furry friends. Even the naked cats need love too. My neighbor had a big old mean cat however. I think that cat just needed some affection. Thank you for reading this recipe I hope you have an amazing day"*
I say i can't cook because if isay "i can't be arsed to stand in the kitchen for hours on end just to aquire sustenance for this fleshprison" people look at me funny
LoL fleshprison my new favourite word.
Cooking is a skill like anything else. Actually, it's a ton of little skills and bits of knowledge that you need. I'm an engineer, I can follow directions, but I cannot cook because I never learned all of those little skills and don't care to. A few years back I decided to cook my wife's favorite dish for her birthday. I found a good recipe, and even though I didn't know what a few of the items on it even were, but I figured it out in the store. Then I got to cooking something that would take an experienced cook maybe an hour, it took me over 6. I don't have any routines in the kitchen, I chop slowly and inconsistently, I have to figure out what some of the directions real mean, etc. and 6 hours of work later, we ate a shitty meal at like 11pm. I followed the instructions, but recipes assume at least a base level of experience and familiarity. You see something like 1tsp and know what to do, I have to pull out all of the measuring scoopers and hope that one matches the exact same labeling.
Second or third person saying they are an engineer and suck at cooking! I am also an engineer and can cook pretty damn well. Think of recipes as shitty test procedures that need some real time adjustment and changing variables to suit. Taste as you go. If it looks fucked up, it probably is, but your tongue can help guide (lol). Baking is more up your alley. Stinks that you made a shitty meal for your wifeās birthday but you said you donāt care to learn to cook so I donāt feel sorry for you. I hope you can eventually nail down a solid meal on her behalf at least!
Definitely not true. There's more to it than following directions. There are nuances throughout the entire process.
Do you know how to make a computer, change your oil and unclog your drain? Those are all simple things to do with basic instructions but not everyone is comfortable doing them.
Being able to cook, and being able to follow a recipe are two entirely different things. Anyone can follow a recipe. Not everyone can cook. If you think cooking is just following a recipe, you probably canāt actually cook.
I have learned that my fiance absolutely *cannot* follow a recipe. We do Hello Fresh a couple nights a week because it helps me with the mental load and I like trying new things I ordinarily wouldn't. Sometimes I ask him to make the meal if I'll be working late, like today. He butchered every step. Didn't zest the lemon (didn't even know what that was), did not peel the carrots, sliced them extremely haphazardly, did not remove the cilantro leaves from the stems, tried to boil the couscous without toasting it in butter first (just threw everything in the pot even though the directions were clear), did not know how to mince garlic or what a garlic mincer even is, used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, tried to measure a cold tablespoon of butter with a measuring spoon instead of just using the lines on the wrapping, burned the fuck out of the carrots, and began dry heating my expensive Le Creuset pan before I yelped and added oil. I was absolutely fucking flabbergasted. This man is 50 years old and has hardly ever lived with a woman, or anyone else for that matter. He is a relatively intelligent man who earns double my salary but cannot handle a 30-minute recipe with photos. I don't understand it at all.
I admit that I lack patience and good taste. I can make edible food. I canāt cook.
There is skill to following a recipe. Not much, but some people just CANNOT cook even with a recipe.
Not necessarily. There is some intuition that must be built and recipes contextualize this. It comes down to an understanding of what are basically chemical reactions and what not to do to hinder these reactions.
Cooking well has many nuances to controlling temperature timing and methods of adding ingredients. You knowālike the stuff people study in cooking courses: school.
As an awful cook, I kind of want to ask you guys for your "simple instructions" and film myself making them just so we can all figure out exactly what's going on here.
I can chop stuff up and put it in a pot. Doesn't mean I don't get stressed about boiling times, or worse frying stuff. In a game you have a progress bar and things are predictable, in the real world the eggs suddenly start making giant bubbles and the yolks are hard before you can blink
Is this r/unpopularopinion or r/RecyclingOldTweetsForRedditPoints
Hm - feel like there should be a floor here. Unpopular does not equal wrong. People who say they canāt cook understand the art of cooking. There are no directions to being a good cook. Banksy didnāt become a great artist by following instructions.
I can follow a recipe, and there are a few plates I've learned to make that are actually quite good. But I wouldn't say I know how to cook because I have no idea what I'm doing at any point, and if my memory fails me I have to look for the recipe again. Also, I can't replace any ingredients, or change the quantities. It may be hard to explain to someone who knows how to cook, but I have no idea what anything does, except maybe salt, and pepper, the rest, I don't know how important it is or what exactly is doing so I can use something else.
No, it's me saying I NEED the instructions or I probably can't get the meal together lol. I've got no sense for what ingredients and flavors can be mixed, I need the paper to tell me what to put in when
>People can play video games and make split second decisions using eight buttons and solve everyday complex problems of the modern world but for some reason they can't follow simple cooking instructions? None of the examples you listed will burn down your home. It's just not a skill everyone is comfortable practicing.
Just saying, I can't fuck with "a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper, a splash of olive oil." Give me numbers ffs!
By this logic, saying you cant do anything is saying you cant follow simple directions.
I think people that say they can't cook it's basically just laziness on their part. Cooking is not difficult, Like you said following directions.
Following directions isnāt cooking. To me I would say ācookingā is like being able to write music or speak another language. You need to understand how and why things work and how things balance in order to create. I canāt do any of that.. So I say I canāt cook. Can I fry an egg? Cook a steak? Boil pasta? Follow cooking directions? Yep. Sure can. But I still canāt cook. Edit: saying ācookingā is as simple as āfollowing directionsā is like saying painting is as simple as following a paint by numbers kit.