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I guess some people just don't like cooking and have no interest in learning. Personally, I think everyone (male and female) should be capable of putting a decent meal on the table. There's really no excuse not to.
I agree with that, but it's shocking how many people can't. And it's not just young people. It can be men or women of all ages. And as far as I can tell, these non-cooks spend huge amounts of money feeding themselves things others have prepared, and often they eat an unhealthy diet. I know more than one senior citizen whose diet basically consists of cereal, canned soup, and baked goods.
I have a middle-aged female friend who is always saying to me, "I just don't know where my money goes." She and her husband (who doesn't cook either) eat in a nice restaurant every night that one of them fails to pick up take-out on their way home from work. Plus, she goes through Starbucks' drive-through twice a day (honestly, EVERY day). She didn't appreciate it when I pointed out to her that she spent more than $4,000 a year at Starbucks, not including tips.
Honestly, I wouldn't have mentioned it because it's her business, but she was complaining about not having enough money. She has a latte and a pastry every morning for breakfast and a large drink every afternoon. That more than $4,000, not to mention a ton of empty calories. There are far cheaper ways to consume caffeine and wouldn't $4,000 would pay a lot of bills? Plus, imagine the cost of picking up two prepared take-out dinners at Panera, Whole Foods, or a Chinese restaurant every night you're not having a sit-down meal at a full-service restaurant.
A couple spending even $25 a night on their dinner have an annual one-meal bill of $9,000. That's what some people pay on their mortgages annually. Not knowing how to cook is pricy!
I learned to cook at the age of 12, helping my mother. I've only needed one cookbook my whole life -- Fannie Farmer. My husband and I have different tastes, and it doesn't bother us to make separate meals when the mood strikes.
I always let my kids tinker around in the kitchen on their own. They've come up with some...interesting... concoctions and leave one hell of a mess, but it's important to let them take the initiative to at least try. Really, that's how I learned to cook at a young age: putz around, burn a few things, learn which ingredients compliment each other, figure out the best kind of knife for each task, learn why turning up the flame won't get the job done right.
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Originally Posted by daylux
I'm one of those who started pretending to cook as a kid and made my first meal at age 11 so it's something I gravitate towards.
It definitely starts with your family. In the 70's my parents were really into all sorts of cooking shows and books - Julia Child, Joyce Chen, and Craig Claiborne. Once we turned 12 both my sister and I were both expected to make a meal for the whole family (once a week). They had also grown up in families where cooking was important. Many of their friends were the same way, and I was lucky enough to learn how to cook a lot of things from some friends' grandparents, including a lot of old school Italian and Armenian dishes.
My daughter is only 8, and I'm already teaching her a lot of these recipes as well as the basics of cooking.
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Originally Posted by in_newengland
My mother had a two elderly cousins who lived together all their lives and couldn't cook. They said their mother had been an expert cook but would not let them into the kitchen.
My mom's mother was like this. She was an excellent cook and worked as personal chef for a wealthy German family (she was Austrian, and had an incredible knowledge of that style of cooking). Since it was her job she saw her knowledge as having a financial value, and refused to share it with any of her kids. Her recipe cards were intentionally misleading, and omitted a lot of ingredients. By the time I started to cook she was retired, and taught me a lot of her "secrets". After she passed away my mother and aunts made me sort through her recipes and rewrite every single one of them.
Well, that's why it's a preference. You think it tastes funny without; I don't like the taste of salt in my food unless it's there naturally.
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It's really not a preference. It is only a preference in so much as all food is ultimately subjective, and in that sense no one can even be called a bad cook. Burt food, undercooked food, gummy-overdone noodles, none of it is bad as it is just a preference for how you like your food cooked.
However, when we refer to good cooking, or when we listen to "expert chefs" and consider the opinions of food writters and critics we are sort of accepting that there is an accepted standard definition or range of what is good food. And while yes it is all still ultimately subjective, that there are still certain basic guidelines and expectations. And really the #1 rule for any quality cooking in that sense is seasoning.
Yes, there is a point of over-seasoning, but if you are not using any salt and pepper to do basic seasoning of your food then ultimately you are really not producing something that has the flavor of food that was properly cooked. You are in line with the person who likes overdone noodles, burnt toast or a pound of butter in their mac'n'cheese (I know someone whose idea of mac'n'cheese is more akin to melted butter soaked noodles).
Ibut if you are not using any salt and pepper to do basic seasoning of your food then ultimately you are really not producing something that has the flavor of food that was properly cooked.
That's ridiculous. All kinds of ingredients flavor and season food beyond salt and pepper: vinegars, lemon juice, onion, garlic, herbs, spices, chilis, etc. I don't add salt because I am watching sodium intake, but nothing I cook is bland or flavorless.
That's ridiculous. All kinds of ingredients flavor and season food beyond salt and pepper: vinegars, lemon juice, onion, garlic, herbs, spices, chilis, etc. I don't add salt because I am watching sodium intake, but nothing I cook is bland or flavorless.
If you have special dietary needs that is fine, but anything you cook without salt and pepper could be cooked much better with. It is simple, universal cooking ... all cooking starts with proper seasoning. Maybe you use those other things to cook a better meal than, say, the very bland and underwhelming food from my mom growing up. Love her, great baker, but terrible cook. However, you are still handicapping yourself from a better product if salt were added. As I said, if you have dietary restrictions that is understandable ... but the point stands.
i do well with cooking but my mother also showed me lots of things in the kitchen growing up
I don't really remember being taught to cook, but I did watch my mom I guess. I did take a cooking class in 7th grade
I'm male, and by no means an expert cook, but I can bake a chicken that tastes very good, prepare chicken breasts in many different ways, prepare any type of boxed side dishes, or make white sticky rice from scratch, make great steamed veggies, prepare fish in different ways, casseroles, stew in a crock pot, homemade mashed/baked/fried potatoes, cookies, cakes, brownies, pies, omelettes, pancakes, homemade biscuits, tacos, burritos, etc. It's not rocket science!
And since we're two working parents, we will do some of the "bagged meals" from Trader Joe's once a week for the ease of it. But I don't get people who refuse to ever cook. It's not healthy.
My mother has a short attention span and refuses to listen to me when I tell her that baking can be like a science, and ingredients/instructions must be closely followed if you are not an experienced baker. She refuses to take the time to read any directions or measure.
She insists that she can just randomly toss ingredients together, not measure and make weird substitutions when she makes pies a few times a year.
The last three times she made pies, the pecan pie filling tasted like dried out rubber, the year before that the filling was uncooked like liquid, and her strawberry rhubarb pie literally had chunks of scrambled eggs in it...literally yellow chunks of scrambled eggs!
On top of this, because she rarely cooks, every time you taste her food, she rambles on and on and on asking everyone to tell her how good it is. The last time I just said "well, there are scrambled eggs in my rhubarb pie." Her response is always "NO WAY!." This has being going on with her cooking for YEARS...like, my entire life.
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