Cooking

Edit: Wow, this blew up real good! Thanks for the laughs and all the suggestions of good cooking channels/shows. Binging with Babish is my current fav but I will check out all of these suggestions as I can. Thanks for the awards kind strangers!

I’m 25, and I’ve been doing most of my own cooking for over a decade now. I’ve never seriously hurt myself in the kitchen, but I’ve had little cuts and burns like anyone else. Through all that time, I’ve hurt myself with a cheese grater at least once a year, and twice I’ve taken noticeable chunks out of my fingers.

There has to be something I can do to stop grating bits of my hands into the food. Help!

I [M23] have been a vegan for 3 years. I made my brother [M26] spaghetti with marinara sauce, no cheese or meatballs, and he said it was the best spaghetti he ever had. It wasn't my intention to pull some kind of "gotcha meat eater!!!!" here, but I told him I was glad he liked my cooking since most people assume vegan food is terrible. He got really irritated and asked if I just fed him vegan food without his consent. I told him that it's technically vegan even though it's the same way we ate it as kids minus the meatballs. He got irritated and said that while it's okay for me to be a vegan, it's pushing boundaries to be forcing it on others. He went to his room, and I got texts from some of his friends saying that that it's manipulative to feed non-vegans vegan food without their knowledge or permission since he could get sick from vegan diets.

The thing is, I literally made the spaghetti with the exact same ingredients I used for years, just with thicker marinara sauce. I didn't sneak fake meat, soy, etc, into it. I'm not trying to be obtuse, but I genuinely don't understand what the issue is. AITA?

No matter what I would never cook something without seeing a picture of it first. So any cook book or recipes in a cook book without pictures are an instant No. Anyone else like this or am I just weird?

like how when a recipe asks for 2 cloves of garlic and you say “no way, im putting an entire bulb of garlic in”.

i think for me it would be eggs in fried rice. they say 1 eggs per portion but i always have to do at least 3 or 4 to get a proper egg to rice ratio

EDIT: with the popularity of the informality of ingredient measurement in the comments i propose an r/cooking cookbook written as such

My husband asked me to stop cooking dinner to change a diaper while he sat on the couch.

Tonight I was cooking dinner for myself, my husband, our daughter, and my dad who lives with us. I popped in earbuds to listen to a podcast while I cooked.

About halfway through cooking dinner my husband got my attention from the couch and asks me how much longer until dinner is ready. I tell him 30 minutes. He says more but I can’t hear him so I tell him to hang on while I wash the raw shrimp off my hands so I can take out my earbuds and hear him.

Once I do he asks how long until dinner is ready. I tell him 30 minutes again. Then he asks if I’m in the middle of anything - because our daughter has to poop and it’s my turn to change her diaper.

My response: “what? I’m cooking dinner. It’ll be another 30 minutes”

He says he meant was I in the middle of any step. He was sitting on the couch listening to an audiobook on his phone with earbuds.

I’m... confused.

He says nevermind and heads upstairs with our daughter.

He comes into the kitchen later to get a drink. I ask him “did you really want me to stop in the middle of cooking dinner to change a poopy diaper so you could sit on the couch and listen to an audiobook?”

He says he meant was I in the middle of anything or just waiting while things cooked. The said “I did it anyway. I’m not mad. It was your turn”.

Me: “you asked me to stop cooking for everyone to do something for someone else, so you could do nothing on the couch”

He got frustrated with me and reiterated that it was my turn and he did it anyway.

My husband is great, but I’m flabbergasted that he couldn’t see that was a dick move. Am I the asshole here?

So today I visited my granny with my brother, and because she is disabled I decided to prepare dinner. My granny has bad teeth so she'd like something soft, so after consulting the butcher I decided tenderloin (first time cooking it for me). Because of covid, I prepared everything else in advance. I made a really nice red wine sauce, oven potatoes and fried green beans. When the time came to fry the steak I was sweating like a pig. I had to handle 3 steaks of 13 dollars each, as well as worrying on not to break my granny's brittle teeth on an overdone steak. But as the title says, I freaking nailed it! It was a perfect medium rare, my granny couldn't stop talking about it (whereas she usually loves complaining about everything), and I couldn't be more proud. I just got home and because my roommates are both passionate vegetarians, I decided not to share with them. But here it is, Reddit. I'm not being humble today!

Hi folks, my first post here. I actually posted this on /AskCulinary but admins suggest me to put in here since is a more relevant place :)

A little background: by the end of 2019 I was a person who disliked the idea of cooking and being in the kitchen. In my view, it was a task that was time consuming, specially because of the cleaning I'd have to do after so i always thought "I could be doing something else". But at the same time I was also getting saturated to eat the same predictable food from the same take-away restaurants near my place or the simple quick pasta I used to make.

By then, I came up with this silly idea: I'd pick a letter at random , and that letter would indicate me a country. Next I'd pick another letter at random and that letter would indicate the name of a dish from that country in that country's language . So for example if I get first letter "U" and second letter "S" , I could pick United Kingdom -> Shepherd's Pie to make or if I got "B" and "F" I could get [Brazil -> Feijoada] to make. Mind you, I was a person with zero cooking skills, so this would be quite the challenge, but as a programmer I believed I was able to at least follow a recipe correctly :)

First weeks were fun and surprisingly I enjoyed, even with all the work to clean after. I did not mind spending 2 hours in the kitchen anymore. Something about the unpredictability and surprise factor of what I was gonna eat made it an attractive hobby. Even searching around on the web about the dishes available for each country was exciting. So for 2020 my resolution was to keep that challenging going, but make it more like. life style and do it at least once a week.

There were a lot of challenges along the way of course and many mistakes I did and with that a lot of learning. Great part of the challenge was in to find all the ingredients necessary for a specific recipe, not always easy. I started going to asian groceries a lot...could easily spend 1 hour there to find one simple ingredient because I had absolutely no idea where it would be on the shelves :D . Another recipe asked for rabbit meat which is quite uncommon to eat here where I live (Sweden), so I ended up on a 6 hours train trip to a farm in the middle of nowhere just to get a rabbit. That recipe alone cost me about €200. SO MANY different flours! I learned the hard way you can't just replace one by another and expect to work the same. So many ingredients bought online and had to be imported. Right now m

For the last 2 weeks, I've been getting up at 5-6am. One of my roommates is also a morning person. Every day the last two weeks she's walked into the kitchen when I was using it (no matter the time) and acted like I was putting her out. Around 4-5 days into this new schedule she asked me if this was the new 'normal' and that she really valued her morning hours alone and asked me what my cooking schedule was so she could work around me. I told her I don't have a schedule but am happy to work around hers or give her a heads up about when I wanted to cook. This wasn't ok with her and she went into her bedroom.

Breakfast is my biggest meal of the day. From start to finish (including cleaning) its' about 30-40 min. With that said, I only use the common areas to cook and clean. I try to be quiet in the morning and she's never said the noise was an issue.

Literally every day this/last week she would come out into the kitchen to leave the apt for 5-10 min then come back in and passive-aggressively heat coffee or something up in the microwave and then slam her door. Now, this seems weird bc I've cooked anywhere from 6:30-8am this week, so idk how I'm disrupting her morning routine. Today I woke up at 6am and waited for an hour and a half to cook just in case I was. She came out at 8am (when I was cleaning up) to slam the microwave, ignore me and then slam her door. I then got a message saying this 'morning routine needs to be fixed'. As far as I can tell I've talked to her about making this easier on her and messaged her about setting set cooking times. None of that was ok. It honestly seems like she just doesn't want me to use the kitchen in the morning because she wants to pretend she's living alone

I think I might be the asshole because I cook big breakfasts in the mornings. Is this too long? What is the proper roommate etiquette?

So, AITA if I continue to cook in the mornings and ignore her?

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Edit: Just wanted to add the noise doesn't seem to be an issue. She gets up at 5am and I've talked to her about that. I"ve also talked to my other roommates and they aren't being woken up by any. noise. If I cook at 5:30 it's just to boil eggs and make toast. Normally I cook around 7am.

I would also like to add that I'm not interrupting any visible morning routine. Every time I enter the kitchen she's in her bedroom. She leaves her bedroom to enter the common area about 5-10 minutes before I finish cooking and am about to plate my food. I then

This happened a while back but is still being mentioned to this day. My friend moved into a big, beautiful house and asked me to come visit once the family (herself, hubs and 2 daughters) got settled. 7 months later, I made the trip.

I'm a home cook and love when others are enjoying my food. My friend's kitchen is like a chef's dream and I wanted to cook as a gift to the family. We went to the store and I spent about $50.00 on ingredients. 2 hours later I presented a tasty chicken and pasta dish which everyone loved. Yay!

Next day, I was talking to my friend and her husband came in the house and went straight to the fridge. He said he was hoping there were leftovers because he'd been thinking about it all day. My friend gave me a weird look and I pretended not to notice. I did not cook again after that. A few days later, I went back home with hugs, kisses and well wishes.

My friend called me for a chat a couple of weeks later. She said her husband was still raving about my food. She sarcastically said "gee, thanks for showing me up in my own house". I laughed it off and told her that I could tell her how to make it. She said "no, way too much effort. Thanks anyway". Throughout the next YEAR I have to deal with little digs like " the way to man's heart is through his stomach so I guess he's yours now". I don't want him!

On my next visit her husband said " you've been here 4 days now, when are you cooking?". I looked at my friend and shrugged saying " I didn't know I was supposed to". My friend said "yeah, I've been meaning to get to the grocery store. We can go today". We have an awkward ride to the store and when we got there, I told her that I actually wasn't feeling well and was not up to cooking" ( a lie but I just didn't want the drama). She gave me a look and said " he's been talking about this for a year". I replied that I was sorry but I just didn't feel up to cooking. We end up getting a few groceries and then picking up take out. Her husband was vocally disappointed for the remainder of my visit and talking with my friend was strained.

I get back home and don't connect with my friend again for about a month. Finally we had a phone chat and I made a remark about how my phone was so dry from no calls. She said " well, I was a little mad at you". Whaaaat? She then confessed how I had made her look like a bad cook and then couldn't even be nice enough cook again when it's obvious her husband prefers my food to hers. I didn't know what to say

I know a lot of people aren't able to go home this year so may be cooking Christmas dinner of some kind for the first time.

I've cooked it every year for the last 15+ years from 2 to 10 people, (except for one year when I decided to sack it off and spend Christmas on the beach in Goa), so can I help anyone with timings, how to make the best roast potatoes, keeping things warm, gravy making etc? I'm not a chef but I cook a lot! I'm sure there are other people here who can help too.

EDIT: thanks everyone for the awards! I really feel for people who's plans have had to change but it's for the best and we will get through this. I've roped in some help from r/cooking so keep asking questions!

Edit: I was the cleaner in this case, I’m not a passive-aggressive poster. It’s more of a “Hey there! Found yourself in the great position of having a roommate occasionally cooking for you? Don’t F it up by forgetting to clean!”

I am seeing almost every day, "I'm 14, I make beats, I'm tryna get a record deal and make money and get big..." Etc.

Imagine if you just started cooking last week. You made some mac and cheese and maybe grilled a chicken breast and put salt and pepper on it. So now your posting photos of your first grilled chicken breast all over the internet, calling yourself a "chef" and talking about how you can open a restaurant with no money, no experience, and no honed skill set, and you still haven't tasted most of the spices or learned which spices work well together. Oh and you won't need a lawyer to help secure your lease or set up contracts with your suppliers or staff- you got that on your own.

Slow down people. Take time to learn. There is no need to publish every single thing you do on the internet. Sit back and LISTEN to what you are doing. Practice, work it hard, and eventually you'll be ready to "Kick it up a notch," and take your skill set to the next level.

I don't understand why this mindset of zero to bigshot with no work and no time has become so prevalent.

Many of you often call me "gate keeper" which is silly. I am not saying you can't make it big. I am saying, you probably won't if you aren't ready and willing to dedicate the time needed.

So r/Cooking tends to attract certain categories of posts, and one of them is the "I just realized my mom cooked badly and now that I know how to cook I can't even eat out any more" post. We get some version of this post about once a month. This one, however, was especially obnoxious.

OP argues with a level-headed response

OP wonders why people are "so offended"

This exchange is pure cringe.

Bonus deleted comment:

>I’m angry because from the first comment you made you’ve been a condescending asshole who feels the need to talk down to someone and denigrate them for no reason that can be discerned other than your ego. You’re an asshole. Assholes make me angry. And I’ve eaten at hundreds, or thousands, of restaurants. Perhaps you have been more selective so you perceive the mean as being higher than I do. Maybe you live in New York, and the mean is just higher than where I live. I don’t know. But I granted that those things might be the case and that doesn’t change the accuracy of my experience, where all you’ve done is try to insult me and tell me I’m wrong. So, to summarize. Go fuck yourself.

Ex. If you drop a piece of fruit, a vegetable, meat, etc. Straight down on the table it is instantly sliced up exactly how you need it. Opening an oven door reveals a fully prepared dish, regardless of any prep you've done. Spinning a bowl of unmixed ingredients mixes them perfectly. All those fun things they do, etc etc

Edit: Thanks to everyone for all the props. This is the most upvotes I've ever gotten on a post. There hasn't been one single jerk post either. You guys are great.

I think all parents should teach their child(ren) how to cook, and yet I know so many college students who have no idea how to cook. I have a friend who was never taught how to cook, and now that they live alone, they only eat those packaged dinners or order fast-food.

Knowing how to cook allows you to really take control of your own food, how much you spend, how much you eat, how much nutrients you're getting, and more. It's far more healthier than ordering take-out and, again, cooking for yourself allows you to think critically about what types of dishes you're making and if you're getting enough nutrients.

Of course you don't have to be some sort of professional. But just knowing the very basics of cooking is honestly enough. I myself am a college student and I'm no professional chef, but I cook for myself because it's a necessary skill everyone needs to learn. I look up simple but delicious recipes and make those.

I believe the main issue would be time. Not a lot of people have the time to cook three different meals every single day because of how busy they are. However, there are lots of solutions to this: meal-prepping which saves lots of time, eating two large meals every day instead of three, eating some snacks that will provide lots of energy.

Cooking is the one life skill I've seen people constantly forget about, and it's one of the most important skills since it directly relates to your physical health.

The other night my cousin was having me watch some chicken thighs in a pan for her while she did other things. I noticed after flipping them that I had a lot of fond in the bottom of the pan, so when they were done I put together a quick pan sauce. It was a huge success and my house loved it. Gonna be paying more attention to fond from now on.

Afterthought: this was my first pan sauce as well. I used to just clean out the fond in the pan