Board 8 > How good of a cook are you?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I can just cook very simple dishes but I feel like it's something I might be good at if I actually try to do more of it...but I never do.

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i am cooking delicious burgs right now

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Voted the third option

I am sort of in the same boat as you

I have good fundamentals and cooking instincts, but living alone I never strove to be better because it wasn't worth the effort to make anything more complex than simple dishes.

And now I'm living with someone who both enjoys cooking more than me and is better at it than me so there is again no point or drive to be better.

If I was living with someone who was a bad cook or didn't want to cook that I wanted to cook for, I could probably become better, but that hasn't happened and probably never will.

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I voted second option, Im very confident and could be better if I was more patient.

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The more you know about cooking, the more you realize you don't know. Same with anything, really.

I'm lightyears ahead of where I was six years ago when I became Wifebolo. Headed into marriage with: being able to scramble eggs, being able to boil water/one-touch rice cooker, and baking = turtle brownies or maybe cupcakes.

I haven't made anything too fancy, but things are easier and I have a much better understanding about how much time I have before food goes bad. I am also a chronic overseasoner according to my friend, but I am not married to her, so who cares. I married a spice lover and it works out.

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you suck at cooking

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If I have a step by step recipe, I can do fine. I wouldn't trust myself without one except for very basic things though.

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I use the microwave.

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I can make pasta

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Voted option 2. Pre Covid, I was writing a cookbook despite no culinary training, and frequently take out technique texts and experiment with recipes for both cooking and baking.

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I'm quite confident at simple stuff, picked option 3

I have a decent enough selection of dishes for myself (burgers, pasta, shake-and-bake chicken/fish, curry chicken with storebought sauce) but I wouldn't call myself a legit good cook
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My parents were both in the food industry for almost their entire careers (a lot of it as chefs or managing restaurants, teaching catering, etc) so I picked up a fair bit from them. Would go with option 3 here though because I could stand to expand my repertoire more. I've got a decent instinct for like throwing dishes together though.

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I voted second option, Im very confident and could be better if I was more patient.

This. Things I cook or bake usually turn out really well, with rare exceptions (when I either get ambitious or don't measure correctly [like a recent attempt at fudge]) but I minimize what I make on the virtue of patience.

I did make that Persona 5 curry several times and that's a three-hour process, so I AM better than I used to be with that. I think it's more of a "time" thing tbh.
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Probably somewhere between 2 and 3. I can cook very well but I almost never do because nobody to cook for and can't be assed to cook involved meals for only myself most of the time. I like watching a lot of cooking shows and technique guides as a hobby, so I know quite a bit and can put it into practice if I want to though. The few times I have made food for others I've had extremely positive reviews.

I definitely consider myself better than 'so-so', but its kind of hard for me to say I'm fully confident, and I'm definitely not professional level.

I wish someone would teach me how to cook.

I see so many instructions that just say things like I know what that means and it's just like okay whatever... not even gonna try it.

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I can boil noodles and that's about it

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVaMxyvjXA

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I love cooking and I feel like I'm pretty good at it, or at least I have a repertoire of dishes I'm good at and I can follow a recipe well enough. I haven't had as much opportunity to cook lately though, my kids are total butts about not wanting to eat whatever I cook and nobody else has been home for dinner much lately, so cooking would be a pretty thankless, unsatisfying task right now. I *want* to cook more, but I don't like to cook for people who don't appreciate it or only for myself so I just don't.

Corrik7 posted...

I wish someone would teach me how to cook.

I see so many instructions that just say things like I know what that means and it's just like okay whatever... not even gonna try it.

So the thing about learning a practical skill is you actually have to try it
If you don't then you'll never have context to it and the instructions never WILL mean anything to you.

You're doing a self-defeating thing.

tcaz2 posted...

So the thing about learning a practical skill is you actually have to try it
If you don't then you'll never have context to it and the instructions never WILL mean anything to you.

You're doing a self-defeating thing.

I can't try something that I don't know what it means.

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Corrik, you can always ask The Google things like:
"what is a drop lid"
"what is a French press"
"how long should i cook an egg for"
"alternative to food processor"

And then your answers will be solved instantly, and you can stop making that excuse.

Now, if your excuse is "I don't have a crockpot and this recipe calls for one." that's a little different. So find a different recipe - problem solved!
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Lopen posted...

And now I'm living with someone who both enjoys cooking more than me and is better at it than me so there is again no point or drive to be better.

That's sad af.

Also sounds like Corrik wants a drill sergeant not a teacher. All cooking videos nowadays are aimed at noobs so it's not like there aren't resources.

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I'm good at cooking but haven't done as much recently. Can take so much time. But it's super relaxing when I can.

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foolm0r0n posted...

That's sad af.

Why?

I mean I still cook from time to time but I'm not going to be cooking often enough to get better unless I insist on cooking a lot. Those are just the facts. I'm completely okay with it. You don't have to 50/50 all duties in a household.

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My spouse loves cooking so I cook very rarely. I am decent but not especially talented.

I cook breakfast sometimes and get good reviews on that.
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Decent but could do better. I've been getting better at making steaks the way people want them, I still over bake things. My homemade soups are good. My vegetables are bland, my salads need work, my Mexican and Asian food is pretty good. I do not know how to BBQ. I have no patience for merengue topping. My fish is hit or miss. I bought a rice cooker and it has been a worthy purchase. My homemade ice cream is tasty.

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Lopen posted...

Why?

Cuz cooking together is great regardless of skill, and also being around someone stronger should motivate you more, not less. It's not unusual ofc

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Idk... i suck, but online recipes are so easy to follow and taste great (to me!) so it doesn't matter

Outside of that I just sautee everything and make good omelets

There was a minute when I wanted to learn the chemistry of cooking, but the class my friend recommended to me was practically unintelligible and I unfortunately gave up

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banananor posted...

There was a minute when I wanted to learn the chemistry of cooking, but the class my friend recommended to me was practically unintelligible and I unfortunately gave up

I am curious about a class like this tbh, I want videos or something that teach more than just a recipe

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foolm0r0n posted...

Cuz cooking together is great regardless of skill, and also being around someone stronger should motivate you more, not less. It's not unusual ofc

I mean I help prepare things in the cooking process but I wouldn't consider that "cooking" despite helping in the process.

And cooking isn't a competition so no there's no reason I need to be the better cook. I mean I probably gain some skill in doing mundane things like mixing ingredients but that's not enough to boost me from "passable" to "good" which is the point of the topic.

I'll just continue to be varying degrees of passable and that's okay with me. The amount of things you become great at is limited-- time spent training is a resource.

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Colegreen_c12 posted...

I am curious about a class like this tbh, I want videos or something that teach more than just a recipe

Well, I wouldn't recommend it, but the class i checked out was a free course on udemy sometime last year

So search around online and you might be able to find something. Idk if a culinary school or community College is the "real" place to learn it, but that probably prices out casual learners

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banananor posted...

Well, I wouldn't recommend it, but the class i checked out was a free course on udemy sometime last year

Yea I didn't specifically mean that one but more in general. I've tried searching before (admittedly not that hard) and i can usually find a standalone video but not really a series

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I might try hamburger helper for the first time next week. It seems doable after researching it. If Ground Beef isn't $9/lb that is.

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Colegreen_c12 posted...

Yea I didn't specifically mean that one but more in general. I've tried searching before (admittedly not that hard) and i can usually find a standalone video but not really a series

isn't that basically what America's Test Kitchen is?

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Lopen posted...

Voted the third option

I am sort of in the same boat as you

I have good fundamentals and cooking instincts, but living alone I never strove to be better because it wasn't worth the effort to make anything more complex than simple dishes.

And now I'm living with someone who both enjoys cooking more than me and is better at it than me so there is again no point or drive to be better.

If I was living with someone who was a bad cook or didn't want to cook that I wanted to cook for, I could probably become better, but that hasn't happened and probably never will.

pretty much this word-for-word, though i don't know about having good fundamentals or instincts
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corrik make meatloaf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6IrjnZMu9E

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If you can read you can cook

don't @ me

Not great. I can only make the most basic things that are almost impossible to botch. If it requires any kind of precision I will likely mess it up

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Corrik7 posted...

I might try hamburger helper for the first time next week. It seems doable after researching it. If Ground Beef isn't $9/lb that is.

Tag

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Although just because it's called "helper" doesn't mean it's actually easy to cook. It just has all the non-beef ingredients in one box. Ground beef itself is really tricky to cook without getting a wet slop. Steak is much easier fundamentally. Or start where everyone does, with eggs.

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