4 ms·

Speaking for myself I don't hate cooking meals I hate all the fuzz around it - getting ingredients - do I buy "organic"? is that expensive? how cheap should I

by runn1ng 10y ago

Speaking for myself I don't hate cooking meals I hate all the fuzz around it - getting ingredients - do I buy "organic"? is that expensive? how cheap should I go?; finding the right recipes - how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? Which are more healthy? Dietary recommendations are all over the place - high carb / low carb / high fat / low fat / vegan / paleo / I don't know what all is there.; finding out what I forgot to buy, throwing out the old stuff that are starting to rot in my fridge, then spending another hour cleaning all the mess... The cooking part is - at least for me - always the easiest - just follow the recipe. I hate the worrying before and after.

grzm 10y ago
A lot of this fuzz would be tempered as you become more accustomed to cooking. In some ways what you're describing is similar to picking up a new computer language or learning a new system. Once you've been through the decision tree enough times, you've built yourself a well-worn path. If cooking is something you're interested in picking up, I'd recommend starting simply. Pick a couple of meals (maybe a breakfast and a dinner). Get used to them, then start cooking variations, then move on to other dishes. I'll admit, I can be satisfied eating the same meal on a regular basis. And this doesn't prevent you from going out, either. I've heard of people having good success with the Ti Ferriss' "The Four-Hour Chef". I'm sure there are other good references, either bound or online.
- ebiester 10y ago
  I like The Four Hour Chef, but I don't feel like it's a great cookbook to learn from. It's more a book about learning a skill with food as a metaphor.
  - grzm 10y ago
    Considering that was the author's stated purpose, sounds like he achieved his goal :)
- csydas 10y ago
  I would agree with this and expand with anecdotes. I am an average cook in the kitchen, usually leaving with all my fingers where they belong, a nice clean kitchen, and a meal that looks and tastes like I meant it to. I have a lot of dishes that are old-hand dishes; if my partner is coming home after a 12 hour day and needs food now, I have a menu of "ready when she's home" meals that are good and I know like the back of my hand. I dance around the kitchen, know how long the grain takes to cook, how long I need for prepping vegetables and spices, etc. this took a bit of practice get to this level of familiarity. Practicing and getting the core skills and ideas down gave me the leisure to experiment, to start tasting in my head what a finished product would be like, or aometimes just having a brute force list if you would of things that go well with ______. Meals I haven't done before are usually still easy because not every instruction and technique is new; usually it's a matter of "what do I need in what proportion compared to the other stuff?" This took a lot of cooking for myself to get comfortable with, and a lot of meals that ended up getting fried up with a pasta of some sort and eaten as a "messed that up" meal. The part where you start to just know how stuff works is when you know you're getting it, jus like any tech or code. You just make it and go and it's not something you have to think or plan about. A lot of the prep work you're fretting are decisions you will make eventually automatically. They're not that daunting and pretty soon instead of recipes dictating purchases, it will be the other way around; a kitchen full of the essentials you need and then sales or impulses deciding what you make, and the essentials just being tools you need to make it happen.
ebiester 10y ago
I will make this easy. > do I buy "organic"? Don't worry about it yet. Buy conventional - that's what you're eating when you eat out anyway. > is that expensive? how cheap should I go? Don't worry about it yet. Grab whatever is on sale to start. If you notice you don't like it, don't buy that brand again. > finding the right recipes - how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? Buy three cookbooks to start: Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything", an America's Test Kitchen cookbook that appeals to you, and a cookbook of a cuisine you enjoy that's popular on Amazon. Alternate between the three. > Which are more healthy? Don't worry about it yet. Whatever you cook from these cookbooks will be better for you than what you get from takeout. > Dietary recommendations are all over the place Don't worry about it until later. Get cooking first. Whatever you cook will be better than what you get later. > finding out what I forgot to buy This is a matter of making a list before shopping. I suggest buying for two meals max at first. Nobody worried about most of this for thousands of years -- you don't have to worry about it either.
- bpicolo 10y ago
  > Don't worry about it yet. Whatever you cook from these cookbooks will be better for you than what you get from takeout. This 100x. What you're eating out is nearly always heavier in butter/cream/what have you and is higher calorie than you're realizing.
imgabe 10y ago
These are not questions that should stop you from doing something. > do I buy "organic"? I don't know. Try it and see if you find it's worth it. It's not like if you buy organic one time you're locked into doing that forever. > how cheap should I go? How is somebody else supposed to answer this question for you? Go as cheap as you feel comfortable. If you find the quality is too poor, buy something more expensive next time. > how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? You try them and see how they work out. And so on. Seriously, you don't need a detailed 50-point plan for every little aspect of doing something. Experiment, Evaluate, Adjust. It's not that hard and the stakes are pretty low. Worst case scenario: you end up making a meal you don't want to eat and you learn something.

by runn1ng 10y ago

grzm 10y ago

A lot of this fuzz would be tempered as you become more accustomed to cooking. In some ways what you're describing is similar to picking up a new computer language or learning a new system. Once you've been through the decision tree enough times, you've built yourself a well-worn path. If cooking is something you're interested in picking up, I'd recommend starting simply. Pick a couple of meals (maybe a breakfast and a dinner). Get used to them, then start cooking variations, then move on to other dishes. I'll admit, I can be satisfied eating the same meal on a regular basis. And this doesn't prevent you from going out, either. I've heard of people having good success with the Ti Ferriss' "The Four-Hour Chef". I'm sure there are other good references, either bound or online.

ebiester 10y ago
I like The Four Hour Chef, but I don't feel like it's a great cookbook to learn from. It's more a book about learning a skill with food as a metaphor.
- grzm 10y ago
  Considering that was the author's stated purpose, sounds like he achieved his goal :)
csydas 10y ago
I would agree with this and expand with anecdotes. I am an average cook in the kitchen, usually leaving with all my fingers where they belong, a nice clean kitchen, and a meal that looks and tastes like I meant it to. I have a lot of dishes that are old-hand dishes; if my partner is coming home after a 12 hour day and needs food now, I have a menu of "ready when she's home" meals that are good and I know like the back of my hand. I dance around the kitchen, know how long the grain takes to cook, how long I need for prepping vegetables and spices, etc. this took a bit of practice get to this level of familiarity. Practicing and getting the core skills and ideas down gave me the leisure to experiment, to start tasting in my head what a finished product would be like, or aometimes just having a brute force list if you would of things that go well with ______. Meals I haven't done before are usually still easy because not every instruction and technique is new; usually it's a matter of "what do I need in what proportion compared to the other stuff?" This took a lot of cooking for myself to get comfortable with, and a lot of meals that ended up getting fried up with a pasta of some sort and eaten as a "messed that up" meal. The part where you start to just know how stuff works is when you know you're getting it, jus like any tech or code. You just make it and go and it's not something you have to think or plan about. A lot of the prep work you're fretting are decisions you will make eventually automatically. They're not that daunting and pretty soon instead of recipes dictating purchases, it will be the other way around; a kitchen full of the essentials you need and then sales or impulses deciding what you make, and the essentials just being tools you need to make it happen.

ebiester 10y ago

I will make this easy. > do I buy "organic"? Don't worry about it yet. Buy conventional - that's what you're eating when you eat out anyway. > is that expensive? how cheap should I go? Don't worry about it yet. Grab whatever is on sale to start. If you notice you don't like it, don't buy that brand again. > finding the right recipes - how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? Buy three cookbooks to start: Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything", an America's Test Kitchen cookbook that appeals to you, and a cookbook of a cuisine you enjoy that's popular on Amazon. Alternate between the three. > Which are more healthy? Don't worry about it yet. Whatever you cook from these cookbooks will be better for you than what you get from takeout. > Dietary recommendations are all over the place Don't worry about it until later. Get cooking first. Whatever you cook will be better than what you get later. > finding out what I forgot to buy This is a matter of making a list before shopping. I suggest buying for two meals max at first. Nobody worried about most of this for thousands of years -- you don't have to worry about it either.

bpicolo 10y ago
> Don't worry about it yet. Whatever you cook from these cookbooks will be better for you than what you get from takeout. This 100x. What you're eating out is nearly always heavier in butter/cream/what have you and is higher calorie than you're realizing.

imgabe 10y ago

These are not questions that should stop you from doing something. > do I buy "organic"? I don't know. Try it and see if you find it's worth it. It's not like if you buy organic one time you're locked into doing that forever. > how cheap should I go? How is somebody else supposed to answer this question for you? Go as cheap as you feel comfortable. If you find the quality is too poor, buy something more expensive next time. > how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? You try them and see how they work out. And so on. Seriously, you don't need a detailed 50-point plan for every little aspect of doing something. Experiment, Evaluate, Adjust. It's not that hard and the stakes are pretty low. Worst case scenario: you end up making a meal you don't want to eat and you learn something.