Does anyone here actually know how to cook?

[Martin]

Yes, I can cook well, for several reasons:

- I enjoy it
- I can make things just the way I like them.
- I get a ton of control over my nutrition.
- I live alone, so if I don't cook well, I either have to eat poorly or spend a fortune eating take out all the time (which gets boring as well).

As an added bonus, it does impress the girls

Having said that, I still have much to learn. Every time something turns out really well or really bad, I try to remember what I did right/wrong. Also, I suck at baking. I suck so much, I managed to fuck up brownies twice.

 

[Zorkorist]

Breads I can do, because they just start with flour, water, and salt.

Let it rot for a few days, and you have a starter.

-John

 

[busydude]

I am 24 and have been cooking for the past 3 years.

<--- Grad Student here. Would either starve to death, or go bankrupt eating outside everyday.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Breads I can do, because they just start with flour, water, and salt.

Let it rot for a few days, and you have a starter.

-John

My starter is a daughter of the one my grandmother gave to my father, which she received from her mother, and which her mother likely received from her mother. It's unbelievably hearty. It makes dynamite sourdough pancakes, but otherwise I just use it to make quickbreads and scones.

EDIT: If you're trying to start a starter, though, I don't think you want salt in the mix.

 

[Zorkorist]

That's too cool.

Here, honey, I want to tell you about the birds and the bees, and my starter

-John

 

[Kirby]

22, and I can cook fairly well, much better than most of my peers. Grilling, baking, sauces, noodles, desserts, etc.

I have plenty of room for improvement, but I can still whip up something good enough to get the panties off.

 

[JJChicken]

Yeah I can cook veggies and rice

 

[yhelothar]

24 here and I could cook a variety of meals. I mostly cook things that I've had that tasted good and try to replicated it, or I'd put a twist on it.
It's surprisingly easy to make something tasty. It's often quite easy to make something taste better than when you buy it premade since you can put however much of an ingredient you want without having the need to maximize profits.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

i cook taiwanese food cuz i miss it and there is no truely authentic taiwan night market cuisine in california. the stuff here, i leave to chefs and people with training. sure, home cooking is healthier, more personalized, and taking control of my destiny, but i know i cannot touch the skills/creativities of the chefs here in New York, so i might as well enjoy their art.

Its pretty sad but true. maybe more in LA, but I haven't found anything in the Bay Area yet. There's stuff, but all of it is pretty underwhelming despite all the praise I hear. I'm counting down til I finally return to Taiwan again in Dec.

To answer OP, I can cook decently. I don't do it anymore. I did enough during college. I can outcook my parents, but that's not saying much. My mom is OCD so I don't cook at home at all now that I'm living at home again. We'll see when I move out someday.

 

[Kev]

cooking sucks. anything that i can't prepare in 20 minutes or less is not worth it to me.

 

[MJinZ]

Anyway, cooking is a life skill and doing it well can provide not only superior food, it's a satisfying accomplishment. You can learn to make meals which others appreciate.

You're in your 20s now, but eventually you will have others around you that you care about. Cooking is not only a means of obtaining nutrition, but throughout time it has bound family, cemented friendship and done so much more than eating a burger.

As Magnus said, you decide what your life is going to be, and despite the opinion of those who seem clueless yours need not be their fate.

Learn to cook, you dumb bastard

Yer sayin that cookin's llike the movies wit the frennermies cept done on the cheap at yer homer?

Got it

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

when your parents leave you home alone, you figure it out pretty quick

This.
Although the occasional burning of food had to become an acquired taste.

I don't quite get along with my parents, enough to have them teach me cooking methods, so just had to google and youtube cooking tips and such. My parents rarely make any great meals, but my dad is great at baking.
I think I'm mildly decent for being self-taught, although there's always room for improvement.

 

[FTM0305]

26 and cooks exclusively with a cast iron skillet.

Its like an RPG. Your skillet levels with every meal. Favor saturates the skillet and imparts it to all future meals cooked thereon.

Main meal I cook:

Chicken breast

seasoned with herb & garlic salt, cilantro, and a few other herbs.

Cooked in a olive oil and a little bit of burgundy cooking wine (alcohol cooks out for those of you that don't drink, like me).

Cooked on the stove top, covered, and low temperature, usually around 30 minutes are so. Alternating sides and adding cooking wine to steam up skillet when needed.

 

[McWatt]

Note from an ATHF post: MrJinZ likes fat free cheese. I think his culinary future is doomed. Getting him to cook is like getting a blind man to become a photographer.

 

[vinylswing]

26 and I can cook. Usually stir-fir, nothing too complicated. I like cooking but I hate preparing food.

I can't bake though.

 

[MJinZ]

26 and cooks exclusively with a cast iron skillet.

Its like an RPG. Your skillet levels with every meal. Favor saturates the skillet and imparts it to all future meals cooked thereon.

Main meal I cook:

Chicken breast

seasoned with herb & garlic salt, cilantro, and a few other herbs.

Cooked in a olive oil and a little bit of burgundy cooking wine (alcohol cooks out for those of you that don't drink, like me).

Cooked on the stove top, covered, and low temperature, usually around 30 minutes are so. Alternating sides and adding cooking wine to steam up skillet when needed.

Supposedly iron ain't good fer a manly man?

 

[MJinZ]

Note from an ATHF post: MrJinZ likes fat free cheese. I think his culinary future is doomed. Getting him to cook is like getting a blind man to become a photographer.

Hellz no. I won't cook with butter and that stuff that's for sure.

 

[MJinZ]

It's all about taking control of your destiny. Do you really want to be eating fast food and hamburger helper twenty years from now?

Great Brewer,

Where to start?

What brand of cooking stuff? What stuff to get? What should I avoid?

Want to cook some cheap healthy shit only.

 

[FTM0305]

Supposedly iron ain't good fer a manly man?

If the skillet can't be made in a home made forge I want nothing to do with it.

From a metallurgic prospective. Cast Iron has more preamble space for food residue to lodge itself in as the skillet cools after cooking. This allows certain flavors to be stored until the skillet is used again.

Steel skillets physical molecular structure is much tighter having less carbon to space the iron molecules. Steel is about 1 - 3 &#37; carbon, while cast iron is a bit higher.

Normal skillets cannot do what cast iron can do for food.

Cooking is both art and science!

EDIT: Addition note:

There is a different in the physical molecular structure as well between Iron and Steel. one is face center cubic while the other is body center cubic.

 

[MJinZ]

If the skillet can't be made in a home made forge I want nothing to do with it.

From a metallurgic prospective. Cast Iron has more preamble space for food residue to lodge itself in as the skillet cools after cooking. This allows certain flavors to be stored until the skillet is used again.

Steel skillets physical molecular structure is much tighter having less carbon to space the iron molecules. Steel is about 1 - 3 % carbon, while cast iron is a bit higher.

Normal skillets cannot do what cast iron can do for food.

Cooking is both art and science!

EDIT: Addition note:

Their is a different in the physical molecular structure as well between Iron and Steel. one is face center cubic while the other is body center cubic.

I was referring to getting too much iron in a your system, which to a man is supposedly bad for cancer, heart disease, bones etc?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Not enough to matter.

 

[nageov3t]

I was referring to getting too much iron in a your system, which to a man is supposedly bad for cancer, heart disease, bones etc?

isn't iron poison to fairies?

 

[moshquerade]

Started cooking when I was 16. Currently, I cook basically every night unless we go out to eat.

thank you.


a man who cannot cook is a failure. really, take out and tv dinners are no way to live your life.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Great Brewer,

Where to start?

What brand of cooking stuff? What stuff to get? What should I avoid?

Want to cook some cheap healthy shit only.

Search for any post by Howard and you'll find a link to an equipment thread.

 

[MJinZ]

thank you.


a man who cannot cook is a failure. really, take out and tv dinners are no way to live your life.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Now u shaming me into cookin?