How did you learn to cook?

[AstroManLuca]

I didn't. I can make a few really simple things but throw any complexity into the mix and I fall on my face every time. If the thing I'm cooking involves more than one pot, I will inevitably finish one long before the other dish is ready, so the first one gets cold. Or I will accidentally burn one thing because I can't focus on two things at once.

I can't play strategy games either. Like I said, can't focus on multiple things at all.

My cooking is limited to things like ravioli, quesadillas, and meat on the grill. Oh, and since I had a kid, it's become 10x harder to cook because I have to be watching the baby too. If I'm the one who has to pick the baby up from daycare and start dinner before my wife gets home, usually I'm only able to just start something and she has to finish when she gets home.

I completely hate cooking and try to avoid it whenever possible.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Moved into an apartment with 3 other guys in college. Didn't want to shit out money by eating out everyday, and knew that no one else would take it upon themselves to cook.

I more or less taught myself just by trying new things that I picked up on TV or in magazines/books. I was 19 at the time.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I have a belief that finicky eaters can't cook as well as those willing to eat whatever comes out of the kitchen. Most of cooking is trial and error, but also having an understanding of how to season what you cook. (that includes cooking things using the proper methods)

I started cooking when I was 7 years old. My mom let me bake cakes/cookies. I learned how to smoke & grill pork, beef, and seafood in the past 10 years. I always knew how to use a grill....but when someone orders a steak medium rare and you're dealing with a 2-3 inch cut of meat, you have to know meat temp, grill temp, and only turn it once....

 

[Cuular]

I was diagnosed as a diabetic just before my 3rd birthday. And I needed to eat long before the parents woke up on weekends. So at age 4 i made my first dish, flaming Van de kamps beans with cheddar cheese...

Since then things have gotten a lot better. i would cook a couple meals a week to help offload my mom by the time I was 9-10.

People like my Southern Indian dry potato curry (grandma lived for 50 years in India, I picked up the family recipes from her).

I like my newest recipe Garlic/parmesan cream sauce with pureed bing cherries and a touch of mint, over egg noodles. Chicken or Fish mix with it really well too.

 

[lord_emperor]

I didn't.

Thankfully I can read and there are recipes on the internet for everything now.

 

[Saint Nick]

Mom and dad taught me. I learned a lot just spending time with them around the kitchen and grill.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Watching a lot of food network. Watching shows like Good Eats, you really pick up on concepts and techniques, which are far more valuable than individual recipes.

Also, cooking with my mother and/or grandmother and learning some of their dishes.

Good Eats is a fantastic show. They should make kids watch it in school and cook the food as labs.

Instead we make kids do pointless shit.

Yep.

 

[alkemyst]

wait for it...


your moms!

lol

 

[Perknose]

I think it is safe to say the whole art of cooking is a trial and error experience, and I am not one to follow recipes too closely.

Describes my take on cooking, and how I approach it, to at 'T.'

My formula is usually start with garlic and onion,

Me, too, but I also usually include green bell peppers.

and see what leftover in the fridge to fill it out.

Exactly! It's how I cook! :thumbsup:

Fresh ingredients can stilt (sic) even the most mediocre cook. That and not putting too much heat on things.

+1 on fresh, good ingredients.

Either super hot heat for a very short time, or low and slooooow over a long(er) time.

 

[Fritzo]

I have a belief that finicky eaters can't cook as well as those willing to eat whatever comes out of the kitchen. Most of cooking is trial and error, but also having an understanding of how to season what you cook. (that includes cooking things using the proper methods)

I started cooking when I was 7 years old. My mom let me bake cakes/cookies. I learned how to smoke & grill pork, beef, and seafood in the past 10 years. I always knew how to use a grill....but when someone orders a steak medium rare and you're dealing with a 2-3 inch cut of meat, you have to know meat temp, grill temp, and only turn it once....

I agree, but finicky eaters tend to be "super tasters", meaning their taste buds register foods much more strongly than others. Therefore, powerful and "earthy" tastes overwhelm them (hence their dislike for onions, mushrooms, cheeses, etc). People like this are going to prefer starchy foods- potatoes, rice, milk based sauces, etc.

Seasoning is less important than people think in cooking. Seasoning is just supposed to add a little "oomph' to the taste that's already there. If that flavor isn't already present, you're not going to be able to change it.

If you want to be a good cook, you need to learn a few basics:

- caramelizing: People never let things that are frying or sauteing sit long enough. When cooking with oil, the oil needs to be HOT before putting your food in, then it needs to sit there for 3-6 minutes before moving. You also can not crowd food when cooking with oil, otherwise it will steam cook instead of brown. You want that deep caramel color to appear before disturbing whatever you're frying.

- cooking times: Overcooking is the biggest mistake most people make. Chicken breasts should be pounded to make their thickness more uniform, then cooked until the center no longer feels "bouncy". Green vegetables will turn deep emerald green when done. If you start seeing blood seeping out of your beef, you've cooked it beyond medium. All of th just takes practice and knowledge of what to look for.

- sauce making: the concept of making a roux and adding drippings and bases is a bit of an art, but well worth the time. I use flour and butter for cream based sauces, and corn starch for gravies or clear sauces (like for chinese food). Learning how to reduce and deglaze a pan is essential here as well.

If you can get those three concepts down, learning how to season will simply enhance the experience. The cake is more important than the frosting

 

[Vdubchaos]

- cooking times: Overcooking is the biggest mistake most people make. Chicken breasts should be pounded to make their thickness more uniform, then cooked until the center no longer feels "bouncy". Green vegetables will turn deep emerald green when done. If you start seeing blood seeping out of your beef, you've cooked it beyond medium. All of th just takes practice and knowledge of what to look for.

I think this is # one when it comes to cooking. Without getting this down....seasoning...caramelizing etc is worthless.

I suggest making a good investment into a nice Thermometer. Although at this point I can go without it, I tend to turn to it quite often.

Chicken breast is one of the hardest meats to cook (not the hardest). I don't bother pounding it (although I do every now and then) but I do control heat flow with positioning on the grill.

I keep the seasoning simple when I don't marinate. Salt only for kids and Salt/Pepper and usually 1 or 2 go to spices depending on the meat (for example Chicken + Rosemary/Curry).

I like what you said about seasoning being an oomph vs overtaking the taste. I like to keep it limited (depending on the spice).

 

[xanis]

A combination of Food Network and winging it. I kind of just watch shows and try recipes on my own at this point, and I think I do pretty well for a home cook.

 

[grrl]

My mom and working in my dad's restaurant.

 

[Acanthus]

Trial and Error.

A LOT of error.

 

[mitchelt]

From looking over your wifes shoulder.

 

[zinfamous]

observation, practice, throwing shit together, then eventually spending time with recipes.

Dad always had a "throw shit together and see what happens!" philosophy when I was younger. This worked out well, but being the family environment with 2 working parents, it involved mostly altering pre-mix meals. It worked, though, and I gaine an appreciation for adding various stuff to pots and manipulating them in certain ways to achieve...some sort of result. Probably why I've been a molecular biologist for several years, now...

Several years after that and after college, I spent about 6 months in Italy and Switzerland. That's where I really learned how to cook--learning from older, wizened individuals, first exposure to quality ingredients that I never imagined possible and of course, various non-American cuisines and how to prepare them the proper way (i.e.--not what the Olive Garden, et al. have taught us).

While in Italy, I set myself to learn the basics and be able to prepare a dozen dishes or so consistently, though I always like to change things up here and there. It works for everything, really--most of your cooking is a handful of base recipes and techniques, and from there is where you explore until you create things you like. I learned to spend more time following recipes and actually understanding the value of each ingredient, its characteristics--the various types of cooking and why this is done to that ingredient, etc.

There is always failure, of course. and this is how you learn and actually come to appreciate the astonishing and often unexpected successes (most of which will come from errors or the need to improvise when lacking something that you think you need).

Basically, it's what I do every day in the lab so it only makes sense to carry that over to the kitchen. Not that I'm always doing this--I go through protracted bouts of laziness where I just prefer to eat some shitty pre-made trader joe's bag of frozen things.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Parents taught me that food is an experience, not just fuel. Mom taught me enough that I wasn't afraid of the kitchen. Dad taught me that I could totally make that at home for 1/3 the money. (Food as well as other things; he's a DIY-er.)

The rest is me reading things on the internet and seeing what happens.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Practice. I'm pretty good on the grill now, but my baking and stove top game still needs work.

 

[silverpig]

- caramelizing: People never let things that are frying or sauteing sit long enough. When cooking with oil, the oil needs to be HOT before putting your food in, then it needs to sit there for 3-6 minutes before moving. You also can not crowd food when cooking with oil, otherwise it will steam cook instead of brown. You want that deep caramel color to appear before disturbing whatever you're frying.

- cooking times: Overcooking is the biggest mistake most people make. Chicken breasts should be pounded to make their thickness more uniform, then cooked until the center no longer feels "bouncy". Green vegetables will turn deep emerald green when done. If you start seeing blood seeping out of your beef, you've cooked it beyond medium. All of th just takes practice and knowledge of what to look for.

- sauce making: the concept of making a roux and adding drippings and bases is a bit of an art, but well worth the time. I use flour and butter for cream based sauces, and corn starch for gravies or clear sauces (like for chinese food). Learning how to reduce and deglaze a pan is essential here as well.

If you can get those three concepts down, learning how to season will simply enhance the experience. The cake is more important than the frosting

You described the maillard reaction, which is different from caramelizing. While it is true that most people don't caramelize long enough, you don't do it with hot oil. You caramelize slowly over low heat. This is very different from browning (maillard) and produces a different result.

Also, seasoning is a bit different. You put the flavour of thyme, or pepper, or rosemary into things that don't have it specifically so you can taste thyme or pepper or rosemary.

Salt is very different. You don't add salt to things to make them taste salty, you actually change the flavour with salt. The easiest way to understand this is to make a simple tomato sauce.

Start with all raw fresh vegetables (tomatoes, garlic, italian parsley, onion, garlic). Chop the garlic and onion up fine, add them to a pot with a little oil and saute until clear. Then add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the parsley, then blend, and strain into a pot.

Heat the sauce back up and taste it. It should taste pretty crappy, like raw vegetables. Now add a pinch of salt, stir for 1 minute and taste again. It probably won't have changed the flavour much. Add another pinch of salt, and taste. And again, and again. Eventually the flavour of the sauce will fundamentally change to what we know as tomato sauce, but it won't taste salty at all. You can continue to add salt and eventually it'll taste salty, at which point you have ruined the sauce unless you happen to have a bunch more vegetables.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I agree, but finicky eaters tend to be "super tasters", meaning their taste buds register foods much more strongly than others. Therefore, powerful and "earthy" tastes overwhelm them (hence their dislike for onions, mushrooms, cheeses, etc). People like this are going to prefer starchy foods- potatoes, rice, milk based sauces, etc.

Seasoning is less important than people think in cooking. Seasoning is just supposed to add a little "oomph' to the taste that's already there. If that flavor isn't already present, you're not going to be able to change it.

If you want to be a good cook, you need to learn a few basics:

- caramelizing: People never let things that are frying or sauteing sit long enough. When cooking with oil, the oil needs to be HOT before putting your food in, then it needs to sit there for 3-6 minutes before moving. You also can not crowd food when cooking with oil, otherwise it will steam cook instead of brown. You want that deep caramel color to appear before disturbing whatever you're frying.

- cooking times: Overcooking is the biggest mistake most people make. Chicken breasts should be pounded to make their thickness more uniform, then cooked until the center no longer feels "bouncy". Green vegetables will turn deep emerald green when done. If you start seeing blood seeping out of your beef, you've cooked it beyond medium. All of th just takes practice and knowledge of what to look for.

- sauce making: the concept of making a roux and adding drippings and bases is a bit of an art, but well worth the time. I use flour and butter for cream based sauces, and corn starch for gravies or clear sauces (like for chinese food). Learning how to reduce and deglaze a pan is essential here as well.

If you can get those three concepts down, learning how to season will simply enhance the experience. The cake is more important than the frosting

In my experience, finicky eaters often find themselves disliking certain textures or even the thought of what a food is. For whatever reason, they get hangups on mushrooms because it's "fungus"....they don't like olives or mushrooms because they're "squishy".....I've heard both of those excuses. My wife doesn't like olives because she isn't a fan of the brine....I always want to say, "you should try one without the brine"

In any case, the closed mindedness can leave them without the tasting experience to truly appreciate the flavors they're experiencing. I can understand the concept of some people being super tasters, but my experience brewing beer teaches me that some people will never appreciate the beers I like....and some people won't touch the stuff at all. To each his own.

My comment about seasoning is pretty basic....when you go out to eat in chain restaurants, they salt the heck out of everything. Some seasonings add the oomph you speak of, particularly herbs...but often the absence of salt or sugar is detected by the taster and required to balance expectations. The key though to seasoning is to salt as little as possible and make sure that the flavors of the dish are well balanced and matured. Some seasonings or herbs almost require others to be used or a dish may seem one dimensional. Spaghetti sauce is the best example I can come up with... You'll want a good dose of Oregano, but you'll also want basil, a little sugar, some salt, and tomato paste in addition to crushed tomatos and sauteed garlic with the olive oil it was sauteed in. By the time you do that and let it simmer a long while, it will come together and the flavors will merge. You can add other stuff to your preference, but there's a knack for it. When my wife makes sauce, she almost always asks me to swing in and figure out what it's missing.... I have to taste it and figure out how to adjust it....if it needs anything.

Most premade italian sausage sold in stores includes fennel seed....so it adds a licorice flavor that I'm not a fan of....it's not something that can really be masked...but that's an example of something that may complicate a sauce if it contains sausage made that way....then you have to react to an ingredient added from another ingredient.

 

[Fritzo]

You described the maillard reaction, which is different from caramelizing. While it is true that most people don't caramelize long enough, you don't do it with hot oil. You caramelize slowly over low heat. This is very different from browning (maillard) and produces a different result.

Also, seasoning is a bit different. You put the flavour of thyme, or pepper, or rosemary into things that don't have it specifically so you can taste thyme or pepper or rosemary.

Salt is very different. You don't add salt to things to make them taste salty, you actually change the flavour with salt. The easiest way to understand this is to make a simple tomato sauce.

Start with all raw fresh vegetables (tomatoes, garlic, italian parsley, onion, garlic). Chop the garlic and onion up fine, add them to a pot with a little oil and saute until clear. Then add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the parsley, then blend, and strain into a pot.

Heat the sauce back up and taste it. It should taste pretty crappy, like raw vegetables. Now add a pinch of salt, stir for 1 minute and taste again. It probably won't have changed the flavour much. Add another pinch of salt, and taste. And again, and again. Eventually the flavour of the sauce will fundamentally change to what we know as tomato sauce, but it won't taste salty at all. You can continue to add salt and eventually it'll taste salty, at which point you have ruined the sauce unless you happen to have a bunch more vegetables.

I know it's technically called the maillard reaction, but nobody actually says that in kitchens. They say "nice caramel color"

 

[Perknose]

--most of your cooking is a handful of base recipes and techniques, and from there is where you explore until you create things you like.

^^^This is how I cook.

 

[IronWing]

From looking over your wifes shoulder.

I wish you'd quit doing that, you keep tickling my nose.


FYI, OP is a misses.

 

[natto fire]

Describes my take on cooking, and how I approach it, to at 'T.'

Either super hot heat for a very short time, or low and slooooow over a long(er) time.

On the bell peppers, very good way to get vitamin C, and I love them, but am more a sucker for the reds. Quartered and broiled to roast the skin off is a time consuming indulgence I like. I used to live in New Mexico and part of my job was roasting their famous chilis (well bred Anaheim peppers) and I have loved roasted peppers ever since, even if nothing can match those Chimayo/Hatch chilis.

Agree on the heat, thank you for elaborating because sauteed onions are a prime example of this philosophy. If you get in between those two extremes you end up with a bad onion.

As far as the (sic) on stilt, I was using it in the transitive verb sense, and although abstract, it is spelled correctly.

I am going to go out on a limb and assume you despise throwing away food too? On fiscal and moral principles?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I know it's technically called the maillard reaction, but nobody actually says that in kitchens. They say "nice caramel color"

Golden Brown and Delicious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p80LS_CCik&list=PLC7EC6DE03E91042D