Cooking Trainee

OwnedAndLoveIt · 2018-01-04T01:41:54+00:00

Practice when there is no stress. Do not limit yourself to one cusine. Get a decent cookbook or try out HomeChef.com where you can select meals and get step by step directions.

lunatic_in_the_hall · 2018-01-04T03:22:27+00:00

I am definitely not married and I'm barely an adult, but I'm learning how to cook as well. I've been very frustrated a couple times trying to cook. Once I threw out an entire batch of cookies because they were gooey when I took them out of the oven (turns out I just had to bake them longer! duh!) I'm sorry you didn't get good "training" when you were growing up, but I don't think it's ever too late to learn. Do you actually enjoy the idea of cooking, or do you just feel like it's something you're supposed to do? Because if you don't actually like it, don't push yourself. If your husband/boyfriend is a good cook and doesn't mind doing most of the cooking, let him. But if you really want to learn, I suggest you spend time with him in the kitchen. This would be a great opportunity for you to bond, as well! Be patient and take your time, ask him for help and watch what he does. And most of all, don't worry about making mistakes! How else are you going to learn what not to do?

Good luck! :)

labelleindifference · 2018-01-04T06:13:07+00:00

I still don't know how to cook in the sense that I have to follow recipes. I wish I was at the point where I could just go grocery shopping and then throw something together. But I think that over time with experimenting, you start to get a sense of the theory behind cooking and why certain flavors work with others. I would go on epicurious.com and Pinterest and start cooking some simple recipes that you find. I would also recommend picking up The Flavor Bible. It's a really great look into the thought process that goes into putting together a delicious dish. I am all about theory since a good grasp of theory allows you to be creative later once you've mastered the fundamentals. :)

zershia77 · 2018-01-04T04:42:27+00:00

Try one of those meal services like Blue Apron. They send you ingredients for three meals with recipes each week. It helped me to learn more about what flavors go well together and how to make an easy pan sauce that makes any meal delicious. It also taught me about ingredients I wasn't familiar with and dishes I would never think to make on my own. I've kept the recipes and now I try to make them my own. It has taught me a lot about cooking! Now my husband compliments every dinner I make.

vintagegirlgame · 2018-01-04T08:03:33+00:00

The man can totally be the head chef in the house. If it's his strength then he'll be happy to show it. Maybe you want to become the dessert queen to compliment his dinners (baking is really easy if you follow simple recipes by the book). Or focus on your heritage and learn a few signature recipients with the help of your family.

If you want to learn simply for the love of food (and because true Mexican food is AMAZING) then it really just takes practice.

I learned in college when I got off the meal plan bc eating out was expensive and we had nice kitchens. Learned a lot from our weekly pot luck dinners that were themed w a different country each week. We'd each look up something online and try it.

When looking up new recipes to try, I usually read about 3-5 to see what they all have in common and get a feel for how I want to do it depending on which ingredients I have.

You could also flatter his ego by asking him to help teach you. My SO was vegetarian for a few years and taught me how to cook with tofu which I had never done before. I still give him credit when I make tofu dishes.

Meadowfly · 2018-01-04T08:04:39+00:00

Practice makes perfect! Find one thing you are good at and work from there. I started off with making fresh bread since I always wanted to be able to bake my own. Then I moved onto more complicated breads, then pasta making and pastry. Don't give up OP, one day you will surprise yourself with your ability! Wish you all the best.

noonessister · 2018-01-04T13:59:10+00:00

I wasn't a great cook when I first started out on my own. I knew the basics because I had to make my own food as a kid when my mom was at work. It sounds like you know the basics too, and that is a good place to start.

I think that the best way to learn is cookbooks supplemented by YouTube.

I like Italian food (I'm not Italian , but Chinese) . I got two useful presents for going to college; it was a toolbox and a the PTA cookbook from my high school. Since I live in Jersey, there were a lot of Italian recipes. I used that to make penne a la vodka, chicken piccata, and baked ziti.

To brush up and learn terms and skills I bought an awesome book called The Can`t Cook Book.

I just followed the directions in these book in order to learn how to cook. I skimmed the directions and ingredient list. While making the recipe, I often read them several times over, just to make sure I got the instructions right.

It helps me to prepare my ingredients and lay them out before I start my recipe.

Maybe you can find thh authoritative Mexican cookbook?

nonamanuensis · 2018-01-04T22:46:28+00:00

I burned something in the microwave on my honeymoon. It was really embarrassing. I was NOT proud to be a woman who couldn't cook and decided I should learn to do better.

I was also vegetarian during my teens and in college and so I was really uncomfortable and insecure in my ability to cook meat but I've gotten to the point where I can safely make a decent steak.

I'm proud to report that my husband (the main cook in our home - he loves to cook) has declared that I am a "good cook" now. I am also very proud of being able to make 100%-from-scratch-homemade-pies and it's something I really enjoy and am happy about (I personally loathe all the soybean oil in most store bought baked goods). Plating food and making it beautiful is a lot of fun as a creative outlet.

I haven't found any secrets. I follow recipes and learn from my mistakes - that's the only secret I've learned....well, aside from learning how sensitive your oven, stove, and pots/pans are to heat. When a recipe says bake cookies at 375 for 8-10 minutes I know my oven needs to be checked at 7 minutes depending on the cookie size and I need to stay at the ready for the beep at 8. Once I find something I enjoy making, I will tweak it but usually the first time I make something I just follow the recipe. You can really go down some interesting roads if you read the comments on a site like allrecipes.com but it can turn into analysis paralysis so try the recipe once and the next time check the comments if you think you need adjustments.

Practice!

Try this system:

Collect recipes that appeal to you and review what you've collected to see patterns and what's common among similar recipes and cuisines. (If you like Mexican food learning how to cook rice and beans seems like a good start.)
Practice those recipes - or aspects of them. There was one time I tried just carmelizing onions just so I knew what that meant because I had seen the step in recipes but didn't know what to look for and I didn't want the stress of trying to do something new when preparing food for someone else. For Mexican food what comes to mind is learning how make fajita style peppers and onions.
Learn from practice
Repeat

You'll find as you cook more that you can tell what food basics you like to keep in your kitchen. If you like a certain cuisine or dish you'll learn what condiments and spices you need to keep and which ones aren't as important if you don't use them.

When you cook big meals (like family, holidays, parties, etc.) it also helps to have a set schedule so you know when to start things and how much time to allot for prep, but for daily regular meals that's not usually necessary.

It sounds really privileged but I think it's good going in to give yourself full permission to throw out food that didn't work out. Don't make yourself or someone else eat terrible food as punishment for learning. And don't make yourself eat past fullness just to avoid wasting the food if it's ok but not great - you've already sunk the cost of preparing it no need to force yourself to eat it. Consider not putting a food in the fridge as leftovers if no one either a. had seconds or b. exclaimed how good it was - because you're probably going to throw that food out anyway in a few days or a week. Exceptions are personal favorites - I don't care if no one eats any of the beef stew or if I didn't have seconds, I know I will eat those leftovers so I save them.

Formulas and basics are good and you become pretty good at them. I usually make lunches and dinners on the weekend and our meal formula for the family is starch+fat/protein/vegetable or fruit. I know how much time it takes to prep apple slices, different types of sandwiches, and a side and fun food to complement them. My husband literally had no idea what to make for dinner the other night and in less than 30 minutes he had wild rice, green beans, and spicy (and really juicy! he tried a new method of prepping them) chicken breasts on the table because we usually have those basics in the pantry, freezer, and fridge. Frozen vegetables supposedly have very little nutritional difference from fresh vegetables so it's the easiest way to feed vegetables to others, in my experience. My kids especially love green beans, broccoli, peas, and mixed veggies and those frozen microwave bags can be stored for a while so it's easy to have them on hand.

Some of being a good cook is knowing how to mix food variables. Cold/Hot. Crunchy/Chewy. Salty/Sweet/Sour/Bitter/Spicy. Melts/Sticks. You get better at knowing what will "make" a recipe when you have practice with those options and can focus in on what works and what doesn't. If I remember a really good meal from a restaurant I may not make the exact same recipe but I can remember the flavor combination or be inspired to try a similar recipe. And I can't eat a sandwich without some crispy lettuce now - it makes the sandwich a completely different experience with crisp cold lettuce against soft warm bread and gooey cheese and savory meat and I personally often add jelly to my meat sandwiches on one side for a sweet kick. (We've been eating a lot of ham and swiss sandwiches with the holiday ham leftovers:) )

Hot food does continue to cook after you take it out so with practice you'll learn at what point you need to take out pasta or rice so it's not overcooked from the additional cooking out of the pot.

The more you practice the more fluid you will be organizing your equipment and deciding in what order to do what - start the boiling water, chop the veggies, marinate the meat, when the meat comes out to rest mix the dressing in the salad, etc.

Definitely clean up before you start and clean as you cook. I hate enjoying a meal only to be greeted by a sink and counter tops full of dirty dishes.

Part of the reason you taste foods while cooking is to continually reassess the salt level - more salt often makes food flavors really jump but you have to add a little, wait, taste, and reassess rather than adding a ton at once.

My personal experience has definitely shown me that salt and butter (aka fat) and gluten make a huge difference in mouthfeel and taste if you're trying to please a crowd (or even just yourself). We had a low-carb/sugar house for almost two years and at one point my diet was temporarily fairly low fat and we were never ever able to find a good gluten free or low fat recipe for our favorite foods. We tried tons and tons of recipes and my husband loves to cook but even he couldn't find good recipes. I had an entire spreadsheet in search of the perfect "healthy" bread, cookie, and brownie. It was not a fun cooking time. I can now eat and enjoy a few real sugar+butter+flour cookies now instead of bingeing on just terrible coconut-flour-or-black-bean-splenda-avocado-for-fat cookies in search of satisfaction I would never find in those "cookies" (we still laugh about calling those protein powder or black mean monstrosities "brownies" lol). So if you're trying "healthy" recipes and think you're a bad cook....just experiment with "normal" recipes and check in since for some recipes it has nothing to do with skill. :) Chicken, for instance, is a fairly dry and lean meat compared to steak or pork and I've had really dry bland chicken and the recipe seemed ok. But the meat was considerably better if I added butter or coconut oil while cooking the chicken. There's a reason that chicken is often breaded and fried - for moisture and fat to balance it out. In comparison, I rarely need to add any kind of mayo or cheese to a beef sandwich for me to personally feel that it's balanced aka tastes really good. I think a lot of people "know" that about chicken but for me it wasn't obvious until I started to cook it and it all made sense and helped me balance dishes.

Anyway, I survived learning how to cook. I haven't burned anything in a while although I had some recent bad batches of food and my husband reminded me of how sparse and sad my kitchen was when we were dating and how I'm not like that anymore. You can definitely learn to cook well and be proud of setting a table with your food for others. It really does come down to practice.

Wow this comment is long lol

HonkyCat84 · 2018-01-04T02:46:38+00:00

I’m in the learning stages of cooking, too, unfortunately. My mother isn’t much of a cook and I’m a picky eater, so I never really had a reason to learn. I’ve been making a concerted effort to learn how to make more meals. I have a couple of weeks worth of recipes I’ve gotten down, so I’ve made real progress. Now, I’m trying to add in more complicated stuff that my husband enjoys but I’m not great at, which is mostly Asian type stuff.

The thing that helped me most in my learning was allrecipes.com and an Appalachian Cooking group on Facebook. Allrecipes is great because of the variety. I follow a couple of chefs on there. Appalachian Cooking is great because it features a ton of old-timey comfort food recipes, which I find to have an old world charm. Plus, with those, you learn a lot about making food, especially desserts, from scratch.

eazolan · 2018-01-08T18:10:39+00:00

One of the best things you can be, is not satisfied with your cooking.

It will push you to do better.

CcyCV · 2018-01-04T14:24:56+00:00

Don’t stress, tortillas take a bit of a trick to master. Is your pan very hot? It should be. Did you let the dough sit for a while (about an hour) before forming the tortilla? My family managed a cafeteria for 10 years, making tortillas and food for a lot of people every day, pm me if you need friendly advice with cooking ☺️

Title	Cooking Trainee
Author	OldFashionLatina
Upvotes	7
Comments	18
Date	January 4, 2018 1:25 AM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RedPillWomen
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/7nzgj9/cooking_trainee/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RedPillWomen/cooking-trainee.74032 https://theredarchive.com/post/74032

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