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People who can't cook. What's your opinion?

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A handy list of reasons I don't cook.

・I get off work every day around 10, and biking home there's about 100 different places to eat. Am I supposed to wait until I'm all the way home to eat up?
・The fucking grocery store is 10 minutes away walking, 5 by bike. TOO FAR. I guarantee you that were it just around the corner I would do a lot more cooking.
・I do not cook for the same reason I don't play RE games. I can't manage resources! Horrible at it. Ok, so I bought some onions, they smell good. In five days they're fucking done for because I didn't plan out my meals. FUUUUUUUUU. I have enough pressure at work to worry about before coming up with a "list" and a "meal plan". NO.
・Lazy. K bored of making a list.
 
Honestly the thing that change my life was a george foreman grill and a rice cooker. I would put in 2-3 cups of brown rice a day and use george foreman grill for various meats such as steaks, chicken, and ham patties. My meal tastes like a 5 star meal every time for me and I mix it up with different kind of spices. Also Sriracha Rooster hot sauce is amazing :D
 
numble said:
I've only lived here one year, it was pretty quick to find the cheap places--maybe one weekend? If you base your prices of things on Fresh Direct prices, things are going to seem really expensive pretty fast. But even going to the closest supermarket, you can get 2-3 days worth of meals for $3-5 worth of groceries, which is like the price of one meal's tip. Saving money this way can mean more neat gadgets to play with or money to be spent on other things, in addition to cultivating skills for a great date activity.
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no, no - i know that. although i don't know about 2-3 days worth of meals for $3 bucks? i'd say more like $10, for decent meals.

but for me, what you said just is not an option. fresh direct is just as cheap, if not cheaper, than the local "big" supermarket. and i won't be walking around, trying to find cheap places, it's just not me.

for me it comes down to what's cheaper and healthier - fresh direct or delivery. fresh direct wins, though i stole order quite often.
 
adversesolutions said:
A handy list of reasons I don't cook.

・I get off work every day around 10, and biking home there's about 100 different places to eat. Am I supposed to wait until I'm all the way home to eat up?
・The fucking grocery store is 10 minutes away walking, 5 by bike. TOO FAR. I guarantee you that were it just around the corner I would do a lot more cooking.
・I do not cook for the same reason I don't play RE games. I can't manage resources! Horrible at it. Ok, so I bought some onions, they smell good. In five days they're fucking done for because I didn't plan out my meals. FUUUUUUUUU. I have enough pressure at work to worry about before coming up with a "list" and a "meal plan". NO.
・Lazy. K bored of making a list.
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what he said
 
Some people just don't like cooking.

Not me though, I love it. I'd rather bake a cake than play sports, rather make lasagne than go out clubbing. I life a live of tasty unexcitement.
 
MaxSteel said:
no, no - i know that. although i don't know about 2-3 days worth of meals for $3 bucks? i'd say more like $10, for decent meals.
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Here are some things I've made recently and shown off on IronGAF, every one of these was around $3 worth of ingredients, maybe $3.50 for the one with bell peppers, and sometimes the photos only show a serving size and not everything else I put into the fridge, and the last photo, tonkatsu, was only was 1 out of 3 pork chops. I haven't started cooking until this past fall, after living in NYC for a year and eating out almost every day. Though I did do some cooking for fun during undergrad, though it usually involved other people--cooking for or cooking with people.

disanxian.jpg

yuxiangqiezi.jpg

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adversesolutions said:
A handy list of reasons I don't cook.

・I get off work every day around 10, and biking home there's about 100 different places to eat. Am I supposed to wait until I'm all the way home to eat up?
・The fucking grocery store is 10 minutes away walking, 5 by bike. TOO FAR. I guarantee you that were it just around the corner I would do a lot more cooking.
・I do not cook for the same reason I don't play RE games. I can't manage resources! Horrible at it. Ok, so I bought some onions, they smell good. In five days they're fucking done for because I didn't plan out my meals. FUUUUUUUUU. I have enough pressure at work to worry about before coming up with a "list" and a "meal plan". NO.
・Lazy. K bored of making a list.
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What shitty excuses, you can get by with just black pepper and salt. Pressure?

Look, I get home at 06:00 pm, I run for 30 minutes, take a bath, cook and still have enough time to have sex. You're all just making up excuses.
 
I've only caught a few minutes of it here and there, but that Jamie Oliver show seems to be pretty good; I was kinda surprised. Thought it would be feel-good garbage PROUDLY SPONSORED BY THE PROCESSED FOOD INDUSTRY a la Biggest Loser but he goes at America pretty hard, especially liked him ranking on how stupid the school lunch guidelines are. Good on him though I'm sure he's just preaching to the choir.
 
I only cooked a little when I lived with my parents, but I've been living for a year on my own now (I'm 19).

In the beginning I bought a lot of pre-cooked food, but after a while I began to "really" cook more and more. It's only simple dishes though (pastas, chicken+rice, simple salads).

Does anyone know where or how I can improve my cooking? I know the basics, but that's about it. I try to experiment every once in a while, which is really fun. :)

I want to learn to get better though. I my opinion, it's just not "real" cooking yet. Anyone have any recommendations? Where to start, what kinds of dishes, what to know?
 
otake said:
What shitty excuses, you can get by with just black pepper and salt. Pressure?

Look, I get home at 06:00 pm, I run for 30 minutes, take a bath, cook and still have enough time to have sex. You're all just making up excuses.
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Wow - aren't you just fucking superman. All that and you still get to fuck? I'm in awe.

What's so hard to understand about people NOT CARING ENOUGH TO COOK. Why do I need an excuse? Isn't not enjoying cooking reason enough?
 
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 7PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
 
AstroLad said:
I've only caught a few minutes of it here and there, but that Jamie Oliver show seems to be pretty good; I was kinda surprised. Thought it would be feel-good garbage PROUDLY SPONSORED BY THE PROCESSED FOOD INDUSTRY a la Biggest Loser but he goes at America pretty hard, especially liked him ranking on how stupid the school lunch guidelines are. Good on him though I'm sure he's just preaching to the choir.
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He did almost carbon copies of the show in the UK, and got some school districts to change their meals, which apparently led to some good results, though there may be a placebo effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8593443.stm

Primary pupils in Greenwich, London, who took part in the Feed Me Better scheme, got better results than those in neighbouring boroughs, they found.

The study by Oxford University and Essex University also found them less likely to be off sick from school.

The schools replaced junk food and processed dinners high in fat, salt and sugar, with healthy school lunches.

And the campaign, which ran between 2004-5, led to major changes to nutritional guidelines on school dinners and mass retraining of dinner ladies.

The researchers assessed the impact of the campaign by comparing pupils' scores in the national curriculum tests at the end of primary school between 2002 and 2007 with those of peers in similar boroughs.

They also looked at attendance records for the same period.

In Greenwich, the proportion of children reaching the required standard at the end of primary school rose by 4.5 percentage points in English.

In science, the proportion of children doing better than the expected level increased by up to 6 percentage points.

It also found that attendance rates rose 15% in the Greenwich schools.

The researchers said that by comparing the Greenwich results with those of neighbouring boroughs with similar levels of deprivation, where improvements were not so pronounced, it showed the improvements were down to the effects of the campaign.
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beje said:
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 19PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
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haha i understand that that sounds ridiculous - but it's easier for me to get delivery in bulk for the same (or better) price. and i don't have to deal with the lines, deal with carrying 30 lbs of groceries 1/4 of a mile, etc.

edit: and no, not a morbid fatass at all. not very healthy, but physically in good enough shape.
 
agrajag said:
Your post is completely incorrect. Cooking is simply heat-treating food items. it has nothing to do with "being a chef." A cook in a restaurant doesn't craft his own dishes, he follows the recipe that his boss showed him with a mechanical precision. They're called cooks, not food preparers.
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Obviously that is a strict, formal definition of "cooking", but some posters in this thread are using different colloquial definitions. I was making a distinction based on that fact, which I thought was easily apparent. By your definition, putting a Hot Pocket in the microwave is "cooking", but that is clearly not what the OP had in mind when he asked about people who "can't cook."
 
beje said:
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 19PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
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Yeah, seriously. o_O
If the nearest grocery store was 10 minutes by walk for me, I'd be shopping there like everyday instead of once every week so that I would get less spoiled food.
 
numble said:
He did almost carbon copies of the show in the UK, and got some school districts to change their meals, which apparently led to some good results, though there may be a placebo effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8593443.stm
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Yeah, who knows how much of the U.S. obstinance is just being built up for the show's narrative, although I'd say probably not that much needs to be. And I may have just caught the best parts. I just remember unfortunately catching five minutes of Biggest Loser once and they were forcing the contestants to eat some sort of "healthy" sugary granola bar (healthy because it has five different kinds of wheat!) because they were sponsored by Kellogg's or someone, and I think that's a weekly occurence on that show.
 
I don't cook. At all. I get by on lots of veggies, fruits, yogurt and some sliced meats. Why the fuck should I know how to combine them when I can just eat out of the fridge in seconds? I could cook if I wanted to, I guess, I just really don't care or see the need to.
 
beje said:
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 7PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
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I think the reason(s) have more to do with the majority of GAF being young, unmarried, and most likely not homeowners than them being morbidly obese. Eating out all the time is expensive. I know I'd love it if my grocery store was a mere 10min walk from my house.
 
GatorBait said:
Obviously that is a strict, formal definition of "cooking", but some posters in this thread are using different colloquial definitions. I was making a distinction based on that fact, which I thought was easily apparent. By your definition, putting a Hot Pocket in the microwave is "cooking", but that is clearly not what the OP had in mind when he asked about people who "can't cook."
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A hot pocket comes already cooked. You're just reheating it.
 
striKeVillain! said:
I'm half Puerto Rican and Dominican.

Cooking is part of our culture and every day we would eat a home cooked meal when I was growing up. It's so ingrained that I find it weird to even hear about people not knowing how to cook.

That's a dealbreaker in a relationship. Can't cook? Find your way out.
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dominican here and damn right! it really is a dealbreaker...i love cooking myself, i love to know that people enjoy my food.
 
Suitcase Test said:
I want to learn to get better though. I my opinion, it's just not "real" cooking yet. Anyone have any recommendations? Where to start, what kinds of dishes, what to know?
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It's very simple: think about something you'd really like to eat (pork, beef, avocado, salmon, rice...) then google it + recipe. Surf through the results until you find one that suits your abilities and you'll feel confortable trying.

I learned how to make dozens of things this way.
 
This argument against cost is the one that's really getting to me.

I guarantee in 99% of the cases that you can easily cook for cheaper than ordering/eating out. Up front cost may be a tiiiny bit more (getting basic spices), and if you compare going shopping once to ordering once yes ordering is cheaper, but for the cost of ordering once you can buy ingredients to cook enough to last 3, 4, 5 meals. Your net gain food:money wise is huge. The only challenge is self control since you're not looking at an empty styrofoam container which tells you you're done eating.

And chances are the places that are super cheap, well, you're getting what you pay for. Either cheap ingredients, or very limiting to your diet.

Nothing against ordering and stuff, but surviving on it just hurts my head.
 
GatorBait said:
Obviously that is a strict, formal definition of "cooking", but some posters in this thread are using different colloquial definitions. I was making a distinction based on that fact, which I thought was easily apparent. By your definition, putting a Hot Pocket in the microwave is "cooking", but that is clearly not what the OP had in mind when he asked about people who "can't cook."
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The division you were trying to make earlier doesn't actually exist because following a recipe to the letter still requires some form of technique in 99% of all recipes. Even boiling pasta requires knowing to stir, how much to stir, how to drain the pasta without getting stuff everywhere. Then tossing it with sauce or whatever.

I can cook without recipes but at some level I'm just operating off recipes that I've memorized, even if I'm merging components from different recipes. If you hand me a fennel bulb and say "don't waste it" I'm going to prepare the fennel in accordance with a previously successful recipe (or avoid failed ones) and not just toss it on the BBQ.
 
beje said:
It's very simple: think about something you'd really like to eat (pork, beef, avocado, salmon, rice...) then google it + recipe. Surf through the results until you find one that suits your abilities and you'll feel confortable trying.

I learned how to make dozens of things this way.
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I don't know about Android platforms but Epicurious has a really good iPhone app that lets you select from a lot of ingredients, set a lot of parameters, and flip through the recipes.
 
agrajag said:
A hot pocket comes already cooked. You're just reheating it.
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Now you're just being willfully dense. By your own definition, you are still "heat-treating [a] food item[.]" Hot pockets are pre-cooked, but they come to you frozen. Conceptually, there is little difference between a pre-cooked, frozen hot pocket and a non-pre-cooked, frozen food item. You still need to apply heat to it for a set amount of time.

Since the hot pocket example apparently doesn't fit your guidelines, feel free to come up with your own conceptually similar example. The point still stands that it is clearly not what the OP was referring to when he asked about people who "can't cook."
 
SnakeXs said:
This argument against cost is the one that's really getting to me.

I guarantee in 99% of the cases that you can easily cook for cheaper than ordering/eating out. Up front cost may be a tiiiny bit more (getting basic spices), and if you compare going shopping once to ordering once yes ordering is cheaper, but for the cost of ordering once you can buy ingredients to cook enough to last 3, 4, 5 meals. Your net gain food:money wise is huge. The only challenge is self control since you're not looking at an empty styrofoam container which tells you you're done eating.

And chances are the places that are super cheap, well, you're getting what you pay for. Either cheap ingredients, or very limiting to your diet.

Nothing against ordering and stuff, but surviving on it just hurts my head.
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i don't think anyone's saying it's cheaper to order/eat out than to cook...
 
SnakeXs said:
This argument against cost is the one that's really getting to me.

I guarantee in 99% of the cases that you can easily cook for cheaper than ordering/eating out. Up front cost may be a tiiiny bit more (getting basic spices), and if you compare going shopping once to ordering once yes ordering is cheaper, but for the cost of ordering once you can buy ingredients to cook enough to last 3, 4, 5 meals. Your net gain food:money wise is huge. The only challenge is self control since you're not looking at an empty styrofoam container which tells you you're done eating.

And chances are the places that are super cheap, well, you're getting what you pay for. Either cheap ingredients, or very limiting to your diet.

Nothing against ordering and stuff, but surviving on it just hurts my head.
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I had to quit ordering out all the time and learn to cook because my gf and I couldn't afford it anymore. The initial investment in groceries was hefty, since we had basically nothing, but once you have some base ingredients in place, it's a lot cheaper than the $10-$40 a day eating out was.
 
beje said:
It's very simple: think about something you'd really like to eat (pork, beef, avocado, salmon, rice...) then google it + recipe. Surf through the results until you find one that suits your abilities and you'll feel confortable trying.

I learned how to make dozens of things this way.
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Yeah, I guess. I've started to take the free food-magazines from the supermarket. It's actually quite good, over a hundred pages of food recipes, advice, etc, every month or so. I'll just start with those. :)
 
I can cook, and when I dedicate time to it I can make some pretty excellent dishes.

The problem is more laziness. I sometimes work upwards of 14 hours in a day, and after that, the last thing I really want to do is spend more than 5 minutes to cook something. As a result I end up doing the McDonalds/Panda Express or heating up something frozen more often than I'd like.

When I used to work less I used to spend an hour a night sometimes making dishes.
 
speaking of bbq we're approaching one of my favorite times of the year for cooking. love bbqing. those who like using the microwave, how would you get by if the power went out or something? cooking can also be a means of survival in it's most basic form.

i had a girlfriend who couldnt cook once. i couldn't imagine being raised on microwaved food.
 
Zachack said:
The division you were trying to make earlier doesn't actually exist because following a recipe to the letter still requires some form of technique in 99% of all recipes. Even boiling pasta requires knowing to stir, how much to stir, how to drain the pasta without getting stuff everywhere. Then tossing it with sauce or whatever.
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Sure, every meal you cook requires some level of direction, but I refuse to believe that people who say they "can't cook" don't know how to stir and drain pasta. I think it is safe to attribute an average level of intelligence to the people in these hypotheticals.

That's why I think people who say, "I can't cook", actually mean that they just don't like to cook (be it because of laziness, time constraints, etc), or they are applying a definition to the word "cook" that is more complex and involved than it needs to be. That's the distinction I was trying to make. Are we really to believe that "I can't cook" is synonymous with "I can't follow a set of simple directions?"
 
Crovax33 said:
I can cook, and when I dedicate time to it I can make some pretty excellent dishes.

The problem is more laziness. I sometimes work upwards of 14 hours in a day, and after that, the last thing I really want to do is spend more than 5 minutes to cook something. As a result I end up doing the McDonalds/Panda Express or heating up something frozen more often than I'd like.

When I used to work less I used to spend an hour a night sometimes making dishes.
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Same here - although I'd never classify my dishes as excellent. But I can do a good chicken meal, some green-beans on the skillet, garlic bread, etc.

But I work 930 - 6. Then I come home and need to work for at least 5 hours on my second job. Absolute last thing I want to do is cook. The only reason I would would be to keep me awake and give myself a second wind between the 1st job and the 2nd.
 
I cook for 1 reason: leftovers. People here saying they don't cook cuz they don't have the time??? WTF? Not everything needs to be slow cooked for 10 hrs with 10 different sauces. 20 minutes and you can make a meal that will feed you multiple times in a week. Ends up saving time since I don't have to worry about goin out every damn night. How is eating out faster? If it's not mcdonalds then you will wait about as long

To me, not knowing how to cook is not an option. It's like not knowing how to tie your shoes.... I guess you could love your sandals to death and say that's all you need but come on. It's not that difficult, and if you think it is then you are doin it wrong. Not knowing how to cook usually equates to eating unhealthy (like the majority of fat ass Americans) and wasting money, which I guess you could defend but why the fuck would you

That said, I always get scared when I stray too far from recipes. Not enough knowledge about ingredients to improvise yet. But steaks, stuffed mushrooms, tacos, chicken breast, steamed veggies, rice, ... All easy as fuck. This should be forced taught in schools. Much more important and life shaping than fuckin calculus
 
adversesolutions said:
A handy list of reasons I don't cook.

・I get off work every day around 10, and biking home there's about 100 different places to eat. Am I supposed to wait until I'm all the way home to eat up?
・The fucking grocery store is 10 minutes away walking, 5 by bike. TOO FAR. I guarantee you that were it just around the corner I would do a lot more cooking.
・I do not cook for the same reason I don't play RE games. I can't manage resources! Horrible at it. Ok, so I bought some onions, they smell good. In five days they're fucking done for because I didn't plan out my meals. FUUUUUUUUU. I have enough pressure at work to worry about before coming up with a "list" and a "meal plan". NO.
・Lazy. K bored of making a list.
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:lol

10 minute walk is a fucking luxury. But the 10pm comment makes a lot more sense, if you have to wake up early than you don't want to spend the hour or two you have free in the kitchen...

edit: When I move out this summer I'm going to force myself to cook. I'm really really cheap and will do anything to avoid paying high prices for prepared meals. Also, would you guys really dump a girl for not knowing how to cook? Isn't that a bit ridiculous in 2010?
 
I cook about 4 times a week and survive on leftovers, sandwiches, grilled meat + boiled veggies, etc. the rest of the time. I'm a lousy chef, but I have about 9 - 10 stir fries I do, a few awesome meatsauce recipes for my spaghetti, a whole host of lovely ways to cook meats, springs rolls, soups made from leftovers, etc.... mmmm...

90% of what I make requires between 15 - 30 mins tops, and most are super low maintenance. For example, if you have some leftover beef from a few nights ago, chop it up and make a stew out of it. You have to wait a couple hours for best results, but there's very little effort involved. Or if you want a selection of great tasting meat, put some ribs, beef, chicken, etc. in a big pot with an assortment of spices, let it sit overnight, and then cook it at 170 over the course of a day... it will taste amazing. If you're in a rush, you can make a stir fry in like 10 mins with some frozen veggies, defrosted meat, and a frying pan. and so on...

Just keep it simple, and there are a million things you can make in relatively little time that taste great, are nutritious, and keep you from getting bored with the same old foods.

I think everyone should cook, even if they can't cook much (like me). It's a good skill to have, and it doesn't take long to learn a few easy recipes.
 
beje said:
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 7PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
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Agreed. I just wish I didn't eat $100 of food every week :(
 
beje said:
I'm baffled at the complaint that the groceries is at a 10 minute walk O_o

What are you? Morbid fatasses? You only have to do the shopping like once a week. And I only spend like 20€ a week on food, enough for having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday in a healthy way.

And don't think I really have that much time, as I work from 9:30AM to 7PM. Enough to have time to do the shopping, socializing, cooking, videogames, do some sports and sometimes I even have some spare time to be a lazy fuck in the sofa.

How the civilization hasn't already collapsed is something beyond my understanding.
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This thread scares me. People who never cook and think a 10 minute walk is too far.

Man, I consider myself lazy as hell and I still cook like 3-4 times a week and think my 15 min walk to the store is nothing.

Future said:
I cook for 1 reason: leftovers. People here saying they don't cook cuz they don't have the time??? WTF? Not everything needs to be slow cooked for 10 hrs with 10 different sauces. 20 minutes and you can make a meal that will feed you multiple times in a week. Ends up saving time since I don't have to worry about goin out every damn night. How is eating out faster? If it's not mcdonalds then you will wait about as long
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Yep. Some people must have crazy food expenses. I can cook, eat and get leftovers for another 2-3 dinners for the same money, or cheaper, that I could eat out once.

Cooking can be fun too, especially when you start getting comfortable with the dishes you make and can start experimenting a bit. I like the feeling of eating something I've made with my bare hands, it's 2nd only to eating something you've killed with your bare hands.
And don't nobody say they "don't know how". You can't paint by numbers either?
 
Suitcase Test said:
I want to learn to get better though. I my opinion, it's just not "real" cooking yet. Anyone have any recommendations? Where to start, what kinds of dishes, what to know?
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Find someone to help you. Your relatives, a cooking class.. hell, you can even ask a friend to teach you how to cook if you provide the ingredients or something. Make a point to do this regularly.

The reason I suggest this is because it's very helpful to have some kind of mentor to correct your technique on the fly, and it's always good to learn from person who has years of experience. Learning from recipes is great if there's no one to help you, but it can be difficult when you're just starting out to get a feel for what's "right" and what's "wrong" just from a few words on paper and a picture.

I recommend this to even experienced cooks, but especially for those of you just starting out, there is nothing wrong with using a meat thermometer to tell when your meat's done. Seriously. It is the most reliable way of knowing when your meat is safe to eat without cooking it to a crisp. Look up safe cooking temperatures online, buy a digital thermometer ($15 at Target), and you'll always be confident that your meat is cooked to a good temperature. If you like your meat rare, a thermometer won't help, but aside from that, a meat thermometer is one of the most useful tools you can have in the kitchen.

(As an aside, USDA research has shown that 25% of burgers turn brown before it has reached the recommended temperature of 160 F. Food for thought.)
 
GatorBait said:
Now you're just being willfully dense. By your own definition, you are still "heat-treating [a] food item[.]" Hot pockets are pre-cooked, but they come to you frozen. Conceptually, there is little difference between a pre-cooked, frozen hot pocket and a non-pre-cooked, frozen food item. You still need to apply heat to it for a set amount of time.

Since the hot pocket example apparently doesn't fit your guidelines, feel free to come up with your own conceptually similar example. The point still stands that it is clearly not what the OP was referring to when he asked about people who "can't cook."
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No, conceptually there is a lot of difference between a hot pocket and a non-cooked food item. When you cook something, you alter the composition of the object.

i have no dea where you found all the stuff n the OP. He was simply making a comparison between putting together a sandwich vs. preparng a hot meal. The rest is your magnaton.
 
Cooking has a large barrier to entry for people that have already "grown up" but never learned how to.

  • what equipment you need. a kitchen set has like 93247982724 pieces to it. there's like 3908530 kinds of knives, measurement tools, pans pots dish sizes, etc.
  • you have to go out and purchase specific ingredients for whatever you're making
  • you have to have recipes. imagine finding one recipe, going out and buying the ingredients, making it, but at the end of the day that's the only thing you can make because to make something else you need other ingredients.

That's why it's tough for people to get off their ass and learn to cook. Because you could really just go out and pick from a million different things to eat without bothering with any of the above three steps.

So...

I would like to learn how to cook. Can someone recommend:
  1. What equipment I need, preferably with links to exactly what the thing looks like.
  2. What the basic, general, fits-all-recipes ingredients I need. Even basic things like pepper or cheeses.
  3. Some good recipes.
 
If you're a grown person and you can't cook then yes, i will look down on you. Just about everything that has made my generation of americans look bad can be paralleled in the kitchen.

You eat 3 to 5 times a day. You spend on average 2 hours a day just eating. It's like being a grown person and not knowing how to sleep, get your boogie on or how to brush your teeth. It's so fundamental that it is a part of who you are. If you can't cook for yourself, you obviously have no interest in yourself. Where the hell have you been your whole life? Then what happens next? Well, those lazy people have children and now they can't properly feed them. They'll be unhealthy and fat by age 5. Wonderful. How selfish. And those kids will have kids and know even less about food, etc.

Lazy
Uneducated
Selfish
Indulgent
Indifferent

America in kitchen = America outside kitchen
 
Only one reason not to cook: Laziness.

It's a valid reason, but it's also a valid reason for me to think less of you.
 
agrajag said:
No, conceptually there is a lot of difference between a hot pocket and a non-cooked food item. When you cook something, you alter the composition of the object.

i have no dea where you found all the stuff n the OP. He was simply making a comparison between putting together a sandwich vs. preparng a hot meal. The rest is your magnaton.
Click to expand...
Yes, you're right, the alteration in chemical composition of food after applying heat is completely relevant to this thread.[/sarcasm] Taken straight from the OP: "How can someone not know how to cook?" Do you really think he means, "How can someone not know how to apply heat to food?"
 
Korey said:
Cooking has a large barrier to entry for people that have already "grown up" but never learned how to.

  • what equipment you need. a kitchen set has like 93247982724 pieces to it. there's like 3908530 kinds of knives, measurement tools, pans pots dish sizes, etc.
  • you have to go out and purchase specific ingredients for whatever you're making
  • you have to have recipes. imagine finding one recipe, going out and buying the ingredients, making it, but at the end of the day that's the only thing you can make because to make something else you need other ingredients.

That's why it's tough for people to get off their ass and learn to cook. Because you could really just go out and pick from a million different things to eat without bothering with any of the above three steps.

So...

I would like to learn how to cook. Can someone recommend:
  1. What equipment I need, preferably with links to exactly what the thing looks like.
  2. What the basic, general, fits-all-recipes ingredients I need. Even basic things like pepper or cheeses.
  3. Some good recipes.
Click to expand...

You need a skillet type pan for frying, a medium pot for veggies or the like, and a large pot for soups and their ilk. Broiling pan is pretty essential too, for roasting chicken and other meats. I suggest to go to goodwill or something and pick some up for cheap. That's what I have. You don't need a billion types of knives, a simple chef knife like this one will work fine:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000638D32/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I always have chicken in my freezer for roasting, potatoes and onions as the basics in my house. On a simple day I will throw the chicken on the broiling pan run on some seasoning, poke holes in the potatos and cook them in the oven for an hour on 350 for a roast chicken and baked potato dinner. The time spent in the kitchen for this is just 5 minutes.

Also being mexican, rice and beans as a basic food are a must.
 
Korey said:
Cooking has a large barrier to entry for people that have already "grown up" but never learned how to.

  • what equipment you need. a kitchen set has like 93247982724 pieces to it. there's like 3908530 kinds of knives, measurement tools, pans pots dish sizes, etc.
  • you have to go out and purchase specific ingredients for whatever you're making
  • you have to have recipes. imagine finding one recipe, going out and buying the ingredients, making it, but at the end of the day that's the only thing you can make because to make something else you need other ingredients.

That's why it's tough for people to get off their ass and learn to cook. Because you could really just go out and pick from a million different things to eat without bothering with any of the above three steps.

So...

I would like to learn how to cook. Can someone recommend:
  1. What equipment I need, preferably with links to exactly what the thing looks like.
  2. What the basic, general, fits-all-recipes ingredients I need. Even basic things like pepper or cheeses.
  3. Some good recipes.
Click to expand...

You are overcomplicating things to the extreme. You only need:

- ONE good knife
- cutting board
- mixing bowl
- whisk
- stainless steel saute pan, non-stick saute pan, cast iron saute pan
- medium sized pot
- peeler
- a pantry stock of useful items that are useful for almost every dish such as: onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, garlic, olive oil, canola/peanut/sunflower/vegetable oil
- dry goods: a spice rack (just salt and pepper can go a very long way), dry pasta, rice, etc.

Of course if you want to start doing more complex stuff you can get more advanced equipment. But all that stuff is excess, and you don't *need* it in order to make delicious, home-cooked meals.

Look, i cook for a living, and these are the things i bring to work every day: chef knife, peeler, paring knife (that's a small pocket-sized knife that's convenient for small jobs) a pair of kitchen sheers and a steel (a steel rod used to hone your knife). That's the equipment i use 90% of the time.
 
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