Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

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francovendee
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Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by francovendee »

Reading MickF's thread on food waste made me think about cooking.
I lived at home with my mother until getting married. I had never learnt to cook and my wife did the cooking and I did the washing up.
We parted some years later and for the first time I had no one cooking my my meals.
After a short time living on toast and baked beans I thought I'd better start to learn to cook.
To say I didn't have a clue sums it up.
I remember one of the first things I tried was frying eggs and bacon. The bacon was fine but I'd fried the egg on a high heat and the white was crisp.
I found that I enjoyed cooking and although I'm a basic cook I do 90% of the meals.
My speciallity is curry and among the ex pats our invites to dine are well received.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by al_yrpal »

Yes, I learned about 30 years ago when my Mrs broke her ankle and couldnt stand in the kitchen. I was running my business at that time and found cooking after work very relaxing. In our new marriage I still do most of the cooking but Eileen is a very traditional eater and fancy or foreign food is not her favourite. I dont usually cook curries from scratch because of the availability of excellent preprepared sauces. I did write down a list of what I can cook...

Bolognese
Chilli con Carne
Liver and Bacon
Chicken Raz al Hanout sweet potatoes
Mushroom rissoto
Fish Pie
Lamb Chops
Pork Chirozo and chick peas
Steak and chips
Pork chops
Sausage and Pasta
Sausage and lentil lash up
Curry with sauce
Cottage Pie
Shepherds Pie 
Aldi Thai Fishcakes
Nice Pies
Chicken new potatoes and salad
Hake with rice
Beef Florentine
Lamb Tagine
Roast beef dinner
Corned beef hash
Pizza
Lasagne
Paella
Tomato soup
Carrot and red lentil tomato soup
Potage bonne femme
Belly Pork
Duck
Sausage and Mash
Beef casserole
Lamb Shanks
Gammon knuckle
Moules Mariniere
Thai from scratch
Cornish Pasties

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Pendodave
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by Pendodave »

Started cooking when we moved into pour first house aged 25. Had never done any before, but wasn't too hard to get going.

Most egregious error was not knowing the difference between a clove/bulb of garlic. Blood didn't clot for a week...

Still not really got my head around cakes/pasty though.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by Oldjohnw »

I started cooking when my wife died 38 years ago and I had a toddler. Modest beginnings and now full circle to modest again.

I like European peasant one pot food with good fresh ingredients. I make soup once or twice a week, make my own fish cakes (fresh fish and potatoes from Waitrose are much cheaper than prepared Aldi fish cakes :) ) A rainy afternoon and batch cooking fills the freezer.

I keep a supply of home ground curry spices mix ready to add to things or make into a sauce.
John
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by Vorpal »

My brother and I both learned to cook from a pretty young age. My parents split when I was very young, and my mother worked full time, so we learned to do stuff like heat a can of soup as soon as we could use the cooker safely. Helping with preparation; cutting stuff up, washing stuff, etc. pretty much from the time we were tall enough to use the work surface or the table & able to handle the stuff required to do it. My mother also took us fishing a lot (it saved on food shopping & entertained us at the same time), but she really disliked butchering the fish, so we did that, too (an uncle taught us).

My mother didn't discriminate & I think my brother turned out to be the better cook. My mother was genius at making something decent out of a hodge podge of leftovers, though, and I seem to have inherited some of that capability.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
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Mick F
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by Mick F »

Our mum was a Home Economics teacher, eventually head of department. Wigan Girls High School (as was).
Dad cooked too, so we were brought up cooking.
Cannot even remember when I first made a meal, but it must have been maybe when I was 12 or 13, perhaps 14.
Mick F. Cornwall
CliveyT
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by CliveyT »

I can't remember a time when I wasn't capable of making something, but I think I developed when I was at University and realized that you don't have to follow a recipe, sometimes because you don't have all the ingredients but also it can be fun to make things up and try something.Nowadays I have a couple of shelves of recipe books, but they are all for ideas, I don't think I've ever followed one of them completely.
Mrs T is a coeliac, born in a time when knowledge of the condition was sparse at least, and when food labeling was appalling. She's always had to make things from scratch and even though there is now safe food out there, that's still what we do 90% of the time
reohn2
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by reohn2 »

I have to admit that at 68 I've rarely cooked,though I'd like to Mrs R2 a fiercely independent lady won't let me.
That said I can see a time in the not too distant when I'll have to as her disability(Parkison's disease) worsens,I feel pretty confident that I'll pick it up quickly though.
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Bonefishblues
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by Bonefishblues »

As long as I can remember tbh, including as a pretty young child. I do most of the household's cooking - life's less stressful that way :wink:
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simonineaston
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by simonineaston »

Key Q. in today's modern world of convenience & I-want-it-now. I started learning while at home - I think the first proto-cooking I did was for cubs - you got a badge for showing you could make a cuppa and toast, I think. Later I simply inherited an interest in food & cooking from my parents - I still have some of my mum's cook books, Elizabeth David, Egon Ronay, that sort of thing.
After I left home, I signed up for an temp agency and got a lot of work in local kitchens, as pot wash (kitchen porter), in and around Harrow, inc some places where Jay Rayner & his family would have visited- they lived nearby... didn't know that then of course. Worked in a private squash club which had a supper room attached and got to know the chef there quite well and got a few basic skills off of him. Then moved into a flat where one of the other tenants was big into food and so we cooked a lot together, Madhur Jaffry's famous book for the BBC being a great favourite. Between us we must have cooked every single recipe several times.
By then, several of the gang either worked at, or were dating nurses who lived at Northwick Park Hospital, so anyone who could cook was popular and there was a kitchen on each floor of the nurses' residences. Party Time !! The rest is a bit of blur, I'm afraid...
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peetee
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by peetee »

Yes I do. Although others think I do a reasonable job I find that my own fare is often rather bland. I have had it mentioned that this is a common observation by cooks so maybe it’s not that bad after all.
I am learning all the time and one of the things is struggle with is how long to let things cook or simmer for. Some recipes are improved with longer in the pan and others not so.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
PH
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by PH »

I think there's too much snobbishness on the subject, anyone who want to cook can cook, it's 99% following a set of simple instructions, I don't differentiate between cooking some raw ingredients or roast potatoes out the freezer. One of my favorite cook books of recent times is Jack Monroe's Tin Can Cook, it's a refreshing change to some of the pretentious twaddle I've come across. I hardly cooked as a kid, it was considered women's work, which is a shame as I'd have much preferred it to my chores. Though I'd already been cooking for twenty years, I learnt much from the Delia Smith books, the ones derided for starting out with how to boil an egg (Though I've had boiled eggs where the cook would have benefited from reading it) I'd still recommend them to anyone who wants a grounding in what works and why, and Delia isn't shy of taking the easy option when there is one.
Maybe the question ought to be if you're a good cook and that might best be answered by a third party. I know what I like, (Lots of simple veg) and how to prepare it the way I like, if I'm cooking for others I'm more likely to follow a recipe or stick to well tried staples.
Some people are geniuses with food, an understanding that allows creativity beyond anything I've achieved save for a couple of accidents. I think I've met one, or maybe two.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by al_yrpal »

I have a couple of Delia books. I have noticed that her recipes often have glaring mistakes. My favourite Chef is Ainsley, his recipes often have strong flavours which I like. His Meals in Minutes stuff works - Shepherds Pie in 30 minutes! Ainsleys BBQ Bible is excellent. All possibly out of print but available s/h from Amazon.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
francovendee
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by francovendee »

I was educated in a school where the classes separated. Boys went to do woodwork and the girls domestic science.
Many strange ideas then, didn't anyone consider boys might need to be able to cook and girls cut a piece of wood?
Part of me misses how some things were, but in other ways it's miles better today.
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661-Pete
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Re: Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

Post by 661-Pete »

Emphatically - 'yes' - and I hope this doesn't sound like a boast. I suppose I learnt in my student days - once I discovered there was a better alternative to Vesta curries. This was to question a Pakistani fellow student about - yes! - how to make a decent curry. He duly provided me with a detailed recipe (which we still use, albeit minus the meat) and pointed out Asian shops where I could get the various spices.

It's quite possible that lots of people start off with a curry. It's the obvious thing that young folks want to learn about.

I think there are a few basics you need to master. One is chopping onions: not entirely intuitive and the cause of many sliced fingers! Another is making an omelette: I do a passable omelette but it'd never satisfy the likes of Masterchef or Michel Roux ... no matter, we like it! And thirdly, cooking rice without it congealing into a gooey mess (note: this does not apply to risotto or sushi rice which are meant to be sticky).

Next: I'm fully aware that this is not the right solution to the Climate crisis, but we much prefer cooking on our gas hob. Electric 'simmerstat' type hobs won't produce anything like as good a result, especially with something like Béchamel (white sauce). [did I mention Béchamel as another skill a budding Masterchef needs to master? Quite difficult].

Induction hob? Never tried one - would welcome comments since we may invest in one if the gas one needs changing out.

I'm much impressed with Al's comprehensive list (you could open a restaurant with that lot Al!) - and a surprising amount of overlap with our own recipe list - especially seeing as ours is meat-free.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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