Step 2: read the ingredient list again. Carefully this time. Confirm that you actually have them, not just that you think you do. Go to store to pick up the ones you don’t, or turn to a recipe that matches what you have.
Ok as long as you include a thirty page preamble which takes the reader on the goddamn emotional journey about why you thought you needed to write a cookbook first.
That's part of the "mise en place" before you begin your ingredients prep and cooking. Make it sound sophisticated by using French. That's how it's done 🤣
“Step 2: spend 30 minutes gathering ingredients because you didn’t have them ready or actually know what you’re supposed to use, you’ve only looked at the ingredients list once”
Omg! Yes! My husband just starts the minute he takes food out of the grocery bag or freezer. No prep. Like putting away clean dishes so the dishes don't get chicken goo on them. Or wiping the counter for a clean surface for the chopping boards, etc! Drives me crazy.
I love to cook or bake. I don't like the clean up, but I do cleanup after every meal. Sometimes I clean up before I even sit down to eat the meal I just cooked. This way everything is clean when I take a notion for cooking 😂 Then fight myself to clean up afterward lol
Check that you have all the ingredients before you start. Yes, actually physically check. Don’t just assume. Are you really really 100% sure you have tomato purée?
I have a friend who loves washing dishes. he sees it as a chill activity that doesn't require brain power. which makes sense to me, but also I cannot relate at all
so i have a dishwasher but never use it, mostly because i never have enough dirty dishes to make me feel justified in using the dishwasher when it takes all of 5 minutes to do by hand
well, i immediately take that back. i do understand that it can be meditative, and maybe provide a sense of accomplishment. but I could never keep up if i didn't use my dishwasher
Arriving home on a Friday night after a crazy week:
Step One: Stove cleared off/oven cleared out
Step Two: Find a clean pot or pan and cutting board.
Step Three: While food is cooking--empty then refill dishwasher
my friend found an old cookbook called something like "How to host a dinner party on the Main Line" (Main Line is an Old Money area outside of Philadelphia ) and the instructions were all like "Have the maid procure a chicken"
Step 2: pour a glass of wine.
Step 4: check the pan again and make sure nothing is burning
Step 6: don't sit down and watch the TV...stir the dish... don't let it burn
Step 8: Put your phone down and check the food isn't burning.
I Hate To Cook Book
Excerpt:
Brown the garlic, onion, and crumbled beef in the oil.
Add the flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.
I really loved the recipe that started with "check the oven for pots and pans" before the preheating instructions. My mom was a store-things-in-the-oven sort, so I learned to check first anyway :)
Stay organized, get everything you need prepped before you start cooking, and learn to clean while you cook. Makes a huge difference in clean up time after your meal.
The cook time is generally fairly accurate. It’s the prep time that’s fucked. It assumes your kitchen is clean and you have everything at hand (and be real, we don’t have everything at hand!)
Step 2: wash your hands. I have also never completed the step "turn into a greased pan." I try, but I've never even come close to turning myself into a greased plan. I can, however, turn myself into a complete, dithering idiot.
I am a 75 yr old with a 72 yr old better half. I had a restaurant for 2 yrs, but will never again make food commercially. I clean the kitchen AS i cook.
I think it was King Arthur Flour, who has some great but difficult recipes, once explained that the prep time doesn't actually include measuring. I'm like, do you realize that my sous chef has forever off today?
Omg! This is the premise of my reality tv show. First round includes cleaning the space, washing the dishes/cutting boards/knives… THEN you tackle the random ingredients left in the fridge to start cooking. The cream would really rise to the top
A cookbook that told me upfront how many dishes I’d have to do and how long it would take me + how dirty the surfaces would get for the not-physically-gifted would have a lifelong user.
Gonna do the Taking Shit Serious thing here and say that it has been 100% worth it to learn how to stack stuff in the kitchen in just the right way so I can get to a burner or the oven or whatever to make dinner without having to clean up first
My boyfriend is a chef. Literally every dish in the house gets used every time he cooks. And we do a lot of one pot meals, so it's extremely confusing.
1. Check you have the ingredients.
2. Run down to the supermarket in a panic.
3. Modify the recipe because supermarket didn't have 'that item' and convince yourself it won't really matter.
Comments
step 4: once again 45 minutes deep into a Wikipedia rabbit hole about the bubonic plague
1. Sauté the shrimp you just spent two hours de-veining.
it might be ingrained catholic guilt
but washing dishes is my least favorite chore, even laundry is better!
Step One: Stove cleared off/oven cleared out
Step Two: Find a clean pot or pan and cutting board.
Step Three: While food is cooking--empty then refill dishwasher
Step 4: check the pan again and make sure nothing is burning
Step 6: don't sit down and watch the TV...stir the dish... don't let it burn
Step 8: Put your phone down and check the food isn't burning.
And as soon as I am done with any utensil or cookware it goes directly into the dishwasher.
Excerpt:
Brown the garlic, onion, and crumbled beef in the oil.
Add the flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.
Clear enough space to start.
Please.
Prep prep time: 2 hours.”
Step 6: ask the kid to put the plates back in the cupboard
Step 8: yes those veggies are washed thoroughly enough, time for the 3yo to put them in another bowl
...
Step 78: you know what ordering sushis wasn't a bad idea
1-Clean
2-mise en place
3-cook
4-eat
5-clean again
2. Run down to the supermarket in a panic.
3. Modify the recipe because supermarket didn't have 'that item' and convince yourself it won't really matter.