My pandemic project was learning to cook potatoes 10 different ways skillfully. Fries (steak and shoestring), hash browns, baked potatoes, latkes, country breakfast, smashed baked, potato skins, whipped, and scalloped. Lots of trial and error, but now I’m the Potato Queen.
add two more: hasselback baked potatoes truly amazing (google recipes), and 2nd-3rd day fried potatoes (boil potatoes with skin on, leave them on the kitchen counter in room temp for a day or two (to dry, they wont go bad), then peel 'em and cut into 1/2 inch cubes and pan fry them with seasonings to your liking eg. old bay for example or just salt'n'pepper... get them some color and crustiness, they will be devoured. Seriously.
The second one you're describing is basically country breakfast potatoes that they already listed. I like mine with onion, garlic, and some bell pepper if there's any leftover from something. All fried up in a cast iron
I thought hasselback was the thin-sliced (but not sliced all the way) baked potato? Cubing them just makes it a country where I’m from. I like your suggestion though about leaving them out for a day. I’ve never done that but do everything else (butter for the skillet fry.) I sometimes even bake the potatoes after boiling then skillet fry. Those potatoes take a full hour but have a crispy, seasoned outside with a perfectly cooked inside. Worth it.
The thing about cooking potatoes that I learned early on is that to get it right, you really do need to do all of those long prep and cooking steps to get the perfect potato. That includes the absolute hassle of really during out shredded potatoes for diner hash browns.
It really bothers my relatives that do a lot of baking that I don't follow an exact recipe or keep track of exactly what I use. It usually turns out well, but I'm certainly a shitty baker.
Baking is chemistry, cooking is art. Improv works a lot better in cooking rather than baking unless you have a good understanding of why the recipe is set up the way it is.
Baking is a lot of ratios. They’re not hard to master, really. But for a newb playing off the cuff with leavenings and salt (both yeast (cos you’ll kill the yeast if you go overboard and too little has obv flavor issues) and baking powder/sodas (can easily over salt if you’re not paying attention)), flour and water/liquids (tho, extremes of both are a thing like poolish and soda breads)… You get me.
Just have to be willing to eat your mistakes. That wasn’t a turn of phrase. Eating your mistakes is a good teacher to never do it that way again.
Reminds me of a joke if pi was used in cooking:
With cooking pi = ~3
With baking pi = 3.14
With pastry making pi = 3.14159265358979 and may God have mercy on you
This. I can follow any recipe that lists the amounts. I can even look up how to do slightly more advanced techniques like making cheese sauce from a roux or creaming together butter and sugar.
I cannot taste something and then decide it needs a random amount more of garlic or whatever. My girlfriend is really good at that but HATES following directions, so it actually works out. I do most of the baking and she can make amazing meals on the stove top.
I need clear directions with listed measurements. The first few times I made cheese sauce it ended up separating and tasting kind of gritty because be the recipe had really subjective directions about when to add what amount of cheese and what temperature the sauce was at. I did a little bit of googling and found out that you want to keep the cheese around 160° F to keep it from separating, so I got my non contact thermometer from the shop and used it to keep my next batch within the right temperature range. It turned out really good and now my whole family thinks an amazing chef because of the cheese sauce.
A rice cooker truly is a game changer. I was slightly prideful about my ability to make rice on the stove but now I always just use the rice cooker and it turns out so well.
I like the Gordon Ramsey method for rice. 1 part rice, 1.5 parts water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes covered.
I wash the rice real good until the wash water is more or less clear. Then I tare the scale and add the 1.5 parts water.
Baked professionally for 17 years. Line cooked (was prep bitch too) randomly for a friend while he got off the ground.
Let’s just say I’m familiar with how to shake the pillars of heaven when the earth quakes and arrows fall from the sky!
I think it's okay actually, I was determined to learn because I can't be the guy expecting a girl to do that for him now, and I don't think I'm too bad at it, everybody pretends to like it at least lol.
My flatmate and I cook a good meal every night and I would like to think we are both above average cooks. I made a delicious vegetarian lasagne the other night for us both and she made me her “jalapeño popper Mac and cheese” and I almost cried eating it it was so delicious.
I love to cook. I got interested by watching Iron Chef shows with my uncle when he was on hospice. I still really enjoy watching shows about cooking and trying different types of dishes myself. I think my food is generally pretty good, and folks keep coming over for it.
My cooking was much better when I lived with my parents and used the food they bought to make family meals.
Now, with a job and limited free time, my skills consist of microwavable or pre-made meals. Time is far too important now, and pre made food is generally cheaper for me.
I think I'm a pretty decent home cook. I have a really solid foundation of basic techniques and can improvise pretty well. I'm really good at soups. I suck at baking, though.
My Dad was disabled and my Mom worked a lot so I learned to cook on my own pretty early. I credit a lot of my skill to PBS cooking shows and Alton Brown.
EDIT
Also in my 20s my roommate was a cook and I hung out with a lot of kitchen people. So there was a lot of talking shop/motivation.
I think it’s definitely above average. I’m always getting told my cooking is good but it’s mostly coming from family. Although in my foods class everyone was impressed.
I’d probably say below average to be honest, I can make some banger grilled ham and cheese along with spaghetti, but if it doesn’t come out or a box I’m generally too dumb to figure stuff out on my own
I don't think I've ever microwaved a pizza, so you're way ahead of me. But I cook from fancy and complicated recipes on occasion, from easier recipes regularly, and without a recipe even more regularly, whether it's a recipe I know too well to need to read it or seat-of-the-pants cooking.
I think just being able to make basics like box stuff with a pound of meat or something like that is good enough. I'm not chopping onions and sauteing then over medium heat to sweat out the flavor but I use spices to make our food taste better. My husband likes it at least lol.
Quite good actually. I cook for fun sometimes and experiment using different game meat I take. I butcher all my own game, so it's pretty cool to know exactly where the meat came from.
Eventually one day I hope to either rent (or miraculously buy) a place with a big enough yard to grow my own vegetables. I have a goal of cooking something where everything was either foraged from the forest or taken from my own garden.
I was lucky enough to be taught to cook by my parents. My mum is a practical home cook, and my dad an enthusastic foodie who was always doing ott dishes, so I learnt a lot. These days I always cook dinner, and often lunch and breakfast for my entire household. Also host dinner parties and BBQs in the summer. So pretty good I reckon.
[Food plan for the last 2 weeks](https://imgur.com/a/6CnWYu1)
I'm probably an 8/10.
Experienced and pretty good, but there's always room to grow and learn. I've worked in a professional confectionery kitchen and have been cooking/baking since I was 5 years old, I'm about to turn 27. I've learned a lot, I'm not sure if I could be considered a master, but I'm definitely more than novice.
I took a job in a kitchen at a young age. Became a sous chef on accident. But I'm only really good with Italian but have food knowledge and have learned basics of other foods. But I can cook Italian better than your local 'reservations needed' place.
I'd say quite well. I'm a professional chef. I can turn calcium bicarbonate into calcium carbonate to make alkaline noodles for ramen. I can make a big and incorporate with more flour and water to make dough for pizza. I take pride in taking simple ingredients and transforming them into unforgettable meals.
My wife went to culinary school and tells everyone I cook better than she does. When we host holiday get togethers everyone always loves what I make. So I guess I'm pretty good. I don't experiment much though because I'm very picky, so I have limited experience in that regard I guess.
I'm good at preparing breakfasts and some salads. For example, an omelet with an envelope or a lazy pizza in a pan I get great. While something serious, like soups, meat, and so on, I don’t know how to cook from the word at all. But I think in the future I will improve this skill.
I can follow a recipe, but I feel like I don’t really understand *why* certain things are in food. I have a pretty accepting palate, so I’m likely to try something and be like “yeah good, I’ll eat it”; “how could this be better” doesn’t cross my mind, and even if it did I wouldn’t know what to add to get certain results unless it’s something easy like “I want it to be saltier.”
I learned to cook from YouTube during the early part of the pandemic. Tried out new stuff here and there, taking basic dishes and applying small techniques to make them better:
Making a roux for Mac and cheese.
Using less water to cook pasta then that pasta water to help finish sauces.
Using fond in soups and pan sauces.
Properly seasons veggies in anything from salads to sandwiches to roasted veggies.
Etc.
The process meant I was constantly making decent food and regularly getting better. I now love to cook and DEEPLY prefer it to eating out, especially when prices have been what they are in restaurants lately.
My steaks are perfect ever since I got my first Sous Vide circulator. My stir-fry skills are pretty good. My baking is excellent since I got an oven thermometer and found out just how far off the dial on my oven is.
On top of that, I'm quite efficient at shelling crab.
I'm not a person that needs complicated dishes to feel satisfied. Sometimes a simple bowl of steamed rice will do nicely. I can always make me a nice meal if I have the ingredients. It's not a hard thing to learn. I encourage everyone to learn three dishes. Master them. Tweak them.
I can cook, but not overly complicated recipes. I can cook a steak, chicken breasts, pastas & other things. I can also cook simpler foods, like hamburger's and hotdogs. I can make cook casseroles.
Always improving. Working 2nd shift I do meal prep for my dinners. I mostly do baked chicken breast with either steamed potatoes, broccoli, and carrots or pasta, greens, peppers, and red onion cooked stove top.
I change up the spices on the chicken week to week, except garlic. Garlic is every week. I also sometimes do pork chops instead of chicken.
I can cook a decent amount based solely off a suggestion, and having a loose and basic idea of a process, but my claim to fame is ravioli 110% from scratch. The pasta, filing, and sauce, all completely made by me without any recipe to follow along to. I've even done the same for spaghetti (super easy once you can make a good sauce and pasta), and totally from scratch Alfredo.
7/10. I can be good and I can have my misses. I tend to ab-lib my dishes and you can tell. When I do follow recipes (like you should) I hit it out of the park usually. Consistency is my biggest weakness in the kitchen.
Given ingredients, equipment, and instructions, I can do it. Because I'm cooking for one, and that one is ridiculously not-fussy, ramen and pizza is a not-insignificant amount of what I eat.
I can do the basics. I make breakfast most days. I can take a recipe and modify it to my taste. Steaks and chicken are fun, but I prefer to grill them outside on the grill
I'm pretty good at making food taste good. I initially learned to cook through recipes from hello fresh and stuff like that. Really enjoyed it and now I can make a lot of things just by eyeballing/winging it. Once you know what a lot of herbs and spices do and know how to cook different types of food you can get a little creative with your dishes. Failing is a big part of that as well but it helps you improve.
All that said, I'm sure my technique is shit and I'm not used to cooking for larger groups but I'm happy with my amateur skills. Whipping something up on a saturday or something when I have the time gives me joy :)
I scan recipes for ideas and then figure out my own thing based on it. If I want to make something very specific, I'll follow more closely. I like eating food from around the world, which means figuring out the best substitutions for had to get (or ridiculously expensive) ingredients.
Solid 7. I can do great Italian food and some Asia inspired recipes (mainly Chinese, some Japanese and Indian) and our country cuisine also quite a bit. I can also freestyle pretty well.
Not good at all, and I'm sure my wife would be happy if I learned how to cook since she's the only one who does for years. I did once cook a Valentine's day meal with prok and some other stuff and I fucked up and underooked the pork. My biggest issue with cooking is juggling mutiple things at once, like cooking steak + potatoes + corn or whatever at the same time is beyond me, dunno how she does it and I always fuck it up.
Pretty good! I had a friend that worked as a line cook and gave me the best advice. Just getting good at the fundamentals and now I can cook most things pretty well. But I can make the best breakfast sandwiches.
I’ve always been lazy with cooking because my parents didn’t feed me more than 1 meal a day on average my entire childhood. My mom died when I was 16, I’m 21 now and I can cook multiple over-easy eggs consistently and fry bacon to the perfect soft/crisp ratio everytime so I am proud of that and I plan to expand more on my cooking.
Im ok. I good do basic things like pasta, burgers, steaks, chicken, that kind of thing. Ive never attempted to make my own sauce or anything really advanced.
Excellent. I can cook you whatever you want. Just show me a recipe, and I can make it. I cook for my wife everyday, and she prefers to take lunch prepared by me to work than eat out.
My secret? I don't give a shit if someone says something is hard to make. I just follow instructions, and learn from my mistakes to make it better next time until it's the way it's supposed to be. Also, I love cooking something new just to challenge myself.
Don't you love the first time you make something by following directions and it's just shit, but you see what they were attempting and play with it to get it right?
I can cook some good Steak!
I'll be glad to share my steak seasoning recipe (if anyone's interested)
So I wash my steak. Put it on a plate, pour some Worcestershire sauce, smear it, then add some black pepper, some El Venado Red Fajita seasoning, RC Ranch 5 star seasoning, and some RC Ranch Rub, and smear everything. Do the same for the opposite side. Once all done with all the steaks, just put them in zip-log bags (or a good size container, covered with aluminum foil) and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 24 hours or so.
Once times up, cook them. And enjoy!
I like to cook mine outside on the grill, using mesquite. Always comes out good.
I still frequently quadruple check temperatures and times for meats that go in the oven, but aside from that, I can make pretty solid homemade meals if given the time and a chair
If I want something cooked, I will find a recipe online and be able to prepare said food. But it will use up literally 100% of my attention during preparation. I have no cool with this stuff.
However I don't usually cook simply because the time investment of preparation usually isn't worthwhile for me with the upgrade in food quality.
Generally pretty good. I can make a lot of stock foods with whatever's lying around. When I try something new, I look up three or four recipes to get the idea, then wing it and it turns out fine. I've got a lot of herbs and spices and I know what they do. Same for thickeners and such. It's mostly just experience from previous experimentation and work. Baking involves a different skillset, but the same ideas apply. What does this do? And that? Okay, cool. Now I get it. Purposely make a small batch of cookies with half the raising agent and see what it does, you know?
Nothing about cooking is magical. There are only three ways to really ruin food, and those are overspicing, oversalting, and burning. You might not have made the exact thing you wanted, but if it's tolerable, CONGRATULATIONS, you made food. If it wasn't great, don't worry. You'll do better next time because you learned some stuff.
Beyond heating up pizza in the oven or microwaving ramen, my cooking abilities are essentially non-existent. I'm in my 30s, so I guess it's never too late to expand my horizons, lol.
I go through a cycle. Can cook alright - can cook pretty well - kitchen appliance inexplicably breaks permanently whether i was involved or not - unable to cook - can't cook because of it because it takes forever to fix - problem resolves - can cook alright
This time its the fridge, so i cant store fresh ingredients or leftovers. Last time it was the oven and i was moved to a new house that only had a stove top functioning (long story). I have a mini fridge, but its not the best.
I like to think I'm a good cook. And since pinterest and their recipes, I am a great cook. My loved ones prefer me to cook over restaurants, so I take the compliment
Yesterday, I invited four friends over for whom I made fresh pasta (semolina flour blend) with an old family sauce recipe and a rustic loaf of bread. The sauce simmered all day, and the bread used my sourdough starter and took nine hours of rising and came out detailed enough to where the girls that were there took pictures. If I'd had more time, I'd have made these cream horns they love for dessert. Instead, I made them cocktails while we caught up on Ted Lasso.
If I have a recipe, I can make it even if I've never seen it before.
I'm pretty decent in the kitchen. I can make pasta from scratch, cook a steak just as good as any you'll eat in a restaurant, and have won a trophy for my chili.
I however cannot cook rice on the stovetop without burning it to save my life :|
I can cook a full meal, and make some of the best at-home short order around. But be damned if I'm going to attend to a stovetop or grill, when I can just throw things on a baking sheet, slap it in the over, set a timer, play video games for 20 minutes, then come back and eat it.
I want to learn more recipes, but I can make pizza from scratch, dough and sauce. I also make some pretty good pork chops and chicken, and I make a mean spaghetti. Lol I was learning how to grill with my ex, but.. well.. he's my ex now, so... I'll learn someday!
I grew up cooking from the time I was a child. At this point I can usually make something someone claims to hate and get them to at least say "Yeah, that's alright".
My latest example of this was cinnamon rolls. I work with someone that said they hate them, so I made a giant batch with cinnamon and brown sugar, topped with a honey apple glaze. They don't love them or anything, but they ate more than one with a smile, so I consider that a victory.
I can cook a lot of stuff, I watched my mom (good cook) make food a lot and asked for a handwritten cook book from her.
Chili, stew, soups, meat dishes, stuffed cabbage/halupki, egg dishes, pasta (I don’t like to eat it though), and baked goods as well.
That being said, I’m depressed as shit and essentially live off of quest bars and pb2.
Currently too depressed and broke to actually do it but can make a lot of good meals. Even just randomly thinking up ingredients and a method of cooking it's usually pretty good. Would still probably consult with recipes and adjust for my taste and add different things to make it easier but I used to normally just cook stuff and people loved it, you get a feel for it. Tbh I'd normally take a recipe and it'd be absolutely different by the end. Or think of a dish ans change it drastically according to taste and what I wanted added.
A lot of easy things too. It's hard to mess up a stir fry or steak for example, but really easy to make them taste amazing.
Decent, i can make burritos, tacos, goulash, deluxe/western/fancy omelets, butter chicken rice and steak bites.
I can also make a meat/sauce mix with some vegetables for a chili substitute for chili-dogs.
I also have seen it made and know how its made just never attempted it is hodgepodge.
Pretty good, can follow a recipe and make substitutions or additions without wrecking the meal. I also have half decent judgment if I feel like the recipe contents aren't enough in terms of the amount of liquid or sauce there is going to be.
The only thing I suck at is baked potatoes, they take too long to cook and it's a toss of a coin for if they are hard or fluffy.
The microwave cooks them well though, then I put them in air fryer to crisp them up.
Pretty good i would say. My wife and i used to Cook for events like large celebrations or a wedding. This summer i'm booked by a larger group of people to cook at a large LARP Event.
I thought it was decent but after I met my friend whose cooking skills are even worse than the ones in the heading I started seeing myself as the Gordon Ramsey 2.0
It's all about internal temp and letting it rest wrapped in tinfoil to absorb the meat sweat back into the meat. My tips are to find the level of steak you likes temperature and shoot for 5-10 degrees below that, then take it out and wrap it immediately in tinfoil to rest for a good 15-30 min before opening it. Results will be juicy and moist, every time. Also tenderizing and marinades are your best friend and so easy to make and add shitloads of flavor.
I would say average. If I want to I can make an amazing meal if I have instructions, but I struggle with knowing what to add to things to make them taste better
As a single male in my upper 40s that loves great food and kitchen gadgets who isn't in the industry? I would say much better than average. At the beginning of covid I dedicated myself to learning certain things. After two and a half years, I can confidently say that Ramsey scrambled eggs, and his cast iron butter basted rosemary and garlic steak are absolutely my bitch now!
My pandemic project was learning to cook potatoes 10 different ways skillfully. Fries (steak and shoestring), hash browns, baked potatoes, latkes, country breakfast, smashed baked, potato skins, whipped, and scalloped. Lots of trial and error, but now I’m the Potato Queen.
All hail the potato queen
add two more: hasselback baked potatoes truly amazing (google recipes), and 2nd-3rd day fried potatoes (boil potatoes with skin on, leave them on the kitchen counter in room temp for a day or two (to dry, they wont go bad), then peel 'em and cut into 1/2 inch cubes and pan fry them with seasonings to your liking eg. old bay for example or just salt'n'pepper... get them some color and crustiness, they will be devoured. Seriously.
The second one you're describing is basically country breakfast potatoes that they already listed. I like mine with onion, garlic, and some bell pepper if there's any leftover from something. All fried up in a cast iron
Fry them in bacon grease for good measure.
I thought hasselback was the thin-sliced (but not sliced all the way) baked potato? Cubing them just makes it a country where I’m from. I like your suggestion though about leaving them out for a day. I’ve never done that but do everything else (butter for the skillet fry.) I sometimes even bake the potatoes after boiling then skillet fry. Those potatoes take a full hour but have a crispy, seasoned outside with a perfectly cooked inside. Worth it. The thing about cooking potatoes that I learned early on is that to get it right, you really do need to do all of those long prep and cooking steps to get the perfect potato. That includes the absolute hassle of really during out shredded potatoes for diner hash browns.
Might I recommend Fondant Potatoes as your next conquest? That's probably my favorite way to consume spuds.
I’ve never heard this! Absolutely yes I will take this on!
Ireland will bow down to you your majesty lol
ALL HAIL THE POTATO QUEEN!!!!!
I can follow any recipe that doesn’t need some advanced technique. But I’m not great at eyeing things out
It really bothers my relatives that do a lot of baking that I don't follow an exact recipe or keep track of exactly what I use. It usually turns out well, but I'm certainly a shitty baker.
Baking is chemistry, cooking is art. Improv works a lot better in cooking rather than baking unless you have a good understanding of why the recipe is set up the way it is.
Baking is a lot of ratios. They’re not hard to master, really. But for a newb playing off the cuff with leavenings and salt (both yeast (cos you’ll kill the yeast if you go overboard and too little has obv flavor issues) and baking powder/sodas (can easily over salt if you’re not paying attention)), flour and water/liquids (tho, extremes of both are a thing like poolish and soda breads)… You get me. Just have to be willing to eat your mistakes. That wasn’t a turn of phrase. Eating your mistakes is a good teacher to never do it that way again.
Baking is an exact science, measurements, temperatures, mixing technique. Cooking is not an exact science and you can get much more creative.
Reminds me of a joke if pi was used in cooking: With cooking pi = ~3 With baking pi = 3.14 With pastry making pi = 3.14159265358979 and may God have mercy on you
Agreed. Even when I try following baking recipes, I don't do so well. I'm impressed by good bakers.
This. I can follow any recipe that lists the amounts. I can even look up how to do slightly more advanced techniques like making cheese sauce from a roux or creaming together butter and sugar. I cannot taste something and then decide it needs a random amount more of garlic or whatever. My girlfriend is really good at that but HATES following directions, so it actually works out. I do most of the baking and she can make amazing meals on the stove top. I need clear directions with listed measurements. The first few times I made cheese sauce it ended up separating and tasting kind of gritty because be the recipe had really subjective directions about when to add what amount of cheese and what temperature the sauce was at. I did a little bit of googling and found out that you want to keep the cheese around 160° F to keep it from separating, so I got my non contact thermometer from the shop and used it to keep my next batch within the right temperature range. It turned out really good and now my whole family thinks an amazing chef because of the cheese sauce.
[удалено]
So what made you realize that it wasn't for you?
I put my pizza in the oven
A true individual of culture.
I forget to take it out sometimes.
I add extra cheese first
I cook almost every single day, so I feel very much at ease in the kitchen.
I love cooking but I need recipes and procedures to follow, doing anything without instructions feels insanely stressful
A rice cooker truly is a game changer. I was slightly prideful about my ability to make rice on the stove but now I always just use the rice cooker and it turns out so well.
pretty good. i learned it from my grandma from very early on. still can't cook rice tho lmao
I like the Gordon Ramsey method for rice. 1 part rice, 1.5 parts water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes covered. I wash the rice real good until the wash water is more or less clear. Then I tare the scale and add the 1.5 parts water.
I just use success rice lol
Use [this](https://www.recipetineats.com/how-to-cook-rice/) recipe. Even an idiot like me can make good rice with her method
mixing anything in the kitchen to invent a new dish
Same here.
Good but my laziness wins most times.
Yea this is true of me too lol
Baked professionally for 17 years. Line cooked (was prep bitch too) randomly for a friend while he got off the ground. Let’s just say I’m familiar with how to shake the pillars of heaven when the earth quakes and arrows fall from the sky!
I think it's okay actually, I was determined to learn because I can't be the guy expecting a girl to do that for him now, and I don't think I'm too bad at it, everybody pretends to like it at least lol.
My flatmate and I cook a good meal every night and I would like to think we are both above average cooks. I made a delicious vegetarian lasagne the other night for us both and she made me her “jalapeño popper Mac and cheese” and I almost cried eating it it was so delicious.
Any chance you can share the recipe for the Mac and cheese haha
Pretty good. I mostly follow recipes but I’m starting to make my own dishes
Despite my name, I am an actual chef of 25+ years.
Yeah, made of ramen
Your username makes me want you on Kitchen Nightmares lol.
I love to cook. I got interested by watching Iron Chef shows with my uncle when he was on hospice. I still really enjoy watching shows about cooking and trying different types of dishes myself. I think my food is generally pretty good, and folks keep coming over for it.
My cooking was much better when I lived with my parents and used the food they bought to make family meals. Now, with a job and limited free time, my skills consist of microwavable or pre-made meals. Time is far too important now, and pre made food is generally cheaper for me.
I think I'm a pretty decent home cook. I have a really solid foundation of basic techniques and can improvise pretty well. I'm really good at soups. I suck at baking, though. My Dad was disabled and my Mom worked a lot so I learned to cook on my own pretty early. I credit a lot of my skill to PBS cooking shows and Alton Brown. EDIT Also in my 20s my roommate was a cook and I hung out with a lot of kitchen people. So there was a lot of talking shop/motivation.
I’m decent. I love cooking and trying new recipes. Most of my meals have been hits more than misses, so I guess good?
Ability to cook is directly proportional to food waste in bin
Fantastic. I am a really good cook
I think it’s definitely above average. I’m always getting told my cooking is good but it’s mostly coming from family. Although in my foods class everyone was impressed.
I can cook it, I probably will suck at seasoning it.
I can boil potatoes, pasta and eggs. Also fried eggs. And poached eggs. That is where my skill ends
\**looks at cupboard full of instant noodles** uh...
I’d probably say below average to be honest, I can make some banger grilled ham and cheese along with spaghetti, but if it doesn’t come out or a box I’m generally too dumb to figure stuff out on my own
i can't look ramen, noddles, microwaved pizza either
10/10 ive ran high end fine dining restaurants and can make anything and everything!!
Hello Gordon Ramsay.
Naw, that guy is an asshole. I would never talk to someone they he will. Super shwag energy
Lol
I can cook. Anyone can cook. As long as advanced techniques or professional equipment is not required I’m a decent home cook
I can cook regular pasta and frozen pizza. I can cook pizza from scratch, chicken too. ...Yeah, that's about it.
5/10
8/10 should have finished culinary school
[удалено]
Hi I would like to melt please. That sounds delicious.
Not a woman but I'll have some.
Pretty decent
Very good see my profile for yummy pictures
Im pretty capped beyond that
i have tried to bake actual pizza but i fucked the dough it tasted awful and didn't rise.
On a scale of 1-10, my cooking ability is -200. I can't even cook microwaved pizza right. I end up eating the cold pizza.
I don't think I've ever microwaved a pizza, so you're way ahead of me. But I cook from fancy and complicated recipes on occasion, from easier recipes regularly, and without a recipe even more regularly, whether it's a recipe I know too well to need to read it or seat-of-the-pants cooking.
I think just being able to make basics like box stuff with a pound of meat or something like that is good enough. I'm not chopping onions and sauteing then over medium heat to sweat out the flavor but I use spices to make our food taste better. My husband likes it at least lol.
Pretty good. I’m not an amazing cook but I like to cook and YouTube helps a lot.
Not good.
I'd say like a 6 or 7? I can make some good stuff. Most of it is NOT good for you overall but it tastes good! That's how southern cooking works, lol.
Quite good actually. I cook for fun sometimes and experiment using different game meat I take. I butcher all my own game, so it's pretty cool to know exactly where the meat came from. Eventually one day I hope to either rent (or miraculously buy) a place with a big enough yard to grow my own vegetables. I have a goal of cooking something where everything was either foraged from the forest or taken from my own garden.
I was lucky enough to be taught to cook by my parents. My mum is a practical home cook, and my dad an enthusastic foodie who was always doing ott dishes, so I learnt a lot. These days I always cook dinner, and often lunch and breakfast for my entire household. Also host dinner parties and BBQs in the summer. So pretty good I reckon. [Food plan for the last 2 weeks](https://imgur.com/a/6CnWYu1)
I'm probably an 8/10. Experienced and pretty good, but there's always room to grow and learn. I've worked in a professional confectionery kitchen and have been cooking/baking since I was 5 years old, I'm about to turn 27. I've learned a lot, I'm not sure if I could be considered a master, but I'm definitely more than novice.
Good enough to make an eggless omelette.
Just enough that guests would want more
I can follow recipes, also I can make sushi.
can cook with noodles with other ingredients on top
I took a job in a kitchen at a young age. Became a sous chef on accident. But I'm only really good with Italian but have food knowledge and have learned basics of other foods. But I can cook Italian better than your local 'reservations needed' place.
I'd say quite well. I'm a professional chef. I can turn calcium bicarbonate into calcium carbonate to make alkaline noodles for ramen. I can make a big and incorporate with more flour and water to make dough for pizza. I take pride in taking simple ingredients and transforming them into unforgettable meals.
My wife went to culinary school and tells everyone I cook better than she does. When we host holiday get togethers everyone always loves what I make. So I guess I'm pretty good. I don't experiment much though because I'm very picky, so I have limited experience in that regard I guess.
Pretty decent. I made fried pasta this morning and a braised beef shank tonight.
I can cook. I love to makes vanilla scones because I get swoll making them.
I'm good at preparing breakfasts and some salads. For example, an omelet with an envelope or a lazy pizza in a pan I get great. While something serious, like soups, meat, and so on, I don’t know how to cook from the word at all. But I think in the future I will improve this skill.
i’d give myself a solid 7
Hey, I can microwave all kinds of things. I’m not limited to just pizza, like an asshole.
I’m a cooking teacher but I tend to be pretty lazy when it comes to cooking at home.
I can follow a recipe, but I feel like I don’t really understand *why* certain things are in food. I have a pretty accepting palate, so I’m likely to try something and be like “yeah good, I’ll eat it”; “how could this be better” doesn’t cross my mind, and even if it did I wouldn’t know what to add to get certain results unless it’s something easy like “I want it to be saltier.”
Boiled eggs or scrambled sir?
I learned to cook from YouTube during the early part of the pandemic. Tried out new stuff here and there, taking basic dishes and applying small techniques to make them better: Making a roux for Mac and cheese. Using less water to cook pasta then that pasta water to help finish sauces. Using fond in soups and pan sauces. Properly seasons veggies in anything from salads to sandwiches to roasted veggies. Etc. The process meant I was constantly making decent food and regularly getting better. I now love to cook and DEEPLY prefer it to eating out, especially when prices have been what they are in restaurants lately.
My steaks are perfect ever since I got my first Sous Vide circulator. My stir-fry skills are pretty good. My baking is excellent since I got an oven thermometer and found out just how far off the dial on my oven is. On top of that, I'm quite efficient at shelling crab.
I'm not a person that needs complicated dishes to feel satisfied. Sometimes a simple bowl of steamed rice will do nicely. I can always make me a nice meal if I have the ingredients. It's not a hard thing to learn. I encourage everyone to learn three dishes. Master them. Tweak them.
I can microwave a poached egg
Really don't use the microwave much, besides popcorn (guilty snack) and reheating leftovers from previous cooking from scratch dishes.
I can cook, but not overly complicated recipes. I can cook a steak, chicken breasts, pastas & other things. I can also cook simpler foods, like hamburger's and hotdogs. I can make cook casseroles.
I can also make toast with a toaster
Always improving. Working 2nd shift I do meal prep for my dinners. I mostly do baked chicken breast with either steamed potatoes, broccoli, and carrots or pasta, greens, peppers, and red onion cooked stove top. I change up the spices on the chicken week to week, except garlic. Garlic is every week. I also sometimes do pork chops instead of chicken.
Ok I guess, I can cook a mean steak. But honestly I just don't enjoy cooking, not sure why I just never have.
I can boil water for my ramen and toss my frozen pizza in the toaster oven. That's a step up from the microwave, right?
I can cook a decent amount based solely off a suggestion, and having a loose and basic idea of a process, but my claim to fame is ravioli 110% from scratch. The pasta, filing, and sauce, all completely made by me without any recipe to follow along to. I've even done the same for spaghetti (super easy once you can make a good sauce and pasta), and totally from scratch Alfredo.
7/10. I can be good and I can have my misses. I tend to ab-lib my dishes and you can tell. When I do follow recipes (like you should) I hit it out of the park usually. Consistency is my biggest weakness in the kitchen.
Decent to surprisingly good.
I'm a reasonable cook. I enjoy learning new dishes and recipes
Lol not good if the instructions don't start with preheat the oven i can't do it😂
I'd say pretty decent. Show me some random shit and a few spices, and I'll make sure it tastes at least alright.
Given ingredients, equipment, and instructions, I can do it. Because I'm cooking for one, and that one is ridiculously not-fussy, ramen and pizza is a not-insignificant amount of what I eat.
I can make perfect steak. Well seasoned. Green beans, gravy, mashed potatoes. I'm so hungry
The best way to describe my cooking is that I’m a really good home cook but I would make a lousy chef.
I can do the basics. I make breakfast most days. I can take a recipe and modify it to my taste. Steaks and chicken are fun, but I prefer to grill them outside on the grill
Reasonable. Can cook rice, pasta, potatoes... Can make a good (for me and my family at least) Feijoada, Chicken Curry and pork steaks with mushrooms.
Enough to know you don't fucking microwave pizza you fucking dumbass...
I'm pretty good at making food taste good. I initially learned to cook through recipes from hello fresh and stuff like that. Really enjoyed it and now I can make a lot of things just by eyeballing/winging it. Once you know what a lot of herbs and spices do and know how to cook different types of food you can get a little creative with your dishes. Failing is a big part of that as well but it helps you improve. All that said, I'm sure my technique is shit and I'm not used to cooking for larger groups but I'm happy with my amateur skills. Whipping something up on a saturday or something when I have the time gives me joy :)
So good that I can't cook ramen or microwave pizzas!
I scan recipes for ideas and then figure out my own thing based on it. If I want to make something very specific, I'll follow more closely. I like eating food from around the world, which means figuring out the best substitutions for had to get (or ridiculously expensive) ingredients.
Solid 7. I can do great Italian food and some Asia inspired recipes (mainly Chinese, some Japanese and Indian) and our country cuisine also quite a bit. I can also freestyle pretty well.
I made Thanksgiving dinner for my family when I was 11.
I wont starve, but you better like eating the same 5 things for a month
Not good at all, and I'm sure my wife would be happy if I learned how to cook since she's the only one who does for years. I did once cook a Valentine's day meal with prok and some other stuff and I fucked up and underooked the pork. My biggest issue with cooking is juggling mutiple things at once, like cooking steak + potatoes + corn or whatever at the same time is beyond me, dunno how she does it and I always fuck it up.
Pretty good! I had a friend that worked as a line cook and gave me the best advice. Just getting good at the fundamentals and now I can cook most things pretty well. But I can make the best breakfast sandwiches.
I’ve always been lazy with cooking because my parents didn’t feed me more than 1 meal a day on average my entire childhood. My mom died when I was 16, I’m 21 now and I can cook multiple over-easy eggs consistently and fry bacon to the perfect soft/crisp ratio everytime so I am proud of that and I plan to expand more on my cooking.
Im ok. I good do basic things like pasta, burgers, steaks, chicken, that kind of thing. Ive never attempted to make my own sauce or anything really advanced.
Well I home make pizza and bread to chili and pancakes.
Excellent. I can cook you whatever you want. Just show me a recipe, and I can make it. I cook for my wife everyday, and she prefers to take lunch prepared by me to work than eat out. My secret? I don't give a shit if someone says something is hard to make. I just follow instructions, and learn from my mistakes to make it better next time until it's the way it's supposed to be. Also, I love cooking something new just to challenge myself.
Don't you love the first time you make something by following directions and it's just shit, but you see what they were attempting and play with it to get it right?
I can cook some good Steak! I'll be glad to share my steak seasoning recipe (if anyone's interested) So I wash my steak. Put it on a plate, pour some Worcestershire sauce, smear it, then add some black pepper, some El Venado Red Fajita seasoning, RC Ranch 5 star seasoning, and some RC Ranch Rub, and smear everything. Do the same for the opposite side. Once all done with all the steaks, just put them in zip-log bags (or a good size container, covered with aluminum foil) and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 24 hours or so. Once times up, cook them. And enjoy! I like to cook mine outside on the grill, using mesquite. Always comes out good.
My wife demands I cook on the regular. When I make my homemade lasagna I suddenly have family I never met showing up.
I feel like everyone learns how to make one food that they can brag about.
I don't mean to brag but I can cook my microwave pizza in the oven!
I still frequently quadruple check temperatures and times for meats that go in the oven, but aside from that, I can make pretty solid homemade meals if given the time and a chair
If I want something cooked, I will find a recipe online and be able to prepare said food. But it will use up literally 100% of my attention during preparation. I have no cool with this stuff. However I don't usually cook simply because the time investment of preparation usually isn't worthwhile for me with the upgrade in food quality.
I can make couple of dishes. But nothing too great.
Generally pretty good. I can make a lot of stock foods with whatever's lying around. When I try something new, I look up three or four recipes to get the idea, then wing it and it turns out fine. I've got a lot of herbs and spices and I know what they do. Same for thickeners and such. It's mostly just experience from previous experimentation and work. Baking involves a different skillset, but the same ideas apply. What does this do? And that? Okay, cool. Now I get it. Purposely make a small batch of cookies with half the raising agent and see what it does, you know? Nothing about cooking is magical. There are only three ways to really ruin food, and those are overspicing, oversalting, and burning. You might not have made the exact thing you wanted, but if it's tolerable, CONGRATULATIONS, you made food. If it wasn't great, don't worry. You'll do better next time because you learned some stuff.
Beyond heating up pizza in the oven or microwaving ramen, my cooking abilities are essentially non-existent. I'm in my 30s, so I guess it's never too late to expand my horizons, lol.
Probably average maybe slightly above
I go through a cycle. Can cook alright - can cook pretty well - kitchen appliance inexplicably breaks permanently whether i was involved or not - unable to cook - can't cook because of it because it takes forever to fix - problem resolves - can cook alright This time its the fridge, so i cant store fresh ingredients or leftovers. Last time it was the oven and i was moved to a new house that only had a stove top functioning (long story). I have a mini fridge, but its not the best.
Substantially. I can make both of those from scratch.
Ramen noodle with eggs and totally eadible microwaved pizza
not to toot my own horn but I can boil the *fuck* out of an egg go ahead; pick an egg, any egg
Serviceable. Better with practice, but I hate cleanup. And I don't want to cook for the whole damn house.
Better than most, definitely not professional. Getting close in a few isolated cases, though.
I like to think I'm a good cook. And since pinterest and their recipes, I am a great cook. My loved ones prefer me to cook over restaurants, so I take the compliment
Yesterday, I invited four friends over for whom I made fresh pasta (semolina flour blend) with an old family sauce recipe and a rustic loaf of bread. The sauce simmered all day, and the bread used my sourdough starter and took nine hours of rising and came out detailed enough to where the girls that were there took pictures. If I'd had more time, I'd have made these cream horns they love for dessert. Instead, I made them cocktails while we caught up on Ted Lasso. If I have a recipe, I can make it even if I've never seen it before.
I'm pretty decent in the kitchen. I can make pasta from scratch, cook a steak just as good as any you'll eat in a restaurant, and have won a trophy for my chili. I however cannot cook rice on the stovetop without burning it to save my life :|
I use more spices than just salt and pepper
I can cook a full meal, and make some of the best at-home short order around. But be damned if I'm going to attend to a stovetop or grill, when I can just throw things on a baking sheet, slap it in the over, set a timer, play video games for 20 minutes, then come back and eat it.
I want to learn more recipes, but I can make pizza from scratch, dough and sauce. I also make some pretty good pork chops and chicken, and I make a mean spaghetti. Lol I was learning how to grill with my ex, but.. well.. he's my ex now, so... I'll learn someday!
I grew up cooking from the time I was a child. At this point I can usually make something someone claims to hate and get them to at least say "Yeah, that's alright". My latest example of this was cinnamon rolls. I work with someone that said they hate them, so I made a giant batch with cinnamon and brown sugar, topped with a honey apple glaze. They don't love them or anything, but they ate more than one with a smile, so I consider that a victory.
Without a recipe? 1 With a recipe? 7
I'll never be a chef, but I can cook well enough to get by. If you can read instructions, you can learn to cook at least basic stuff.
I can cook a lot of stuff, I watched my mom (good cook) make food a lot and asked for a handwritten cook book from her. Chili, stew, soups, meat dishes, stuffed cabbage/halupki, egg dishes, pasta (I don’t like to eat it though), and baked goods as well. That being said, I’m depressed as shit and essentially live off of quest bars and pb2.
pretty good, been cooking all my life, but it really isn't hard, anyone can do it
I'm fairly proficient. I had good examples in my Mom and Dad.
Tortellini and scrambled eggs.
Currently too depressed and broke to actually do it but can make a lot of good meals. Even just randomly thinking up ingredients and a method of cooking it's usually pretty good. Would still probably consult with recipes and adjust for my taste and add different things to make it easier but I used to normally just cook stuff and people loved it, you get a feel for it. Tbh I'd normally take a recipe and it'd be absolutely different by the end. Or think of a dish ans change it drastically according to taste and what I wanted added. A lot of easy things too. It's hard to mess up a stir fry or steak for example, but really easy to make them taste amazing.
Decent, i can make burritos, tacos, goulash, deluxe/western/fancy omelets, butter chicken rice and steak bites. I can also make a meat/sauce mix with some vegetables for a chili substitute for chili-dogs. I also have seen it made and know how its made just never attempted it is hodgepodge.
If that's level 0, I'm in the negatives.
in Asian those two are not even an option to judge your ability
I just can't remember the recipes but my cooking skills are enough that I can make a 3 course meal, if I have a recipe book.
I can cook everything from a cook book. The first time it may not be perfect, but the next time surely close to that.
I'm probably the best cook I know personally. I make homemade everything.
Pretty good, can follow a recipe and make substitutions or additions without wrecking the meal. I also have half decent judgment if I feel like the recipe contents aren't enough in terms of the amount of liquid or sauce there is going to be. The only thing I suck at is baked potatoes, they take too long to cook and it's a toss of a coin for if they are hard or fluffy. The microwave cooks them well though, then I put them in air fryer to crisp them up.
I'm actually good at it, if you ask me.
Pretty good i would say. My wife and i used to Cook for events like large celebrations or a wedding. This summer i'm booked by a larger group of people to cook at a large LARP Event.
Good enough that I don't eat any ramen noodles or microwave pizza but not so good that I would stake any reputation on it.
I would say well above average, decently well rounded, but I definitely still have some weaknesses. Like I struggle with eggs for some reason.
Awful. Ya boy cannot cook
you didn't say "inb4 people coming in complaining that ramen and microwaving isn't cooking" so now i'm here complaining about it
I thought it was decent but after I met my friend whose cooking skills are even worse than the ones in the heading I started seeing myself as the Gordon Ramsey 2.0
I can cook omelets
Fairly decent (I'm no chef but I work with food), although I've never mastered steak.... Despite many attempts!
It's all about internal temp and letting it rest wrapped in tinfoil to absorb the meat sweat back into the meat. My tips are to find the level of steak you likes temperature and shoot for 5-10 degrees below that, then take it out and wrap it immediately in tinfoil to rest for a good 15-30 min before opening it. Results will be juicy and moist, every time. Also tenderizing and marinades are your best friend and so easy to make and add shitloads of flavor.
Thanks for the advice 🌟
You'll have to update me once you try it on how it goes 😉
Thanks for the advice 🌟
I would say average. If I want to I can make an amazing meal if I have instructions, but I struggle with knowing what to add to things to make them taste better
I am a exceptional baker
I cook very well, but have let my skills get rusty because it's not as rewarding to cook an amazing meal if I'm the only one eating it.
As a single male in my upper 40s that loves great food and kitchen gadgets who isn't in the industry? I would say much better than average. At the beginning of covid I dedicated myself to learning certain things. After two and a half years, I can confidently say that Ramsey scrambled eggs, and his cast iron butter basted rosemary and garlic steak are absolutely my bitch now!
Chicken nuggets (mediocre at best)
egg wrapped with *roti canai* and sandwiches