worst cook ever

Meadows

winniepooh wrote: »

I love cooking but get so disheartened

Can I suggest you try a Kids cook book, and go from there, little steps at a time.

Not sure why your cheese cake was wrong (did you measure the inside of the tin? Thickness of tin can make a slight difference. Maybe you scales are not accurate, maybe it was a skimpy recipe?

Try a Delia Basic cook book.

A lot of recipes on line might be based on US sizes and not UK sizes and may have at some point been converted wrongly?

These are just some suggestions as to why your cooking goes wrong, but maybe baking is not you forte so for now experiment with savory until you gain confidence (and when you have more confidence then play around with recipes as they are only guides, but for now read them well and stick to them).

Ask family and friends for tried and tested recipes, when you find one that works start your own cook book. Get a hard back note book, use the first half a dozen pages as an index, number subsequent pages and write down your recipes, even simple how to for basics, meat cooking times and temperatures etc.

esmf73

I used to be a good cook. Nothing special, but great tasting meals. Now when I have two children that pull me in different ways I am a terrible cook. Think its all about being focused on what you're doing and having the time. Now unless I make a special effort we eat and run - albeit homemade things!!

Popperwell

Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves...simple, quick and easy does not have to mean a meal isn't tasty and most of the time its the same ingredients just served in a different combination. Most food is cooked at a similar temperature and basic rules remain the same whatever is cooked.

I think on the whole I would happily be able to entertain and be confident in what I presented. But with only myself to please I no longer have the pleasure of sharing my culinary skills any more.

I have cook books and look at websites and blogs but generally most recipes vary very little.

That's not a bad idea about using a childrens cook book.

winniepooh

Thank to you all. Some great ideas to try. I've had a cook look at Jamie Oliver. Might give that I try

Josslette

Student cookbooks could be a good place to start too or do you know someone that could give you a bit of a crash course in cooking or even just teach you how to make one meal that you love?

floyd

Another vote for Delia recipes. I use them for everything as they always work and the instructions are very precise. I also use BBC Good Food alot and have never had a duff recipe from there.

I didn't get on with All Recipes as it contains ones that people submit themselves so they aren't fully tested like the Good Food ones which all have ratings and lots of comments about what works and what doesn't.

Time is the key, if you are learning to cook, don't try something new when you are in a rush or stressed, it WILL go wrong. Everyone starts off with a few bad meals. When OH and I try and make new things we have a mantra "If its s**t we'll go to the chippy" so it takes away the stress of cooking

meritaten

I have been cooking for about fifty years - learned from my nan and later in life cookery classes in school. mum is at best an indifferent cook! but, I am sure I have learned from her too - not least that an all white dinner looks disgusting! (lmao - she once served us Chicken, mashed potatoes, Cauliflower and butter beans!)
Hun - it comes with practice! and dont run away with the idea that because a recipe 'looks' simple - it is. it often isnt! I echo what others have said - Watch someone else cook! There is food network - they have some really good programs! and on the beeb too - and if you can bring yourself to watch it 'I can cook' on Cbeebies has some recipes which even adults would love to eat!
I am sure that youtube would have some tutorials on the basics too.
It is much easier to learn from watching and doing rather than just reading about it.
most of all - persevere! ask friends to show you HOW to make a dish you like of theirs rather than just ask for a recipe.

SunFlower73

Don't worry i'm a calamity in the kitchen., Hubby tells everyone i cook by the smoke alarm and am on first name terms with the fire service .

shelley_crow

I agree with the other posters, practice is essential. You weren't able to start walking or talking without practice.My mother wasn't a great cook, so I'm pretty much self taught by trial and error!

When I first started cooking, I burnt sausages so badly you could write with them. Cakes were either burnt or raw on the inside. I made a cheese sauce that you could tarmac roads with! Now I make pretty much everything and don't think twice about it.

As you make more food at home, your tastes will change away from the heavily salted ready food that blights the supermarket shelves. Prepare for a few more disasters in the kitchen before it all falls into place. This is entirely normal and you are by no means a bad cook, just one in training.

LameWolf

I like using tried-and-tested recipes posted on this forum! Often the person posting will say something like "the original recipe says x but I do y" which I find really helpful.:o

I'm completely self-taught as far as cooking goes; I have no friends/family to turn to, and dislike cookery programmes, so the OS board is a brilliant source of material.:T

I copy'n'paste the recipes to a Word.doc, which I save on a dedicated flash drive - usually I save them as "So-and-so's recipe for whatever".;)

Oh, also I'm vegetarian., so have had to become good at adapting recipes to use meat substitutes.:D

Don't get disheartened - try and analyse what wasn't quite right, and "tweak" the recipe next time you give it a go.;) Lots of my fairly good meals started rubbish, and have improved as I've tweaked them; several tweaks sometimes to get the meal I want.:o