How did you learn to cook?

Churchmouse

mrbadexample wrote: »

I [strike]was[/strike] am being taught by a virtual army of mums, dads, grannies, grandads, singletons and assorted others. :T

And a more willing and entertaining pupil would be hard to find:T

The full index of his triumphs is HERE

Benthosboy

arkonite_babe wrote: »

We helped MrBadExample so if you want to learn, let us know what you want to do and we'll all help you through it

He's made a birthday cake

He's had baking tips

He's made french stuff

Veggie Stuff

Confectionery

He's made stuff with sloes

He's made meatloaf

Used gooseberries

He's made carrot cake

Kedgeree for a bloke

Chick Pea curry for a bloke

Cauliflower Cheese


And I think there was another one "Mrbadexamples cooking thread" but I can't find it.


So if he can do it so can you

With all that I'm having to get through lately, I'd kinda forgotten just how nice folk are, soooo :T :T :T to all concerned.

My big bro' lives in Carrick on Shannon so next time I'm over there, I'll nip up your way and see if i can rustle up some Yorkshire puddings. Any excuse to play my Dubliners tapes at full volume

Martyn.

sparrer

My mum taught me the basics of cooking at weekends as she worked full time. When I got home from school I'd get the dinner started for her. I'd get the bus (public transport) for the 8 mile trip home, walk the dog, prep the veggies, do my homework then turn the cooker on. No frozen/instant foods in the 1950's so turning out grilled chops, steak pie, lamb stew etc was nothing unusual. Mind you I was 10 (and what is today called a latch-key kid, but that title wasn't invented til much later) and it never did me any harm, I can cook for England now

mrbadexample

arkonite_babe wrote: »

So if he can do it so can you

Never a truer word spoken! It's brilliant Benthosboy - all you do is decide what you want for tea. If you can't find it on a search, start a post saying what you want, and this lot will take your little flour-covered hand and lead you through it, step by step. It also leaves you with a permanent archive to look back on when you're stuck.

Ok, it's taken a couple of years, but I've gone from: "What's a spoon?" to "Anyone fancy boeuf bourguignon for tea?"

It is entirely due to the assistance of my friends on this board. For which I thank them. :T

Sola

The basics I learnt from Mum and Nan - pastry, cakes, puddings, roast dinners - and fried breakfast from Dad. I branched out at about 12 with spag bol copied from a recipe and basically never looked back once I discovered herbs and spices; they only ever used salt, never even pepper, so the food was very plain when I was growing up. Cooked meat, spuds of some kind - mostly boiled, boiled veg was the norm; the funny thing is I now see this as a treat for when I'm fed-up with curry and fancier stuff.

ceridwen

I had the embarrassment (at 20 years old) of a foreign employer I had realising I couldnt cook ANYTHING AT ALL and teaching me how to cook a typical English Breakfast (bacon and eggs). I learnt one or two "bits and bobs" from that direction - but basically BOOKS and more BOOKS. I taught myself 99.9% of what I know from following recipes and seeing what happened.

scuzz

I learned through a mixture of watching my mum and nan. Also experimenting!!

We never had lessons at school, they ditched cookery for DT:mad:

arkonite_babe

Benthosboy wrote: »

My big bro' lives in Carrick on Shannon so next time I'm over there, I'll nip up your way and see if i can rustle up some Yorkshire puddings. Any excuse to play my Dubliners tapes at full volume

Martyn.

I'll hold you to that!!

arkonite_babe

Churchmouse wrote: »

And a more willing and entertaining pupil would be hard to find:T

The full index of his triumphs is HERE

Thankyou Churchmouse, I knew there had to be a list somewhere, I just couldn't find it last night :T:T

PayPeanuts_2

Martyn,

Make a list of the food you absolutely love and then buy simple cook books based on those things. OH loves curry so when he started learning how to cook there was the extra incentive that a fabulous curry would be ready when he'd finished. Then move onto other things...the world is your oyster!

The only really bad mistakes you can make when you're cooking are undercooking meat/fish, burning things or using out of date products - dont get hung up on exact measurements or cooking times. Everything else is trial and error!

Best of luck!