Ask HN: Hackers who cook

1. I cook recreationally - I find it's a great way to destress. I find doing something that's a different sort of creative task helps reset and refocus my mind. I actually don't find I save much money in cooking - often I like to cook exciting creative things, using ingredients you wouldn't use every day, and this tends to make cooking cost about the same as going somewhere mediocre for dinner (~£15 either way).

2. I find planning more than a day ahead pretty tough - you never know when you'll decide that actually going out for a beer with mates is more important than going home and cooking. The one exception to this is large meals on weekends. I enjoy having a few friends around, opening a few bottles of vino, and cooking something exciting - which obviously takes planning. At the extreme end of this, I do a christmas meal for 20+ friends every year, generally involving turkey, beef, ham, two types of potatoes, sprouts, a bunch of veg, home made sauces, christmas puddings, etc. This is great fun, but I need to start planning in October (note to self - remember to start planning that soon).

3. All sorts - often roasts, normally something with a meat centrepiece although occasionally I like cooking risotto or a fish pie or a stew. Depends on the time of year really. This summer, most of my meals have been some meat on the barbeque (butterflied leg of lamb for instance), and a bunch of mezze style items. I also occasionally bake loaves of bread (maybe once or twice a month). This feels really great - nothing is better for de-stressing than baking a loaf of bread.

4. No.

5. For me, the productivity isn't important - I'd much rather take my time and do things the old fashioned, conventional way.

1. i view cooking and writing software as a creative act. Making food is a pleasant contrast to making software because the projects are short and the asthetics are straightforward: do i, and whomever else i'm cooking for, think this is delicious. With practice, i can cook a higher grade of food than i can afford to eat out, just like buying nicer alcohols is cheaper at a liquor store than a bar.

i look forward to cooking and find it relaxing, particularly when it's just for my own household - small quantities of food for people whose tastes i know well.

2. i plan a few days ahead and i go shopping every few days. some days i spend the majority of my spare cycles imagining and re-imagining how i'll cook dinner with the ingredients i've got at home.

3+4. i cook mostly vegetarian / pescetarian and try to use whole grains and complex carbohydrates, probably less carbs than e.g. sandwiches or pasta? i often start with a protein source and then try to make it a balanced and tasty meal.

5. plan ahead. treat the whole thing as a meditation: chopping is a deep consideration of the vegetable, cleaning is a meditation on the colors and shapes as they reveal themselves beneath the food-dirt.

For me a good 90% of it was actually realising my knives were pretty blunt. Or rather, realising just how sharp a knife could be. Once I had that sorted, everything just started going so much smoother as the blade wasn't getting stuck, being deflected on the way down or only cutting partially through.

1. Save cash (not much), healthier, it's a good social activity with housemates. I really miss it since I've turned digital nomad. I pretty much only cook with housemates, or when it's too late to go out.

2. Only barely. Maybe a day in advance tops.

3. I learn recipes from whoever's being sous chef for the night. I have a few of my own. Varies. I try to keep it balanced with some meat, veges and carbs.

4. Nope. None whatsoever. I'll eat almost anything too. My only rule is to never feel uncomfortable after a meal. I try to accommodate the requirements of the other participants in the meal though.

5. Core hack: I always keep the ingredients for my (extremely cheap and convenient yet reasonably healthy and tasty) backup meal in the house -- rice, frozen vegetables, frozen wontons, eggs -- which I can turn into a batch of reliable fried rice in under 10 minutes and while nearly brain-dead. Also nearly everything lasts for weeks in the fridge/storage if I don't need to resort to it.

Also I do all the physical labor under my mom's guidance for as many meals as I can spare the time for whenever I'm home. Hands-on-learning and she appreciates the help. It would be a waste to not learn from her culinary genius to pass on to the next generation. I think this is true re: every mom in the world.

5. Things that have helped me be more interested in cooking and be a good cook:

Buy "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee.

Listen to Cooking Issues podcast by Dave Arnold (check out blog too)

Watch any cooking show with Julia Child and/or Jacques Pepin, get some of his books to learn techniques. Her books are amazing too.

Buy a few standard cookbooks. I love Joy Of Cooking because it's practically a canonical reference to make anything, and there's lots of info on technique. There are a few Culinary school books that are really good too (the ICC book "Fundamental Techniques of Classical Cooking" and the CIA "The Professional Chef" are good).

Practice, Practice, Practice. Make certain dishes because you want to get good at a technique or skill.

On general recipes: Don't make too many dishes because they were on a blog, sound good, or use a trendy ingredient (beer, bourbon, kale, bacon). Often they are overly complicated and they aren't very diverse. Don't underestimate how delicious basic dishes can be. Don't underestimate how many techniques and skills from classical french cuisine apply to cultures everywhere, and importantly, the ingredients are almost always available. Shy away from dishes with hard-to-source (mostly perishable) ingredients (I'm looking at you, Jerusalem/Ottolenghi).