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The Sad Bastard Cookbook

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Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#321

Post by didgeoridoo »

MengerSponge wrote: post #277
didgeoridoo wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, going past the max fill line is mostly a problem when using the “rapid pressure release” on a recipe with lots of liquid. Pressing the release button can emit a a superheated geyser of soup with enough force to hit the ceiling.

When the timer goes off and the cooker switches off, the contents are still under pressure. That pressure shifts the liquid's boiling point, which is why pressure cookers cook hotter. If you vent the pressure vessel, the liquid inside will rapidly boil as it dumps that excess thermal energy to steam and your kitchen. It'll carry bits of liquid and cooked food with it. Another thing you know but may not have connected…

I think the microwaving water issue is slightly different. It does indeed become superheated, but not of course from pressure; if the vessel lacks nucleation sites (imperfections) for bubbles to form, the water can heat quite a bit higher than 100C as it’s not losing energy to the steam phase change. Eventually when a bubble does spontaneously form (or the vessel is jolted), a huge amount of water is instantly converted to steam.

You don’t want to be nearby when this happens.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#322

Post by Eisenstein »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #299
TeMPOraL wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that note, I've been wondering about the recent hype about "air fryers", which - best I can tell, after looking into it repeatedly - are basically countertop, underpowered version of fan ovens that have been, in my life, a standard appliance in every kitchen I've ever seen. But maybe it's a sign of worsening economical prospects of the generation - people no longer own, only rent, increasingly worse quality apartm…

My stove came with "convection bake" and "convection roast" settings on the oven. Then some time after purchase I was offered to download an "air fryer" mode, but I would have to enable the wifi connection on my stove and use a smartphone app, which I do not want to do. Am I really missing much? Can a full-size home oven also be an effective air-fryer?

An air fryer is just a small convection oven and since I don't know how an update can make your oven smaller, it sounds like a gimmick to me.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#323

Post by AmericanChopper »

stakhanov wrote: post #285
bob1029 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you will find an extreme range in mastery in the kitchen, just like you will find it in programming, blacksmithing, construction, plumbing, or literally anything else. In most cases, the master craftsman is orders of magnitude more efficient than the apprentice. Solving problems without any tools. Solving two or more problems at the same time (hint, hint). Etc. The best way to approach this discussion is to r…

I'm still not convinced that parent commenter and I are solving for the same problem, and am not quite ready to chalk it up to differing levels of skill, but it's not really a discussion I particularly want to go into any deeper either. When I was a student, my skill level was certainly several orders of magnitude below what it is today, and I certainly spent a lot less time on food preparation. The difference is tha…

I don’t think skill has much to do with it either, but I’d be surprised if we were solving substantially different problems. I’m also approaching 40, and I eat a very healthy diet. Other than the occasional protein bar, yogurt is about the most highly processed food I eat. Most of my diet is fresh vegetables and staples like rice and legumes.

I would guess that the reason that I seem to spend about a third of the time cooking and preparing meals as you do is because I’m taking a more simple approach than you are. Unless you have some especially specific dietary requirements, but then that would hardly be relevant to a general discussion about the cost and time burden of preparing food.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#324

Post by jshprentz »

bob1029 wrote: post #191

The trick for me is to apply engineering to the kitchen. You can actually enjoy really elaborate meals if you simply make more each time and utilize pyrex+freezer. Why make only 6 servings of spaghetti when there's still 50% free space available in your instant pot? (that 'max fill' line is but a polite suggestion :D) Planning ahead, logistics, etc. can make all the difference in the world. Imagine spending one hour…

As an engineer, I enjoyed the recipe presentation at Cooking for Engineers [1], which has been discussed here on HN 16 years ago [2], 12 years ago [3], and again last year [4]. In addition to typical step-by-step instructions with photos, the nearly 100 recipes each show a diagram combining an ingredient list (in the order needed) with a timeline showing operations to perform (see [5], for example). Sadly, there have been no updates for about seven years.

[1] https://www.cookingforengineers.com

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79856

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2745687

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30797907

[5] https://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/268/Buffalo-Chick...

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#325

Post by stevenwoo »

fbdab103 wrote: post #59
ajmurmann wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I feel old. It feels like yesterday that everyone was talking about Soylent and its eccentric founder who ordered new shirts from China instead of washing the ones he had and tried to find a diet that allows you to not to have to use the bathroom.

I am strangely intrigued by the bathroom avoidance. Did he find much success? Although, I seem to recall a correlation between low fiber/defecation frequency and colon cancer, but not sure how strong the association was supposed to be.

The Alzheimer’s connection study was more recent https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/19/health/constipation-cognitive...

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#326

Post by sigwinch28 »

Buy an East Asian style rice cooker and you’ll have hands-off low effort carbs for the rest of your life.

Cook dried pasta in a pot of boiling water. Season it with oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan or any vegitarian/vegan alternative. That’s two options for your calories in a low-effort hurry.

If you want to cook nice food for yourself, I recommend Marcella Hazan’s “The essentials of classic Italian cooking”. Her recipes can be scaled to 1 or 2 servings quite easily.

Many of her sauces freeze well in silicone ice cube trays for big cocktail ice cubes. This means you can take advantage of an economy of scale by cooking a batch and freezing a lot of it into portions which you can reheat on the hob in a few minutes.

Well… this applies to a lot of homemade sauces but I like hers a lot.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#327

Post by Smaug123 »

Knee_Pain wrote: post #304
Daneel_ wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - far too hard, and far too much time. I'd immediately buy pre-diced items and would have to find a recipe that could be made in less than 15 minutes, and even then that's pushing it. My solution was soylent/equivalent. 8 years on I'm still drinking it.

Do you have a diagnosed cognitive condition? This absolute rejection of even the most basic and easy form of food preparation is concerning. Drinking that slop without a decent complementary diet is not healthy for your gut.

"The most basic and easy form of food preparation" is still food preparation; declaring that something is the simplest thing in its category does not actually make anything in that category bearable. Look through the thread, there are many people like this who are perhaps capable of cooking but who loathe it or otherwise can't make themselves do it. I for one am perfectly capable of cooking complex meals for twelve people, but good god the only reason I ever arrange to put food into my face just so that my meat continues to function is because I would die if I didn't. The time pressure on it is especially loathsome (if I don't eat in a certain window, I no longer have the energy it would take to force myself to eat); you can lie there and just feel the window of opportunity for this annoying task slipping away.

By the way, asking someone whether they're mentally unwell because they think differently from you is generally considered impolite.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#328

Post by ghaff »

idle_processor wrote: post #265
generic92034 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some days going outside for shopping groceries is just not "on the menu". But anyway, if you are eating alone there is generally a real imbalance between the time required for preparing a meal and cleaning up afterwards versus the time required for eating. On low energy days this can be already too much.

That's where instacart comes in.

I'm not sure it's even available where I live (or at least from a limited selection of stores) and probably isn't very economical for a small order.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#329

Post by ebiester »

dfinninger wrote: post #318
bob1029 wrote: post #191

The trick for me is to apply engineering to the kitchen. You can actually enjoy really elaborate meals if you simply make more each time and utilize pyrex+freezer. Why make only 6 servings of spaghetti when there's still 50% free space available in your instant pot? (that 'max fill' line is but a polite suggestion :D) Planning ahead, logistics, etc. can make all the difference in the world. Imagine spending one hour…

Something that I picked up after watching one of J. Kenji López-Alt’s videos was chaining ingredients. Specifically the difficult ones and not necessarily just reusing the rest of the green onion in the bottom of the fridge. So, now I give myself a budget of one or two “difficult/time consuming” ingredients. This can be Demi-glacé or some other homemade reduction, soy-marinated eggs, slow-cooked brisket, etc. And I m…

Have you seen Adam Ragusea's cheater demi? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WLUMS7Ung

It's about 80% as good as the real thing but that's pretty useful to have.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#330

Post by Smaug123 »

mg wrote: post #50

recipes to make when you've worked a 16-hour day Why not just sit down in a restaurant on your way home? Or if you worked at home, take a nice walk and sit down in a nice restaurant along the way?

Even without considering money, I'm not really aware of a restaurant which is compatible with the mental state that's physically expressed as "lying in bed without moving"; this book is for people in that mental state.
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