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The Sad Bastard Cookbook

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331–340 of 445 posts

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#331

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…

> I haven't ordered a pizza in 3+ years. Even building a pizza up from a prepared crust is way better than frozen. My mother needs gluten-free, and there was a GF frozen pizza we liked that a local store carried. But then it disappeared, and I decided to try building my own from a GF crust. The home-built pizza was so much better that there's no going back - not to mention the opportunity to try different toppings.

My wife and one of my daughters have a gluten allergy (celiac) — would love to see your GF pizza crust recipe that you’ve perfected, if possible.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#332
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do some rice in a rice cooker. When that’s done, slap a good helping of kimchi in a hot frying pan (no need for oil). Let it sizzle for about thirty seconds, then crack an egg in and muddle it up some. When it’s nearly done add the rice. Add a bit of sesame oil at the end if you feel fancy. Eat. I got through a kilo of kimchi a week this way when I was a depressed 20-something living in a share-house abroad.

"I got through a kilo of kimchi a week...in a share-house" RIP roommate noses.

Doesn't need to be kimchi. The technique described can be used for pretty much any fried rice combo--best to let the rice dry out a bit but not necessary and that's not active time--which, given you have the ingredients (which could mostly be frozen) takes maybe 5 minutes.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#333

Reminds me of a non satire student cookbook where recipes are sectioned by what utensils and cooking appliances you have at hand. E.g. one pot, frying pan, etc. all the way up to, well a normal kitchen.

Chatgpt is REALLY good at coming up with reasonable recipes under arbitrary constraints. You have X ingredients and Y minutes to cook a meal for Z persons, with ABC cookware. It'll do it.

Does ChatGPT tell me that I can caramelise onions in 15 minutes?

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#334

Fantastic, I adore it! In a weird way, this also serves as a training manual for becoming a good cook. Take plain ramen and understand its cooking process through different methods. Now build a sense of how to flavor and season food by adding additional ingredients. What is a potato and how do you cook it? Solid, back to basics stuff. At the other end of the spectrum is an absolute classic of the genre, Slater’s Real…

Shout out also to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - the Salt section alone has transformed my cooking.

Would also add Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: The Basics to this list

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With an Instant Pot, an induction burner, and a toaster oven you can make anything that would require a normal kitchen, just in smaller portions (as in, you aren't cooking a whole turkey or a giant casserole).

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…

I have an older "convection" wall oven which I think probably has something like a $10 fan added to a regular oven BOM. From what I can tell if you put the item to be cooked on a cooling rack set in a baking tray, you have something close enough to an air fryer to be no different. Of course, people in small apartments have had toaster ovens forever so maybe an air fryer is just the modern replacement for that.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

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Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#337

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?

My guess is that it's some useless mode like microwave ovens have a zillion of but which are perfectly straightforward to simulate with the right temp/power and time settings.

Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These power structures have existed for millennia, so this abstracted idea that women wanting to step out of their traditional gender roles ONLY in the last century is a bit arbitrary. It makes much more sense that because the ruling class wanted a bigger work force they sanctioned for (or at the very least turn a blind eye) women’s role in the work force.

Exactly two millennia. The role of housewife didn’t really exist until the 1820s, and even then it was more of an upper-middle class thing and a distinctly American concept. It didn’t even really take off until the industrial revolution when factory jobs became more mainstream. It was also created by corporations, largely to sell magazines, cookbooks, and home appliances. Everywhere else in the world, especially outs…

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Re: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

#340

Any non-wealthy single person faces an uphill battle to both 1. earn a living 2. take proper care of themselves. In the Middle Ages people invented a rather neat solution for this problem: go live together in a big building, work together, pray together, cook together and call it a monastery.

...live together in a big building, work together, pray together, ~~cook~~ eat together...

What, kinda like this?

https://youtu.be/EqTyZoupc1w

... monastery.

Ooh. Very nice, eh? Do I get to take a turn as a "sort of executive officer for the week"?

https://youtu.be/t2c-X8HiBng?t=41s

More seriously, where do I sign up? ... The older I get, the more I think those monks were / are onto something...

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