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Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

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Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#161

Post by mensetmanusman »

Spivak wrote: post #128
xormapmap wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> shortcuts like bagged premixed salad, bottled dressing ... At what point is something no longer a shortcut? Do you also consider the time it takes you to track, shoot, carry, & butcher an animal? Or do you take the shortcut of buying your meat? Do you grow your own wheat? Grind your own flour? Or are those shortcuts too?

No, obviously. Are you being deliberately obtuse or do you really not know what ingredients are considered culturally to be atomic and what is considered composite and therefore a shortcut? Like there is a floor and it's not very far down. * A cut of meat is atomic, that cut pre-marinated isn't. * Flour is atomic, a Jiffy box is composite. * Oil is atomic, bottled dressing is composite. * Potatoes are atomic, frozen…

I like this thought process of different food axiom/atoms being cultural… thanks for sharing the insight!

In the context of healthy diets for living to 100 I wonder what the best axioms are.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#162

Post by mortureb »

Spivak wrote: post #109
tengbretson wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good Eats sets the standard for educational cooking content, but actually implementing the recipes Alton demonstrates usually results in a nearly day-long cooking project.

I'm not entirely sure what else you expect? Cooking takes a long-ass time, it is a day-long full-time affair. You can hide the real time by doing prep, outright fully preparing parts of dishes agreed of time, having multiple people or buying premade but someone is putting in those hours somewhere.

Not at all. My wife can whip up something delicious and complex in under 30-40 minutes.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#163

Post by redhale »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #144
hamaluik wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you checked out Adam Ragusea on YouTube? https://youtube.com/@aragusea He continues on in a similar, if more modern, tradition as Alton Brown, I enjoy his videos and I have learned a lot from his videos.

Another YouTube cooking personality I really like is Internet Shaquille ( https://m.youtube.com/@internetshaquille ). His videos are very informationally dense without engaging in many of the typical YouTuber nonsense. And the ads are always at the end.

Yes, I love this guy's stuff. His style is very unique, expertly knowledgeable while still completely casual and humble. Like a very smart friend teaching you, rather than being in a class.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#164

Post by nraf »

Spivak wrote: post #128
xormapmap wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> shortcuts like bagged premixed salad, bottled dressing ... At what point is something no longer a shortcut? Do you also consider the time it takes you to track, shoot, carry, & butcher an animal? Or do you take the shortcut of buying your meat? Do you grow your own wheat? Grind your own flour? Or are those shortcuts too?

No, obviously. Are you being deliberately obtuse or do you really not know what ingredients are considered culturally to be atomic and what is considered composite and therefore a shortcut? Like there is a floor and it's not very far down. * A cut of meat is atomic, that cut pre-marinated isn't. * Flour is atomic, a Jiffy box is composite. * Oil is atomic, bottled dressing is composite. * Potatoes are atomic, frozen…

Many of these items are complety arbitrary. As someone who's been cooking some pretty elaborate dishes for over a decade, I don't actually recall ever coming across these two distinctions.

Why is cinnamon sugar "composite" whereas 5 spice is atomic? Who defines these? Are you suggesting that if you use packaged cinnamon sugar on donuts you can't claim to have made them?

For reference, I mostly roast and grind from whole spices. If I need garam masala, Chinese 5 spice, Lebanese 7 spice, etc, I'll make it from scratch. If I new cumin or coriander powder, etc, I'll grind them in my spice grinder.

Are you suggesting that jarred pasta sauce and pizza are different to each other? Following your criteria, I'd classify both as composite.

Not to say that I disagree with most of the list - there's a distinction between highly processed and cooking dishes from scratch, but it's more nuanced than what you've presented here.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#165

Post by nraf »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #35
mabbo wrote: post #25

The absolute pinnacle of cooking video chefs today has to be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt[0], in large part because of his use of first person view. He straps a go-pro to this head and you see what he sees while he cooks. There's no cuts or retakes (unless he's waiting for something to cook or gets interrupted by his kids). There's no swaps. And it's all real- he's cooking dinner for his family. And it doesn't always go perfec…

I found his written work (which is how he built his following) _much_ more useful, but part of that's just about how I process information. Certainly it's valuable to be able to see how certain things are done, and it's hard for cooks to describe techniques sometimes.

Agreed, I enjoy his YouTube videos, but find other YouTubers who are make as-good or better content, but his articles on Serious Eats were in a league of their own.

There are gems in his videos, but it's a few tidbits here and there compared to the content in his written articles.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#166

Post by unaindz »

esafak wrote: post #147
throwaway154 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The basics never end. There is no strict vertical. When you stir-fry vegetables, salt the oil before adding the aromatics. That's basic. How many years was it until I figured that out? How many pro chefs have never figured that out? What's pro? What about mincing your meat with one cleaver and one chef's knife? Not two cleavers. Not two chefs knives? That's basic. For a certain type of mince. How many people figure t…

> When you stir-fry vegetables, salt the oil before adding the aromatics Are you sure? What is it for, evenness, or are you playing with the chemistry? I never got this memo and a search suggests otherwise: https://magnesol.com/six-enemies-of-oil-salt/ https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos...

Your link says that they tested and found no difference between salted vs non salted oil and that while reusing it, a stir-fry would not leave oil enough to reuse.

I still don't know how salting the oil would improve anything though. Maybe it's a salting just before cooking vs later and not related to the oil?

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#167

Post by mianos »

Spivak wrote: post #109
tengbretson wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good Eats sets the standard for educational cooking content, but actually implementing the recipes Alton demonstrates usually results in a nearly day-long cooking project.

I'm not entirely sure what else you expect? Cooking takes a long-ass time, it is a day-long full-time affair. You can hide the real time by doing prep, outright fully preparing parts of dishes agreed of time, having multiple people or buying premade but someone is putting in those hours somewhere.

It is highly possible to take a whole day the first time you cook something new. Being a good cook is as much about managing time and processes as it is learning the recipe.

The more you cook something the quicker it is.

There are many shortcuts, such as:

- cooking rice in the evening before.

- Cooking extra.

- Using a pressure-cooker.

- Using a mini oven.

- Using the griller for more heat.

- Sometimes using the microwave to pre cook things can lead to faster times. (Not often for me).

- Purchasing partially prepared items. Pre cut carrots etc.

- Using a deep fryer.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#168

Post by SoftTalker »

psukhedelos wrote: post #46

Is there any cooking content that takes into account cleaning up after? In my limited viewing experience the focus often seems to be prep and the cooking, ignoring the reality of the inevitable clean up. Is there anyone focusing on recipes and how to cook that minimises / reuses cookware and through to a reset clean kitchen? When I cook I enjoy getting into a flow where I’m ordering the prep or modifying the recipe s…

Clean as you go as much as possible. Don't let mess accumulate.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#170

Post by wampwampwhat »

dehrmann wrote: post #83
theshrike79 wrote: post #5

Most cookbooks tend to be like the meme about drawing an owl [0]. Mostly because the people making the instructions make assumptions about Stuff One Should Just Know and skip those bits in the instructions. On video you can actually see the consistency of things as they are cooked and maybe even hear what the process sounds like (frying spices in oil has a distinct sound if the oil is at the correct temperature). You…

Other than Salt Fat Acid Heat (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), any recommendations for building that baseline knowledge? Step-by-step videos are great for making that one dish, but are pretty inefficient for reaching a skill baseline.

The Food Lab, by J Kenji Lopez-Alt should be on the shelf of any HN reader who likes to cook. dives deep into the 'why' behind each recipe, includes a lot of A/B testing results (e.g. differences roasting russet potatoes vs gold vs red)
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