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Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

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Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#171

Post by brewdad »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #132
corinroyal wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently figured out that I've been looking at long cooking tasks wrong. Instead of blocking the whole time for that task I block out that time for another task and take breaks where I prep the next cooking step while the pot boils unattended. I had a big mental block on making sourdough starter, as it requires attention every day for three days, which I didn't figure I could manage. But now it's just something…

I noticed that’s something people don’t pick up on when they cook also, but some things really are all day affairs. Meaning my mom couldn’t leave the house for most of the day. Baking, certain stews, etc. function this way.

Saturdays are frequently spent with me watching sports and my wife puttering in the kitchen a few feet away. I’ll pop in to help with retrieving ingredients or prepping later steps so things are ready when she needs them but it’s her way to decompress after the work week. It can certainly be an all day affair though.

Mid-week meals involve one of us prepping steps during the day depending on who has free time at the right moment. We do the final steps together while catching up on each other’s day. Maybe an hour of total prep time but usually less than half of that time requires active involvement.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#172

Post by brewdad »

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…

Find a life partner. One cooks the other cleans up. :)

The clean as you go method works well with most recipes though. There are dishes that come together really quickly and you can’t walk away from or others that must be monitored constantly but most dishes have some downtime built in.

Prepping all of your ingredients ahead of time makes a huge difference. I used to try and slice the veg for step 3 while step 2 was simmering and it became a stressful race to get it done in time. Now I prep all of my ingredients ahead of time in small bowls or on my cutting board. It’s ready before I need it and the extra “cleanup” involves adding a few more dishes to the dishwasher.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#173

Post by deafpolygon »

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…

Not only his first person view, but he's the only one that discusses how to cook while he's doing it. Not just little factoids. He keeps his recipes simple, so the average person could replicate it.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#174

Post by deafpolygon »

hamaluik wrote: post #134
dagw wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm a huge fan of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Serious Eats is my go to web site before cooking just about anything, nothing I've seen before or since beats Alton Brown and Good Eats when it comes to video based cooking education.

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.

I liked early Ragusesa. Modern Ragusea has become haughty and tinged with a bit of the egotistical.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#175

Post by hgsgm »

darth_avocado wrote: post #149
episteme wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me and my wife cook meals with fresh ingredients every night and it takes between 20 and 40 minutes. Do you order takeout for every single meal? Did your family spend every day cooking all day growing up? I'm curious how someone can have this take.

It really depends what you’re making. For example, some cuisines like asian food can take a very long time if you make it from scratch. Then there’s also a matter of balance, cooking a steak and sautéing some veggies can take minutes, at the same time if you’re trying to get a healthy balance of protein, carbs and veggies in all of your meals, then it can take forever unless you meal prep. An added component is how m…

What's the difference between "cooking a steak and sautéing some veggies" and "trying to get a healthy balance of protein, carbs and veggies"?

OK, sure, baking bread takes a while.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#176

Post by hgsgm »

akavi wrote: post #139
Spivak wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm now realizing that I'm an elitist of a kind because when I say cooking I mean something totally different from "making something to eat" and more akin to dinner service. And that's what most of Alton's recipes are aimed at, not desperation dinners. And when you're doing this kind of thing for family dinner you and up using shortcuts like bagged premixed salad, bottled dressing, rolls from the bakery, premade dess…

What does "dinner service" mean to you? I cook a fairly standard south Indian dinner of daal stew, rice + stir fried veggies a couple times a week in ~30-45 minutes of total work. Nothing preprocessed, premixed, or premade other than (and these are really stretching the definitions thereof): * Asofoetida powder that's been preground and dried for me * The rice has been polished and debran-ed (ie, turned into white ri…

You skipped the naan and lassi and samosa/pakora and sauces.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#177

Post by amrocha »

deprecative wrote: post #158
amrocha wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy is a professional chef that has run multiple restaurants and teaches people how to cook. Your standards for cleanliness might be unnecessarily higher, but don't you think it's a bit disingenuous to call his cooking "unclean"?

Dude straight up uses a sponge to clean up the fluids from raw chicken and wipes down his stove with it. He rinses with water and uses utensils after handling raw meat. Why are you taking my observations personally? It doesn't make sense.

Sure, he's made mistakes, that doesn't make his cooking "unclean". Unless people are getting sick from it (and they're not), his cooking is fine.

And I'm not taking it personally btw, I just think it's silly to claim you know more about kitchen hygiene than a literal professional.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#178

Post by deprecative »

amrocha wrote: post #177
deprecative wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude straight up uses a sponge to clean up the fluids from raw chicken and wipes down his stove with it. He rinses with water and uses utensils after handling raw meat. Why are you taking my observations personally? It doesn't make sense.

Sure, he's made mistakes, that doesn't make his cooking "unclean". Unless people are getting sick from it (and they're not), his cooking is fine. And I'm not taking it personally btw, I just think it's silly to claim you know more about kitchen hygiene than a literal professional.

You don't have to be a professional to know that cross contamination is bad. Dude owns/owned(?) a restaurant and seems to struggle with it.

That's my gripe. I enjoy his videos on the whole. I wouldn't eat at his house or restaurant but I enjoy his videos.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#179

Post by throwaway154 »

OJFord wrote: post #157
esafak wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Not GP but I'll often do so to test the heat. Doesn't read like that's what they meant though. It'd surprise me to learn that it made a difference either way to flavour or anything.

One is seasoning aromatics, the second is making a more even veg coating than seasoning at the end does; stirfry vegetables at a high heat won't release water thus won't have a 'sauce' to carry seasoning across the surface, this method makes it more even.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#180

Post by CoastalCoder »

OJFord wrote: post #153
manishsharan wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His articles on SousVide cooking on SeriousEats have been very helpful to me. His writing style is accessible to beginners such as myself. And the results always beat restaurant foods in taste for similar meals.

That's a ridiculous thing to say without saying which restaurants (or some idea of a class thereof that) you're eating in. As if any 'dummy' armed with some articles is 'always' beating 'restauraunts'. Don't get me wrong I'm not anti home cooking or massively pro restaurant, I love cooking & food, large categories of restaurant (and especially 'restauraunt') are no longer interesting to me due to the cost vs. taste r…

> That's a ridiculous thing to say without saying which restaurants (or some idea of a class thereof that) you're eating in. As if any 'dummy' armed with some articles is 'always' beating 'restauraunts'.

FWIW, I suspect your comment is getting downvoted because of the nasty tone, not because of the larger point your making.

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