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Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

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Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#201

Here's a few more channels that I personally enjoy and recommend: - Ethan Chlebowski https://www.youtube.com/@EthanChlebowski - Adam Ragusea https://www.youtube.com/@aragusea I tried numerous recipes from both and learned quite a bit about the technique as well.

Townsends is my favorite, as well as Tasting History

- Townsends https://www.youtube.com/@townsends

- Tasting History https://www.youtube.com/@TastingHistory

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#202

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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.

same category is French Guy Cooking (Alex) Hacked his pyrolysis oven into a pizza oven ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJjr9lmUhZE )

Kind of an annoying YouTube persona but I do learn some things from him occasionally

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#203
post #52

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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.

For my birthday my wife got me "The Food Lab" and I'm dying to read it, but it's like 800 pages and we have a toddler to take care of. The time has not been made yet.

Food lab isn’t that dense I think it’s only 100 pages then recipes. The best reading is the first tome of modernist cuisine. The knowledge contained there on food safety really is mind blowing. Nobody else has dared to publish that kind of info in an accessible form.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#204

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> 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?

This reminds me of a quote that's been around a while (about music production but perfectly analogous to cooking) > I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. > I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. > I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. > I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make…

See also "The Toaster Project"- building a toaster from scratch using raw materials (even then, there was some cheating).

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#205

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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…

I really hate it when my wife cooks and she leaves me the kitchen looking like a bomb went off. And then I cook and I leave her maybe two pans and a knife.

Sounds familiar...

Big proponent of cleaning while cooking myself.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#206
post #148
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 watch a lot of cooking YouTube and Kenji is great, but I'd also put Chef John's Food Wishes and America's Test Kitchen up there.

I've seen exactly one "Americas test kitchen" video.

It claimed with confidence that the only way to make pork skin crunchy (ie into crackling) is to fry the pork after it's been roasted (ie turn it upside down in a pan of oil/fat)

I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't know if they're catering to people who can't work the knob on an oven or if they themselves are just incompetent but that one claim was enough for me to never watch their shit again.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#207
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch a lot of cooking YouTube and Kenji is great, but I'd also put Chef John's Food Wishes and America's Test Kitchen up there.

I've seen exactly one "Americas test kitchen" video. It claimed with confidence that the only way to make pork skin crunchy (ie into crackling) is to fry the pork after it's been roasted (ie turn it upside down in a pan of oil/fat) I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't know if they're catering to people who can't work the knob on an oven or if they themselves are just incompetent but that one claim was e…

[deleted]

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#209
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch a lot of cooking YouTube and Kenji is great, but I'd also put Chef John's Food Wishes and America's Test Kitchen up there.

I've seen exactly one "Americas test kitchen" video. It claimed with confidence that the only way to make pork skin crunchy (ie into crackling) is to fry the pork after it's been roasted (ie turn it upside down in a pan of oil/fat) I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't know if they're catering to people who can't work the knob on an oven or if they themselves are just incompetent but that one claim was e…

They've been operating in one form or another for like 20 years and their whole deal is experimenting to find optimal recipes. Kenji Lopez started on that show and has guest appeared recently.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#210
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen exactly one "Americas test kitchen" video. It claimed with confidence that the only way to make pork skin crunchy (ie into crackling) is to fry the pork after it's been roasted (ie turn it upside down in a pan of oil/fat) I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't know if they're catering to people who can't work the knob on an oven or if they themselves are just incompetent but that one claim was e…

They've been operating in one form or another for like 20 years and their whole deal is experimenting to find optimal recipes. Kenji Lopez started on that show and has guest appeared recently.

I saw your original reply, claiming I "misremembered".

It took me about 30 seconds to find this: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/8116-crispy-slow...

That isn't the video I saw, but they still happily fry it:

> Finally, we fry the skin, which causes it to dramatically puff up and crisp.

I don't care how long they've been doing whatever it is they do. If you need to put pork in oil to make the skin crispy you suck at cooking.

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