Ask HN: Hackers who cook

1. Why do you cook? Is it to save cash or is it recreation? Or something else?

Recreation. It is fun to make and eat good food, and share it with others. My friends are generally into kitchen experiments, so it is cooking is a major feature of my social life. The act itself is often relaxing. It is also a personal challenge. I have been working on some dishes for all my life trying to perfect them.

A common theme in my cooking is what some call "peasant dishes". The foods eaten by the common people. These are usually some of the most celebrated and culturally significant dishes you can find. I feel that making these dishes brings me closer to understanding the culture they came from.

2. Do you plan ahead? Like a weekly meal plan?

No. When I want to make something, I go to buy anything I do not have on hand. If an ingredient will go bad, I will make a dish to use it up. This can cause chain reactions that keep me going for months.

3. What kind of things do you cook usually?

Hard to categorize since I blur the lines often. Lots of vegetable dishes, soups, things involving egg, cold dishes, and breads (including lots of pizza, a special case of bread). I generally shy away from meat because it is too expensive for the good stuff. When it comes to ingredients I only buy the good stuff.

4. Do you follow any diet? Atkins, Slow Carb etc.

No. I try to eat healthy most of the time. If I have any "diet plan", it is: I would rather skip a meal than eat something that doesn't excite me.

5. Do you have any life hacks, tips to be more productive as a cook?

Cook by feel. Until you do, you will stuck following recipes. If you want to invent, improvise, and explore, you must train your senses.

1. I really like making things, and my wife and I just had our first kid. Cooking is a 'making things' hobby that counts as valuable home-chores. It's a lot harder to find free time to justify building surfboards, and the like.

2. Uggh. I try. Meal-planning is definitely one of the things I struggle with. I'd like to do more of it, but honestly I also really enjoy the challenge of figuring something out based on what we have on hand.

3. Per the above (cook with what's on hand), I have templates for things I make. I really love making ramen and have a lot of basic ideas that constantly get remixed and bashed together based on what's in the fridge. Really good sandwiches, soups (I especially like making cold gazpacho's, etc.).. stir fry. Lots of stuff in the theme of being amenable to plenty of ad-hoc free-styling.

4. We eat mostly vegan. A little dairy, and fish for me (but I rarely cook that cause only I eat it in my house)

5. I work at home so when I'm smart I prep at lunchtime for dinner. Like I said I try to curate a set of favorites platform-dishes that can tolerate massive recipe diversions... makes meal planning less crucial.

> 2. We do a rough sketch of the week on Sunday mornings - we spend half an hour talking over budget, schedule, meals and their intersection.

Do you have any notes on this I could use? Will help me a lot.

You seem to have a whole lot of replies, which is inspiring because no one in my office cooks, but I'll add in my experience:

1. I enjoy the act of cooking.

2. I go to the grocery store every 3 or 4 days and plan my meals accordingly. I have a general idea of what I would like to eat the next few days but pick up whatever is available and seems good.

3. Every breakfast is oatmeal, banana, almonds and milk. Most lunches are whole grain break, turkey/chicken/etc, vegetables. My dinners are wide ranging but a lot of Mexican food, from the coast and yucatan, chili, steaks, some whole grain pastas.

4. No, though I try to avoid any processed food and really like lean meats, fish, and whole grains.

5. Slow cooker

1) Cheaper. Healthier. Tailored to my personal tastes, accounts for my particular allergies/sensitivities. Saves time and aggravation with my autistic four year old. And it's enjoyable.

2) If something is on sale at the grocery store, I'll plan out a specific meal around it (steak and peppers, for example) but otherwise I don't make a detailed plan.

3) I do a lot of one-pot or two-pot meals. One pot is grain (rice, pasta, or potatoes) and the other is a meat-veggie mix. Sometimes it's curry, sometimes it's more beef-and-tomatoes, sometimes lemon chicken with asparagus.

4) I have in the past done weight watchers (the points plan that was popular in ~2008). This is easily adaptable -- the meat-and-veggie dish is usually fairly low calorie and nutritiously filling, and using brown rice or whole wheat pasta with a small portion size keeps the points down.

5) I think of the dishes I make as essentially templates. I know how to make a decent Chicken Vindaloo, but I can turn it into Pork With A Different Blend of Spices And Veggies using the exact same cooking techniques and it's still good.

My favorite tools: a deep frying pan with a lid, a slow cooker, and a pressure cooker (especially for rice -- I live at altitude.)