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It’s a brand new year! And if you’re anything like us, Pandas, some of your resolutions for 2023 probably sound the same as ours. Eat healthier. Save money. Cook at home. There is a massive ‘however!’ here, though. Just because you can make something at home doesn’t mean that you should.
Some dishes are incredibly expensive or very time-consuming to prepare. Others stink up your home, leaving your fancy clothes smelling of cooking oil for weeks. In those cases, it’s actually smarter to go out for a meal or get something to take away.
Redditor u/That_Smell_You_Know started up an interesting thread on the r/Cooking subreddit. They asked the members of the community about the meals they tried making at home, only to realize that it totally wasn’t worth all the hassle. Check out what they shared below, dear Pandas. Upvote the posts that really resonated with you. And share your own tales about cooking tragedies in the comments.
We got in touch with redditor u/That_Smell_You_Know, the author of the thread, to ask a few questions. They were kind enough to share what inspired them to make the Reddit post in the first place and explained exactly what happened with their ill-fated attempt to make tonkotsu ramen from scratch. The OP also shared a fantastic tip to help you save some cash the next time you go grocery shopping. Read on for Bored Panda's full interview with them.
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#1
I cried so many times when I attempted croissants for the first time. I now live next to a bakery that makes fabulous laminated pastries. Why cause myself such distress ever again?
We were very curious to find out the inspiration behind the r/Cooking thread. The author of the post, u/That_Smell_You_Know, shared a bit of context with Bored Panda.
"I tend to gravitate towards meals that take a long time to cook. Stews and really rich broths that take hours on the stove are extremely satisfying when done properly, but sometimes those types of meals aren't worth the effort and hours," they explained.
"I recently made Galbi-tang at home which did not turn out as well as I had hoped. There's a local restaurant that I was comparing mine to, and it made me realize that it was something that it just makes more sense to have it there instead of trying to recreate it at home."
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#2
Tonkotsu Ramen. I boiled pigs feet for 2 days to make the gelatinous broth, I even added the cream. I roasted the pork bell until crispy. I roasted corn on the grill. I made the soy sauce soft boiled eggs. I charred the greens. I bought real organic buckwheat ramen. Then I made a few bowls. I have mad respect for ramen shops and all the work that goes in to it. Pho is a walk in the park by comparison.
#3
Breaded or deep fried stuff. It makes the entire apartment smell like oil, the entire process is messy (even with one hand for dry and one for wet), there are more dishes after and it's just not worth the trouble to me.
Meanwhile, we just had to know about the time that the OP decided to make tonkotsu ramen. Our jaws literally dropped when we learned how much effort went into that!
"I tried making tonkotsu ramen over a weekend a few years ago. After about $80 dollars in ingredients, and roughly 14 hours of cooking time, the ramen that I had created was mediocre at best," u/That_Smell_You_Know detailed just how much they sacrificed for that ramen.
"I did enjoy the process of creating the broth myself, but it was just too much work and time for home cooking. I also am lucky enough to live in a location where there's plenty of great ramen places nearby, so I'd much rather give them my money to save on the hassle," they told Bored Panda.
#4
Donuts 🍩 🍩 it took hours and hours to make them and the glaze and toppings and then people walked through and they were gone in less than 2 min.
#5
I've been living in Japan for 7 years and nobody in their right mind makes tonkotsu from scratch at home here. There are restaurants that specialize in ramen and ramen only for a reason.
#6
Macarons. I like macarons but I don't like them enough to go through the trouble of ever making them again. I hate how careful you have to be so that you don't screw them up. Even making the slightest mistake could end in disaster.
The redditor shared a great cost-saving tip the next time you go shopping for food. In short, you should consider buying meat using a slightly different approach.
"Most of the time that you go to the store, you can find a pretty good deal on different cuts of meat. Most of the time, it's going to be the tougher cuts, but with some time and love, those turn into really hearty and tender dishes that are extremely filling," the OP explained.
"While there were all different types of responses to my post, what was great to see and read were all the different 'hacks' that people were commenting. As a home chef, with most dishes, there will always be ways to cheat to reduce cooking time, and effort. But 1,200+ comments later, no one disagreed with me that tonkotsu ramen is not worth making at home," they added.
#7
Not a meal, but baklava. Even with prepared phyllo dough, it will test your patience and your cleaning supply cabinet, because the sticky honey/lemon stuff gets everywhere. Plus by the time you buy the butter, nuts, spices, etc and the phyllo (unless you're a real m*******t and want to make your own) you might as well spring for a whole pan full already prepared from a restaurant. Not to mention if you just want enough for one or two people.
#8
Shawarma. Love the stuff. Can't get enough of it. Looked up various recipes and tried to make different ones. And not a single one of them turned out as good as the stuff I can buy from the joint on the east side of town.
It can be quite difficult to cook at home and avoid stinking up your home when you work with certain ingredients... or have a tendency to burn everything you try to make. Maybe you decided to give cooking broccoli another chance. Perhaps you simply forgot that you had a roast in the oven.
Or, just like some redditors, you might have decided to deep fry some delicious snacks, only to realize that your apartment will be smelling of fish and chips and fried Mars bars for a loooong while now.
The best way to fight against nasty kitchen smells is prevention (pretty much like fighting fires). If you’re a fan of getting some deep-fried food from time to time, simply go to your local take-away or chippy, instead of doing everything at home.
#11
Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings. [darn] delicious but boiling fish sauce until it's a syrup has major lasting effects on your house! I could still smell it 2 weeks later.
Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to neutralize the smell. Obviously, start by opening all of the windows and airing out your home. Meanwhile, cut a lemon in half and plop it into a pop of boiling water. This should help you eliminate the odor. You can even try adding a bit of baking soda into the pot to improve the effect.
Something else that you can do is leave a couple of bowls of baking soda or vinegar on your kitchen counter. ‘All Recipes’ also suggests simmering some homemade potpourri to keep your home smelling fresh. For instance, you can add some citrus and apple peels, cinnamon sticks, rosemary, and cloves to a pot of hot water.
#13
Defo Sushi. It's labor intensive, easy to mess up, and you need too many pricey components to make a satisfying platter that it's cheaper just to get from a proper sushi place. Can be a fun time with friends, but it's best left to the stocked up pros.
#14
Gyros from scratch. I made the meat, the pitas, the tzatziki, made homemade french fries, and a caramelized rice pudding for dessert. It was delicious... but getting it at a dive is just as good.
#15
Pierogi's. Making that dough, getting it just fhe right thickness, cutting out dozens of little circles, making a filling, stuffing each little circle and then closing it up in such a way that it won't pop back open.... No thanks. I live in Cleveland so there are plenty of Polish immigrants around that make them better than I could.
Meanwhile, some dishes and foods are just not worth making at home anymore because of how expensive the ingredients have become. Things aren’t looking great right now if you’re an amateur or professional baker living in the United States.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that the price of flour has risen by 25% between November 2021 and November 2022. The cost of eggs has risen by 49%; sugar and sweets are 13% more expensive; butter is up by 27%; and milk costs 15% more compared to a year ago.
#16
Bread. I'm from Germany and our bakeries are pretty good and not too expensive. Baking a bread at home is so much work until it gets really good but even then, it is rarely better than bakery stuff. It's easy for me to bake better cake and cookies etc, but with bread, it doesn't seem to be worth it.
#17
Remember when "bacon everything" was a trend, like ten years ago? I weaved a bunch of bacon into a circle and broiled it to make a "bacon pizza crust". It was a huge pain in the a*s, the resulting pizza was gross and disappointing, and I'll never do it again.
#18
For years, it's been tacos. Why would I do it myself when there's a taco truck I can walk to that makes them better than I do and only charges like $1.50 or $2.00 each? But now that I live in an area without great tacos, I'm starting to think maybe I should go back to making them at home again.
#19
Because I’m an a*****e, my request for Father’s Day dinner a couple of years back was beef Wellington. My partner & kids spent all [darn] day searing, chopping, rolling & baking. And it was… pretty good. But for all the effort that went into it, was it better than a nicely done steak with mustard on top & mushrooms on the side? It was not.
#20
Definitely dumplings, they tasted amazing but took me hours and hours to roll and fill them. Never again
#21
Phyllo dough, which I then turned into pastilla. It's a pain to roll anything that thin, even using a pasta maker, and it wasn't as thin as the store-bought stuff. I should probably try making pastilla again with store-bought dough.
#22
Birria tacos. It took so long to make something I scarfed down in 10 minutes. I’d rather just support a local establishment and not have the cleanup.
#23
I once made vegetarian burgers which involved multiple steps of preparing lots of different vegetables and finally cooking them and the overall result was underwhelming..
#24
Eggs Benedict. Everything about it is fussy. And it turned out fine, but I’ll happily pay for it at a restaurant instead.
#25
Tikka Masala. If you take the time to toast all the numerous whole spices and grind them, you'll find thay your time is better spent letting your local Indian restaurant make it better.
#26
Any Heston Blumenthal recipe. My husband took two days and melted the light on our extractor fan cooking an overly complicated Blumenthal chili con carne recipe and it wasn't as good as the chili he normally makes.
#27
Homemade ravioli. Super tedious and most of them exploded while boiling. Totally worth having a pro make them for me.
#29
Not a meal, but homemade marshmallows. They can be finicky… (And they end up tasting the same anyway) Edit: Ok sure you can customize them and stuff, but the bigger problem is that they can be easy to mess up. Candy making can be my Achilles' heel, so personally I can't seem to get them right (and yes, I use a thermometer). Instead of me hoping they'd come out ok, I'd rather just buy some.
#30
Mussels. Did it once, and the debearding and scraping off the barnacles was a ridiculous amount of work. Never again.
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