“It’s Not Worth It”: 30 Expensive, Complex Or Smelly Dishes That People Prefer Not To Cook At Home
Interview With Author
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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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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
I want to try real ramen someday! But I can't find vegetarian versions :(
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.
These little f***ers aren't worth even considering making them at home. I tried it once and got so mad at the process I yeeted the cookbook in the corner and went to McDonalds.
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.
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 masochist 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.
I did make it once. Was very satisfying, but that was 40 years ago. Ngl, don't see it in my future.
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.
I will never clean whole squid and cook them every again. It's a smelly messy nightmare.
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.
Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings. Goddamn 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.
Gnocchi. Far too much work for so little.
I disagree with this one! If you get a potato ricer, gnocchi are super easy to make, they're very filling, and they don't need an elaborate sauce to be delicious.
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.
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.
Depends on the level of sushi you want to make. Simple nori rolls are very easy and not very time consuming once you get the rolling method right. (Considering with many other meals you'd be slicing ingredients anyway)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
But tacos are easy, you just put some meat and veggies in a pre made taco shell and maybe some sauce, and there you go! They’re delicious too
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 goddamn 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.
Definitely dumplings, they tasted amazing but took me hours and hours to roll and fill them. Never again
But there are so many handy little gadgets to help you with those. And there are so may varieties, how can you not try make em all qwq Starting to feel like this is just a page for people who dont like cooking/baking/prepare food in general ^^"
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.
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.
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..
Eggs Benedict. Everything about it is fussy. And it turned out fine, but I’ll happily pay for it at a restaurant instead.
I don't know, I'm not on the same page on this one... it's just bacon (toss it in a pan), hollandaise (easily made in a blender), and a poached egg. The egg is the fussiest part, but if you learn how to poach eggs, even that's kinda peaceful. But I do prefer to make it for a light dinner, because it doesn't feel worth the effort for a breakfast.
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.
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.
You expected a Heston Blumehthal recipe to be simple or easy?! He also has sous chefs and a professional kitchen 🤦♀️
Homemade ravioli. Super tedious and most of them exploded while boiling. Totally worth having a pro make them for me.
They exploded because OP did them wrong and left air inside. To me making ravioli and tortellini is an amazing stress reliever. You can experiment with fillings and flavors. You can make tons at a time and freeze them so they could be ready in ten minutes for a quick dinner, just put them in water, brown some butter and add parmigiano cheese.
Beef Wellington.
Took all day, and it wasn't even that nice.
I beg to differ on this one. A lot of work yes, but my wife makes one that has not been surpassed so far by any restaurant I know. Tender, juicy and full of flavor. Gordon Ramsey has a nice recipe on Youtube, by the way.
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.
Finicky? Don't know what elaborate recipe this person is using, they're so easy to make! I've made them so many times, simple ingredients, never used a thermometer, beat the s**t out if it, put the mixture into a baking paper lined loaf/sheet pan into the fridge, cut into cubes and cover in coconut or icing sugar, easy as.
Mussels. Did it once, and the debearding and scraping off the barnacles was a ridiculous amount of work. Never again.
Buy them cleaned, perhaps? Will not cost more... then, about 1.5 kg per person combined with the fries I described higher up, cannot get any better than this.
Apfelstrudel from scratch. Stretching the dough was a nightmare. Every tiny irregularity became a gaping hole which was impossible to patch.The end result didn't even taste very good. I'll just stick to store bought strudel.
Depends on recipe/instructions and how often you make it (typical grandma skill...). It doesn't take the whole day! And beating the dough is a great way to deal with anger :) Tiny holes can be ignored, since you roll it up anyway. Problem imo is the mess in the kitchen, flour everywhere, and you need the whole table in order to stretch it. That's why I hate having the kitchen in the living room.
Pho. Definitely pho. Homemade was the best I've ever had, but it wasn't worth the price. I'm sure it was $15-20 per bowl, easily. I think most bowls of restaurant Pho here are $6.
Pho (and many other soups) are a good value when you already have the bones on-hand from previous meals. Buying all that stuff to make it is just too damn expensive.
Tamales. I'm still cleaning up
I used to buy mine in gallon baggies by the dozens in the parking lot of the grocery store. Can always find some old lady selling them in Arizona and New Mexico.
Sous vide steaks then finishing them on the grill. It was so worthless and stupid. I’d rather just grill it from the beginning.
I'm on the fence on this. I've done really thick steaks (doesn't work with thin) in the sous vide and then grilled and they were amazing. But searing and finishing in the oven is nearly as good. OTOH, I cook pork tenderloins in the sous vide and then finish them in a searing hot pan - they are to die for. Tender, juicy, delicious. I think it depends on the meat and the cut.
I have a category name for those types of food.
“50 in the kitchen, 5 on the plate”
Things like sushi, dumplings and so on. It takes a lot of effort and you go through it in seconds.
Also, those with a lot of single use ingredients are good candidates but every now and then I’ll do them.
This will be unpopular but French onion soup. It was so much more hands on work than I expected and I was so over it by the time it was done I didn’t even care what it tasted like.
Onion soup is literally the easiest and simplest french recipe! Heat a bit of oil, a bit of butter, add chopped onions until start browining. A tablespoon of sugar, add a cup of white wine and cook until evaporates, then add beef stock and let it simmer for half an hour while sipping the rest of the wine. For pro result, give a quick pass with an immersion mixer, put in a flat wide bowl and add some parmigiano on top, 5 minutes in the oven on grill mode. Done.
I nearly set my mom's kitchen on fire five years ago because I was attempting to make jollof rice with chicken .... There were soot marks all the way to the ceiling
Won't do that again but I've become a much better cook since.
Opera cake. I think it took me 6 hours from start to finish. Looked horrible, tasted great though.
Curry. So many good places in town its usually just disappointing when I make it at home. I also don't have the spices on hand most of the time.
Enchiladas, maybe. It's one of my favorites, but by the time I've shredded the chicken, cooked the vegetables, and made the sauce, then filled the corn tortillas by dipping them in the oil and filling them, I want to be done. But then there's still the baking.
I should have just said, I am bad at doing things ahead of time
Like most of these, it's a matter of practice. I make enchiladas all the time, and it's not all that time consuming. And there are some great shortcuts: I use shredded rotisserie chicken and no one seems to notice any difference.
Fried rice.
No matter what recipe I try, it comes absolutely no where near as tasty as any Chinese restaurant in my town. I even have a bag of MSG in the pantry because I thought maybe that was the missing ingredient.
Day old rice, oyster sauce, and *white* pepper. If you skip those ingredients it won't come out the same.
There was an avocado egg roll (copy cat recipe for the ones made at cheesecake factory) recipe that I made once.
They came out great but took way too much time and a few of the ingredients were not something we normally keep around.
I’m a bread baker, yet I find cookies wholly annoying.
Depends what type. Any biscuit dough that I have to knead, refrigerate and then knead again, I find annoying, but there are so many types that don't require that.
Neapolitan-style pizza. I won’t say I’ll never do it again, though, but will reserve it for special occasions.
I purchased a Gozney Roccbox last year and thought I’d use it every other week. In reality it’s such a huge hassle and time commitment that it’s not worth the trouble to do often. Prepping the dough and letting it bulk ferment and proof can take hours or days depending on the recipe you follow. It takes about 45 minutes just to get the oven up to temperature (~900F). Also, not to mention the stress involved with not messing up a pizza if you’re cooking for a crowd.
This summer I brought my oven to a lake house rental with some friends and the first two pizzas turned into accidental calzones. Still turned out well, but being that stressed preparing for about a dozen people was the exact opposite intention of hanging out at a lake house.
Moussaka. It is so so so so good but I would rather go to the closest Greek restaurant and pay $15 for one portion than spend like 4 hours doing that again
Sea bass. It was delicious and cost a fair amount at the store, but after cooking it at home, the entire house stunk like fish for several weeks. I’ve never had that happen with something like salmon or tuna. So, when given a chance to eat a nice dinner OUT, sea bass is definitely back on the menu.
ribs. never been able to make ones the way i like them, and it's so time consuming. it barely costs anymore to just buy them done perfectly from a bbq place so why bother.
Extra wtf. It takes like 20 minutes of effort to make ribs and do much cheaper than a restaurant. 40$ for 3 full racks (I live in expensive col). Mix a few spices together for a dry rub. Start a fire with some apple wood. Leave alone for like 5 hours at 225 and you are done. So much better than "BBQ" places around here for 25$ for half a rack
Risotto. So much stirring.
News flash: constant stirring is not necessary. Just make sure you stir occasionally to cook the rice evenly. And you don't have to add broth a ladle at a time, you can dump half of it at the beginning and just wait til it's reduced down. I once tried both methods at the same time and the results were identical.
Shrimp preparation is really pain in a$s. Slow cooking meat, love the result but not worth time.
Lasagna. No matter what recipe I use - it doesn’t taste as good as a restaurant
Drink every time the first comment is "What? It's so easy I do it all the time! Here's my recipe you didn't ask for!"
This Panda really appreciated the recipes. I'll probably use at least one in the next few weeks.
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Half of them just sharing their culinary misfortunes. I agree that cooking something that takes a lot of time to prepare and tons of sophisticated ingredients maybe not worth it, but it doesn't mean you can't make a delicious lasagna or curry at home. Or dumplings. It's not nearly as hard and tedious as they make it sound.
The unwritten ingredient to many recipes is patience.
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My cousin went to school of gastronomy. He had to cook a lot of overly complicated meals, looking for ingredients that he never heard of before, impossible to find in regular supermarkets. Results were actually very tasty, but he had very long list of meals he will never cook at home.
Bakewell tart! It looked ok and it tasted amazing, but it took me about 6 hours, from scratch. Everything has to cook/bake then cool down before assembly, I really don't have the patience! IMG_202201...45a325.jpg 
That looks lovely and delicious! Bakewell tarts look quite tricky.
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I hate making all these things because I'm a party of one. And yeah I have 2 deep freezers that are almost full because "you can freeze the leftovers and eat them later". I could. OR I can go out to get one portion and spend way less money, time, and clean up.
Tamales - there's a reason it's a family affair and done only at holidays. Did it once, they were absolutely delicious, but never again. And to the person who said "Fried Rice" (didn't make the final cut, but I remember) - two words, my friend - Wok Hey. That's what makes it taste awesome, and most home kitchens are not equipped for that sort of thing.
Southern American tamales are even more difficult. It's so hard to find honduran or el Salvadoran restaurants so I might have to make them but they have more ingredients than the Mexican ones. Won't make Mexican since it's so easy to buy them
Load More Replies... i would add brewing beer., at least in small batches anyway. I did it a few times. the end result was good, but the effort and the wait for it to ferment, then age, etc. it wasn't worth it for the 20 or so bottles it yielded. Buying a couple of 12 packs is a better value IMO.
I literally cannot make fudge. Yes, I’ve tried a candy thermometer. Yes, I’ve tried numerous “never-fail fudge” recipes. It has never turned out right. Granted, I’ve literally had a pan explode on me after 10 seconds of heating it and managed to catch a pot handle on fire while boiling water so I think I’m just cursed when it comes to cooking anything
Sounds like a lot of whining about cooking. If you don't like it, don't do it. I tend to spend my days off finding ridiculously elaborate things to cook, just because it's fun!
Really, a lot of this is from people who don't want to do the work, but i think it's just more fun to make it. I posted it on the macaron picture, but heres my recipe for macarons- always works. I suggest taking a class, too though. (Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour!) there are many tips online as well. :) Screen-Sho...cc-png.jpg 
I feel like a lot of these were "one and done" people. It can take a couple tries to get the techniques and systems down... that and some people must think crock pots and air fryers are cheating - they are not. Cooking can be hard when you don't have a foundation for it. But it makes me sad when I find people too intimidated to even try.
Why did I even click on this when I'm full aware I have coeliac and "just buy it from a bakery" or even "just buy ready-to-bake dough for the pastries" is not a realistic option. I'll go cry in my kitchen and keep making my not-as-good-as-the-real-deal-and-5-times-more-difficult-to-make cinnamon rolls and poor excuses for croissants thanks.
Same, plus I am lactose intolerant and have other intolerances :( Every cooking post on BP makes me sad/wistful at least once, yet I still read them!
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This is what we would call cookery snobbery. Who has the time? Some of these diy dishes cost a bankroll too much from scratch when you can save time and energy and money by getting ready made. It's like home made clothes. It got too expensive starting in the 60s unless you're rich in the first place. And I don't believe all the stuff about home made always being better than what you buy ready to eat or heat. That's a crock of spam that gets bandied about too often by would be connoisseurs.
Techniques develop over time from experience. If you haven't gotten comfortable with a certain technique, it will seem tedious and time-consuming. Also, cooking or baking in bulk can make minor variations even out the result. Imagine baking a single croissant compared to a batch of 50.
This is why I can't believe people order hamburgers from restaurants: they're so easy to make, when so many foods are so much more difficult to make!
I love to eat but unless it's a very special occasion I'm not going to spend more than half an hour preparing something that's just going to disappear down my gullet. There's plenty of good stuff around that doesn't take all that hassle and clean up. I'm not counting cooking time by the way.
That would exclude me from cooking anything! With the cost and me trying to eat more healthily, I am cooking more and more, but it always takes me longer than prescribed on the recipe.
Load More Replies... In conclusion, many of us have great food on our doorstep, which is fabulous. But most things are masterable given time and practise. No one said ‘ice cream’.
I made ice cream recently that was really quick and easy. It was sweetened condensed milk ice cream, not a regular one though. You just whip up condensed milk, vanilla, and cream and freeze.
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If you live in a place where you can easily get any of these things it makes sense to buy them. But when you don't - you learn to bake bread, make ravioli, etc. because if you want to eat it there isn't another option. No, it is not easy, so you decide when you're going to do it.
I can’t believe lasagne isn’t on the list, it’s a nightmare to make from scratch!
It was on the original list of 51 items, but ended up in position 51 so didn't make the shortened list
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Drink every time the first comment is "What? It's so easy I do it all the time! Here's my recipe you didn't ask for!"
This Panda really appreciated the recipes. I'll probably use at least one in the next few weeks.
Load More Replies... Half of them just sharing their culinary misfortunes. I agree that cooking something that takes a lot of time to prepare and tons of sophisticated ingredients maybe not worth it, but it doesn't mean you can't make a delicious lasagna or curry at home. Or dumplings. It's not nearly as hard and tedious as they make it sound.
The unwritten ingredient to many recipes is patience.
Load More Replies... My cousin went to school of gastronomy. He had to cook a lot of overly complicated meals, looking for ingredients that he never heard of before, impossible to find in regular supermarkets. Results were actually very tasty, but he had very long list of meals he will never cook at home.
Bakewell tart! It looked ok and it tasted amazing, but it took me about 6 hours, from scratch. Everything has to cook/bake then cool down before assembly, I really don't have the patience! IMG_202201...45a325.jpg
That looks lovely and delicious! Bakewell tarts look quite tricky.
Load More Replies... I hate making all these things because I'm a party of one. And yeah I have 2 deep freezers that are almost full because "you can freeze the leftovers and eat them later". I could. OR I can go out to get one portion and spend way less money, time, and clean up.
Tamales - there's a reason it's a family affair and done only at holidays. Did it once, they were absolutely delicious, but never again. And to the person who said "Fried Rice" (didn't make the final cut, but I remember) - two words, my friend - Wok Hey. That's what makes it taste awesome, and most home kitchens are not equipped for that sort of thing.
Southern American tamales are even more difficult. It's so hard to find honduran or el Salvadoran restaurants so I might have to make them but they have more ingredients than the Mexican ones. Won't make Mexican since it's so easy to buy them
Load More Replies... i would add brewing beer., at least in small batches anyway. I did it a few times. the end result was good, but the effort and the wait for it to ferment, then age, etc. it wasn't worth it for the 20 or so bottles it yielded. Buying a couple of 12 packs is a better value IMO.
I literally cannot make fudge. Yes, I’ve tried a candy thermometer. Yes, I’ve tried numerous “never-fail fudge” recipes. It has never turned out right. Granted, I’ve literally had a pan explode on me after 10 seconds of heating it and managed to catch a pot handle on fire while boiling water so I think I’m just cursed when it comes to cooking anything
Sounds like a lot of whining about cooking. If you don't like it, don't do it. I tend to spend my days off finding ridiculously elaborate things to cook, just because it's fun!
Really, a lot of this is from people who don't want to do the work, but i think it's just more fun to make it. I posted it on the macaron picture, but heres my recipe for macarons- always works. I suggest taking a class, too though. (Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour!) there are many tips online as well. :) Screen-Sho...cc-png.jpg
I feel like a lot of these were "one and done" people. It can take a couple tries to get the techniques and systems down... that and some people must think crock pots and air fryers are cheating - they are not. Cooking can be hard when you don't have a foundation for it. But it makes me sad when I find people too intimidated to even try.
Why did I even click on this when I'm full aware I have coeliac and "just buy it from a bakery" or even "just buy ready-to-bake dough for the pastries" is not a realistic option. I'll go cry in my kitchen and keep making my not-as-good-as-the-real-deal-and-5-times-more-difficult-to-make cinnamon rolls and poor excuses for croissants thanks.
Same, plus I am lactose intolerant and have other intolerances :( Every cooking post on BP makes me sad/wistful at least once, yet I still read them!
Load More Replies... This is what we would call cookery snobbery. Who has the time? Some of these diy dishes cost a bankroll too much from scratch when you can save time and energy and money by getting ready made. It's like home made clothes. It got too expensive starting in the 60s unless you're rich in the first place. And I don't believe all the stuff about home made always being better than what you buy ready to eat or heat. That's a crock of spam that gets bandied about too often by would be connoisseurs.
Techniques develop over time from experience. If you haven't gotten comfortable with a certain technique, it will seem tedious and time-consuming. Also, cooking or baking in bulk can make minor variations even out the result. Imagine baking a single croissant compared to a batch of 50.
This is why I can't believe people order hamburgers from restaurants: they're so easy to make, when so many foods are so much more difficult to make!
I love to eat but unless it's a very special occasion I'm not going to spend more than half an hour preparing something that's just going to disappear down my gullet. There's plenty of good stuff around that doesn't take all that hassle and clean up. I'm not counting cooking time by the way.
That would exclude me from cooking anything! With the cost and me trying to eat more healthily, I am cooking more and more, but it always takes me longer than prescribed on the recipe.
Load More Replies... In conclusion, many of us have great food on our doorstep, which is fabulous. But most things are masterable given time and practise. No one said ‘ice cream’.
I made ice cream recently that was really quick and easy. It was sweetened condensed milk ice cream, not a regular one though. You just whip up condensed milk, vanilla, and cream and freeze.
Load More Replies... If you live in a place where you can easily get any of these things it makes sense to buy them. But when you don't - you learn to bake bread, make ravioli, etc. because if you want to eat it there isn't another option. No, it is not easy, so you decide when you're going to do it.
I can’t believe lasagne isn’t on the list, it’s a nightmare to make from scratch!
It was on the original list of 51 items, but ended up in position 51 so didn't make the shortened list
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