There’s nothing like a hot, fresh home-cooked meal. As long as the person who prepared it doesn’t have their own bizarre style of cooking, that is… Every chef will tell you that creativity in the kitchen can be a great thing. But without mastering the basics, taking risks in the kitchen can also lead to some interesting outcomes.
Reddit users have recently been sharing the most questionable culinary habits their family members have, so we’ve gathered some eyebrow-raising responses below. Enjoy reading through these habits that would make Gordon Ramsay shudder, and be sure to upvote the ones that you find particularly shocking!
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My sister moved from the city to a small Texas town. Someone in their circle had a new baby girl and named her Brie. My sister jokingly said, "If you have another one, you can name it Gouda." Everyone looked at her with blank stares because they had no idea what Gouda was. It was perhaps a joke in bad taste, but she and i have laughed over that many times through the years, so in the end it was a worthwhile joke.
My mother has entire cookbooks dedicated to cooking in the microwave. She thinks there are two ways to cook vegetables:
1. Place frozen vegetables into Corningware. Add water and margarine. Microwave until they are mush.
2. Dump canned vegetables and liquid from can into pot. Add margarine. Hear until slightly warm.
I realized I could like vegetables the first time I tasted fresh green beans that had been lightly sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and salt.
Try baked broccoli with garlic and Parmesan cheese 😋 edit: and olive oil and baked
My mom wouldn't eat hummus until I started calling it "bean dip".
My step dads mom took a stick of butter, used it like a crayon to butter the raw turkey, then put the rest of the stick on the table for rolls. That was over 20 years ago and I still refuse to eat anything she makes.
Luckily, I live several states away. I plan all trips to visit my mother NOT on holidays so I can avoid her... And all the holiday travelers.
I remember one Easter half my family went to the hospital because of leftovers. Thanks Mom!
My in-laws visited for a month and I had to learn the hard way that, despite having travelled the world over, they are not adventurous eaters nor particularly well acquainted with good cooking. We wanted to grill one evening and my mother-in-law insisted that the pork loin medallions needed to be BOILED for AN HOUR before cooking on the grill. I watched her turn the meat into small gray pucks, slather them in bottled sauce, then grill for 5 minutes a side. When they cut them, the interior was fluffy and dry, resembling sawdust more than meat. Very glad we also cooked sausage or I would have been sad AND hungry.
I have a dairy allergy. I visited home for the holidays. My dad tried to argue with me that THERE IS NO DAIRY IN RANCH DRESSING.
“What about the buttermilk, Dad?”
“It’s *not* milk-it’s *buttermilk*! Ha!”
“And what is the base ingredient for that curdled milk Dad?”
“It’s not the same thing. You’re just being picky!”
It is sad when strangers ignore or even mock your food allergies, but when it comes from people who supposedly care about you, that's just awful.
Mine really isn't that bad but my sister acts like I'm CrAZy when I leave the skin on my salmon to cook...I know it's less common in the US but I still can't help to feel very annoyed. Crispy skin is the best part!
Even if you don't eat the skin, the salmon tastes better if cooked with the skin on it.
It is always stressful eating at my in laws. MIL cooks one potato per person. They're the size of golf balls.
Thanksgiving. She takes away the sour cream immediately so it doesn't spoil. It's been out for 5 minutes. She'll hover and take your plate the second you clear it. Don't even think about 2nds. Remember, 1 potato per person.
Husband, FIL, and I come in for lunch after hours of making firewood. Felling trees, hauling them out. Block, split, and pile. MIL has made one half of a premade garlic loaf for all 4 of us. That one made me cry.
2 weeks ago. Husband and I realize we haven't had French Toast in a couple years. You can't screw up French Toast, so we went to my in laws for breakfast. Her "recipe" is 1 egg and 3 cups of milk, which she mixed up before even putting the bacon on. She served her husband a lump of wet bread. I said my bacon was enough. My husband sort of salvaged the mixture by adding more eggs. Puts mixture in fridge. But FIL wants another piece. MIL scolds him to put the mix back in the fridge not 2 seconds after his bread hit the pan so it doesn't go bad. Yet, it's already been out 20 minutes because she mixed it up before even putting the bacon on.
Non food related, we stopped out this weekend. She said sorry for not combing her hair - she's washing sheets today, which means she washes her hair today, and her comb, so she can't comb her hair until after.
God forbid you take anything out of the oven before the timer goes off. Even if that means burnt Grands biscuits. Which are gross even when not burnt.
Watching her wash dishes is painful. Wash a plate, rinse it, dry it with a towel, then lay it on the table. For *every* *fricken* *dish*. Not wash all the plates, then rinse every plate, then dry every plate. And she complains her feet get sore from all the walking.
Christmas a few years ago. I made a beautiful beef roast and also a duck. I freaked out when she tried to dump a can of cream of mushroom on my duck *for gravy". She still brings it up "my mother was a good cook and I've been cooking for 45 years"
Easter is this weekend. She asked us to coordinate going out because she doesn't want to cook this year. Now, I would love to host, and do all the cooking because a) I love to host and b) I wouldn't leave hungry. But we're in the middle of some projects so we can't. And I refuse to cook at her house because I like things like mixing bowls, proper utensils, more than 2 inches of counter space because she's got s**t piled everywhere, and accurate ovens. Anyways. I spent a couple hours coming up with a few options to present to my husband's brother and sister. Then I find out MIL has asked all 3 of her kids to do the coordinating. So we all had different ideas instead of one person running the show, so to speak. All of us are irritated.
Gah.
Some autistic people (like me) can also be like this. I come up with "rules" of how to do things and they take over (like deciding you MUST leave something in the oven until timer goes off, because that's "how you're supposed to do things"). I hope I'm not this annoying, though. I'm much better after years of my son gently and kindly and humorously making fun of me.
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Sounds like your MIL has some logical processing issues. Or whatever the name is for not seeing processes/logical flows... (Mostly diagnosed because of the way she does the dishes). Or that everything needs to be in a certain order, done in a certain order? And if you know she makes small portions - bring your own "side dish" or snack as a way of saying "thank you for having us over".
You hadn’t had French toast in a while … so you went to your MIL’s house … who you know to be a bad cook ???
Hate it when old ladies assume that everybody are happy with old lady-portions.
What's that with bacon and French toast? I know French toast as white bread/brioche dunked in a mixture of egg, milk, sugar and cinnamon and then bagged in a pan. Nothing more. Where should the aunt had put the bacon? I am curious
She is saying that the batter was mixed up and sitting out before the bacon for the side was started and this made the concoction extra runny.
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Why do people spend so much time having meals with people whose cooking they (rightfully, it sounds like) can’t get on with? There are so many other things they could do than visit these people specifically for meals. I wouldn’t go to Thanksgiving at the home of someone who cooks like this, or to their house for breakfast. Visit later or earlier in the day, not at meal times.
Has your MIL ever had a stroke? My grandma had trouble with critical thinking skills after hers. Has she always had issues in the kitchen or is this a new thing?
Has she always been like this ? If not get her to a doctor, this could be the early stages of dementia.
I would never think of putting something into someone else’s cooking! But I have a mil who always criticized what I’ve made by saying something should have been added or removed from my dish. She’s a great cook, but I don’t think you should criticize other people’s cooking, no matter who they are.
She's a control freak... Tell her you don't care how long she's been cooking, you won't tolerate her messing with your hard work!! 😤
Yeah...she's not hitting on all cylinders. Alzheimer's maybe.
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The only way to deal with people like her is to set the rules and explain this is how it is, take it or leave it. Also, if she initially takes it, tell her in no uncertain terms that no interference in the kitchen will be tolerated. In fact, she is NOT allowed in the kitchen at all. Rules violations get;s you an Uber hone and hungry.
Exactly! I mean, I make biscuits from scratch too, but there is nothing wrong with Grands. It sounds like she has more issues with MIL than just her bad cooking .. I mean, she went off for a minute there with venom. So she's a bad cook .. we get it. Maybe she can show her MIL how to make a few things, give her some lessons .. but she's berating her way over the top for just not knowing how to cook.
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To me, it seems like MIL might have come from a poor family. Or anywhere where food was scarce. They might have had to stretch food to feed more people. Kinda justifies her allotment or that "rationing potatoes" thing. Also, she might have an irrational fear of food borne illness. So now that she has proper refrigeration, she's gone overboard.
Something like that maybe explains why she serves such small potatoes and so on, but it doesn’t justify it. She needs therapy.
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My MIL and yours would be best buds! However many guests at the table it would be the same - two tomatoes, a few slices of ham, a few of bread, a tiny bit of cheese. It was like pass the parcel. At dinner FIL would have a heaped plate - the rest of us, 1 potato, a couple of tiny slices of meat, a spoonful of gravy. She used to save the skin off rice pudding for another dessert. How she raised four kids I’ll never know, and money wasn’t tight.
I couldn't imagine having a MIL like that. Everyone in my family over cooks, and most nights I find myself cooking for 6 when there's only 4 of us lol. We make sure no one goes hungry including neighbors I guess lol.
Thee's more going on here, and it has nothing to do with bad cooking.
Sounds more like it's time to get sick a day before there's any eating at the in laws
I think we all assume that other people are about as smart as we are but roughly half of the people must be dumber than the other half. I'm always surprised when I encounter somebody who is actually dumb, they're always doing dumb stuff that nobody with a normal amount of intelligence would ever do... My theory, is that MIL is not on the smart end of the spectrum.
1 egg to every 2 slices of 1/2" thick sourdough bread. Beat with about an equal amount of heavy cream or (I use French Vanilla Coffee Creamer), 1TBLS grated orange zest, and about 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg. Put in a casserole dish to "absorb" for at about 5 minutes. Flip. Serve with maple syrup & the orange you zested, sliced.
OCD, possibly other neuroses. Very exasperating. There may be ways to mitigate - bring food to supplement depressing portions, not go to MiL's specifically because you fancy French toast..), but OP sounds pure livid. Possibly because nobody else is acknowledging that the ma has significant, evident problems.
What's so gross about Grands biscuits? I mean, homemade is always better, but there's nothing wrong with Grands 🤔
I don't think there's anything wrong with grands biscuits myself however, I wouldn't mind them staying in the oven until they are burnt just like the op said
Load More Replies... There's something else going on here for her but I'm unsure what, maybe OCD or similar? 🤔
Perhaps try to get her to see a therapist. Sounds like she might have some OCD or processing issues
I'm not a mental health professional by any means, but based on my experiences with people who have similar personality traits, I wouldn't be surprised if she were on the spectrum
I dunno, I'm on the spectrum and I just can't see it. on the other hand, I did have an auntie with OCD and she would always throw a fit if things didn't go exactly how they *needed* to go. she also had a lot of rituals to make sure bad things wouldn't happen and had to do things in an exact order, even if it was slower, or else something bad would happen. it was a massive stressor on her life and she never got the support she needed, and now she's no longer here because no one ever reached a hand out. I was too young to really understand it by the time she was already gone
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Gah. I couldn't have said it better. Lord help me for the time I complained that I couldn't drink my MIL's coffee. Which is an art all to it's own.
She can't help herself. Truly, she has no control over the compulsions that dominate and control everything that she does. My grandmother's neighbor would hire her lawn mowed, mulched and bagged. She would then take a broom and sweep the lawn. She deep cleaned all the time. A dead leaf on a shrub had to be picked, a twig or limb that was slightly too long had to be clipped or she couldn't quit. Every week she took all the screens off of all the windows and scrub them. It wasn't that she loved slaving over the tiniest imperfection, it was that her mind wouldn't let her relax unless she saw nothing but perfection. Once I realized that, I felt so sorry for her. She lived in that home well into her late 90's and had to be placed into a nursing home because she was killing herself cleaning. Imagine her in such an "imperfect" place where she wasn't allowed to clean it up. She could find no peace even in her final days.
My mom once had a meltdown in her kitchen when she saw me cooking an egg in a pan on the stove. She likes to cook her eggs in the microwave until they're rubbery and tinged with gray, and she insists that this is the only way to do it.
Your mother is right. The ancient Phoenicians introduced the microwave to the Baltic kitchen, and eggs haven't been the same since.
I moved to the Santa Fe, New Mexico area after college and fell in love with the food. I took my parents to a decent New Mexican restaurant when they visited...and my father got a hamburger in a tortilla. You know that feeling when you've discovered something you think is life-changing, you want to share it, and no one cares? That was me on that day.
All non-American dishes (anything besides burgers, sandwiches, meat and potatoes, etc) are "ethnic food" no matter the cuisine. They also typically assume any "ethnic food" will be spicy.
Fresh vegetables are too crunchy, so canned is preferable.
One exception to this is popcorn, which is a totally normal dinner side and something that my dad proudly claims is his "favorite vegetable."
"Salad" can mean almost anything. Example: apple banana salad = apples, bananas, mayonnaise
Pureed anything (especially soups) = baby food, and they usually won't touch it.
(My family consists of a bunch of white Midwestern people, can you tell? Lol)
My mother's and grandmother's reaction when I mention kimchi was saying "isn't that buried in the ground for months" and general mild disgust. They both eat sauerkraut, so fermented cabbage shouldn't be something overly exotic.
"That smells great! What is it?"
Butter and garlic
Makes me laugh remembering every time I would start to heat butter or ghee with some onion my whole family would suddenly appear.
Oh I have so many i don't know where to start. I was born and raised in eastern Europe in the 90's so my parents weren't really exposed to different cuisines or spices and this has cause some drama and confusion whenever my parents visit and I make them try something new.
My mom threw out my camembert cheese and then scolded me for a good 10 minutes about keeping "stinky, moldy, bad food " in the fridge.
My dad refuses to eat any vegetables that still have any crunch or sushi (even though he tried sushi and liked it... Eating raw fish is wrong??)
Black pepper is too spicy.
According to my dad avocados taste like "creamy dirt"
On the plus side they were mind blown by poached eggs and adequately cooked meat.
Hold on, avocados have taste? To me, they taste like creamy nothing... It might be because they are imported and not of best quality, but they need a lot of spices to taste like something
My mother in law makes substitutions that make even good recipes inedible. Adding wheat flour and almond extract to sugar cookies. Making my roasted chicken with lemon herb compound in butter, she used skinless chicken breasts, margarine, dry herbs and the plastic lemon 🍋 lemon juice. Then says “mine didn’t taste like yours” yea, no s**t Janet.
My mom does this too. I also think in her mind if something has the same colour as what she’s supposed to use, it’s fair game.
I was cooking once and had some powdered turmeric on the counter. My young son asked me why I was putting 'cheese' in the dish. That was the moment I realized I'd served him Kraft mac 'n' cheese one too many times...
Ordered takeout last night with my in-laws. There was a salmon ciabatta sandwich with a dill mayo on it and my father-in-law asked me what dill mayo was and wondered if it was some kind of pickle flavored mayo. I said no, it’s just mayo seasoned presumably with some fresh dill weed. This man is 70 years old and had no idea dill weed is a herb/spice! I pulled some dry dill weed out of my spice cabinet to show him because he had never heard of it before.
On one visit, my Mom threw out 2 six-packs of Hefeweizen because the bottles were cloudy and had sediment.
Your mother took it upon herself to throw out things in your refrigerator without discussing it with you???
Went to visit my uncle a few years back and made some slow cooker beans (with pork) which everyone loved and asked me to make again. Later, on the drive to the store with my aunt, I mentioned wanting to get some smoked pork hocks and she immediately started telling me all the reasons why pork isn’t good for your health (I honestly didn’t know she didn’t eat pork sauce the rest of my family does).
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d just scarfed down two bowls of porky beans the night before. Now, I make sure to tell her repeatedly when something I cooked contains pork.
This is the aunts fault. She should have asked what was in it if she didn't know.
My dad refused to eat raw veggies and dip until I renamed it “crudités”.
I made Christmas dinner once and my sister deemed the ham trash because "You didn't take the bone out. Gordon Ramsay would've" I got deemed unfit for next Christmas dinner so she took care of it. She cooked a tube of deli ham instead. I used hand shredded cheese for a casserole and she complain it was too cheesy cause it was melted too much. She's the only family I got left so it's kinda hard to not cook for her. She's so randomly picky.
My mom’s side of the family is full of passionate, talented professional and home cooks.
My dad’s side of the family puts under-seasoned ground meat, cheddar, and KETCHUP on a tortilla and calls it a taco
There's a German lady with a cooking channel on YouTube. Most of the stuff she makes looks pretty good, but occasionally I'll see her add sliced avocado to a dish . . . and then put ketchup on it. I cringe every time.
My dad loves cocktail shrimp served in those little plastic circle dishes from the grocery store and breaks them out wherever company is over. Thinking it's fancy, he calls it "Shrimp Circle".
This is an everyday occurrence. Me: Sautéing garlic and onions as I prepare to make an Italian dish. My dad: 'What the HELL is going ON here?!
Honestly, he would prefer I starve than 'stink the whole place up' with garlic and onions,
My friend considered himself a true connoisseur of whisky/whiskey/Scotch. I found out he keeps it in the fridge and drinks it cold. He was quite horrified when I suggested he try it at room temperature (or warmer, or with a splash of water added). Imagine my face when he eventually tried it and said ‘wow, the flavour is really coming through actually!’
He also made us dinner once by putting a frozen-solid chicken breast in a pot of plain boiling water. (I said nothing by the way as I was his guest, but yeah he considers himself a very decent home cook)
My Dad insists he can cook. All he knows how to do is chop things small and boil them. The Maillard reaction has never taken place in his kitchen.
No matter what cooking method he uses, it invariably comes out tasting like it was done in a slow cooker.
"the Maillard reaction has never taken place in his kitchen". LOL!
My parents went to New Orleans and ate at a Wendy's.
Ugh, this drives me nuts! Why travel at all if not to immerse yourself in the culture and cuisine of the area?
My dad will comment on and interfere with anything another person is doing in the kitchen. I have to kick him out. My aunt deals with it by giving him jobs like setting the table.
While I'm sure that can be annoying when you're cooking, I think it's nice that he stays "involved" instead of snoring in front of the television.
My dad hates the texture, and taste, of most vegetables. He passed this down to my brother and I, so my mom made awesome salsa- that was totally pureed. I was very confused by chunky salsa when I was old enough to notice it at other people's homes.
I was talking with someone recently who is a fully grown adult who never ate a mushroom. Will not eat an onion or pepper that hasn't been pureed, will not eat 95% of all the fabulous herbs and spices in the world. Makes me very unhappy to think about living such a bland life.
I brought a bottle of red wine to my cousin’s house. She immediately put it in the fridge.
I've read in different places: red wine in the fridge 15 minutes before serving, white wine the opposite
Note: this post originally had 55 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Thankfully, nobody mentioned my mother's speciality. Some people throw out leftovers, my mother wasn't one of those people. All leftovers ended up in meatballs, which tasted disgusting. It wasn't until my second wife, 20 years later, cooked meatballs that I realised that they could taste delicious if done properly. Ditto with omelettes.
There's nothing wrong with using leftovers as such, but I guess it all depends on what you do with them. One of my most favourite meals as a kid was bubble and squeak.
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The audacity of just throwing away something from someone else's fridge without asking! Just no.
My grandma used to have her sister's come down with their families every summer and her younger sister would do the same thing. She'd throw stuff out, replace it with stuff no one liked, throw full sticks of butter into a pot my grandma was cooking when no one was looking. Couldn't see a problem with it at all. Not until her son got married and her daughter in law did the same thing to her (specifically to teach her a lesson) she still adds butter to everything but at least now its on her own plate. And she brings a cooler when she comes down for all her "better than yours" food. Lol
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My grandma would cook a great big baked ham at Easter and then leave it sitting out on the counter for the next two days just slicing off it for sandwiches, and the cat would go have a nibble on it here and there. She’d make beautiful thick sandwiches for our 5 hour drive home day or two later and we’d toss ‘‘em out halfway home and get something at a truck stop diner. Really tho, she lived to 91 and I can’t remember her ever being real sick with anything.
Her immune system was like The Hulk's from sharing her food with the cat
Load More Replies... I’ve grown to hate any sort of ketchup, with anything. Don’t ask
I have at least 7 types of mustard in my fridge and a handful of ketchup packets for guests.
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I have a terrible phobia (?) of eating pretty much anything someone else cooks/makes, even my own husband and grown daughters. It started when I was very young and got food poisoning from a blueberry cheesecake my aunt made. It's very distressing to live with, and to pretend I'm not hungry when staying for a week at a relative's home.
OMG I have a similar condition (?). Even I find it really hard to eat anything that isn’t prepared by either my parents or myself but I have no problem eating out at fancy restaurants. My parents didn’t let my sister and I eat from outside shops (mostly the street shops) when we were young for fear of unsanitary cooking conditions and I believe this habit is what has continued into my adulthood. It’s quite challenging if I’m invited to enjoy meals cooked by friends/family and I have to repeatedly explain to people that I’m not avoiding their food because it’s not tasty/etc, but simply cause of some random condition/phobia I have. I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in this. First time I found another person who has a similar issue. Hope we can get through this together!
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I'm German and when I had the cooking elective at school in the 80s, I tried out some recipes at home and cooked for the family. At this point, my paternal grandmother still had control of the kitchen...she cooked everything beyond recognition. My mother, who was much better at cooking, didn't have much to say back then. I made pizza back then... complete with dough, tomato sauce, etc. I think it was my father's first time eating pizza. He even ordered schnitzel with fries (very German) at a Greek restaurant (we have quite a large Greek community in our city). He liked the pizza, but was confused by some of the ingredients: olives, salami, mushrooms and cheese. His reaction to Bolognese was even better. He was very suspicious of the grated Parmesan, but (adventurous as he was) ate it anyway. Then (at the age of 15), I taught my mother how to cook a bolognese... and she taught me how to make her delicious fried chicken and so much more. When I was 16, we took over the kitchen (with "for
More a food/storage story. I once had a relative who had a mouse problem in the kitchen. They decided to keep mouse bait (the little greenish bits that they eat and then dissolve from the inside out) in an open box in the same drawer as all the silverware. I saw that and vowed to never eat anything there unless it was off paper plates and plastic utensils. Person died a few years later due in part to liver failure. I firmly believe that they accidentally and slowly poisoned themselves.
The thing is, I once ate cake with ketchup and my taste buds decided that *y'know, I like it!* so a lot of these are really mild for my tastes.
Yeah my mom got kicked out of my sister's house and then moved into my house while I was at work. She then threw away ALL MY FOOD literally all of it. Then proceeded to rearrange my entire kitchen and stock it with what she deems "healthy". Fun to come home to.
I have one od those. Age 7, ate a piece od Apple one, trow uo everything she ate that day
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I have no sense of smell, so near zero taste. I don't need herbs and spices, but will use anyway (dried 100%). Recipe 100% of the time too, lol.
my grandfather has a similar condition so his specialty is ordering the spiciest food at any restaurant he visits just to be able to taste something (and brag about his spice tolerance)
Load More Replies... My mother is the kind of person who thinks that she can make any sauce just as good as canned. Her “specialty” when I was a teenager was spaghetti sauce, which she makes by puréeing raw whole tomatoes and adding dried oregano. It looked, smelled, and tasted like throwup.
When husband and I were still dating he would always brag about loving to cook, being a great cook, being taught by his father who was also an amazing cook, etc. And then proceeded to burn so much over the course of the last dozen years. Then apologizes and says he doesn't understand what happened. He has this complete inability to learn anything after the first time he makes something. Once day I'm making grilled cheese for everyone and he asks how I get mine so perfect. I told him the same thing I've told him pretty much every time: lower and slower. He firmly believes that heat should always be on high when cooking. And when baking he sets it at the suggested temperature every time, despite having burnt everything he's ever baked. He absolutely can not understand the concept of adjusting based on our individual oven's performance. It's been even more fun since we bought our house that came with a convection oven!
MIL served me spaghetti once that has really odd taste. I gave my husband (then bf) a quizzical look. He told me later that she reused bbq meatballs she'd made the night before for a get together. Yep, bbq meatball spaghetti with marinara.
My wife and I argue over omelettes vs scrambled eggs with s**t in it HAHA! I just don't have the patience to make a proper omelette, but she does. I do saute and pre cook the veggies and filling though. I just scramble it all up in the eggs and cook it together. Still tastes good. Another one, my FIL put a roast in a crock pot, waited an hour and then pulled it out and threw it in a pan on the stove because "it wasn't cooking fast enough". Same FIL bought a 50 lb bag of steel cut oats. Cooked them for 5 minutes. Then gave us the rest of them because "they were too crunchy". He prefers the mushy instant oatmeal texture. He was baffled when I explained he needed to cook them for 20 - 30 minutes minutes or even the overnight method. "Who's got THAT kind of time??" Oy vey.
My maternal grandmother is an awesome cook. I'm really sad that she's gotten too old to do that. My paternal grandmother on the other hand? She made "hamburger casserole," whatever that was really supposed to be. It was the only dish she ever cooked for me. I tried to eat it. She asked me how it was. I said, "Slightly better if I don't look at it." I was 21. I didn't like her anyway, but that was the day I found out that I didn't like her cooking either.
My grandparents used to serve toasted English muffins with ketchup, Kraft cheese slices and bacon bits. They called them mini pizzas. I blame my cousin who liked them. Otherwise they were great, if very plain cooks. Amazing roast chicken, turkey dinner, pies, homemade bread. But dill on the potatoes was considered exotically spiced and I don’t think they ever cooked with garlic.
Pizza burgers! Mom used old (stale) hamburger buns, pizza sauce, Velveeta, ground beef, and mozzarella. Never my favorite, but not bad. She steamed or boiled veggies to mush, though.
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I gotta be honest and say I've never seen so many pretentious, condescending, and judgmental people all in one place! I've taken more than my fair share of cooking and training classes in my lifetime and am considered to be a great cook by most. However, I would NEVER think less of someone who doesn't have the same adventurous palette or cooking skills as I! No two people are the same and we don't know the backgrounds of these people to judge! My mother wasn't the greatest cook when I was growing up. She's over salt everything! Come to find out later she did that because of her time growing up on a farm during the 20s, 39s, and 40s and everything being stored in the cellar, such as the meat they had butchered only twice a year, them covered in salt to preserve it. Also, she was raising 5 kids with my dad on a shoestring budget and they couldn't afford the finest cuts of meat then so did whatever she had to do to make it remotely palatable.
I'm a lousy cook and I'm not afraid to admit it. Some people genuinely suck at cooking. We're allowed to say so.
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Thankfully, nobody mentioned my mother's speciality. Some people throw out leftovers, my mother wasn't one of those people. All leftovers ended up in meatballs, which tasted disgusting. It wasn't until my second wife, 20 years later, cooked meatballs that I realised that they could taste delicious if done properly. Ditto with omelettes.
There's nothing wrong with using leftovers as such, but I guess it all depends on what you do with them. One of my most favourite meals as a kid was bubble and squeak.
Load More Replies... The audacity of just throwing away something from someone else's fridge without asking! Just no.
My grandma used to have her sister's come down with their families every summer and her younger sister would do the same thing. She'd throw stuff out, replace it with stuff no one liked, throw full sticks of butter into a pot my grandma was cooking when no one was looking. Couldn't see a problem with it at all. Not until her son got married and her daughter in law did the same thing to her (specifically to teach her a lesson) she still adds butter to everything but at least now its on her own plate. And she brings a cooler when she comes down for all her "better than yours" food. Lol
Load More Replies... My grandma would cook a great big baked ham at Easter and then leave it sitting out on the counter for the next two days just slicing off it for sandwiches, and the cat would go have a nibble on it here and there. She’d make beautiful thick sandwiches for our 5 hour drive home day or two later and we’d toss ‘‘em out halfway home and get something at a truck stop diner. Really tho, she lived to 91 and I can’t remember her ever being real sick with anything.
Her immune system was like The Hulk's from sharing her food with the cat
Load More Replies... I’ve grown to hate any sort of ketchup, with anything. Don’t ask
I have at least 7 types of mustard in my fridge and a handful of ketchup packets for guests.
Load More Replies... I have a terrible phobia (?) of eating pretty much anything someone else cooks/makes, even my own husband and grown daughters. It started when I was very young and got food poisoning from a blueberry cheesecake my aunt made. It's very distressing to live with, and to pretend I'm not hungry when staying for a week at a relative's home.
OMG I have a similar condition (?). Even I find it really hard to eat anything that isn’t prepared by either my parents or myself but I have no problem eating out at fancy restaurants. My parents didn’t let my sister and I eat from outside shops (mostly the street shops) when we were young for fear of unsanitary cooking conditions and I believe this habit is what has continued into my adulthood. It’s quite challenging if I’m invited to enjoy meals cooked by friends/family and I have to repeatedly explain to people that I’m not avoiding their food because it’s not tasty/etc, but simply cause of some random condition/phobia I have. I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in this. First time I found another person who has a similar issue. Hope we can get through this together!
Load More Replies... I'm German and when I had the cooking elective at school in the 80s, I tried out some recipes at home and cooked for the family. At this point, my paternal grandmother still had control of the kitchen...she cooked everything beyond recognition. My mother, who was much better at cooking, didn't have much to say back then. I made pizza back then... complete with dough, tomato sauce, etc. I think it was my father's first time eating pizza. He even ordered schnitzel with fries (very German) at a Greek restaurant (we have quite a large Greek community in our city). He liked the pizza, but was confused by some of the ingredients: olives, salami, mushrooms and cheese. His reaction to Bolognese was even better. He was very suspicious of the grated Parmesan, but (adventurous as he was) ate it anyway. Then (at the age of 15), I taught my mother how to cook a bolognese... and she taught me how to make her delicious fried chicken and so much more. When I was 16, we took over the kitchen (with "for
More a food/storage story. I once had a relative who had a mouse problem in the kitchen. They decided to keep mouse bait (the little greenish bits that they eat and then dissolve from the inside out) in an open box in the same drawer as all the silverware. I saw that and vowed to never eat anything there unless it was off paper plates and plastic utensils. Person died a few years later due in part to liver failure. I firmly believe that they accidentally and slowly poisoned themselves.
The thing is, I once ate cake with ketchup and my taste buds decided that *y'know, I like it!* so a lot of these are really mild for my tastes.
Yeah my mom got kicked out of my sister's house and then moved into my house while I was at work. She then threw away ALL MY FOOD literally all of it. Then proceeded to rearrange my entire kitchen and stock it with what she deems "healthy". Fun to come home to.
I have one od those. Age 7, ate a piece od Apple one, trow uo everything she ate that day
Load More Replies... I have no sense of smell, so near zero taste. I don't need herbs and spices, but will use anyway (dried 100%). Recipe 100% of the time too, lol.
my grandfather has a similar condition so his specialty is ordering the spiciest food at any restaurant he visits just to be able to taste something (and brag about his spice tolerance)
Load More Replies... My mother is the kind of person who thinks that she can make any sauce just as good as canned. Her “specialty” when I was a teenager was spaghetti sauce, which she makes by puréeing raw whole tomatoes and adding dried oregano. It looked, smelled, and tasted like throwup.
When husband and I were still dating he would always brag about loving to cook, being a great cook, being taught by his father who was also an amazing cook, etc. And then proceeded to burn so much over the course of the last dozen years. Then apologizes and says he doesn't understand what happened. He has this complete inability to learn anything after the first time he makes something. Once day I'm making grilled cheese for everyone and he asks how I get mine so perfect. I told him the same thing I've told him pretty much every time: lower and slower. He firmly believes that heat should always be on high when cooking. And when baking he sets it at the suggested temperature every time, despite having burnt everything he's ever baked. He absolutely can not understand the concept of adjusting based on our individual oven's performance. It's been even more fun since we bought our house that came with a convection oven!
MIL served me spaghetti once that has really odd taste. I gave my husband (then bf) a quizzical look. He told me later that she reused bbq meatballs she'd made the night before for a get together. Yep, bbq meatball spaghetti with marinara.
My wife and I argue over omelettes vs scrambled eggs with s**t in it HAHA! I just don't have the patience to make a proper omelette, but she does. I do saute and pre cook the veggies and filling though. I just scramble it all up in the eggs and cook it together. Still tastes good. Another one, my FIL put a roast in a crock pot, waited an hour and then pulled it out and threw it in a pan on the stove because "it wasn't cooking fast enough". Same FIL bought a 50 lb bag of steel cut oats. Cooked them for 5 minutes. Then gave us the rest of them because "they were too crunchy". He prefers the mushy instant oatmeal texture. He was baffled when I explained he needed to cook them for 20 - 30 minutes minutes or even the overnight method. "Who's got THAT kind of time??" Oy vey.
My maternal grandmother is an awesome cook. I'm really sad that she's gotten too old to do that. My paternal grandmother on the other hand? She made "hamburger casserole," whatever that was really supposed to be. It was the only dish she ever cooked for me. I tried to eat it. She asked me how it was. I said, "Slightly better if I don't look at it." I was 21. I didn't like her anyway, but that was the day I found out that I didn't like her cooking either.
My grandparents used to serve toasted English muffins with ketchup, Kraft cheese slices and bacon bits. They called them mini pizzas. I blame my cousin who liked them. Otherwise they were great, if very plain cooks. Amazing roast chicken, turkey dinner, pies, homemade bread. But dill on the potatoes was considered exotically spiced and I don’t think they ever cooked with garlic.
Pizza burgers! Mom used old (stale) hamburger buns, pizza sauce, Velveeta, ground beef, and mozzarella. Never my favorite, but not bad. She steamed or boiled veggies to mush, though.
Load More Replies... I gotta be honest and say I've never seen so many pretentious, condescending, and judgmental people all in one place! I've taken more than my fair share of cooking and training classes in my lifetime and am considered to be a great cook by most. However, I would NEVER think less of someone who doesn't have the same adventurous palette or cooking skills as I! No two people are the same and we don't know the backgrounds of these people to judge! My mother wasn't the greatest cook when I was growing up. She's over salt everything! Come to find out later she did that because of her time growing up on a farm during the 20s, 39s, and 40s and everything being stored in the cellar, such as the meat they had butchered only twice a year, them covered in salt to preserve it. Also, she was raising 5 kids with my dad on a shoestring budget and they couldn't afford the finest cuts of meat then so did whatever she had to do to make it remotely palatable.
I'm a lousy cook and I'm not afraid to admit it. Some people genuinely suck at cooking. We're allowed to say so.
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