Does anyone else here like to cook?

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Lately I've gotten really enthusiastic about cooking. I've just bought Julia Child's autobiography and I'm planning on buying her cookbook too. I'm hoping to find a good recipe for chicken with mushroom sauce.

I really enjoy cooking, but most of the time I don't have the money for ingredients or I'm too tired. I love to cook for other people too

I dunno, you can buy freeze-dried vegetables and herbs in bulk. It might not be very tasty though, particularly if you want one without flavourings. I'd imagine you would have to add sugar too. Itsu does an instant noodle pot without any flavourings, but it is tasteless.

I do have homemade beef stock in the freezer that could work, but yeh, not something I can carry around with me for long. Next time I'm going to freeze it into ice-cubes so I can just use them whenever.

And, someone has an inkling of what I'm talking about for once, congrats.

Do you buy many of your ingredients in bulk, Smudge? I've been looking into it for a while but can never find anywhere that personal customers can buy from instead of just businesses

Yep, exactly the same, though some more modestly priced cooking specific models are starting to come on the market, for those who don't require laboratory precision. I cobbled one together with a PID temperature controller, some immersible heating coils, and an aquarium pump for about $100, purpose built ones are several times more.



In the kitchen, we call that 'cook and hold', and it's typically available on things like combi ovens and CVAP ovens, both of which are programmable ovens that allow you to control the humidity as well as the temperature, and to automate entire cooking procedures step by step, with built in temperature probes to allow the oven to switch modes once the internal temp hits the right spot. You don't really see these things outside of commercial kitchens, and like you'd imagine, they're pretty expensive, especially the combi oven.



They're starting to be used in cooking, mainly for doing vacuum reduction when you want to concentrate a liquid without heating it too much, and you don't want your reduction vessel bumping itself to pieces.



Closest thing to that is still the combi oven, and it's not fully automatic, though current ones do come pre-programmed to cook many common items in a variety of styles, and can even simulate frying to a certain degree.



They make something for your stove called a flame-tamer, you can buy one at most hardware stores, or just use a ring of aluminum foil under the pot. Ovens are by far the biggest inaccuracy culprit, at the minimum I would highly recommend installing an inexpensive oven thermometer in order to see what temperature it's actually at, as they can be off by 20 degrees or more, and that can ruin any number of dishes. Humidity is the real killer variable with them though, and short of shelling out for a commercial modern oven, it's not an easy one to control.

I've been using a lot of spices and herbs and have made use of the little refills you can buy. I don't really cook that often as it creates so much washing-up. If only I had a dishwasher, I'd cook all the time.

Supermarkets, especially international ones, do bigger packets of spices and herbs in about 200g packets or much bigger, if you are interested in those.

^

I don't know if it's the same situation in the UK, but in the US, buying spices at the supermarket is usually a huge rip off, they want $6+ for a small jar, when you can buy the same thing in a plastic bag for $1 at the ethnic market, or sometimes in the same store in the ethnic aisle. I really prefer to buy spices from stores with bulk sections where you can measure out how much you want to buy rather than having to shell out for a glass jar and a fancy label that I don't need; I buy little half pint canning jars at wally world to store mine in, and label them with a cheap label maker, works way better than trying to store a ton of odd sized jars and shakers. Asian and Latin markets also often have spices cheap, to say nothing of fruits and veggies (I was buying limes at 10/$1 when they were $.79 each at the supermarket). Cash and Carry or it's local equivalent is also usually a better deal if you're using a lot of a specific spice, I buy my black pepper and fennel seed there when I'm doing a ton of sausages that use those things up quickly, and you don't even need a membership or anything.

At the cheapest, a small spice/herb jar is £1 each. Your idea sounds a better option. I would do the same if I had the room, and if I used up spices that quickly. I've got lots of those little jars, and yes, they're very expensive, and all look different depending on which supermarket I bought them from.

However, the international supermarkets don't have as much of a variety in bulk, I don't think. They'll have the main ones like paprika and cumin in big bags, but not stuff like onion salt (I guess I could just make that) or italian herbs (I could make that too, probably). Others I'm not sure I could make.

I'd love to cook everything, from pasta to chickpeas to frittatas, I wish I could have a kitchen with enough space for recipes. That way I don't have to eat out.

when I do "cook" I like to mix everything together ala "goulash."

I LOVE to cook and am always open to sharing recipes or passing along tips

I like to cook for my grandchildren when they visit. I like to make breakfast like the kind they used to get at summer camp, pancakes, eggs, sausage.
I prefer to cook vegetarian for myself.
I have a limited food budget and can't afford to eat out so I cook from scratch at home.
I have large cookbooks filled with beautiful pictures of food, an Italian one and an Asian one. I look through the pictures and recipes and improvise with whatever ingredients I have.
most of the time my meals turn out really good. Sometimes not. My cooking has gotten better with age and a lot of practicing and experimenting.

I like it ok. Sometimes I really enjoy it. Others it's just work I have to get done that I don't want to do because I'm tiiiired lol.

But considering the diet I've followed to treat my symptoms (see signature link) I've gotten quite used to cooking and really don't mind doing it even when it's a chore. Homemade everything is so much tastier & healthier than pre made junk food.

I like cooking, especially exotic cuisine and Bento.