Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cooking and cook

Many, many delicious calories

Captain Rayford Steele, Tribulation Force — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:12:40 -0800

Please give me your best long-distance hiking / bicycle touring / <insert other adventurous endurance activity> food recipes! The watchwords here: densely caloric, easy to prepare (ideally in a single pot over a white gas cookstove), delicious and made from ingredients that are readily available in small, out-of-the-way groceries. Bonus points for recipes featuring lightweight, easily luggable ingredients.

25 and TRYING to COOK

designbyme — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:48:54 -0800

I'm 25 and starting to cook - What? Where do I get it? Why? I'm 25 and me and my roommate are just starting to cook on our own. Our add water and microwave days of college are over. Plus we like to have friends over sometimes, and ordering a pizza makes for a lame dinner party.

Basically this just feels like something we should be doing, it's fun to try new things and in general, it saves money!

Some things I always liked growing up:

• Big Mac 'N Cheese fan
• Anything with Cool Whip...
• Mom makes this breaded chicken that got baked...
• Love salads, been trying to broaden my horizon in terms of dressing

I also always struggle with whether to buy the brand names or the store labels. Does it make a difference?!?! What do you guys buy and why?

Anyway.... I'd love to hear your ideas. I'd love some new easy recipes, but I'm really curious about the art of grocery shopping too. Discount store? Upscale store?

Thanks in advance!! If your ideas are really good, I'll have you all over for dinner. ;)

What do I do with this ghee?

odinsdream — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:47:10 -0800

So I made ghee. Now what? I've made ghee as described in that link. I'd like to know what I could do with it now. I already plan on using it in place of butter when frying eggs or pancakes. What other recipes can I use it in?

How to master ________ cooking on a tight budget?

Picklegnome — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:52:52 -0800

I need to eat cheaply. Can I do so while extending my cooking ability in a specific direction? What cuisines, categories, or focuses can my home cooking pinpoint while living on a budget? Just in case this isn't clear: are there types of foods, foods from specific regions, etc., that are generally low-cost while having a fair amount of breadth? Or is this a dumb question - do all cuisines have consistent scales that more or less overlap of low to high cost food?

Whats you best Italian recipe?

knockoutking — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:54:35 -0800

italiancookingfilter: give me your best Italian recipe - can be authentic Italian or Italian-American...doesn't matter one way or another! just looking for good Italian recipes -- already have some in my repitore but as much as i enjoy cooking and enjoy Italian food i want to expand my horizons -- so hit me with your best recipe!

side note, can include just about anything (located in DC so i can find it) -- also i do cook a fair amount so pretty much anything you can think of, and that you enjoy, i can make and enjoy myself!

Is it worth the trouble to vent our range hood outside?

odinsdream — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:55:50 -0800

Is it worth the trouble to vent our range hood outside? We are replacing our old range hood with an above-range convection microwave which can either vent outside or back into the room. Is there a good reason I should go to the trouble to vent it outside?

There is a pathway above the cabinets and it's a short distance to an outside wall, which I'd have to cut a hole in from the outside. I cannot easily reach the exterior wall from inside. I'd have to do most of the cutting work from the outside and fish the vent pipe over to the hole.

What benefits would I gain from venting outside?

Recipe for truly succulent, traditional Jewish brisket?

roxie110 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:01:41 -0800

How do you make truly tender, succulent Jewish-style brisket? I've had a craving for brisket-like-my-grandmother-used-to-make for about a year now. I finally got the meat and my mother's recipe and cooked it today. The taste is great and the thin end of the meat turned out close to what I was hoping for; the thick end is cooked through but not moist and falling apart like brisket in my world should be, and when I stick a fork in it gives a lot of resistance. I don't know if I over- or undercooked it. I should mention that my "dutch oven" (really a stockpot) was too narrow so I used a Calphalon deep covered 13" nonstick skillet instead--maybe a big mistake? I am such a brisket novice.

Below is a quick recap of how I cooked it. I've looked up a ton of recipes but each one is slightly different, and life's too short to try every one. My question is this: who has a foolproof (mostly) recipe for truly tender, traditional Jewish brisket!? And just as important, how do you know how long to cook it and when it's done? (Can you overcook a brisket, as long as there's still liquid in the pan?)

Recipe I used for half a first-cut brisket, about 3 pounds, fat trimmed:
Preheat oven to 350. Place thickly sliced onions, carrots, and a couple chopped garlic cloves in bottom of Dutch oven. Rub ketchup, ground pepper, paprika, and one envelope onion soup mix on all surfaces of brisket. Add liquid to 3/4 inches deep (I used 1.5 cans low-sodium beef broth; most of liquid was absorbed by the end of cooking). Place chunks of potato around meat. Cover tightly and roast for 2.5 hours. Baste two or three times during cooking. Remove from heat, cool meat, and slice across the grain.

Help! And thank you!

Best message board for Cooking Questions?

TigerCrane — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:55:19 -0800

Best message board for an aspiring cook? I'm looking for a message board that's a good place to ask newbie questions about cooking.

These would be food science type questions. A few examples:

Why does Alton Brown always use kosher salt?

Should you salt before or after sauteing? Whats the difference?

Why does Julia Child use wax paper when poaching?

If you leave meat in a brine too long, what happens?

Any suggestions?

Where's the best place to keep up-to-date on amateur cooking competitions around the United States?

nitsuj — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:03:12 -0800

Where's the best place to keep up-to-date on amateur cooking competitions around the United States? Specifically, I'd love to find an online resource that lists upcoming amateur cooking competitions sorted by region.

The first couple of pages for various related Google searches didn't yield anything central or useful.

Back in the kitchen, what do I do now?

reenum — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:34:15 -0800

CookingFilter: Recipes, books, and blogs dedicated to recipes to beginner cooks or cooks on a budget? I learned how to do basic cooking in college. So, I can chop veggies, cook chicken, make an omelette, etc.

I've gotten away from cooking in recent years. Recently, I've gotten the jones for cooking again. Up until now, I've been living on Morningstar Farms food and Jello pudding.

I'm looking to ease back into it, and I've found that cookbooks and recipes geared towards new cooks the best way to do so. I'd also like suggestions on sites that are geared toward budget cooking or sites that can tell me what I can substitute for more exotic/expensive ingredients.

I've tried Googling for beginner recipes and the amount of results have been overwhelming. I've also checked the old AskMe's, but a lot of those have advice mixed in with suggestions for cookbooks/sites. I'd really just like to know about which books/sites I can go to for easy and hopefully healthy recipes.

I've gotten a few 'college cookbooks'. While these have decent recipes, most are uninspired. I'm looking for good food that I make on a weeknight.

So, I ask you: Where are such recipes to be found?

Thanks!

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook.

BigBrownBear — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:50:01 -0800

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook. on the weekends we make great thing: homemade pastas & pizzas, fresh fish, stews, etc. but during the working week we don't have the time or energy to prepare elaborate dishes.

any suggestions for things quick and easy (that will also be good for the bun in the over)?

Rhubarb cherry fajita?

croutonsupafreak — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 10:59:39 -0800

A couple of days ago, I was googling around for help when it came to cooking rhubarb and cherries together. I found a recipe that looked really good that called for baking them wrapped in tortillas with butter, sugar, and I don't remember what else. Now I can't find the recipe any more. Any suggestions on how this might work? I've never cooked rhubarb or cherries before, got both at a farmer's market a few days ago. I don't want to make a pie, because I don't like store-bought crusts and I don't feel like making my own crust today.

I'll take other nominations for ways to combine these two ingredients, as long as it's not just a rhubarb cherry crumble.

Duck, duck, frozen chicken

hamster — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:55:09 -0800

I have three pounds of frozen chicken stew meat. What should I do with it? It's great stuff, from what I can tell: organic, free-range and from a local farm. Problem is, it's just me and sometimes a friend, and it all has to be thawed at once. I'll definitely make a simple chicken soup in my small crock pot, and if I do that once or twice, I'll have some to freeze and save. I've never made chicken soup "long-hand," on the stove, but I'm open to trying. Is stew meat good for anything else--can I use it in place of cubed chicken in recipes, or stir-fry it?

How do I cook biscuits in high altitudes?

JPigford — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:26:21 -0800

How do I cook biscuits in high altitudes? My wife and I just moved to Denver, CO from Jackson, MS and needless to say the altitude has all but killed our biscuit making ability. Nothing seems to be making them rise. They stay flat and taste really floury.

Yum! Chipotle Carnitas

clgregor — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 11:51:01 -0800

There are plenty of recipes for pork carnitas online, but does anyone have the recipe used by Chipotle restaurants? (maybe it is one of these?)

Side Dish for Garlicky Chicken

keswick — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 22:06:46 -0800

What's a good side dish to go with the traditional "Chicken & 40 Cloves Of Garlic" recipe? (A recipe for the sidedish would be greatly appeciated too.)

Turkey

bondcliff — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 07:22:38 -0800

Somewhere I saw advertised a metal rod that you stick into the cavity of a turkey to conduct heat into the stuffing to eliminate the bird/stuffing safe temperature conflict. Google fails me. Anyone know about this? Does it work? Where can I get one before Thursday? I'm doing a turkey for the first time this year and my wife is doing the stuffing. We're at odds about cooking it inside the bird. She says it tastes better inside the bird. I agree, but to cook the stuffing requires overcooking the bird. This rod might solve my problem and save my marriage.

Mastering egg cookery - best way to poach an egg

obiwanwasabi — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:47:41 -0800

What's the best way to poach an egg? Should the poaching water be deep or shallow, boiling or simmering, on the heat or off the heat, covered or uncovered, acidulated with vinegar or lemon juice or unacidulated, salted or unsalted? Should the eggs be room temperature or straight out of the fridge? Cracked straight into the water or slipped in with a teacup?

And while you're here, what's your favourite way to serve poached eggs?

Need appetizers for a wedding

stonerose — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 18:05:32 -0800

Foodies, two MeFites need advice about what to make as appetizers for the wedding of two friends... come on into the kitchen if you want to know more... The wedding is in mid-September. It's to be held in a backyard, and it's going to be an eccentric, casual, almost anti-ceremonial ceremony. But the brides (there are two!) are fans of good food, and we've offered to make a couple of appetizers for 30 guests as our gift. The main dish will be bbq'd chicken marinated in lemon/garlic/rosemary, and there will be numerous salads. There will be a few vegetarians, but most guests are fearless Quebecois eaters of entrails and such. We'll be cooking several miles from the reception, and transporting the appetizers there. What would you suggest?

Visitors from the Planet Vegan

majick — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 08:41:02 -0800

Ack, I'm not vegan! But I've got a friend with three kids under 9 who is, and they're coming to stay a few days. This hapless carnivore and starchivore needs your culinary assistance to feed adults and kids. I know the basic rule of vegan cooking -- use no animal products whatsoever -- and will have a chance to make one grocery run before the horde descends upon me, but this is a dietary restriction fundamentally incompatible with my cuisine. What can I make that my (also carnivorous) and her (also vegan) children will all eat, but that will also delight adults? I need breakfast and dinner ideas, since lunch isn't my problem.

Please share your vegan-friendly ideas for family meals that won't cause a couple of carnivore kids to start throwing food at me! I realize I can probably squeak by with pasta and some clever saucework, but I'd like to try a little harder than that.

Reference Cookbooks

me3dia — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 20:25:51 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for a reference cookbook to supplement my current bible, The Joy of Cooking. Your thoughts? [A list of what I've got already will greet you inside.] - Sundays at Moosewood (vegetarian food)
- Better Homes & Gardens "New Cook Book," circa 1965
- Good Housekeeping Cookbook, circa 1962
- "I'm Just Here for the Food," by Alton Brown
- "The Chef's Secret Cookbook" by Louis Szathmary

I'm looking for good overall reference books, not specialties -- in other words, what book do you turn to over and over again.

Make-Ahead Recipes

jfuller — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 09:02:22 -0800

What's your favorite recipe that can be prepared ahead of time in bulk and frozen? I'm a single parent with a 13 year old girl to cook for. I work a normal job, then spend evenings doing the Mr. Mom number, housecleaning, clothes-washing, car-repairing, homework-helping etc. etc. My time for even minimal cooking is practically nil and I order pizza or bring home Chinese much too often. Does anyone know something good that I could make several copies of on Saturday and then freeze for later? Some years back Consumer Reports did a review of frozen chicken/veggie pies, and included a recipe for their own homemade and freezable pie that beat all the commercial ones on taste, nutrition and price. That's the kind of thing I'm fishing for here. FYI, I'm a middling cook (my biscuits succeed, my puff pastry fails.) Thanks very much!