Can you cook?

[MasalaBeans]

If so, what do you mean by ‘cooking’?

I can follow a recipe and make a decent Hello Fresh meal but still don’t feel confident in saying that I can cook.

Would you be able to make something really tasty with no guidance at all?

Nah, I'm the same as you OP.. I can follow simple recipes..(and read packets for frozen foods ) I like to make slimming world meals and that's about it really!! I'd love to be able to cook but I think I just feel it would be too expensive and if have a load of left over ingredients that I can't use up x

What's wrong with recipes? I'd never hesitate to say I can cook. 90% of our meals are prepared by me, often from scratch. But I do use recipes. I could manage some kind of food without one, but it wouldn't be amazing. I feel confident subbing ingredients, and I sometimes measure by eye depending on what it is. The food I make is mostly pretty good. Should I be saying I can't cook then? (Bemused tone of voice)

Surely everyone CAN cook? Some people enjoy it more than others. Some people are better than others but like so many other things that become a competition it really shouldn't be.

If you can create a meal that you and others enjoy eating, then you can cook.
If you follow a recipe, it's just as valid.
I have a few standbys that I used to follow recipes for and now don't need to.
If you make an omelette, what would you call it if not cooking?

I can't. I'm autistic and cooking is one of the things I really struggle with. DH does the cooking. I'm ok to do heating up of pre prepared stuff but anything more then that I don't even attempt any more.

Yes, I can do bolognaise, lasagne (basically the bolognaise with a white sauce from scratch), chilli, jambalaya, Yorkshire puddings, tomato pasta sauce, chicken and ham pasta. roast (chicken, beef, pork or gammon), steak pie, chicken casserole, beef stew, cottage pie and corned beef stew (hash in Yorkshire), chicken noodles, honey garlic chicken, teriyaki chicken and Mongolian beef without needing a recipe.

Because the kids are needy at dinner time (3 and 6) then we make use of the Schwartz/Coleman sachets - we had chicken Provençal, baby potatoes and steamed veg for dinner. Tomorrow it’s breaded chicken, home made wedges, salad and coleslaw. Last night was cod with home made tomato sauce, mushroom rice and salad.

We mix and match and I try to double batch for the freezer - smoked paprika chicken from Schwartz is a family favourite as is Colman’s tuna pasta bake.

No.
I have zero interest and take no joy from cooking.

My DH does the cooking or we wouldn’t eat.
It’s a standing joke in the family at how utterly shite I am.

Yes, I can cook. I cook most meals from scratch, I can follow a recipe and I am able to make a meal from a selection of available (store cupboard) ingredients.

My family and friends like the food I cook for them, some will even ask for special dishes!

@Skybluepinkgiraffe

If you can create a meal that you and others enjoy eating, then you can cook. If you follow a recipe, it's just as valid. I have a few standbys that I used to follow recipes for and now don't need to. If you make an omelette, what would you call it if not cooking?

I don’t know, I think I’d feel like a fraud saying I could cook though!

In my family, all the women can make elaborate multiple course meals without using recipes (my grandma is illiterate so no point buying recipe books!). I guess compared to that I feel like what I make can barely be classed as cooking. This isn’t a reflection on anyone else, I’m curious to know how other people define ‘cooking’.

I suppose then you can just say you can cook simple meals. Same as me.
You're overthinking it. My mum could always cook elaborate meals for large numbers confidently. I initially lacked the confidence, but now I realise that if I could be bothered it's a skill I could learn.

Yes. I enjoy both following a recipe to the letter, and doing a Ready Steady Cook style “what can I make from red lentils, three eggs, pork chops, feta, spring onions and a passionfruit”* type of thing

*not really these ingredients

I also like baking but I’m not great at it, especially cakes. Biscuits, bread and buns are alright but anything a bit faffy tests my patience.

Yes, I never really follow recipes for savoury food. Baking I do because it needs to be more precise. I’d read the cooking times on something like a whole chicken but everything else is made up as I go along! I don’t make fancy food but I’d do curry, risotto, pasta sauces, roasted tray bake type meals without a recipe, can cook Xmas dinner and get it all out at the same time etc.

Yes but only after decades of cooking.

I love cooking but I hate following written recipes, if I watch a food show I will try and recreate from that remember the steps. Its why I can't bake, you have to be way more accurate/follow instructions to learn the fundamentals.

Yes. I can cook meals and baked from scratch confidently with no recipe but also can follow recipes when something is new to be.

My nana and mum started teaching me to cook basic meals (stews, pies, roast dinner, pasta dishes), bake and make staples like white roux sauce (that can become
Cheese sauce, Béchamel sauce etc with a few tweaks) , gravy, red sauces, Yorkshire puddings batter, pastry and bread when I was about 7.

I love cooking and find that I can open the fridge and cupboard up then make a meal from whatever i have in without any stress.

I have lots of cookbooks but struggle to follow a recipe. Swap things, visualise it, then make it. Grew up poor, can make things out of virtually nothing.

Have become an excellent baker over the last year or so. Really enjoying it.

I can cook things like a spag Bol or a pasta bake or old family dinners without a recipe and I do sometimes. I can pretty much say I could cook anything with a recipe (like most people?).
But dh says when I cook I miss out the most simple ingredient, love
He’s absolutely right, I hate cooking and I think part of the reason is because my family are fussy bastards and so I’m bored of everything I can make and the youngest isn’t really into trying new things, one of the dc is largely veggie, 2 in the family don’t consider a meal a proper meal unless it contains meat, 2 of us aren’t bothered if it’s meaty or veggie, everyone has fussy things they do or don’t like and all in all it’s just a palaver that I avoid when I can.
Luckily dh does pretty much all the cooking and he loves it and also makes separate components so that everyone has things they will like.
Overall, I love eating and just wish everyone was more open minded and adventurous as I might enjoy cooking more.

Yes and so can dp. We have a mixture of "pasta alla Delilah" or such like where we wing it, things we make regularly and know a recipe for, and new things with recipes (where we often go off piste and add things or take things away). We love cooking.

Hell yeah. I don't always get it perfect but ive a good understanding of flavours and often do my own recipes. I cook a lot of Chinese, Japanese, Italian, pretty much whatever. I'm a SHIT baker though. Just can't seem to get the finesse of it at all. Probably because I've no patience with doing recipes or measuring things accurately.

Yes I Iove cooking, it's my happy places. My DH always says he's amazed at how I can just grab stuff and add it without hesitation.

Safe to say he cannot cook 😂