To tell DH I don’t like his signature dish?

[Notsympatheticenough]

He makes beef burgers. It’s his thing, bbq with beef burgers. He’s a good cook, cooks other stuff really well. But he’s convinced his dry, stodgy, unseasoned beef burgers are the best thing he does. I’ve avoided eating them pretty much for the last 10 years of our relationship, there’s usually other stuff, people round, it’s a bbq…you know? . Tonight he said ‘as a treat, I’ll just do the burgers’.

my heart sank. And the little hungry bit of me died a bit.

@k1233 can I have the recipe please ? Sounds good!

We are both quite good cooks, he’s probably better, but we are both forthright about things we don’t want to eat. He doesn’t make risotto, or dry buttered pasta with bits of this and that, because I won’t eat it. I don’t make baked potatoes (or just for me when he’s out) or ribollita. I couldn’t live with dreading dinner!

Does he grind the beef himself? My dad who's a very good cook did this once recently and he followed the recipe perfectly but I found the burgers really dry and crumbly.

I told him that I really appreciated the effort he'd put into them but I didn't think it was woth it 😅Tell your husband this. You're allowed to be appreciative of his effort but not like the finished article. He'll never know if you're not honest!

Mine makes a chicken curry, it's cut up chicken, onion, tomato's and a jar of Lloyd Grossman bhuna sauce. It's ok and it's nice no to have to cook now and again. His big fat mate told him, it was restaurant quality, I can assure you it's not.

My DH will only make chip-pan chips. I have a mortal fear of chip pans inherited from my Mother, probably induced by those 70s publicise c information films, so the only deep fried chips I had growing up were proper chippie ones and find DHs heavy and greasy.

I have been known to slip them up my sleeve or into my hoodie pouch and drop them in the dog bowl when I take the plates into the kitchen.

This would possibly work with burgers but not so much with carbonara.

Reading some of these, I’m glad my dh doesn’t cook.

His speciality is an immaculate daily clear up of the kitchen. Currently at it now - the aftermath of a messy roast.

He also unloads the dishwasher in the morning and puts it all away. 🙂

My DH is generally a great cook, but sometimes uses too much garlic or chilli and I politely what he's cooked rather than complain.

Just ask him to make you a thinner burger or try a smash burger

I don’t have this problem as DH is not allowed near the stove. I tolerate him doing the BBQ as I prep everything. If we have burgers it’s top quality mince, nothing added, and so rare the blood is oozing out.

My husband is a chronic under seasoner. He's a competent cook when he wants to be but Christ his food is often so bland!
He made 'his' lasagne a few days ago, the lasagne has a roughly 60% success rate (as in, if I can sneak into the kitchen and season the arse out of it without him looking)
Alas, the other day I was at work so unable to stealthily salt the bastard thing.
He gave a rather quizzical look when after the first mouthful, I got up to fetch the salt....
He then gave me the 'too much salt is bad for you, I've already put salt in it' spiel.

3 grains of salt doth not a seasoned meal make.

But you can always add salt, but you can't take it away. I always find other people's cooking too salty, I'd hate for someone to be stealth adding salt to my cooking. Just accept other peoples tastes vary, and season your own food on your plate.

You can't have too much garlic!

Funnily enough, when I do stealthily add salt, he'll bang on about how it's the best one he's made.
I stand by my actions, ninja seasoner.

Just tell him.
My exH' 'signature' dish was macaroni cheese. The macaroni cheese would start off OK, then before it was finished cooking he'd whisk a tin of chopped tomatoes into it, for no reason at all, resulting in slimy pink slop with bits of macerated pasta in it. He tried it twice and I said 'don't make that again it's horrible'. You can fret about hurting people's feelings, or you can save yourself from a life time of eating pig swill.

Alternatively buy a labrador - they will eat anything.

tomatoes in macaroni cheese? why did he think that would ever work

im no cook btw i do scrambled egg in the microwave

Unrepentant😅

I don't think you can admit that you never liked the burgers. He'll start wondering what else you've been lying to him about (or just not telling him about) for the last ten years. But you can certainly go off them now.

I recommend the following. It is how I and several relatives have genuinely gone completely off foods we used to like. Develop a tummy upset after the burgers. Spend a long time in the loo. For added effect you could still be a bit under the weather in the morning.

Assure him that you couldn't possibly have got food poisoning from the burgers. It must have been the mayo that had gone off, or maybe you caught a bug. BUT next time he mentions making burgers, tell him reluctantly that there's now a strong association in your mind between the burgers and that time you felt so ill. You know it's irrational because it probably wasn't the burgers, but you can't face them yet, which is such a pity because they are so lovely. Maybe in a few months you'll be ready to enjoy them again. But a few months later when he next presses you to try them, you can reluctantly admit that you've gone off them and it might be a long time before you can eat them again. Such a shame.

DH loves cooking but tbh he cooks things he likes and it's a bonus if anyone else likes them.
So often I cook something different for the kids and sometimes myself
But he's got an annoying habit of sneaking in an ingredient no one else likes into an innocent looking dish that we all normally like!! (And then tries to deny it)
But I'm upfront if I don't like something or can't wait for him to make something fancy even if it is nice!

@Thisbastardcomputer
sorry but I’m crying with laughter at this 🤣
Your calm dry wit is hilarious 😂

poor you - at least as you say it’s a night off cooking

Lucky for me dp is a professional chef, so luckily the only things I won’t eat from him is the things I don’t like. Tbh I cook most of the time... he says he doesn’t wanna cook all day at work and then cook when he gets home.

Do we have the same DH

I take my steak blue, but would not cook burgers rare from bought mince - there are potential risks with this, no matter how decent the quality.

I would have told him day 1!
But we are all different…

No need to mentioned the 10 years of suffering, but just say you’ve gone off burgers … blame hormones or something.
Then suggest another recipe you really want him to do instead ?
or better burger recipe ?
or buy butcher ones to compare ?

God knows what he’d do to a vegan burger. 🙈

it's wrong that food should hurt when you eat it

😆