To think heating food is not cooking?

[pouracupofambition]

So, this is lighthearted.

DH cannot cook. He can spend hours pouring over a cookbook, following step by step instructions but end up producing inedible mush. We are supportive as a family and try to eat any offerings as best we can.

DH made lunch today and it was fine but it was all foods that were heated up. Quorn sausages, Aunt Bessie roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, M&S green medley microwaved. You get the drift. It was an ok lunch and DH was very pleased but heating up isn't cooking, is it? Cooking is adding ingredients to make a new dish. Or am I wrong?

I would take the heated food over mush 100% and just shut up. What is the point of you now being critical and saying"well, that's not really cooking" he has tried and he is not good at it.

It’s not cooking, but it is making dinner.

Cooking involves food preparation. Piercing the film before microwaving isn’t cooking, nor is a tray full of various items warmed through.

However, sometimes you just want food that you didn’t prepare yourself, and who cares if it’s McCains or Aunt Bessie or Cauldron who did the real work?

If your DH struggles yet made an edible dish, being supportive is the bare minimum you should muster up OP. You have access to a dictionary, so no need to debate word meaning.

We don't always fully prepare food; chicken and veg prepared and cooked but blue dragon paste mixed with milk for the thai curry for example. Microwave refried bean pack with all the trimmings loaded into premade wraps that we heat up (we prefer to make a spicy guacamole, but even shop-bought or loading mashed avocado would taste fine. Those little shortcuts help with lack of time but also would help with lack of skill, if it's a tasty dish then that's what matters. Instead of sneering, you might want to teach DH some halfway tricks like that, so that he increases complexity and skill in easy steps by focusing on bits of basic prep.

You're not wrong, it's not cooking, it's reheating. A ready meal is precooked so all you need to do is reheat it, hence 'ready meal'. Bulk cooking from scratch with ingredients bought from the supermarket is the way to go if you want to save money, but I get it's not for everyone. Also don't go near ready meals if you can help it, they are absolutely chocked full of salt and microplastics.

So if somebody boiled some veg, put a chicken and potatoes in the oven to roast and made some granule gravy on the side would you say they didn’t ’cook’ a roast dinner because they hadn’t actually mixed any of the ingredients together? I would say putting things in the oven to cook is cooking regardless of whether you mixed ingredients up or not.

OP mentioned a green medley too. I am pretty certain that is raw anyway. It is just a selection of green veg in one container. It still needs cooking.

Most cooking is heating, a fried egg for example.

I mean, technically it's not cooking but really, does it matter?

I'd say it's close enough, although it doesn't sound like the most delicious meal.

Maybe he can do some cooking lessons on YouTube?

I can only tell you that the cooking test for disability benefits says that simply heating or reheating food is not cooking. The test is whether a disabled person can prepare and cook a meal from scratch using fresh ingredients.

I think it’s fine. Once a week, I make a dinner of salmon, jacket potato (with salt, pepper and sour cream) and steamed tenderstem broccoli. My family members enjoy it, as much, if not more than a meal made with mixing ingredients, cutting, chopping stuff. I still consider it to be cooking.

Suppose terms are interchangeable in sense - cooking dinner/making dinner. Does it really matter? I'd be pleased he sourced food and prepped it

Does it matter? Why are you trying to prove it’s not cooking? To make yourself feel superior? To show him the thread and try to put him down?

That's a good point.

Is putting a salad together cooking or does cooking involve heat?

You need to raise your bar off the floor. Providing the minimum so no-one starves is not 'doing your share of the cooking' especially seeing as it sounds like that sad offering is the absolute best he can do.

If that sort of food was all he ever did, so it made a large part of their diet, it wouldn't meet an acceptable standard of taste, nutrition or value for money.

Well, not quite the reply I was anticipating

Poor Bessie

Oh no, I got that wrong as well. I genuinely thought it was poured

Eh no.

A lot of things I eat are just heated up.
Like the salmon and roasted vegetables I made today. It is cooking.

Really not sure why you are asking or bothered.

@pouracupofambition you are not wrong OP but given his good intentions and lack of skill I would not mention this. I would applaud his effort so that he feels appreciated and in the future carries on putting meals on the table that you can actually eat. positive reinforcement all the way.

Every couple has their strengths and my dh cooking isn't one if them. He has several set meals such a fajtas or sausage and mash - that's totally fine with me

Er... cooking is literally the action of taking a raw ingredient - meat/vegetable/egg ...etc. or a collection of raw ingredients i.e. a cake mixture and heating it until it's no longer raw but "cooked"

That's its definition.

Many frozen foods are pre prepared but actually raw. Heating them up in an oven/pan is therefore, cooking them.

Some are part cooked and need further cooking to be edible

And some foods are indeed ready cooked and just need reheating.

I know many define "cooking" as preparing meals from scratch but that isn't what the word actually means. But, tbf I don't think there is a separate word for that so 🤷‍♀️

My husband also “cooks” food like this which is really just reheated. He can boil potatoes - until translucent and mushy, like awful school food. The only things he actually cooks are boiled eggs and toast.

I used to share a house with someone who made the most incredible sausage and mash, the sausages were perfectly cooked, the mash was incredible, lovely green veg and proper home made gravy.

It was proper cooking and a completely different thing to frozen mash, bisto and sausages done in the oven....

My dh makes us fish chips and peas....all from the freezer....fairly often. that's heating up ...