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Any other terrible cooks on here?

15 replies

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 09:56

I cannot cook for toffee. I do what the recipe says, but it always tastes wrong somehow... Especially meat and especially chicken.

I have more or less given up tbh and am resorting to pre prepared stuff a lot. I cam make my kids' favourites ok, but I cannot cook for grown ups apparently!

I can actually cook a steak ok.

Anyone else similar who has found a way to not cock things up? I am definitely not cooking chicken anymore. My last attempt was horrible 😫.

OP posts:
CaptainCorelli · 22/11/2025 10:00

Yes! Cooked for years when kids were tiny and always found it stressful with unpredictable, largely bad results. DH now does all the cooking and it’s bliss.

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 10:09

Thanks for the solidarity @CaptainCorelli! I keep thinking that some day I will crack it, but no.

Dh is way better at it than me too.

I've just sulkily done an online shop of stuff for kids' meals and then easy stuff for me and dh for when he doesn't want to cook. He likes to buy the ingredients himself when he makes something.

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Olderbutt · 22/11/2025 10:18

I started cooking at about 12 years of age and have made a few mistakes over the last 66 years but I can empathise with you. My best suggestion is to ask a friend for help. Ive helped a few friends over the years and it's worked for them. Maybe once or twice a month ask them around to your home and get them to stand alongside you and direct you how to cook the dish.

I think some people have a more natural talent for cooking like other things in life but don't despair x

Lurkingandlearning · 22/11/2025 10:47

Through trial and error I’ve realised mistakes I’ve made. Not seasoning enough and cooking too quickly. But I persevered because I enjoyed cooking. If you don’t, just give it up wholeheartedly. You will still eat but without the pressure.

NewCushions · 22/11/2025 11:02

I am actually quite a good cook. But one of my absolute pet peeves is this idea that chicken is easy to cook. Chicken is the hardest protein to cook well and so many of us rely on it for a lot of meals but it's so easy to get it wrong but you're always hearing people say things like, "oh, just do a bit of chicken" or "a roast chicken is easy". Bollocks. Roast chicken is by far the hardest roast to make.

So OP, if you are in the slighest bit interested in improving your cooking skills, I'd say abandon chicken for a while and experiment with more forgiving food. As a rule, anything that ideally needs to be cooked slower and for longer is a lot harder to mess up.

Also, if you're good at steak, I suspect that your default cooking pproach is go hard, go fast. Works great for steak, less well for other options (especially chicken!)! Stir fries are good if you like a fast hot heat so you could experiment with that! Grin

NewCushions · 22/11/2025 11:03

Also, embrace salads. These days eevry cookbook has a few salad recipes that are genuinely tasty and appealing, and they require no cooking!

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 11:28

Ah thank you for these! I am going to try a stir-fry and maybe a salad, but I think the dressing is where I'm going to go wrong and also getting the vegetables the right size if I chop them up.

I have a close friend who is a fantastic cook, but I think he would murder me if he has to stand beside me while I destroyed ingredients 😂😂. He would intervene I think

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RampantIvy · 22/11/2025 11:32

You need some better cookery books.

I highly recommend The Roasting Tin series of books by Rukmini Iyer for low effort, easy and delicious meals.

These were recommend to me on mumsnet and have got me out of a cooking rut.

NewCushions · 22/11/2025 11:32

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 11:28

Ah thank you for these! I am going to try a stir-fry and maybe a salad, but I think the dressing is where I'm going to go wrong and also getting the vegetables the right size if I chop them up.

I have a close friend who is a fantastic cook, but I think he would murder me if he has to stand beside me while I destroyed ingredients 😂😂. He would intervene I think

I do think it's worth following a recipe for salads etc, and also watching it done on tv/youtube/instagram etc. I'm always bemused when DH asks me HOW to chop things when he's helping me but I realise now that it's instinctive for me, but that's after years of experiene.

Emily English on Instagram is quite good for really tasting salads with specific ratios for dressings etc.

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 11:35

Thank you - I will give the salad person a follow and will look at the cookery books too

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Emmz1510 · 22/11/2025 20:38

I can rustle up stuff that’s fairly simple with not too many ingredients if I have a recipe to follow and I have a small repertoire of recipes I know by heart but I am definitely not a natural cook, no. You know those people for whom it just seems to be second nature and they know what ingredients go together and how to cook them? That’s not me.

No advice really except maybe to try a recipe book or website that’s intended for novice cooks, like maybe a a student cookbook or back to basics sort of thing? Or get someone who is good to demonstrate for you.

PracticalPixie · 22/11/2025 21:19

Emmz1510 · 22/11/2025 20:38

I can rustle up stuff that’s fairly simple with not too many ingredients if I have a recipe to follow and I have a small repertoire of recipes I know by heart but I am definitely not a natural cook, no. You know those people for whom it just seems to be second nature and they know what ingredients go together and how to cook them? That’s not me.

No advice really except maybe to try a recipe book or website that’s intended for novice cooks, like maybe a a student cookbook or back to basics sort of thing? Or get someone who is good to demonstrate for you.

Thanks - I know what to do, but it always turns out....off...

I love food and until a few years ago worked mainly in michelin star restaurants, (NOT as a chef obviously 😂). I sit and watch food network most evenings. It's just the execution.

Weirdly, I'm quite good at puddings. Just not proper meals and especially bad at meat

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NewCushions · 22/11/2025 22:41

Cooking meat badly is almost always the result of some combination of the wrong heat and the wrong time sideeyes DH who either cooks everything to death or it's raw

I reiterate that slower cooked food might well be the solution for you. Bolognaise perhaps?

If you do want chicken, here is my slower-cooked baked chicken recipe that's pretty foolproof and where the cooking time can be a bit flexible and the marinade/seasoning ingredients are just fine if they're approximate.

To cook 4-8 piece of chicken thigh (bone in, skin on).

Choose an ovenproof dish that will fit your pieces of chicken in relativel snugly (again, you don't have to get obsesive - if there's space between them, that's fine too!)

Into the dish put a big glug of olive oil. Then squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Add a tablespoon of of whisk/brandy if you have it and want to (it's not essential). Then add abroximately a teaspoon of fennel seeds, and half a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground cumin and oregano,. (again, quite frankly - this is lovely, but it's not a big deal if you don't have the exact ingredients. You could replace the fennel seeds with dried thyme or oregano or you could toss in two star anise instead. It honestly doesn't matter. You chould just sprinkle in some random mixed herbs and it would be fine!). Add chopped garlic - 1 clove if you aren't a big garlic person, 2-3 if you like more garlic!

Stir it all together - again, the amount doesn't matter that much but you need enough that when you've mixed it all together, the entire dish has some of the marinade so that you can then rub the chicken in it. Then toss in your chicken pieces and just make sure you get a quick coating on the skin, then turn them skin side up. Season with salt on each piece of chicken (pepper too probalby but I don't use pepper in most of my cooking).

Put them in the oven, uncovered - 150C FAN or 160 normal. Put them in for 40 minutes (you guessed it - if you have gone for a bath and it's a bit longer... no problem!). Baste the chicken. At this point, they won't look terribly cooked. This is good - you've got a lot more time to go! Put them back in the oven for 25-35 minutes.

When you take them out, put the chicken pieces on a board and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.

If you want to, you can skim off some of the fat and use the rest of the juices/marinade to make gravy. Cheats version is honestly just to throw in a small saucepan, bubble furiously to reduce for a few minutes, then frankly, add a bit of bisto (chicken or, frankly, beef) and a good knob of butter. Delicious!

JPA · 23/11/2025 09:43

Regarding chicken and especially turkey make sure the temperature reaches 74 c. Everything else can be fixed/adjusted.

ghostiewhisp · 23/11/2025 13:26

This is my go to website, I’ve never had a recipe of his go badly
there is also a little video on each page so you can watch him cooking it and a lot of child friendly stuff too (cowboy potato waffle pie!)
https://www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk/

Next Level Comfort Food Recipes

Don't Go Bacon My Heart is your go to food blog Next Level Comfort Food with the no-nonsense recipes to match!

https://www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk/

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