Kitchen jobs you hate beyond reason

[nonblonde007]

Squeezing tuna juice from the can!

[Meanderer]

Cleaning spinach and leaf lettuce. No matter what I do I end up with some grit unless I rinse each individual piece, which can take an eternity when I am using more than a little at a time.

[therippa]

I have no dishwasher or garbage disposal. I hate doing dishes. Last year I did three weeks of work to put together a full thanksgiving meal for a dozen people or so. At the end of it my hands had a rash from doing so many dishes over that time.

[nakji]

1. Sorting silverware upon unloading the dishwasher. I prefer to sort as it goes in, which I try to do as it's generated, so I don't have to sort more than a few pieces at a time. Then when it's all done, I can just grab a handful out of each section of the basket and stick it in the right place without further fussery. Of course, I'm the only one in the house who does this, so one well-meaning dishwasher-loading helper can screw up my whole system. I don't want to discourage anyone from loading the dishwasher, though, so I keep my mouth shut about it.

Seriously? I thought I was the only person in the world who loathed sorting cutlery. Certainly my husband has intimated this to me on several occasions when I have carelessly put the spoon into the fork "nook" or vice versa. Things became easier when we switched to chopsticks on a semi-permanent basis.

[emmalish]

Rolling out cookie dough, or any other dough that needs to be rolled out. I always think it's going to be a much bigger/messier job than it actually is. I will procrastinate as long as possible, and then once I get going I realize it's fine. But still, this is the reason I almost never make pies, and only make cookie cutter cookies a couple times a year.

[Marlene]

Separating eggs. Peeling apples. Hate it. Rarely make apple desserts for that reason. Peeling potatoes. I use a paring knife which gives my husband and friends horrors for some reason. Which is fine. It just means I get to delegate the chore to them.

Dicing tomatoes.

[johnder]

I really dislike emptying the dishwasher. Aside from that after you clean a grease trap or two iin a commercial kitchen nothing ever seems that bad.

[conor610]

I. Cannot. Stand. Chopping. Garlic. The paper sticks, they cloves are too small to really do it the "right" way (like a tiny onion, right?), and you always need so much more of it than you think you do. Luckily, my wife LOVES chopping and prepping (it's her OCD I guess) and doesn't like doing the actual cooking...which I adore. So it all works out. (Except for the dishes. Guess we need kids.)

[stuartlikesstrudel]

I'm alright with a bunch of the tedious repetitive tasks, must be the OCD thing. Apples (peeling and coring to use in baking) take a while and that irritates me sometimes but I kind of enjoy the process itself if I have plenty of time.

What gets me unreasonably irritated is when people put dishes/pans into the sink (rather than in the stacking area we have next to it) which then blocks my easy access to fill a pan with water... only takes me a few seconds to clear them out but GAH!

Similarly, leaving the dishwater in the sink after washing gives me the shudders. When it gets cold there's always a film of fat on the top, and the water is all murky and slimy... how hard is it to just pull the plug once you decide you're done?!?!?!

Edited December 5, 2010 by stuartlikesstrudel (log)

[Anna N]

Opening pull-tab tins of condensed milk or sardines.

Peeling lots and lots of garlic.

Emptying the dishwasher.

[TeakettleSlim]

Are you in fact my mother? (See my post opening the topic.)

Not to my knowledge, but we are kindred spirits, it would seem.

The funny thing is, I never used to hate it-- not until I came up with my timesaving sort-as-it-goes-in technique. Now the whole task irks me sorely.

I'll also add, in the prep category, item #3: Occasionally when I buy certain veggies at the farmer's market (broccoli, I'm looking at you!), they have all these little green caterpillars on them. I hate picking them off, but there's no way I'm going to be anything less than meticulous about it. I actually stopped buying fresh broccoli there due to this, I'm sorry to say.

[syoung68]

Opening that square box of Kosher Salt... I always manage to get the metal pour spout jammed up under finger nail while trying to pry it open. Ouch.

I usually use a bread knife and just cut a corner off.

[Chris Amirault]

I find it bizarre to report that I actually like nearly all of these tasks, look forward to most of them. I think that I find the ability to define a task, execute it, and have it done very satisfying, something that I get to do dozens of times each day in the kitchen and oh so rarely in other parts of my life.

Which is why I loathe, absolutely despise, finding, "organizing," sorting, and using Tupperware. We never have figured out a system in a decade of using these containers, and I confront that failure every time I try to store leftovers.

[Darienne]

I finally have a system that works for us. Fifty years for us. Only three sizes of storage containers only. In a big drawer that is the bottom drawer beside the stove. (The drawer is not full at all because we have made Hot and Sour and Beef Barley soups and they are in the freezer. The containers are not Tupperware and they fit quite nicely into each other.)

All other containers go ruthlessly into a Rubbermaid container in the garage marked: Miscellaneous and they go home with other folks, with contributions to Pot Lucks, etc. And I don't want them back. And other people must do this too, because that's how I amass most of them. All extraneous acquisitions of plastic containers go into the recycling bin.

No more lids without containers nor containers without lids and all higgeldy-piggeldy sizes either.

[Katie Meadow]

I don't mind most prep work, but if I'm rushed or in a hurry it loses whatever meditative value it might have. I agree with one of the posters above: I find chopping parsley (or cilantro) very annoying. And I am pretty fast, although the only person I can compare myself with is my husband, who treats parsley and cilantro like an art project. In the time it takes me to chop two onions, a carrot and celery, he makes one perfect little mound of parsley. Not that I'm not grateful.

Chris, we came up with two solutions to the container problem. One is the cheap solution, in which we purchase things from the same source that uses cup, pint and quart size plastic containers that have the same size lids. The lids get stored separately, and the containers get stacked. For bigger, more substantial containers we had to shell out a little money. But we still found ones that are stackable, and the tops are still stored separately, in a drawer. Saves a lot of space, and means that it doesn't really matter if the tops get washed at the same time, and I don't have to worry about matching odd tops to odd bottoms, etc. I got rid of the idiosyncratic containers and it saved much space and frustration.

[andiesenji]

I find it bizarre to report that I actually like nearly all of these tasks, look forward to most of them. I think that I find the ability to define a task, execute it, and have it done very satisfying, something that I get to do dozens of times each day in the kitchen and oh so rarely in other parts of my life.

Which is why I loathe, absolutely despise, finding, "organizing," sorting, and using Tupperware. We never have figured out a system in a decade of using these containers, and I confront that failure every time I try to store leftovers.

That's the reason I switched (mostly) to Cambro containers many years ago. The lids are interchangeable on some sizes, they stack securely and I store all but the largest in the super jumbo Hefty storage bags and hang them up where they are kept dust free and I can easily see where they are.

I do have some Tupperware and it also goes into the storage bags and gets hung up where it is clean, out of the way and easily found.

The hooks the bags hang from are just below the ceiling so the stuff hangs above shelves that are up to chest high on me.

All the odd-shaped stuff that is difficult to store and is not used on a regular basis goes into these bags and hung in this hallway behind my kitchen.

I buy these big storage bags by the case because I use them for everything from linens to garden tools. One holds nothing but boxes of cereal because they are bulky, take up a lot of room in a cupboard and this is the absolute best way to deter bug invasions.

[Darienne]

I don't mind most prep work, but if I'm rushed or in a hurry it loses whatever meditative value it might have.

That's it for me. Time is everything. I resent it if I have left it too late. I love it when I have lots of time. Mostly my own doing.

We eat dinner at noon and often I resent having to do any cooking in the morning when it seems that there are so many other things to do.

[Jaymes]

Hating to unload the dishwasher seems fairly universal. Not sure why it's so irksome. But it's akin to unloading and folding and putting away the clean clothes from the dryer. There's just something about it.

I actually have noticed a recent trend among very upscale homes. They have at least two dishwashers. So one is always being loaded with dirty dishes, and one is always being emptied of clean dishes. I had a friend that had this two dishwasher system and she told me, laughingly, that if she could, she'd design a kitchen wherein all of the cabinets washed dishes.

As for me, the not-unpleasant task I hate and avoid is making breakfast. No clue why. None of the other stuff mentioned here fazes me at all. Garlic peeling? You peel? I smash. Parsley chopping? Nobody makes me chop the parsley into fairy dust, so I just take my kitchen shears and hold the bunch over whatever the parsley is going into and snip snip snip. Onions? I keep my onions in the fridge, so I don't get a lot of onion juice wafting up to irritate the nose and eyes. If I'm chopping or slicing more than one or two, into the food processor. Cleaning the food processor is easy peasy - a quick rinse to remove the big chunks and then into the top shelf of the dishwasher.

But preparing any sort of a breakfast at all for myself brings me to a halt. I'll do it for others, and enjoy it, but not for myself. I want what I want right now. I love fruit, but I have to have cut it up the night before and have it ready and waiting in a plastic tub, or I won't eat it. I love oatmeal, but even sticking a cup into the microwave for two minutes seems like a monumental chore first thing in the morning. I want my coffee, and something I can just grab and eat with no preparation required. No preparation whatsoever.

Puzzling.

[Emily_R]

Has anyone mentioned grating cheese? Hate hate hate it, mostly because I consistently grate myself. This task is always offloaded to my husband, who doesn't seem to be so accident prone.

[Darienne]

OK. Ya got me. This I hate beyond reason. And this also my DH, Ed, hates beyond reason:

Putting things away in the downstairs freezer in the compartments in which they belong. Hate, hate, hate.

Just took a bunch of stuff down, and because this morning I was SOOO virtuous and did put stuff where it belonged, this afternoon I just shoved it in where I could get it to go easily. The best laid plans...

[christine007]

I love my son beyond all reason,and therefore do not subject him to the prison quality of what the school calls lunch... but packing his lunch is the most monumental pain in the ass of my morning. Why? don't know,it just is, from making his sandwich,to bagging up his fruit,pretzels, cookies,making sure he has milk money,it just frosts me every single time I do it. I tell myself to get over it,and no,I still hate doing it.

and, remembering not to run out of change,certain foods, baggies,etc is yet another PITA on shopping days.

p.s. I love to cook, truly.

[Pierogi]

Finally hit me this evening as I was prepping dinner. I don't hate the mincing/chopping/slicing work. I don't hate loading/unloading the dishwasher. I *would* hate handwashing dishes, but mercifully the aforementioned dishwasher takes care of that chore. Don't hate putting away the flatware. Don't hate breaking down proteins. Nope none of that.

I absolutely, resolutely and without any sane reason HATE cleaning herbs. Especially small leafy ones like mint, parsley, cilantro, thyme, etc. And I use these suckers a lot.

Don't mind chopping them. Absolutely loathe washing and drying them. To the point where I'll think....."hmmmm, do I really *need* it in this recipe?"

[Jaymes]

I love my son beyond all reason,and therefore do not subject him to the prison quality of what the school calls lunch... but packing his lunch is the most monumental pain in the ass of my morning. Why? don't know,it just is, from making his sandwich,to bagging up his fruit,pretzels, cookies,making sure he has milk money,it just frosts me every single time I do it. I tell myself to get over it,and no,I still hate doing it.

and, remembering not to run out of change,certain foods, baggies,etc is yet another PITA on shopping days.

p.s. I love to cook, truly.

Don't know how old your son is, but I raised three kids and figured out fairly early on that making three lunches every morning was a royal pain.

So when the second one hit first grade (the first was in third at that point), I decided they could make their own lunches. I realized that they had no problem doing it on weekends, so why not on weekday mornings?

I made sure to have everything on hand - whole wheat bread, cold cuts, cheese, chips that I bought in huge bags and then put into smaller plastic bags, fruit, juice boxes, and junky treats like Little Debbie cookies, or cookies that I had made myself and put into bags.

There were rules - only one treat bag, must take one fruit, etc. And I inspected everything before they left.

Sometimes I would make something special, like putting hot chili into the thermos, and then sticking in a weiner, and then wrapping the hot dog bun separately, but most mornings, I was teaching them to do it themselves. It thrilled me as the years passed to see them packing nutritious lunches all by themselves, and to even watch the older ones helping the younger ones.

[christine007]

Thanks James.

my son is eleven, however he is high function autistic, and has trouble concentrating. I am trying to get him to get his cereal, etc.

plus, he'd pack himself way, way too much of the goodies type lunch food!

your idea is awesome,however.

[Jaymes]

Thanks James.

my son is eleven, however he is high function autistic, and has trouble concentrating. I am trying to get him to get his cereal, etc.

plus, he'd pack himself way, way too much of the goodies type lunch food!

your idea is awesome,however.

You're obviously dealing on a way different level than I was, and I wish you the best of luck.