Do you like your own cooking?

[fresco]

or do you prefer meals that others prepare? Or does this change from time to time?

[MatthewB]

or do you prefer meals that others prepare? Or does this change from time to time?

Typically, concerning cooking, I'm harder on myself than others.

[badthings]

I don't think it's dumb -- my girlfriend swears that food tastes better if someone else makes it. (Of course, that's because she eats my delicious food all the time). There is something to it though -- a salad with a vinaigrette does taste better to me if someone else does all the work. For more elaborate food though, I think there are too many variables. But the chef is usually more acutely aware of his or her own failings than anyone else -- as Matthew said.

EDIT: typo

Edited November 17, 2003 by badthings (log)

[Fat Guy]

I'm as critical of my own cooking as I am of what I eat at the best restaurants in the world, so I rarely produce anything with which I don't find fault. Of course that's the wrong standard, but I can't seem to break away from it. Whereas, when other people cook for me, I'm not particularly critical, even to myself in private.

[tryska]

i like my own cooking, but not typically right after i've made it.

soemthing about doing it and smelling it all through the cooking process, i wind up not having much taste for it, once all is said and done.

leftovers on the other hand, i like eating.

Edited November 17, 2003 by tryska (log)

[tommy]

i'm rarely pleased with what i make (although guests seem to be). i always find fault, and am constantly picking the dish apart. i certainly like the process of coming up with a dish, and the execution, much more than eating it.

but eating out is a favorite pastime of mine. there aren't many things that make me happier.

i suppose right between those two, enjoyment-wise, is when someone else cooks. i love seeing what other people come up with, as it's usually a source of inspiration. as long as it doesn't suck.

[bilrus]

I am probably not a good guest because of this but I hardly every get really excited about someone else's home cooking - maybe I don't know enough very good cooks.

There are certian things I think I make better than I can get in a restaurant, but that is probably because i make them exactly to my taste. The problem with my cooking is that it is so inconsistent - somedays I amke things that are fantastic and the next day I could make something absolutely inedible.

[Lady T]

I never think about it while I'm in the *process* of making the roast chicken come up so it rests for ten minutes while I'm steaming asparagus and pouring wine and checking table settings and such.

However, when I come through the front door the next evening after work or rehearsal and the apartment still smells like the south end of Heaven, and I know there's leftover chicken to nibble on while I watch the news and catch up with mail and messages, that's when it hits me that I might not be too awful a cook after all.

[tryska]

to be honest, taking animal flesh from raw to finished kinda skeeves me through the process. i guess by the next day i've forgotten about the guts or something.

Edited November 17, 2003 by tryska (log)

[Varmint]

to be honest, taking animal flesh from raw to finished kinda skeeves me through the process. i guess by the next day i've forgotten about the guts or something.

Try cooking a whole pig after it's spent a night brining in your bathtub. That'll really give you the heebie jeebies.

[tryska]

*lol* i can only imagine.

actually the part that gets me every time, other than actually cleaning the meat pre-cooking, is that point in cooking where meat goes from "rotting" to cooking. That one minute or so, of not so enticing smell. it's a turn-off.

did you actually wind up eating any of your barbecue the day of, varmint, or had you lost your appetite?

Edited November 17, 2003 by tryska (log)

[Nick]

I like mine well enough that I very rarely go out to eat at restaurants. It's just not worth it. I do like eating at friends when they know how to cook good stuff that I don't usually cook.

Baked, stuffed lobster comes to mind. A friend of mine is a fisherman and when he and his wife do it, there's nothing better. The lobster is stuffed with every good thing from the sea that works.... and nothing in the stuffing is more than a day or two old. The lobsters come out of the water an hour before cooking begins. I doubt that many restaurants could do as well and if they could you'd expect to pay probably $75.

I'm firmly in the home cooking camp.

[Varmint]

*lol* i can only imagine.

actually the part that gets me every time, other than actually cleaning the meat pre-cooking, is that point in cooking where meat goes from "rotting" to cooking. That one minute or so, of not so enticing smell. it's a turn-off.

did you actually wind up eating any of your barbecue the day of, varmint, or had you lost your appetite?

Actually, the cooking process took so long that it wore off any of the nastiness I was experiencing. Thus, the barbecue was actually the best I've ever had, and I've had a lot. I'm usually hypercritical of my cooking, but this was very, very good. Even when I first tasted it at 10:00 AM!

[tryska]

that's very cool. yeah i don't know what it is, but skeeviness seems to be temproary. sleep on it and it goes away.

[jo-mel]

i like my own cooking, but not typically right after i've made it.

soemthing about doing it and smelling it all through the cooking process, i wind up not having much taste for it, once all is said and done.

leftovers on the other hand, i like eating.

You just described me!

I like my own cooking, but what I really like to try is someone elses meatloaf. We all have our own way of making it, but tasting one, other than my own, is always fun.

[Kim WB]

I really like when I cook roasts and whole poultry and such.

I mean, a duck breast is better from any restaurant, because of the sauces and such..but doesn't beat a whole pheasant roasted with golden raisin stuffing! A lamb chop can be wonderful, but give me a pancetta wrapped leg of lamb anyday!

[GSBravo]

Yeah, I guess I do. But I do agree with this:

tryska @ Nov 17 2003, 03:03 PM

i like my own cooking, but not typically right after i've made it.

soemthing about doing it and smelling it all through the cooking process, i wind up not having much taste for it, once all is said and done.

leftovers on the other hand, i like eating.

I mean I still eat, but not as much as when someone else cooks. What I like more is seeing other people enjoy my cooking. Watching, but not staring, and seeing that they really liked what I just slaved over.

This most often happens with my sons friends, who probably haven't had a real meal prepared from scratch in forever.

And I also agree with this:

bilrus Posted on Nov 17 2003, 03:25 PM

I am probably not a good guest because of this but I hardly every get really excited about someone else's home cooking - maybe I don't know enough very good cooks.

But I would add, other people's cooking, not just home cooking but restaurant cooking as well. I don't really like eating out, because I start thinking I could have made this. Then I start thinking about what I would have done different. then I think about how much I could have bought with the money I jsut spent.

[Squeat Mungry]

I really love the process of cooking and getting things right: seasoning, technique, timing, etc. And I am happy when I do get it right, but my friends always seem to like it way better than I do!

Squeat

[foodie52]

I love my own cooking. I loved my mom's, and mine is like hers.

Most of my friends don't cook much, so we don't get invited over to other people's houses. Maybe they think I'll be critical. I love eating other people's food. I don't care what it is, as long as I didn't have to prepare it and clean up afterwards! Most folks don't understand that, so they stress about it not being "good enough".

[Squeat Mungry]

Most of my friends don't cook much, so we don't get invited over to other people's houses.

That's funny! My friends love to invite me over to their houses to cook for them! They know I love to cook, but live in a tiny apartment and can't really entertain properly, so everybody's happy!

Edited for sloppiness.

Edited November 18, 2003 by Squeat Mungry (log)

[BettyK]

Most days I prefer my own cooking to most restaurants around here. But when I'm not in the mood to cook, you're better off making reservations. I enjoy when others cook for me as long as it's done well.

[marie-louise]

I'll eat anything. I almost always find my cooking very enjoyable, but I also almost always think of a way it could be better next time. I'm constantly tweaking my master recipes.

[GG Mora]

I love my own cooking – maybe a little too much (she said, as she loosened her belt a notch post-dinner). I can cook and cook and cook and I'm just happy as all get-out. A great day is one on which I get into the kitchen at 8 in the morning, still in pajamas, and spend the whole day cooking. And if I'm invited to dinner at someone's house, I'll always jump in and help out in the kitchen. It's in my bones. But then...then comes a day when one too many people require something of me, and I'm happy to be fed almost anything by almost anyone. Except my sister. See "Feeling like a Bad Guest" here.

[Huevos del Toro]

i like my own cooking, but not typically right after i've made it.

soemthing about doing it and smelling it all through the cooking process, i wind up not having much taste for it, once all is said and done.

leftovers on the other hand, i like eating.

I've always wondered about that. After I finish preparing a meal I'm often not hungry. I've posited it's the aromas and sight of the food that diminishes my appetite. Sometimes it's embarrassing, in front of guests, to admit I'm not hungry. I get the feeling they think the food isn't going to be very good. Happily, it usually is.

[beans]

Cooking - yes.

Baking - no. By the time I'm done with a large project (a multi-step, detailed procedure) I have no interest in having any.