What was the first thing you ever cooked?

[Adam Balic]

Perhaps we could perk this topic up, and make it into something with more weight, by breaking it into several parts:

a.) first thing ever cooked with parental (or teacher) assistance

b.) first thing ever cooked independantly

c.) first serious full meal ever cooked, describing all of the parts

d.) first "gourmet" meal ever cooked

Answering, of course, only the ones you are sure about.

I'm gonna have to think about this one myself though.  I'm actually not entirely sure of any of them.

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I can't think of the first thing I ever cooked (most likely scones with grandma), but I remember the first full meal I did. Mum had a hugh early 1970's gourmet book of Australian and New Zealand cooking. When I was about 12 (early 80's) I decided that I wanted to cook a braised rabbit dish and a dessert. So after shooting the rabbits I made:

Braised rabbit with prunes and pinenuts

Chocolate mousse.

The latter was put into wine glasses and to make it classy I put a coffee bean on the top.

I think I remember this well because shooting the rabbits was fun and I amazed myself with the new knowledge that chocolate mousse could be made at home.

[Pan]

a.) first thing ever cooked with parental (or teacher) assistance

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I helped my mother prep apple pies at the age of 4.

b.) first thing ever cooked independantly

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Maryland Chicken, when I was 9 (my mother may have shown me how to dredge a few pieces, but otherwise, I did all the prep and cooking). I think I posted elsewhere that I was 7, but that would have been a false memory. I was in Norfolk, Connecticut that summer.

c.) first serious full meal ever cooked, describing all of the parts

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My guess is that it would have been an Italian-style meal, with the following elements:

Neapolitan-style Lasagna al Forno (based on Adda Boni's recipe in Il Talismano della Cucina in English translation, published by Ronzoni, and using meat sauce I made a day or two before and used for regular boiled pasta).

Funghi Trifolati (also based on an Adda Boni recipe).

Something I don't know an Italian name for and do by feel and experience:

Pan-fried yellow and green squash (=zucchini, in the latter case) slices (almost sauteed, except that it's stirred with a spoon). The dish has a lot of slices of onion, fried in a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil with or without minced garlic. Then the squash slices are fried. Then, basil, oregano, pepper, and a bit of salt are added. A splash of white wine is cooked down, and then the dish is served. Another version includes tomatoes.

I think I would have been between 12 and 14 when I cooked that meal, but I made pasta with tomato or meat sauce based on Adda Boni's recipes and feel/experience when I was younger. I can get a certain amount of the sense of how to make something by virtue of lots of experience in eating it.

I have cooked food I considered tasty and satisfying, but it wasn't gourmet if gourmet means fancy. At best, some of my cooking may have deserved one solid star (New York Times, no way Michelin).

[godito]

I was just a little kid, so I can't remember which of these came first, but it was either:

1. marble cake, which I still make... I'm sure the one I make today is a lot better

2. some form of bread, mixing water, salt and flour, which, according to one of my friends, was how you made home-made plastiline. I do remember the bread being hard as a rock.

[Kim WB]

mushroom soup

Edited June 17, 2005 by Kim WB (log)

[Ling]

I don't know for sure what I cooked first, but I'm guessing it's scrambled eggs. When I was perhaps 7 or 8, I decided to surprise my parents with breakfast in bed one day. I made toast, eggs, and "peach jam". I took a peach, mashed it up with a fork, and then I added a lot of sugar to the pulpy mass. My parents ate it, but I bet it wasn't good...

The first things I baked were from the Five Roses cookbook. I was probably in grade 6 by then. Some of the first things I tried were the butter cake, sponge cake, marble cake, banana cake, and coffee chiffon cake. I still use the coffee chiffon recipe--it's my mom's favourite.

First "gourmet" meal I cooked for an SO was a baked goat cheese ravioli with radicchio, with pasta made from scratch. It took a long time too, since I didn't have a pasta machine and had to roll the dough by hand. I was in high school.

Edited June 17, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Corinna Dunne]

We were in the car - I was 4 - and we were on our way back from my grandmother's in the country. "We've got to go back" I hollered. And my Dad had very little choice in the matter.

As we got towards the house, my grandmother came to the door, and in her hand was a small 'golf ball' of brown soda bread. My bread. I'd made it with my grandmother, and there was no way I was going home without it.

Following my cullinary debut, I spent many years 'assisting' my mother, but was unable to get control of the kitchen. But my moment of independence arrived when I was about 7 or 8. I went on holiday to my godmother's house in the country. There was a big farmhouse table, lots of fresh eggs, milk and cream from the farm and a constantly hot stove that yearned to be filled with bread and cakes. And my Auntie Jo just let me get on with it. It was wonderful. I cooked to my hearts content: brown soda bread, scones, madeira cakes, whisked egg sponges and a load of strange coffee flavoured recipes that I found on the booklet accompanying a bottle of 'liquid' coffee (very new at the time!).

Now, thankfully, I have my own kitchen, and have 2 little girls chewing at the bit. Yes, another power struggle has begun!

[Kim D]

My childhood sounds so different.

Mom didn't like anyone in "her" kitchen when she was cooking.

One day when she was taking a nap, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I used the recipe from Tollhouse. I must have quadrupled the recipe because I remember using 9 cups of flour.

I put the first batch in the oven but didn't know how to tell when they were done. So, I went to ask Mom. Her eyes were closed but I didn't think she was really sleeping. I lifted her eyelid and there was her eyeball looking back at me. She told me the cookies were done when they were brown on top.

I took them out when they were brown on top. And black on the bottom. Lesson learned. Good thing I made lots of cookie dough.

To this day, Dad says I make better chocolate chip cookies than Mom. And I never asked her for cooking advice again.

- kim

[Viola da gamba]

Mum always had me "helping" in the kitchen (which often amounted to little more than letting me lick out the bowls, but she called it helping). The first thing I remember helping to make was macaroni & cheese - the first thing I made independently was brownies - good way to learn how to properly toast almonds & how disgusting burnt nuts are - the first full meal I cooked on my own was macaroni & cheese, salad, & ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert - the first "gourmet meal" I cooked was home-made veal ravioli, crab & avocado salad & crepes suzette for dessert - successfully, oddly enough - but I've got a lot less messy since then!

[Chris Amirault]

Loose definition of "cooking": Combine 1 c sour cream and 1 packet Lipton onion soup mix. Consume with Ruffles.

Slightly more rigorous definition: boil boxed noodles in water until done. Add can of tuna, drained, 1/4 c milk, 2 T oleo (a.k.a. margarine), and Noodles Romanoff seasoning packet. Consume with lots of black pepper.

[SuzySushi]

Lots of interesting memories... and many of us seem to have started off with scrambled eggs or some sort of baked goods.

The first "gourmet" meal I cooked was when I was in my early 20s, still officially living at home, but housesitting for a friend who was out of the country on business. I invited my boss over for dinner and made coq au vin (rather good, but slightly gray because I'd used my friend's cast iron skillet!) and lemon meringue pie.

[origamicrane]

mine was quite reason actually

new style sashimi

black cod and miso

green tea ice cream and chocolate souffle

i like this thread its got a warm fuzzy feel to it

[Daddy-A]

Mac & Cheese ... or Kraft Dinner if you prefer. That's the first thing I remember making all on my own.

My kids are faring better ... both have made risotto (with some guidance) before they were 12 and my 14 y.o. can now do it on his own now.

[proud dad smiley]

A.

[stephenc]

scrambled eggs