What Foods Seem Easy to Prepare but Are In Fact Difficult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mashed potatoes. These days I just buy the frozen kind and reheat.

Wow, there are a lot of really bad cooks on here. Mashed potatoes? Chocolate chip cookies? I made these well as a preteen.

I'm guessing your palate is unsophisticated enough that you don't understand that the people posting here are talking about not being able to get them perfect. You don't know what that is.

Well, I don't consider chocolate chip cookies or mashed potatoes to be in the ballpark of "sophisticated," so you got me there. Also, there's no such thing as perfection, as was demonstrated by the fact that some people prefer chewy cookies while others like them crispy. But if you can't even make such basic items as these to your taste, yes, you are a bad cook.

I didn't say that mashed potatoes and cookies are "sophisticated." I said that your palate is.

Yes, it is, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deep frying. It takes SO much oil, no matter what I do I can't avoid splatters, and it's one of the few things I can't do better than a restaurant. Not worth it.

and it feels like the kitchen is permeated with grease. I even feel coated. The kitchen often smells after. It's a nope. I'm from the South, have a deep fat fryer and have only used that monster 5 times in maybe 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rice krispie treats. Spent a small fortune on butter ver the years thinking that was the problem. Just can never get the consistency right, too hard or too gooey, messy to slice, you name it.

Choc chip cookies. Always turn out flat when making from scratch. Again, spent a small fortune on ingredients only for it to be gross. Box mix or refrigerator ones from here on out.

Personally I prefer my choco chip cookies flat and crispy and I am always trying to make em that way.

melt your butter first. For bonus flavor, brown it.

Melted butter will cause flatties. Babish or someone else has a famous viral recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies but you refrigerate or freeze the butter before using. I actually have brown butter in my fridge now for making cookies. It's been there for weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made a tartiflette and a salad over the weekend and the salad took more work, with twashing and drying the greens,herbs chiv,es and apple, and chopping everything and making a dressing. Hate that stuff.

Recipe for this? It sounds do good.

It was AMAZING! I used the David Lebovitz recipe, but all recipes are basically the same. You boil 2.5 lbs yellow potatoes, drain and slice. Fry 12 oz of thick cut bacon cut into lardons, drain off most of the fat, then saute an onion (mine were bad so I had to use shallots), and 1 clove garlic. Add 3 T white wine or vermouth to deglaze the pan. Then you layer the potatoes, bacon and onions twice. Pour 1/4 c heavy cream over it. Top with 1 lb semi-soft cheese. Traditionally it is made with reblochon, which we can't import, so I used a taleggio from the cheese shop (could used a brie or raclette). Bake at 425 for 30 min.

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/tartiflette-recipe-potato-cheese-reblochon-bacon/

[Anonymous]

Rice. Soft or hard boiled eggs. A steak to requested doneness. Gravy. Good biscuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breading anything drives me crazy. Flour egg breadcrumbs….i know how to use my different hands so I don’t bread my fingers, but it still drives me crazy. I’ve given up.

It's such a huge mess. One of my family's favorite meals is Schnitzel with spaetzle but the combo is killer. Lining up the plates/bowls to dredge and dip the meat makes a mess. I do that while cooking the meat and it's stress inducing. The spaetzle dough is often so tough to get through the speatzle maker than I often have to get my dh to help. I now make the spaetzle a day in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mashed potatoes. These days I just buy the frozen kind and reheat.

Wow, there are a lot of really bad cooks on here. Mashed potatoes? Chocolate chip cookies? I made these well as a preteen.

We all have our hangups.

I can make impeccable French macarons and brioche loaves and still can’t do mashed potatoes that I like.

To make restaurant tasting mashed potatoes you need to add more butter/cream/salt than a human should have. Also if you over mash, they turn to glue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Egg PP: try Kenji’s methods for fried eggs on serious eats, and the cornstarch slurry method for scrambled eggs (which is on NYT cooking I believe but also on free sites such as the kitchn)

Kenji is a god.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find bread is deceptively difficult to prepare. I am not sure how people make such beautiful loaves of bread, and make it look so easy. I am always struggling to get the right texture, flavor and density. Bread is hard for me.

+1. Sourdough bread is hard to get right. And the time it takes to rise is so long. [/quote

I've made a lot of bread and pizza dough through the years and the temperature in my kitchen often works against me. One summer I could never get my doughs to rise because of the air conditioning. I bought a heat mat people use for brewing beer and that saved me. I have a warm setting on my oven but it's too warm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mashed potatoes. These days I just buy the frozen kind and reheat.

Wow, there are a lot of really bad cooks on here. Mashed potatoes? Chocolate chip cookies? I made these well as a preteen.

I'm guessing your palate is unsophisticated enough that you don't understand that the people posting here are talking about not being able to get them perfect. You don't know what that is.

Well, I don't consider chocolate chip cookies or mashed potatoes to be in the ballpark of "sophisticated," so you got me there. Also, there's no such thing as perfection, as was demonstrated by the fact that some people prefer chewy cookies while others like them crispy. But if you can't even make such basic items as these to your taste, yes, you are a bad cook.

I didn't say that mashed potatoes and cookies are "sophisticated." I said that your palate is.

Yes, it is, thank you!

I meant unsophisticated. But you knew that.

At any rate, this is a nice thread. Stop bringing your nasty attitude to it. Go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find bread is deceptively difficult to prepare. I am not sure how people make such beautiful loaves of bread, and make it look so easy. I am always struggling to get the right texture, flavor and density. Bread is hard for me.

+1. Sourdough bread is hard to get right. And the time it takes to rise is so long.

I've read a million recipes and watched a million videos and I still can't figure out if the bread has been given enough time to rise enough. Also baking time can vary. It's so hard to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made a tartiflette and a salad over the weekend and the salad took more work, with twashing and drying the greens,herbs chiv,es and apple, and chopping everything and making a dressing. Hate that stuff.

Recipe for this? It sounds do good.

It was AMAZING! I used the David Lebovitz recipe, but all recipes are basically the same. You boil 2.5 lbs yellow potatoes, drain and slice. Fry 12 oz of thick cut bacon cut into lardons, drain off most of the fat, then saute an onion (mine were bad so I had to use shallots), and 1 clove garlic. Add 3 T white wine or vermouth to deglaze the pan. Then you layer the potatoes, bacon and onions twice. Pour 1/4 c heavy cream over it. Top with 1 lb semi-soft cheese. Traditionally it is made with reblochon, which we can't import, so I used a taleggio from the cheese shop (could used a brie or raclette). Bake at 425 for 30 min.

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/tartiflette-recipe-potato-cheese-reblochon-bacon/

OMG.

I'm making this today. I'll see if I can find some raclette -- I once went to NYC just because I wanted it and there is (was?) a restaurant there.

[Anonymous]

The best scrambled eggs take forever to make. If you want them creamy and custardy you have to cook them over very low heat slowly. They take a looong time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made a tartiflette and a salad over the weekend and the salad took more work, with twashing and drying the greens,herbs chiv,es and apple, and chopping everything and making a dressing. Hate that stuff.

Recipe for this? It sounds do good.

It was AMAZING! I used the David Lebovitz recipe, but all recipes are basically the same. You boil 2.5 lbs yellow potatoes, drain and slice. Fry 12 oz of thick cut bacon cut into lardons, drain off most of the fat, then saute an onion (mine were bad so I had to use shallots), and 1 clove garlic. Add 3 T white wine or vermouth to deglaze the pan. Then you layer the potatoes, bacon and onions twice. Pour 1/4 c heavy cream over it. Top with 1 lb semi-soft cheese. Traditionally it is made with reblochon, which we can't import, so I used a taleggio from the cheese shop (could used a brie or raclette). Bake at 425 for 30 min.

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/tartiflette-recipe-potato-cheese-reblochon-bacon/

OMG.

I'm making this today. I'll see if I can find some raclette -- I once went to NYC just because I wanted it and there is (was?) a restaurant there.

The Swiss Bakery in Burke or Springfield has everything you need to make raclette even the raclette makers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Risotto

I find this super easy too.