Reply to Here are some things about beginning cooks and non-cooks

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why are people being so bitchy?  Baking is harder than cooking, there are more specific terms and techniques, and the final result depends more on each step being completed correctly than in cooking.  You know the old saying: cooking is an art but baking is a science.  As much as I love to bake I would shy away from a recipe that involved whipping cream and beating egg whites unless I really had to have that particular thing, since they can be tricky to work with.  And, I also don't own a stand mixer (although I have owned a hand mixer for a few years now).

I was surprised by the PP who said she is not going to teach her DD to cook.  I see learning to cook like learning to swim or knowing how to do laundry, a basic life skill that everyone should have when they leave their parents' home.  I don't think kids need to have lessons and advanced baking is something that I'd only involve DS in if he's truly interested, but basic cooking and baking is something I expect him to involved in helping with.  I grew up helping my parents cook and I can remember the progression from being allowed to stir to being allowed to cut and it made me feel like I was making an important contribution to our household.  Cooking meals shouldn't be one family member's hobby, it should be something everyone participates in (in my opinion).

To get to the OP's point, there are usually decent guides to basic terms in the front of general cookbooks.  I know that Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison has an excellent glossary that helped me (an experienced but not expert cook) clarify and improve some techniques.  The Joy of Cooking does as well.[/quote]

I was also surprised by the PP who said she would not teach her daughter how to cook, and I hope she might reconsider after reading this thread. The reason there are so many adults who don't know how to cook is because they did not learn as children. I was one. My mom cooked every night, not elaborately, but from mostly from scratch. I somehow managed not to learn how to do anything -- I guess I was always doing homework during that time. I never watched her except on the holidays. Consequently, when I left home for college, I literally did not even know how to boil water. I mean I could turn on the stove, but I didn't know how long it would take to boil the water or what a simmer versus a rolling boil looked like. I learned a teeny bit while watching my host mother cook when I studied abroad, but I didn't learn to cook myself until after college, when I moved into an apartment, bought a knife, a cutting board, and a bunch of cookbooks, and did a lot of experimenting. Now I am a very good cook, but it took a lot of time and effort (and yucky meals). I wish I had learned to cook as a child, when I had the opportunity. If it's easy to teach your daughter, you really should consider it. It won't be as important to her now as her hobbies and passions, but she will appreciate it when she's older.[/quote]

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