Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

I feel like baking is easier for a novice. Start with a good recipe, follow directions exactly, and chances are, things will turn out. It’s when people get creative before they understand how baking works, that things go wrong (says the person that just subbed apple brandy for vodka in my pie crust).

DP, but I kind of agree. Baking is so precise, for some people they can really excel at that. 1/4 tsp salt is easy. "Salt to taste" for a newbie cook is difficult and daunting!

Yes just follow a tried and true recipe and it should turn out ok. Get a basic betty crocker cookbook and start there. Google unfamiliar terms.

Completely agree.With the internet it is too easy to Google "chocolate chip cookie recipe" and get a dud that some random mommy blogger published. Get a printed cookbook of cookies or cakes and follow it to the letter. Those recipes were developed and tested by professionals.

+1, the recipe on the package of Nestle Chocolate Chips works great!

Anonymous wrote:Subbing cheap ingredients

cheap imitation butter for real butter

cheap imitation vanilla for real authentic vanilla

cheap chocoloate chips for giardelli chocolate chips

I laugh when people say "I just follow the recipe on the bag of Toll House Chocolate chips"...uh no, those things are vile.

Subbing cheap ingredients

cheap imitation butter for real butter

cheap imitation vanilla for real authentic vanilla

cheap chocoloate chips for giardelli chocolate chips

Anonymous wrote:I think there can be multiple reasons for this. First, people don’t know how to follow a basic recipe. They substitute or change measurements and ingredients that are critical to making a baked product work.

People don’t know how to measure properly. I weigh my ingredients out because it’s precise and I’ll always get the same measurement. For someone using volume, one cup of flour will be different than somebody else else’s cup of flour because of the way they scoop it or pack it in or sift. But by weighing it, you’ll always get the exact same amount.

Lastly, there are a lot of really awful recipes out there on the Internet.

To be honest, I'm not convinced that everyone knows about measuring cups, either.

I remember meeting a dog (a very overweight one) whose owners could not figure out why it was so heavy, given they were giving it just one scoop of food, twice a day. Turned out, the "scoop" wasn't a cup measure, more like one of those scoops you use to get ice out of hotel ice machines. I can just imagine people like this just using whatever is handy as a "cup".

Anonymous wrote:Are most people terrible bakers?

I know I will get crap for saying this, but here goes.

I went to a neighborhood cookie exchange over the weekend and of the dozen or so cookies only 3 were edible. One cookie was hard as a rock and other just didn't taste good. Even my kids threw them in the trash after one bite.

I consider myself a baker and get a lot of compliments on my cookies. But I don't do anything special when it comes to baking or making cookies. I just pick out good recipes and following directions. So it surprises me when other make such terrible cookies.

Yes, I worked at one elementary school in North Arlington where cookie day (day before winter break) was the best day ever so many amazing cookies! Switched to working to a different school in South Arlington and the cookies were inedable just disgusting sugar & candy loaded yuck.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, most are. But I also NEVER participate in cookie exchanges. Most people have filthy kitchens.

This.

I think there can be multiple reasons for this. First, people don’t know how to follow a basic recipe. They substitute or change measurements and ingredients that are critical to making a baked product work.

People don’t know how to measure properly. I weigh my ingredients out because it’s precise and I’ll always get the same measurement. For someone using volume, one cup of flour will be different than somebody else else’s cup of flour because of the way they scoop it or pack it in or sift. But by weighing it, you’ll always get the exact same amount.

Lastly, there are a lot of really awful recipes out there on the Internet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

I feel like baking is easier for a novice. Start with a good recipe, follow directions exactly, and chances are, things will turn out. It’s when people get creative before they understand how baking works, that things go wrong (says the person that just subbed apple brandy for vodka in my pie crust).

DP, but I kind of agree. Baking is so precise, for some people they can really excel at that. 1/4 tsp salt is easy. "Salt to taste" for a newbie cook is difficult and daunting!

Yes just follow a tried and true recipe and it should turn out ok. Get a basic betty crocker cookbook and start there. Google unfamiliar terms.

Completely agree.With the internet it is too easy to Google "chocolate chip cookie recipe" and get a dud that some random mommy blogger published. Get a printed cookbook of cookies or cakes and follow it to the letter. Those recipes were developed and tested by professionals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Problem with many bakers is that oven performance can vary widely. A recipe calling for 375 F for 15 minutes might take 10 minutes in yours while it will take 22 minutes in someone else's. Amateur bakers often have zero concept of food chemistry.....you need to simply be aware of things like the Maillard reaction, which is the key to making many of the best and most flavorful baked goods.

A problem specifically with American bakers is that all of the stupid recipes nonsensically use volumes instead of mass. It makes so much more sense to use grams and mass for recipes rather than use volumes like cups for things like butter and flour.

I guess by “mass” you mean weigh things? I’ve heard that’s the best way to go but I don’t have a scale accurate enough for that. I guess I’d better get one.

Just buy a scale. They’re like less than $20. There is significant error when using volumes. If a recipe says you 2.5 cups of flour how much really is that? Did the person who made the recipe pack down the flour? If you don’t pack down the flour the same way they did, you volume can be off by as much as 20, 30, or 40% when you actually compare how much mass of material are used. Same for something like brown sugar. Maybe you really compacted down your 1/2 C brown sugar while the recipe inventor did not, so the amount of brown sugar difference between your recipes will vary by 20%. Mass mass mass. It makes zero sense to use volumes for baking. I don’t know why American recipes insist on it. It is an old tradition that needs to die.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Problem with many bakers is that oven performance can vary widely. A recipe calling for 375 F for 15 minutes might take 10 minutes in yours while it will take 22 minutes in someone else's. Amateur bakers often have zero concept of food chemistry.....you need to simply be aware of things like the Maillard reaction, which is the key to making many of the best and most flavorful baked goods.

A problem specifically with American bakers is that all of the stupid recipes nonsensically use volumes instead of mass. It makes so much more sense to use grams and mass for recipes rather than use volumes like cups for things like butter and flour.

I guess by “mass” you mean weigh things? I’ve heard that’s the best way to go but I don’t have a scale accurate enough for that. I guess I’d better get one.

DP so a stick of butter is unusually 3 3/4 -3 7/8 oz not 4 oz. A cup of flour’s weight will vary 20-30% based on how you fill the measuring cup. Flour compacts. If you scoop the flour with a measuring cup it is lighter, fill the same measuring cup with a spoon heavier. Humidity and time sitting will impact the weight or amount of flour. This also applies to baking soda and baking powers. Sugar less so.

People always wonder why their chocolate chip cookies vary - too cake like or spread way too much. One common reason is if you use volume for measuring you do not have control over the ratios of the ingredients. This is easily controlled by using a scale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

I feel like baking is easier for a novice. Start with a good recipe, follow directions exactly, and chances are, things will turn out. It’s when people get creative before they understand how baking works, that things go wrong (says the person that just subbed apple brandy for vodka in my pie crust).

DP, but I kind of agree. Baking is so precise, for some people they can really excel at that. 1/4 tsp salt is easy. "Salt to taste" for a newbie cook is difficult and daunting!

Yes just follow a tried and true recipe and it should turn out ok. Get a basic betty crocker cookbook and start there. Google unfamiliar terms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

I feel like baking is easier for a novice. Start with a good recipe, follow directions exactly, and chances are, things will turn out. It’s when people get creative before they understand how baking works, that things go wrong (says the person that just subbed apple brandy for vodka in my pie crust).

DP, but I kind of agree. Baking is so precise, for some people they can really excel at that. 1/4 tsp salt is easy. "Salt to taste" for a newbie cook is difficult and daunting!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

I feel like baking is easier for a novice. Start with a good recipe, follow directions exactly, and chances are, things will turn out. It’s when people get creative before they understand how baking works, that things go wrong (says the person that just subbed apple brandy for vodka in my pie crust).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.

Cooking is pretty easy though, even I can rustle up something reasonably edible. Baking is a whole other story.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t learn how to bake by just reading a recipe or watching YouTube videos. You have to learn by doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a skill passed down from one generation to another, and sadly that’s not happening as much anymore.

There are a lot of self taught cooks out there. You can learn a lot by watching cooking shows and experimenting on your own.

+1. A good cookbook with photos along with practice also works.