what do you tell them? I mean, what do you consider a "difficult" recipe? One that is time consuming, but fairly straightforward? Candymaking? One that requires a lot of "elbow grease" (e.g. kneading bread)? Or something else. I love to cook, and very rarely "botch up" a recipe. When people ask for recipes, they ask if it's easy. Sure, I say, it's easy. After they make it, they give me a bunch of flack because it was too hard to make. What's hard about making a white sauce? Sure, it takes 10 minutes of constant stirring, but what's difficult about that?? To me, "hard" would be candy making. Everything has to be exact, or you'll ruin it. I really don't consider a lot of prep work or cook time difficult. Anyone agree?
2006-09-25 05:08:00 · 11 answers · asked by brevejunkie 7 in Food & Drink ➔ Cooking & Recipes
I took love to cook and do make many "from scratch dishes," even several gourmet ones that I love. I did not always cook, and before I started cooking I often found recipes difficult.
It is not the number of steps in a recipe or the prep work that I think most people find difficult. But, as an experienced cook I now know (1) whether my oven is overly warm or cool and automatically turn up or down the heat to match a recipe's requirements; (2) what a thickened bechemel looks like when its reached peak thickness but has not boiled; (3) how much pepper and salt to add when the directions say "to taste"; (4) what "finely chopped" means; (5) why you need to add some ingredients BEFORE other ingredients, even though the recipe may not specify why; etc.
It is the information only an experienced cook knows, and be honest, there are quite a few things we know when we see them or smell them, that an inexperienced cook does not know that will doom a recipe. I always try to warn anyone I give a recipe to what the "things to be mindful of" are in the recipe.
2006-09-25 05:23:21 · answer #1 · answered by J T 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I too don't have a problem with making a bechemel sauce or hollandaise etc..
The results are always worth the effort. I find that the hardest part of cooking is the Prep work. The time it may take to locate ingrediants or the slicing and dicing which really isn't hard just time consuming. However, baking is something I find hard due to the exact measurements and or order of mixing ingrediants and temp variations and altitude etc...
While I enjoy a quick an easy meal as much as anyone ; my family absoultely loves the meals that seem to take hours to cook etc...
For example Thanksgiving Dinner isn't difficult to do but takes planning and organization.
Cooking from scratch and not instantly out of a microwave or can or frozen is becoming a lost art and is the reason restaraunts are big business.
2006-09-25 05:17:51 · answer #2 · answered by GrnApl 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd say a difficult recipe is one that requires things be exact. Specific temperatures especially. Also paradoxically a recipe that is vague can be just as hard. As in a bread recipe with 4-6 cups of flour. If you're not used to working with that product, and you don't know how it should look/feel, it can be very difficult to come out with a good end product.
However when people ask for recipes I do tend to warn them if they require long periods of stirring/standing/watching. While it's not hard for me to whisk pastry cream for three minutes straight, some people find it very challenging.
2006-09-25 05:17:25 · answer #3 · answered by valinthebard 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Difficult means different things to different people.
To some difficult could mean time consuming..
To others it may be because it requires too many precise ingredients or the fact that they can't substitute one thing for another. Yet others ask this question for the relativity of it. If you tell them it's easy they will complain regardless. My advice to you is the following: If someone asks you if a recipe is difficult ask them what they consider difficult; if they can't give you a straight-forward answer tell them exactly what you posted: "I don't think that it's difficult at all."
2006-09-25 05:17:34 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I"m with you. I cook a lot, too but nothing has ever been difficult to me. Some things take time or require a bit of prep work and I think that is what most people consider "difficult".
2006-09-25 05:25:25 · answer #5 · answered by Shelley L 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I thing it depends on the persons experience in the kitchen because the less you usually cook the harder it is to learn new recipes. Like when I learn how to make lasagna the first time it was hard but now its easy. Also when you dont enjoy cooking it hard for even and easy recipe to be easy. dont worry about those people giving you a hard time because you did do them a favor by giving them a recipe.
2006-09-25 05:18:04 · answer #6 · answered by Mz.ChArMs 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i'd use butter on account that's in particular called for. on an identical time as no longer "pretend" butter margarine is a vegetable product. the two have distinctive style, protein, and warmth traits. I actual have considered would recipes ruined while butter is deleted and that i do no longer propose purely style. don't be fearful of butter--the quantity you ingest is barely a factor of the entire recipe so probable you wind up with little or no butterfat consistent with person. Chef Jack Garrison
2016-10-01 08:34:27 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A difficult recipe is one that taxes the ability of the cook.
2006-09-25 05:12:04 · answer #8 · answered by dfuerstcat 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A difficult recipe is if it calls for too many ingredients, or hard to find ingredients, or if it involves a lot of preparing.
2006-09-25 05:09:53 · answer #9 · answered by . 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When we were first going out, my now wife offered to "cook" me a salad.
Someone like that might have a hard time preparing a Thanksgiving dinner.
BTW, we eat out most of the time. LOL.
2006-09-25 05:16:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋