How can you be "bad" at cooking?

[Anonymous No.16262549]

To do the bare minimum of cooking, all you literally have to do is follow instructions. Use a cup of water for this, a tablespoon of salt for that, pop it in the oven for the designated amount of time. Use X seasoning, cover in Y sauce. I genuinely do not understand what is the problem of people who can't cook besides laziness. If it's a time constraint, sure, but how can you be actively BAD at cooking?
I understand that someone who can't cook will obviously not be able to improvise or enhance anything, but how hard is literally just following instructions? Cooking is like math; it can get complex, but at the basic levels EVERYONE can at least do the fundamentals. Everyone can add 2 + 2. Everyone can cook something in a pan, 5 minutes on each side. Everyone can boil rice or spaghetti in a pot. There is literally no excuse besides being mentally or physically handicapped. Ignorant? Fucking google a recipe.

[Anonymous No.16262749]

For the most part, anyone can follow any recipe good enough. But most cooking does not entail "making recipes." It's not practical to eat all your meals by looking up recipes, buying the specific ingredients, and following the exact recipe. It takes a long time and you waste a lot of leftover ingredients. When I feed myself in my day to day life, I just buy ingredients I like and cook what I have when I feel like eating it. Stir fried vegetables and meat, fried meat, baked meat or vegetables on a tray, any of that with rice, any of that mixed with tomato sauce and pasta, any of that mixed with beans and rice or in ramen. Any of that in an omelette. Any of that in a stew. Etc. You need to know how to prepare each ingredient, which ingredients go together, relatively how long each thing takes to cook, and the proper ratios to use, what temperature to use on the stove, heat control, how not to burn your oil, and the list goes on.
I learned how to cook by looking up recipes and getting the precise ingredients and following them exactly, while I lived with my parents as a child. It never constituted a significant portion of my diet to eat that way. At this point, I haven't "made a recipe" in like 15 years.

[Anonymous No.16262763]

>>16262549
You have shitty taste buds and use either too much or too little spices/salt.
You are easily bored and leave the kitchen while your food burns.
You are scared of the stove and use too little heat so your food always boils instead of frying.

[Anonymous No.16262793]

>>16262549
in practice you will have to make some adjustments. you don't always have the exact same cookware and ingredients as the recipe says and a lot of things need to be gauged by eye and smell. for example, how do you know your risotto is done? it is not a specific amount of minutes at a specific stove setting, it's a feel. also, being able to whip up something good on the spot with random ingredients / leftovers is more important than being able to follow a recipe step by step

[Anonymous No.16262834]

>>16262549
Back in middle school a friend of mine called me over summer vacation because he needed help making cup noodles. When I went to college the cafeteria had a waffle maker with instructions on the device itself, on the batter dispenser and on a sign between the 2. I routinely watched adults flounder at this waffle station. In short, people are dumb.

>>16262763
>You are easily bored and leave the kitchen while your food burns.
>You are scared of the stove and use too little heat so your food always boils instead of frying.
These also seem pretty common. I cook steaks well enough that people have asked me to make their anniversary dinners but all I do is cook on high heat and pay attention. I don't walk away from food unless it's something that needs to simmer for a significant amount of time and then I set several alarms for several minutes before the thing's actually ready.

[Anonymous No.16262867]

>>16262834
My ex always wanted to help me cook but got bored before even the prep was over. She always got pissed off when I said I'm fine on my own.

[Anonymous No.16262895]

Anyone can follow a recipe to the letter if they try, but a "good cook" develops skills of being able to use intuition to figure out how to change or improve things to come out the way they want without using detailed instructions

A bad or mediocre cook takes the food out of the oven because the recipe says to do it now, a good cook does it because they know they should

[Anonymous No.16262968]

>>16262895
>A bad or mediocre cook takes the food out of the oven because the recipe says to do it now, a good cook does it because they know they should
This is a very good way of putting it. Same with seasoning.

[Anonymous No.16263052]

>>16262549
It's been mentioned, but there's a lot of factors, especially if a recipe requires multitasking. Something might get burned or undercooked because I put it in at the wrong time, or got distracted trying to struggle to make a sauce.

Then there's issues like not knowing how much seasoning or sauce to use, not being aware that my oven runs a little cooler than the one the person making the recipe used, etc. With most things, I also have no idea how to "feel out" the doneness. I also have limited materials.

[Anonymous No.16263411]

>>16262549
Math is literally just logic and still people have trouble with it even at the lowest level where you also just have to follow instructions.
theyre just that retarded

[Anonymous No.16263450]

>>16263411
some people just want to get useful work done, they're not gonna faf about with rigorous proofs as to why adding 1+1 should be equal to two, they want to do fucking math.

[Anonymous No.16263690]

Recipes aren't that detailed, and without understanding what you're doing or having the sensory experience to evaluate the situation properly you can't fill in the gaps

[Anonymous No.16263694]

>>16262549
Tell that to Jack.

[Anonymous No.16263708]

>>16262549
some people are too stupid to follow instructions.

[Anonymous No.16263718]

>>16262549
>all you literally have to do is follow instructions
You understand the average person has serious problems with managing this, right?

[Anonymous No.16264015]

>>16262549
One thing you'll learn as you grow older is that people use "I can't do [thing]" as an excuse to not bother doing [thing] in the first place because they just can't be bothered doing it.