When she said it to me, it rang in my head clear as a bell. I’ve repeated it a hundred times. I was talking with Carol Blymire last spring about Ratio, and how to promote it. I was biting my knuckles over this, terrified no one would understand it or even care—it used weights, required a scale, looked like math might be involved, was incredibly presumptuous, etc. Carol was behind me all the way and said, “No, you’re right. The book is good. Americans are being taught we’re too stupid to cook and it's simply not true.”
That one sentence crystallized the issue for me, turned my frustration from a wall into a lens. Americans are being taught that we’re too stupid to cook. That cooking is so hard we need to let other people do it for us. The messages are everywhere. Boxed cake mix. Why is it there? Because a real cake is too hard! You can’t bake a cake! Takes too long, you can’t do it, you’re gonna fail!
Look at all those rotisserie chickens stacked in the warming bin at the grocery store. Why? Because roasting a chicken is too hard, takes FOREVER. An hour. I don’t have an hour to watch a chicken cook!
Companies that make microwaveable dinners have spent countless R&D dollars to transform dishes that used to take 7 minutes in the microwave into ones that take 3 minutes. "Hey, Marge, that’s four minutes of extra TEEvee we can watch!"
In practically every single cookbook produced today, the message is, buy this book because we show you easy things to make fast. Only takes a second. Whether it’s Rachael’s 30-minute meals or the quick-and-easy columns in the food magazines. That’s all we hear. Real cooking is hard and difficult so here are the nifty shortcuts and tips to make all that hard stuff quickly and easily.
It’s the wrong message to broadcast (unless you’re a prepared foods exec, in which case you want people to go on believing cooking is difficult—they want your money!). We’re not too stupid and lazy to cook. Of the top five books on the NYTimes advice and how-to bestseller list, half are about cooking—not about losing weight, not about finding god, how to be as rich as your neighbor or how to find love in 30 minutes. Book sales generally are stagnant but cookbooks keep selling. People want to cook but they’re told at every click of the television remote, in every cookbook, in all the magazines, this is HARD people, so here are the shortcuts!
Next cookbook I’m going to write? It’s going to be called, Recipes That Take a Really Long Time and Are Too Hard For People To Do. (The only problem would be coming up with enough recipes where that was actually true.)
I don’t cook every day. Last night, we wanted wanted to squeeze in an extra game of pool, kids at home were getting hungry, the intended stir fry was going to take 45 minutes to get on the table. Decision? Chipotle, beef and chicken burritos, chips and guac. Sometimes work goes on too long and we don’t even have 30 minutes to cook—fine, fry a burger and mic some frozen peas. Order take out.
I’m not an idiot. I know people are busy. I don’t always feel like making dinner. And I know a lot of people who simply don’t like to cook. If I had to knit my own clothes I’d be really bummed. But the notion that cooking is hard and that it takes a long time and we’re just too stupid to cook is wrong. And I want people to recognize the truth from the bill of goods they’re being sold.
The World’s Most Difficult Roasted Chicken Recipe
Turn your oven on high (450 if you have ventilation, 425 if not). Coat a 3- or 4-pound chicken with coarse kosher salt so that you have an appealing crust of salt (a tablespoon or so). Put the chicken in a pan, stick a lemon or some onion or any fruit or vegetable you have on hand into the cavity. Put the chicken in the oven. Go away for an hour. Watch some TV, play with the kids, read, have a cocktail, have sex. When an hour has passed, take the chicken out of the oven and put it on the stove top or on a trivet for 15 more minutes. Finito.
(But be careful, you might find this so boring that you’ll start thinking about making stock next. Don’t. Too hard. Takes too long. You’ll have to clean the pot. I’m telling you now. Don’t risk it. Consider yourself warned. Don’t blame me if you wind up with something delicious on your hands.)
Walker Lawrence
Hilarious. The timing couldn't be more poignant with "America's Worst Chef" premiering on FN last night.
I think if you could convince Americans they can cook and have sex at the same time you might be on to something Michael.
Cookbook could be, Recipes That Take a Really Long Time and Are Too Hard For People To Do, But Allow You To Have Sex While Making Them!!!
As for cooking taking too much time ... blah blah blah. I think it's an excuse. Most cooking is as easy as learning to use the latest technology gadget. Follow a few simple instructions, spend a little time being creative and at the end of it you get to enjoy your creation and satisfy one of life's few absolute requirements, eating.
Plus once you get hooked the possibilities are endless. Cooking creates ideal family time (it's what my wife and I love to do together), brings friends over for a good meal, makes a party and is a HUGE budget saver. Most of all cooking brings people together, friends, family, neighbors and strangers alike. It is a common denominator that will always win. Join twitter and you'll find out quickly.
Chris
Great post.
Have you seen the cookbook called 'Slow and Difficult Soups'?
http://www.amazon.com/Soup-Peddlers-Slow-Difficult-Soups/dp/1580086519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262618010&sr=8-1
susan
Clearly the New Year has made you feisty! [And I admire this.]
I think that "recipes that take a really long time and are too hard for people to do" has already been written. It is called the "French Laundry."
This dumbing down is really sad. Even serious food sites have numerous posters who tell people to try something "easy" first. But they didn't ask for something easy. They want to make a baguette, or cassoulet, or something specific. Sometimes I feel that we are swimming against a very strong tide.
Happy New Year!
Jill
I'm not sure it's that Americans are too stupid, but instead it's more of the no time/too lazy stuff. I think there are a significant number of Americans who know how to cook a good meal, but like you said they've convinced themselves it takes too much effort. Stupidity isn't the problem. It's abject laziness, indifference to quality food/ingredients, acceptance of the banal and mediocre, and glorification of convenience foods that are the real problems.
Plus, some people think they're just too damned busy for anything but complaining and what's to complain about when you've worked all day, popped a chicken in the oven to roast, spent an hour reading/playing with the kids/working out/having sex only to then sit down to a delicious meal at the end of it all?
If it makes you feel any better, there is a growing segment of our population who is willing to go through a significant effort to make a great meal. I think that there are more and more people out there who would rather roast their own chicken instead of getting that shriveled up grocery store rotisserie thing. We're still the minority, but our numbers are growing.
David Dadekian
This is great and hysterical. It needs to be said, and often. I hope it gets read and shared a lot. I love to cook, especially with my little girl getting interested in what Dad's doing. If a two-year-old can be interested and at least understand what's going on, anyone can. But yes, being the only cook in the house some days I just don't want to cook. Great post, thanks Mr. Ruhlman!
Heather in SF aka @HeatherHAL
I think you nailed it. Some of my friends look at me in amazement when I cook a chicken *myself*. Imagine their shock when I roasted a turkey in 80 minutes (butterflied)!
Margie
Great post and very well said ... I bought the "too complicated" thing for a long time, and then started teaching myself to cook a couple months ago. It's easier than I thought, and my life-long self image as someone who "can't cook" has been replaced with the complete shock of discovering I am really good at it. After writing about food law for years, it's nice to put my money where my mouth is and actually cook ... so happy I found your blog via Twitter, and can't wait to read your books. Keep up the good work!
Matt Sloan
What a coincidence! The Early Show on CBS just showed how to roast a chicken. They even said that if you can successfully roast a chicken, then you must be a good chef. I say, if you can roast a chicken, then you must be conscious!
Tony
Is it no doubt that we have an obesity problem in America?! There are too many among us who blindly eat whatever crap is served up to them by corporate America. It is not rocket science to learn the basics of cooking. Take just a little bit of an effort to learn and prepare what you are putting into your body. Then you can make a more informed choice of what you want your body to process! Then when the doctor bills start to build up because your body is failing you will at least know why!
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. 😉
John Bailey
Dear Michael
Maybe the discouragement for so many is that when they go to fix a meal or bread or dessert they place the recipe on the work surface and scramble to find all the ingredients as they begin or are even well into the process. I all too often forget to organize and am running to the spice cabinet for the one thing I forgot to get out. Teaching mis en place might be a good post for you. Perhaps, recipes should be written with the first section mis en place and then the item to be cooked along with instructions on when to add the ingredients. Remind people wanting to cook anything to buy ramekins or use small saucers or cereal bowls for pre-measured and prepared items for the final recipe. Starting from calm, thinking out the process and keeping all organized can make for a bettter experience.
PJ Mullen
When I first saw the title of this post I thought you had watched "Worst Cook in America" last night. I couldn't agree with you more, cooking isn't hard. Sure, there are some techniques that take time, practice and skill, but by and large the majority of things are easy to make, they may just take time. Whether it is lack of time or laziness that continues to make this so pervasive I'm not sure. I know that making a nice meal for friends and family is worth my time.
And on a total tangent I got 'Ratio' the book and the iphone app for Christmas and am half way through the book. Taking your advice on the post about pate e choux I made the best, most tender meatballs I've ever made using it in my mix. Who knew a french pastry dough could make an italian dish so much better 🙂
Amber
I do think a lot of people use boxed stuff because they think it takes less time. I know when I cook something new (like the goose I made last week) it takes about an extra 30 minutes to make sure it's all done right.
But I've found there is nothing more satisfying than making food from scratch. I know what's in it and even though the food doesn't last long I feel like I accomplished something.
carri
Fuck the big corporations...It falls on parents to teach their kids the basic skills to feed themselves, we don't all have to be 'foodies' (thanks to Walker, my new definition of that term is people who like food as much as sex, or is it sex as much as food?) we just need to realize that cooking is something that must be taught as a basic life skill, like telling time or tying your shoes. By 5 a kid should be able to cut up a snack...by 10 making his own cheese sandwiches, by 14, making soup. We have to stop blaming and take responsilblity, or we could just go off to Mexico, sounds like you could use a break,there, buddy, maybe you should go....
Jennifer, Playgroups are no place for children
I've been absolutely guilty of thinking that I couldn't cook. In the past several years, though, I've learned that it's just not as hard as I thought. I finally became so tired of making tasteless, boring food, that I've really started to put effort into my dishes and have learned that it's not hard. It's not even a little bit hard.
I think convincing others to make the effort is actually harder than most recipes.
Wonderful article!
Jeff
Lazy? You want to hear lazy? I have customers who tell me that they don't have time to grind coffee before making a cup. It takes a grand total of 15 seconds... 15 SECONDS!
What is wrong with us?
marlene
I am teaching two friends to cook. One thinks it's too complicated, the other thinks she's no good at it. To the first, I asked, "do you have half an hour?" We made a fabulous beef stew and fresh biscuits together. To the other, I said "can you read? can you taste?" then you can cook.
To both I said, part of the process is plan ahead if you can. There's a lot of prep work that can be done the night before for example. Plan simple dinners for those nights of the week when you're working late, the kids are at hockey, soccer, swimming etc and you have to go to a PTA meeting.
That pot roast you had time to make on Sunday? It will make excellent beef dip sandwiches or served with it's sauce over noodles, on Monday.
Mise en place is certainly critical. You can't make something if you realize halfway through you are out of it. Read your recipe if you're using one. Know what you can make ahead or the day before when you have more time. French Onion soup? Carmelize those onion the day before or a couple of days ahead when you've a little extra time. Do them at night while you're watching TV. The next day,the soup doesn't take very long to put together.
Stir fry. Can you chop those veggies, garlic and onions ahead of time? Why not? Cover them with plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to start cooking.
There will be days when things go sideways and you really don't have time or feel like cooking. Knowing the ratios as in Michael's book, or knowing how ingredients taste together, goes a long way to making things easier in the kitchen, and there's nothing wrong with take out now and then. Hey, I even like shake and bake chicken ocassionally. It reminds me of my childhood.
What cooking requires is the ability to think. Think about what you want to cook. Think about when you want to cook it. Think about whether you have the ingredients on hand. Think about how long it will take and how much time you have. Doing it isn't complicated.
Bradley
My thoughts exactly; what is most annoying to me is my friends who claim to enjoy cooking but guffaw at me when I take on veal stock or demi glace. What I want to know about these Rachel Ray's is if you say you like to cook why the hell are you trying to get out of the kitchen. Cooking is my life and I understand that most people don't feel that way, but I have gotten to the point to where cleaning my kitchen is as enjoyable as cooking in my kitchen. Sometimes I just stand around gazing at my knives or stand mixer wishing I could whip something up (right after I've eaten). Glad to know there are others out there who share my plight.
devlyn
Funny! I'm actually roasting a chicken and veggies for dinner tonight, myself. I fully believe that having a kitchen set up so that cooking is a pleasure instead of a pain is key. Too many people don't know how to set up a kitchen properly (I don't even want to go into how many I've been in where the cooking tools are nowhere near the places where one actually cooks), and, yes, parents need to lead by example. I cook because my mother cooked. I was brought up to be self-sufficient, so when I went off to college, I was one of the few students I knew who actually purchased ingredients at the store instead of pre-made freezer meals. I fully blame my mother for making me a kitchen addict, but now she sends me tons of canned goods, and I send her my beer and wine, as well as making her fantastic meals when she's in town. Nom!
The Local Cook
I totally agree! When I started cooking through Simply in Season (a cookbook that focuses on using simple, local ingredients), I was worried because I wasn't much of a cook. But I've discovered that it's way easier than I thought, and doesn't take much time to do things from scratch.
Veron
This is too funny. Reminds me of when I had a chat with a friend and she was appalled that I was making my own pie crust and she told me this brand that she uses and that is very good. Or when I want to roast my own chicken, I get that same "Why?" look. Most of America is desensitized to the taste of good food. A lot of times I go to restaurants that receive rave reviews and I wonder why since the food is at best mediocre... to the point that I question my own tastebuds.
But I'll tell you one reason why America is lazy to cook because I have this argument all the time with the hubby whenever I want to saute or fry something. The clean up. People need to learn how to work in the kitchen with minimum mess so that they would enjoy the cooking process more and minimize the chore of cleaning afterwards.
Bradley
Also, I know you wrote the damn thing but the roast chicken recipes in the Bouchon book are pretty much the best thing I have ever eaten.
Michelle
Roast Chicken is one of my favorite meals. And I love the title of your new book -- it made me chuckle. In fairness I must play devil's advocate and give you a reason or two why most of my family and friends won't be roasting a chicken. Reason one: can't find a decent chicken. The horrible grocery stores in our area sell only CAFO watery packed chicken. It doesn't taste good, it's a splattering mess to clean up, and often the date on the package says it is fresh when it is not. Reason two: Cleanup. After a long day at work, messing with the kids, laundry, etc., my family and friends want whatever's easy. They refuse to wash a roasting pan (not that they own one) and unload and reload the dishwasher. Much easier to just wad up that piece of paper dinner was wrapped in, toss it in the trash and call it a day. My sister and I have had deep discussions on this subject, and we both agreed that the actual physical layout of our cities needs to change. Kentucky Fried is just too damn easy. But if there were a nice corner grocery selling fresh whole chickens wrapped in butcher paper that she could just take home and plop into the oven - she could do that. For both of us, the idea of driving 20 minutes to the nearest Super grocery store and making the half mile trek into the store, then bringing home a not so fresh, watery chicken, and cleaning up the mess that ensues, well, that's just too much. It all goes back to deregulation, the corporations are in control now, and we are living in an Orwellian, Soylent Green world. Change does happen on a personal level, but it also needs to occur on a city and community wide level as well. I buy local when I can and vote for politicians who support what's best for the community and not what's best for corporations. Sorry about the rant. I get testy when I can't find a good chicken!
Joy Manning
My favorite example of this marketing is that McDonald's commercial that urges viewer to "leave breakfast to the experts" or something and then depicts befuddled people flipping eggs onto the floor and burning toast.
I get so frustrated with this issues as well, but an important thing for "food people" to keep in mind is that other people, even very smart people, often are at a loss as to what to do and where to start. I had a friend over this weekend because we were attending a (food lovers) pot luck and she was assigned dessert. Her plan was to slice pears and serve a jarred chocolate sauce. We we started working on the new plan: ginger pound cake with pear compote and ice cream, I quickly realized that she didn't know how to use a nice. And her original idea basically stemmed from not knowing where to find a recipe. "Creaming butter" was an unfamiliar concept.
And when you are that clueless about cooking (as many people are) everything takes three times as long. So, between the hectic schedules most people keep, the lack of basic cooking schools being passed down through the generations as they once were, the abundance of bad information about cooking, and this general "cooking is hard" climate you describe, it's no wonder to me that a lot of people don't cook.
I try in my writing and in my interaction with non food types to demystify cooking, but it's hard. Talking down to them never helps. I don't really know what it takes for someone to turn their relationship with food and cooking around. But I couldn't agree more that people are plenty smart enough to cook.
Kevin
Great point, and well written!
Timothy
Very funny and oh, too true! Yesterday I seasoned a chicken, browned it in a dutch oven, threw in chopped onions and celery, bay leaf and rosemary, put on the cover and slow-roasted at 250 for 90 minutes. Let it sit for 20 minutes before carving and strained the pan juices for a sauce.
Vivian
Smiling as I read this. A roast chicken is so delicious and one of the easiest things a person can prepare. Just a small amount of time and a few essential ingredients are all that is required. Rest it on a bed of veggies while roasting and you have a complete meal. Nothing even remotely complicated about that.
I watched Julie and Julia again last night and cringed through her intereview with Houghton-Mifflin. I can't imagine where home cooks would be in this country if everyone thought as they did.
codfish
Very funny! I've been trying to get my sisters to start roasting chickens for years. It's always that it's too complicated. It's crazy! Too complicated?! This coming from a sister who got into MIT on a full scholarship and can design a web page in 30 minutes? Pull my hair out.
Jim Colwell
Chipotle??
Please tell me Que Tal is still there. It's been awhile since I was in the heights, but I sure remember those burritos.
SteveLarochelle
Great entry. I think what took me off the "this is too hard" track is learning from watching Alton Brown and Jamie Oliver's earliest cooking series. The combination of precise technique and a just-wing-it attitude showed thing can be delicious from scratch, not too difficult, and not too time consuming. Jacques Pepin's current PBS series is great too. Quicker meals, but no prepackaged stuff.
jeff
organization & sourcing - the other two big hurdles for dumbed down cooking.
one would have to purchase things (fresh is best unless one can incorporate defrosting time into scheduling) and then ingredients before they go bad. and that's even before telling people they need things like a pan or knife.
I bought my sister the slow & difficult soup book two years ago & my mom bought her a 30 meals in 30 minutes or less...
very much agree on the post's premise.
Dawn
You, my friend, hit the nail on the head! Cooking from scratch doesn't have to be rocket science, and doesn't have to take all day long.
I love your cookbook title idea - LOL!
-Dawn
Bob
When I grew up (back in the prehistoric days, c. 1960), Mom worked but nonetheless had time to cook a well-balanced meal for us most nights out of the week. We didn't even do things like Manwich for sloppy joes. TV Dinners were rarely served - usually only on nights where she had a PTA meeting (she was a teacher), and early fried chicken franchises like Chicken Delight were avoided (even with one just a block away).
In the 1970's, partly because Mom had been in a car accident and was sporting a broken wrist (not her fault), my older sister and I began helping out a little more, preparing simple dishes like fried rice, spaghetti, meat loaf, or veal cutlets.
Michael's book, Ratio, has helped 'improve my game' as far as moving even further away from prepackaged ingredients. Homemade biscuits? Sure, it's not as EASY as whacking a can of refrigerated dough, but the taste is unquestionably superior. I'm seeing things on FN and understanding the basics, the building blocks coming together as to how to make it.
It's not that America is too stupid, it's that they've never been taught, because it's easier to use convenience foods.
Bob
Oops. Let me rephrase that last sentence:
It's that it APPEARS to be easier to use convenience foods, when it really doesn't save you much time, and certainly doesn't provide better nutrition.
David A. Goldfarb
My wife, before we were married, wanted to learn how to cook and after we'd been cooking together for some time said she wanted to try making dinner on her own one night, so I gave her a copy of Beard's _Theory and Practice_ and suggested that she try roasting a chicken. She didn't tie it, but otherwise followed the recipe precisely, and it came out fine, but I had to say, "well, even if James Beard recommends it, one chicken doesn't really *need* a half pound of butter."
Kelley
I'd totally buy that book. I'd buy it and relish it.
Also, I made chicken feet stock over night, and it was delish. I've also made veal stock and that went well too. And I'm allergic to wheat so I can't get anything out of a box anyway.
Dragana
I'm with you Michael! I have friends who are amazed that I can make cakes from scratch and have never used a cake mix! I made cream puffs for a New Year's gathering and used your recipe - easy as ever and delicious!
Tony Fitts
The "too stupid" idea rears its ugly head in the most surprising of places. Imagine my pique after finding that Ad Hoc at Home lists only cups for flour measurements in its baking recipes. Especially after Keller writes that they weigh most ingredients in the Ad Hoc kitchen. Why not list volume _and_ weight in the recipes?
Pat
Thought this was a valuable post to share with others, with one exception: I would hesitate before placing a banana or an avocado inside the chicken's cavity before roasting! That aside, I agree with your thinking...My 12-year-old grandson was disappointed with a pumpkin pie he was served at a Thanksgiving dinner and decided to make one himself. Since then he has baked a quiche, made a potato-and-onion pizza from scratch, and has turned out a cheesecake and a three-layer "blackout cake", since nobody told him he couldn't possibly bake things like that. More of his gumption and curiosity is needed in this world.
Becky
Loved the article. It is so true. I would love to "demystify" baking for a lot of my younger friends. It is so sad how many of them have never made a pie, never made a cake, and it's because they think it is too hard. Somehow we've lost passing on basic cooking skills, and the taste for good food. I think I am going to add to my resolutions for the year to help someone else discover the wonders of cooking and baking, and the taste of good food.
Jeffrey W. Baker
I like to think I'm as good a cook as the next guy, but aren't you forgetting the principle of economic specialization? If I can walk 100 yards down the street and buy a delicious, freshly roasted chicken for $13 -- and I can! -- shouldn't I do that? Is it worth my time to get a chicken, keep it in the fridge but minding to use it before it spoils, cleaning, seasoning, and roasting the chicken? Although sometimes I do roast it myself out of boredom, normally the answer is "no", it is much more efficient to let the roasted chicken specialists do it for me.
CW123
Our local organic co-op grocery chain sells PERFECTLY roasted and seasoned organic chickens for less that it costs to buy a raw bird. These are rotisserie cooked, so the skin is crispy and brown, and the flavor is great.
While I still roast the occasional chicken, it is more expensive for me to do it myself than it is to buy one from the co-op. I buy one, use half of it one night, use the other half for salad or lunches, and make a really good stock from the seasoned carcass.
I agree with the basic premise of the article. But would emphasize the point that Ruhlman makes about some nights just doing take out, or microwave or whatever.
There is an understandable tendency on blogs like this for a certain degree of food snobbery - that's why people like us buy Ruhlman's books. We appreciate what it means to cook a great meal for family and friends, and know that it isn't that difficult.
Although I cook nearly every night for a family of four (we all sit down at the dinner table, talk about our day, no TV, everyone eats the same thing...) and try to use good quality ingredients, make many things from scratch, etc., I don't see anything wrong with a boxed cake mix once in a while, or canned chicken broth, or frozen burritos.
Sometimes it is a matter of clean-up time - as Michelle points out in her reply above. And I know there are single, working parents who are better off spending time with their kids than cleaning a kitchen.
Other times, I just like the convenience or taste of something. Our local Trader Joe's has a lot of great tasting prepared foods that would be a total hassle for me to make - and cost twice as much.
And occasionally, I just want something that tastes like I remember as a kid. My mom used to make us grilled cheese sandwiches with Velveeta. Sure I could bake my own bread, buy a gourmet cheese, and grill it on a fire made with sustainably harvested hardwood. But a Velveeta sandwich with some sweet pickle chips just tastes right, because that's how I remember it as a kid.
Cooking a good, quality meal isn't tough - and we'd be better off as a society if more people realized that, developed the skills and did it more often.
But life is a bundle of trade-offs. And sometimes spending an extra hour reading to the kids, or having a taste bring back a memory isn't so bad.
Beth
Well said and I completely agree. I think there is a "foodie" movement that is producing food critics who cannot produce any food themselves. It is all a part of our consumer complex in America. I think the basis for any review/critique should be your own abilities. Obviously we cannot make everything...and some things should be left to the professionals...but unless you can roast a chicken please do not pull the food snob bullshit out on me. Thanks for being a professional chef with a mission to help us unprofessional cooks produce. I love Ratio...and just got the iPhone
Kevin
Of course, I absolutely agree. But as hilarious as I found this posting, what about the last part? Did you really have to oversimplify the process of roasting a chicken? You know as well as anyone that the conversion of collagen to gelatin in the legs of a chicken needs to be balanced with the relatively lean meat (and subsequent disparity in cooking) of the breast meat. You even mentioned the chicken breast as being the most easily overcooked while dining with Bourdain at the Vegas Bouchon.
Come on, Ruhlman.
Being one of your biggest fans, I'm sure you know better.
And while you were taking the time to describe stuffing the bird with those various examples, maybe you could have gone that long extra mile to mention something that would further ensure consistent results while preventing the aromatics from falling out? Come on, Ruhlman! Even that absolutely gorgeous picture of a roasted chicken you've included with this posting has been trussed!
I hope, in this written format, my words haven't belied my sincere intent of joking with you.
I just think that if someone decided to step outside of the norm and roast a chicken, stumbled upon your words, and followed them literally...well, they might very well go back to "all those rotisserie chickens stacked in the warming bin at the grocery store" with increased dedication. That, and of course, their money and time- and more sadly, a chickens life- might be wasted. It sort of defeats the purpose and energy invested in everthing you'd written previous to it, doesn't it?
Chris
I think it goes a bit beyond cooking ... we're being told non-stop that we're too busy to do ANYTHING. We just have no time, so everything in life must be made convenient and quick. Unfortunately cooking is one of those things. And in a way, "they" are right, because a lot of us do feel rushed ... but the thing is, are we really being rushed, or do we just feel it?
I'm with you ... I prefer cooking when I can, though I will say that as the father of a 7-month old girl, sometimes my wife and I don't have a lot of time to make a great meal when we get home from work and are playing with her, so sometimes we cheat a bit and get takeout or make up some sort of bland convenience food. But when we can cook, we do ... and it's no big deal. New Year's Day? Homemade cabbage and noodles, using some egg noodles we made a month ago with leftover pierogi dough. Took no time at all to shred the cabbage, and then cook it up with some locally-bought kielbasa, and then tossing in the noodles. The day after? Even though I was sick with a massive head cold, I was still able to follow your evil stock recipe ... geez, it was so difficult tossing a chicken carcass (frozen leftover from a simple roasted chicken we did a few weeks ago) in a stock pot, covering it with water, and then putting it into the oven at 180 degrees for 7 hours (I was impatient, that's why I didn't leave it in longer), and ended up making absolutely stunning chicken noodle soup. And yesterday? A simplified cassoulet, which did take about 20 minutes of prep time. But the end result will feed us for several days. It took so little time ...
Whineaux (Dawn)
Loved seeing this! In my top 10 food predictions for 2010 I said that I think that cooking skills will continue to suffer. I take it as my mission to teach someone to cook simple basic foods.
I'm stunned at the grocery store how often the check out clerk asks me what my produce is (and I'm not talking about a mangosteen, I mean leeks, Napa Cabbage -- basic stuff)
I got a laugh at myself recently. When I read "The Making of a Chef" my mouth watered at the chicken veloute and I wished I could make it. But if they did it at the Culinary .... It must be too hard. I recently looked into how to make it and learned I've been making it since I was 11, I just call it Chicken Gravy! LOL Point is if I could make a veloute at 11 -- ANYONE can cook! Let's teach them.
Dave Weinstein
So, for some of this, we should remember that many people don't like to cook.
The difference is that now, the people who don't like to cook go buy something, rather than having to cook anyway.
I try to keep this in mind, because I'll happily put on some program that can be mostly listened to (_The Wire_ works well), and set to work cooking something. And I'll cheerfully think to myself, "no muss, no fuss, no problem", and then realize I had spent over an hour cheerfully cooking.
If you enjoy it (as I suspect just about everyone reading this does), then that was time well spent. If you don't, then it was an obligation.
Mary-Heather
I do cook every day - often three meals a day. Now I'm certainly not saying they are gourmet, complicated meals, but they're usually quite tasty, they're made from scratch from wholesome ingredients, and I'm proud that I have the skills to do it. I love it and it makes me sad that this isn't the norm. I knit and sew many of my own clothes, too - and it's not a bummer! 😉 I actually consider knitting/sewing to be the same type of basic life skill that cooking is, or knowing how to grow and preserve food. Being able to do for oneself - clothe your self and your family, feed them - is so important and these skills are being lost and lost quickly. I live in a city, I'm not off in the boonies somewhere, but I grow some of my own food, I cook the vast majority of it, and I make some of my own clothes. I think these simple things are important as well as enjoyable, and I've been happy to see a resurgence of both traditional fiber arts as well as a return to cooking (and growing) real, wholesome food over the past few years. I hope the trends continue.
Robin Cohen
A little while ago I had a friend over who was complaining about how much trouble it was too cook (she lives on take-out) and how her crazy 9 yr old daughter wanted to make cookies from scratch but even the scoop and bake kind were so hard for her and took way too much time.
As we chatted, my hands were busy crumbling butter into flour for blueberry scones. In the time it took her to complete her rant, the scones were done and we sat down to eat them with homemade jam and a cup of tea. I did not point out the irony of the situation, I just promised to give her little one a baking lesson.
Hélène
Yes home cook meals takes time. I am 45 yrs old and have been cooking since I am 7 yrs old. I was raised on a farm and there was no take-out for us, my dad never drove us to a fast-food restaurant and my mom never bought a rôtisserie chicken. Every Sunday we would have a Turkey Dinner. What a feast. I still can smell it. What I remember the most from my childhood is all the great meals my mom cooked. Coming back from school and the house was filled with freshly baked cookies.
You have to make choice in life. I made the choice of eating healthy and homemade meals. Last night we had roasted vegetables that took more than an hour to prepare and cook but they were delicious. Two of my kids are gone to university now and they had learn to cook their own meals. I think every parent should teach their kids how to cook.
BTW there is nothing like coming into a house and smelling a rôtisserie chicken. It's well worth that hour.
Happy New Year to you and your family. I enjoy reading every post.
durhamfoodie
Great! Why is it so many people are afraid of the kitchen. SInce when did a roasted chicken or any restaurant meal taste better than what you can make at home. yes it's nice to let someone else do it for you every now and again, but there is something so relaxing about creating your own meal
If it's a time issue than start with a crockpot or pressure cooker. I work several nights a week which means I am not home to cook dinner for the family. Answer: take chicken or pork and marinate, or put on a rub and let sit overnight. Morning: Place meat in crockpot with some stock, wine or beer, and voila, dinner is served 8-10 hours later.
Easier than dealing with anything the night before? Take chicken, place in crockpot, add bottle of favorite bbq sauce, set on low and 6 hours later you have fall off the bone, tender, juicy, tasty dinner.
Well written, this is a good note to all.
Cheers!
commiskaze
Haha, absolutely priceless rant.
nithya at hungrydesi
Great article! Just yesterday, I was thinking that all too often, really smart people, when cooking, have a tendency to over rely on a recipe or to substitute a recipe for their own common sense. As one of the commenters above wrote, if you can read and taste, you can cook.
JMW
What you describe is a worldwide phenomenon. Even the Japanese routinely substitute instant dashi for their cuisine's staple, despite ready availability of ingredients and how deadly simple it is to steep shaved bonito for a few minutes.
The packaged food industry has convinced us all, across the globe, that we can sacrifice the quality of our cuisine and retain our cultural pride and integrity, despite how deeply ingrained food is in culture.
Perhaps they're right. People readily adapt themselves to the lowest common denominator afforded to them. But at what cost? I have several friends who are "adult picky eaters," the pathological version of this cultural degeneracy. They will never know in their adult lives the pleasure of a raw vegetable, much less a well-prepared one. Their destiny lies at the take-out window. I hope ours takes a better course.
Sean
There already is a "Recipes That Take a Really Long Time and Are Too Hard For People To Do" -- it's called Alinea.
Sandy
I was grinning and laughing to myself until I reached the bottom of the page and read this:
"But be careful, you might find this so boring that you’ll start thinking about making stock next. Don’t. Too hard. Takes too long. You’ll have to clean the pot. I’m telling you now. Don’t risk it. Consider yourself warned. Don’t blame me if you wind up with something delicious on your hands."
Guilty as charged!!!! Funniest thing I have read in a long time. Whoever you pissed off with this, keep it up. 😉
John Beaty
Is it really so difficult to accept that other people have different desires, strengths and tastes, without calling them stupid? Or are you just picking a fight?
The FoodNinja
There is a lot of truth in this rant (witness the huge reader reaction), but here's a confession: I actually LIKE the fact that most people today are intimidated by what happens in the cookery room, and have no idea how to take a fridge full of raw and transform it into a table full of hot and delicious.
Why? Because I reap the rewards and admiration when I present my guests with plate after plate of tasty food. If they're going to tremble in anxiety at the thought of navigating a simple recipe, as though they were dragging themselves through broken glass and thumbtacks, I become the hero when I brave the wilds and return with dinner in hand. And God forbid they should cook freestyle, with no guiding text; that's just madness.
Now, to be clear, I don't play this up at all. I shrug off their praise with (genuine) modesty, and I tell my guests that what I did wasn't THAT difficult. But here's the thing — I don't work TOO hard to combat their misconceptions.
Okay, I will readily admit, I may not exactly be proud of my part in maintaining this unfortunate untruth. Not only could I certainly do more to break down my diners' fears, I probably should. It's true, just because I didn't create this situation, that doesn't make it okay for me to exploit it.
But, dammit, if these people insist on imagining themselves as hopeless slugs in their Buy-N-Large hoverchairs, I'm happy to be Prince Valiant for bringing them a meatloaf.
Gwen
A-freaking-men.
I post the things I cook to my food blog (mangeratrois.net) and it astounds me how many friends say "that's too hard!" Damn you, foodtv, for doing a better job of teaching people how to order and buy food than how to make it themselves.
Paul Michael Smith
While I agree with everything you have said, I still maintain that all good food is labor intensive. For instance I think a dish that needs chicken stock is better prepared using home-made stock. Actually, I think making everything from scratch typically is better. You must too, since you're making your bacon and sausage. That having been said, not of those things are difficult, just require what used to be called "love" before the food industry beat that word to death. Keep up the great work and the photos are wonderful, also.
Sara
You must have seen the Purdue ad where they have an "intervention" with the mother because she is too scared to roast a chicken, but now there's this special Purdue chicken that is roaster friendly and they all cry as this terrible crisis has been solved. I watched this ad thinking "are people really afraid of roating a chicken?"
Faster weeknight recipes are useful to know, and as you acknowledge not everyone even likes cooking. But I think if people knew the basics of cooking, learned growing up for example, it would be easy to cook recipes that are naturally faster to prepare (not becasue they cut corners, just because some things take less time than others). But I think not having the "base" knowledge makes it hard when it's 5:30 and you don't know what to make for dinner--easy to reach for the take-out menu or pop in a frozen pizza...
Vivian
Just wanted to add, there is nothing wrong with Chipotle. I am all for staying with local restaurants but I have found that Chipotle's standards exceed many restaurants when it comes to serving food that is grown locally as well as sustainably. For those who question this feel free to check out their website. There is a map on one of their pages, click on your state and it will tell exactly what is sourced locally. What they can't get locally is generally sourced from reliable places such as Polyface Farms.
Paul Kobulnicky
I guess it all boils down (sorry for the pun) to what you do with your time. This past Sunday I wanted a quiet day to do my things and especially watch some critical NFL matches. So, my day went like this:
7-8 AM ... feed the dog and cats, do a sudoku with the morning cuppa tea and get some acorn squash muffins ready to pop into the oven (squash already baked and in the fridge).
8-9 AM ... bake muffins, run out for paper, make a pot of tea. Get wife up and eat muffins hot from the oven.
9-10 AM Read paper mostly but grind spices (1 minute) and dry rub some venison I was given.
10-11 AM ... walk with wife and dog in forest.
11-Noon ... make candied lemon peel (cut and soaked yesterday)
Noon - 1 PM Eat lunch ... Nuked some soup I made earlier in the week.
1-4 PM ... watched Steelers game while I smoked the venison outside in the Weber.
4-7. Watched several other football games, surfed some web and slow roasted the venison in a dutch oven.
7-8. Ate dinner (no, not the venison but rather a steak and kidney pie my wife had made with celeriac done julienned with vinegar, sugar water dressing.
8-10, watched some more football.
Great couch potato weekend and some good and easy cooking done.
Bob
John Beaty wrote:
"Is it really so difficult to accept that other people have different desires, strengths and tastes, without calling them stupid? Or are you just picking a fight?"
If you read the entry, it's clear that Michael is speaking about an attitude and a marketing strategy, not calling out those of us who aren't home cooks/foodies as 'stupid' and unworthy.
But if this be treason ... you'll want to also hassle Mark Bittman, who holds a similar view, that modern 'convenience' foods (like macaroni & cheese) don't really save you any time, that you can make a tastier, healthier dish just as easily on your own.
Carey
I do, however, get tired of hearing Rachel Ray being mocked. I think that she has played a truly important role in the foodie era. So many of us grew up in the midst of the feminist movement, where we were discouraged to do anything in the kitchen at all. Then we all felt that somehow the ability to actually be productive in the kitchen was too scary, messy, or time consuming. We are the generation who caters to our children in ways our forefathers never would have...soccer, ballet, band, carpool...carpool...carpool...No time to cook! Suddenly there is this woman showing us that in one half hour or less, it IS possible to nurish your family with your own hands...and we found it was fun! easy! transforming! Soon those same people started reading food blogs, buying organic, educating ourselves on cruelty free options...and a movement was born. To laugh at a woman who's only message is, "get in there and do this...DON'T order out" is so short sighted and snobby. And...wrong.
a midwest cook
I don’t know if, “too stupid” to cook conveys the right message.
I work in academia. All these newly minted PhD’s are coming out of grad school not knowing how to boil water. They followed the path we laid for them. Society promoted the idea that they follow their education to its fullest extent. They did that. We cannot now hold them accountable for not pursuing things that our society put no importance on. It’s not fair.
You can look at the cookbook authors of the 40’s and 50’s (Jessie Marie DeBooth or Lily Haxworth Wallace come to mind) who worked hard to re-position cooking in scientific terms. Their goal was to elevate cooking from a position of little worth to something this required quantative skills. In many ways they succeeded.
I think the last 4 decades have been a different version of that work. Food preparation became a vehicle to display your knowledge of the outside world, rather than an affirmation of nurturing your household. Which would you rather spend time with? Running a division or learning the details of the perfect chicken? Which sounds better? Perfecting the “Perfect Sunday chicken” or “Mastering the art of French Cooking? Society has spoken very loudly in this regard. So now, you have to run the division AND make perfect coq au vin. I see the “Short-Cut Chefs” of the food networks not as indifferent cooks, but as tacit acknowledgement of the difficulty of doing both well.
As a young woman, I worked hard to master techniques that were unfamiliar to me as a way of saying that, “I would not be bound by the past”. As I mature, I find myself craving the satisfaction that preparing food for my family provides. I’m not sure that the power of that message is one that has been promoted enough in the last 20-30 years.
Before, I enjoyed learning how chickpeas were cooked halfway across the world in order to better understand that world, now I work on the same techniques in order to provide healthy nutritious, flavorful, cost effective meals for those I love.
elizabeth
Bravo!
If I had the power, I would banish the phrase "super-super-simple" from all food-related media permanently. I tried going back to watching The Food Network on weekends, and seriously, I can't take it--every fracking host is blathering on about simple this and simple that. Like you said--whatever happened to taking on a project and have something on the stove or in the oven all day? The hosts remind me of Lisa Simpson's talking Stacy doll, only instead of saying "Math is hard!" they all say "Cooking is hard!"
I realize that I'm lucky--my husband has an easy commute and can get home with plenty of time to cook (allowing me the pleasure of coming home to a near-complete dinner most nights), but seriously--even when I lived alone I was able to whip up something on my own.
barbara
The same mindset is happening here in Australia also. There are a series of books and a tv series, by two women, based on every recipe using just 4 ingredients. They have made millions of dollars out of the books. Just another example of dumbing down society. Sad to see.
Kevin
I can't understand why there's boxes such as "pancake mixture". I got round to making my own from scratch and I think it's quicker than ripping open the box of the pre-made mixture!
Also cooking is not hard, look at a list of recipes I've cooked, all for the first time (they tasted great too):
http://www.getmecooking.com/user/kevinuk
Annie @ PhD in Parenting
I can cook. I do cook. I love to cook.
But I do buy Rotisserie Chicken on those days when I don't expect to be home before 6:30 and need dinner on the table 15 minutes after I get home - not an hour or more. Add a quick salad and some multi-grain bread and dinner is ready.
Alexa
Great post. I've been trolling my favourite food whore websites today in search of a roast chicken recipe for tonight. I'm vacillating now between your super challenging roast chicken, or the coq au vin I had thought to make. This is a nice problem to have...I'm lucky.
james
I would totally buy the cookbook. But only if it was true to its title- containing ridiculously hard recipes that required loads of patience, tricky equipment and elusive, rare ingredients. Great post.
Dave Weinstein
That would be "Under Pressure", James.
Dean Estes
My best friend is the hardest-working person I know. Sixty-hours-plus work weeks are the norm for him, and he commutes about forty miles each way as well. Until recently, he'd convinced himself that he was too busy to cook for himself, an understandable complaint in context. However, inspired by my own enthusiasm for cooking during recent years, he finally convinced himself that with some proactive planning and wise use of free time on weekends, he can indeed cook for himself, and well, and healthily. It's been a wonderful transformation to witness, and he's clearly happier for it. While it's absolutely true that the "food giants" and their advertisers train us to believe that there are all sorts of things we can't do, we sometimes get ourselves into needless ruts by repeating the same bad messages to ourselves. Don't even get me started on "I have a 'bad back' therefore I dare not do anything." 🙂
Although I've been using the high-temp method of roasting a brined chicken for years, I only recently tried roasting in a cast iron skillet and then immediately thereafter making a lovely sauce using the method suggested in "Ratio." I'm sold! Religiously so. This is how I'll be roasting from now on, and oh boy, the use of beurre manié to emulsify and flavor the sauce is like magic! (Translation: Thank you, Michael!)
To my mind, "Ratio" is, like "The Flavor Bible," a book that needs to be worked with over time to be absorbed and incorporated into one's arsenal of methodology until it becomes wisdom and informs intuition. It's a book to live with and return to, not to read once then forget, not to use as one would a conventional cookbook. It's a gem, but must be worked with over time to be properly mined.
Rhonda
Michael; great post.
I have read the comments and understand the different angles we are coming from in approaching this subject.
It is my great hope for 2010 that people stop looking at food, taking pictures of it and actually get into the kitchen. Going out to dinner is wonderful and a great form of entertainment. It keeps me employed.
However, there is no greater satisfaction in this world than to nourish the ones you love with something created by your own hand (with the help of Nature). It can be simple or complicated. You are in command and decide.
It can be a grilled cheese sandwich or a Heston Blumenthal creation but it is of your hand and no matter how it turns out, those who love you will appreciate your effort.
Just get into the kitchen. Do not be afraid to fail, because you will. It is inevitable.
But you will also have victory!
Ryan Detzel
Okay...so I put the chicken in the oven and then have sex? Do I have to have sex for the entire hour? If so, I might need more than one chicken when it's finished.
JMW
Well, cooking is hard in some sense. There is no doubt about that. We take for granted as experienced cooks of any stripe certain intuitions. If a recipe specifies "medium high" heat, for example, it's not describing a setting on a stovetop. It's describing your intrinsic sense of how quickly food develops color, doneness, and aroma as it is sauteed, and so on.
Inexperienced cooks often don't understand this in the least. They rely on recipes as sure-fire, means-to-ends ways of accomplishing what is, on the surface, a purely mechanical task: cooking.
Cooking isn't mechanical. It never was; it never will be. Failure is inevitable, so in this sense I think Mr. Ruhlman is somewhat disingenuous (but perhaps deliberately so, for the sake of being encouraging).
But failure is the route to success. Failing is how one develops life skills. To simply abdicate, to say that failure is not an option and all these skills should be outsourced to agents of packaged food development, is unacceptable.
We accept this situation in the case of clothing ourselves because the product is inevitably the work of a division of skilled labor. Yet cooking -- home cooking -- requires no such division, nor much skill overall. Just time and practice and care. Many of the finest restaurants are tiny kitchens with little division of labor, just a high degree of individual skill, and a short supply line (if any) back to the farm.
Unlike knitting, the economics of the kitchen haven't changed much in the last century. Packaged food isn't alchemy by which value is added; it's a substitution of a poor product for an acceptable one. It's a situation few should accept on economic grounds, much less cultural. But the fear of failure is a strong disincentive; it runs deep in our society, much to our detriment.
SimplyForties
Recipes that are hard and take a really long time are just the sort I'm always looking for. That's exactly what I like to cook and luckily, I have the luxury of time. There's isn't a new complaint. When Julia Child was trying to get "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" published in the late 60's she came up against the same idea that Americans were too interested in opening cans and hurrying to ever buy the book that she was peddling. She persisted in her belief that there were plenty of Americans out there who wanted to cook real food and would love to take her cookbook out for a spin. Luckily she was right and is still right today. There are certainly lots of people out there who are too busy, too tired or too uninterested to really cook but there are plenty out there who like nothing better! Don't discount us!
Mark
I agree totally. At times my wife picks up a rotisserie chicken, they are awful! In the past I would convince my wife to bring home a whole chicken instead and I would cook it. I love the way the house smells when we bake a whole chicken in the oven. Thanks for reminding me that this is easy to do and it tastes so much better than those awful dried out rotisserie chickens.
The Italian Dish
Brilliant post. When I was growing up, we ate real, whole foods. I grew up in an Italian family. It never crossed our minds to buy ready made foods. We bought local meat, grew our own vegetables, had a huge freezer. How in the hell did we manage? We didn't know any different, that's how. We made simple meals from real food. I thought your post was right on and I'm teaching my three sons to cook real food and not consider it a big deal to throw a chicken into the oven or bake a fish. They are teenagers and they know how to do these things. That is one of the biggest gifts you can give your children.
John Beaty
Bob:
Actually. I do hassle Bittman (because he emphasizes simplicity over technique, even when technique would give a better result for less work), but what I was talking about here is Mike calling people "stupid" because they have differing ideas about how to spend their time.
I cook for all the same reasons that people here have mentioned. I just don't feel superior because of my decisions. And having worked extensively with the sorts of people that are being called stupid here, I can only say, don't knock 'til you have to try it. Maybe one day it'll come to you having a choice of a second job/take care of aging parent while working/having 20 minutes to think instead of shopping, cooking and cleaning up on the one hand or a cooked chicken on the other.
Rebecca
My overanalytical 2 cents worth:
While "laziness" and apparent lack of time are part of the American fear and loathing of cooking, I think there are some historical/cultural factors that have shaped American attitudes toward cooking and eating that must be taken into consideration. Let's not forget that the Puritanism that helped form American culture frowned on (to put it lightly) any physical pleasure. Cooking and eating, like sex and wearing clothes, were to be acts of survival, not joy. Fast forward a few generations and we start to see American nutritional science in its earliest forms; eating again was depicted as a matter of mere survival rather than a pleasurable daily activity. We see this now in the "nutraceutical" industry that purports to produce food-as-medicine, again for survival rather than pleasure.
The second factor is that of "woman's work." The relationship between women's roles as sustainers of their families, women's desires to have broader lives, and the rise of experts in medicine, manufacturing, and nutrition have combined in problematic ways. Women are told that it is their duty to feed their families properly; that they cannot do this without the assistance of experts; that they are retrograde if they spend too much time on this; and that they are bad women if they don't devote enough of themselves to this endeavor. Is it any wonder that this no-win combination of messages leads many women to throw up their hands and just nuke something, or alternatively to romanticize a "return" to the home? Oh, for a happy medium...
Leslie
Crap. I wish I read this before I made stock.
Gayle
We ate Chipolte last night also ... some things can't be improved on.
ed
ha. i made the catalan stew recipe from ad hoc this weekend. day one: make beef stock and sofrito. day two, braise short ribs and let sit. day three: blanch veggies and assemble. hard? not really. time consuming? check. worth it? hell yeah.
lisadelrio
Some of my friends who profess the inability to cook own the crappiest, dullest knives in the universe. I couldn't cook either if I had to chop an onion with the equivalent of a butter knife. But they won't buy a good knife because they "can't cook."
Kris
Until a certain age, honest to god, I thought only chefs made soup and cakes from scratch. Many of us never learned to cook because A) we were never taught, B) we didn't realize it was a useful skill, especially compared to more marketable ones that were emphasized growing up, and C) the necessity wasn't there, what with all the convenience foods. It's not necessarily anyone's fault, either, though it'll take a cultural shift in thinking to alleviate the problem. Having a food activist in the White House is definitely a good start.
@ Carey: I'm jumping on your bandwagon to defend Rachael, who generally uses fresh foods and simple cooking techniques to produce her meals. She's not the problem; if anything, she's brought more people into the kitchen. Sandra Lee would have been the better target here.
@Joy: that McDonald's breakfast commercial drives me up the freaking wall.
resa
yes yes, I agree, you're right. seriously! there's nothing wrong with a storebought rotisserie chicken or a takeout burrito or even a frozen meal now and again. ( I love love love to cook, and I still do all those things) the thing that makes me scratch my head is when we are so obviously being sold excess as convenience. there's a commercial for steam and mash potatoes out there. and as far as I can tell the only thing they've done is peel the potatoes and cut them and provide a bag to nuke them in. they don't put them in the microwave for you, they don't add the butter and the cream- for crying out loud you still have to mash the things, which is the hardest part! (waah!) so there's no real convenience. and it will cost you 5 times as much as regular potatoes, you will probably have to buy two pagkages to feed your family of 4, and you still have to do most of the work. will people turn more yowards the simicity of cooking if thy realize they've been duped?
Bob
@ John Beaty:
Actually, I started learning the basics of cooking when my Mom had a broken wrist. I am a bit surprised that my older sister hasn't really 'grown' much in terms of her repetoire, and my younger sister 'doesn't cook'. I still didn't come away from today's entry feeling as if Michael were describing them.
So I have 'been there' to some extent. But since I love to cook, even if it's really simple basic fare, it never quite feels like a chore or burden.
Georgia Pellegrini
I now have a ritual where I make a roasted chicken every Sunday evening. It is the best ritual of my life. Something I count on and look forward to. A delicious, delicious ritual.
Kim at Rustic Garden Bistro
Join the movement... pay it forward. I think that's all any of us can do.
Luckily, Alice is doing just that with her Chez Panisse Foundation. May my children not have to eat the corn dogs and sloppy joes my grade school fed me. [K]
Jason
Oof. Wish I knew I was too stupid before I began this sourdough starter... It's far too complicated letting natural yeast just work. 😉
Kathy A.
The really sad thing is that rotisserie chicken sitting in the supermarket is $2 cheaper than buying an uncooked chicken. I love to cook, but it irritates me all to pieces when real food is overpriced.
At least I can thumb my nose at the market as I make stock from the carcass. 🙂
Peter Kaizer
and if you really want to make that chicken difficult slip a few garlic cloves between the skin and breast meat... 🙂
Great post Michael!
Julia
I grew up on fish sticks, boxed mac & cheese and iceberg lettuce, and doubt I ever would've started cooking every single day if it weren't for the short recipes and timeframes offered by RR's cookbooks. Sure, MFK FIsher said a lot of the same things about ease and simplicity, tossing a fried egg on some frisee and calling it dinner. But, I couldn't easily translate my love for foodie lit and great food into any sort of ability to make it myself. RR takes a lot of undeserved heat on this front - I believe she gets people into the kitchen, where the food can then lure us into better presentations, better books. Worked for me that way, anyway. I have Ratio on order at the library. Need to make sure I can read it without crying - math fear - before I buy. I like the idea, and feel ready to tackle it 😉
Mikuto
I think that a lot of people are just intimidated by food. It might not be hard, but it sure is intimidating to look at a cut of meat and try to figure out how to cook it, much less cook it right.
When I was a kid my mom was convinced that if she let me in the kitchen I'd make a mess of the place. So she never taught me to cook. My dad, thankfully, taught me how to bake, and to this day I make the most delicious baked goods you've ever wrapped your lips around.
However, there's a difference between cooking and baking. A good friend of mine used to say that "baking is a science, but cooking is an art." I always add "and I was never good at art."
I have good knives, good pans, and a basic understanding of what tastes good, but I'm still intimidated by cooking, especially without a recipe. I still cook, and I cook well enough to feed my roommates enjoyable food, but I still don't feel like I CAN cook. It's just not something that comes natural to me. And I'm still intimidated to look at a piece of raw meat, much less a whole chicken.
Rhonda
I kind of agree on the RR front. She is a nice woman and never has professed to know very much about cooking. Her personality has at least beckoned the attention of housewives who have an hour to kill in the middle of the day (when they could be roasting a chicken or braising veal shanks).
Tony has his fruit basket. "She" is on the Food Network and some of us (no names mentioned) are banned for life.
Let's move on.
Elaine
Micheal, this is all too true. I never understood why some people are put off cooking thinking it's the most disastrous thing they can possibly do in their home. Pfft....what's more disastrous than eating heavily salted, msg laden, stodgy pre-made meals everyday??
Michael T.
Great post Michael. Agree with many of the comments.
I would add that I am amazed and quite frankly annoyed when friends and family call me a “gourmet” cook or “foodie”. Those that have made a choice not to cook some meals from scratch have elevated those that do to some mystic level.
I like to use the rock musician analogy. If you’re a kid growing up wanting to play guitar like Eric Clapton or Jimmie Hendrix, you start with basic techniques, learn some of their songs, practice, practice and repeat. Soon you are riffing, changing up notes, making it your own. That’s how I learned to cook; following the recipes to a “T”, failing, practicing, perfecting techniques and then after learning the skills making it my own. To me a book like Ratio is the music theory. I’m not a chef nor pretend to be one; I’m a cover band cook. Unlike playing guitar, I can cook (practice) every day.
As a side note, I was determined to share with my kids the Christmas Eve Southern Italian tradition of feast of the seven fishes this year. Being a single Dad, I decided to minimize the cooking on Christmas Eve night and prepped Baccala au gratin the day before along with smoked Trout Rillettes (from Charcuterie). I saved the sautéed Spanish style shrimp and fish pasta (cioppino esque) for Christmas Eve. The kids helped me gut the crab, stir the broth and cook the fish. My friends and family again were amazed that my kids actually ate anything/everything. In the end, we shared a wonderful dinner and learned along the way.
...pat.
Thanks for the rant, Michael.
It gives me an idea. There are a few of us at work (a software company -- we've got maybe 150 people in the office) who love to cook, and many who are paralyzed at the thought of it.
We're fortunate to have a kitchen with a 4-burner stove and an oven. I'm thinking that maybe we can offer a short course on basic cooking to those who fear it, either at lunch time or after work.
Got Ratio for Christmas: am enjoying it tremendously.
Joe Carr
I agree with you whole-heartily. Best thing I've read in a while.
Mr. Ruhlman, you're my new hero.
ravenrose
If you had ever tried preparing ANY food in my mother's kitchen, you would understand the "too hard" concept. If you never have the right pans or sharp knives, etc., it's torment. I am not suggesting one needs a specialized batterie de cuisine, but a few good basics make the experience so much smoother. And lighting! Did I mention the lighting?
It's difficult for people to commit the money to buy cooking gear before they are convinced they are going to want to use it. If you really want to sell them on giving it a go, come up with half a dozen great recipes that use only $25 worth of kitchenware. Source the kit somewhere. Say a oven-proof pot that could both roast a chicken and make a stew? A good enough knife. A good enough "cookie sheet" so they don't make a mess in the oven--that is a real turnoff for beginners. An oven mitt or hot pads. A pot scrubber.
And I agree with the comment that the recipes for beginners should take them through getting all the ingredients out and measured and ready to hand before they start cooking. Of course we do six things at once and manage it, but you can't do that when it's all foreign!
The book that gave me the courage and enthusiasm to cook when I was first on my own was Tassajara Cooking. I would still recommend it to beginners.
Live to Cook at Home
That chicken looks amazing. I can't believe you did nothing else to the skin other than salt it. Where do you source your chicken from? I am partial to Plum Creek Farm in Valley City.
Yours certainly turned out A LOT better than my rendition of Symon's, love the salsa verde though: http://www.livetocookathome.com/2009/12/lizzies-roasted-chicken-with-salsa.html
Michael Long
Michael, this is one of the greatest articles that I have read in a long time. It hit's it right on the head... With your permission I would like to link this to my blog or what ever it is... so that my readers can see what your saying here... Let me know, Thank you, mike long
BobY
Every so often you hit it just right and you've done it again. An idea I hadn't thought about and a lightbulb turns on. Bravo!
Shelisa
I thought this post was wonderful. My friends are always asking me to cook for them, they also think that cooking is so hard. When did it get hard before or after the internet? I am so shocked at how people react to cooking but they post and read every line of FB and MS and other social networks, I know they can read a recipe. Come on people, lets get in the kitchen!
Frank
In the picture the bird is trussed... and looks delicious.
shopper
@ravenrose
$169 is the best I could come up with. But you'd be able to cook almost anything with ease too. Could anyone do better?
All from amazon...
$30
Victorinox 8-Inch Chef's Knife, Black Fibrox Handle
$6
Victorinox 3-1/4-Inch Paring Knife with Large Handle
$15
Progressive International 11-1/4-by-17-1/4-Inch Cutting Board
$44
Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 12-Inch Open Skillet with Helper Handle
$15
Amco Food Service Half Sheet Pan
$59
Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven
Tags
Eurekapiphany!
Just because they don't want you to cook doesn't mean you can't..
Robert
I borrowed the French Laundry and Bouchon Books from a friend for about a month. Of course many of the recipes are not something I want to cook. I will leave that to the French Laundry crew. However Keller's roast chicken is something I now can't live without. I use it all the time and have you and him to thank for that.
I dare someone to call me too stupid to cook. I will quickly carve them into primal cuts.
derek
Actually, I do kind of hate the cleanup/storing of stock. Also, some people have whined about not having a convenient place to find organic, farm-raised chickens. Unless your quibble is ethical, this isn't really a great excuse, as you will be able to make a pretty acceptable roast chicken with a crappy bird.
Andrew Grumet
Perhaps it's the psychology of the sale at work. A $100 power drill or pair of shoes is a lot more interesting if one is told that regular price is $200.
Lone Wolf
I don't think that Americans are too stupid to cook (I cook and I'm American) I think its just many are too lazy to cook and there tastes have been dulled by crappy boxed food and even worse fast food so they don't know what good food tastes like.
Pat in Belgium
I would just like to go on record as offering myself as a volunteer to EAT (or at least sample) whatever is being cooked (from "scratch") by whomever.
I'm not a big meat eater, but that crackling crust on the chicken has me salivating like a Pavlovian dog.
I'm American. I cook, creatively (which means I often "tinker" with recipes or make up my own). (And I live in Belgium which has absolutely THE best chocolate in the world!)
Natalie Sztern
Maybe it's the timing, maybe the vulnerability we feel in this economy, I know the restaurant industry especially New York is hit hard and whoosh the 'celebrity chef' is even getting down and dirty...but this post is so far, the best of the year and so aptly appropriate coming into 2010. We must go back to old ways, cooking ways, ways that bring us closer to home and closer to the hearth.
What is faster than a chicken roasting in the oven? What is more delicious than a roasted chicken. If a parent can teach their kids one thing it's how to roast a chicken and that kid will never go hungry.
Before my son moves out he is roasting a chicken whether he wants to or not....now that is another post: how to get kids in the kitchen who don't want to be there.
James
Oh so that's how you roast chicken. Always wondered.
If everyone cooked their own meals they'd save so much money too. How much more those ready mixes cost than the base ingredients, and ready meals to their component ingredients (how small are some of those meat portions, and how much of said meat is actually added water?). Those supermarkets really know how to make money out of you!
Jessika
Unfortunately in some instances fast food is cheaper than cooking your own.
Now, I'm a food enthusiast, I enjoy cooking and find it relaxing. I don't have any children and although I can be pressed for time I usually cook in batches and can find something in the freezer to heat up in the microwave. I also have quick emergency dinners, pasta with pesto. I've been allergic forever which made cooking from scratch more convenient than reading labels to the death, especially when food producers decide on "new and improved" formulas without much notice on the packaging.
I blame the fear of cooking on high rate food shows and cook cooks that are really just for display. I might find that a wild flower salad sound wonderful but then pragmatism should kick in. I do cook out of some of those books but Thomas Keller or Heston Blumenthal isn't adapted for the home kitchen.
Get a basic cookbook. Chose recipes from food sites and their search engines. When I was at university I didn't care for cooking and I failed more often than not. It is a trial and error thing. The thing to start with is most likely not de-boned chicken.
Bob
@Natalie:
My Mom always said she was teaching me to cook so that I 'wouldn't starve when I became a bachelor.'
Peggy
I taught my 9-year old daughter how to roast a chicken last night. It was so funny. All girded up in apron, hair tied back, serious look on her face. When I got to the "put it in the oven" part she said, "Okay, now what?" I told her to come back in an hour and I'd teach her to carve it. She was so disappointed! Roast chicken is her favorite meal and she thought it was some horribly elaborate process full of secrets only Mommy knew. HA!
I have a list of things my children must know before they are 18. Sewing on a button, conversing intelligently and comfortably with people of all ages and backgrounds...number one on the list, though is cooking from scratch. If a child of mine lives on Cup 'O Chemicals in college, it is their own choice. They will know better.
S. Woody
If the manufacturers of those microwave meals have reduced the nuking time, it's because the majority of those meals are being eaten for lunch at the workplace, and the typical worker doesn't get a lunch hour. She'll more likely get thirty minutes, tops. Compound that by one nuker in the lunchroom, being shared by a trio or more workers, all competing for the same lunch time, one meal cooking at a time, and someone isn't going to get the time to both nuke and eat her meal. And, no, nuking two meals at once isn't going to work, because right on the packaging it states that two meals means doubling the nuke time.
Even if the workers have brought leftovers, they need to be heated up, one at a time. (They could all eat sandwiches, of course, but that would be cold - literally.)
The solution should be to lengthen the lunch break, and to add microwaves, but I don't see that happening. The overhead is the bottom line. Those workers are needed on the job where they can make whatever the product is for the company, not sitting in the lunch room. (And adding a microwave usually involves adding proper electrical circuitry, so that the fuses don't pop every time two people use both nukers at once - more money being spent on something that doesn't add to the company's profits.)
And a note to James, a few commets above: Don't blame the supermarkets for the products. We're just the middlemen. I grind my teeth every time a customer buys that pre-packaged junk. I'd much rather see customers buying real food. But the customer can either buy that pre-packaged junk, or waste their time waiting in line at the fast-food joint, not to mention the time it takes to get to and from said ffj. I'm lucky, I work at the supermarket and can grab something decent from the deli, but very few of my customers are also co-workers, and they don't have that option. They're planning a week's lunches around a single trip to the market and stocking up on whatever is on sale.
Charles Dickens would have a field day, writing about the current state of the workplace. For all the surface flash and glitz of our modern world, if he scratched the surface he'd find that not much has changed from the world he knew.
Frank M
Excellent piece. I can safely say that I can safely blame you about 85% for me having a freezer full of stocks (4 kinds), a homemade fresh loaf of bread at all times, a pantry free of canned goods (OK, some tomato paste/sauce/chipotles in adobo-the usuals!), and, did I mention that I make my own stocks?? Thanks and Happy New Year!
Frank M
Erin
I have a friend who makes hummus from a box. Yum, dehydrated, pulverized garbanzos. It is disgusting, watery and takes the same amount of time to make as the real stuff. I love her to bits, but considered slapping her for a moment when she told me hummus was too hard to make.
I agree with you completely, keep doing that thing you do so well.
Andy Coan
That's a great point, Erin--so much of the packaged stuff actually takes just as long as doing it right. It would be an interesting study to pick a handful of things like that and compare time, effort, and nutrition.
Henry
In regards to your next cookbook; If you want a starter of recipes that take a long time and are too difficult just head over to Ideas in Food, while I love to cook and have been doing it professionally my entire life I don't think I would ever use more than some elements of their recipes in my repetoire, unless of course I was leading or training a brigade, ala Fat Duck, or Alinea. Cooking can be fun, enjoyable, quick, and easy. Or it can be difficult, messy, time consuming and nigh on torture. Depends on your training, equipment, environment, etc. So many techniques, so many recipes, so many cuisines, so many ingredients, In the end it's like the old Nike commercial says, "Just do it", successes in the kitchen are wonderful, and failures are a learning experience, (and that's when a good Plan B is a good thing to have)
michelle
Great article and wise words. It's a shame that so many fall for the processed pre-packaged food gimmicks as "real cooking". I am gulty of that in the past but I recently found that it's not that hard to bake bread or make homemade pasta. Really, it's not. But there are times I want a quick meal and will settle for take-out or pre-packaged and that is ok. At least I cook real homemade meals 90% of the time.
luis
I see your point but there is more to it than that. The better the cook the more ingredients they tend to use. The more complex the flavors and so on.
These complex flavors are lost on most people. The cost of keeping a lot of fresh ingredients on hand makes the cost of this particular cooking style skyrocket. Even with Rachel Rays recipes she keeps quite a hefty pantry going. Expensive and Un necesary.
When it comes to something like roasting a bird... and making stock from it you are 100% correct. The issue there is plain laziness.
I was watching Batalli in Aspen talk about making a fritata and he commented that Italian food requires few ingreditents but he stressed the quality of each ingredient needs to be the highest.
Another thing which complicates this issue is that everyone develops a palate along the way and that becomes the NEW ingredient standard.
ex:. I prefer using a synthetic slice of yellow supermarket cheese on my Egg Mc Muffin than say a 3 yr old aged sharp cheedar. (The latter just seems too rich and overwhelming ).
This is an aquired taste thing and probably stemming from the cost of buying a brick of cheese and shreding it yourself vs a stack of yellowish velveeta thing. (Collateral damage to the American palate).
A lot of it, is laziness though, Cakes are non starters...the amount of sugar and fat you need makes them..the enemy. There the issue is that If the average American doesn't have to plop in the butter and the sugar themselves then it doesn't count and its ok to eat. I mean if all you ad is water....how bad can it be?.
Teri
Sandra Lee followers are everywhere...
Among my family a fancy appetizer is a block of cream cheese with canned mini shrimp on the top and cocktail sauce poured over.
Liz Larkin
Boy that felt good.
Melleah
You bring up an interesting point, and I think as a cooks we should replicate these "ready made" products in our own kitchens-most of the time they can easily be replicated at home. Society tells us that we are too busy to do anything but work, pick up dinner at the drive-thru window, and sit in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.
When you take time to cook a meal, you really appreciate the time and effort you put into it. Something as simple as cooking dinner and eating it with your family can really help you appreciate all the things in your life. Before I learned to cook years ago, I frequently ate take-out, fast food, and snacked on candy bars, and needless to say I was overweight, unhealthy, and didn't feel great about myself. Once I began learning to cook, I became much healthier, gained a greater appreciation for "real" food, and gained confidence in and out of the kitchen.
rockandroller
There are actually people who ARE too busy to cook, and/or too tired. I have worked 2 jobs on and off my whole adult life. There is really no free time when you work 2 jobs. What time you have available is spent running errands - picking up prescriptions or going to doctor appointments, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, etc. There is no sit down dinner time and when you get home, you flop into bed because it's late and you have to get up early. Many more people than you would think are working 2 jobs, especially in this economy. I know of at least 7 people on my floor at my office job alone who have 2 jobs, and that's just because it's come up in conversation, who knows how many others are doing so, or at least doing something for extra income (that requires time). Almost everyone I worked with at my last retail job was someone working there as a 2nd job in addition to a full-time job, and they were people from 20s-50s in age. There was only one person who had it as a full time, solo job, and one person who worked retail PT as their only job.
I have a 7 month old baby now (why I quit the retail job), and while I have a tiny bit more free time than when I worked 2 jobs, I can really only do one thing a night before I am completely pooped. After picking up baby from daycare, getting him home, fed, bathed, changed and put to bed it is usually 7pm. I have to be in bed by 9:30 or I do not function, as baby wakes up 3x during the night and we have to get up for the day at 5:30, so to get enough sleep, 9:30 is my max, and I'm also completely beat by then. We have to do laundry every day. So that has to be done, and the previous day's stuff folded and put away. Clean up the high chair and kitchen floor, etc. There are bills to pay, calls to make that couldn't be made during the work day for lack of privacy, bathing/showering of the 2 adults and several times a week I'm supposed to be working out as well, which at this point is limited to maybe 15 minutes of weight lifting while I watch the news on TV, as that's all I have time or energy for. By 7 I am already starving and tired, and I really can't wait an hour to eat. The baby does not understand if I haven't seen him all day and I bring him home and stick him in the pack and play so I can fuck around with a chicken for 15 minutes getting it into the oven, he's just going to cry the whole time. Plus, you don't eat chicken alone if you want a balanced meal, so you have to have a side dish of some sort, and a veg. These take up the "free time" over your hour of cooking time, and instead of doing that, I need to be getting his food together, getting him bathed and dressed, etc.
We try to cook ahead on the weekend so there are things to just heat and eat, but many days we are out almost all day both days running errands or visiting relatives out of town and we can't just sit at home and cook multiple dishes for the week. We do the best we can but sometimes, there just is no time or energy. And maybe I do suck as a cook, because I've never made a roasted chicken at home that is as soft and flavorful as the rotisserie chicken, probably because we don't have a rotisserie to cook it on, and roasted chicken has a different texture, I don't know. I've found all my roast chickens to be bland in comparison to ones I get at the store. I've even tried to duplicate (most) of their ingredients by writing them down, but it never comes out the same. And yes, the bird costs more, sometimes a lot more. I took the effort to make homemade fried chicken last weekend because I now have to be on a no dairy, no soy diet and cannot eat Popeye's or the delicious broasted chicken from the place up the street. It was awful. Bland, and took freaking FOREVER to cook, and left me with a huge amount of oil from the melted shortening and no place to put it, along with a big mess on the stove which took, you guessed it, more TIME to clean up. This is better than Popeye's take-out why?
My boss literally has no free time to cook. No desire, no ability, but also really no time. Both her kids are very active in about 80 billion sports, which is quite common among the mothers I work with, and all her time is spent getting them to and from their various sporting activities, fundraisers for the sports, banquets for the sports, tournaments, traveling to these events, etc. In addition to other sports, they both play hockey which involves extensive travel to play the games (this weekend, Ontario Canada). They do not sit at home and have an hour to eat, almost all meals are on the road and convenience is a high priority. Because they live a "convenience" lifestyle, it's inconceiveable for her to then have to slow down and take time to cook something when she can just microwave stuff for them and get them out the door in a half hour.
Not everyone has a lifestyle where they are leisurely sitting around watching TV and wasting their time. I am all for cooking at home and cooking from scratch as much as possible, but I think the rotisserie chicken has it's place.
JasonAU
My wife works hard taking care of our little one and keeping the house clean and tidy; she's a fine cook but I love to cook. I came home last night, pulled a package of my from scratch pasta sauce, roasted garlic, and Italian sausage from the freezer. 30 minutes later with a little fresh basil and Parmesan we are eating pasta and sauce better than anything from a jar...it just took a little (and I mean little) extra time a couple of Saturdays back.
Michael
So what you're saying is that we're too stupid to sew....
Sally
Michael, It's sad but true: there is a collective belief that cooking is just way too hard. I know some really smart people who now wear (on the surface) their lack of skill in the kitchen like a badge of honor! It's a bit like the battle of the stay-at-home v. working moms. There is no winner. As you said, iit should not be an either-or situation; there is a time and place for take out--but please, not every night! People should feel good about doing a little something in the kitchen without having to morph into Julia on day one.
Maybe the economy will push more people to cook, or at least try to make a go of a few meals. So I add my voice to the rant. On the hopeful side, I am finding more people interested in cooking classes and thrilled to learn the little tips that competent cooks take for granted and to see what decent kitchen equipment looks like.
Carey
You DID write a book called "Recipes That Take a Really Long Time and Are Too Hard For People To Do": The French Laundry Cookbook.
Fuji Mama
I just snorted milk through my nose because I'm laughing so hard...but you're right and it's sad. I recently had a friend ask what frosting I used on a carrot cake and I told her it was an easy recipe that I'd send her if she was interested. Her response? "Oh, it's not store bought?" Whaaaaaa?!?!? Sometimes I'm a bit naive, because I was seriously shocked to hear that someone actually buys that storebought frosting. I mean, "Eeeeeeew!" I'm all for more impossibly hard recipes that we should not attempt. I received a copy of Ratio for Christmas and am looking forward to tstupifying myself with that as well. 🙂
Jasileet
After hosting a last-minute dinner party, I'd realized how sheltered I've been. My friends stood over the roasted chickens and gaped. "How do you know how to make this?" And all I could think... "What? Your dad never taught you to roast a chicken?"
Jamie
I'm a bit late to the party, but this was an excellent post Michael.
Jill Silverman Hough
Thank you, Michael, for this laugh-out-loud rant.
It's a pickle for those of us who create recipes and write cookbooks - I want people to cook, I believe people HAVE to cook to eat well, but so many are so daunted that I feel I have to constantly reassure them that it's not hard. They see a long ingredient list and think that equals hard - without even realizing 75% of the list is stuff they have on hand. They see that you have to stir constantly for 10 minutes and think that equals hard - when, what's so hard about stirring?
I think that, at least partly, at the heart of this concern about difficulty is fear that it won't turn out. God forbid. We become adults and think we're just supposed to be good at everything - we forget that we had to fall off the bike a million times before that worked out - and so, when something doesn't work out once or twice, when it's not easy off the bat, we say "that's hard" and hang it up. So - the recipe writers resort to constant reassuring.
Maybe your approach is better - tell them they can't, challenging them to prove you wrong! I love it.
Stephanie
I completely agree. I've been a working mom and I know what it's like to get a meal on the table fast after a long day. Those microwave meals are a wonderful thing then. I'd rather someone whip out a box of Hamburger Helper or buy a rotisserie chicken than get McD's!
Too many people I know are overwhelmed even by the thought of a simple "30minute meal." They just have it in their head that it's too hard or will take too long.
For Christmas, I made my two oldest sons each a little cookbook with some of our family stand-by recipes. Some have cream-of-whatever soup in them but it's still a simple, edible, fairly healthy meal to put on the table. My boys don't need to be gourmet chefs but I feel a responsibility to teach them to be at least competent in the kitchen.
Don't you worry about all the family recipes that have been passed down and are now being lost?
todd
Hey Michael,
Awesome rant but Austin's Soup Peddler (http://www.souppeddler.com) already beat you to the book. At least in the soups...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580086519?tag=thesouppeddle-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1580086519&adid=08VAS7STXSZTDZ8DAFP9&
Darcie
Excellent post - I believe that in addition to thinking they are too stupid, many people feel that other things are more important than cooking for your family. In the case of rocknroller's boss, she is choosing to let the kids' sports take priority - she doesn't have time to cook by choice, not by necessity. Her kids don't HAVE to be in "80 million sports."
As for rocknroller herself, I sympathize. I am on a similar schedule, but with a 3-hour commute instead of baby. So it's up at 5:30, drink coffee, drive 1 1/2 hours to work, work 8+ hours, drive 1-1/2 hours home, run errands, pay bills, keep up blog, write food columns, do freelance PR work, yada yada yada. But since cooking is a priority for me, I do it. Some nights it's just leftovers, and some nights it's go to the local pub, but I cook most of the time.
I save time with shortcuts like the crockpot - last night seared chuck roast, softened onions, deglazed, added seasonings, put in crock in fridge, rinsed out cast iron pan, wiped stove: 10 minutes. Took out today and plugged in. Making spaetzle, but could easily just boil noodles, add butter, nuke frozen peas. Much better than fast food, but really fast!
limoncello
I make a pot of soup every week, no shortcuts, yet people are always suggesting recipes that require opening a couple of cans and reaching into the freezer. So imagine my joy at seeing a book called "The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups". And the book was a delight.
rockandroller
"I cook most of the time" sums it up for me too. I just don't like the snark directed towards those who don't have the time. Sometimes "time" also means "energy" or "money" (in the case of the rotisserie chicken, where it's often more expensive to buy a whole fresh one than the cooked one). Energy cannot be put aside. Yes, my grandmother cooked all the meals for her family from scratch, but she didn't have to work full time outside of the home to make ends meet (and yes, commuting each way, so I'm gone 10 hours a day).
GG Mora
I think some of the cooking blogs are complicit in the dumbing down. While readers may love lots of photographs, the step-by-steps, with 4 photographs demonstrating how to chop an onion and 3 showing how to pour melted butter into a bowl can make the simplest kitchen tasks seem like nuclear physics.
I know the intention is to be helpful, but it seems to me it has the opposite effect.
Nancy
Phew!! I think you hit a nerve with this one judging by the varied and passionate comments!!! What a terrific topic to discuss!! I have to say that I don't completely agree with you on this one. Convenience foods (like cake mixes) were introduced for just that reason - convenience. The vast majority of women did cook back then because there simply weren't many options unless you were well off - there weren't a plethora of restaurants in those days and people didn't have the same level of disposable income they do today to spend on eating out. With the rise of "convenience" foods , women entering the workforce in greater numbers and more disposable income, most of my generation (i.e. late baby boomer) didn't learn to cook at home. So, I don't think the message is so much that we are "too stupid" to cook but that we simply don't know how and don't believe that the time invested to shop, prep and cook is necessarily worth the effort compared to what is available ready made. To me "the message" is meant to convince people that it is - not that they can't do it but that it is worth doing!!!
As someone who does private chef work and teaches, I always need to remember that what is elementary to me is not always elementary to my students. Thus, for me to roast a chicken or throw some meat on the grill is almost as easy as breathing but represents a much bigger challenge to my students and my clients!
DayOff&Cooking!
Thanks for mentioning the lower cook temperature if folks don't have ventilation in their kitchen. We have avoided roasting meat for that very reason. Might more cook time be needed if cooking at a lower temperature, though?
BTW, fast/simple isn't bad per se. Yes there are many wastes of time built into our lives that quick-cooking might only enable. However, for lower-income people, who might work more than one job to make ends meet, or single parents, time is of the essence. Also, I am willing to bet that lower-income folks eat disproportionately more unhealthy foods and have higher incidence of obesity, diabetes and other diseases caused by poor diet. Some solutions lie in the work of Frances Moore Lappé's writings, including a collection of healthy-but-fast recipies in her book Diet for a Small Planet.
Eric L
A lot of good points in the comments.
There is a definite economic element to the American movement to convenience food. When you do an analysis of diet from a $/calorie perspective, the fast/convenience foods win the battle. When you are tight on cash, this becomes a significant factor (of course, all of the "fake" ingredients (HFC and other corn derived chemicals) that pack these foods create a host of new problems (obesity, type II diabetes, etc.)).
I do have to half-heartedly offer up a defense for Rachel's 30-minute meals. Although not a fan, I'm more inclined to view these recipes/shows as a "baby step" in the right direction for people. If she can show people that you can make food in 30 minutes that tastes better than your 7-minute microwaved dreck, they might give it a try. Once you get them to that point, how long before they take the next step to truly good cooking (top quality ingredients, genuine care in preparation)?
Kelly
Bravo! Thank you for writing this.
My apologies if this has already been mentioned in the comments: Laura Shapiro's book Something From The Oven was a read I really enjoyed. The book details how Americans (and particularly American women) have being told for decades that cooking is "hard", and that tips, tricks, and shortcuts are essential. And of course, the American's response to that which is: we continue to cook.
maurinsky
I suppose there are some people who are too stupid to cook, or believe they are, but I think the prime reason the Rachel Ray's and the Everyday Food magazines are successful is because *time* is a premium for many of us. Like someone else above, I have 2 jobs, I'm about to be a single mother, and I don't want to spend my entire evening in the kitchen, so I love those 20 minutes to the table recipes. They don't have to be full of prepared foods - I daresay that Everyday Food has introduced several new vegetables to our dinner table that I never really thought about preparing before - and it helps me put together nutritionally well-balanced meals without having to spend a lot of my precious free-time poring over cookbooks and planning meals and shopping at various small ethnic grocery stores for just the right ingredients.
And maybe I live in some kind of real food lover's hamlet, but I truly don't know anyone who can't roast a chicken!
Jasileet
Hey, there's a difference between tossing a salted chicken in the oven, ignoring it for an hour, and baking your own bread. Some things take more attention and time and for most people with families that time comes at a premium. So I think what he's saying is roast your own damned chickens, toss some bones in the oven for stock -when you can- and stop being so intimidated by real food.
maurinsky
And there is a fair amount of unexamined privilege in the "anyone can cook real food" being mentioned here. What about urban dwellers who don't have grocery stores, just convenience stores with sad bananas and tons of prepared stuff? Top quality ingredients cost money, and there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who are out of work right now.
I love real food, and I rarely use anything that I haven't prepared myself, but I loathe the snobbery that seems to come with the foodie community.
Jackie Gordon Singing Chef
GREAT POST!!! Thankfully Americans are getting "smarter" everyday as we become more aware of where our food comes from and the high "cost" of not cooking and of eating processed food, etc.
I am very excited about our cooking future!!! America turn on your stoves, cook with your kids, enjoy our local bounty!!!
Delicious, nutritious meals don't have to be super complex and hard to cook! Your taste buds will thank you!
kaitlynsage
Thank God for you Mr. Ruhlman. Seriously.
Christina Gremore
Americans are being told we're too stupid to do a lot of things. I blogged a response this summer to Michael Pollan's NYT article about how the rise of celebrity chefs and the Food Network has turned us all into passive consumers. Because the focus of my blog is the industrialization of education, I thought of quite a few parallels to our schools:
-we are told that reading is hard. It takes at least a couple of years with a phonics kit, along with in-utero training, if you want your kid to ever be good at it. Did you know that in the 19th century, learning how to read was considered so pathetically easy to do that teachers wouldn't allow children to attend school until they had mastered this simple, basic skill?
-we learn, therefore, that reading is unpleasant. After all, if we *liked* to do it, they wouldn't have to spend so many years training, cajoling, and pleading with us to do it.
-we probably won't be able to do it "right" without proper supervision. Very few adults bother to acquire skills outside of a classroom, venturing into self-teaching. Because they are lazy? No, they have simply been conditioned to believe that they need a "trained expert" to teach them every step of the way. They have never been allowed to just mess around on their own, do their own research, and basically figure it out for themselves.
And since we don't teach home ec in schools anymore, how are they ever supposed to learn how to cook, without enrolling in culinary school?
Curious - Lissa
I really appreciate the view you are presenting here. But I also have a different view. I work in a university town where my friends and colleagues are very educated. I am a rarity though. I cook a meal 7 days a week most weeks from non processed foods straight from the source. Why do I do it? It relaxes me after a hard day at work. But my husband and I don't have kids so we don't have as many time constraints.
The majority of the people I know don't mind cooking. They aren't 'afraid' of it because they are intiimidated by cooking's 'difficulty'. They simply don't enjoy cooking so they prefer to spend their time doing other things or at least minimizing the time they spend on what they few as a 'task'.
Yes, there are alot of books out there about shortcuts and tips. Probably because the majority of people don't want to cook like you or I. Is there anything wrong with cooking that? In my mind, only to the extent that the option they reach for is processed and full of artificial ingredients that have created an unhealthy public.
Keep ranting and educating
Debbie
I can roast a chicken but about four months out of the year it is too hot to turn the oven on in my small apartment even on low heat. My stepmother grew up during the depression and to her food was about feeling full and not about nutrition. What was cheap always won out over what tasted good. For some reason she was completely enamoured with anything instant, frozen, powdered or canned. Perhaps it was advertizing or perhaps it was the idea that things wouldn't go bad. I can't tell you how many nights I had to choke down instant mashed potators made with powdered milk and margarine.
Marc
So perfectly stated, so true. I blame the 50s and Birds Eye for some of the damage, but the real blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. populace, who chooses to believe that they are indeed too stupid to cook. And thanks for publishing 'Ratio'....my now clamor for scratch pancakes every weekend and I've moved on to making bread, choux and look forward to keeping the beat going.
amy
I wrote on this topic with a similar bent a few days ago in the National Post. My story starts like this:
"Making toast counts. Whipping up an omelet is cooking, too. So is adding a can of tuna to some arugula, croutons and cherry tomatoes, then tossing them with lemon vinaigrette. Even if you just slice some bananas and top them with yogourt, blueberries, granola and honey, that's cooking, in my books.
And all of these dishes have one thing in common: They take two minutes to prepare. Think about that...."
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2398414
Joanne
My mom had me roasting a chicken once a week when I was in high school. She worried that I wouldn't learn how to cook since I never made an effort to cook unless told to, unlike my brother who would cook because he was always hungry. I paid attention since I helped prep veggies with her. When I got married everyone worried that I would starve my husband. I surprised them. Now everyone realizes that I have known how to cook it was a matter of laziness when I lived with my parents. I think laziness is also matter of not enjoying the acts of preparation and cooking. I have friends who do not enjoy cooking and so they eat out all the time, or do the really simple and bland recipes you find in those little cookbooks sold by Pillsbury.
I look at those people and their families and I can see the effects of eating such foods. Their weight and general health is not as ideal as my family. While my family are held hostage by my need to cook for them, of course their preferences are applied to our meals, they have an appreciation for full made from scratch meals and desserts. Some boxed items are great for teaching beginners how to cook. Cake mixes are great for a young child who wants to do it themselves, requiring less than 5 ingredients and just a bowl and wooden spoon. Baking a cake from scratch is a bit more complicated for a 9 year old, the buttermilk, cake flour, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, and flavoring can be daunting at that age. Also unless you order King Arthur's cake flour in the 5lb bag by mail, you are hindered by $3 box of cake flour at your local grocery store. Cost comes into play also with regards to prepackaged foods. It's cheaper to buy a box mix than made from scratch. How does a family on a tight budget reconcile that? Rotisserie chickens at the grocery store, buy several in the cold case marked down because they need to be eaten in 2 days. Take them home shred the meat freeze in small bags, take 3 bird carcasses and make your own chicken broth. Convenience foods do have their uses.
Jeannie
Well, excellent point and so true, then the next thing is, to teach people to choose the local option, that buying a local bird versus a grocery store version...and that whole issue of dollars/cents for what you buy...for example,, the chicken in the picture, what kind is it. who did you buy it from? The one issue is some of my friends just do not get that if you buy local it is going to taste better and they take saving money and saving time over cooking at home and buying local...
But I need to take your point, it is not hard to throw a chicken in the oven...but you know.it may sound corny..but too some.looking at that whole chicken is intimidating...I think the issue is encouraging people not to be intimidated..and I have to say, your blog/zine totally helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Doug
Why are people not only scared of cooking, but eating food cooked at home?
Case in point. My wife is a fantastic baker. She turns out cakes and pastries that wouldn't look out of place in most bakeries (unless you're looking at the nicer bakeries...but she's getting there...she's been wheedling the owner of the local French bakery for lessons...). So what does she do when there's a potluck at the office? She actually takes 30 minutes and makes something that looks nice and professionally-made, then puts it in her tupperware container to take it to work...where it sits. People are scared of it because she made it herself. But put it in a leftover container from the grocery store and it's the first thing gone...go figure...
luis
I think Michael hit another post out of tha ballpark here. And I feel a strong bond with the posters here. We all seem to be working types with similar issues and concerns.
For myself I can say I appreiciate any great technique such as sous vide and any great calorie friendly recipe. What I do is make one or two or more great recipes when I have the ingredients and the stamina on hand and then I will bag them and freeze them in portions. This way nothing is wasted. NOTHING. I look for quality stuff and specially love the two for one deals. I cook the stuff portion it off and freeze it. Sometimes I vacuum bag the stuff other times I just put it in freezer bags. This way I cook family size which is way more economical and then I just freeze what we don't eat right off the bat.
Far as I am concerned...that is the only way to go.
derek
america: too stupid to write concisely | ruhlman.com
Lynn @Mama_Says
So is the message, MAKE time to cook whether it is a simple and quick that you pull together or something that takes a bit longer - when you have the time. Great post!
Mochene
Are you sure it's about stupidity or convenience? Because a lot of foods were made to save the consumers time. People didn't want to work 8+ hours, to come home and cook for another 2 hours (I know you touched on this above). Also, a lot of people don't want to buy, or can't afford a lot of expensive equipment, so you have cake and brownie mixes in a box. That's what I think is being marketed, simplicity and convenience.
But then again, I never really new people who felt like cooking was too hard or anything. My mom cooked at home, we rarely ate out. I was introduced to other ethnic foods in the homes of my friends' families instead of restaurants. Maybe this is a reality for some people (I now think of the Food Network show America's Worst Cooks), but I've never met or shared a meal with them.
Am I too sheltered and need to get out? I don't know. I do know that I want to learn how to cook new things, so I seek out the methods and ingredients that are out there. I can't imagine any other way to eat. I've never thought I was too stupid to do something, maybe intimidated about a certain method or two, which, once I tried it a couple of times, I lived.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Tenina
You are a breath of fresh air, and I am LOVING your book, just linked to you on my latest post...excited to see iPhone app...YAY! Thanks for your work...BIG fan!
alexis
i was always taught that salting meat before its cooked draws out the moisture (the same reason why you salt and press raw eggplant)
Kevin
Michael -
First of all, thank you for Ratio. It is my new go-to book, and I am probably going to buy the app for my iPod. It is very freeing to have such simple guidelines. And yes, I trained, but I never put it all together to see what is now so obvious. My food is improved, and my creativity is soaring.
I find with my friends/family that if I make it social - invite them into the kitchen, make them part of the process, that slowly I am making an impact on them. Cooking does not have to be a means to an end (fuel), the journey itself is satisfying.
Quick story from the Farmers' Market on Sunday: two women of a certain age are at the stand with me; I'm looking at the blood oranges, they are looking at the navel. One says to the other, "Oranges are too much work. I just drink some juice."
"There's all the peeling and cleaning up, too, once you are done."
I had to butt in: "Hahaha - you really had me there."
"I wasn't kidding." She turned to her friend and asked when they were going to go to Starbucks, and then they left. No purchases.
Rob Pattison
Michael: I live to cook, and I'm a huge fan of your work, but I am puzzled, saddened, and more than a little put off by your rant.
To begin with, I saw you quoted on the LA Weekly website when Ratio hit the NYT bestseller list saying that "Ratio has been the most successful book I've written". This would seem to contradict the concern expressed in the opening - your fear last spring that ''no one would understand [Ratio] or even care'. In fact, just the opposite seems to be the case, so just what set you off?.
Just as America (like my country of Canada) has diverged into two countries on other issues (fitness freaks and couch potatoes, conservatives and liberals, etc.), the same is true of those who cherish good food and like to cook it, and those that don't. Are those that don't like too cook stupid, or merely ignorant of the delights that await the cook? Probably the latter - people are woefully under-educated in school about cooking and nutrition, and the purpose for some time consuming steps is not always obvious to the novice unless explained in the recipes.
I endeavor to buy as little as possible from the centre (sorry - Canadian spelling!) aisles at the supermarket - I was convinced of that by Jack Lalanne and Michael Pollan; however, do you really want me (or youself) to have to give up soy sauce, fish sauce, Sriracha sauce etc.?
People don't always do what's good for them, even when it's an activity that you, I, and other readers of your blog find enjoyable (cooking's the only hobby I've ever engaged in that I can do several times a week and enjoy it more every time I do it - I mean seriously - ski, sail,or play poker every week? Kill me now).
Ultimately, like a smoker deciding to quit, non-cooks simply need to find the way on their own.
I don't believe that you'll ever win people over by hectoring them (I attended a dinner in Toronto at which Carlo Petrini and several other speakers scolded the audience, most of whom seemed to be low food true believers - the event was comically off-putting, and as far as I,m concerned the slow food people are a bunch of lunatics - despite the fact that much of what they stand for is sensible) - and I hope that's not what I'm doing here.
Now, I personally find Rachel Ray to be a bit much - but that's a matter of taste. To criticize her for giving people a similar message to yours (relax, coking is no big thing, and - look! - you end up with food at the end!) seems a little churlish, and to suggest (as one of your correspondent's does) that the Food Network is turning people into passive consumers and putting them off cooking is, frankly, bizarre. I say this as someone whose way into cooking was Harold McGee and your "...Of A Chef" boks. One of my first of my one-hundred plus cookbooks was the FLC, and I was nearly hysterical awaiting Ratio once I first heard about, I love to cook and serve simple food as well as black olive stuffed strawberries and other goofy stuff. The fact is most actual cooking shows are about demystifying cooking, and many could just as accurately be called Thirty Minute Meals, and they do in fac inspire people t say "hey - I can d that!".
Read MFK Fisher and Julia Child and speak to your parents or their peers: I hope we can agree that more people in your country and mine are more knowledgeable about good food than at any time in the last hundred years (which doesn't by any means suggest more people are more ignorant about food at the same time).
Please keep doing what you are doing, and I hope that your frustration with people who don't cook (and their enablers) comes back down to a slow simmer. You're doing a great job getting the word out.
Best wishes to you and yours for a happy healthy, successful, and well-fed new year.
Elaine
I LOVE to cook, love to go in kitchen stores and dream, love to watch
food Network. I am amazed when people say they can't cook. Why, it's not that difficult. The chicken recipe was perfect and perfectly easy. I dare anyone to try it and not have it come out right. I am going to post this on Facebook and see what kind of comments I get. Can't wait. =]
Jessika
@Alexis. It's a myth about the salt, a VERY well entrenched myth. If you have access to it you can read about the qualities of salt in Harold McGees On Food and Cooking. Available at libraries if not online but I imagine searching on Google should yield results.
Sharon Scott
Love the easy roasted chicken recipe. I think people who don't cook think of food as something that doesn't require a bit of time management. Meaning roast chicken = store bought rotisserie or 5 min of reheating in the microwave. And to add to your recipe, I'll add, "Trussing for Dummies"...tuck the wings behind the chicken's back "yoga style" and criss cross the drumsticks at the "ankles" and tie with kitchen string - total time: additional 5 seconds.
Anna
Not to worry, Mr. Ruhlman, no more knuckle biting, please! I live in Romania and I bought it. When I read about your book, my prayers were answered, for years I had tried to work up my little (unsuccessful) system of cooking by ratios. In my kitchen, your book is queen now.
Thank you, never doubt the utility of your efforts.
Amy
Much has been said on this topic from many angles. In the end, I think the best way to approach this issue is to have the GOAL of eating as much good, unprocessed food as possible.
There will be times when the "quick" meal will do it. I served my family shrimp in spicy orange sauce, brown rice, and blanched snow peas last night. This came from a "quick" cookbook but was still tasty, nutritious and contained nary a processed ingredient.
Then there will be times when we can delve into more complex dishes. At both Thanksgiving and Christmas I served homemade stuffings made with from scratch bread and "homebrewed" stock (using Ruhlman's brilliant oven technique). My MIL was concerned that I "worked too hard" (she is the queen of processed food) but I assured her the effort was a pleasure.
I think we sometimes get into too much of an "all or nothing" mindset. Take your own circumstances into consideration and do the best you can with the GOAL always in mind.
Jason Sandeman
Michael, this is why I love and am inspired by your writing. You hit the nail on the head here. Why must we accept packaged, shelf-stable goods? They are more convienient? Only in the sense that we do not need to think about ingredients.
I find that people, especially women, are vehement about cooking today. We have been conditioned to believe that EVERYTHING is too time-consuming, too difficult, and too "homesy" for the average person. Why else would we have someone like Rachel who literally throws things together like my mother did back in the day? What makes her food the highlight of culinarians today?
Indeed, I think one would be very disturbed at the true "cost" these convenient products present. If it costs 3 times as much to buy that rotisserie chicken than it does to make it, then we are not really gaining anything. We have to WORK HARDER to buy the food that is supposed to be saving us time. Ironic, no?
Keep up the good work, and if you do choose to do that book, I have some "long and complicated" recipes like Pork Loin roasted with Pan Juices that you could feature. Maybe the ever complicated Applesauce, or Tomato sauce could have a feature as well.
Bob
@Mochene wrote:
"Also, a lot of people don’t want to buy, or can’t afford a lot of expensive equipment, so you have cake and brownie mixes in a box."
A bowl, a spatula, and an old fashioned egg beater is what my grandmother used. We're victims of the idea of convenience, with convenience becoming the norm instead of the exception.
Pilar
Stupid is a little harsh...I bet you were thrilled when your Iron Chef audience put off real cooking to throw a couple of Michelina's in the microwave: those "4 extra minutes of tee vee time" probably did your ego proud. Imagine being a judge on a made for tv cooking competition...and no stupid people watched?
Katy
Excellent!!!! (and your post made me laugh which was much needed today! thank you! :).. I DO think that people are in too much of a hurry and over-scheduled these days with the added "fear of cooking" so that's where all the fast and convenience foods come in... processed is easier (ugh)
And, sadly, I am seeing more and more that people aren't taught how to cook while growing up (those are my fondest memories--cooking with mom and grandma!) and so they don't know how to do anything past boiling water and are afraid to try!
Quick and easy foods CAN also be made from scratch and be unprocessed and inexpensive, but people just need to be taught "how"--for some reason good, unprocessed cooking has gotten the bad rap of being either too expensive or too time-consuming and it really isn't....there is sooooo much marketing for the fast and processed foods out there that THAT is the first thing that people go for!... it's a learning process just like anything else.
And, you don't need a lot of expensive "bells and whistles" in the kitchen to make GOOD food---as your roast chicken shows! 🙂
Bob
Wow.
I'm seeing way too many comments along the lines of 'How Dare Ruhlman Call Us Stupid!'
That isn't what he's saying.
He is targeting a stereotype, perpetuated by the marketing of modern convenience foods, that we a) don't have the time to cook, b) it's too complicated and takes all sorts of high-falutin' tools and arcane knowledge, and c) convenience foods taste JUST AS GOOD!
If anything, that observation SHOULD jar something loose, it should make us re-evaluate an essential need/process in our lives. That it stings may suggest that we're all too aware of our shortcomings - we've bought into the marketing, we know it ... but we're unwilling to admit it. We've allowed the almighty boxed dinner scare us out of the room.
Ruhlman's own words in the introduction to Ratio - about the difference between 'perfect' and 'good enough' are applicable here. We're not after perfect; we're after 'good' - because once we know good, we can build on that. There's no reason that frozen bag should be our baseline for 'good' (even though that means cooking-for-real is a vast improvement).
Jessika
Someone mentioned cooking during the depression. I suggest taking a look at this site.
http://www.greatdepressioncooking.com/Welcome.html
All the episodes are available on youtube. The dvd can be found on amazon, along with the cookbook. It holds simple but nutritious meals.
Al W
Have sex?? What am I supposed to do with the other 55 minutes?
Diane
You do not need to spend money on expensive equipment to cook. I use my cheap knives bought from Meijer and college era crap pans more than I do my fancy Japanese knives and Kitchenaid appliances and All Clad. All it takes is confidence.
Susan
Thank you for reminding me how easy it is to roast a chicken. Did it last night and it was wonderful!!
David in San Antonio
Think Japanese hot pot. Grab whatever you find in the fridge, add it to the pot, and pour in some stock. By the time you've gotten comfortable and ready for supper, your supper is ready.
Ward
Ruhlman: WTF, man. Come on.
The whole "cooking is hard" Rachael Ray wave means girls think I'm some kind of uber-chef just because I can combine food and heat, and guess what? I like it that way.
Next time, stop and think of us single guys before you enlighten the masses.
Liz
As somebody who cooks and bakes a lot, im astounded that people prefer to pay more for things than do it themselves.
A boxed cake mix contains flour and flavouring and baking powder, this is usually only half the ingredients and doesn't really save you any time. You still have to add the egg or milk, or even just the water and beat it. In the time it takes to make a boxed cake I can make you a real cake.
As for roast, heck, i love roast because its the easiest option for me. Ovens have had timers since forever and it leaves hardly any dishes. Just grab the frozen chook out of the oven in the morning, whack it in the oven tray with some vegs etc. set the timer to cook it for several hours and finish at 5pm when i get home.
Another favourite healthy option is using the slow cooker. Pack it with meat and veg and a stock in the morning takes 10 mins, then come home to an amazing dinner, and so many variations.
Most recipes require only couple mins prep time an an oven timer. I think its perception that its hard more than anything.
Bob
@Ward:
There's a BIG difference between 'It's easy and I can do it myself' and 'Wow, Ward's so cool, he cooks FOR me!"
I don't think the single guy who cooks will suffer much.
marlene
Bob said
about the difference between ‘perfect’ and ‘good enough’ are applicable here. We’re not after perfect; we’re after ‘good’ – because once we know good, we can build on that.
So very very true.
I was in the grocery store today at 4:30 or so (remind me not to do that again), the line ups were huge, and because of this post, I paid attention to what was in people's carts. Rotisserie chickens, prepackaged salads, lasagnas from the hot table. I'm not sure I saw any fresh veggies, although in Ontario this time of year, they are in rather short supply. Every one of these people were in business clothes so I assume the were shopping on the way home. I think that at least buying stuff from the hot table is better than buying frozen TV dinners or the like to throw in the microwave when you get home.
BZArcher
I decided to take a shot today and take pictures for a web forum I'm on.
Flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bzarcher/sets/72157623155585928/
Forum post is here: http://www.forumopolis.com/showthread.php?t=93393
Absolutely fantastic, simple, and delicious! When I realized I was out of salad dressing for dinner, I even whipped up a sesame oil / brown rice vinegar salad dressing using the 3:1 ratio!
Susan
I don't agree that "Americans are being told we're too stupid to cook." I believe that all the pre-mades and shortcuts are about time management. That "Americans are too busy (or maybe too lazy?) to take the time to make a good meal" I think of them as "option" foods and techniques for those who are busy and tired and lazy! They're for those times when you don't feel like cooking (lazy?) or have 3 places to go to pick up kids, drop them off or go workout yourself. What I do resent about those foods are the heavy salting and/or seasoning that those preparing them assume we want. Americans are being told by Chefs (on TV, through printed publications, the internet) and the Food Service Industry that we don't know how to season food. That food isn't good without a fistful of salt or layers of cream and butter or bacon fat or sauces made with all of the above. That we're just unsophisticated home cooks if we don't keep pine nuts, truffle oil, capers. wild mushrooms and fresh herbs on hand to prepare a weeknight dinner. We're being bullied from both sides! And the asumption that our taste choices in the foods we prepare are "too rich, too sweet, too bland, too boring" are too much! We have a culture as varied and valid as any other country in the world and the resources to make it anything we want! In fact, we aren't proud enough of what we do prepare with the ingredients available only here in this country. It's about time we started getting as proud of our cuisine as the rest of the world is about theirs. So..there!
Shannon
I think you have hit the nail on the head. I'm tired of the message that I'm too stupid to do anything (cook, parent, garden, whatever) without buying a bunch of books and other products from so-called experts.
What makes me angriest about this attitude is that it's being foisted on the poorest in our society. I read some comments to a recent article by Michael Pollan on his Food Rules book that effectively boiled down to: poor people can't eat healthy because they don't know how to cook beans, fresh vegetables and whole grains. Yet all of our grandmothers did it without thinking twice. I feel like it is a way to excuse addressing the real problems of poverty, which is access to reasonably priced, healthy foods.
Jarrett
if i have to do all of that within an hour of waiting, then it IS the most difficult roast chicken recipe
-gastronaut jones-
oilandgarlic
As someone from an Asian culture who grew up in the U.S., I think cooking is a "lost art" among many Americans. While my mom was making delicious home-cooked meals (and working by the way) my American friends seemed to eat a lot of fast food, frozen meals or not very good home-cooked meals.
Well, now these same kids are trying to make up for their lack of good home cooking by watching cooking shows and turning into self-proclaimed foodies, i.e. making cooking look like an elitist and difficult endeavor. A whole generation seems to have missed the idea that cooking and eating well is just a part of life, whether you're rich, poor or middle-class.
Cooking is not rocket science but it does take considerable skill and patience to learn. Most of the best cooks I know learned from watching their parents. If you didn't have that, you start off at a disadvantage. From my observation, those who learn from recipes and cooking shows seem to have a less freeform approach to cooking, and that also contributes to making cooking seem difficult.
Laura
Thomas Keller recommends cooking the chicken sans lemons, onions, or anything else in the chicken as it will cause moisture to form and he's looking for a crispy chicken!
brandonb
I like the the new edgy, testy michael,,,new years resolution from dealing with people that are to stupid to cook?
Rico
Buy a smoker. They're real easy. Light fire, put meat on, come back tomorrow. But I do have a question about this article. If I have sex too fast, will I get Salmonella?
Honestly, people, the last thing I want to rush is my food. Turn off the TV and get some good food in ya. Buy a crock pot. Re-work your schedule to get things done while things cook. Make a cream of broccoli soup. Bake some bread. Sheesh, you might find it's fun.
Emily
Amen! Whatever you tastes or schedules there are ways to include some healthy, homemade food in our diets. Our hearts need it as much as our bodies!
Paulo
I am an international student currently living in NY, and I just wanted to add my two cents. I am not a chef or anything like that, but i know how to cook soups, meat, fish whatever and they usually turn out quite good. My american friends love my dishes. I don't agree at all that Americans can't cook. Everybody can cook people just have to put time and effort into it. I am not going to focus on the hectic life that everybody has in here along with the little time left to cook. I am going to focus more on different perspectives. America is a country with a great standard of living and is more developed than many other countries, economics of scale made food cheaper, accessible, and convenient. If instead of paying 30 bucks for some delivered pizzas for the family you had to pay $100 I think we would see people cooking more often. In some other countries the ratio income/order food is much bigger than in the US. Sometimes it is just cheaper, easier and just as satisfying to call and order food. Also in less developed countries you tend to have a scarce choice of ingredients. That scarcity leads the people to season more their foods to change a bit their taste. No one would eat potatoes cooked the same way 6 days a week. Another aspect is the incredibly vast and diverse number of cultures in this country. If I had this "melting pot' of foods in my country i would love to try them all as well. And all this also that leads to cook less and less. Practice makes perfect. I Also think "oliveandgarlic" has a point there. Learning from watching your parents cooking gives you for sure an advantage! And don't say american food sucks, american gastronomy is the most diverse in the whole world dishes from other countries get incorporated in your cuisine just like people. Maybe I got a little excited... Oh by the way, try some Portuguese food, you won't regret (I never met anyone who did) Oh and also put something more in your chicken than just salt.
Kate at Serendipity
You know, I agree with you. People are told that it's too hard, and then they see cooking shows with things that are either stupidly easy or waaay too cheffy. As Nigel Slater says, "you're just making something to eat". I moved to Europe about 9 years ago and bought my first kitchen scale. What freedom! I think it should be standard equipment in all kitchens.
I also agree with you that it doesn't have to take a long time to prepare real food. Almost all of my favorite pasta dishes can be prepared in the time it takes the pasta to cook. Add a salad and and some fruit for dessert and you're good to go. It's not hard, it doesn't take a lot of time. It just takes a commitment to eat REAL food instead of the (xxx) we're sold by the giant food companies.
Ok, I'm finished now. Except to say that I love "Ratio". It's as important in my kitchen as my scale. Thank you.
Aaron Strich
Roasted a chicken for my 'rents for dinner tonight. Halfway through the roasting time I harvested some chicken fat to toss the root veg in, and an hour, total, later dinner was on the table. So difficult a ten year could do it, with minimal supervision. Stock simmering on the stove as I type, and pot pie for dinner tomorrow.
Nicole
Give Rachel a bit of a break. I just flipped through one of her cookbooks and the most offensive ingredient I can find is canned broth. Good ingredients, prepped in advance, so a family can have a dinner on the table at a reasonable hour is not such a bad thing.
Lauren
I absolutely agree with this blog entry. With this teeming culture of "Easy Bake Foodstuff" and "Insta-Dinner" it seems as if America has indeed been brainwashed into thinking it is extremely complicated to cook something "fancy" or that requires ::gasp::! Over 30 minutes.
I think a lot of it is, when faced with say a Beef Burgundy recipe, the steps and time it takes to cook might initially daunt some.
It's not that it's hard (I'm borderline ADD-riddled and was able to quite easily make this dish), it just takes a few steps and then just let it sit in the oven for about 2 hours.
Even crunched for time, something like carbonara is quick to make (and oh so delicious) or even a Lemon Parmesean Pasta.
I think it takes getting a handle of basics like sauteeing, baking, braising, etc. and then you can experiment.
I've been playing around with the basic ideals of making Beef Burgundy (brown meat, set meat aside, cook vegetables until slightly tender with stock/wine/add back in meat/ pop in oven for about 2 hours) with other things and it's been pretty successful.
Unfortunately, this is also a day and age of longer work hours and less time and such. But again, many a delicious thing can be made in relatively no time, especially if it has to sit in the oven for an hour or so anyway.
Asma Chabbi
Very Funny but so true!
Thank you for a great entry.
I grew up helping my mother cook (Moroccan tajines, mostly made in a pressure cooker made in less than 30 minutes) and now 20 + years latter do the same.
Mom worked as a teacher 5 days a week and still always managed to make 3 meals (or 4 in our case if you count after school snack) all made from scratch. When I move to the US I carried on with this because it was less expensive to do so but now I cook (and bake) from scratch because I feel it is an investment in my health and well being (besides it tastes better). It make me feel good to know where the ingredients I put in my body come from and can also tailor my diet accordingly.
Sara
Wonderful entry! Laughed out loud in the middle of a public library. And yet you made quite a point- looks like I'll have chicken the next night i dont feel like cooking.
slee172
While I agree that Americans have become lax in developing their culinary skills, I believe one major cause is not laziness nor ineptitude, but simply a lack of funds. This especially holds true now, when the nation has sunk into the worst recession since the Great, and 10% of the population are unemployed. Why spend over $5 to buy the products to make a cheeseburger when one can go to McDonald's and buy one for less than $1? With value meals, frozen dinners, and the horrifying yet cheap instant noodle lunches, is it really a surprise that many Americans don't spend the extra money to buy produce and cook?
other side of the river
I make your difficult chicken all the time. What I'm ready for is your world's most difficult brisket recipe.
Gilma Timas
First off excellent blog. Im not sure if it has been addressed, however when using Opera I can never get the entire post to load without refreshing alot of times. Could just be my computer. Appreciate your work
Dave Kaye
This is a fantastic idea. I don't know if it's that we're being told we're too stupid or not, but I do recall that the last time I bought a pancake mix it contained a chart with the useful information of: "1 serving, 1 tablespoon oil. 2 servings, 2 tablespoons oil. 3 servings, 3 tablespoons oil." Really? What if I want 4 servings? Oh tell me wise box!
Looking at cookbooks from earlier times, it seemed that maybe we took the idea of "convenience" a bit too far. Ok, you don't have to hunt it, kill it, cut it up, cure it, grow it, mill it, raise it, brew it, store it for a long period of time. It's not going to quickly spoil if you don't eat it. You can heat it up fast. You can even do the dishes without too much effort. All great ideas. But then this science was applied to the meal itself -- and let's face it, we all wanted that Jetsons gun that you just fired at the table and it created whatever you want. So there was maybe a little more than half a generation that grew up with this idea of "cooking," and frankly it wasn't all bad. (Who doesn't love Kraft Mac and Cheese?)
But yes, absolutely, let's get back to more basics. I grew up thinking you had to have Bisquick to make pancakes. Getting more into cooking in mid-life I'm amazed to find that pancakes from scratch are not too much harder!
Cheferia
Fortunately here in Italy almost everyone is able to cook as we have really simple and fast recipes (but good) for everyday meals (look pasta, in example) Food is a big topic here, everyone it's always talking about eating. Maybe it's too much!
Trig
"Recipes That Take a Really Long Time and Are Too Hard For People To Do" has already been published. It's called "The Big Fat Duck Cookbook" and it seems that plenty of people in Britain are losing the will to live after trying to emulate Heston Blumenthal in their home kitchens. I mustn't laugh.
BJ Corpening
One of the comments included "Learning from watching your parents cook." Americans are not too stupid to cook, they have not been trained to cook. With the onset of fast food restaurants, home cooking never made the priority list. Hungry? go through the drive through. Too busy? go through the drive through. Too tired? go through the drive through!
A little time, salt and pepper goes along way.