Ask Lemmy

I would probably watch a youtube channel that focused more on how to improvise in cooking than how to follow a recipe, along with pointing out various useful techniques and pitfalls to avoid.

Hell, this might actually already exist. I confess I've never really looked.

Two things I usually wonder about -

1. Substitutions - what if I don't have all the ingredients, what if I don't have the equipment for a step etc.
2. Pairings - what combination of ingredients work and why but most importantly what won't work and why.

I do like the idea of specifically touching on techniques and skills. It often annoyed me in cooking shows that the chef will chop a bunch of veggies lightning fast and not comment at all on how you're supposed to cut an onion, what kind of knife to use, etc.

Post the recipes under the video in both metic and imperial units for the international audience.

Avoid using phrase like add X to it, explicitly say what you are adding together more important when using more then one pot/pan. Be literal about how to cook.

An example, Sheppards pie in the BBC site

Step 1 add beef, onion, celery, and carrot to the pan and cook for 5 min

Cool, says what, where and how long.

Step 2 add tomatoes, tomato puree, stock cubes, Worcestershire sauce, and mixed herbs. (To where?) Refill the tomato tin with water and pour into the pan, add a good pinch of salt and pepper (??) Bring to a simmer (what is that) stir regularly for 25 min.

Several things I find wrong, where are the tomato, stock, sauce, and herbs going? You don't say add to the pan, but you do say add the water to the pan. What is a simmering temperature and a person like my who is bad at cooking has no idea how much a pinch is, 5g 10g?

Step 3 for the topping put potatoes into a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to boil then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 10 min. Add the leaks return to simmer and cook for 2 min.

Ok first half is good, but now we have 2 simmering pans and which one does the leeks go into?

Step 4 pre heat the oven to 220/200 fan/gas. Drain potatoes and leek and return to the pan.

Oh the leek goes into the potatoes.

I know this sounds like wow you don't know what you are doing at all, or I should make assumptions but when dealing with absolute beginners it helps to say the extra few words to know what goes where.

Also don't assume people are watching the video, there will be a non zero amount that will listen only so using explicit instructions will help.

Recipes that are attainable for a home chef.

My biggest pet peeves are when I see a channel insist that I buy a brand new piece of equipment or an ingredient that can only be found in a specialty shop. I love Babish, but it annoys me when he says, "Go to your local Mexican grocery store," or something of that nature. I do not have one, and if I do, it's more catered towards a white American and not the immigrants looking for their countries ingredients. I had to stop watching Joshua Weissman because he would constantly say I needed a certain piece of equipment that was $100+ or a fresh ingredient and there was no way I would ever be able to get it fresh.

The cooking channel I love the most is Internet Shaquillle. He never says you have to buy a certain product. He'll straight up show you things you can buy at Kroger for $2. And he'll give alternatives if you don't have certain equipment. Ethan Chlebowski is another fantastic one.

I really liked Alton Brown's show Good Eats. I thought he did a nice job explaining the science behind cooking methods and ingredients in an easy to understand way.

I would love to see more technique and theory videos. There's piles of recipes and such, but, like, what does it mean to dice something as opposed to julienne it? How the hell do you chop things so fast without losing a finger or leaving a hand-span of un-chopped stuff behind? Why does it matter if my pots are "heavy bottomed" or not and what even is that?

Etc ad nauseam.

America's Test Kitchen does some really great stuff for both beginner and experienced cooks, namely presenting one method/recipe after testing a number of alternatives, and including the reasons why they prefer the method/recipe they settled on. "Many people also do it this way, and here's how that turns out and why I prefer the method shown." Or "Here's what happens if you add more butter, and this is what it looks like if you add more eggs/use an egg substitute etc." They get into the chemistry/science of why the chosen method is best or why an easier method can work as well as a more traditional one, and you feel like you learn both the how of cooking something and the why behind a specific recipe, which makes it a lot easier to understand and follow. A final benefit is that it can make a lot of recipes more approachable for a home cool with things like "in professional kitchens, they will use XYZ in order to ZYX. If you don't have access to XYZ, YYY ingredient has a similar effect and is more common in home kitchens..."

Things I would like to know:

1. How to cut veggies properly. This could be on a per recipe basis like "in this recipe we will dice onions, here's how". I've been cooking for years but sometimes I get tripped up on what's best for the veggies in that specific recipe and I just guess.
2. When to add things to the pan and how long to cook/what temp before adding more stuff. I feel like other cooking shows don't explain that some things need to cook longer than others.
3. Explain mixing things to get the right flavor, for example this is salty so we add sweet/acidic. I feel like this is probably super important and why my food always tastes off.
4. I have health issues with my intestines and am super sensitive to grease. Too much oil/butter and I'll be sick. So I personally would like to know ways to cook with less oil/butter but still taste good. Or maybe ways to use the oil in food already (I'm thinking ground beef/bacon) so you don't add more (I have no idea if this is possible just an idea in case it is).

I really want to see no bullshit science based cooking. With percise measurmene. Like whats the exact temperature and time to cook a salmon staek medium rare. I really need exact measurements based on science and experiments.

I'd think something like have each episode demonstrating not only how to cook a particular meal, but also go over all the vast myriad of cooking utensils, pots, pans, bowls, dishes, etc, and how to properly use them.

It would be really cool to see how different cooking techniques change the food on the chemical level.

I would love to see a show about how to adapt traditional meals to vegetarian or reduced meat dishes, but absolutely not presented by a vegetarian or vegan. Existing presenters can't seem to stop talking about vegetarianism/veganism. I would appreciate the information, but I can only abide their purity spiral attitudes briefly.

My biggest pet peeve is when videos are like "I have a cooking show! Discover me, riches and fame!"

Which is to say, so many of them that I rarely even try to watch a cooking video today.

More content like the Chinese Cooking Demystified channel, and the Food 52 stuff with chef Lucas Sin.

I like to watch stuff where I'm getting some of the history and geography of the techniques, ingredients and dishes being presented; while also being talked through the various chemical reactions going on at every stage and why they're important to the desired outcome of the dish.

Plant based content would very much be appreciated too.

“Chef At Home” was a stellar Canadian cooking show! It was on the Food network. He did another couple of shows, one online too. However, CAH was, IMHO the best of the best.

Very relaxed and educational.

It was Hosted by Chef Michael Smith from PEI.

I could cook well enough before watching him. I cook WAY better now, with thanks to him for teaching me how to THINK in the kitchen, and not just “do”.

Also, once and a while? I’d like to see an episode on ‘mistakes & failures’. We ALL have them, and watching an experienced chef “fuck it up” once and a while is inspiring in that it teaches you to learn, and move on from your fails. “If HE/SHE can fail, then I should not be discouraged!

The the secret to making ....

Like certain types of bread , cake, kiche.

The secret to breads or bakes not flattening after taking them out of the oven.. That sort of stuff

Your mentioning fried eggs reminds me of a time I had a coworker who was telling me about the breakfast he made for his kid every weekend: fried pork roll slices and scrambled eggs. I asked why not fried eggs since it would probably be better with that meal. He said he could never get through frying an egg without it breaking and just turning into scrambled eggs anyway so he'd given up years ago. So I gave him some tips I learned in culinary school. Make sure the oil is already hot, Crack the egg into a separate bowl ahead of time, and either use a small pan or tilt the pan to the egg and oil are in one "corner." He came back the next day and he said it worked wonders for him and he'd been able to fry an egg for the first time in his life.

So maybe that sort of thing? Like, focus a lot on those tiny little tricks that aren't necessarily in recipes or even required but make the job so much easier.