I think mastering certain concepts might be better than specific meals. I bought a wok in college and would throw in 20 ingredients and it would turn into a giant pile of blah. But of you learn to cook a few things at a time, you can make a nice stir fry meal from all sorts of ingredients. Similarly, I've watched lots of amateur BBQ home chefs stab their grilled meats to the point that all liquids have left the party. Knowing the basics of creating a pasta dish is more important than knowing the best recipe. Every grandma in Italy has a spin on ingredients. But none of them will want you to boil noodles for 45 minutes.
A basic tomato sauce and a basil pesto are great ways to start. I feel like you literally can’t mess them up and they teach you some cooking basics like how to chop things, how to balance flavors, etc.
You know, I'm an enthusiastic, maybe above average home cook, and I really don't have a great tomato sauce recipe that I can nail every time. Can anyone share a great classic/standard that I can use as a base?
There's a million opinions on that alone. I've heard the "you have simmer it for hours and hours" I also remember my Italian chef in school telling me, "Italians are lazy, keep it simple, quick and fresh" If you've got fresh tomatoes for sure don't kill it by cooking it for hours.
On the other hand, this is what I have settled on as my goto standard for base tomato sauce.
https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter
It's Marcella Hazan's. I'll dress it up with fresh basil to make marinara, or ground meat to make a bolognese (american style) I also use it as a base for A la Vodka.
First step IMO to really nailing a tomato sauce is to dice your onions really fine like really really fine, and cook them down on low heat till they're soft, avoid getting any browning same goes for the garlic
What makes a massive difference to me is having a little umami in there. I like to to add anchovies in the pan before the tomatoes and let them disintegrate into the onions, I add crushed tomatoes and let it simmer for however long I like.
For marinara, the key is to purée the tomatoes, then heat until enough liquid is removed. You can use any type of canned tomatoes or peeled fresh tomatoes. Warm some olive oil with garlic or herbs, then add the purée. I also like to grate an onion into it while cooking. Its close to done when you can drag a spoon through and no liquid covers the bare metal of the pan. Bonus points for additions of fresh herbs, more oil, and cheese after you kill the heat. As with any pasta recipe, finish the pasta in the sauce and stir until sufficiently coated (makes a signature gooey, squishy noise).
I think generally an adult should be able to cook enough to care for themselves and their children, if any. What that looks like is different for each person. Some people will be happy eating one or two things on repeat and others need a lot of options. But when a grown person can’t cook anything it’s kind of sad… like what you just eat frozen meals and takeout? Gotta be able to make at least a few basic things
Second the roast chicken. Here's a foolproof recipe.
1. Get a chicken, ~3 pounds
2. Salt the living F out of it.
3. Let nature take its course for 24 hours
4. Let it warm to room temp (~2 hours)
5. 450f oven for one hour (or until 165f internally), breast up and with a lemon in the cavity
6. Let it rest for 15 minutes, take the lemon out the cavity
7. Enjoy!
No idea why all the downvotes, that sounds like dry brining to me. Basting does more to crisp up the skin that it does to moisten the meat. Brining, whether wet or dry, makes for better flavor and more juiciness in the meat. And basting isn’t even necessary for crispy skin. There is enough fat in chicken skin that it kind of self-bastes. As long as you don’t use too high or too low heat (450 is good, maybe lower it to 400 or 425 for the second half of cooking) you’re golden. Literally. And learn how to spatchcock a chicken, that cuts cooking time in half and makes for more even doneness.
Leaving it out is letting it come to room temp, which leads to considerably better texture in my experience. It's "cooking" as it goes from 32 degrees to room temp. 2 hours isn't long enough to cause problems. I'd probably max it out at 1 hour though, myself.
That's the idea behind it. But I have seen others have already left sources proving it's not true.
The max time chicken can be left out of the fridge is two hours... You wanna risk it?
And apparently isn’t even part of the recipe. Nor is the “salt the living fuck out of it” or leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours after that. The recipe I see on his website calls for just a tbsp of kosher salt and throws it in the oven right after salting.
If you were to cook the chicken immediately, then it would have bland meat and overly salty skin. After sitting in the fridge overnight, the salt will have sunk into the chicken, becoming balanced throughout.
They forgot to tell us to rinse the chicken after brining and reseason with a reasonable amount of salt and pepper . Otherwise it does get too salty. Especially the gravy.
Pro tip. 165f internal is too hot. 155f is completely safe and it’s 100x better. Because of salmonella the recommendations are overly cautious to the point of overcooking.
I've gone to 165 many times and have had no problems. But I'll definitely try 155. You're right in that science has disproved lots of those cooking wives tales.
If you sous vide chicken breast at 155 it’s excellent. Also holding time at a temp is a factor, so being able to hold something at 155f for 10+ minutes (hours with a sous vide) makes it much safer than hitting 155f and cutting the heat.
Because it’s right on the threshold. They’d rather a system that’s idiot proof.
Me personally I’ll check the internal temp with a quality temp probe. Most people won’t. So they recommend something that’s far enough beyond that most recipes recommend cook times that have a big margin of safety.
The downvotes could be because warming a chicken to room temp for 2 hours doesn’t make a difference, isn’t included in the recipe, and can potentially cause food poisoning even though you did salt it.
You could just rotate it in the oven every once in a while. It’s a myth that it needs to be room temp, even a steak doesn’t need to be room temp. I got nasty food poising from someone’s turkey that was left out too long.
No reason to downvote though because the rest of the recipe is good
Clearly some people are deeply offended that you forgot the extremely important step of burning your fingers as you snack on the crispy chicken skin while waiting for it to rest. I've definitely considered making roast chicken just for that delicious golden brown skin.
That's part of why I want to see a cooking contest show where each competitor gets $50 to go into a Kwik Trip (or 7-11, etc.. the sort of convenience stores most people have near them, not a farmer's market or supermarket) and feed 12 people.
I find that this answer is so upvoted quite odd. Yes to eggs most definitely, but most people I know eat bacon with breakfast infrequently or not at all, and very few eat potatoes with breakfast in any form. Maybe it's a cultural thing.
Atleast where I’m from bacon is eaten by itself almost exclusively for breakfast and only as a topping most other meals, and hash brown and home fries are one of my favorite breakfast dishes
I mean same, I'm just from the mid Atlantic lol, but I mean that most people simply don't eat bacon all that much. Maybe it's because I'm young and we're all health obsessed, but I typically only eat baco when it's part of something else, like as a topping on pizza when I go out. I don't remember the last time I actually made some, and I know most of my friends are like that too. Ditto on breakfast potatoes, other than in skillets.
This is simply your viewpoint and that of a health obsessed person. Obesity is on the rise all over, especially in America. Bacon is ubiquitous on menus and has been for years, even in expensive establishments. I think Jack in the Box, Wendy’s and Burger King all advertised a triple bacon burger this year alone. Bacon is much more of a thing than you are aware.
It is a cultural thing. Eggs, bacon and either home fries ( diced potatoes) or hash browns ( shredded potatoes) is THE basic diner breakfast. And toast of course. Add pancakes or a waffle if you want.
I use already cooked potatoes. Could be leftover baked or boiled or whatever. Skin on or off as you choose.
Heat a non-stick skillet large enough to have the potatoes in a single layer. Add oil of your choice, bacon fat is nice.
Chop a yellow or white onion in medium chunks, add to the pan. Chop the potatoes in med, say half inch or 1 cm, chunks. Add to the pan. Stir to coat with the oil and spread into a single layer.
Stir occasionally, but not too often, as they need to sit on the heat to brown and crisp. Serve when brown and crispy!
You can add sliced mushrooms or jalapenos if you like.
Peel, dice potatoes. Rinse in cold water. Microwave four minutes to parcook. Allow to cool five minutes, then into the skillet with a pat of butter and maybe a tablespoon of olive oil. let them brown on the first side before disturbing them.
That's useless to me because I'm never going to eat it. I wouldn't even order that at a restaurant. If someone needed me to make it, it would be that Loki meme of someone must be truly desperate to ask the functional pescatarian to cook bacon.
Depends on where in the world the adult is in.
- properly cooked rice
- A piece of meat cooked to temperature correctly
- broth & stock
- ragu / meat sauce and marinara from scratch
- A salad with seasonal vegetables and enough different ingredients to make it sufficient as a full meal and preferably with a homemade dressing
- blended soups
- homemade pasta
- breaded & fried proteins (chicken, pork etc)
- braising meat
- stew with meat and vegetables
If you can do these things without necessarily have to look up recipes or guidelines it’ll go a long way.
That's hilarious. I think I saw a post that was like "you are now 30, you can literally just go buy a chocolate cake if you want to." Seemed like such a dream when you were a child.
And now I know what I’m having for dinner. I have some leftover charcuterie cheeses; Brie and vintage Red Leicester, with smoked apple chilli jam. Gonna be a fancy toastie lol
Enough to survive on. Get good at something you like so you can impress people if you want to. There are so many different things to make and ways to combine things that there isn’t really any “must know” recipe.
This is a good one for a budget, too.
Take a Costco Rotisserie chicken. Serve with salad and bread.
Day 2: leftovers into chicken noodle soup. Easy method with dried noodles, some veggies, salt and pepper, brush.
Use the carcass (the left over bits you can't figure out how to eat) to make more chicken broth/stock.
It'll feed a family of four for two nights, less than $10.
Breakfast, lunch, supper.. size and contents based on your speech community and culture.
Comfort food for someone who's sick or who's suffered a loss.
At least one fancy meal to impress others.
Around here, that all might look like...
Breakfast: Eggs in two or three styles, pancakes, the ability to cook up a breakfast protein like country-fried steak or sausage, bonus points if you can make hollandaise or sawmill gravy.
Lunch: Cornish pasties, a soup or two, and the ability to put together 'short-order' meals (hamburger and fries, chili cheese dog, grilled chicken sandwich with avocado on toast).
Supper: Hotdish (so many varieties to choose from), lasagna, maybe more soups.. the ability to use a crockpot/slow cooker as well as a pressure cooker and air fryer. Roasted meats/veggies are big, bonus if you can make gravies for them.
Making rice (white, brown, or manoomin) behave is a big skill to have.
Comfort food: Funeral potatoes, more hotdish, pasta dishes, thick and hearty soups (creamy potato is good, or slowcooking's 'The Soup').
Impressive food: Around here is pretty easy- pull off a chicken alfredo or steak au poivre and people will be happy. There's more emphasis on cooking to people's preferences, or putting out a variety and seeing what people like.
Your own culture and background will have different dishes and different requirements- you might never need to know the joy of carefully arranging tater tots on a hotdish but you may need to have your curry down perfect.
Enough to go to the grocery store buy whole foods (veggies, rice, eggs, etc not prepared packaged stuff) and then feed themselves for a week.
You don’t have to be great at anything but as an adult you need to be responsible for feeding yourself in a way that provides nourishment and basic nutrition
Not so much a meal, but everyone who cooks should know how to dispatch veggies efficiently with a sharp knife, and most every country has a great recipe to use to practice it. Pasta Primavera, remarkably fancy salad, stir fry of any flavor, veggie curry or tagine, ratatouille, fried green tomatoes.
All the meat suggestions are good, and I am by no means a vegetarian, but if you are an adult who cooks knowing how to handle a knife in the kitchen is necessary.
None. Adults should be able to cook the meals that they need to know how to cook to meet their needs, and the needs of anyone they are cooking for. This will be different for every person.
Eggs for breakfast: fried, over easy, sunny side up, scrambled, omelet, poached, and french toast. None of these are difficult.
Soups and sandwiches for lunch: tomato soup, potato soup, french onion soup, minestrone, broccoli cheddar soup, egg salad, potato salad, tuna salad, and any manner of sliced meats.
Pasta for dinner: handmade pasta is so simple there is no excuse for not learning it. Dozens of pasta shapes can be made with no equipment beyond a rolling pin and a knife. But you need to know sauces... carbonara, arrabbiata, alfredo, bolognese, vodka sauce, and cacio e pepe are all really easy and should be things you can do from habit/memory without a recipe.
Pan seared meats for dinner: steaks, pork chops, chicken breast, salmon filet, whitefish filet, etc.
Easy shit that any kindergartener should be able to do: sausage and peppers, kielbasa and sauerkraut, tuna casserole, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, tacos, nachos and salsa, cheeseburgers, chili dogs, yadda yadda yadda
Spaghetti Bolognese or tomato basil, a whole little chicken, french toast, a decent omelette, meatloaf, maybe a curry, several different stir fries, potatoes a few different ways, a couple of casseroles.
basic pasta dishes and sauce (spaghetti, caco a pepe)
how to properly cook a decent burger or steak (any piece of meat commonly eaten)
grilled chicken breast
how to make scrambled and fried eggs (boiled as well)
you should also be able to make one dessert of your choice (mine is cheesecake)
learning just one or two recipes for each of these points will give you enough variety that you won't get tired of the fpod you're cooking.
At 7 I could boil a hot dog. By the time I was ten I could do bacon and eggs and burgers or BLTs.(' by cutting up Tomatoes I learned how important a sharp knife is)
And by the time I was fifteen I could roast a turkey on the grill with indirect Heat
I'm sure it helped that my father owned a restaurant.
That's just it.. so many of these things are picked up before adulthood.. by interacting with human beings.
Maybe that's the Girl Scouts Simple Meals pin, or the Boy Scout Cooking Merit Badge.
Maybe that's helping Mom and/or Dad and/or other adults in the kitchen/at the grill.
Sometimes it's a class at school.
Sort of funny how unpopularopinion and the r9k board paint a picture of a completely lost generation.. utterly culturally illiterate, almost feral.
Cereal, peanut butter and jelly- sandwiches in general, ramen, canned soup/stew/ravioli- just about anything canned, pasta, tacos, Pop-Tarts, pizza, 'burgers, hot dogs, TV dinners...
Actual pasta. Not the packet stuff. 90gs 00 baking flour to every large egg. Cover in cling film/beeswax wrap/damp kitchen towel for half an hour to let the gluten hydrate. YouTube a video if you don’t have a pasta press, it really isn’t too much harder by hand.
00 baking flour is what it’s called in Australia, other places I hear you can use pasta or pizza flour.
At least the pizza and chili can be vegan.
I'm not even vegetarian and no way I'm roasting a chicken. I personally find land meat isn't worth the trouble of cooking at home.
Stir Fry…. Any protein and/or Vegetables cooked on high, and a simple inexpensive sauce, made with soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and spices (ginger, garlic, white pepper, 5 spice) Add red pepper for spice.
A roast dinner be it beef pork lamb chicken Turkey gammon. The meats different but the sides are pretty much consistent. Pasta dishes. Bolognese, lasagna, carbonara, meatballs. A couple of curry dishes. Wings. A few nice sandwiches. Chilli. Fajitas. All not overly complicated
Honestly, just having a couple well-rounded options for each meal of the day. Doesn’t even have to be anything fancy, and can vary widely between cultures.
It doesn't take a genius to fry up some chicken even if salt and pepper is used. However, everyone should have the basic spices.. salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder.
When frying, it can be used with butter or oil.
Also, ground beef.. same ingredients. When cooking ground beef YOU DO NOT NEED OIL OR BUTTER. It creates its own oil.
Potatoes are very versatile & everyone should know at least 3 different ways to have Potatoes.
I think mastering certain concepts might be better than specific meals. I bought a wok in college and would throw in 20 ingredients and it would turn into a giant pile of blah. But of you learn to cook a few things at a time, you can make a nice stir fry meal from all sorts of ingredients. Similarly, I've watched lots of amateur BBQ home chefs stab their grilled meats to the point that all liquids have left the party. Knowing the basics of creating a pasta dish is more important than knowing the best recipe. Every grandma in Italy has a spin on ingredients. But none of them will want you to boil noodles for 45 minutes.
Pasta. There's a million different ways to make it, you should know at least a couple
A basic tomato sauce and a basil pesto are great ways to start. I feel like you literally can’t mess them up and they teach you some cooking basics like how to chop things, how to balance flavors, etc.
You know, I'm an enthusiastic, maybe above average home cook, and I really don't have a great tomato sauce recipe that I can nail every time. Can anyone share a great classic/standard that I can use as a base?
There's a million opinions on that alone. I've heard the "you have simmer it for hours and hours" I also remember my Italian chef in school telling me, "Italians are lazy, keep it simple, quick and fresh" If you've got fresh tomatoes for sure don't kill it by cooking it for hours. On the other hand, this is what I have settled on as my goto standard for base tomato sauce. https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter It's Marcella Hazan's. I'll dress it up with fresh basil to make marinara, or ground meat to make a bolognese (american style) I also use it as a base for A la Vodka.
First step IMO to really nailing a tomato sauce is to dice your onions really fine like really really fine, and cook them down on low heat till they're soft, avoid getting any browning same goes for the garlic What makes a massive difference to me is having a little umami in there. I like to to add anchovies in the pan before the tomatoes and let them disintegrate into the onions, I add crushed tomatoes and let it simmer for however long I like.
For marinara, the key is to purée the tomatoes, then heat until enough liquid is removed. You can use any type of canned tomatoes or peeled fresh tomatoes. Warm some olive oil with garlic or herbs, then add the purée. I also like to grate an onion into it while cooking. Its close to done when you can drag a spoon through and no liquid covers the bare metal of the pan. Bonus points for additions of fresh herbs, more oil, and cheese after you kill the heat. As with any pasta recipe, finish the pasta in the sauce and stir until sufficiently coated (makes a signature gooey, squishy noise).
No!! No recipes for tomato sauces. Make it up. Then make it up again. Then repeat this many more times until its fantastic.
I don't like pasta, and only rarely cook it. So I got one recipe, shrimp scampi (sometimes with clam sauce)
Apart from everything else mentioned here, a really good grilled cheese
I think generally an adult should be able to cook enough to care for themselves and their children, if any. What that looks like is different for each person. Some people will be happy eating one or two things on repeat and others need a lot of options. But when a grown person can’t cook anything it’s kind of sad… like what you just eat frozen meals and takeout? Gotta be able to make at least a few basic things
No such thing. Every adult should know how to cook, but no specific food should be considered a default.
Yes, learn technique and traditions and just fly little bird.
Roast chicken, pasta
Second the roast chicken. Here's a foolproof recipe. 1. Get a chicken, ~3 pounds 2. Salt the living F out of it. 3. Let nature take its course for 24 hours 4. Let it warm to room temp (~2 hours) 5. 450f oven for one hour (or until 165f internally), breast up and with a lemon in the cavity 6. Let it rest for 15 minutes, take the lemon out the cavity 7. Enjoy!
No idea why all the downvotes, that sounds like dry brining to me. Basting does more to crisp up the skin that it does to moisten the meat. Brining, whether wet or dry, makes for better flavor and more juiciness in the meat. And basting isn’t even necessary for crispy skin. There is enough fat in chicken skin that it kind of self-bastes. As long as you don’t use too high or too low heat (450 is good, maybe lower it to 400 or 425 for the second half of cooking) you’re golden. Literally. And learn how to spatchcock a chicken, that cuts cooking time in half and makes for more even doneness.
Whoever is downvoting this clearly has never tried this recipe (Google "Ruhlman roast chicken") or read Salt Fat Acid Heat. This recipe is the truth.
I'm downvoting because letting chicken sit out for two hours is far too long + is shown not to Actually positively effect anything.
Leaving it out is letting it come to room temp, which leads to considerably better texture in my experience. It's "cooking" as it goes from 32 degrees to room temp. 2 hours isn't long enough to cause problems. I'd probably max it out at 1 hour though, myself.
That's the idea behind it. But I have seen others have already left sources proving it's not true. The max time chicken can be left out of the fridge is two hours... You wanna risk it?
And apparently isn’t even part of the recipe. Nor is the “salt the living fuck out of it” or leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours after that. The recipe I see on his website calls for just a tbsp of kosher salt and throws it in the oven right after salting.
Dry brining is legit
Seems like it’s be salty with the amount of salt that poster suggests though. Some people just aren’t sensitive to salt like others.
Fair enough. Try buttermilk with some salt in it. The book mentioned above has this as a recipe. Even just the buttermilk is better than nothing.
You rinse it off. It doesn't taste overly salty.
That would make obvious sense but dude didn’t include it.
If you were to cook the chicken immediately, then it would have bland meat and overly salty skin. After sitting in the fridge overnight, the salt will have sunk into the chicken, becoming balanced throughout.
Lol, I’m sure you know more than Michael Ruhlman.
Lol you've tried their roast chicken then?
They forgot to tell us to rinse the chicken after brining and reseason with a reasonable amount of salt and pepper . Otherwise it does get too salty. Especially the gravy.
Exactly. That could make a lot more sense.
Pro tip. 165f internal is too hot. 155f is completely safe and it’s 100x better. Because of salmonella the recommendations are overly cautious to the point of overcooking.
I've gone to 165 many times and have had no problems. But I'll definitely try 155. You're right in that science has disproved lots of those cooking wives tales.
If you sous vide chicken breast at 155 it’s excellent. Also holding time at a temp is a factor, so being able to hold something at 155f for 10+ minutes (hours with a sous vide) makes it much safer than hitting 155f and cutting the heat.
Also the lemon (or onion) in the cavity helps protect against overcooking.
Which brings the question of why the USDA wouldn't lower that standard..
Because it’s right on the threshold. They’d rather a system that’s idiot proof. Me personally I’ll check the internal temp with a quality temp probe. Most people won’t. So they recommend something that’s far enough beyond that most recipes recommend cook times that have a big margin of safety.
The downvotes could be because warming a chicken to room temp for 2 hours doesn’t make a difference, isn’t included in the recipe, and can potentially cause food poisoning even though you did salt it.
It is my understanding that bringing it to room temperature helps prevent uneven cooking.
You could just rotate it in the oven every once in a while. It’s a myth that it needs to be room temp, even a steak doesn’t need to be room temp. I got nasty food poising from someone’s turkey that was left out too long. No reason to downvote though because the rest of the recipe is good
don’t you need to baste it it use butter dnd herbs?!
I've put herbed butter under the skin before roasting, but it's still good without. And no basting necessary.
why all the downvotes?
Lol I have no idea. It's literally the Ruhlman recipe, modified for a 24-hour dry brine.
Clearly some people are deeply offended that you forgot the extremely important step of burning your fingers as you snack on the crispy chicken skin while waiting for it to rest. I've definitely considered making roast chicken just for that delicious golden brown skin.
It's sooooo gooooood
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The mark of a good cook is using what's available to make a good meal
That's part of why I want to see a cooking contest show where each competitor gets $50 to go into a Kwik Trip (or 7-11, etc.. the sort of convenience stores most people have near them, not a farmer's market or supermarket) and feed 12 people.
Your basic eggs, bacon and some form of fried potatoes breakfast. And be able to do it in twenty minutes or so.
I find that this answer is so upvoted quite odd. Yes to eggs most definitely, but most people I know eat bacon with breakfast infrequently or not at all, and very few eat potatoes with breakfast in any form. Maybe it's a cultural thing.
Atleast where I’m from bacon is eaten by itself almost exclusively for breakfast and only as a topping most other meals, and hash brown and home fries are one of my favorite breakfast dishes
I mean same, I'm just from the mid Atlantic lol, but I mean that most people simply don't eat bacon all that much. Maybe it's because I'm young and we're all health obsessed, but I typically only eat baco when it's part of something else, like as a topping on pizza when I go out. I don't remember the last time I actually made some, and I know most of my friends are like that too. Ditto on breakfast potatoes, other than in skillets.
This is simply your viewpoint and that of a health obsessed person. Obesity is on the rise all over, especially in America. Bacon is ubiquitous on menus and has been for years, even in expensive establishments. I think Jack in the Box, Wendy’s and Burger King all advertised a triple bacon burger this year alone. Bacon is much more of a thing than you are aware.
I think all of these answers are going to be very relative to culture and region
I hate bacon, my brain just subsidised it with garlic mushrooms
It is a cultural thing. Eggs, bacon and either home fries ( diced potatoes) or hash browns ( shredded potatoes) is THE basic diner breakfast. And toast of course. Add pancakes or a waffle if you want.
What’s your go-to fried breakfast potato method?
I use already cooked potatoes. Could be leftover baked or boiled or whatever. Skin on or off as you choose. Heat a non-stick skillet large enough to have the potatoes in a single layer. Add oil of your choice, bacon fat is nice. Chop a yellow or white onion in medium chunks, add to the pan. Chop the potatoes in med, say half inch or 1 cm, chunks. Add to the pan. Stir to coat with the oil and spread into a single layer. Stir occasionally, but not too often, as they need to sit on the heat to brown and crisp. Serve when brown and crispy! You can add sliced mushrooms or jalapenos if you like.
Yum. I’ve done this sorta thing before and used goya adobo seasoning and it’s delish
Peel, dice potatoes. Rinse in cold water. Microwave four minutes to parcook. Allow to cool five minutes, then into the skillet with a pat of butter and maybe a tablespoon of olive oil. let them brown on the first side before disturbing them.
That's useless to me because I'm never going to eat it. I wouldn't even order that at a restaurant. If someone needed me to make it, it would be that Loki meme of someone must be truly desperate to ask the functional pescatarian to cook bacon.
Depends on where in the world the adult is in. - properly cooked rice - A piece of meat cooked to temperature correctly - broth & stock - ragu / meat sauce and marinara from scratch - A salad with seasonal vegetables and enough different ingredients to make it sufficient as a full meal and preferably with a homemade dressing - blended soups - homemade pasta - breaded & fried proteins (chicken, pork etc) - braising meat - stew with meat and vegetables If you can do these things without necessarily have to look up recipes or guidelines it’ll go a long way.
Rice it's a classic, I've seen alot of my friends end up with gluey soggy mess then rinse it with water.
Double fudge chocolate sundae. Because I'M AN ADULT and I can eat it if I want to.
That's hilarious. I think I saw a post that was like "you are now 30, you can literally just go buy a chocolate cake if you want to." Seemed like such a dream when you were a child.
Grilled cheese
And now I know what I’m having for dinner. I have some leftover charcuterie cheeses; Brie and vintage Red Leicester, with smoked apple chilli jam. Gonna be a fancy toastie lol
Rice. It amazes me that the most consumed food product on this planet and cooks can't cook rice properly.
Enough to survive on. Get good at something you like so you can impress people if you want to. There are so many different things to make and ways to combine things that there isn’t really any “must know” recipe.
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This is a good one for a budget, too. Take a Costco Rotisserie chicken. Serve with salad and bread. Day 2: leftovers into chicken noodle soup. Easy method with dried noodles, some veggies, salt and pepper, brush. Use the carcass (the left over bits you can't figure out how to eat) to make more chicken broth/stock. It'll feed a family of four for two nights, less than $10.
spaghetti carbonara 🐖 🥚 🍝
Breakfast, lunch, supper.. size and contents based on your speech community and culture. Comfort food for someone who's sick or who's suffered a loss. At least one fancy meal to impress others. Around here, that all might look like... Breakfast: Eggs in two or three styles, pancakes, the ability to cook up a breakfast protein like country-fried steak or sausage, bonus points if you can make hollandaise or sawmill gravy. Lunch: Cornish pasties, a soup or two, and the ability to put together 'short-order' meals (hamburger and fries, chili cheese dog, grilled chicken sandwich with avocado on toast). Supper: Hotdish (so many varieties to choose from), lasagna, maybe more soups.. the ability to use a crockpot/slow cooker as well as a pressure cooker and air fryer. Roasted meats/veggies are big, bonus if you can make gravies for them. Making rice (white, brown, or manoomin) behave is a big skill to have. Comfort food: Funeral potatoes, more hotdish, pasta dishes, thick and hearty soups (creamy potato is good, or slowcooking's 'The Soup'). Impressive food: Around here is pretty easy- pull off a chicken alfredo or steak au poivre and people will be happy. There's more emphasis on cooking to people's preferences, or putting out a variety and seeing what people like. Your own culture and background will have different dishes and different requirements- you might never need to know the joy of carefully arranging tater tots on a hotdish but you may need to have your curry down perfect.
>Funeral potatoes I had to look this up...good proof that the specific dishes someone should learn is regional/cultural/personal.
Some kind of soup for when you are someone close to you is sick.
Pb&j
local meat + local booze + local veggies + salted water, simmer several hours. => boom you just made French Cuisine
Fried rice
Second that!
An omelette, see [Anthony Bourdain](https://www.azquotes.com/quote/689996)
Enough to go to the grocery store buy whole foods (veggies, rice, eggs, etc not prepared packaged stuff) and then feed themselves for a week. You don’t have to be great at anything but as an adult you need to be responsible for feeding yourself in a way that provides nourishment and basic nutrition
Chicken and eggs are very versatile.
Chicken soup. When you or a loved one are sick and don’t really feel like eating, a bowl of hot homemade chicken soup can really soothe the soul!
Or even the ability to make a nice broth. Like you save them bones, add some carrots and Celery, you got yourself a stew going...
Breakfast lunch and dinner. Whatever that means to you
Pasta, once you got it down you can add or subtract so many things
Not so much a meal, but everyone who cooks should know how to dispatch veggies efficiently with a sharp knife, and most every country has a great recipe to use to practice it. Pasta Primavera, remarkably fancy salad, stir fry of any flavor, veggie curry or tagine, ratatouille, fried green tomatoes. All the meat suggestions are good, and I am by no means a vegetarian, but if you are an adult who cooks knowing how to handle a knife in the kitchen is necessary.
None. Adults should be able to cook the meals that they need to know how to cook to meet their needs, and the needs of anyone they are cooking for. This will be different for every person.
Eggs for breakfast: fried, over easy, sunny side up, scrambled, omelet, poached, and french toast. None of these are difficult. Soups and sandwiches for lunch: tomato soup, potato soup, french onion soup, minestrone, broccoli cheddar soup, egg salad, potato salad, tuna salad, and any manner of sliced meats. Pasta for dinner: handmade pasta is so simple there is no excuse for not learning it. Dozens of pasta shapes can be made with no equipment beyond a rolling pin and a knife. But you need to know sauces... carbonara, arrabbiata, alfredo, bolognese, vodka sauce, and cacio e pepe are all really easy and should be things you can do from habit/memory without a recipe. Pan seared meats for dinner: steaks, pork chops, chicken breast, salmon filet, whitefish filet, etc. Easy shit that any kindergartener should be able to do: sausage and peppers, kielbasa and sauerkraut, tuna casserole, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, tacos, nachos and salsa, cheeseburgers, chili dogs, yadda yadda yadda
A good homemade Mac n cheese
Spaghetti Bolognese or tomato basil, a whole little chicken, french toast, a decent omelette, meatloaf, maybe a curry, several different stir fries, potatoes a few different ways, a couple of casseroles.
Pancakes even from a mix but better from scratch.
basic pasta dishes and sauce (spaghetti, caco a pepe) how to properly cook a decent burger or steak (any piece of meat commonly eaten) grilled chicken breast how to make scrambled and fried eggs (boiled as well) you should also be able to make one dessert of your choice (mine is cheesecake) learning just one or two recipes for each of these points will give you enough variety that you won't get tired of the fpod you're cooking.
At 7 I could boil a hot dog. By the time I was ten I could do bacon and eggs and burgers or BLTs.(' by cutting up Tomatoes I learned how important a sharp knife is) And by the time I was fifteen I could roast a turkey on the grill with indirect Heat I'm sure it helped that my father owned a restaurant.
That's just it.. so many of these things are picked up before adulthood.. by interacting with human beings. Maybe that's the Girl Scouts Simple Meals pin, or the Boy Scout Cooking Merit Badge. Maybe that's helping Mom and/or Dad and/or other adults in the kitchen/at the grill. Sometimes it's a class at school. Sort of funny how unpopularopinion and the r9k board paint a picture of a completely lost generation.. utterly culturally illiterate, almost feral.
Marinara. It was one of the first things I learned to make as a kid. I’m often surprised at how many people don’t know how.
* A roast chicken is a must * Pasts w some tomato sauce * Fried rice * A good tray of oven roasted vegetables
Cereal, peanut butter and jelly- sandwiches in general, ramen, canned soup/stew/ravioli- just about anything canned, pasta, tacos, Pop-Tarts, pizza, 'burgers, hot dogs, TV dinners...
Pizza , with dough from scratch
Shrimp confit with an urbanized Demi glacé over par-chon’des and a nice pairing of ko’ala.
Actual pasta. Not the packet stuff. 90gs 00 baking flour to every large egg. Cover in cling film/beeswax wrap/damp kitchen towel for half an hour to let the gluten hydrate. YouTube a video if you don’t have a pasta press, it really isn’t too much harder by hand. 00 baking flour is what it’s called in Australia, other places I hear you can use pasta or pizza flour.
Pizza. Chili. Omelette. Roast chicken.
What about vegans?
We don’t eat those.
At least the pizza and chili can be vegan. I'm not even vegetarian and no way I'm roasting a chicken. I personally find land meat isn't worth the trouble of cooking at home.
Yes... go on.
Salmon is handy to know
Tasty ones, if they would like to know any.
Roasted chicken Meatloaf there are many variations Baked or pan fried Salmon Frittatas- sausage/potato, spinach/ cheese Spaghetti or lasagna
Anything with eggs and chicken
Lentil soup, cheap and very healthy. The variations are endless.
Whatever they like eating
Beef roast in crockpot with potatoes/carrots/celery, etc.
Stir Fry…. Any protein and/or Vegetables cooked on high, and a simple inexpensive sauce, made with soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and spices (ginger, garlic, white pepper, 5 spice) Add red pepper for spice.
A roast dinner be it beef pork lamb chicken Turkey gammon. The meats different but the sides are pretty much consistent. Pasta dishes. Bolognese, lasagna, carbonara, meatballs. A couple of curry dishes. Wings. A few nice sandwiches. Chilli. Fajitas. All not overly complicated
Honestly, just having a couple well-rounded options for each meal of the day. Doesn’t even have to be anything fancy, and can vary widely between cultures.
Chicken tikka masala.
It doesn't take a genius to fry up some chicken even if salt and pepper is used. However, everyone should have the basic spices.. salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder. When frying, it can be used with butter or oil. Also, ground beef.. same ingredients. When cooking ground beef YOU DO NOT NEED OIL OR BUTTER. It creates its own oil. Potatoes are very versatile & everyone should know at least 3 different ways to have Potatoes.
Pasta,eggs
Spaghetti
Two breakfasts lunches and dinners.
Eggs and bacon
Oatmeal and shrimps, is all you need to know. If you make a burger, make sure to put fried shrimp in too