We’re not gay but I never miss a chance for a “Hi Opal”
The OP actually presents me with two questions:
Who cooks more - for us its about equal depending on the season. I hate out electric stove but have an excessive grill/smoker so during the summer I do most of the cooking. This month she is doing a vast majority but even then some is adding gravy and noodles to some smoked meat already in the freezer. Purely in terms of hours and minutes, she edges me out a little but not by a horrible amount.
Who is better at cooking - she wins. I’m more farm-style basic ingredients and she can do the fancy stuff with a recipe that looks like the plans for the Normandy Invasion. And do it very very well.
We both cook, and cook well… but arguably my partner, since his job is chef, may be better. Also he cooks more because, while I do know how to cook my food staples, they do not align with his tastes and craves (Trinidadian food vs Puerto Rican food). I also like to experiment with vegetarian dishes and weird dishes (with a recipe), and he disdains that in favor of improv (but he only improvs on the same area of seasonings as he’s accustomed/familiar, so I may be able to do weird combo dishes better than him). So because I don’t cater to his craves, he cooks more often (this may change soon). Although he admitted when I made a typical PR dish (that myself I consider barely regular, not stellar), that it was really awesome and he wanted to try seconds and thirds.
I realised I never actually answered the question(s). For my household…
Who cooks more?
Currently, I cook more. In the past, we’ve equally shared the cooking. Sometimes my husband has cooked more.
Who is the better cook?
Probably me. I am the more *intuitive *cook. I will eyeball a recipe then adjust amounts, temperatures, timings based on my own cooking knowledge.
My husband is the more *adventurous *cook. He will try something new, but he will follow a recipe to the letter. And he makes mistakes. Last week’s adventure was smoked paprika chicken where he misread 1tsp to mean one tablespoon and we had incredibly salty and paprika-y chicken pieces!
It’s gone back and forth in our relationship. When I was commuting 2 hours a day moi did most of the cooking as she works from home. Now that I’m self employed and home a lot, I usually feed her 3 meals a day. Right now I do 95% of the cooking, but that could easily change with our work situation.
As to who’s better, I’m the more intuitive cook, she’s more likely to find a more adventurous recipe. A couple staples that I now cook started with recipes she found. She laughs when any of her girlfriends complain about cooking.
Neither. We’re pretty evenly matched in frequency and ability, but we both have things we make better than the other person. He enjoys cooking more than I do, however, at least if he’s got a plan and is cooking for other people. I enjoy it more if I’m cooking alone, and I like winging it.
So jealous. My beloved is very talented in many areas… but she cannot cook at all. When we got together, 26 years ago, she made me spaghetti, it was inedible. Really not sure how you can screw up a jar of sauce and some pasta but there it is.
On the flip side, she doesn’t like my method of cram washer full-cram dryer full-fold/wad clothes later method of doing the laundry so she does all of that.
In my opinion, myself, because I cook what I want to eat.
My wife has a maddening tendency to just buy stuff at the grocery store without any plan, so she’ll come home with a bunch of random vegetables that sit in the fridge for days, then there’s a mad scramble of “We need to do something with this stuff!” to which my response is “What is this ‘we’ business?”
I do all of the meal planning, grocery shopping, and 75% of the cooking. My wife picks up the kids twice a week while I work late and I try to cook something the day the before so that she can just warm it up.
The one exception is breakfast, my wife gets up early every day and cooks breakfast for the kids. Excluding breakfast, I do probably 90% of the cooking.
I cook more, because my wife works outside the home and I’m on disability so I’m home most of the time. I do OK, but she is the better cook between the two of us.
Male retired married 45 years. My wife, also retired, and I share the cooking. She used to do most of it but it’s about 50/50 now. We often work together in prep and cleanup, but one of us will be “head cook” running the operation.
I do all the grilling when that’s the task at hand.
He cooks more, and he cooks better. I can cook about 5-6 dishes well, so I can feed you for a weekend, and then go away. He cooks the daily dinner, if it was left up to me I’d probably eat popcorn and call it a night.
It depends on the dish. I’m better with main courses; she’s much better with desserts.
Thought there’s also differing definitions between us on what constitutes “good.” I like lots of spices; she doesn’t. I like savory sauces on meat; she likes fruit.
Female, married 21 years, I do the cooking because husband’s disability precludes handling sharp knives or burney things. (Nerve damage to his hands means he can cut/burn himself badly and not notice it.) He can microwave leftovers or Hot Pocket/Lean Cuisine type things safely, but anything more complicate than that falls to me.
My wife and I both love cooking. I cook really, really well, but it ends up being a whole big production-- I need to go buy ingredients, there’s tons of prep work, the kitchen is a bustling mess, and it’s never a healthy option. But the food tastes awesome, if I do say so myself.
My wife, on the other hand, on a daily basis, with little to-do and in pretty short order, turns out exquisite and healthy meals.
Mine’s a once-in-a-while goodness. Her’s is an everyday goodness. She wins the vote.
My husband wooed me with his cooking, but since we began to cohabit, I’ve been the sole cook in the family. This is mainly because I’m less bothered by it. He has to go find a recipe and slavishly follow it step-by-step, whereas I can throw things together and have them taste good.
So are we voting on what the thread is titled or what the OP says?
Either way my fiancee is simply more skilled at cooking and she finds it fun, whereas my repertoire is comparatively limited and I don’t like it. I do enjoy cleaning, though (really) so that works out well.