# Not worth the culinary effort. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435 "2017-07-03T15:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/141 "2017-07-06T01:19:14Z")
> [@Marci\_Al](#): > > Cassoulet. I haven’t really tried following the standard recipe but a number of things I find un-necessary: > > 1. Needing to spice the beans while cooking them separately. A pork stock or a piece of bone will do. The bouquet garnier seems weak. I mean, beans have their own flavor when cooked. I can’t see how herbs can improve that. > 2. Having to put agar - you cook the beans right and you can’t get a better consistency than with agar > 3. Requiring a browned crust - this is just a pork-and-beans recipe. You cook those two together covered for two hours and you should bring out all the flavors you want. Never even heard of this heretical recipe. I think it was something made to fake a long properly made one. > [@MrDibble](#): > > Which “standard” recipe is this? > The one I was taught uses a _mirepoix_ as well as _bouquet garni_I’ve never come across a recipe that calls for agar, that’s completely weird to me. > No, it’s not. Shoot me if I ever serve you a _cassoulet_ with just one meat in it (or even just two). I agree … > [@Marci\_Al](#): > > Of course, of course. There was one recipe that called for adding some kind of thickening or gelatinizing agent. But cassoulet is basically pork-infused beans. Nearly every culture in the world except Moslem has some kind of variety. From there you can put in anything you want from duck (fresh or confit), sausages (sweet or garlicky), ham, lamb, etc. My own favorite add on is chorizo bilbao, or a piece of beef fat. I usually do black eyed peas and slices of pork knuckles. The craziest one I made had a thick cross section of beef shank sitting at the top, with bone marrow intact for scooping! > > Just to add, I find that the best way to infuse any kind of bean with meat flavor is to cook it half-way on its own to get rid of the acidity, until the skin starts to break. From there I rinse to remove the bitterness and boil it with any kind of red meat. > > I still can’t figure out why there’s any need to crust it up with crumbs, and why the final cooking has to be done in an oven, rather than stove top. Bone marrow? Where is that drooling smiley =) I use LaRousse Gastr. as my main cookbook, and the Cassoulet d’Isigny is my go to version - though I tend to use confit of chicken leg [cheaper than duck] along with garlic sausage on top, and inside leftover roast beef, roast lamb and roast pork. I peel off the excess chicken fat from chicken when I prep it for cooking and when I get a few pounds of it, I add lard to make enough to confit a dozen or so chicken legs at a time and make a few dozen confitted legs and freeze them [I can use the same batch of fat to confit several batches of chicken legs because I _never_ season the fat] Yes it will self crust, and I generally leave the crumbs off, but the reason it is baked is because it is a casserole, a food designed to use up the leftover heat of the baking oven, the local baker did his run of bread at some ungodly hour of the morning, then he did ‘communal baking’ - the local women would bring pies and casseroles and for a small fee he would put them in to use up the rest of the heat n his ovens, creating foods for the households that didn’t have their own ovens. Sort of a hold over of the old feudal system [monastaries and the land owners owned tings like the bake houses and flour mills and charged a fee for the tenants to use the facilities. In general households only had fireplaces where they could spit roast and use pans over the coals or only had braziers to cook over in pans. A full on stove able to bake with is very modern, call it late Victorian or so. I can make damned near anything, if I really want to. I do use premade pie crust, spaghetti sauce, canned pumpkin, though I don’t use instant mashed potatoes, boxed cake/muffin/bread mixes - and I make a damned good loaf of bread, when I was growing up Mom and I baked the weeks bread on Saturdays for 6 or 7 years [Beard on Bread’s Italian bread is one I can make in my sleep, and probably have. _snicker_] ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/142 "2017-07-06T04:45:21Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Canned tomatoes. Totally not worth the effort to skin them. I can’t personally testify to this because I haven’t tried it. But I’ve seen this method suggested by several people. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Fill another big pot with ice water. Gather your tomatoes. Cut a small x (about an inch across) in the bottom of each tomato (the end opposite the stem). Put each tomato in the boiling water for twenty-five seconds. Then lift it out and put it in the ice water. (You can probably do more than one tomato at a time but don’t lose track of them. You don’t want them in the boiling water for too long.) Do this for all the tomatoes. The skins will then supposedly pull right off. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/143 "2017-07-06T04:47:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can’t personally testify to this because I haven’t tried it. But I’ve seen this method suggested by several people. > > Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Fill another big pot with ice water. > > Gather your tomatoes. Cut a small x (about an inch across) in the bottom of each tomato (the end opposite the stem). Put each tomato in the boiling water for twenty-five seconds. Then lift it out and put it in the ice water. (You can probably do more than one tomato at a time but don’t lose track of them. You don’t want them in the boiling water for too long.) > > Do this for all the tomatoes. The skins will then supposedly pull right off. They do. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/144 "2017-07-06T05:02:50Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can’t personally testify to this because I haven’t tried it. But I’ve seen this method suggested by several people. > > Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Fill another big pot with ice water. > > Gather your tomatoes. Cut a small x (about an inch across) in the bottom of each tomato (the end opposite the stem). Put each tomato in the boiling water for twenty-five seconds. Then lift it out and put it in the ice water. (You can probably do more than one tomato at a time but don’t lose track of them. You don’t want them in the boiling water for too long.) > > Do this for all the tomatoes. The skins will then supposedly pull right off. Totally OT but since you mentioned it… I home can about 50 quarts of tomatoes (about 4 bushels) every year and I take even more shortcuts with the skinning process. I don’t bother with the ‘X.’ I don’t bother with the ice water. I just drop about a dozen whole tomatoes into boiling water for a minute or so, depending on size. The tomatoes cool fairly quickly, at least enough to handle, because they’re not heated all the way through. While the first batch is cooling, I slip another dozen into the boiling water. While the second batch is cooling, I skin the first batch. Core the tomato with a paring knife while simultaneously slipping off the skin. With practice, you can do this in pretty much 1 quick motion – but be careful! If you’re not paying attention, you can cut yourself easily. I then slice the tomato in half and stuff it into a prepared canning jar, meaning sterilized and 2 TB commercial lemon juice added to the jar. I also add a teaspoon of salt to each quart, but that’s a matter of personal preference. I run two water bath canners to process 14 quarts at a time (90 minutes to process), so a couple of afternoons invested in canning yields a generous year’s worth of home canned deliciousness that tastes of summer all year long. 🙂 I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to do this. Worth it to me, because I obviously love tomatoes and I just enjoy doing it. (Don’t even ask how many I dehydrate every year.) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/145 "2017-07-06T05:05:58Z")
I use can tomatoes (crushed, puree’d, diced or whole) to make spaghetti sauce but I never buy Ragu or Progresso. I have also made spaghetti sauce from tomatoes from my garden but only when Mother Nature blesses me with baskets full of them. It never occurred to me to make spaghetti sauce from store bought tomatoes. That is certainly not worth the trouble. Store bought fresh tomatoes would make terrible sauce. P.S. Sometimes my homemade from the garden sauce comes out pink. Especially if I plant Celebrity tomatoes. They make a WHOLE lot of tomatoes but their flesh is very pale. Taste fine, though. Also, if I only used garden tomatoes, I’d have spaghetti sauce maybe 3 times a year, and that ain’t right! **ETA:** Yeah, that’s how I peel tomatoes-- X, boil, ice water, rub. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/146 "2017-07-06T08:44:43Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Totally OT but since you mentioned it… > > I home can about 50 quarts of tomatoes (about 4 bushels) every year and I take even more shortcuts with the skinning process. > > I don’t bother with the ‘X.’ I don’t bother with the ice water. I just drop about a dozen whole tomatoes into boiling water for a minute or so, depending on size. The tomatoes cool fairly quickly, at least enough to handle, because they’re not heated all the way through. While the first batch is cooling, I slip another dozen into the boiling water. While the second batch is cooling, I skin the first batch. > > Core the tomato with a paring knife while simultaneously slipping off the skin. With practice, you can do this in pretty much 1 quick motion – but be careful! If you’re not paying attention, you can cut yourself easily. > > I then slice the tomato in half and stuff it into a prepared canning jar, meaning sterilized and 2 TB commercial lemon juice added to the jar. I also add a teaspoon of salt to each quart, but that’s a matter of personal preference. > > I run two water bath canners to process 14 quarts at a time (90 minutes to process), so a couple of afternoons invested in canning yields a generous year’s worth of home canned deliciousness that tastes of summer all year long. 🙂 > > I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to do this. Worth it to me, because I obviously love tomatoes and I just enjoy doing it. (Don’t even ask how many I dehydrate every year.) How many tomatoes do you dehydrate every year? ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/147 "2017-07-06T10:33:06Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Fried chicken. I only tried making it once, years ago. Man, what an unholy mess I made for chicken that was just ok. Amen to that. I tried making it once years ago, using a whole chicken. I ended up with fried chicken blobs and more Crisco on the stove and walls than in the skillet. I used to make brownies from scratch. Honestly, the boxed Ghiardelli double chocolate brownies doctored up (I add nuts or heath bars) are the bomb. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/148 "2017-07-06T12:03:19Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > How many tomatoes do you dehydrate every year? _ **Now** _ you’ve done it! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/149 "2017-07-06T13:40:02Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > How many tomatoes do you dehydrate every year? > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > _ **Now** _ you’ve done it! Just his dry sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/150 "2017-07-06T14:17:01Z")
Lasagna for us is take-out. Sometimes I will pull out all the stops and make a scratch seafood lasagna. Well, not homemade pasta, but the rest. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/151 "2017-07-06T14:23:31Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > Pie-crust. > The supermarket premade roll outs are fine if all you need is a basic filling containment and delivery system. > > I was in a big pie phase for a few years and made homemade crusts all the time…They are a lot of work and there was no sizable difference in the end result. People complimented the crust the same as if I made it myself or used the “cheater.” > > If the recipe needs a special crust I’ll make it, but otherwise NOPE. My wife swears by Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts. Store-brand versions not so much. Aldi’s was especially sub-par. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/152 "2017-07-06T14:25:18Z")
My rule is if it takes longer than ten minutes to prepare, and thirty minutes to cook, I can’t be arsed bothering with it. In, heat, out, eat. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/153 "2017-07-06T14:39:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Sukiyaki. Just go out. Counterargument: Not if it’s a specific family tradition (i.e., Christmas Eve dinner for the whole gathered family. Used to be Mom’s meal to orchestrate, but after she passed we continued the tradition with my sister (the older of the two) stepping in. But true in the most general use case: it’s a hell of a lot of work, and (like a lot of very complicated Japanese meals), if made in any great quantity, the cook is often stuck eating after everyone else has finished. (Because they’ve been busy cooking the “seconds” round of it while everyone else is eating their first round.) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/154 "2017-07-06T14:43:27Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > This thread makes me feel like a weirdo. I make almost all this stuff from scratch. Except puff paste and tomato paste. Me, too. And pumpkin pie and mincemeat filling (well, I already know I’m a weirdo for liking mincemeat I guess). Mincemeat filling is easy enough : boil chopped apples and raisins and spices for a few hours; but not much better than the jarred stuff. Also, bakery desserts, like Viennese cakes with six different layers. Sure, it was good, but not worth making six different layers for. And eclairs aren’t hard to make, but unless you’re having a party or a bake sale near a refrigerator, what are you going to do with two dozen eclairs? > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That’s not whipped cream, it is something nasty. There are two similar-looking things in cans: “whipped dessert topping”, made of white paint and chemical thickeners, and real whipping cream, which does in fact taste like cream. I mean, it’s not that hard to get a bowl, a hand-held mixer, dump in some cream, a spoonful of sugar and a half-spoon of vanilla, and beat for two minutes, so most of the time I don’t see the point of even the real cream stuff, but there is stuff in a can that’s not nasty. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/155 "2017-07-06T14:46:14Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > But the winner, for me at least, is cornbread. Jiffy beats my homemade hands down. With add-ins I can make it fluffier or cornier or jalapeno-ier. It’s never dry or tough or flat or many of the other ways my cornbread fails. And it is a hundred times _easier_. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I must disagree. Cornbread is super-easy to make, and mine always turns out great. And I always have cornmeal on hand, in case I want to make more – unlike a box of mix. > [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Well, I think the point of this thread is what is eaiser to make for the individual. I don’t think you can disagree with someone’s personal experience… I acknowledge **IvoryTowerDenizen’s** point, but I have to say my experience matches **Johnny L.A.'s**. Homemade corn bread is one of those effortless, “got the recipe memorized and don’t have to consult”, bulletproof works-every-time things, and my family recipe is a thousand miles better than that horrid mix stuff from the box. My own nomination is pie crust. If I spend an hour rolling dough out with the rolling pin and getting flour all over ever freaking surface in the kitchen and cram the results into a pie shell, the outcome is less pleasing than if I’d just purchased a grocery store pie crust. I know it’s because I’m inexperienced and not very good at it, and that some folks make spectacular homemade pie crust, but still. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/156 "2017-07-06T14:54:03Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > \ There are two similar-looking things in cans: “whipped dessert topping”, made of white paint and chemical thickeners, and real whipping cream, which does in fact taste like cream. I mean, it’s not that hard to get a bowl, a hand-held mixer, dump in some cream, a spoonful of sugar and a half-spoon of vanilla, and beat for two minutes, so most of the time I don’t see the point of even the real cream stuff, but there is stuff in a can that’s not nasty. I always suspected. [Obligatory “Family Guy” clip:](https://youtu.be/CMopBpOfv_E?t=51) > [@GuanoLad](#): > > \ In, heat, out, eat. I’m having that made into a sampler. It’s going up on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/157 "2017-07-06T15:47:44Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Just his dry sense of humor. In the words of Pooh, _“Don’t blame me!”_ Or was it Piglet? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/158 "2017-07-06T16:23:23Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > How many tomatoes do you dehydrate every year? There’s always one. A buttload. 😉 > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > _ **Now** _ you’ve done it! He done did it, all right. I should send him a season’s worth. > [@running\_coach](#): > > Just his dry sense of humor. \ Excellent. 😃 > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > In the words of Pooh, _“Don’t blame me!”_ > > Or was it Piglet? I thought it was Eeyore. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/159 "2017-07-06T16:56:49Z")
I believe you are correct. > [@](#): > > “Don’t blame me if it rains.” > ~ (Eeyore), AA Milne ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435/160 "2017-07-06T17:18:26Z")
Pie crust is a pain in the ass. It’s worth it, but it’s so much easier to just make a crumble topping. Pizza dough is hard to make? Seriously? OK, I do have a mixer and dough hook. But it’s literally yeast, water, flour, and salt. Wake up the yeast in warm water, dump it in the mixer with the flour and salt, turn it on to knead for a few minutes, let it proof for a couple of hours, and that’s it. It’s super-easy. Same with, you know, mashed potatoes. The mind boggles. A couple times I’ve made fried wontons from scratch. Never again. Costco sells giant bags of frozen potstickers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-worth-the-culinary-effort/790435.md?page=9)