I just saw a Cracker Barrel commercial where they advertise new ‘campfire meals’ in which everything- your protein, starch and veg- are all wrapped together in a foil packet and cooked. It’s presented as this magical experience where the people who ordered the meals start having ‘deep thoughts’ as if sitting around a campfire.
But I’ve done this in the past, on a real campfire, and the actual results are pretty insipid. Everything is basically boiled together in whatever liquid is added to the foil before wrapping, and it usually ends up a boring, mushy mess. You’re also negating the best qualities about cooking over a grill or an open fire-- the Maillard reaction from browning, and the smoky flavors from the fire / coals.
There are ‘boiled meals’ I do enjoy-- like a crab / shrimp boil, or corned beef and cabbage. But, I guess the difference is, certain types of meals just work better boiled in that way.
I do still cook some things on a grill or a fire wrapped in foil, but much less than I used to. I used to wrap asparagus in foil and steam it on a grill. No more-- it’s much better cooked directly on the grill. Same with halved onions, bell peppers, and even whole tomatoes. But mushrooms in a Worchestershire sauce for a grilled steak topping, well, I usually foil-wrap that, unless I have a fire-safe pan. And I do sometimes make a foil-wrapped potato side where I dice the potatoes into 1/4" cubes, add seasonings, oil and diced onion, and wrap tightly in foil. But I start the potato package directly on the coals at first, so the potatoes get slightly singed, adding to the flavor.
How about you-- any cooking techniques you tried, only to find that they disappointed you? I’m thinking maybe something like sous vide-- I’ve never tried it, have heard lots of amazing things about the technique, but (apologies to sous vide aficionados) I’ve also heard some rumblings about the texture of things cooked sous vide being a bit ‘off’ or weird; and is it really worth waiting 10 or 14 hours (or whatever) for a perfectly medium rare steak, say, when you can get almost as perfect a steak after 10 minutes on a grill?
Anything that requires an unnecessary cooking appliance.
Rice cookers, for example. I get it if you have trouble with cooking rice but, honestly, once you’ve cracked a method that works for you, it really doesn’t need anything more than a saucepan and a sieve.
I appreciate that the world has gone ga-ga over airfryers, but I just don’t need another thing on my worktop.
Good points on unnecessary appliances. Totally agree with the rice cooker. I’ve used a sauce pan to cook rice for years without a problem. My son brought a rice cooker home for the Summer from college and swears by it-- actually gets mad if I cook a meal with rice and don’t use it. But I don’t see the need for learning how to use another appliance.
Air fryers, mixed bag for me. We have a multi-use toaster oven with an air fryer feature, and it does do a nice job crisping stuff up. But an air fryer is basically just a mini version of a convection oven, which our main oven already is. It’s just more convenient sometimes to use the toaster oven air fryer.
My Instant Pot I love-- for certain specific things. It makes fantastic soup stock in a fraction of the stove time. And it makes good hard-boiled eggs. But anything in which you want to reduce the liquid while cooking, forget about using an Instant Pot.
Weenie roasts. Sitting in front of a fire, inhaling smoke, blinking away tears, trying to hold an unbalanced stick in one precise spot and in the end you get…one single hot dog. I’d rather microwave a wiener for 15 seconds.
I love my instant pot, mostly because it’s so versatile. We use it several times weekly for rice, beans, oatmeal, and more. Usually I’m not a big kitchen-gadget dude, but this one is great.
As for cooking methods, I’m also not a huge fan of air-frying. Maybe because the only experience with it that I have is as a setting on our toaster oven, and it’s very med.
This reminded me of the nightmarish mess of s’mores when my kids were young-- we’d take them camping pretty often, and they would always insist on bringing s’more ingredients. I HATED s’mores! It is about the messiest damn thing in the world-- my kids were always covered hands and face in melted chocolate and sticky marshmallow, and had to be wet-napped off thoroughly. We were often in bear country, so getting them cleaned up before going to bed in the tent was a pretty serious matter
I had these very same thoughts about air fryers when I had a multi-use toaster oven but then I got a dedicated basket-style air fryer and it really does make a big difference. Toaster oven convection is weak and tries to cover too large an area. A dedicated basket air fryer is blowing hot air directly onto the food in a compact space.
Counterpoint: if you eat rice 5 or 6 days a week (for example, if that is part of your culture) you can cook rice for a family for two days, automatically with no fuss beyond washing the rice, and keep it warm and nice for the second day (okay, I confess, 2nd-day rice is not as good as fresh, and if your family is fussy you can make one day’s worth at a time pretty easily).
Ditto!! (actually I saw one once; didn’t get it. At all.)
Agree w the OP that “whole meal wrapped in foil” when camping is just another way to say “well, at least there’s not ash all over my food.” In that scenario, foil is an improvement. At home it’s pointless.
in a restaurant I’m pretty sure it’s a way for the factory to make these frozen blobs that look just like a Chipotle burrito on the outside. Foil blobs that the kitchen can take straight from the box in the freezer, drop into a tub of boiling water, set a timer, and plate your dinner 25 minutes later with zero skill, zero mess, and zero failures. IOW, a corporate chain restaurant accountant’s dream. A diner’s dream? Hardly.
I remember the advent of the fried turkey craze for Thanksgiving. From the first moment I viewed it as an abomination much like an upside down cross in a satanic ritual. As far as I’m concerned, it truly represents American cuisine; fast, fried, and inferior.
Rice cookers are a convenience if you frequently prepare rice because they can be set up with a timer to have the rice cooked when you arrive home. They can also be used for cooking a variety of ‘one-pot’ meals and soups, and are easy to clean.
I can do terrific rice in my Instant Pot, and there’s an optional air fryer lid that IMO works just fine to make the IP even more versatile without having to find room for more specialized appliances in a small kitchen.
I’m not too wild about kebobs. I’m not seeing a whole lot of benefit from stacking food on a stick and grilling it. We get them pre-assembled from the grocery store, but it’s a challenge to get it cooked properly–mainly the meat. It takes forever for the center to cook, by which time the outer part is overdone. I usually end up disassembling everything and cooking it all together in a grill basket. All the flavors mix together and I can get a better quality result than I could from a kebob. I’m sure there are techniques to cook perfect kebobs, but it’s not worth it for me to try to master it for something we do only rarely.
I have no need for a rice cooker, as I don’t need large amounts and no longer work so I don’t need a timer. A pot and a sieve, as noted above works just fine, and in any case it only takes 20 minutes to make a batch.
I have a slow-cooker, but really have no need for it unless I’m transporting hot food somewhere (almost never).
I have a convection toaster oven, so no need (or room) for an air fryer.
I haven’t tried sous vide, but have had food cooked in one. As noted above, I can cook a steak or chop to my satisfaction on a stove, and again, no room for more gear.
After seeing someone cook a turkey in a deep fryer, I swore that I would never own one and would avoid being anywhere near one that is in operation in the future (the fryer, not the turkey).
Barbeque / grilling. Can’t stand the bitter, burnt / coaly side flavors, and all the work and mess involved (scraping gobs of burnt protein off the grill etc.) makes it a no go to me.
You are brave to take on the rice cooker. I’m like you – I always do the stovetop method, I have no problem getting good rice out of it, and it’s not any more hassle than a rice cooker to me (and I have had one in my university days) except you have to keep a timer on it and be available to turn it on and off. But all the rice-cooking cultures that swear by rice cookers – I have to defer to them that they know what they’re talking about. It’s just not worth the extra appliance for me.
The trick is not to add liquid, and to season the bejeezus out of it. Then it is basically steaming itself. But you’re right- as camping meals go, it’s not high on the list. It’s more of something you have eleven year old cub scouts or boy scouts do, because it’s difficult to actually screw up and either make inedible or unsafe.
I agree that sous vide is kind of overrated. I mean it does very well for the things that it’s good at, but the level of effort and time involved are disproportionate to the benefits. Many of the sous vide proponents remind me of religious converts- no amount of suggestion or alternatives will convince them that it’s not God’s own chosen cooking method.
Really any hobbyist cooking method runs into this. Smoking and/or grilling meats is very similar- people get really attached to their particular method, and everyone else is wrong.
The main advantages of rice cookers aren’t really in the cooking of the rice, it’s in flexibility. With ours, we can set a time for the rice to be done, and let it rip- it’ll chime at the appointed time with perfectly cooked rice. Or if we just set it up and go, it’ll cook it perfectly and keep it warm without any intervention. Which is really nice if you’re cooking two or three other things at the same time- you can just forget about the rice in the knowledge that the cooker will do it perfectly every time.
I know what you mean about kebabs-- they’re a lot of work to assemble, and in the case of alternate meat-veg kebabs, you risk incinerating the vegetable part before the meat part is done cooking.
The only time I ever do kebab cooking anymore is all-meat kebabs that benefit from the technique- like grilling shrimp or chunks of chicken for tikka masala.
