# This is what I mean when I say I can’t cook **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2020, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-i-mean-when-i-say-i-can-t-cook/913619 "2020-06-29T08:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-i-mean-when-i-say-i-can-t-cook/913619/21 "2020-06-30T04:28:23Z")
I started buying high-oleic sunflower oil, which has much higher resistance to going rancid than ordinary vegetable oil (soy, etc.). I think 10 years might be a bit much even for that, though. The other advantage is that if you put an oily plate in the dishwasher and leave it there for a week, the oil doesn’t oxidize and turn to varnish. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-i-mean-when-i-say-i-can-t-cook/913619/22 "2020-06-30T04:49:23Z")
^^ Thanks for the tip! ---
**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:** [June 30, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-i-mean-when-i-say-i-can-t-cook/913619/23 "2020-06-30T11:14:17Z")
> [@ebb](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > Here’s an exercise: What toppings go good on ice cream? I bet you can name at least 10 you’d like. What toppings go good on a green salad? I bet you can name at least 10. I also bet there’s almost nothing in common on those two lists. > > Nuts to you! > > But yeah, generally very good points. Why yes, nuts can go both on ice cream and salad =) I have a friend from school back when we still had Home Economics who was an absolute disaster at cooking ad lib [you know, modifying a recipe, like using Liptons Onion Soup mix or Stove Top Stuffing mix in meatloaf, or things like that that many people can do competently] so she got the Betty Crocker Cookbook and refused to do any cooking that was not directly from a recipe. Exact ingredients, exact methodology, and it worked. She could put a meal out that was pretty decent, but just standard. I like experimenting, and have both flops and sublime meals - but the occasional flop doesn’t really bother me. I just wish people didn’t have the handicap that seems to be prevalent of their parents not really cooking from scratch - I used to make the monthly birthday cake for one of my jobs [customer service, so lots of younger folks] and it was pitiful how few had ever gotten a scratch cake [and the amazement at the one time i reproduced Olive Garden’s Lemon Cake … they were covinnced that I managed to talk them into selling me a whole uncut cake, until one of my friends from work was over and I made her one to take home.] The house that burnt in 2015 was renovated by a guy, his wife and their 5 year old kid and the kitchen reflected the style of cooking dinner that could be described as shove a Stouffer’s Lasagne in the oven, add a premade Garlic Bread loaf in to heat up and make a tossed salad, while following it with a Carvel’s Ice Cream Cake out of the freezer. There was no effective counter space, and no actual dining room/space to put a table, it was an eat at bar that also served as most of the counter space. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-what-i-mean-when-i-say-i-can-t-cook/913619.md?page=1)