Cooking....Am I the Only One? - Page 3

Vamp · ‎04-14-2010

Be careful buying pre-made food. Most of it is loaded with sugar, salt, and a bunch of other garbage. I'd much rather prepare my own food. I wouldn't give up after one bad stew--we all have occasional fails. I'm guessing you're a great cook.

Cakers3 · ‎06-17-2015

@Bridgegal wrote:
This was the last straw. Yesterday I made a beef stew that I've made a 100 times.

It had NO taste at all. My husband will eat anything and has only asked me once in 25 years not to make something again. He was very polite but basically said it was bad. I agreed 100%. In fact, I didn't even finish the bowl.

Later last night I added beef broth to it and cooked it some more. We're going to give it another go tonight but it smells just the same as yesterday.

I told DH that I was basically done with cooking. I'm a good cook and have been cooking for 50 years so I know what I'm doing. I cannot figure out why the stew was so tasteless and bad.

From now on, unless I have a craving for something, I'm basically buying food that you heat and eat or make salads or have lots of finger food in the fridge. No more chopping, dicing, cooking only to get tasteless food.

Is anyone else on board for this? Want to join me?

@Bridgegal Are you finding other things tasting "off"? Our sense of smell does decline starting around age 60 and the same with our taste buds.

Your cut of meat could have been off OR you inadvertently left out a key spice/herb or other ingredient.

Sometimes an old favorite dish just doesn't cut it sometimes, either.

"" Compassion is a verb."-Thich Nhat Hanh

Nataliesgramma · ‎03-28-2015

I find that many things that I make taste better the next day.......

cah · ‎03-19-2010

I made a beef stew a couple of weeks ago in the slow cooker.
Instead of the usual red wine, I put a bottle of
beer in it.
Wow, that was the magic trick, it was fabulous, and it's beer from now on!

That's how we roll in the shire..

CAMOGIRL · ‎09-14-2010

I use less salt than I used to years ago. In cooking and at the table.

I don't eat hardly anything that comes out of a pkg with the seasonings already in it. I would rather season my own food with spices of my own liking.

And yes, there are recipes that I used to like for years that no longer even appeal to me for some strange reason and I will never make again.

-Texas Hill Country-

CatsyCline · ‎07-24-2013

yes, beef stew and pot roast - always better the 2nd day. i make these occaisonally as there is a meat lover living here

after i had a few flops my mother said to make sure the beef is at room temp and as dry as possible and then sear the stew meat in smalll batches in the pot. don't crowd the pan or the meat steams and gets tough.

Aldi has good stew beef. i always used to buy London Broil (chuck) and cut it into cubes, but the vac paked Aldi stew mean is so much better

i always use red wine . we arent big Red wine drinkers and rather than open a full bottle i use a small Barefoot wine in the 4-pak

wagirl · ‎03-09-2010

There is not enough space or time here for me to tell you how much I HATE the whole meal prep thing. Starts from trying to plan what to cook, , then the shopping list, then going to the grocery store then carting in all the stuff to put away. Then the actual prep and cooking!!!! I am so over it all. I could be happy with a big bowl of oatmeal for dinner. I have 2 others in the fam so they want meals. But I don't get any help from them. Right now my pantry and refer are bare. I had chemo 5 years ago that left numbness in my hands and fingers and then In Jan, I fell and broke my wrist so am still recovering from that, so prep is still hard physically for me to do. I do buy already prepared items from our wonderful, new Haggen store , that have been great buy pricy and buy alot of things that are already prepped to use too. Still just can't get my mojo back.

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

I know a woman who'd made her own pizza for literally decades but batches of it weren't turning out right. Her friend of 40 years was sitting in the kitchen one afternoon, watching her turn out another batch of pizza, and realize she was omitting a key ingredient. Just plumb forgot, because she'd run out, put it on a list, the grocer was out, and then she forgot from there. That's why her pizzas lacked pizazz.

I'd suggest that if you're not working from a recipe, just check the recipe again, or write down the recipe you're using from memory and check it against some standard references to be sure you're not omitting an ingredient or two or an important step, like browning the meat for a stew.

That said, I agree that today's fresh ingredients are just not as tasty as they once were. You might consider trying the stew again, but with organic beef. I found organic chicken has much more flavor and is more filling than the supermarket variety, so I try to buy it. Probably organic beef is also better tasting.