Cooking or Baking -- What's Your Preferance and Why???

coffee drinker · ‎03-21-2010

My prefereance is cooking because it isn't an "exact" science. You can improvise with different ingredients and add a little of this and that. Cook it a bit longer than the recipe and in most cases, the recipe won't be ruined. Baking is more precise. But in all fairness, I love eating savory or sweet. No preferance there!!!

SHIRAZ · ‎06-27-2010

I'm actually a better baker than a cook. I've made cakes and cookies since I was a little girl, and even though I don't do it as much anymore, I guess I take my time and follow my recipe, and I usually get good results. I like cooking in theory, but I'm easily distracted and often end up burning things. I have certain recipes that I make over and over again, that always turn out well, but when I try to get creative, or I try to wing something because I don't have all of the required ingredients, my results are less than stellar.

"It doesn't matter if the glass is half-full or half-empty as long as you still have the rest of the bottle."

Snowpuppy · ‎03-09-2010

I'm a far better baker than I am a cook. Learned from my grandmother who was an immigrant from Germany.

As a little kid I would be her kitchen helper on Saturdays which was her baking day. She would bake enough for the entire week, including homemade bread. We never had store-bought anything. She thought everything in the store was inferior to what she could whip up.

I chuckle when people say baking is such an exact science! My grandmother had skills she acquired from decades in the kitchen and she knew by touch and feel what a recipe needed. If the flour was too dry, if the dough was difficult to knead, if her pie crust was a bit too crumbly, she just knew.

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

I don't think I've ever had a preference. If I create something that people love, I am happy about that.

I think that the fact that I have had to cook since i was a small child gave me the benefit of a great deal of experience. By the time I was an adult I'd been cooking/baking for so long that I could make anything.

I don't care if it came out of the oven or off the stop of the stove. I'm happy to make it if they love to eat it.

That said, however, I haven't made bread for many years, and I really have no desire to do so anymore, so any baking I do is probably going to be something sweet. Nobody needs to eat a lot of sweets so, for that reason only, I keep that to a minimum.

IamMrsG · ‎08-29-2010

@chickenbutt Are you my sister? It is uncanny how often you take the words off my keyboard.

Strive for respect instead of attention. It lasts longer.

candys mine · ‎08-20-2012

I like to bake because it IS exacting. This much of this and this much of that causes this to happen. Then you can play with the add in extras. Kitchen chemistry. Plus, It is only one production to think about. I don't mind cooking a dinner and if I could do one thing at a time I'd be fine but I need devine intervention to get a whole meal ready at the same time! For holidays, I make the roast. (Again, One thing) and leave the rest to better time management family than I. Kinda funny really. It's a true mutual admiration society when the whole thing comes together!

DiAnne · ‎09-22-2010

I love to cook and try new recipes and combinations of flavors. I usually take half of dozen cooking classes a year at my local co-op. I am always pulling recipes that look interesting out of magazines. Baking is another story. I don't really enjoy it - I also don't really have a sweet tooth so that may be why.

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

IamMrsG wrote:
@chickenbutt Are you my sister? It is uncanny how often you take the words off my keyboard.

Hey Mrs G!

Yeah, after I grew up and cooking was no longer something I HAD to do to feed the siblings and the mother's husband du jour, I found that I enjoyed it on my own merit because people love being fed really great food..

When I was living in Germany I used to invite as many of the guys who wanted to com, to our apartment for dinners. I would find out what everybody liked the most and cook it all! It was great. They were happy and I worked my butt off. Now, THAT is the kind of hard work that is worth doing.

We would clear out the living room and put long tables in there. For an army apartment, it was fairly roomy. It was always a big, fun time for everybody.

Anyway, being somebody who is very much NOT creative, this was always an area where I actually could create - and create really great stuff.