Cooking, baking or both?

[luvs]

your preference:
-i'm a cook
-i can bake
-i'm great at both
-i'm a sommilier (kidding!) actually, elfie, you're our discusscooking sommilier!

i cannot bake. i've tried & tried. it just bores me. too meticulous. too scientific. i've thought of going through pastries classes, i'm just not into baking enough to drop another $40,000 or what pastries would cost, i'm uncertain.
i luv cooking. i adore it. that's why i dropped aforementioned $40,000, actually now, for me as a re-entering student, $60,000.
what is your strong point?

-luvs

 

[Katie H]

I like both and do well at both. I'm a very math-oriented person and enjoy calculating, measuring, etc., so baking comes naturally to me. I'm also a very precise person, which helps too. Either way, the end product is always fun.

 

[luvs]

katie, i luv the end product, too!

 

[babetoo]

me too katie, and once you have the basics down, you are free to change a recipe and make it your own. case in point i am going to make cream cheese blueberry muffins later. i will use splenda and maybe whole wheat flour. the flour will make them a bit more dense and certainly better for me. i don't remember my grandmother taking careful measuements when baking. she had the basics down and just did her thing. i love both cooking an baking. equally .

 

[Cooksie]

I have never been much on baking. I may make a total of 5 or 6 cakes/pies/cookies in a year, and if I bake bread, it's in a bread machine. Baking is just not my bag.

I do love to cook, and so does my husband. I really enjoy cooking with shellfish, and he really enjoys cooking with red meat. We both like to make soups, stews, and gumbos, so our pots never lack being stirred.

 

[msmofet]

-i'm great at both

well i do well at both

 

[Scotch]

I do it all, including being the sommelier, and I enjoy it all pretty much equally.

One exception -- I don't make salads, which bores me. I like them, but I find making them to be the culinary equivalent of washing windows.

 

[bullseye]

Baking I can do--after all, it's just following a formula. I enjoy cooking because I can be creative and mold the recipe to my current mood. I am a sommelier by tutorage and an inclination to drink while eating!

 

[kadesma]

I love to cook, making our Sunday goodies is something I look forward to..I love to create a new salad each Sunday and dessert is something I enjoy just for the fun of watching my son in law's face. I love making breads and choosing the menu for my loved ones. Sometimes I even let them choose what to have

kadesma

 

[HMGgal]

I do it all, including being the sommelier, and I enjoy it all pretty much equally.

One exception -- I don't make salads, which bores me. I like them, but I find making them to be the culinary equivalent of washing windows.

Yeah, salads are drudgery for me, also. The advent of those triple washed organic greens and a good salad spinner has made things a little better. I love eating a well-prepared salad, though. Especially if someone else prepared it.

I bake (nothing fancy: breads and cookies mostly) and everyone enjoys the output. I cook, as well. I always have people telling me I should open a restaurant. Nooooo thanks. I worked in them for years and decided to go to college as a middle-aged person and do something else. I'll confine my culinary activities to my family (which is pretty big!). I really enjoy baking and cooking. I do bake with a scale and am much more precise; I think that comes from having a pastry chef for a son-in-law.

 

[Claire]

I can bake if I have to. But, in fact, I love the fact that with cooking you can experiment, you don't have to use the recipe. If I don't have a certain spice, and I'm familiar with the cuisine, I can use my experience to get the flavor the way I want it to be. On the other hand, to me baking is science. You really have to have the science down pat before you can experiment at all, and you really can't experiment with the basics. You also cannot just say, oh, supper is in 20 minutes, I think I'll do this. There is little room for spontineity. I've lived many places, and in many rough circumstances, and could always throw together a meal for a half-dozen or more. Baking takes all day and certain ingredients, and I really have never been able to get into it. On top of that, I don't have a sweet tooth at all.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I am a cook, I guess. Recipes are just a guideline for me, and I rarely make anything the same way twice.

I do bake a lot of bread, but I use the NYT recipe, and I find it to be very flexible.

I don't bake sweets, because I don't need to eat them, and I can't resist. Better to not do it.

(But now I have a granddaughter coming in October--guess I will have to get those cookie recipes out again.)

 

[luvs]

congrats on the baby grandaughter-to-be!