What's the most pathetic food that you don't know how or aren't successful at cooking/baking?

Mine is a hard-boiled egg. I don't know how to make one. [I know you stick it in a pot with water and turn the fire on, but I don't know what happens after that.]

You're serious?

That I don't know how long to cook an egg for to make it hard-boiled? Yes. [I don't eat them either.] Is it bad for shidduchim for me to advertise that?

I don't know how to make toast. jk

Hmm. Well then we won't even talk about pricking the eggs first.

So what's your not joking answer?


Very funny.

I've never been successful at making kugel in a frying pan, where you flip it halfway through.

That's HARD! If that's the most pathetic thing that you don't know how to cook well, you're in pretty good shape.

I was serious.



I'm a pro a flipping the pesach lukshun. (Or somehow my mother conned me into making it every year...)

Oh. I read the thread. It's not a standard part of cooking an egg though, so I'm not crazy.

Er, huh? kugel in a frying pan?

The honest truth is that it takes practice and a stopwatch to make an excellent hard-boiled egg, or a soft-boiled egg for that matter.

I can't make a really good chulent to save my life

Notreallyhere-- you're not alone. I also don't know how to boil an egg. For years I called my mother and asked every time I had to boil eggs, and only recently, like a few months ago, did I bite the bullet and start improvising. And wouldn't you know, I consistently burn them. I have no idea how. Otherwise, I am a really, really good cook, and thoroughly confident in the kitchen. And I almost never burn anything!

The old-fashioned way. Real kugel purists insist that it's the only way to make kugel.

I can't make jello or chocolate pudding. I cook a lot of complicated recipes but these 2 stump me.My husband thinks it is hysterical.

Thank you for your understanding.


Gosh, that must be tough. I'm sorry. Eggs don't affect my life in any way (maybe that's why I don't know how to make them ).


Thank you. Does it matter in your life? How often do you eat eggs anyway?

Yeah what the heck?

Okay, that's partially true.

Does the smoke alarm going off every time I toast something count? (need to clean out the crumbs from the bottom)

I dont know how to cook chicken or real meat. If I can stir fry it, that I can handle, but anything more complex is outside my realm of expertise.
My sister taught me one chicken cutlet recipe and thats still the only one I know how to make. And I can make meatballs because my mother used to have all the kids roll the meatballs for pesach.

I didn't know any other way for quite a while.
---------
I can ruin a cake very easily.

Wow. I must be special. I know how to make perfect hard (and soft) boiled eggs.

so do I. my brother taught me how.

I boil eggs by just turning on the fire and throwing the eggs into a pot of water. Usually comes out fine.

I can't make chocolate mousse or a very good french onion soup

I'm great at cooking but really terrible at baking. I'm not entirely sure why.

My method of boiling eggs is to put the eggs in the pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and turn off the flame. Let the eggs sit in the hot water for about 10 minutes, then rinse with cool water.

I can boil eggs. I can flip an omelette (never tried a kugel). I can make chicken. I can make toast.

But I cannot wrap a tortilla

Flipping a potato kugel..... isnt that a latka?

It's because you have a problem with authority. When baking, you need to follow exact directions and measure out exact amounts, otherwise it will flop. Cooking gives you more space to improvise.

Wow you are so right!

That's so funny. I am also great at cooking and horrible at baking. Somehow the cakes I make just come out gross.

Hmm... Maybe we're more alike than I thought.

I must share this with a friend of mine who likes cooking but hates baking. I think you've hit the nail on the head as to why!

I disagree with that. I'm quite flexible when baking. Things don't need to be exact exact if you're used to eyeballing things and can measure by feel and sight. I often substitute ingredients or use a recipe as a starting point but then do things my way. However I did start out following the rules to a letter so maybe that's why I now can improvise. (That's also something to think about.)

Yup, that's what I do (and what I heard recommended, along with a good water shock, to keep the yolks from greening).



Yes, a 10" latke.



I think that's the key - you need to know baking basics and have some experience in order to eyeball things. Someone who has only made a few cakes probably can't eyeball 3 1/2 cups of flour. Likewise, they probably don't know where it's safe to improvise (subbing applesauce for oil) and where it's not (leaving out a leavening agent).

Well it's thicker than an average latke. A fried kugel usually has the same depth as the pan.

Yeah, but the height to circumference ratio is pretty similar...

I recall that when my mother z"l made mashed potatos, she cooked them in their skins, and when they were done she was able to remove them from the pot without falling apart, and with a knife, take off just the peel. When I try this, by the time the potato is soft all the way thru, the skin has burst in several places, sometimes the potato falls apart when I take it out of the pot, and when I take it off, a lot of the potato comes off with the peel - it's as if a thin layer of potato has gotten cooked onto the skin.

Potato kugel stumps me. I've accepted it by now.
And I'm afraid of cooking roasts and the like.

I can make good potato kugel.

(The secret to good potato kugel is good potatoes. Don't let them turn grey!)

Wow I didn't know boiling eggs was so complicated. I usually just put them in a pot with water on a high flame, go back to doing whatever I was doing before, and come back to take them off whenever I remember. Never had them burn. Didn't even know that's possible.

I was banished from using the toaster in college because I was deemed a "fire hazard"....

Well you can't stuff a whole pizza pie in those small slots!

That's what I used to say and now what I do to make the yummiest potato kugel is
make up the recipe as I go along (some eggs, flour, sugar, pepper, salt, oil, etc.) and bake for hours until I remember its there and it's delicious. Only once have I had a failure with this method (and I've done it TONS of times)