Your weakest area(s) of cooking expertise

JAS_OH1 said:
You said you were afraid of baking because you were afraid of yeast. If you are afraid of baking with yeast, what else could it be?
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I bake most things just fine. I'm afraid of using yeast but the problem isn't exploding dough. It's usually that the dough doesn't rise. I tried twice this week and both attempts failed.

However, here's a funny...years ago my kids took 10 lbs. of flour and "made it snow" in the house. I had hardwood floors in my kitchen at the time. I used a butter knife to get as much up with the vacuum because I was afraid of making dough if I tried to mop it. I was finding flour until that house sold. ;-0

Edited to add: I don't know how old you are but there was an episode of "I Love Lucy" in which Lucy's bread overflowed the oven and then her small kitchen. So, I agree that exploding dough can be quite funny.
 
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For me, I'd say it is my knife skills. I would never get a job in a restaurant, because of that one thing, at least. I can slice and dice things, but I am slow and a bit sloppy. I just assume mise en place is going to take awhile when I start a cook. It is another reason I practice mise en place -- I would never try to dice an onion while something is on the stove.

CD
 
TastyReuben said:
Cakes - both the baking and the decorating.

I've had every cake disaster happen; dense and dry, wet, sunken in the middle, flour streaks, gummy...sometimes all in the same cake! :laugh:
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Cakes - full-sized ones - are my weakest area. Unlike other things that don't go well, I don't make them nearly often enough to work things out. Cupcakes are much more manageable: if one of them comes out badly, I can always throw it out (or just eat it before anyone see it): why yes, I made a batch of 11 cupcakes. What's so strange about that?
 
mjd said:
I bake most things just fine. I'm afraid of using yeast but the problem isn't exploding dough. It's usually that the dough doesn't rise. I tried twice this week and both attempts failed.

However, here's a funny...years ago my kids took 10 lbs. of flour and "made it snow" in the house. I had hardwood floors in my kitchen at the time. I used a butter knife to get as much up with the vacuum because I was afraid of making dough if I tried to mop it. I was finding flour until that house sold. ;-0

Edited to add: I don't know how old you are but there was an episode of "I Love Lucy" in which Lucy's bread overflowed the oven and then her small kitchen. So, I agree that exploding dough can be quite funny.
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I think they might still show ILL reruns on TV...I think they may have been reruns when I was watching them in the 60s, not sure when that show quit running.
 
caseydog said:
For me, I'd say it is my knife skills. I would never get a job in a restaurant, because of that one thing, at least. I can slice and dice things, but I am slow and a bit sloppy. I just assume mise en place is going to take awhile when I start a cook. It is another reason I practice mise en place -- I would never try to dice an onion while something is on the stove.

CD
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I can relate. I have okay knife skills (as in I haven't cut my fingers off and my cuts are fairly uniform) but I am still pretty slow. I would never get my food on the plate in time for any of those cooking competitions like Chopped. I can't even imagine preparing a meal in 30 minutes, especially with those crazy basket ingredients they have to use.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I have never made Hollandaise sauce from scratch. I usually use a package of the powder stuff. I guess it's not so much being afraid of it not turning out right, I think it's just tricky to get everything else cooked properly all at the same time, I think while making the sauce I might overcook the veggies (like asparagus) or whatever else I am making (like filet mignon in my cast iron skillet). I can't stand overcooked vegetables and overcooked steak.
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No worries, hollandaise will sit quite happily in a bain marie whilst you are finishing off everything else.
 
caseydog said:
For me, I'd say it is my knife skills. I would never get a job in a restaurant, because of that one thing, at least. I can slice and dice things, but I am slow and a bit sloppy. I just assume mise en place is going to take awhile when I start a cook. It is another reason I practice mise en place -- I would never try to dice an onion while something is on the stove.

CD
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How are your dishwashing skills? :laugh:
 
I'm lousy at many things (regarding cooking, too): e.g with things I'm not familiar with/accustomed to: skinning poultry, preparing game, cutting or using bony/fatty parts of meat or cooking most crustaceans. Me dicing vegetables is like a three-toed sloth stamping in zero gravity. I tend to use too much salt and rely on cream and ready-made reduced veal stock (fond du veau) way too often.
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rascal said:
I'm crap at bread, and I don't really do baking of cakes etc. but I will make biscuits/cookies with the grandkids.
Everything else I'm au fait with.
caseydog knife skills reminded me of my mums shocking knife skills. But she was a lefty.

Russ
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Hey, I resemble that remark! I am the only one out of the 6 kids and my parents who was left-handed. I have a cousin who is also, but no one else in the family that I know of.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Hey, I resemble that remark! I am the only one out of the 6 kids and my parents who was left-handed. I have a cousin who is also, but no one else in the family that I know of.
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Lol, sorry. My mum was the only one I knew that could start slicing a solid loaf of bread to make sammiches, the bread would be left at a 30 deg angle. She was a shocker.i always had cut a huge chunk off to get it back to 90 deg. My daughter is a lefty, and she's bad as well. Not as bad as my mum though.lol

Russ
 
rascal said:
Lol, sorry. My mum was the only one I knew that could start slicing a solid loaf of bread to make sammiches, the bread would be left at a 30 deg angle. She was a shocker.i always had cut a huge chunk off to get it back to 90 deg. My daughter is a lefty, and she's bad as well. Not as bad as my mum though.lol

Russ
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Yeah, that's pretty awful. I don't think I ever saw my mum cut anything, she bought bread presliced and if there was a bird or a roast at dinner, my dad did the carving.

One thing that is interesting: I cut my food with my right hand at dinner but eat with my left hand, so I never have to switch hands while eating. I have noticed that right handed people switch hands (usually) when cutting and eating, both cutting their food with their right hand and then switching to hold their fork in their right hand to take a bite.

But when I am prepping food, I cut the items with my left hand.
 
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We used to be able to buy a brick loaf or if split a half a brick. The crusts were amazing, our first flat was a stones throw from Essex bakeries, those smells at night of bread wafting through the air. Fond memories!!

Russ
 
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