What Are You Afraid To Do In The Kitchen?
April 16th, 2009
Google fear of frying and you will get tens of thousands of results for that corny culinary pun. But the fear of maiming oneself with hot oil is a real one. One of the most telling questions on our weekly Cookthink Questionnaire asks for participants to confess their cooking fears. And while some brave souls proudly declare that they have none, most cooks admit to a hang-up or phobia of one sort or another. Some are afraid of accidentally mutilating ourselves with knives. Others are scared to butcher meat, to kill crustaceans, to cook a whole turkey, to make candy or to flambé.
What are you afraid to do in the kitchen?
April 16th, 2009 at 9:06 am
no butchering and no live animals. and yeah, deep frying gives me the willies, too.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Water baths! I still haven’t been able to make a cheesecake for fear of boiling water + my unsteady hands.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Flojindamesa,
Have you tried putting the cheesecake in an empty pan without the boiling water on the oven rack — slightly pulled out of the preheated oven — then pouring boiling water from the kettle into the empty pan and sliding it gently into the oven? That way you don’t have to carry a pan of boiling water. And once it’s finished cooking, you can turn off the oven and leave it until the water is cool before you remove it.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Yet another alternative: I must immodestly say that I consider myself a cheesecake queen. The recipe I’ve used successfully for years has you mix 2 c sour cream, 5 T sugar and 1 t vanilla, pour on top of baked cheesecake, raise oven to 500F and bake for 5 min. Voila–no visible cracks! Of course, if you’re making a flavored–chocolate, lemon, etc.–version, you can adjust the topping ingredients.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Thanks for the advice. Oddly, pouring the water in last had never occurred to me. I’ll give it a shot this weekend.
The second method seems like a good way of making a layered cake.
I thought of another kitchen apprehension: Pizza dough.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Flojindamesa,
What scares you about pizza dough?
April 17th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Skin a rabbit.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Melissa wins!
April 17th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I’m not really scared of it, but I really cant get my head around tempering chocolate.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I let my husband skin the rabbits. (I will skin deer, however.) I’m scared of (or easily freaked out by) anything involving yeast. Including making beer. I’m always afraid I’ll murder all twelve million of them before they get a chance to do anything worthwhile with their little, yeasty lives. . . !
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
eat my own cooking! it’s nasty, yo.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Pie Crust — Oh I shudder at it. So complicated to me and not sure why!