How much is too much work to make a dish/meal?

CraigC

CraigC

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I've read many posts, on many forums where folks have said a particular dish/preparation is just too much work. Personally, if I can get the ingredients and I want to make it, I will. I make Thai curry pastes at home and made a chicken mole from scratch. I make homemade sausages involving grinding, spicing, stuffing and smoking, usually a two day process. I find the results worth the effort. Where do you draw the line?
 
I think I'm the same as you in this respect - but then I have all the time in the world to cook. I'm trying to think of something I might find too much work. Maybe Dosas - they require lots and lots of practice (I mean LOTS) and I'm not sure I want to make them enough to persevere. Maybe ditto for filo pastry - but I haven't tried to make that.
 
Half of your post is talking about components of meals that we make in bulk and freeze most of for later use. I don't really count them because if you break down the time spent making them into X number of meals, it becomes minimal to negligible. Besides the fact that at least 2 of the cured meat products we can't buy where we live at reasonable prices, and we use both of them, tasso and andouille, a lot.

Then, there's something like Worcestershire sauce. Of course we can buy perfectly acceptable and good W sauces at the grocery. BUT, there is a dish we both love that just doesn't taste the same unless we make and use the homemade W sauce the dish was designed around. So, every so often, we make the W sauce and can it.

As far as finished dishes, it's always been pretty simple for us. We'll try just about any dish at least once. If at least 1 of us really likes something (with the other 1 at least liking it), it's not too much work no matter how long it takes. If the dish falls below the really like category and it's something that involves a lot of work, the chances of it getting made again aren't much.
 
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Depends on the occasion, my time & energy. I expect to spend more time for preparing/cooking for special occasions, parties or multi-dish meals for Holidays like Thanksgiving, etc. I generally work/cook alone, & don't prepare "gourmet" meals on a daily basis. Generally, would prefer less than an hour. As much as I enjoy cooking, I don't want to spend the whole day doing it - especially at my age.. and given other commitments/responsibilities i.e. life and other interests.
Eta: I try to pack my dishes with sometimes simple, and fresh flavors, rather than long lists of ingredients, and time- consuming unnecessary steps. Citrus, herbs and seasonal ingredients are my friends :)
 
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Karen W said:
Generally, would prefer less than an hour. As much as I enjoy cooking, I don't want to spend the whole day doing it - especially at my age.. and given other commitments/responsibilities i.e. life and other interests.
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Yeah - I think it really does depend on how busy you are with other things and other interests in your life. For me, cooking is probably the main interest in my life (is that sad?! :ohmy:), so I will spend many hours every day preparing food, researching, doing recipe development, making notes cooking and photographing food.

It sounds like you have a better balance of cooking and the rest of life than me, @Karen W. :)
 
When a certain recipe for a dish calls for tons of ingredients, the prep time is exasperatingly long, & so is the cooking time, then to me, that signifies that it could take an extremely long time to do. :ohmy:
 
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morning glory said:
Yeah - I think it really does depend on how busy you are with other things and other interests in your life. For me, cooking is probably the main interest in my life (is that sad?! :ohmy:), so I will spend many hours every day preparing food, researching, doing recipe development, making notes cooking and photographing food.

It sounds like you have a better balance of cooking and the rest of life than me, @Karen W. :)
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I wouldn't count on it. I'm watching another 24-hour fashion show. :wink: Lol
 
This can also be said for holiday cooking. That is why I cook dinners in small amounts. To cut down on all that time spent in the kitchen!! :wink:
 
I enjoy cooking and find it relaxing, but its not the only way I relax and spend my free time. So it really depends on how much I want to try a particular recipe and how much time I have. There are some things like puff pastry that I think will pretty much always be too much effort for me to make from scratch - I'd rather get on with the other more interesting parts of the dish than spend hours making puff pastry. I suppose it does help that you can buy really good quality ready-made puff pastry - maybe I'd feel differently if bought puff pastry wasn't very good?

On a week night I want a meal that I can easily cook within an hour - I don't want to be finishing work and then spending hours in the kitchen. If I'm working from home then I can add something I can prepare in advance at lunchtime so that does help a bit, but in the end evening dinners need to be tasty, fairly quick and preferably healthy/not too many calories.

At the weekend on the other hand I have much more free time so that's when I tend to experiment more. So I may try something new, or make something that requires a number of steps or takes a long time to cook. It really depends on how I'm feeling though and whether I have other things going on.
 
MrsDangermouse said:
There are some things like puff pastry that I think will pretty much always be too much effort for me to make from scratch - I'd rather get on with the other more interesting parts of the dish than spend hours making puff pastry. I suppose it does help that you can buy really good quality ready-made puff pastry - maybe I'd feel differently if bought puff pastry wasn't very good?
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It is a good bought in product and I do use it. Even top chefs recommend using it at home and do so themselves. I do make it sometimes though and itS really quite satisfying to do. Its not really that time consuming (I mean the actual labour). Its just that it need to be done in steps over a period of hours. The same goes fro croissants which I do make (mot that often as they are so calorific!). In the case of croissants, though, home-made definitely tastes better than most shop bought examples. This may not be so true if buying from a bakers in France.
 
I will echo the sentiment. Homemade and lengthy prep time always produces better tasting food. I have a recipe for refried beans that requires 24 hours of prep time and it tastes 178% better than anything out of can. Still though, you have to balance the taste with convenience. (24 hours versus 5 minutes)
 
MrsDangermouse said:
I enjoy cooking and find it relaxing, but its not the only way I relax and spend my free time. So it really depends on how much I want to try a particular recipe and how much time I have. There are some things like puff pastry that I think will pretty much always be too much effort for me to make from scratch - I'd rather get on with the other more interesting parts of the dish than spend hours making puff pastry. I suppose it does help that you can buy really good quality ready-made puff pastry - maybe I'd feel differently if bought puff pastry wasn't very good?

On a week night I want a meal that I can easily cook within an hour - I don't want to be finishing work and then spending hours in the kitchen. If I'm working from home then I can add something I can prepare in advance at lunchtime so that does help a bit, but in the end evening dinners need to be tasty, fairly quick and preferably healthy/not too many calories.

At the weekend on the other hand I have much more free time so that's when I tend to experiment more. So I may try something new, or make something that requires a number of steps or takes a long time to cook. It really depends on how I'm feeling though and whether I have other things going on.
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You are so right!!

Nothing more precious than to spend time with family & friends, as opposed to being a slave over a hot stove all day! :wink:
 
Which is why I'm so glad that I bought the Ninja Foodi. it truly helps cut down on cooking time, & with the hot weather almost around the corner, the kitchen will be much cooler, hence more cool breezes from the a/c!! :wink:
 
I guess it depends on what you're making, and how much time you have.
 
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