Can you do other tasks while cooking?

[Caribbean girl]

Do you multi-task? Can you be doing other chores whilst in the midst of cooking a meal? I find that if I am busy in the kitchen, I have to give 99% of the time to the task at hand. I find that cooking takes a lot of concentration, so I would not do other tasks while I am in the business of cooking. I always have to be back and forth checking my pots to see how everything is going, not to mention the tasting and the adding in, and things of that sort. Sometimes the stove may need lowering or turning up as the case may be. If I turn away to start doing some other task, I may get side tracked in the process.

So, when you are cooking, do you step aside to do other chores?

 

[Ellyn]

That depends on what I'm cooking.

Leaving bread to rise, or a stew to simmer until a huge chunk of meat is cooked... all I have to do is be there to notice if something is catching fire (which would be uncanny to happen with raw bread dough.) A baked/roasted Thanksgiving turkey just has to be basted now and again--I sure hope that it doesn't need to be watched every second for the six hours it takes to cook all the way through! For emulsions of egg and dairy that involve heat, also, I've got to focus on that.

I'd never leave a burger or pancake to pan-fry just to check my mail or get another row in a knitting project or even pour some coffee or orange juice to go with that breakfast or something. Sure, there are a few minutes of just watching and waiting for them to look done...but I'd really rather not get distracted during that sort of waiting game!

Also, I'm particular about my boiled eggs, so even if I look like I'm doing something else, I'm really counting the seconds.

 

[forextraspecialstuff]

This completely depends on what I am cooking. If I am making sauce or soup once the initial prep is complete I have a tendency to do other things, but stay close to the kitchen, when I make risotto I I am pretty much glued to the stove for two hours. regardless I try to clean up and do other kitchen chores as I go along with my cooking so I think more than 50% of the time I am multi-tasking.

 

[Indigo02]

It depends on what I'm cooking and what the other tasks are. Either way, if I choose to do something else, it'll be something that still keeps me in close proximity to the kitchen.

 

[firelily99]

Like the others it has to do with what I am cooking. I like to keep the prepping and cooking areas as clean as I can to avoid the clutter and have more room to work. One way or the other I don't stray too far from the kitchen.

 

[Livvy]

Much like others, depends on what I'm cooking really. Well, how much I can get done depends on what I'm cooking. No matter what I'm doing, I can always stick on a movie or a video to watch while I'm doing it. However some of the things I make are just quick, so it's not worth the time and effort to bring my laptop into the kitchen, start it up, find a movie I want to watch, and then start doing my cooking because I could just have it all done and be sitting down again faster than that.