Pet peeves about cooking shows

grumpyoldman

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one of my pet peeves is that they never show a fully cooked egg , the yoke is never cooked , yes i know some people like eggs that way but you would think someone would fully cook an egg once in a while , another one is how everyone eats on these shows , when they take a bite of anything the fork is always upside down
 
when they take a bite of anything the fork is always upside down
You mean like this?

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Emily Post

If so, that’s just continental style versus American style.

EF2B7875-CA58-4B4C-BE71-E4F341AE9EEA.jpeg

Paired Life
 
yea like the top picture , i'll hold the fork like that once in a while depending on what i'm eating , but most of the time (95% ) i hold it like the bottom picture , i's sure it must be just a TV thing because most people hold it like i do
 
i's sure it must be just a TV thing because most people hold it like i do
No its not a TV thing, as TastyReuben says, its just the European Vs US way of using cutlery.

Over here most people use a fork like the top picture most of the time when eating with a knife and fork. Also we don't swap the cutlery between hands...generally the knife is used in the dominant hand and the fork in the other one.

We'll only usually use it upside down (the bottom picture) if we're eating things that need scooping (eg. rice) or a dish that only requires a fork on its own. In those kind of situations the fork is usually used in the dominant hand.
 
if its not a TV thing as you say, then why do American tv shows always show it your way , never as you say
" the American " way
 
and just once i'd like to see a fully cooked egg on one of those dang shows
 
i's sure it must be just a TV thing because most people hold it like i do
Maybe most of the people you know or encounter, but there’re plenty of people around the world who hold it like the top pic, continental style.

I’m one of them, and I’m a Midwestern US farmboy from solid Kentucky roots. I don’t know when I switched over, but it was at a pretty early age. About the only time I hold it American style is when I’m eating some kind of dessert.


if its not a TV thing as you say, then why do American tv shows always show it your way , never as you say
" the American " way
It’s probably (my opinion only) an attempt on the TV chef’s part to look…cheffy? Is that the right word? They’re the self-appointed experts on all things food-related, so of course they don’t use their utensils like the rabble (us), they have a “better” way.

I think there’s definitely an undercurrent of classism here (meaning the US, not this forum), where some things from “the Old Country) are seen as superior to New World behaviors, and that includes continental style utensil use.

It’s the same with word choice/use. It became trendy several years ago (and it persists) for folks here to pronounce the “h” in “herbs,” where for decades or more, it was always pronounced with a silent “h.” Suddenly, that Old World way it saying it was seen as fancy, and therefore, better.

Recipe/dish/ingredient names get the same treatment. Americans (for better or worse) used to make up their own names for foods when they were brought here. I used to see fan potatoes, or accordion potatoes when I was a kid…nowadays, every restaurant and recipe is for hasselback potatoes…the usual European/UK name.

I think it’s a somewhat misplaced attempt to sound fancier, and therefore “better” than the person next door.
 
one of my pet peeves is that they never show a fully cooked egg , the yoke is never cooked , yes i know some people like eggs that way but you would think someone would fully cook an egg once in a while , another one is how everyone eats on these shows , when they take a bite of anything the fork is always upside down

In the UK, an egg isn't properly cooked if you can't drink it though a straw. :D (she knows who I'm talking about)

CD
 
and just once i'd like to see a fully cooked egg on one of those dang shows
That’s probably never going to happen, assuming you’re talking about a pan-fried egg. Too many people are in love with the visual that a runny egg yolk provides (the much-sought-after “egg bleed”).

I didn’t eat a runny egg until I joined the military and left home (you’ll hear me say that about a lot of foods). Mom, being a product of her generation, always cooked everything to death, and anything that was slightly undercooked was considered raw and poison to her.

Her normal fried egg method was to crack eggs in a skillet with a lot of bacon grease in there and immediately pierce the yolk with a jagged edge of the shell, so it could run out and get cooked along with the white. It yields an egg like what you see on a McD’s egg McMuffin.

That’s the only time I make an egg like that, when I’m making some kind of breakfast sandwich. Other than that, it’s a runny egg, always.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I do know some people are put off by that. 2/3rds of my siblings are. They want their fried egg just like Mom made it. I used to be on another forum (not a cooking one) where one of the members would get physically sick at the sight of a runny egg, so if one of us happened to post a pic of one, we always put it behind a spoiler tag and warned them not to click it!
 
yea like the top picture , i'll hold the fork like that once in a while depending on what i'm eating , but most of the time (95% ) i hold it like the bottom picture , i's sure it must be just a TV thing because most people hold it like i do

Or, it could be that you haven't been to Europe?

CD
 
and holding it in a clenched fist is something only very small children or those with motor difficulties do.
I will admit, as much as I’m ashamed of myself for thinking it, but when I see an adult doing that, my first thought is…well, it’s not a complimentary one, and I’ll just leave it at that
 
well about all i can say about that is , i always walk down my own path , never worried much about what other people thought about me , i do and say what i please and think
 
I will admit, as much as I’m ashamed of myself for thinking it, but when I see an adult doing that, my first thought is…well, it’s not a complimentary one, and I’ll just leave it at that

I do eat with the tynes pointing up, but not with a clenched fist. BTW, I only eat peas at home, so I can use a spoon. Eating peas with a fork is very frustrating.

CD
 
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