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Is Cooking an Important Skill or just a Great Hobby ?

Is cooking an important skill or just a fun hobby ?

  • skill

    Votes: 10 27.8%
  • hobby

    Votes: 2 5.6%
  • both

    Votes: 20 55.6%
  • neither

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • other

    Votes: 4 11.1%

  • Total voters
    36

NEUROSPORT

Banned
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
616
Reaction score
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Location
Silicon Valley
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian
when i lived with my family i took it for granted that cooking is an important skill. the food my family cooked was free for me but when i would go the food would be far from free. it seemed as if cooking was a skill that saved a lot of money.

until i actually moved out and started doing it. i spend time and money shopping. i spend time cooking. and i spend more money buying associated equipment. at the end of the day i now seriously doubt that cooking is actually cheaper than eating out or ordering in as long as you place any sort of value on your time at all. it seems to save only a small amount of money but wastes an enormous amount of time.

this begs the question - is cooking still an important skill to have ? or is it at this point just a hobby like knitting sweaters only more fun ?
 
I voted other Meshugener, It is a religion, for and I am Father Tarte of the Church of the Latter-day Tangential Tarte's, and you sir are a heretic!
 
when i lived with my family i took it for granted that cooking is an important skill. the food my family cooked was free for me but when i would go the food would be far from free. it seemed as if cooking was a skill that saved a lot of money.

until i actually moved out and started doing it. i spend time and money shopping. i spend time cooking. and i spend more money buying associated equipment. at the end of the day i now seriously doubt that cooking is actually cheaper than eating out or ordering in as long as you place any sort of value on your time at all. it seems to save only a small amount of money but wastes an enormous amount of time.

this begs the question - is cooking still an important skill to have ? or is it at this point just a hobby like knitting sweaters only more fun ?

I consider cooking another skill that is being lost more with each modern generation. I cant believe how many people including woman that dont know how to cook these days.

And yes cooking at home can save you alot of money. Most of this depends on what you select. If you call prepackaged meals/items or as my family calls it "quick and easy foods" you will not save a significant amount of money. After all most of the work has been done for you. However, if you purchase the basics and have to prepare it all from scratch it is alot cheaper.

By making everything from scratch I can feed myself for under $70 a week if I need to. Eating out would cost me at least 3 times that.

And lets not forget the usefulness of cooking if we have some sort of national calamity. People my find themselves in trouble if they have come to rely on restaurants.
 
I consider cooking another skill that is being lost more with each modern generation. I cant believe how many people including woman that dont know how to cook these days.

And yes cooking at home can save you alot of money. Most of this depends on what you select. If you call prepackaged meals/items or as my family calls it "quick and easy foods" you will not save a significant amount of money. After all most of the work has been done for you. However, if you purchase the basics and have to prepare it all from scratch it is alot cheaper.

By making everything from scratch I can feed myself for under $70 a week if I need to. Eating out would cost me at least 3 times that.

And lets not forget the usefulness of cooking if we have some sort of national calamity. People my find themselves in trouble if they have come to rely on restaurants.
My son you sound like an ideal candidate for the Tartdom of Leaven, do not resist the crisp yet moist nature of my pate sucree, the soft yet firm structure of my Paris Brest, its nipples bathed in silky smooth chocolate, step into my choux's and we will walk to paradise, where you will receive 73 vegans and a welcoming quaff of Cockburns'69, any port in a storm!
 
I cant believe how many people including woman that dont know how to cook these days.

yes american women are useless. they don't cook, clean or put out. all they do is shop and yap on the phone.
 
By making everything from scratch I can feed myself for under $70 a week if I need to. Eating out would cost me at least 3 times that.

right i buy myself chicken breasts at walmart - 3 pound bag for $8 and cook that.

but what if i were to simply order chinese once a day and keep the remainder in the fridge to finish in the morning ? that wouldn't be much more than $70 a week.

it seems that by cooking myself i can get better quality nutrition but not necessarily lower cost nutrition.
 
right i buy myself chicken breasts at walmart - 3 pound bag for $8 and cook that.

but what if i were to simply order chinese once a day and keep the remainder in the fridge to finish in the morning ? that wouldn't be much more than $70 a week.

it seems that by cooking myself i can get better quality nutrition but not necessarily lower cost nutrition.

Perhaps you dont eat like I do ;). I eat twice a day and cannot eat out for less then $12 per meal and get full. No im not fat (160lbs) I can just pack the food away. Its not uncommon for me to order 2 meals at a sitting.
 
It really depends how many you're cooking for. If I value my time at $20/hour and spend more than 15 minutes between cooking and cleaning up after I'm losing money cooking for myself (assuming it costs $5 to buy something to eat, and that the food cost is $0.) If cooking for a family of 4 instead it becomes more economical. However, you can usually eat healthier cooking than eating out, as you have more selection of what you preparer (though you could choose unhealthy food and eat just as bad.)
 
Definetely a skill.. It should carry far more weight in the school system. Cooking skills and dietary knowledge that is.

Our society is enourmously unhealthy in diet.
 
If you can't cook, marry someone who can. I screwed up eggs one morning, when I decided to try and suprise my wife. Set off the smoke alarm, and it cost me $50 against my security deposit.
 
I live to eat.
 
You can't claim to be independent or self-sufficient if you don't know how to cook.
 
Definetely a skill.. It should carry far more weight in the school system. Cooking skills and dietary knowledge that is.

Our society is enourmously unhealthy in diet.
exercise is the key component not diet.
 
In terms of weight, it's far easier to get healthier from a healthier diet than from more exercise, if only because of time constraints. Rudimentary cooking knowledge is a skill, but more knowledge up to the point where people actually enjoy what you cook is nice to have.
 
exercise is the key component not diet.

Both are very important. If you eat processed crap every day, you're not going to be healthy (in the long term) no matter how much you exercise. And a poor diet also hinders your ability/motivation to exercise in the first place.
 
I think basic cooking is a skill that must be learnt, such as boiling pasta and frying eggs.

Anything beyond the basic means of survival is a hobby.
 
I think basic cooking is a skill that must be learnt, such as boiling pasta and frying eggs.

Anything beyond the basic means of survival is a hobby.

you won't be very healthy if all you eat is eggs and pasta.

my diet right now is super simple but in terms of nutrition way better than eggs and pasta.

* grilled chicken breasts
* fried eggs
* variety of vegetable and fruit juices
* variety of nuts
* beans and peas
* special K protein plus cereal
* GNC mega men multivitamins

at first i tried to get by on milk and eggs for protein source but it was making me feel sick 24/7. i had to buy a cutting board and a knife and switch to chicken as primary source of protein - feels much better.

i will try to further reduce my eggs consumption and eliminate milk consumption altogether. to make up for the lost protein i will either have to increase chicken consumption ( i eat about 1 pound of chicken breasts a day now ) or to add protein shakes to the diet.

for now i am using juices instead of real vegetables because it is more convenient to buy juice and not worry about it going spoiled quickly. but i am only able to find most juices as "from concentrate" so i may need to start introducing some real vegetables into the diet as well.
 
In terms of weight, it's far easier to get healthier from a healthier diet than from more exercise, if only because of time constraints. Rudimentary cooking knowledge is a skill, but more knowledge up to the point where people actually enjoy what you cook is nice to have.





Sitting around not moving is far worse for your health than eating tons and working out.


We were designed as furnaces. You gotta burn.
 
No, both are important. No matter how you exercise if you eat nothng but junk, your body will not prosper.

yes. both are equally important. in addition a proper sleep schedule is a must if you want to be in top shape.

exercise may be enough for a teenager who has a fast metabolism and quick recovery from workouts. once you're past about 25 years old you need to be smarter about your health.
 
no silly. i meant relative to normal countries like Russia, Cuba etc.

if somebody in Cuba said that wages are low in Cuba - would you argue with him too ?

Normal countries? OK that begs the question who decides whats normal? I can tell you Russia and Cuba are far from normal in my opinion.
 
Sitting around not moving is far worse for your health than eating tons and working out.


We were designed as furnaces. You gotta burn.

not true. yes we were designed to burn but we were also designed to go be hungry most of the time.

your body can burn energy only very slowly compared to the rate at which it can digest food. if that wasn't the case we would be extinct by now. unless you work out 5 hours a day like michael phelps or like arnold schwarzenegger used to - you will need to have a reasonable diet.

but working out more than about an hour a day is counterproductive - it leads to overtraining unless you're a genetic freak or on steroids. so you really have to limit your calories ( unless again you are naturally a toothpick ).
 
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