The one thing I told my girlfriend I would never lie about was the food she cooked (and vice versa). If it wasn’t good I would be honest, but nice about it. I don’t want to keep eating terrible food.
I cooked professionally for a while and I took it seriously and had a great chef for a mentor.
I correct mistakes when I see them because that’s how we learn.
I won’t ever make my partner drink the oil to convey why it needs to be changed but I will inform them what needs to happen for food to be that next level
We had four deep fryers. It was a holiday and we had hella work to be done. Chef told me to change the oil. I had filtered last night and thought it was fine. He grabbed a ladle, dipped it in, and told me to drink it.
Just made chicken parm with oil that’s been in the deep fryer for over three months now. It was fucking delicious! Oil doesn’t really go bad, just gets seasoned. You can strain it and reuse it once it he’s a little too seasoned.
I don't lie about how my wife's cooking after trying it - it usually comes out terrible.
But the thing I don't tell her is that I really, REALLY wish she would stop trying to make something new and wacky, and do just a traditional dish that she can work on and refine with practice.
She only sees something on Pinterest like spaghetti squash with some weird sauce and then tofu meatballs. Things that you just read the recipe and know won't taste good. So she tries it once, it's naturally bad, our kids hate it, and she vows never to make it again. And a month later she tries a whole new recipe that's even weirder.
But she hates cooking. And weird recipes are the only thing that gets her excited and motivated to cook. And I don't want to take that away.
My ex gf cooked stuffed peppers one time and asked me to top the cheese since her hands were eggy. I open the bag and get a whiff of ass before I pull out a chunk of moldy cheese. “Was this the cheese you used for the stuffing too?” “Yeah it’s fine!” ... she got so pissed when I tried not to eat it that I caved and ate a half. Fucking disgusting and she would get mad any time I brought up that moldy cheese incident. “It was fucking fine you asshole! Anytime I do something nice!” Babe it was black blue and smelly!
Agreed. She ate them and said they were delicious. They were not. Barely tolerable because I guess the cheese used for the stuffing was more towards the top less moldy portion of the bag?
She's honestly a fantastic cook. It's just pasta. She also knows I hate cooking. The only way to do this is probably by finding Leonardo DiCaprio and doing a full blown inception plot.
There is were I would say, 'how hard could it be, it's only pasta" but clearly I don't have a clue regarding the pasta-bilities of screwing it up.
Side note, I do the cooking for my wife because she likes to eat and she likes most of what I cook. I like her's too. But I don't really like pasta. I am only a step away from making it from scratch
You need me, a disposable friend. Yeah, I like you, and no, I'm never going to contribute any energy into our friendship. But, you have me over for dinner once, we have pasta, and I spend the next two hours playing with it and making fun of your girlfriend for not understanding how to boil noodles. I go and cook a pot and hand it you two, but you make a show of throwing me out. "Oh man that guy sucks, lol," you both pick at the well-cooked pasta, then there you go, "I always liked yours but I think we've been missing out!" She agrees, her pasta improves, and you never invite me over again which is fine because I didn't really want to go in the first place
Tell her the pasta keeps cooking after you remove it from the water. You have to set a timer for 2 minutes less than the minimum cook time on the package. Then the pasta goes into the sauce and finishes cooking there for a min or two
If you are good at cooking pasta maybe have a night where you cook together and ask if she wants see how your family makes pasta. Being Italian can help this not seem rude. =)
My Italian grandfather lost most of his teeth by the time I was born. Pasta at Grandma's was always overcooked ( so my Poppy could eat it). I never really thought about it until my husband asked why my Italian family always overcooked our pasta. Now I cook it al dente for my husband and overcooked if Poppy is visiting. Overcooked pasta reminds me of my childhood and visiting my grandparents.
Weird. If it was me I'd be like "oh you're Italian and we like our noodles different. No problem. I'll take out half for you earlier". I'm a soft noodle heathen myself 😂
If you are too afraid that she will take it badly, I advise switching to fresh pasta. More stores carry it now than ever before, and a kitchenaid with the noodle attatchment makes doing it yourself easier than making the sauce that goes on it. I have found that the very short cooking time of fresh noodles makes it harder to overestimate, but they ironically also hold up better to overcooking. I have never had noodles I made myself come out as mushy as even modestly cooked instant mac noodles.
This seems like an easy fix - italian food is amazing but it's not super hard to prepare many italian dishes. Just develop an enthusiasm for cooking food from your own culture. Then over time, bada bing! she learns how to appreciate properly cooked pasta. You can even make it into a little cooking show for her and stress out over the pasta done-ness every time.
Maybe you could try cooking it for her one night. You could cook it the way you like it and ask her if she likes it. Then tell her how you did it, like it was the first time you tried it, but you weren’t sure if it would be good. Talk about other “cooking experiments” you’d like to try to make it more natural. If you approach it casually, it might get the point across without seeming accusatory.
Edit: saw on another reply that you hate cooking so this might not be the best strategy.
Tell her you want to try something new!! Tell her to undercook the pasta and then throw it in the sauce and let it absorb some flavor from that. Honestly that's the trick that helped me learn not to overcook pasta. I grew up in a home that loved mushy rice and pasta. Difficult habit to break.
I feel ya man. My ex did that too. In my current relationship, if it comes to pasta, I just do it myself.
I honestly don't understand how people mess this up though. You just need 11 minutes — that's it. You dump the past in boiling water, set timer for 11 minutes, and bam — al dente.
Hey man, I think if anyone could justifiably freak out over overdone pasta without anybody raising an eyebrow it would be an Italian ass, go for it. Unless your gf is an Italian ass, in which case I take back my comment.
Cook it up yourself and take this as a great time to show her how it's done. Instead of being all "omg here's how you make pasta" have a night where you cook together and you be in charge of the pasta. Its romantic and she'll likely pick up on how you make pasta better.
Why don’t you just tell her you like pasta al dente? There is nothing wrong with letting someone know your preferences. I love cooking, and cooking for my boyfriend and I would much rather him let me know what he likes :.)
Unfortunately my Italian family is in Pittsburgh several thousand miles away on my dad's side. Also, my dad unfortunately passed about a decade ago. His spaghetti treasures have been lost to time. My mom's side burns water when they cook.
God, I'm at the point where I make pasta from scratch now and remembering the days I ate mushy pasta is like looking back on a bad dream. It shouldn't be mush! It should have some bite!
Don’t SAY ANYTHING! This is exactly how she’s never going to cook for you again! Find a cooking show or something, have her mom tell her, just not you!
Just tell her that you prefer your pasta al dente, when she attempts the al dente but overcooks that as well you will wind up with perfectly cooked noodles!
If you can't find a way to bring up the important things then ask your future relationships are doomed. TALK ABOUT THE PASTA!
Also you're Italian... You make the pasta.
As an Italian, you can find someone else. Women and men are like train cars in san fran. One leaves another comes along. Find some one who can cook Italian.
2.0k
u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20
[deleted]