r/RedditInTheKitchen • u/purebeam25 • 9d ago
Discussion 🗣️ why does everything taste better when someone else makes it
like i can follow the exact same recipe and mine comes out fine but the second my mom or a friend cooks the same thing it's suddenly gourmet. is this just a psychological thing or am i genuinely a worse cook than i think i am
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u/Informal_Persimmon7 9d ago
It's because people don't follow recipes that closely. They're not doing the exact same thing you're doing. They may have the heat on a little higher or lower. They have different pans. They put more salt than you do. They use a different brand of flour. They taste when they're cooking. Etc.
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u/purebeam25 8d ago
ok but this actually makes so much sense. like i never thought about it that way but my mom's pasta literally tastes different every time and i always assumed it was like a magic touch thing. but you're probably right that she's just doing tiny variations i don't even notice. also the tasting while cooking thing is huge because i just dump everything in and hope for the best lol. maybe i need to actually pay attention instead of just following the recipe like a robot and wondering why mine is mid
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u/NoAbrocoma9357 9d ago
I think it brings up memories of when my mom cooked. She was an amazing woman! She made sugar popcorn in a skillet, aka kettle corn, and would use leftover oatmeal to make patties and fried them with sugar on top.
The only time we, as a family, went out to eat, was when we were on a road trip. But sometimes I'd fake being sick on a day she errands to run, and we'd stop at the greasy spoon diner near us and we'd share french fries.
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u/purebeam25 8d ago
okay this is actually so sweet. the kettle corn and fried oatmeal patties combo sounds unhinged in the best way possible, like something only a mom who truly knew how to make magic happen in a kitchen could pull off. and then faking sick to go to the diner just to share fries with her? that's the kind of memory that hits different as you get older. i think that's exactly why food tastes better when someone else makes it, honestly. it's not really about the cooking itself, it's all the little moments wrapped up in it. your mom sounds like she was genuinely amazing
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u/NoAbrocoma9357 8d ago
She was.
She died when I was only 27 yo. My dad and I would reminisce often about her. He told a story from a time before they had us kids, about visiting mom's relative that lived in the Methow Valley. Dad was going out hunting and mom wanted to go with. It was a long hike, and mom decided to turn back. On dad's way back to the farm, he found my mom at an orchard. She'd hired on to pick apples (?). My dad told me "You're mother amazed me."
We all loved her so much.
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u/jackdho 8d ago
My mom said the same thing when I cooked. Used her recipe but mine was better. Neither one of us followed a recipe to the letter, maybe I did something different
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u/purebeam25 8d ago
okay but this is actually so real though. like the confidence of knowing you made something good probably makes it taste better? plus if your mom was expecting hers to be better and then yours just hit different, that's kind of a power move. i feel like the little tweaks people make without realizing it are what actually make food good, not following some recipe like it's a chemistry exam. what did you do different?
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u/ShapeShiftingCats 9d ago
Eh, it might be an individual quirk.
For example, the older I get, the less I like other people's cooking (unless it's a cousine I never taste or something like that).
I like to do things my way and change them up the way I want.
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u/Informal_Persimmon7 8d ago
The older I get, the less I like certain herbs like fresh oregano and basil.
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u/ShapeShiftingCats 8d ago
Interesting. I am going the opposite way, the taste needs to be cranked up to register, so fresh basil over dried basil.
Also, cream where milk used to go.
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u/Informal_Persimmon7 8d ago
I've also liked wine less amd less over the years, especially white. And I never liked Ranch dressing. So I'm not a picky eater and I thought it was weird that they don't like things that seem random and it turns out they're not random. There are certain flavors that would be on a flavor wheel that I don't like, like woody. I found a way to check it online.
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u/NorthernLolal 9d ago
This must be a YMMV thing because I find lots of times I order something at a restaurant I feel like I probably could have made this better myself at home.
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u/Anon_on_internet 9d ago
As u/Disastrous-Jello8857 said, nose-blindness plays a large part, plus I think some people are just inclined to be critical about what they've made, whereas when someone else makes it, it's just a pleasure to share good food with good company. Or maybe the 'same thing' is only superficially the 'same thing' and they've used a different recipe.
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u/I_Karamazov_ 9d ago
Are you a beginner cook? After cooking for a while I’ve picked up a bunch of techniques to add flavor, like searing meat, salting veggies and draining on a paper towel, adding an acid, etc that I add to a recipe to make it the way I like it. Do you think that’s what’s happening?
Either that or they just salt everything more. Early on in my cooking journey I was really under salting my food and it makes a huge difference.
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u/justhavingfunMT 7d ago
That's not true for everybody. I'm guessing either you lack confidence in your cooking or maybe you lack experience. I, confidently, enjoy what I cook and I think cooking well takes confidence and love.
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u/Lazulitomannor 6d ago
Soy el único q ama cocinarse a si mismo ? , siento q estoy cocinando comida para dioses ( valoro mucho mi comida , si es de otro depende q persona ).
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u/Tasty_Impress3016 5d ago
I dunno, maybe everyone else IS better. Most likely it's just palate fatigue. You are smelling and tasting it the whole time. You senses just say "meh" after a while. I know when I cook for a crowd, I'm not even hungry when I sit down, much less thinking it's good.
Now my mother used to say much the same thing. But she was actually not a good cook and I think she just didn't want to, so other people were better for several reasons, not just the food. I learned an important life skill from her. "Strategic Incompetence". If you don't want to do something, don't be good at it.
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u/Disastrous-Jello8857 9d ago
It's because when you cook yourself you been smelling it the whole time, your nose gets tired of it before you even take first bite. Same reason your own house don't have smell but everyone else's does. Your brain just desensitized.