lol, i did that with my wife, but she's from wisconsin so she had no idea what it was. doubt she would have straight up refused it, but she probably wouldn't have been as willing if she'd known ahead of time.aTm2004 said:You should make her some barbacoa and let her say how good it is before you tell her what cut of meat it is. That's what I've found works with my kids.Quote:
But as mentioned in a post above, if I "dumb down" the descriptions of food until after they have eaten, they will dive right in. That said, there are certain foods my mom will refuse...things like crawfish, calamari, octopus, any cut of meat that is slightly outside "standard" cuts. I could give her lengua tacos and she'd probably like them, but if she knew what they were, no chance.
Stuff Ruined by Parents and In-Laws
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Last: 3 yr ago by AJ02
Thanksgiving by my mother - according to my husband. When we first started dating, we went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. The meal was completely cooked by mom, who is unabashedly a terrible cook. To this day, my husband swears my mom made that meal on purpose to break us up. Honestly, the meal was not that bad in comparison to some of the other meals my mom has made, but it is all about perspective. His mother is a fantastic cook.
Thereafter, Thanksgiving has always been at our house and my parents come over.
My mom has always stated that my brother and I learned to cook out of necessity. And she is right!
BTW: Growing up, we stopped cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal at my house, because it was...not good. We would grill steaks instead.
Thereafter, Thanksgiving has always been at our house and my parents come over.
My mom has always stated that my brother and I learned to cook out of necessity. And she is right!
BTW: Growing up, we stopped cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal at my house, because it was...not good. We would grill steaks instead.
aTm2004 said:You should make her some barbacoa and let her say how good it is before you tell her what cut of meat it is. That's what I've found works with my kids.Quote:
But as mentioned in a post above, if I "dumb down" the descriptions of food until after they have eaten, they will dive right in. That said, there are certain foods my mom will refuse...things like crawfish, calamari, octopus, any cut of meat that is slightly outside "standard" cuts. I could give her lengua tacos and she'd probably like them, but if she knew what they were, no chance.
Parents made beef tongue when I was a kid. Told me it was beaver tail. Which for some reason I was fine with….
Still love lengua.
My mom is a great cook. But ZERO respect for the tools. She's queen of all the ones mentioned in this thread. Metal in the nonstick? Check. Knives in the dishwasher? Check. Unseasoned cast iron? Check.
My only cooking complaint was from growing up because I always knew I hated asparagus. She had only ever served us canned asparagus, and so my wife made me try her fresh asparagus after we got married and i instantly loved it.
My only cooking complaint was from growing up because I always knew I hated asparagus. She had only ever served us canned asparagus, and so my wife made me try her fresh asparagus after we got married and i instantly loved it.
Max Power said:I've been hoping someone on here was going to post about someone in their family putting a nicely seasoned cast iron pan in the dishwasher.SpiderDude said:
Who needs parents or in laws ruining the kitchen when my own damn wife can't load the dishwasher right!
She and my girls know to at least stay TF away from my cast iron and carbon steel.
Chipotlemonger said:
This thread is great.
Cathartic might be more of an apt description after reading recent posts.
This is a safe place. Let it all out, everyone.
It always amazes me how adults, seemingly with their own non-stick cookware at home, don't know how to take care of non-stick of others. I had a roommate who used a knife to directly cut chicken in one of my nice nonstick skillets. I've had friends and family come over and use metal utensils to stir things in non-stick. And then when they offer to clean, they pick the heavy duty scouring pad that is not non-stick friendly.
I can't say that I've had some of these things done to me, but I did put my wife's pewter chip and dip server through the dishwasher. I caught hell for that one. If anyone knows how to restore pewter after it's been through the dishwasher, I'm all ears.
In-laws from TX are pretty hardcore well-done red meat eaters. My SIL and her family adopted that approach and will not even try meat that is cooked medium rare. Obviously not trying to force them to eat something they don't want to try, but we also don't have any kind of steak or barbecue sauces available so the one time I did grill some steaks it was probably not very pleasant for them. Haven't done that again.
You're assuming they take care of their stuff like it should be, which most likely isn't the case. I hate cooking at other people's houses because they always have cheap non-stick pans that are warped (from probably rinsing out with cold water while it's hot or from cooking on high without giving it time to heat up) and scratched to hell. These are also the same people who put meat into a cold pan and then add the heat.
I'm not going to cast too many stones, because I really didn't give a crap about our pans until COVID happened and we started cooking at home a lot more. That's when I got into the carbon steel/cast iron stuff and learned how to properly take care of it. I don't cook on anything else now, and my wife even uses them from time-to-time, but she still uses non-stick for most of what she cooks. But I have always put the meat into a hot pan.
I'm not going to cast too many stones, because I really didn't give a crap about our pans until COVID happened and we started cooking at home a lot more. That's when I got into the carbon steel/cast iron stuff and learned how to properly take care of it. I don't cook on anything else now, and my wife even uses them from time-to-time, but she still uses non-stick for most of what she cooks. But I have always put the meat into a hot pan.
I guard my egg pan jealously.
It's just a cheap non-stick pan I bought at Walmart years ago, but it has never been used for anything but fried or scrambled eggs. It is still as non-stick as it was new.
Cook meats in it and it would be trash in no time at all.
I keep it kind of hidden on a top shelf.
It's just a cheap non-stick pan I bought at Walmart years ago, but it has never been used for anything but fried or scrambled eggs. It is still as non-stick as it was new.
Cook meats in it and it would be trash in no time at all.
I keep it kind of hidden on a top shelf.
eric76 said:
I guard my egg pan jealously.
It's just a cheap non-stick pan I bought at Walmart years ago, but it has never been used for anything but fried or scrambled eggs. It is still as non-stick as it was new.
Cook meats in it and it would be trash in no time at all.
I keep it kind of hidden on a top shelf.
me too. it's bigger brother that got used as a catch all pan got retired years ago but the small one is still going strong as an egg pan.
The father of my BIL I referenced earlier has shown up on more than one occasion with a full on main course that wasn't requested. Once we had a cook out with burgers, brats, chicken, hot dogs, etc. He comes in with a large pizza that he and my nephew eat instead. One thanksgiving where my wife and I cooked almost everything he walks in not with a side dish, not dessert, but another turkey, an entire ****ing turkey. I was so pissed off I had a problem biting my tongue. We had thanksgiving at our house again this year and luckily it didn't happen. That was just so rude and inconsiderate that I was shocked.
Not my kitchen but my MIL blew up her pressure cooker one day. Luckily the lid missed hitting anyone but to this day there are still specks of cabbage on the vaulted ceiling!
Catfish fry for family weekend and have more than enough catfish. Uncle shows up late w about 6 lbs of half frozen fish that he doesn't know what it is, just that he caught it about 7 years ago and he needs it out of his freezer.
Uh okay.
Uh okay.
Still remember the lectures from my mom in the 1970s whenever the pressure cooker was on the stove. Probably similar to safety briefings given to participants in the Manhattan Project.
Vacation.
My MIL is pretty respectful of my kitchen. Like one of the other posters stated though, she grew up poor and they didn't have much extra money until their kids were out of the house, so she is really basic in her cooking skills. It is what it is.
I did have to educate my wife on how to use cast iron and to not put straight edged knives in the dishwasher, and that took a while. I also had to educate her on cleaning my good cutting boards properly so I didn't have to re-oil them after every single time she cleaned them. Along with educating her on the fact that steaks don't need to be super thin cut and other cuts of meat can be cooked in multiple different ways that are delicious.
BTW, a dishwasher will take the edge off of a straight edged knife, but it doesn't ruin them. You folks do know how to sharpen a knife, correct? A hassle at times, yes. But definitely not "ruined". Most of the time a hone on a ceramic or steel rod will get the edge back even after a dishwasher mishap.
I did have to educate my wife on how to use cast iron and to not put straight edged knives in the dishwasher, and that took a while. I also had to educate her on cleaning my good cutting boards properly so I didn't have to re-oil them after every single time she cleaned them. Along with educating her on the fact that steaks don't need to be super thin cut and other cuts of meat can be cooked in multiple different ways that are delicious.
BTW, a dishwasher will take the edge off of a straight edged knife, but it doesn't ruin them. You folks do know how to sharpen a knife, correct? A hassle at times, yes. But definitely not "ruined". Most of the time a hone on a ceramic or steel rod will get the edge back even after a dishwasher mishap.
My wife kept the Wusthof knives after we split. Every one of the 8 pc steak knife set have rust spots now.
Found the chef knife in a drawer. It was always "too big and scary"
My oldest asks me to bring my sharpener over when the ex has to travel during school week.
Found the chef knife in a drawer. It was always "too big and scary"
My oldest asks me to bring my sharpener over when the ex has to travel during school week.
knifes can be sharpened, but the handles discolor in the dishwasher as well.
Chefs knives, particularly when loaded poorly (as they usually will be by somebody who would throw one in the dishwasher in the first place), can do a lot of damage to their next door neighbors in a wash cycle too.bmc13 said:
knifes can be sharpened, but the handles discolor in the dishwasher as well.
The one in this thread that has me particularly scratching my head is the 'egg pans'. All nonstick pans wear out in the long run anyway. We have 1 cheap one on hand at all times for everything simple like reheating leftovers, eggs, quick mindless browning of beef etc. Wash it when it cools down to make sure it holds as long as possible and replace it every year or so when the nonstick inevitably wears down.
Seems like a big waste of time to put a separate $10-$20 frying pan aside for years just for eggs.
Seems like a big waste of time to put a separate $10-$20 frying pan aside for years just for eggs.
Oooorrrrr...just spend $30-50 on a good carbon steel pan and use that as your egg pan
I've had a Thanksgiving turkey cooked in pan with 2 inches of water for 90 minutes then microwaved to finish it out to temperature.
I was given 2 non-sticks as a set. I hardly ever used the smaller one starting out so that became my egg pan. I didn't do anything extra except use a little extra space in my cabinet.
Milwaukees Best Light
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DubFalls said:
I've had a Thanksgiving turkey cooked in pan with 2 inches of water for 90 minutes then microwaved to finish it out to temperature.
Wow! That is a big microwave or a small turkey. Either way, I am impressed by this ingenuity.
How bad was it? Was the texture funky?
If my dishwasher has total separation for my knives from everything else, can they be put in the dishwasher?
Being in TexAgs jail changes a man……..no, not really
My mother always hated pressure cookers.SoTxAg said:
Still remember the lectures from my mom in the 1970s whenever the pressure cooker was on the stove. Probably similar to safety briefings given to participants in the Manhattan Project.
When she was a little girl, another young girl related to her was in the kitchen one Sunday afternoon when the women were making candy in a pressure cooker when the pressure cooker exploded and covered her with extremely hot candy. She died from the burns a few hours later.
In my case, more like $5 or $6. And it is as non-stick today as when it was new.ATM9000 said:
The one in this thread that has me particularly scratching my head is the 'egg pans'. All nonstick pans wear out in the long run anyway. We have 1 cheap one on hand at all times for everything simple like reheating leftovers, eggs, quick mindless browning of beef etc. Wash it when it cools down to make sure it holds as long as possible and replace it every year or so when the nonstick inevitably wears down.
Seems like a big waste of time to put a separate $10-$20 frying pan aside for years just for eggs.
My understanding is that it isn't so much that the nonstick wears that makes it start sticking, but that the proteins from the meats get burned into the pan and destroys the non-stick properties.
After years with my cheap egg pan, a few months ago I tried out an experiment. I fried two eggs in it without using any butter or oil at all. Not a drop. Just the eggs and some pepper on them. There wasn't even a hint of stickiness. Those two eggs slid around on the pan with no effort at all.
I only use nonstick for eggs. I'd never brown beef in a nonstick as I want that pan as hot as possible.ATM9000 said:
The one in this thread that has me particularly scratching my head is the 'egg pans'. All nonstick pans wear out in the long run anyway. We have 1 cheap one on hand at all times for everything simple like reheating leftovers, eggs, quick mindless browning of beef etc. Wash it when it cools down to make sure it holds as long as possible and replace it every year or so when the nonstick inevitably wears down.
Seems like a big waste of time to put a separate $10-$20 frying pan aside for years just for eggs.
Milwaukees Best Light said:DubFalls said:
I've had a Thanksgiving turkey cooked in pan with 2 inches of water for 90 minutes then microwaved to finish it out to temperature.
Wow! That is a big microwave or a small turkey. Either way, I am impressed by this ingenuity.
How bad was it? Was the texture funky?
They cut pieces of the breast off and then microwaved it.
It was like eating caulk that had set. Bouncy, yet flavorless
DubFalls said:Milwaukees Best Light said:DubFalls said:
I've had a Thanksgiving turkey cooked in pan with 2 inches of water for 90 minutes then microwaved to finish it out to temperature.
Wow! That is a big microwave or a small turkey. Either way, I am impressed by this ingenuity.
How bad was it? Was the texture funky?
They cut pieces of the breast off and then microwaved it.
It was like eating caulk that had set. Bouncy, yet flavorless
You win, and we need more details.
NColoradoAG said:DubFalls said:Milwaukees Best Light said:DubFalls said:
I've had a Thanksgiving turkey cooked in pan with 2 inches of water for 90 minutes then microwaved to finish it out to temperature.
Wow! That is a big microwave or a small turkey. Either way, I am impressed by this ingenuity.
How bad was it? Was the texture funky?
They cut pieces of the breast off and then microwaved it.
It was like eating caulk that had set. Bouncy, yet flavorless
You win, and we need more details.
This is not my only story, though it is the best. Generally speaking I like to cook with spices, attention to detail, and consideration for the time and temperature to cook things to. None of these qualities are present in my mother in law's extreme Midwest cooking. Set it and forget it (in the oven in water) describes the overarching philosophy towards meats. My wife was not aware that salsa existed before she left for college, and I introduced her to the idea of a steak cooked to a temperature below 200 degrees.
Well, we were doing Thanksgiving dinner and were going to have turkey. For a couple years I had fried turkeys that turned out moist and tasty, if you like that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I think the selection of Cajun butter was too much for their gentle Midwest taste buds so I wasn't really included in this particular years cooking.
I'm pretty sure she hadn't thawed the turkey except for putting it in the fridge the night before. Her preparation consisted of placing the small turkey in a large pyrex, then putting water in the dish up to where it could go without spilling. So, of course it wasn't finished after 90 minutes in the oven. Or at least, she wasn't sure. Anyhow, dinner was now running late so she cut off the breasts and proceeded to microwave them for a while each. Hooray dinner was ready.
I know some people don't care for turkey, but I normally love it. Frying and smoking are best, but I'll eat an oven roasted one as well and enjoy it. I'm also not a picky eater, and can eat bland stuff if need be (and is often the case at my in laws). That said, I hardly touched the turkey and was not alone in that regard. It had a quality of chewiness, bounciness, and flavorlessness that is normally reserved for rubber and sealants. This would have been the only time I was hungry after a Thanksgiving meal, except I had lost my appetite.
To quote Mark Lowry, "That bird died in vain"
so my MIL and SIL do not get along at all......we rolled the dice and rented a cabin outside of Pigeon Forge for all of the families for Thanksgiving a few years ago......
my MIL drove in from Atlanta with her prized Ambrosia salad......travelled all the way with it safely chilled in the back seat of the car......
my wife and i were in charge of cooking, but we're up for any assistance anyone could give.....my SIL was very deep into a box of cheap Merlot around 11am....and she's a horrendous cook that only eats poor white trash food that you buy from fast food joints.....this cabin has 2 ovens......wife and i have claimed 1, so the other was free to use......SIL proceeds to place the Ambrosia salad in the oven to "cook" it.....it was in there for about half an hour before anybody picked-up on it........
to this day, we're not sure if it was an accident or if SIL did it out of spite.....
my MIL drove in from Atlanta with her prized Ambrosia salad......travelled all the way with it safely chilled in the back seat of the car......
my wife and i were in charge of cooking, but we're up for any assistance anyone could give.....my SIL was very deep into a box of cheap Merlot around 11am....and she's a horrendous cook that only eats poor white trash food that you buy from fast food joints.....this cabin has 2 ovens......wife and i have claimed 1, so the other was free to use......SIL proceeds to place the Ambrosia salad in the oven to "cook" it.....it was in there for about half an hour before anybody picked-up on it........
to this day, we're not sure if it was an accident or if SIL did it out of spite.....
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