From Cooking Video to Kitchen Disaster

Are you an amateur cook or someone trying to find a newfound hobby in cooking while browsing through YouTube videos?

What's this called? How's that much?

Imagine pausing a short cooking video to go grab a pen and paper, only to later realise the action was futile because no ingredient names were mentioned to begin with. You could pour random things in a pan too but that would probably not have the same end result as the video.

Was the red thing tomato ketchup or sriracha? Why do all ground pastes and powders look the same? Why do people use terms like "to taste" and "a pinch" when you can just mention the quantities? These are not prehistoric times, you know, we have measurement tools. At this rate, "eyeballing it" is probably a disclaimer that you could be bawling your eyes to.

Finding replacement ingredients

After having deciphered the ingredients used in the "recipe", you realise that you have not gone grocery shopping in a while and are out of most of the ingredients mentioned, so you begin looking for alternatives.

You find alternative ingredients on the internet, but many of them sound questionable in terms of taste. You wonder if you can really switch soy sauce with fish sauce, and think maybe it is because they are both salty. At this point, you are too. You proceed to question if fish could live in soy sauce but then realise you are procrastinating to avoid actually cooking.

The math behind temperatures

The recipe mentions a specific temperature, but you are using a pan instead of an oven. You look for another recipe to make the same dish using a pan, but the quantity of chicken breast you have used matches neither of the two recipes.

You try to do the math in your head; you don't even know where to start. You wish this stuff was taught in school instead of the unnecessary bill calculations of some lune who bought 5000 watermelons. You end up having to check every few minutes to see if you have overcooked the chicken. How do you figure this out without cutting it in pieces or chewing bits to check? After all, food poisoning was not what you had in mind when you started cooking.

The ultimate outcome

You have finally managed to find a video actually mentioning the names and quantities of the ingredients used, but as you begin seasoning the chicken with just salt and pepper, you have concerns over it being too bland. The person in the video seemed to think the end result was delicious so you follow suit anyway.

However, no matter how golden brown your chicken looks on the outside, it tastes nothing but steamed. It finally hits you that that is why you are recommended to season to taste, because taste varies from person to person. Where was this disclaimer in the video?

Let's face it, you'll probably just end up ordering in anyway.   

Bushra Zaman likes books, art, and only being contacted by email. Contact her at bushrazaman31@yahoo.com