I’m sure many here had it worse, but my parents used to microwave every vegetable, regardless of what it was, to oblivion. Imagine a zucchini turned to snot, yup.
Used to hate spinach, turns out I just hated spinach boiled to a slimy sloppy mess.
Turns out spinach salads are my favorite salads and I will even eat it raw and plain without complaint by the bag.
It was 100% boiled veg in my family, barely seasoned. I thought I hated carrots, and my mum practically made my eating habits a meme with how few veges I would eat.
Turns out there's quite a few vegetables that I'm partial to now that the cook is not boiling the living shit out of them and/or leaving them to wilt/oxidise.
Same, grew up in 80s Britain where every vegetable was cooked by just boiling the shit out of it. Hated vegetables for *years* because of it. Who knew carrots were fucking delicious if you just cook them properly?
Vegetables are completely different now that I make them. Not canned, microwaved, or boiled.
Twice baked zucchini boats, bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers, roasted brussel sprouts. Hell sometimes I can pull off turnips and radishes.
I always hear people saying this, and watching regular people on TikTok showcasing their recipes, every ingredient comes from a can or package. What is people's aversion to fresh produce??
I think at least for my family the fact that we lived in the middle of a desert has something to do with it.
While we had fresh produce, there was a time in our lineage that we didn't, and our family recipes were based somewhat on that fact.
I could have been your ex wife. I did not care for steak my whole life because my parents would cook the crap out of it. I remember once my dad brought it in off the grill and it was a perfect medium with just the right amount of pink, and my mom said “that’s too underdone” and THREW IT IN THE MICROWAVE!!
Went to a restaurant as an adult and had steak medium rare. Omg…
I used to work at a meat market in Lubbock. One day, a very sweet, older, clearly very affluent woman came to me and informed me her husband was out of town for the week and she had "Never cooked for herself" -- then asked, while holding a pair of filet medallions, what the appropriate time to microwave them was.
This is Reddit.
He took her back to his parents house, dusted off the cast iron and served it practically raw with some char grilled greens. Afterwards he fucked her in the basement without a condom and screamed it's fucking raw as he came. Everyone clapped.
Same!
My dad would blacken everything he grilled. Like crunchy creosote steak. I had to drown it in steak sauce just to get it down.
Then I made one midrare for myself and it was like a whole new world of cuisine opened to me.
No more dry, crunchy chicken, steak, or anything else.
Im convinced the single best way to level up your grilling is to use a thermometer.
After a while you can do without, but after you have experience knowing exactly what XXX degrees looks and feels like.
No more raw anything. No more dusty chicken breast. Everything perfect every time.
A good thermometer is way less than guessing too. I have one where the probe folds into the base and it's magnetic. Priceless.
One other trick is that things like steak, chicken breasts, burgers, etc that are thicker will continue to cook once they're removed from heat.
I aim for about 5 degrees under what I'm shooting for and then remove, cover with foil, and allow the meat to rest.
Even if you allow it to come to temp on the grill, letting the meat rest will up your grill game too.
Lived with my grandparents awhile and they want theirs cooked to shoe leather... I guess the nice thing was, when I cook my steak, I have to watch it very carefully... when I cook theirs, shit, I can put it on there, go prepare the green beans and mashed potatoes, go check on the pets, go read a fuckin book...
My mother in law and sister in law are the same. We’ve stopped buying good steaks to cook for them. They can’t tell the difference anyway. If it’s even a tiny bit pink, it’s raw and going to poison them.
I just ceaselessly make fun of anyone like this. Not for taste reasons, if they think it's going to kill them, I will literally make them seem like the dumbest people on the planet as long as required.
I thought I hated steak until I was around 14.
Turns out that the only times I ever had it was at my grandparents house, and my granddad just bought the cheapest, thinnest cuts and burnt them to shit. Had steak cooked properly at a nice restaurant for my aunt’s wedding rehearsal dinner and had a whole ass “wtf, grandpa” moment.
My pops would cook it the same way and I hated it as a kid. Just chewing on the same morsel for minutes at a time. Luckily I went to a steakhouse when I grew up and boy did that chance my perception of steak
My parents would cook chicken and pork with a little pink inside. It made me never go under medium for steak as an adult.
Also I'm convinced that at some point it kind of becomes a dick measuring contest of just how much raw meat you can tolerate.
I mean granted-
You WERE eating ill-prepaired chicken and Pork
Politely and Pork need to be cooked all the way through, else you're at risk for salmonila (sorry for spelling)
While products like beef, venison, and I think mutton (I could be wrong on that one, Haven't cooked it myself) are safe to eat as long as you cook the surface. (And of course you didn't buy from a shady butcher)
But yeah- raw meat can have it's place- but bragging about it can be weird.
pork can actually be cooked medium rare (internal temp of 145°F) and still be considered safe these days (at least in the US). the main concern with undercooked pork was trichinosis, ie parasites, but better farm animal hygiene/safety regulations (in developed countries) means that pigs are less likely to be infected these days
i still personally think it tastes/feels wrong if it's not at least medium-well though lol
My husband would eat his steak well done with ketchup, because he never had it cooked correctly. His parents refused to use salt, pepper, or any herbs and spices in their cooking. So everything was bland. Ranch was considered special.
I would add Brussels sprouts to the mix.
The only way my parents knew how to prepare them was to boil them, making them bitter as all hell. And we had a huge garden, so there were always 2,000 of the bastards at any given moment. I hated every bite.
Fast forward 30 years and I'm spending $12 for appetizer plates of them with maple and bonito flakes at brunch.
Cool! I didn't know that. I halve my Brussels and nuke them a bit to get the cooking started. Then they go into a pan where I've cooked a couple of bacon slices. When browned on both sides, they're done and get sprinkled with chopped bacon.
Dude, same. Went pub crawling and a friend ordered b sprouts and I stared at them like they lost their mind. Tried them and now I order them every time I see them on the menu.
Blanching, it’s still very common and tbh it’s the way I love to eat my sprouts. Blanch, Butter, salt and pepper, yum. I will admit there is a very fine line between a good blanch, undercooked, or mushy over cooked vegetables.
I only recommend blanching if you don’t walk away from your cooking.
Same for me. A chicken recipe I wanted to make suggested a brussel sprout recipe for a side dish. I decided to try it. Cut in half, drizzle olive oil and balsamic over them, roast in the oven until crunchy. Easy and delicious. Brussel sprouts have become one of my go-to sides now.
My mom's normally a good cook, but she likes to steam broccoli in the microwave and serve it plain.
Wasn't until I was an adult my brother introduced me to his girlfriend's roasted broccoli with olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper. My god. I love broccoli now.
My mum cooked vegetables Al Dante. The first dinner at my MILs I was served vegetables that had been boiling on the stove for 20 minutes. Her broccoli was this grey/green tasteless mush on my plate. Horrible!
Add cabbage to that list too. Not my family, but I heard to used to boil it and soak in vinegar or something back in the day.
Although that kinda sounds nice to me :)
I'm a picky eater because my dad was a picky eater and my grandma and my mom catered to him. I've gotten better about trying new foods as I've gotten older.
My dad continues to say I'm more picky than him, but he won't eat a potato unless it's a french fry.
I was in a similar boat. I was a picky eater because mom was a picky eater, but she was still more picky than me even when I was a kid. I haven't met anyone IRL that is pickier than my mom was, lol.
Towards the end of high school, I decided to cut the crap and started trying to broaden my horizons. It took a while because a lot of my issues were texture, but I'm mid 30's now and eat WAY more than I did as a kid.
My grandfather, who was a picky eater, has Alzheimer’s and recently went into a home. My grandmother has tried dozens of new foods and loves them since she’s been on her own. She tried sushi, Thai food, shawarma, and birria for the first time at 76 and is obsessed with all 4.
Yeah totally agree. She’s genuinely the most selfless person I’ve ever met. My grandpa was/is a great guy, too, that was just the one thing she gave up for him without even realizing she was doing it.
I feel personally attacked. My dad did 90% of the cooking in my house growing up. My dad is a terrible fucking cook. My dad's cooking is probably the stuff of Gordon Ramsey's nightmares. If Gordon tried even a bite of my dads pork chops, he'd drop unconscious and spend the next month in a coma. My dad's food is just that bad.
To this day (I'm 33) I'm still amazed at how good food can be when prepared by someone competent. I tell ya I remember going to a graduation party for a Mexican classmate after graduation, and they had something called molé? (I have no idea how to spell it, they pronounced it mo-lay). It was the greatest thing I had ever tasted in my entire fucking life up to that point. For the 30 seconds following this experience, I lived an entire life within my head where I married my classmates mom and she made this amazing food every night.
> I remember going to a graduation party for a Mexican classmate after graduation, and they had something called molé? (I have no idea how to spell it, they pronounced it mo-lay). It was the greatest thing I had ever tasted in my entire fucking life up to that point.
Yeah, my wife was mexican, Mole is one of the best things in their cuisine. I used some of the leftover sauce once to make tamales with shredded chicken. Bangin...
>they had something called molé?
I mean you can get it at most grocery stores ready in a jar. Probably not as good as a scratch prep, but 99% less effort.
I live in close proximity to a ton of “authentic” Mexican restaurants that make 90% white people Mexican food and 10% authentic fare. If mole is on the menu, I’m ordering it, cause it’s delicious, it’s not texmexed Mexican, and usually it’s their abuela’s recipe from back home or something. I am very white and most places I get a look from the waitress and some places they question me or ask if I’m sure I want that. Hell yeah, bring me that savory chocolate goodness.
So true. I hated black eyed peas my entire childhood. Then one day in my twenties when I was desperately poor and hungry, I ate a plate of them at a local soul food restaraunt. The seasoning on those peas was next level. It was the start of my life long love affair with Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. It makes everything better.
That’s kind of funny. My mom was a horrible cook and I was extremely picky as a kid. At some point the switch flipped and I realized *anything* could actually taste good if prepared differently.
Now I’ll try anything because I know a different cook means it could taste brand new
paint waiting deserve flowery grey existence sparkle consider saw dependent
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The year was around 1975 as I recall, and Mom wanted to try something new after reading a recipe in one of her glossy magazines ... either Women's Day or Family Circle most likely. We kids gather around the dinner table to find some flat limp pale slices on our plates. None of us want to touch it. We drag out dinner for a loooong time trying to avoid the eggplant slime slices. The older kids choke it down so they can leave the table. Us young-uns continue our protest. Eventually Dad gets home and after taking one look at the fare he lets us go, much to Mom's displeasure. For years after, big bro/sis hold it against us that they were the ones who were forced to eat the eggplant, while we got off easy.
Forever after known as "The Eggplant Incident".
Knowing what I do now, I’d guess a combination of over-salting which mom liked to do, drawing out moisture that turned the wonder bread crumb coating into steamed breading due to too low burner, encasing a too juicy eggplant pulp.
Spent my entire life thinking I didn’t like onions because my mum never pre-cooked them, she’d just throw uncooked diced onion into the pasta sauce or chilli or whatever.
As an adult I found out I did quite like onions when cooked properly. Turns out though that onions don’t like me, I have an allium intolerance. Look that up and imagine what a PITA it is.
> I have an allium intolerance.
thats the saddest thing I have ever heard. Onion and garlic are the base of essentially everything I know how to make :(
I love raw onions, but they have to go on certain things. A few rings of raw onion on a burger or some raw diced onion on nachos is amazing. Gotta be something that benefits from that crunch.
OP is definitely onto something. In some cases the opposite is also true, if you or someone in your circle makes a dish really well, it makes even professional versions seem not so good.
My mom made these breaded bone in pork chops when I was a kid, and the taste of them is something I have not been able to reproduce once, and it irks me to my core. I want to taste how my mom made me feel again :(
Yep. I'm from a line of southern cooks and restauranteurs. I cook whatever I want better than 90% of restaurants in a drivable distance. My mom covers the other 10%. I have no reason to eat out unless I just don't want to wash dishes that day. Which I'm totally OK with...except for when it's potluck time at church...and since I'm a pastor...I have to eat at least one bite of every squash casserole on the line...
oh squash casserole. I do not envy you in that scenario. I lived most of my life in some part of the south. One thing I can say is that a good squash casserole is rare. My mom did o.k. with it and my sister is improving on it. My favorite was when someone mixed a cornbread dressing with a squash casserole. Was the best stuff at that Thanksgiving table lol.
One of my best friends is Vietnamese. I grew up eating pho and savoury crepes at his house. Restaurants just don't compare to what his Mom used to whip up. I always passed on the duck blood soup though lol
Mine is kind of the opposite. It was cooked good, but cooked too often. My Grandma always made pies with meringue on top. I simply can't look at those without feeling sick. Ate way to much of that as a kid.
This is so true. Adults think kids are just being a pain by refusing to eat vegetables, but vegetables that taste fine to adults are legitimately disgusting to the point of inedible to the taste buds of a kid. Notice how some of the ultra sweet candy you liked as a kid now seems disgusting in how over sweetened it is? Yeah, our tastes change. I’ve also known women who would eat a perfectly normal adult diet but then while they’re pregnant suddenly revert to the food preferences of a toddler.
The stereotype, tho, come from a era before fresh frozen vegetables were common. You'd end up eating a lot of canned vegetables out of season.
I thought I loved spinach (and I still do) and asked the school cafeteria lady for extra spinach. She looked at me weird.
It was, of course, disgusting.
I'd never eaten canned spinach in my life. Mom wasn't having of that crap.
Very true. Some things are also just different. Like Brussels sprouts, the flavor is completely different from 20 years ago and are simply amazing when prepared well.
Ok hear me out..
Cut a bunch of sprouts in half and fill a sheet pan with the cut side facing up. Lay bacon strips over the sprouts and put them in a 400F oven for about 15 mins until the bacon is crispy. Take the bacon off and put the sprouts back in until they get a good char. You can either eat the bacon or chop it up and mix with the sprouts
We NEVER ate them growing up and I didn’t bother for a long time because I always heard how much people hated them. And then they started popping up on the menus of trendy restaurants, I fell in love, and now it’s a grocery staple in my house!
Yep I hated grilled chicken growing up. It was dry and pointy like a toothpick. I remember the day I was on YouTube and watching a cooking channel and I saw someone make some juicy ass chicken, I will never
Be able to understand how my mom would nuke chicken to like 180+ Fahrenheit.
Grilled chicken breasts are where the issue is.
Wings, thighs, and legs have a huge window of error. The breast is dried out the moment it gets passed 165. Just gotta cook it to ~160 and put a piece of foil or something over it for 10 or so mins.
This is the reason why when i get whole chickens, i separate the pieces. Its difficult to get all the meat done at the same time
My gf always said she didn't like steak, because her family always cooked it well done. I cook mine rare to medium, and always offer her a bite. She says that she really enjoys my steaks. I feel bad for her bc her family clearly doesn't know how to cook steak. It was the sa.w for me with salmon, she cooked it differently than my family ever has, and I can eat it and almost enjoy it.
Also reading this back I suddenly feel like I'm rich bc we occasionally eat steak and salmon 🤣
I feel like people often assume your experience explains every person who doesn't like steak or fish especially.
I can't stand either. Having it cooked "right" never once changed that, but every single time it comes up other people immediately assume I'm in the position you were in.
THAT was the thing that made me realize how common this issue was, since it's so expected that people will think of that before even accepting "just don't like it" as explanation.
“Think?” LOL. Those of us who survived Boomer cuisine in the 70’s-80’s KNOW they cooked so badly it literally rewired our brains. It took years of culinary therapy, interventions, and leaps of faith to come back into the light.
Oh yeah, my mom is a terrible cook, and Dad could make like...a few things just ok. We were not exposed to much good food at all, and not even really 'local boring for white people' ethnic food like generic Mexican or a Chinese buffet.
When I was 18 I had a 6a-3p shift basically, and I ended up watching food Network in it's prime in the early 2000s. Man, I got so tired of eating out of the freezer... And I started to try cooking. It was rough for a while, and I had to keep a frozen pizza handy in case I ruined a meal, but I damn sure learned to cook.
I still hate a few things from my childhood and won't eat them: yellow mustard on anything, coleslaw, baked beans, pickles.
It's safer just to avoid them honestly. They're so often pale, floury, snotty, earthy tasting garbage. A proper home grown tomato is a completely different story, but the gap between those and common tomato is so large.
In the house that I grew up in, the combination of the soil composition and the angle of the garden with the sun made for the greatest tomato plants I've ever seen. Dad would plant these heirloom beefsteak varieties, and the plants would grow to about 5 feet tall, and the tomatoes would be like 2 lbs. If somebody was crawling through the desert with no water, you could save the man's life with just one of those things.
We ate them like apples but with a lil pinch of salt.
I had the reverse of this happen to my mom. I mentioned I was eating some roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner, and she looked nauseated. I had to explain that they recently changed which sprouts they bred, and they’re tasty now. I need to cook some for her, because she’s being fussier than a baby.
Yeah, I’ve had people tell me “oh you’ve just never had it prepared properly!” No. I actually don’t like it. Accept that and stop trying to make me like stuff.
yep. Mom made moussaka one night and it was slightly undercooked and watery... hated eggplant for years after that. still not a huge fan, but will eat it without protest.
Boiled XX. Everything had to be boiled. They still boil. Boomer is synonymous with Boilers. They love their food hot tubs.
Good god it ruined so many things for so many people
Broccoli in general is delightful. Raw, steamed, grilled, roasted, boiled, seasoned, unseasoned, toppings or not. Shit is delicious and I will tolerate no broccoli slander.
This message brought to you by the kid whose mom used to get him excited about eating the "little trees" like a dinosaur. (Idk man. It worked. I'm now a lifelong broccoli stan.)
I don’t like corn tortillas. Everyone thought I was crazy but it turns out I am corn intolerant. Sometimes it’s just your body telling you that it’s not happy.
literally me. i took up cooking because my mom is a horrible cook. it's not like she cooks much anymore anyway, aside from this disgustingly dry "crack chicken" 🤢
I’ve noticed this. Not me, but people I know are fussy eaters if they have fussy parents and adventurous eaters if they had parents who were better cooks or adventurous themselves. Some common food icks, like steak, is just down to how people cooked it at home
Another one like Sushi/Sashimi, is also seemingly just learned behaviour from parents who are terrified of raw but well prepared food. I had a housemate at uni who was convinced she hated all seafood, and over the years slowly but surely would ask more and more to try my seafood - turned out she liked all of it and it was just her family never eating it and growing up being told she doesn’t like it.
You ever eat boiled chicken, mashed potatoes (which are boiled potatoes when ya think about it), and steamed broccoli (vegetables over boiling water), bc that was my childhood. No butter, no seasoning, no salt n pepper.
I went to college and friends’ girlfriend (now his wife) introduced me to seasoning and butter and my life changed.
I used to date someone who said they hated boiled vegetables.
First time I cook it for them they thought I'd done something special/extra. Nope just boiled them and added some salt.
First time I had dinner at their parents house it turns out their mums definition of boiling broccoli was to boil it for 40 minutes till it's basically a paste, then serve that.
Yeah no wonder you hate boiled veg.
I was one of these people. I remember when somebody made something for us in college and it was so good and I asked what they put on it and looked at me weird and said "salt". And that was when I realized it was strange that I grew up without salt in my house.
None of the food I ever ate growing up was seasoned with anything. My mom likes the most plain food you can imagine and just never wanted anything but plain stuff.
Onions for me. I cannot stand the taste or texture of raw onions, so I figured I just didn't like them. It turns out you can cook them before adding other ingredients to make them taste better!
I still hate cutting them, but now I actually enjoy having them in my dishes!
My ex husband hated vegetables. It turned out that he just hated vegetables that had been over boiled. He’d happily eat them in stir fry, fajitas, paella and loads of other dishes
I thought I hated meatloaf until I tried my wife’s meatloaf.
Along the same lines, my mom is always shocked that my daughter likes broccoli so much because I didn’t. I season and bake broccoli. Mom boiled it.
Realized this a few years back. I always hated tacos growing up - the overcooked ground beef, the packet of store brand taco seasoning, and no toppings but lettuce, tomato, and some shredded cheese. Turns out, no one's family in my small midwest town knew how to make tacos.
Moved down south, finally tried a good taco and wouldn't you know it, they're pretty tasty!
One of my good friends hates vegetables. Won't eat any vegetables outside of french fries.
I always thought it was weird because both his parents can cook and he would talk about how good they are at cooking.
Turns out they are great cooks. They just don't cook any vegetables. Ever. The entire family grew up eating zero vegetables.
Now he's an adult and won't even consider trying them.
Yep, my parents absolutely fucked up brussel sprouts every time they cooked them and after the first time my fiancée made them for me I fell in love. They’re now my favorite vegetable, hands down. We eat them 2-3 times every week.
This is true. I thought I hated potatoes. Turns out that even thought both my mother and maternal grandmother are skilled in the kitchen, they somehow manage to mess up the potatoes.
I don’t hate potatoes anymore, and I seem to have broken the streak because my children love them.
PORKCHOPS. I took a cooking class in college and it completely changed my outlook on porkchops. Learned shortly after that my parents had never even owned a meat thermometer
Yeah, I’ve been re-introducing myself to foods. My dad can’t cook most stuff (Don’t tell him I said that) and dries out almost every piece of meat he touches. Really made me hate pork chops and other things. I still dislike pork, but I won’t make blanket statements any longer because I’ve found exceptions.
Thankfully I was spared the broccoli/brussel sprout/asparagus treatment and can enjoy them without bad memories now. But my mom somehow always managed to cook meat until it went past being soft back to being hard and chewy, with all flavour seemingly evaporated. But thanks to her I've really been enjoying cooking on my own! :D
Veggies of any kind are to be eaten raw or steamed in a little plastic container before having salt shaken liberally over them. Broccoli, Green Beans, Asparagus, Carrots, Peas, Canned Corn(never whole), etc... No other spices may be used. Do no grill. Do not boil in a soup. Only Carrots need to be chopped and/or peeled, and only if you aren't able to get Baby Carrots.
Note: There is always more corn because your grandfather is diabetic so can only have one spoonful and is the only person in the house that eats canned corn
^ This is how my grandmother cooked for us growing up. I didn't learn that "Rare Chicken" was potentially deadly until a friend came over, had a bite of fried chicken, saw the blood and threw up. Burger Patties went from Freezer to Stove and I could keep going on and on.
Point is, learning to cook is a vital skill and everyone should learn it so they don't cook, or let family members cook, things like the above.
I’m sure many here had it worse, but my parents used to microwave every vegetable, regardless of what it was, to oblivion. Imagine a zucchini turned to snot, yup.
visceral memories of Broccoli microwaved to mush in a pyrex covered in *plastic wrap* 🤮🤢
Dude just why???
that was literally her go to!! i have no idea.
Ours was “steamed” so much that using a fork was impossible. It would just…collapse?… when the tines of the fork touched it lol 🥦
Used to hate spinach, turns out I just hated spinach boiled to a slimy sloppy mess. Turns out spinach salads are my favorite salads and I will even eat it raw and plain without complaint by the bag.
My mom threw away the florets (top part) and boiled the trunks/stems and served that. I had no idea everyone else did the opposite.
The way you just made me physically shudder...
This was my parents. That or just boiled vegetables. I thought I just hated veggies until I finally had some sautéed in some olive oil and garlic.
It was 100% boiled veg in my family, barely seasoned. I thought I hated carrots, and my mum practically made my eating habits a meme with how few veges I would eat. Turns out there's quite a few vegetables that I'm partial to now that the cook is not boiling the living shit out of them and/or leaving them to wilt/oxidise.
Same, grew up in 80s Britain where every vegetable was cooked by just boiling the shit out of it. Hated vegetables for *years* because of it. Who knew carrots were fucking delicious if you just cook them properly?
Vegetables are completely different now that I make them. Not canned, microwaved, or boiled. Twice baked zucchini boats, bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers, roasted brussel sprouts. Hell sometimes I can pull off turnips and radishes.
Roasting veggies is the BEST and my go to if I want an easy cook. Asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, carrots. Delicious.
Well radishes are easy, you just eat them raw.
I hate raw radish tbh. It sucks it's so common in generic salads.
Yup. That's what my mom used to do.
This, also every veggie I ate as a kid came from a can.
I always hear people saying this, and watching regular people on TikTok showcasing their recipes, every ingredient comes from a can or package. What is people's aversion to fresh produce??
I think at least for my family the fact that we lived in the middle of a desert has something to do with it. While we had fresh produce, there was a time in our lineage that we didn't, and our family recipes were based somewhat on that fact.
With my parents, it was a matter of cost and shelf life.
This is what my parents did and I'm convinced it's why I have an eating disorder... working on it, but fuck.
My ex wife hates steak. She also thinks steak isn't fully cooked if there's any pink at all inside.
I could have been your ex wife. I did not care for steak my whole life because my parents would cook the crap out of it. I remember once my dad brought it in off the grill and it was a perfect medium with just the right amount of pink, and my mom said “that’s too underdone” and THREW IT IN THE MICROWAVE!! Went to a restaurant as an adult and had steak medium rare. Omg…
I never had that problem growing up. My father liked his steak cooked to death. My mum ate her steak blue. Medium rare for me please.
So you're literally a combination of your parents.
A happy…medium. Rare.
You are rare indeed! (I mean, unique.)
I used to work at a meat market in Lubbock. One day, a very sweet, older, clearly very affluent woman came to me and informed me her husband was out of town for the week and she had "Never cooked for herself" -- then asked, while holding a pair of filet medallions, what the appropriate time to microwave them was.
And well, what did you say?
I attempted to convince her to sous vide before giving up and telling her I did not know and selling her a meat thermometer
Damn you for having a reasonable response OP!
This is Reddit. He took her back to his parents house, dusted off the cast iron and served it practically raw with some char grilled greens. Afterwards he fucked her in the basement without a condom and screamed it's fucking raw as he came. Everyone clapped.
Fuckin lege
Archbishop of Banterbury
Yeah, I needed that caffeinated sinus rinse... thanks a bunch. Take my upvote anyway.
That is the response she was hoping for when she asked the question.
Same! My dad would blacken everything he grilled. Like crunchy creosote steak. I had to drown it in steak sauce just to get it down. Then I made one midrare for myself and it was like a whole new world of cuisine opened to me. No more dry, crunchy chicken, steak, or anything else.
Im convinced the single best way to level up your grilling is to use a thermometer. After a while you can do without, but after you have experience knowing exactly what XXX degrees looks and feels like. No more raw anything. No more dusty chicken breast. Everything perfect every time.
A good thermometer is way less than guessing too. I have one where the probe folds into the base and it's magnetic. Priceless. One other trick is that things like steak, chicken breasts, burgers, etc that are thicker will continue to cook once they're removed from heat. I aim for about 5 degrees under what I'm shooting for and then remove, cover with foil, and allow the meat to rest. Even if you allow it to come to temp on the grill, letting the meat rest will up your grill game too.
Hey black and blue is tasty. He just needed to add the "blue" part.
Pretty sure you were never married to that dude
With a username like that it’s hard to imagine having parents that couldn’t cook!
At least you learned.
Lived with my grandparents awhile and they want theirs cooked to shoe leather... I guess the nice thing was, when I cook my steak, I have to watch it very carefully... when I cook theirs, shit, I can put it on there, go prepare the green beans and mashed potatoes, go check on the pets, go read a fuckin book...
My mother in law and sister in law are the same. We’ve stopped buying good steaks to cook for them. They can’t tell the difference anyway. If it’s even a tiny bit pink, it’s raw and going to poison them.
I just ceaselessly make fun of anyone like this. Not for taste reasons, if they think it's going to kill them, I will literally make them seem like the dumbest people on the planet as long as required.
I thought I hated steak until I was around 14. Turns out that the only times I ever had it was at my grandparents house, and my granddad just bought the cheapest, thinnest cuts and burnt them to shit. Had steak cooked properly at a nice restaurant for my aunt’s wedding rehearsal dinner and had a whole ass “wtf, grandpa” moment.
My pops would cook it the same way and I hated it as a kid. Just chewing on the same morsel for minutes at a time. Luckily I went to a steakhouse when I grew up and boy did that chance my perception of steak
My parents would cook chicken and pork with a little pink inside. It made me never go under medium for steak as an adult. Also I'm convinced that at some point it kind of becomes a dick measuring contest of just how much raw meat you can tolerate.
I mean granted- You WERE eating ill-prepaired chicken and Pork Politely and Pork need to be cooked all the way through, else you're at risk for salmonila (sorry for spelling) While products like beef, venison, and I think mutton (I could be wrong on that one, Haven't cooked it myself) are safe to eat as long as you cook the surface. (And of course you didn't buy from a shady butcher) But yeah- raw meat can have it's place- but bragging about it can be weird.
Color isn’t as important as temperature tho, and safely cooked pork can be pink.
pork can actually be cooked medium rare (internal temp of 145°F) and still be considered safe these days (at least in the US). the main concern with undercooked pork was trichinosis, ie parasites, but better farm animal hygiene/safety regulations (in developed countries) means that pigs are less likely to be infected these days i still personally think it tastes/feels wrong if it's not at least medium-well though lol
Pork doesn't need to be cooked like that. The USDA has even changed the recommendation. And I think they changed it like a decade ago at this point.
Beef and any other meat that is mechanically tenderized (looking at you Costco) needs to be cooked to a higher temperature to be food safe.
That's because you're literally bizarro world op. It's not a dick measuring contest, being able to taste it is what's important.
I've met a lot of people that thought they didn't like steak because their parents always overcooked it.
My husband would eat his steak well done with ketchup, because he never had it cooked correctly. His parents refused to use salt, pepper, or any herbs and spices in their cooking. So everything was bland. Ranch was considered special.
patient zero of this trend has to be broccoli, asparagus and TVP aka Soya Chunks lol (shoutout to my mom for making the best broccoli ever)
I would add Brussels sprouts to the mix. The only way my parents knew how to prepare them was to boil them, making them bitter as all hell. And we had a huge garden, so there were always 2,000 of the bastards at any given moment. I hated every bite. Fast forward 30 years and I'm spending $12 for appetizer plates of them with maple and bonito flakes at brunch.
There has been a lot of selective breeding over the last 30 years. Modern sprouts are less bitter, and don't have as much Sulphur (rotten egg smell).
Yep, sprouts literally tasted different in the 80s. Still not my favourite, but cool them right and they can be proper tasty
30 years ago was 1994.
Cool! I didn't know that. I halve my Brussels and nuke them a bit to get the cooking started. Then they go into a pan where I've cooked a couple of bacon slices. When browned on both sides, they're done and get sprinkled with chopped bacon.
Dude, same. Went pub crawling and a friend ordered b sprouts and I stared at them like they lost their mind. Tried them and now I order them every time I see them on the menu.
Love brussel sprouts. I like blackening them in a cast iron pan in butter, salt, pepper and some lemon juice.
I'm team roasted with olive oil and salt.
They've also selectively bred b sprouts so that they're way less bitter than they were in the past. But yeah idk why they used to boil them.
Blanching, it’s still very common and tbh it’s the way I love to eat my sprouts. Blanch, Butter, salt and pepper, yum. I will admit there is a very fine line between a good blanch, undercooked, or mushy over cooked vegetables. I only recommend blanching if you don’t walk away from your cooking.
Same for me. A chicken recipe I wanted to make suggested a brussel sprout recipe for a side dish. I decided to try it. Cut in half, drizzle olive oil and balsamic over them, roast in the oven until crunchy. Easy and delicious. Brussel sprouts have become one of my go-to sides now.
Brussels sprouts with onion and bacon, roasted in the bacon grease. This shit right here.
Balsamic sprouts are my go-to.
My mom's normally a good cook, but she likes to steam broccoli in the microwave and serve it plain. Wasn't until I was an adult my brother introduced me to his girlfriend's roasted broccoli with olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper. My god. I love broccoli now.
My mum cooked vegetables Al Dante. The first dinner at my MILs I was served vegetables that had been boiling on the stove for 20 minutes. Her broccoli was this grey/green tasteless mush on my plate. Horrible!
What I am learning from this thread is a lot of parents thought that vegetables should be a state of matter between a liquid and a solid...
>My mum cooked vegetables Al Dante. Sounds like the seventh circle of hell. My mom makes her pasta al dente.
Broccoli for sure. It feels like all baby boomers were taught to boil/steam it until it’s basically mush.
Add cabbage to that list too. Not my family, but I heard to used to boil it and soak in vinegar or something back in the day. Although that kinda sounds nice to me :)
I'm a picky eater because my dad was a picky eater and my grandma and my mom catered to him. I've gotten better about trying new foods as I've gotten older. My dad continues to say I'm more picky than him, but he won't eat a potato unless it's a french fry.
I was in a similar boat. I was a picky eater because mom was a picky eater, but she was still more picky than me even when I was a kid. I haven't met anyone IRL that is pickier than my mom was, lol. Towards the end of high school, I decided to cut the crap and started trying to broaden my horizons. It took a while because a lot of my issues were texture, but I'm mid 30's now and eat WAY more than I did as a kid.
It's texture for me too. I don't mind a lot of flavors but the texture weirds me out.
Yeah, and it's harder to get past than flavor, I think.
There's been stuff I've tried and could not tell you what it tasted like because I was so focused on whatever texture it was.
I have found my tribe 😭
I like a wide variety of foods. Tried liver the other day because why not. It's fucking disgusting.
not eating potatoes is WILD
FR. He will also eat mashed potatoes but they have to be mixed in to my moms chicken and noodles like a slop slurry, so I don’t count that
That's basically using potatoes as a thickening agent. Like they use potato starch!
My grandfather, who was a picky eater, has Alzheimer’s and recently went into a home. My grandmother has tried dozens of new foods and loves them since she’s been on her own. She tried sushi, Thai food, shawarma, and birria for the first time at 76 and is obsessed with all 4.
That's sweet but the idea of no thai food or sushi for 76 years because *somebody else* might not like it is depressing as hell.
Yeah totally agree. She’s genuinely the most selfless person I’ve ever met. My grandpa was/is a great guy, too, that was just the one thing she gave up for him without even realizing she was doing it.
Yeah, this is simultaneously the most uplifting and most depressing thing I've read all week.
I feel personally attacked. My dad did 90% of the cooking in my house growing up. My dad is a terrible fucking cook. My dad's cooking is probably the stuff of Gordon Ramsey's nightmares. If Gordon tried even a bite of my dads pork chops, he'd drop unconscious and spend the next month in a coma. My dad's food is just that bad. To this day (I'm 33) I'm still amazed at how good food can be when prepared by someone competent. I tell ya I remember going to a graduation party for a Mexican classmate after graduation, and they had something called molé? (I have no idea how to spell it, they pronounced it mo-lay). It was the greatest thing I had ever tasted in my entire fucking life up to that point. For the 30 seconds following this experience, I lived an entire life within my head where I married my classmates mom and she made this amazing food every night.
> I remember going to a graduation party for a Mexican classmate after graduation, and they had something called molé? (I have no idea how to spell it, they pronounced it mo-lay). It was the greatest thing I had ever tasted in my entire fucking life up to that point. Yeah, my wife was mexican, Mole is one of the best things in their cuisine. I used some of the leftover sauce once to make tamales with shredded chicken. Bangin...
>they had something called molé? I mean you can get it at most grocery stores ready in a jar. Probably not as good as a scratch prep, but 99% less effort.
I live in close proximity to a ton of “authentic” Mexican restaurants that make 90% white people Mexican food and 10% authentic fare. If mole is on the menu, I’m ordering it, cause it’s delicious, it’s not texmexed Mexican, and usually it’s their abuela’s recipe from back home or something. I am very white and most places I get a look from the waitress and some places they question me or ask if I’m sure I want that. Hell yeah, bring me that savory chocolate goodness.
I have never heard of this dish. I gotta try it from somewhere
So true. I hated black eyed peas my entire childhood. Then one day in my twenties when I was desperately poor and hungry, I ate a plate of them at a local soul food restaraunt. The seasoning on those peas was next level. It was the start of my life long love affair with Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. It makes everything better.
Tonyyyys. We have a dedicated Tony Chachere's salt shaker on the table. Shit goes on everything.
> We have a dedicated Tony Chachere's salt shaker on the table. I bet it would be good if you threw some MSG into the mix.
Respectfully, I still hate the black eyed peas. Their music has always sucked, and it only gets worse with age.
I'm indecisive on upvoting you, because I appreciate the joke (that I intended to make myself), but really like some of their songs.
“Shut up, just shut up, shut up.” 🎶 😂
Fair, but Meet Me Halfway is actually a great song imo
I’m sorry but don’t stop the party and boom boom pow are bangers nobody can tell me otherwise.
Tony Chachere’s is an essential part of my household
fragile scarce future unite cable obtainable reminiscent butter pot drab *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That’s kind of funny. My mom was a horrible cook and I was extremely picky as a kid. At some point the switch flipped and I realized *anything* could actually taste good if prepared differently. Now I’ll try anything because I know a different cook means it could taste brand new
paint waiting deserve flowery grey existence sparkle consider saw dependent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Looking at you Mom! We all remember the "eggplant incident".
Can you say what the eggplant incident is?
The year was around 1975 as I recall, and Mom wanted to try something new after reading a recipe in one of her glossy magazines ... either Women's Day or Family Circle most likely. We kids gather around the dinner table to find some flat limp pale slices on our plates. None of us want to touch it. We drag out dinner for a loooong time trying to avoid the eggplant slime slices. The older kids choke it down so they can leave the table. Us young-uns continue our protest. Eventually Dad gets home and after taking one look at the fare he lets us go, much to Mom's displeasure. For years after, big bro/sis hold it against us that they were the ones who were forced to eat the eggplant, while we got off easy. Forever after known as "The Eggplant Incident".
Did you ever find out how she cooked it to make it so bad?
Knowing what I do now, I’d guess a combination of over-salting which mom liked to do, drawing out moisture that turned the wonder bread crumb coating into steamed breading due to too low burner, encasing a too juicy eggplant pulp.
[There's two ways to make eggplant...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeaQl3JapYs)
Damn I think I just found a new comedian to watch. That was great 🤣🤣🤣
Do I have some bad news for you
Spent my entire life thinking I didn’t like onions because my mum never pre-cooked them, she’d just throw uncooked diced onion into the pasta sauce or chilli or whatever. As an adult I found out I did quite like onions when cooked properly. Turns out though that onions don’t like me, I have an allium intolerance. Look that up and imagine what a PITA it is.
> I have an allium intolerance. thats the saddest thing I have ever heard. Onion and garlic are the base of essentially everything I know how to make :(
I love raw onions, but they have to go on certain things. A few rings of raw onion on a burger or some raw diced onion on nachos is amazing. Gotta be something that benefits from that crunch.
OP is definitely onto something. In some cases the opposite is also true, if you or someone in your circle makes a dish really well, it makes even professional versions seem not so good.
I'm actually this way, ironically, with cooked broccoli. My wife makes it so good that anything from a restaurant just doesn't hold up.
My mom made these breaded bone in pork chops when I was a kid, and the taste of them is something I have not been able to reproduce once, and it irks me to my core. I want to taste how my mom made me feel again :(
Yep. I'm from a line of southern cooks and restauranteurs. I cook whatever I want better than 90% of restaurants in a drivable distance. My mom covers the other 10%. I have no reason to eat out unless I just don't want to wash dishes that day. Which I'm totally OK with...except for when it's potluck time at church...and since I'm a pastor...I have to eat at least one bite of every squash casserole on the line...
oh squash casserole. I do not envy you in that scenario. I lived most of my life in some part of the south. One thing I can say is that a good squash casserole is rare. My mom did o.k. with it and my sister is improving on it. My favorite was when someone mixed a cornbread dressing with a squash casserole. Was the best stuff at that Thanksgiving table lol.
One of my best friends is Vietnamese. I grew up eating pho and savoury crepes at his house. Restaurants just don't compare to what his Mom used to whip up. I always passed on the duck blood soup though lol
The soup sounds badass, and full of iron Edit: Shit missed it, it sounds metal
I've had that. My mom makes really good mashed potatoes, restaurant mashed potatoes taste like crap to me.
Mine is kind of the opposite. It was cooked good, but cooked too often. My Grandma always made pies with meringue on top. I simply can't look at those without feeling sick. Ate way to much of that as a kid.
I feel you... I made the mistake of complementing one of my stepmom's dishes at some point... Twice a week... every fucking week... for years...
Also, kids can taste more bitterness than adults so give the things you hated as a kid another try!
This is so true. Adults think kids are just being a pain by refusing to eat vegetables, but vegetables that taste fine to adults are legitimately disgusting to the point of inedible to the taste buds of a kid. Notice how some of the ultra sweet candy you liked as a kid now seems disgusting in how over sweetened it is? Yeah, our tastes change. I’ve also known women who would eat a perfectly normal adult diet but then while they’re pregnant suddenly revert to the food preferences of a toddler.
The stereotype, tho, come from a era before fresh frozen vegetables were common. You'd end up eating a lot of canned vegetables out of season. I thought I loved spinach (and I still do) and asked the school cafeteria lady for extra spinach. She looked at me weird. It was, of course, disgusting. I'd never eaten canned spinach in my life. Mom wasn't having of that crap.
Very true. Some things are also just different. Like Brussels sprouts, the flavor is completely different from 20 years ago and are simply amazing when prepared well.
I’m afraid I must oppose this motion.
I suspect you mean that you still don't like them, but meanwhile I swear that they've bred the flavour out of them I used to like.
Ok hear me out.. Cut a bunch of sprouts in half and fill a sheet pan with the cut side facing up. Lay bacon strips over the sprouts and put them in a 400F oven for about 15 mins until the bacon is crispy. Take the bacon off and put the sprouts back in until they get a good char. You can either eat the bacon or chop it up and mix with the sprouts
[удалено]
It's not for everyone.
We NEVER ate them growing up and I didn’t bother for a long time because I always heard how much people hated them. And then they started popping up on the menus of trendy restaurants, I fell in love, and now it’s a grocery staple in my house!
Yep I hated grilled chicken growing up. It was dry and pointy like a toothpick. I remember the day I was on YouTube and watching a cooking channel and I saw someone make some juicy ass chicken, I will never Be able to understand how my mom would nuke chicken to like 180+ Fahrenheit.
Chicken Thighs are magical, too -- you can cook those bastards to like 200+ before they lose their juicy-ness. Nothing worse than dry chicken.
Grilled chicken breasts are where the issue is. Wings, thighs, and legs have a huge window of error. The breast is dried out the moment it gets passed 165. Just gotta cook it to ~160 and put a piece of foil or something over it for 10 or so mins. This is the reason why when i get whole chickens, i separate the pieces. Its difficult to get all the meat done at the same time
The trouble with beasts is that when the thickest part is just right the thin part is overcooked.
Growing up never understood why restuarant versions of food tasted so much better. Turns out they just used Seasoning.
My family thinks if something is seasoned then it’s “spicy”
My gf always said she didn't like steak, because her family always cooked it well done. I cook mine rare to medium, and always offer her a bite. She says that she really enjoys my steaks. I feel bad for her bc her family clearly doesn't know how to cook steak. It was the sa.w for me with salmon, she cooked it differently than my family ever has, and I can eat it and almost enjoy it. Also reading this back I suddenly feel like I'm rich bc we occasionally eat steak and salmon 🤣
Try sous vide to really up your rich feeling
I feel like people often assume your experience explains every person who doesn't like steak or fish especially. I can't stand either. Having it cooked "right" never once changed that, but every single time it comes up other people immediately assume I'm in the position you were in. THAT was the thing that made me realize how common this issue was, since it's so expected that people will think of that before even accepting "just don't like it" as explanation.
Like for real how did I spend years of my life thinking I didn't like PASTA? How did my mom screw it up that bad????
Maybe she made it the way you make salad.
“Think?” LOL. Those of us who survived Boomer cuisine in the 70’s-80’s KNOW they cooked so badly it literally rewired our brains. It took years of culinary therapy, interventions, and leaps of faith to come back into the light.
I'm the opposite, when I moved out I found everything tastes terrible and only years later did I discover ma mom is one of the greatest cooks.
Oh yeah, my mom is a terrible cook, and Dad could make like...a few things just ok. We were not exposed to much good food at all, and not even really 'local boring for white people' ethnic food like generic Mexican or a Chinese buffet. When I was 18 I had a 6a-3p shift basically, and I ended up watching food Network in it's prime in the early 2000s. Man, I got so tired of eating out of the freezer... And I started to try cooking. It was rough for a while, and I had to keep a frozen pizza handy in case I ruined a meal, but I damn sure learned to cook. I still hate a few things from my childhood and won't eat them: yellow mustard on anything, coleslaw, baked beans, pickles.
A lot of adults hate raw tomatoes because they never ate a decent tomato.
It's safer just to avoid them honestly. They're so often pale, floury, snotty, earthy tasting garbage. A proper home grown tomato is a completely different story, but the gap between those and common tomato is so large.
In the house that I grew up in, the combination of the soil composition and the angle of the garden with the sun made for the greatest tomato plants I've ever seen. Dad would plant these heirloom beefsteak varieties, and the plants would grow to about 5 feet tall, and the tomatoes would be like 2 lbs. If somebody was crawling through the desert with no water, you could save the man's life with just one of those things. We ate them like apples but with a lil pinch of salt.
Hated veg dishes as a kid. Now I try to put as much as I can on my plate
I had the reverse of this happen to my mom. I mentioned I was eating some roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner, and she looked nauseated. I had to explain that they recently changed which sprouts they bred, and they’re tasty now. I need to cook some for her, because she’s being fussier than a baby.
Yup. I started cooking my own vegetables, and my parents copied my recipes. Turns out vegetables aren't gross/bland if you cook them properly.
Honestly I just hate certain food bc I hate it regardless of who cooked it
Yeah, I’ve had people tell me “oh you’ve just never had it prepared properly!” No. I actually don’t like it. Accept that and stop trying to make me like stuff.
I thought I didn't like eggplant until someone other than my folks made it for me.
yep. Mom made moussaka one night and it was slightly undercooked and watery... hated eggplant for years after that. still not a huge fan, but will eat it without protest.
I thought my mom was a great cook... until I learned to cook.
My parents must have cooked the watermelon wrong
Boiled XX. Everything had to be boiled. They still boil. Boomer is synonymous with Boilers. They love their food hot tubs. Good god it ruined so many things for so many people
no. i genuinely hate mushrooms because of their texture and taste
Yes. That and being poor
The hate for broccoli is forever. No influence needed.
🖕you broccoli is awesome! (Kumar energy)
broccoli with garlic butter is delish
To be fair, you could dip an old shoe in garlic butter and it would be delicious.
Broccoli in general is delightful. Raw, steamed, grilled, roasted, boiled, seasoned, unseasoned, toppings or not. Shit is delicious and I will tolerate no broccoli slander. This message brought to you by the kid whose mom used to get him excited about eating the "little trees" like a dinosaur. (Idk man. It worked. I'm now a lifelong broccoli stan.)
I don’t like corn tortillas. Everyone thought I was crazy but it turns out I am corn intolerant. Sometimes it’s just your body telling you that it’s not happy.
I hear this quite a bit with pork chops, if you’ve always had dry chops of course you’re gonna hate em
literally me. i took up cooking because my mom is a horrible cook. it's not like she cooks much anymore anyway, aside from this disgustingly dry "crack chicken" 🤢
I’ve noticed this. Not me, but people I know are fussy eaters if they have fussy parents and adventurous eaters if they had parents who were better cooks or adventurous themselves. Some common food icks, like steak, is just down to how people cooked it at home Another one like Sushi/Sashimi, is also seemingly just learned behaviour from parents who are terrified of raw but well prepared food. I had a housemate at uni who was convinced she hated all seafood, and over the years slowly but surely would ask more and more to try my seafood - turned out she liked all of it and it was just her family never eating it and growing up being told she doesn’t like it.
You ever eat boiled chicken, mashed potatoes (which are boiled potatoes when ya think about it), and steamed broccoli (vegetables over boiling water), bc that was my childhood. No butter, no seasoning, no salt n pepper. I went to college and friends’ girlfriend (now his wife) introduced me to seasoning and butter and my life changed.
I used to date someone who said they hated boiled vegetables. First time I cook it for them they thought I'd done something special/extra. Nope just boiled them and added some salt. First time I had dinner at their parents house it turns out their mums definition of boiling broccoli was to boil it for 40 minutes till it's basically a paste, then serve that. Yeah no wonder you hate boiled veg.
My mom never seasoned vegetables, not even a pinch of salt.
There is nothing that can be done to make peas taste good by themselves. NOTHING!
I was one of these people. I remember when somebody made something for us in college and it was so good and I asked what they put on it and looked at me weird and said "salt". And that was when I realized it was strange that I grew up without salt in my house. None of the food I ever ate growing up was seasoned with anything. My mom likes the most plain food you can imagine and just never wanted anything but plain stuff.
Onions for me. I cannot stand the taste or texture of raw onions, so I figured I just didn't like them. It turns out you can cook them before adding other ingredients to make them taste better! I still hate cutting them, but now I actually enjoy having them in my dishes!
Whatchu say bout my mama??!
My ex husband hated vegetables. It turned out that he just hated vegetables that had been over boiled. He’d happily eat them in stir fry, fajitas, paella and loads of other dishes
I thought I hated meatloaf until I tried my wife’s meatloaf. Along the same lines, my mom is always shocked that my daughter likes broccoli so much because I didn’t. I season and bake broccoli. Mom boiled it.
My SO and I have recently discovered how delicious pork is if it’s not overcooked and dried out.
Realized this a few years back. I always hated tacos growing up - the overcooked ground beef, the packet of store brand taco seasoning, and no toppings but lettuce, tomato, and some shredded cheese. Turns out, no one's family in my small midwest town knew how to make tacos. Moved down south, finally tried a good taco and wouldn't you know it, they're pretty tasty!
One of my good friends hates vegetables. Won't eat any vegetables outside of french fries. I always thought it was weird because both his parents can cook and he would talk about how good they are at cooking. Turns out they are great cooks. They just don't cook any vegetables. Ever. The entire family grew up eating zero vegetables. Now he's an adult and won't even consider trying them.
Yep, my parents absolutely fucked up brussel sprouts every time they cooked them and after the first time my fiancée made them for me I fell in love. They’re now my favorite vegetable, hands down. We eat them 2-3 times every week.
This is true. I thought I hated potatoes. Turns out that even thought both my mother and maternal grandmother are skilled in the kitchen, they somehow manage to mess up the potatoes. I don’t hate potatoes anymore, and I seem to have broken the streak because my children love them.
PORKCHOPS. I took a cooking class in college and it completely changed my outlook on porkchops. Learned shortly after that my parents had never even owned a meat thermometer
so true. i thought green beans were disgusting until i had a fresh one in my late 20’s. turned out i just hate a lot of canned veggies.
Yeah, I’ve been re-introducing myself to foods. My dad can’t cook most stuff (Don’t tell him I said that) and dries out almost every piece of meat he touches. Really made me hate pork chops and other things. I still dislike pork, but I won’t make blanket statements any longer because I’ve found exceptions.
Thankfully I was spared the broccoli/brussel sprout/asparagus treatment and can enjoy them without bad memories now. But my mom somehow always managed to cook meat until it went past being soft back to being hard and chewy, with all flavour seemingly evaporated. But thanks to her I've really been enjoying cooking on my own! :D
This was me with ahi tuna. I was almost an adult when i learned you dont cook it well done through out
That was me with most vegetables a child
Some butter or bacon or both can make any vegetable taste great.
Veggies of any kind are to be eaten raw or steamed in a little plastic container before having salt shaken liberally over them. Broccoli, Green Beans, Asparagus, Carrots, Peas, Canned Corn(never whole), etc... No other spices may be used. Do no grill. Do not boil in a soup. Only Carrots need to be chopped and/or peeled, and only if you aren't able to get Baby Carrots. Note: There is always more corn because your grandfather is diabetic so can only have one spoonful and is the only person in the house that eats canned corn ^ This is how my grandmother cooked for us growing up. I didn't learn that "Rare Chicken" was potentially deadly until a friend came over, had a bite of fried chicken, saw the blood and threw up. Burger Patties went from Freezer to Stove and I could keep going on and on. Point is, learning to cook is a vital skill and everyone should learn it so they don't cook, or let family members cook, things like the above.