Each Thursday we ask whether you think a certain object or subject is manly. Make sure to check out past Is it manly? polls. Now for this week’s question:
Is cooking manly? Vote. Discuss.
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@abdullah – Well I think that -leaving aside the sterotype- a man that really can cook and set an elegant table for any meal (just an informal lunch at home) says a lot of himself, since the preparation of meals involves some kind of elegance, take something simple as a salad, you have to be careful enough to chop the different ingredients in a shape and size that permits a person to take a decent bite of it. Also the combinations of ingredients talks about the good taste of the person that made it. And so – on, in my opinion Abdullah just have to go back to the middle ages….
Using knives and fire to satiate hunger? Cooking is a culmination of manliness. Of course, much has been done culturally to femenize it — fluting a cakes icing so that it looks like a happy teddy bear, for instance, is unmanly. But in essence, cooking is science, one of the original uses of tools, and basic to providing to oneself; and all those things are manly.
Of course cooking is manly! But some men fall into a few frou-frou trends that decreases the over all manliness of their cooking.
-Fear of mistakes. The first thing to realize is, mistakes will happen. You’ll burn something, you’ll add the wrong ingredient, you’ll undercook a few things. Some stuff will get thrown out, some will get ate by the dog, some will taste surprisingly delicious. You really have to watch out for that last bunch, because some of those will put you in the emergency room. You will screw up. Learn from your mistakes, and overcome. And when your woman makes fun of you for setting off the smoke alarm, tell her to get her skinny butt out of your kitchen before she messes something up.
-Lack of creativity. When I find a recipe, I only follow it to the letter once. After the first batch I’m already thinking up ways to improve it. Flavorology, (Maybe some cayenne?) Chemistry (Should I increase the amount of baking soda?) and Thermodynamics (cookie sheet bad! Cast Iron Good!)all come into play. Making the same thing over and over again is boring. You should always be trying to improve and specialize.
-Over reliance on gizmos. Some tools are cool, some are awesome. Some are just stupid. Know when to get a new gizmo, and when to just sharpen your knives. Don’t buy anything that some screaming guy on TV is trying to sell.
-Sticking to the same genre. Yes, cooking steaks with a grill or fire is Manly to the max, but if that is all you can do, then you need to grow your portfolio. Get a slow cooker and try making chili or stew, get an ice cream maker and make up some ice cream for the kids. Throw some ears of corn or potatoes wrapped in foil next to those steaks the next time you fire up the weber. Grab a cast iron skillet, and make up some bacon and eggs. Bonus points if you hijack the mrs’ oven and figure out how to build made-from-scratch biscuits. The fire and the grill is the beginning.
-Labeling something as too feminine to fool with. Strawberry shortcake looks pretty feminine until you find some young vixen eating strawberries and whipped cream off your torso. Baking looks pretty feminine at first, but there’s alot of complicated chemistry going on with those biscuits. (Baking soda IS NOT baking powder, don’t make the same mistake I did.) Veggies sound feminine, until you throw them in a slow cooker with a huge slab of beef and make a roast. Bread? Bread can be the culinary equivelant to Rocket science at times.
Cooking is about the manliest thing you can do.
My favorite dish to manufacture: A medium well pan seared sirloin with a big, buttery baked potato, a napa cabbage salad with balsamic vinegrette dressing and backyard tomoatoes, and an ice cold glass of amber beer.
It’s manly to love your mother’s cooking, but it’s even manlier to cook like her.
It’s also very manly to have a candle-lit dinner waiting for your significant other when she gets in on occasion.
Dying of malnutrition a month after college: Extremely un-manly.
@Joey – Fluting a cake so that it looks like a teddy bear is unmanly?
I don’t have daughters, but if I did, I think that being able to produce something like a happy teddy bear cake for a daughter’s birthday would only serve to help build an image of me in her mind of a man who can do anything.
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