I love cooking, I did all the “real” cooking when I was married and now cook for my girlfriend at least once a week. She is very impressed, especially when I make my own naan breads, (incredibly simple but very effective). I always make a home cooked meal for my kids when I have them. Most of my friends in their 30s are good cooks, a lot of my friends in their 20s have never cooked anything apart from what can go in a microwave, many friends in their 50s don’t know how the oven works. Being adept in the kitchen & laundry is manly in this age and the ladies love it.

And just in case anyone was questioning my manliness, I have a degree in engineering, drive a 4×4 pickup, weld, hunt, shoot, and wear a beard.

P.S. One of my favorite recepies is to take a beef shank bone and cut the ends off, wrap it in foil, and bake at 400deg for 30 min. The using the handle of a long woden spoon push the marrow out the end of the bone and mix it with minced onion and garlic. Use it as a topping for meat dishes or heavy bread. I do

In addition to cooking, I think that the art of baking is also important for a man to know. There’s nothing quite like making a sandwich from the leftover steak you grilled last week with a couple of slabs of homemade bread.

For starters, sitting out on the porch sharpening up your kitchen knives is publicly manly without being obnoxious or overbearing. Your neighbours will say, “Now there’s a man who knows how to sharpen a knife!”

Secondly, a sharp knife helps you chop stuff like a real chef: quickly, and with confidence. Take a SHARP wide-blade chefs knife with a slightly curved cutting edge, one hand on the handle, and the heel of your other hand steadying the tip, and rock back and forth quickly. Chopchopchopchop. Minced garlic in seconds flat, without using one of those pansy garlic presses. It will take a bit of practice to get the technique down. Watch your fingers.

Thirdly, a sharp knife is a safe knife. It will cut through things rather than sliding sideways off of things and taking off your finger. Try to cut a carrot lengthwise with a dull knife for a demonstration. A sharp knife will not mangle your food OR your extremities. And if you do have an accident, it will be easier for the doctors to reattach if it’s a clean cut.

Finally, don’t let those knife sharpening vans that still come around in some neighbourhoods touch your expensive kitchen knives. Wasting money on simple things you can do yourself with minimal effort is not very manly in the first place, but if you have a good set of kitchen knives, then you’ll want to sharpen them properly according to the manifacturers specifications, and not on a grinding wheel that was just used to sharpen a lawnmower blade. I have a friend who’s wife thought she’d do him a favour and have the sharpening guy sharpen up his knives – they were never the same again, all full of burs and rough spots.

A Man, A Can, A Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals
A Man, A Can, A Grill

As I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home where my dad was always called upon for those special dinners (he had been a cook in the Officer’s mess in the Army), I didn’t grow up with some stereotype about men and cooking.

Oddly, my mother is the one who really taught me to cook. And I’ve been enjoying it for nearly 50 years. My wife loves it that I cook 95% of the meals in our house… and do most of the grocery shopping.

I find cooking very relaxing (but don’t get in my way when I’m cooking). And I love to try new recipes.

Thanks Mom!

So maybe you don’t even have to be able to do it all that well. You just need to be able to do it.

And being single is actually a boon for learning. You can try new things all the time and you don’t have to worry about making something someone won’t eat as long as you yourself are not too picky.