/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>cozy dishes
>classical French
>exotic meats
>fusion
>deconstructed
>low and slow

>>19149705
Nice idea
Probably best to start with something simple and wide appeal like french or italian

>>19149705
The most crammable dish.

Sloppa
Dips
Fermented
Pastries
Hangover food
Stews

>>19149777
>cozy dishes
This is just another way of saying “comfort food,” which means you can make literally anything you want as long as you explain how you find it comforting. But one person’s cozy can be another person’s nightmare, so there’s no shared metric with which to judge what does and does not fit the criteria, which would blur the line between challenge goals and appeal.
>classical French
Just thinking about this is giving me Julie & Julia PTSD.
>exotic meats
Too regional. An American could cook some kangaroo and then an Australian would sigh and glance out the window at the kangaroos in his backyard. And some people simply wont be able to just go out and pick up anything “exotic”.
>fusion
Not a bad idea, but you’d have to be more specific. Like, you’re only using two different cuisines. You pick one dish from one country that most people can reasonable be expected to be familiar with, and then you have to prepare it in a way that is still recognizable, but using ingredients, techniques, equipment, and/or the flavor profile of a second country. But even that seems overly convoluted and would inevitably lead to bickering.
>deconstructed
Always a dumb trend and misappropriation of the word. Even when it works it relies on being able to taste a dish and be surprised how everything “subverts your expectations.”
>low and slow
Not a bad idea, but I would just shorten it to slow food. That would still allow anon to break out the smoker, or do his comfy braise, confit, or 24-hour sous vide beef cheeks, but it would still allow for things not using heat or babysitting, such as curing or pickling. The only problem is that it’s going to be a time commitment either way, and some people simply can’t compete unless they can do everything in an hour or two, or otherwise fit it into their normal routine.

Canned meals: make a meal from canned goods. Would have been a better concept for the one-off.

>>19149786
As much as I hate to admit it, this really isn't that bad of an idea. I was trying to think of how I'd make an entire dish just using canned food and it's actually really hard. Then I started thinking of phallic foods, and "things that look like they could just as easily go in one end or the other", and my mind started racing. It's just too bad corn is out of season.

Hometown Foods. Make a regional dish from where you grew up.
“Tofu is not a Meat Substitute”. Make a dish showcasing tofu where the tofu isn’t just a stand-in for actual meat.
Double Stuffed. Cook something inside of something inside of something else.

>>19150598
I really like this idea and we should do this even if not for the very next competition
I am already thinking of things for this one

>fruits only dish
>game meat
>bone-in
>soup/stew

>>19151719
I think it's just too difficult to do a an entire dish with just canned goods, and we're going to end up with stuff like fisherman's eggs or tuna salad. What if we changed it to "Bomb Shelter", where you can only use shelf stable foods with a long shelf life. That way you could still use canned goods, but also flour, oil, rice, dried beans, dried herbs and spices, etc.

>>19149705
vegetarian or vegan
dessert
spicy
fish

Last thread was a pleasant surprise.
>Twice cooked
>Filled breads
>Disguised food
>Transformed leftovers
>Seven colour meal
>Cake

>>19151758
I read "twice cooked" and was going to make a joke about how you're trying to make us do extra work. But then you suggested "transformed leftovers", which would require us to make two entire meals. No thanks.

>>19151713
>“Tofu is not a Meat Substitute”
I like this theme because at first it sounds like it's shitting on tofu, when in reality it forces people to learn how to use tofu in a way other than just throwing it in a stir fry in place of their regular chicken. I don't think the themes should be so restrictive as to put anyone off from entering, but it's no fun if nobody ever has to try something outside of their comfort zone (soup/stew is not a good theme). And I think tofu is so cheap and ubiquitous these days that it really wouldn't be that big of an issue (of course if someone said they literally can't get tofu where they live then the idea should be dropped; and it's not like anyone who posts about soy turning you to a tranny even cooks in the first place, so that's irrelevant).

>cook some your parents always made as a kid but improve on it
>post your recipe and steps and give a general guideline of your parents recipe and tell us how you enjoyed or hated it

>>19152176
When I was growing up I loved my mom's chili. I used to think that if I had to choose one thing to eat for the rest of my life that would be it. Years later she happened to make it when I was visiting and the conversation went something like,
>hey, i haven't had your chili in years!
>um, did you change something? this doesn't taste how i remember it
>"nope, that's the same recipe i've been using for 30 years"
>are you sure you didn't leave something out? it just tastes a little bland, like it's missing something important
>"no anon, i've made this a thousand times and i pull out all the ingredients before i even start cooking"
That's when I asked her where the recipe came from and it kind of blew my mind. It turned out I had just gotten used to more complex flavors over the years and the thing I used to love no longer hit the spot.

That's the only recipe I have from my parents, and even though I add more actual chilis and change a couple things around, it's still just fucking chili. It wouldn't be an interesting entry, and would just feel like an excuse to cook something I make somewhat regularly. The theme might as well be, "take something you usually make for dinner on a Tuesday night, but instead make it on a Thursday night."

One of the themes should be "sandwich". Watch someone make a hotdog and the shitstorm that would ensue.

99% Certified Fresh

You have to make a dish using only fresh, whole, unprocessed ingredients. You don't have to kill and butcher your own meat, so it's fine to buy a steak or ground beef from the store as long as it isn't frozen (seafood shipped on ice is okay as long as it isn't literally kept in a freezer at the store) and nothing has been added to it, but something like sausage or cured bacon would be off-limits. That also includes anything that's gone through a refining process or has been frozen or dried, so no flour, sugar, rice, dried or canned beans, etc. And basically anything that is sold with more than the one ingredient found in nature (or, you know, a farm) is off-limits. So no hot sauce, ketchup, worcestershire, vinegar, alcohol, cheese, etc.

The remaining 1% would be the bare essentials. So cooking fat (butter/oil), salt and pepper, and dried spices (dried herbs are off limits).

Obviously there'd be some questions (is store bought milk okay? if I can use oil for cooking does that mean I can use it to make mayonnaise or salad dressing?), but I think the general idea is pretty straight forward. It could be fun to do something like this back to back with the canned food challenge.

>>19152416
Forgot to mention that the "fresh" requirement only applies to the ingredients as purchased. You do whatever you want to them once you get home (e.g., drying out mushrooms and grinding them into a powder as a seasoning would be fine, as would be buying a whole ingredient and turning it into flour at home and then baking something with it.

>>19149784
>best to start with something simple and wide appeal like french or Italian
I agree that the first round should be something simple and accessible, so people don’t get immediately turned off from competing, but French or Italian are just a little too accessible. Let’s say the theme is “Italian.” Now imagine someone who makes lasagna once or twice a month. They probably already have half the ingredients in their pantry. Then they see the thread and think, “that’s cool, I’ll put lasagna ingredients on my weekly shopping list and have that for dinner sometime this week and take a picture.” There’s nothing interesting about that, and they didn’t really make something for the challenge. We kind of already did that last round.

As it’s the first of 4 rounds, I suggest Amuse-bouche. It would just be a single bite (or 2-3 single bites) that are packed with flavor and meant to whet the appetite and give a small taste of what people can expect from you. You can do pretty much anything you want as long as it fits that criteria, and it’s such a small investment in both time and money (you could probably come up with an idea just using things you already have) that anyone can throw something together if they have an idea.

>>19149923
dips are ultra comfy to experiment with

>>19151722
Bone-in is not a bad idea, but "Frenched" would be more thematic. That would put the focus on the bone, and making it a centerpiece of the presentation. Also, you can technically "french" something that isn't just a hunk of meat, right? That would give people a lot more options while still keeping it thematically focused. And does anyone really want to see someone post "bone-in" chicken wings? Calling chicken wings "bone-in" is almost as bad as referring to licorice as "black licorice". Frenched chicken wings on the other hand...

>>19149705
How are you planning on doing the overall scoring? Since it's so small I'd suggest discarding each contestant's lowest score, and then making the average of the other 3 their final score for the tournament. That way everyone is allowed to miss a round and still participate to the end. If you miss 2 you're out, and if you don't participate in the final round you can't win, regardless of what you did in the first 3 rounds. Just an idea. It would be good to go over that so nobody is caught off guard if they happen to miss a deadline or don't see the thread until the first round is over.

>>19152931
i like where you're coming from, but feel that system impacts participation. if someone was presented with a round theme they feel they wouldnt be able to do very well, they would just sit it out. since the overall goal is to have high participation numbers, creating an environment where people sit out a round without detriment to the final score seems counter intuitive. if the contestant pool size is already small, allowing it to be smaller detracts from the underlying intention.

it would work a lot better in a longer series of challenges, but a round of 4 is too short for it, imo. if it were a round of 6 or 8, i would agree with it more.

Great idea, but I think it will invite alot of fighting about what should or shouldn't count. I think being more strict is the way to go. Salt is the only exception. Milk must be unpasturized. Oils must be rendered. Spices cannot be dry, etc.

>>19153048
I wasn’t even considering it as something people would look at as a free pass to skip a round they don’t like. That doesn’t really make sense, because even if you think you’re not going to do well in one round, you have no idea if the next round is going to be something even worse.

The idea behind not counting your lowest score is that everyone can have a bad day, for whatever reason. So only counting your 3 best rounds is a way to negate one fuck up from ruining your entire score when you’ve been performing much better the rest of the time.

You’re looking at it like a lifeline on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but being able to skip a round is more a technicality than a rule. The only reason I even mentioned it was because the participation is so low, and it can honestly be hard to participate week after week, even if it’s only 4 rounds. So the idea that missing a single round would put someone out of the running seemed like a bad idea.

I’m working on the assumption that not submitting an entry would be the equivalent of getting a score of 0/20 for that round. That’s why I call it a technicality; whether your lowest score is 7/20 or 0/20, your lowest score is going to be thrown out, so the rule is indiscriminate about participation.

It sounds like we’re both concerned about participation, but the scenario I’m most worried about is someone entering the first round, flaking out in the second, and then just saying “fuck it, there’s no point in participating anymore.” Or someone just coming in late and missing the first round entirely. I think a lot of people see these threads and it just looks like a wall of text and some boring thing they aren’t a part of. But then they see people posting food and think, “hey, I could do that, and it might be fun,” but by that point it might feel like they missed out if they’re going to start with a 0/20.

>>19153257
lol

>>19153257
>>19153334
Does it really seem like that crazy of an idea? Just using fresh ingredients? The salmon dish in the last round would have matched the criteria if he'd left out the cheese and sour cream and didn't use frozen salmon or asparagus. I'd rather do that than buy a bunch of canned food and try to make it appealing, just saiyan...

>>19153358
>Spices cannot be dry
Think about this once more, then elaborate

>>19153386
Dried spices were explicitly mentioned as one of the things that are allowed. Dried herbs were off limits.

>>19153325
That's not a bad idea, but have you tried just being contrarian?

I would like to see representational rounds with themes like, "The Great Outdoors", "Date Night", "Beating the Heat, "Beach Vacation". Dishes that clearly represent an idea or motif.

>>19154350
>dishes that clearly represent an idea or motif
But every example you listed could be interpreted completely differently by each contestant such that you'd never know what the theme is without them explaining it.

>>19154654
Thats kind of the point, it's interpretative. The more you're able to convey the motif the higher people are going to score you.

>>19154664
>the more you're able to convey the motif the higher people are going to score you
But one person is going to hear "beach vacation" and immediately imagine a tropical island, and then look at an entry that reminded the anon of his trips to Myrtle Beach as a kid (or Jamaica, or Saint-Tropez, or Nha Trang), the same way one person's idea of "the great outdoors" is car camping, while someone else's is fly fishing, and then someone else prepares a dish entirely from dehydrated food because that's what they carry when they go hiking. I like the idea of a theme being open to interpretation and people getting creative, but how do you even compare a homemade popsicle to a spicy Indian curry?

>>19154738
You're overthinking.

>>19154880
I just think the themes you suggested are a little too broad and would just turn into more "cook whatever you feel like" rounds.

>>19149923
>Sloppa
Should have stopped reading there.
>Dips
Most dips just look like homogeneous slop unless you decorate the top with something. I could mix some mayonnaise with moldy bread and red food coloring and write four paragraphs describing the most amazing buffalo chicken dip recipe ever and nobody would know. And then you’d have to account for what’s being dipped, and whether that counts as half of the entry or can just be some store-bought crackers or carrot sticks.
>Fermented
Takes too long even if you have experience.
>Pastries
It’s always fun to throw in a baking round just to fuck with the non-bakers and make the pie guy happy, but it needs to be more thematic than just “pastries.” I would suggest something like, “baked good to accompany a cup of coffee.” You wouldn’t have to make coffee, or even like coffee, but the idea would be to make a single portion baked good that would be eaten with a cup of coffee. That would make it open to a lot of creativity, where you could do basic coffee shop/café and make a muffin, or a mini quiche, or a croissant, or just bake a nice loaf of bread and present buttered toast with morning coffee, or you could go fancy pastry and do macaroons or some other frou frou shit, or even do a baked dessert like crème brulee or a tarte..
>Hangover food
Not a bad idea on paper, but way too subjective. You could get anything ranging from a full English with a pot of coffee, a bowl of pho, a slice of plain toast with a glass of water and a multi-vitamin, hair of the dog, “food is the last thing I’m thinking about when I’m hung over,” or “alcohol is for degenerates”.
>Stews
I started thinking about the best way to concisely express how bad of an idea this is, but about 30 seconds in I think I had a mini stroke.

>>19155180
>I started thinking about the best way to concisely express how bad of an idea this is, but about 30 seconds in I think I had a mini stroke.
You had the bare minimum mental capacity to retort with some bullshit one-liner, and anything beyond that caused you to clot and malfunction. You're the definition of an NPC. Fuck off.

>>19155595
We get it, you like stew. Everyone likes stew. But all the things you like about stew are the exact same things that would make it a bad theme.

Libations. Make a dish that incorporates a beverage in a prominent way. Some examples might be coq au vin, bananas foster, tea eggs, or beer can chicken. Incorporating something like coffee grounds or kool-aid powder would also count.

>>19155916
Stew is poverty food Mexicans put their spoilt meat in with lots of chili to cover up the smellieness

>>19155180
You don't know how hangover works. There are hangover foods that objectively work. Because we know what causes hangover. But. It's way less efficient than eating these foods before you go to bed.

>>19156579
>you don't know how hangover works
Dude, I listed half a dozen hypotheticals I thought wouldn't be very controversial, ranging from a giant, greasy breakfast with a ton of coffee, to someone just refusing to compete because of the alcohol theme. At no point did I single one out as correct. The explicitly stated premise was that people respond to a hangover differently, and it's so subjective that one person's hangover cure might be the polar opposite of someone else's.

As I understand it, your argument is that the "objective" hangover food wasn't among any of those options, so I'm wrong, somehow, in some way. What you actually did was prove my point. You're so confident that only you have the correct answer that you weren't even willing to share what it is. If you're getting so worked up now how would you react when it comes to voting and nobody guessed your secret hangover cure? And then you go on to say that it works better before you even have a hangover, which makes it entirely irrelevant to the challenge. You might as well have said, "drink water before bed and you wont have a hangover; everyone here is so dumb!"

>>19156579
>You don't know how hangover works.
How ironic. There are two kinds of hangovers. One is caused by dehydration and can be cured by drinking water. The other is a blood toxicity issue. Neither of the two types of hangovers can be cured by eating specific foods.

Enjoy being retarded. That is all.

>>19155180
> le contrarian 4channel poster
dips are good
baked goods are good
hangover food is good
I come here for pictures, recipes and shitposting, not rampant autism.

>>19156768
>hey man, i'll admit that i come here to shitpost, but even i have a line
>and trying to start a conversation about the subject of the thread is WAY over that line

Vinegar
Legumes
Open Faced
70's Party Food

>>19158265
Hey now, I took a bunch of '70s cookbooks from the library when they were throwing them out

>>19158274
>aspic
>cocktail wieners, green olives, mini gherkins
>jello molds shaped like fish
>celery-flavored jello

>>19158339
I haven't done anything with gelatin/aspic in years. Could be fun.

>>19158691
>>19158339
I'm going to go to some thrift stores to see if I can find some molds just in case this challenge becomes a reality

>>19158719
>at some point in your lifetime a day will come where you can no longer just walk into any thrift store or goodwill and know you'll find a jello mold

>>19158719

Enough bullshit. This week's challenge something you can eat no matter when. If your favorite sucks, you lose

>>19158803
This actually cut me pretty deep Anon, ngl

>>19159060
You're not 6 years old, anon. You can eat anything you want no matter when.

>>19159060
>Enough bullshit.
I agree with this anon. These yapping assholes probably never boiled water in their lives. Let's fucking cook.

>>19159094
>let's fucking cook
The date for the next round was decided before this thread was even made. If you don't care about coming up with theme ideas you can just ignore it, and if you want to cook, it says right in the OP that this would be a good thread to post whatever you've been making before the next round. I say it's better to let people get the autism out now instead of after the competition starts.

Oowwwah, I'm gonna excited

>>19159126
I think that restricting the type of footwear people use during the competition is important. Brown sox. Competitors must wear the same pair of brown sox EVERY DAY for the entire competition. No washing. You must wear them while you bathe/shower. Also, you must give you each sock a name and your sox must be referenced by name in each post. Sox names will account for 95% of the total score unless you use the sox as your final ingredient in your meal.

>>19159273
I always cook naked. It's pretty commonplace for people to point out a pube in picture someone posted, but the reason people are zooming in and looking is probably 90% all because of OC I've posted over the years. But even if you have company over it's just common courtesy to take your shoes off at the door.

>>19159306
no sox and you are disqualified. You can tie them together and wear then as a headband if you want, but brown sox are required. be careful not to sear your wiener.

>>19159331
You suggested a rule and I told you why it wouldn't work for me. A normal person would say, "oh okay, let's just come up with something else then, do you have any suggestions?" Instead you just repeated your suggested rule as though it was divine law. If you think any of the ideas wouldn't work or are stupid or absurd, why don't you just point out those things and call them stupid or absurd? The rounds are ultimately going to be chosen by the OP, but I get the feeling that if a number of people say they don't like one idea, or do like another, OP will probably take that into consideration.

>>19159362
can I just cook whatever and ignore your faggoty posts?

>>19159395
Yes. Both of those questions have already been answered, but for some reason you keep replying to me.

I think something like deenz would be a good idea, as it has broader board appeal. The only problem is that sardines really aren't that versatile of an ingredient.

>>19159402
so i can cook whatever i want and this is all pointless?

>>19159362
You think brown sox is s real suggestion? Sigh.

>>19159657
What if the sock started out white?
What would the other boards think of it?
A new fetish or replacement theory?

>>19159657
>you think brown sox is s real suggestion
Yes, anon. That's why I replied with a completely serious explanation of my totally real condition that doesn't allow me to wear clothes in the kitchen. Never mind that in the next post I repeatedly mentioned "ideas you think are stupid or absurd."

>>19159741
LIAR! You are a nudist chef. Don't lie to me!!!!!

>>19159679
>other boards
huh? what are you taking about?

>>19149705
This is a fun idea. One suggestion though:
>You can vote for dishes between Competition Open to Voting Close, or within the full 8-day timeline.
I don't know if this is a good idea. I feel like it'll result in heavy bias towards participants who complete their entries earlier in the week. More eyeballs on their dishes = more votes, you know?

>>19159955
>it'll result in heavy bias towards participants who complete their entries earlier in the week
This has always an issue. People simply lose interest as time goes on and participation dwindles. But what is the solution? If you can only vote in the 24 hour period after the round is closed then you're going to get a lot less people voting due to the short timeframe. You could give an entire week for voting, but that would turn a 4 week competition into an 8 week competition, and interest is going to go down during those off weeks when nothing is happening.

I do think it would be ideal if you could only vote when you had all the entries in front of you, for a number of reasons, but how do you make that work? The other issue is that even if enough people are bumping a thread to keep it alive, eventually a new thread is going to have to be made, which would require the OP to repost all the entries to be voted on, which is an issue if people are submitting multiple images and instructions. That's part of the reason why it used to be required to submit a vertical with your entry, but that's also going to turn a lot of people off.

It kind of sucks that you're told you get a week, and then realize you get more of an advantage the earlier you post your dish, but I don't really see a good solution.

>>19160191
>but I don't really see a good solution
Welp, right after hitting submit I got an idea. How about the next week's entry round is the previous week's voting round? So one round would end at the end of Sunday night, and the next round would start when OP made a new thread with the theme of the week the next morning. They would then also repost all the entries following the OP with your brief description, and then post an archive link for anyone who wants to look back at the last thread for more pictures or the recipe. You would then have a full week to vote, and it would be the exact same timeframe as the contestants have to submit their dish.

That would make everything about voting much simpler because you'd have everything in front of you and can just link each post and copy/paste the voting template and do it all at once. It would also keep the thread more active because people would both be submitting entries and submitting votes for the last week's entries.

>>19159562
>so i can cook whatever i want
Yes. As far as I understand the rules, you can submit anything you want, and as long as you post a picture of the finished dish with a timestamp and unique identifier, and give a brief description of what you made, you will be counted. You’ll probably get a 0 for challenge goals if your dish has nothing to do with the theme, but that still leaves you a potential 15/20 points. Of course, some people might think you’re a fag for not even trying, and there’s no way of knowing if that’s going to influence their scoring in other categories, even if subconsciously. But at the end of the day the point is to produce OC, and the only reason anyone is here is because they want to be, so if you want to cook something and submit it and don’t really care about the competitive aspect, you should absolutely do so.

>>19159955
You're not wrong. But weekends are more heavily browsed than weekdays, so there is some semblance of balance.

>>19160393
Rules 1 and 4 indicate that the challenge theme must be followed. If not followed, it will not be included in traditional scoring but instead placed in a separate honorable mention category to validate participation. If you're looking to place in rankings, follow the theme. If you just want to cook and show what you made, don't expect to place.

>>19160442
Yeah, but the people voting are the ones deciding whether or not an entry follows the challenge. So unless the person entering literally says, "lol, this theme sucked so I just made whatever," who gets to decide whether or not an entry gets disqualified or just gets a low score on challenge goals?

>>19160990
If the theme is pasta and someone cooks an extravagant steal with a small side of unseasoned noodles, it should quality for the honorable mention category. If the centerpiece of the dish does not reflect the theme, shouldn't qualify for scoring imo. Common sense should dictate. You don't need a 1200 page list of rules for that.

>>19161180
Do you think all the entries in the last round should have qualified for the theme? I can think of one or two that didn't really seem to have much of anything to do with the "gourmet" part, and kind of looked like maybe someone was already planning on making exactly what they made and decided to enter it because it fit the $15 budget. Not everything is as cut and dry as "use X ingredient" like your example; most of the suggestions aren't like that. I'm also not sure where you're seeing anyone suggesting new rules.

You're ideas are amazing and I really hope you keep up the good work. Could we start slow because I'm just learning to cook and the competition is really motivating me to get more involved with this. Last week's was allot of fun but I was too nervous to post what I made

>>19162405
This might be one of the lowest pressure places you could post something you've made. Nobody knows who you are, and most of the board doesn't even try to cook anything past instant ramen.

>>19162426
Is Monday when the new challenge starts

>>19162489
All the information is in the pastebin.

>>19162489
>https://pastebin.com/hFEvit1h
This Sunday at 0900 EST

Fake Food. Foods that are imitations of other foods or take the place of other foods in a dish.

>>19162689
nooo! I hate tastyfakes

>>19162824
Is that a youtube thing? I filter c-celebs and webm threads. I was thinking a round where we make a dish themed after one of the other boards could be really fun, but I remember there's a youtuber who recreates a bunch of food from anime and movies and stuff, so it would be kind of boring if you could just copy someone else instead of doing your own interpretation..

>>19162851
I know it from the 2004 episode of the Simpsons "All's Fair in Oven War" but I don't know if they invented it or if the portmanteau is older than that

>>19162851
"Make a dish for your most visited board after /ck/" has to have been a round theme at some point in the past.

+1 for:
>slow foods
>hometown foods
>fresh food and canned food back to back
>frenched
>baked good that goes with coffee
>libations
>70’s party food
>cook something for a specific board (dibs on /u/)