Learning to Cook

This cluster focuses on discussions about learning cooking skills, the limitations and value of recipes, building intuition through practice, and frequent analogies between cooking and programming.

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4,763
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3212
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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177
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Keywords

cookingforengineers.com KC e.g DB HN McGee CIA B01HMXV0UQ YouTube amazon.com cooking cook recipe recipes ingredients vegetarian chef proof basics fry

Sample Comments

YeGoblynQueenne Aug 15, 2020 View on HN

I'm sorry but what you provide above is not a proof. It's what passes for a "proof" in internet forums. At most it can give you some points in a reddit argument or similar pointless exchange (which I'm glad to note we're not having) but it's really not the same thing as a proof at all. Though I'm always hopeful that on HN users will be a bit more careful with the terminology. To clarify, when you said "proof" I expected a formal proof and I was c

toomuchcoffee Jul 30, 2012 View on HN

Agreed: what to cook, not how.

tluyben2 Jan 17, 2016 View on HN

You are missing out by not cooking.

malthaus Mar 12, 2025 View on HN

just having the right ingredients doesn't make you a great cook

the_cat_kittles Jan 13, 2018 View on HN

what? i cook all the time. better food, cheaper, often quicker. you just need a little bit of skill.

rmetzler Jul 14, 2021 View on HN

I think cooking is very similar to programming. You need to basically do it with your hands otherwise you won’t “get” it. The ingredients are one thing. The chemistry behind it is another thing. Both probably easily to teach through a book. Knowing how to hold the knife and how to dice onions fast is something you can only learn by practicing. Even better someone showing it first (eg through a video), but it won’t work without practice.

devb May 15, 2012 View on HN

You're not a lousy cook, you're just not used to the process. All it is is following instructions with precise measurements, and then doing it over and over again with different instruction sets until you start to recognize patterns and you find yourself having to look at the instructions less and less. That's 99% of cooking.

kulshan Nov 5, 2023 View on HN

Learning to cook properly and cast iron.

YeGoblynQueenne Aug 14, 2020 View on HN

>> If you cook a lot, you'll soon realize that cooking without all the technological advances is actually easier.Another thing it's important to realise is that a cooking recipe, unlike a computer program, is not a set of precise instructions that are necessary and sufficient to produce the same result always, but a template that can be modified at will. For the majority of cases you don't need to create precise chamical conditions to reproduce a certain dish with perfect

bigmadshoe Sep 15, 2025 View on HN

Super curious, what’s different about cooking in your experience?