Cooking videos are fun to watch if you are a foodie and want to try a new dish but don't know how. Watch enough of it, and the social media algorithm will make sure that you are bombarded with dozens of them every day.
But should you really spend time watching cooking videos if you love food but can't cook that well yet?
1)You have eggs and rice but not the dozen other items that come in the recipe.
Most of the descriptions for any post come with a nice little hook. Short for time? Don’t worry. Here’s a two ingredient recipe that you can make in five minutes. Except you can’t.
Those two ingredients usually don’t include salt, water, oil, and a whole load of herbs that will make your dish taste good.
It’s always advisable to go through the ingredient card before you begin reading the long intros that describe the origins of the recipe.
2)You don't have all the utensils and cutlery in the videos.
You find that perfect recipe and for a change, you have all the ingredients right in your kitchen. But then comes the procedure part and the chef is using some weird implement you have never even heard of.
And you needed a scooper? Whoops, don’t have that lying about in your drawer.
A silicone scraper? It will go on the shopping list next time for sure.
Cooking that dish is just a little bit easier in a nonstick pan but you probably read that it isn’t safe because at high temperatures, toxic fumes are released.
And after cooking it in a steel pan, your dish probably ended up burning around the edges or the texture wasn’t as fluffy as you hoped.
If only recipes also consisted of alternatives that one can use should they not have the right measuring spoon or a pan.
3)Even halfway through, your dish doesn't look anything like in the video
You’ve decided to follow the recipe to the tee and pausing at every step as you cook.
But then halfway through the video, you realize that your dish looks nowhere near what the cook in the video has made.
Chances are, the cook edited out some oopsie moments and reshot and remade the dish, but we don’t even consider any mistakes made in a five-minute video.
4)There never is a recipe card for the ingredients.
If you find a recipe video on social media, chances are pretty great that there is no link to the recipe and definitely no ingredient card. Which means you have to pause every second to make sure you noted the ingredients and measurements properly.
5)Parchment paper? Everything is read to go in the oven until you realize that you don't have parchment paper to line up your baking tray.
You’ve made that perfect dish and it is all set to go in the oven to bake at the right temperature for the right amount of time.
But this baked item will come out perfectly only if you have parchment paper.
If only you had remembered to pick that up on your weekly grocery shopping.
6)The ad comes right in the middle of the recipe and you wonder if you still want to watch.
You’re watching a recipe and right before the food is added in a pan, an ad plays out. And then another one.
By this point, you wonder if you want to continue with the recipe. Maybe those donut rolls didn’t look so yummy after all.
It is possible to skip those pesky little ads. Just hover your cursor on the video and you will see a small orange dot on the video progress bar. Simply use your cursor to move past the orange dot and you won’t have to sit through an ad.
7)Anyone can make the recipe. But can you really adhere to all the measurement and temperature rules?
Bake the dish at 180 degrees celsius for forty-five minutes. Simple enough.
Bake the dish at 350 degrees celsius for ten minutes. But…my electric oven doesn’t have that. Now what? Can I not make that dish?
Or when the recipe calls for melting something or the other in a double boiler and checking the thermometer for the right temperature. You just have to stop cooking at eighty degrees celsius.
Now that is another implement you don’t have. Can you still wing it?
Chances are your food will not come out the way in the recipe because you changed a few things about it.
Turns out some recipes are not for amateur cooks who don’t even own a food thermometer. How else are you going to find out if the oil is the right temperature for frying?
If only recipes helped out amateur cooks by giving tips on how to find out if oil has reached the perfect temperature for frying or if the sugar has melted perfectly.
Very few recipes give out tips like putting a small portion of food into the oil to see how quickly it rises and browns, thus indicating the temperature of oil.
Or checking the sugar syrup on the spoon to see how it coats or how the threads stretch and stick.
8)Cook at med heat. Low med heat. Don't show us the dish, show us the flames. Visuals help unless they don't want us to see how dirty their stove is.
Another drawback for amateur cooks is never figuring out what low medium flame is.
If only the cooks would show the flames on the stove from a different angle to help out those who want tasty food but don’t understand some cooking terms.
9)You start a video without looking at the thumbnail and realize the end result wasn't worth the ten minutes you wasted watching the video.
Some of the videos on social media are pretty sneaky. They start off with an engaging cook, peppy background music, and the promise that something tasty is coming your way. So you sit through that ten-minute video and realize at the end that the food doesn’t look as appetizing and why is the garnish so much ketchup and mayo all over it?
10)Start watching a video and suddenly they add an ingredient you are either allergic to or intolerant towards.
Here’s how to make the easiest dessert ever. You’re in the mood for exactly something sweet and this video pops out it is fun, and you have your mental notebook out, and take meticulous notes.
But then the cook adds that one spice you are allergic to. Or milk, and you are lactose intolerant. Or nuts.
And it is that one ingredient that makes the dish delicious. It is also that ingredient that makes you swell and give you tummy aches.
If only some video carried allergens advice before the recipe even began.
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