People Are Sharing Meals That Are "Horrific" To Cook But Delicious Nonetheless (And Having Cooked Many Myself, I'd Have To Agree)
The foods we choose to eat serve lots of purposes: They can nourish our bodies, heal our souls after particularly hard days, or even bring people together. Food is far more than just "fuel," but some of the dishes we love eating more than anything — I'm lookin' at you, lasagna — can be absolutely nightmarish to make at home.
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Recently, u/N0tMac asked Redditors to share the meals they "really enjoy eating," even if they don't particularly love the "process that goes into making them." Let me tell ya: I nodded my head in agreement with each and every one of them — so much so, in fact, that I even decided to add a few of my own.
1."Homemade pizza. You want to make one with lots of toppings? That'll cost you $20. Want to make four to feed the whole family? $30, easily. At some point, it's just easier (and cheaper) to order delivery."
2."Hear me out: Salads in general. I LOVE SALAD! But washing every single veggie, drying them, chopping them into various shapes and sizes, cooking any proteins that go with it...it's a full nightmare. I love eating salads, but the sheer amount of work that goes into it is rarely worth the payoff."
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3."Pancakes. Call me crazy, but I think the actual process of cooking each and every one on a griddle is one of the most stressful things you could do in the morning — especially if you're cooking for a crowd..."
"Is it technically hard? Not at all! But the only way to get a batch of pancakes on the table in a short-ish amount of time is to make a bunch at once...and you'll be constantly flipping pancakes, pouring batter, and swearing under your breath at the burnt ones until they're all done. No homemade pancakes compare to restaurant ones, either, so let's just say that we're a waffles-only household now."
—Ross Yoder
4."When it comes to fried foods, I don't really mind the frying itself! What I can't stand is the part where I have to coat everything in flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs. I suck at guessing exactly how much needs to go in each prep bowl. I always have to throw away a bunch of extra flour and breadcrumbs, yet I'm constantly running out of eggs. You just can't win."
5."Croissants. If you've ever tried to make them — as a fun bucket-list 'weekend project' or otherwise — you will IMMEDIATELY realize that buying them from a professional is the only way to go. After many attempts at making them, I've realized that the 'correct' price for them is whatever somebody wants to charge for them."
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6."Soups that require you to take stuff OUT and then reserve it for later in the process — or soups that require you to blend up some of the soup and add it back in. To me, half of the joy of soup is that all you have to do it keep adding stuff to one pot...and then bam, food!"
7."Lasagna. Especially if you make it from scratch, sauce and all. There's truly nothing more delicious in the world, but I hate the labor-intensive process. Then to watch hours of work get consumed in 20 minutes or less?! Yeah, it's a travesty."
8."Pierogi. It's a wonderful day in the kitchen when you're surrounded by an army of Polish aunties pinching and folding and pointing out who's pierogi aren't tight enough to properly cook. When it's just you?! Horrific."
9."Eggs Benedict. I can cook pretty much any breakfast food or dish (and cook it well), but Eggs Benedict is the only breakfast food that seems worth paying someone else to make. It's just too many steps — especially in the morning!"
10."Tamales. They very well might be my favorite food on the planet — no exaggeration! But I'm not sure I'll ever make them again unless I'm making like 100+ while my Mexican grandmother helps me."
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11."Shrimp. Like, any dish involving shrimp. They're a top 10 food for me, but I also can't really ever justify paying extra just to have someone peel and de-vein them for me...so suddenly I'm spending far too long pulling digestive tracts out of (delicious) sea bugs and removing every last bit of shell."
"The worst part, IMO, is actually cooking them. Unless you paid a zillion dollars for the biggest shrimp known to humankind, they're ridiculously easy to overcook — particularly if you're making a big batch. Flipping them all on time so they're cooked perfectly turns into the ultimate test of just how comfortable you are with a pair of tongs. In short: Not fun."
—Ross Yoder
12."Dumplings. Honestly, making the stuffing is super easy...and folding every last one of them isn't as difficult as you'd think! It's just the sheer monotony of it all that's undeniably excruciating, and it's not even worth making dumplings unless you're making enough to feed the entire family."
13."Chicken parmesan. Making a 'quick' marinara is the first 45 minutes. Then, you've gotta fry up ALL that chicken breast, which is a multi-plate, 30+ minute process. Then you've gotta pull it all together, bake it, and make a pot of pasta..."
"It's literally two or more hours to throw together what is somehow considered a 'simple' dish. Most times I just end up making the chicken cutlets and eating those. It's the most delicious part, anyway."
14."Risotto. Every single part of the process is incredibly tedious, and I hate having to stir something constantly for a half-hour. But I do love it when it comes out just right."
15."Pour-over coffee. Coffee might not actually be a 'meal,' but in my house, it might as well be. I'll admit that there is SOMETHING satisfying about the entire process that goes into it...but having to complete that laundry list of steps first thing in the morning just to get your caffeine fix can be downright brutal."
"Hot take: Pour-over is generally considered to be the best way to make coffee...but TBH, I find it to only be marginally better than the stuff I make in my ~very average~ drip coffee maker."
—Ross Yoder
16."Biryani. My family's biryani is a spicy South Indian take that's SO delicious. I literally eat three platefuls every single time I have to make it, but even the thought of cooking it makes me absolutely exhausted. Add in the fact that you usually need a few sides to go with it, and I truly have to mentally prepare myself before I start cooking it."
17."Ramen from scratch. Making a tonkatsu ramen completely homemade is literally a days-long process, and your entire house will smell like boiled pork bones for days after — in my case, it all turned out to be a mediocre bowl of ramen, anyway..."
"I really love ramen, maybe even more than pizza, but never again. I'll just leave it to the pros from now on."
18."Lumpia. They're so easy to eat — like potato chips, really. But they're SO tedious to make unless you have multiple people helping you. The filling, the rolling, the deep frying...it's just so much work."
19."Rice. It's a staple in my home — I'd say that I make rice at least three times a week. But even then, there are times that I either turn it into absolute mush or undercook it to the point of being inedible..."
"There's simply no space left in my kitchen for a rice cooker, but as soon as there is, it'll be the first purchase I make. It's really the only way to control all the variables that can contribute to a really good (or really bad) pot of rice."
—Ross Yoder
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20."Beef Wellington. It's such a hassle. The food processor can definitely blitz all of the mushrooms for you (which helps a lot), but layering everything together just right and making sure everything is cooked to the PERFECT temperature — without undercooking or burning it — is just more stress than it's ultimately worth."
21."Pho. After making it a couple of times now, I now completely understand why a bowl of it costs at least $10."
22."Lobster. I LOVE it, but plunging a live one into a vat of boiling water has to be one of the most traumatizing things one could ever do in the kitchen."
23."Honestly, I refuse to make ANY dish that requires cooking all of the ingredients first, just to assemble them in some specific order and cook them again. I'm lookin' at you, stuffed peppers and twice-baked potatoes..."
24."Spanakopita. I love my dad's recipe for it so much, but the part I really hate dealing with in particular is removing alllllllll the moisture from the spinach..."
"Squeezing the spinach to get out every last drop of moisture makes a huge mess every single time, and I'm not sure if I'm alone here or not, but I get really type A about wringing it all out. Like, I won't stop until that spinach is bone dry."
25."Gnocchi. We have a really old family recipe that's absolutely delicious, but it's one of the most time-consuming meals I've ever made. On top of all the work that goes into the gnocchi (cooking the potatoes, assembling the dough, rolling everything out), we usually make our own sauce, too..."
"It takes up most of the day, to be honest. I miss when my dad was alive, because he genuinely loved every step that went into making it!"
26."For me, it's eggplant parmesan. I've yet to find a restaurant that makes it as delicious as the recipe that I've always used, but it takes forever. Between salting the eggplant, patting everything bone dry, frying it, and then baking everything together?! You're looking at an all-day affair."
27."Meatballs and meatloaf. I love eating both of them, but there's something genuinely disgusting about having to mush together ground beef with eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs for either dish."
28."Fresh pasta. I love it, but nothing is a bigger mess. There's always flour in every corner of my kitchen by the time the process is over. Plus, lots of dishes are actually better when made with dried pasta, anyway."
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29."Egg rolls. I made a batch once, and I was honestly scared for my life. Deep frying anything (in general) is just so unnatural and weird and scary to me."
Are there any meals we missed that you reaaaaaally love eating (but can't stand making)? Let us know in the comments.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
