I dislike when I have to cook something that I didn't choose to cook, or in a way I wouldn't do it myself or in some other way that doesn't allow my own creativity to shine.

I find that on occasions I do this, and although I don't like it, I can usually still find pleasure there.

Like you, not sure there is anything I really "Hate" though.

I disliked cooking for a long time because I didn't know how. Every time I stepped in the kitchen I felt overwhelmed and lost. This book is definitely for me however I'm reading this blog to change that :) The harder the recipe I try, the more confident I get. Practice makes perfect!

My mother liked this book not because she didn't like to cook but because it gave her options. Cooking can be great if you are choosing to cook but that is just not the way it was viewed for many families. My dad expected meals on the table on time every night - and he wasn't helping out. Thanks to Ms. Bracken for giving my mom alternatives!

Microphone? Do you mean Microplane?

haha

This is the perfect book for my friend. I, on the other hand, love to cook. Although, I hate baking!

instantphoebe: whoops! Thanks for the catch!

kljmlace: Excellent points on how TIHTCB was actually helpful and liberating for many women. Thanks for bringing them up!

Thanks, Dana!

Although I love to cook and bake, I generally don't have time to bake bread from scratch every other day or make a big roast twice a week or whatever. So sometimes canned foods and frozen vegetables and even (gasp!) cake mixes come in handy when you're pressed for time.

Food innovations like that made it possible for women to work outside the home. But by devaluing from-scratch home cooking, I think we've lost a lot, too. I try to balance both.

I hate it when I get in the middle of a project that starts stretching out into more work than I expected. Like when I tried to chop a cabbage into coleslaw strips for the first time. Or pealing potatoes. Or starting to chop the thirty-ninth vegetable for the dish you already started heating on the stove. Usually, though, you get through it, and you just go ahead and buy the pre-shredded carrots next time, and keep cooking.

I hate walking into my kitchen and finding my roommates have left it in ill repair. I don't mind cleaning if it is my mess, but when I have to clean up for other people before I get to cook, it does take a smidgen of joy away. I am working on lessening my kitchen protectiveness. :)

The only thing I dislike about cooking is mistakes! I finally learned my lesson about not trying a new recipe for the first time when having guests over last fall when some nefarious lentils made me wonder where all my cooking liquid went. I changed the name of the recipe so people wouldn't be confused about my "soup," and it made a nice Indian porridge instead!

I hate that cooking has become scary - will I get salmonella from these eggs, what about that cutting board - did I wash it correctly after preparing chicken on it? The sad thing about using canned and prepared food in the US is that so much of it is bad (taste and nutrition). I have had really good stuff out of a can and the freezer case in France. No shame - most homecooks take it for granted that what they buy is good, and it usually is.

I used to hate cooking and I really think it was because of books like these. Cooking was a necessary chore if I wanted to eat and I did the same rotation of mediocre meals all the time.

It wasn't till I started making things from scratch that I realized I *enjoy* cooking. I *like* chopping vegetables. Not that there's never frustrations and failures, but sometimes it's the only good part of my day!

Doing dishes. I can tolerate failed or tedious recipes, but clean-up seems to be endless. People tell me to get a dishwasher, but aside from lack of space for it, I'd then have to buy more cookware in order to have some in the washer waiting for a full load while I keep cooking. Since I don't have space for the existing stuff... I need kitchen clean-up fairies.

I love to cook and I don't mind doing the dishes, but I hate hate HATE to put the dishes away after they've been cleaned!! Sorting silverware back into their little cubbies makes me crazy...

Have you actually read the book? Peg Bracken, a popular humorous writer, wrote the I Hate to CookBook at a time when traditional mainstream society assumed that women in a household were responsible for doing all the cooking --- breakfast, family lunches, and dinner every single night of year, for life.

Think that through. Imagine that every meal your family eats is prepared by you, as a matter of rote, with little thanks and no widespread reflection on the unfairness of the arrangement.

If cooking were a duty enforced upon you daily as a gendered social role within the deeply and unreflectively sexist social system of the 1950s and 1960, you might find less to love about the task.

Bracken's cookbook provides a wry, spirited, and marvelously practical guide for women in that position, women of my mother's generation for whom cooking was not necessarily an artistic or social expression, but a grinding daily chore.

I love to cook. Even more, I love that I don't have an obligation to cook for others simply because of my sex.

And, my oh my, does Peg Bracken give a fantastic recipe for cheater's <em>pot de creme au chocolat</em> in that book! Some of the recipes are quite dated, but some are breathtakingly simple --- and they're all dead easy. She knew what she was doing, even though she hated it.

I bought this book at a thrift shop years ago and read it cover to cover just for the fun of it. I love to cook, although I confess the occasional can of soup has shown up in my cupboard. The funniest thing about my copy of this book was the notes that the previous owner had made in the margins. For example, on one recipe for slow cooker pot roast the book called for pot roast and onion soup mix. There is a note which crosses out the onion soup mix and says "not necessary." I wonder what was left to go in her pot?

I'm a mom who is responsible for ALL the meals, snacks, packed lunches, etc. That's by choice--a negotiation with a fiance--because I really don't like to wash the dishes, and he can just about boil water if nobody interrupts him. I definitely LOVED cooking more when I didn't have the pressure of getting a balanced meal on the table by a certain hour to avoid toddler-empty-tummy meltdown. I also work full time, so yes, there has been Crockpot minestrone made w/a bag of frozen mixed vegetables and frozen lima beans in this home regularly. I still wouldn't say I hate to cook. But there have been days--weeks--when I could say that I hate the grind.

Chopping chocolate. Ugh. I bake quite a bit, but I dread every time I use a recipe that includes the words "XX ounces of chocolate, finely chopped."

I hate HATE hate peeling potatoes. So I almost never do. Once in a while I'll come across a new recipe that calls for peeled and chopped potatoes and for some reason I'll feel obligated to do the peeling, but in the end I always decide that it wasn't necessary.

this cookbook was not written for me, either; it was written for my grandmother.
the woman hates to cook, but loves, loves! to host. if you were lucky enough to be cooked for by someone from this generation, some of your favorite comfort food probably comes from this book (chicken-rice roger, anyone?) buy it for kitch value and give it a go for a mad men party, though i warn you - it's better when my gram makes it =D

Cleaning. I DESPISE cleaning. I'd cook all day if there weren't a mess to deal with afterward.

I hate dealing with ginger but I love to cook with it. The peeling, the micro-planing...meh. Also, I don't have a dishwasher. Having one of those would make cooking more enjoyable.

I love cooking...on my terms. When we have time, my fiance and I cook together at a slow pace. My love of preparing food with fresh ingredients and plenty of time approaches the spiritual.

Other nights...I'm tired, he's tired, the dog just peed on the carpet, there's nothing in the fridge. Cooking on these nights is a terrible chore meant to quiet the elephant in my stomach. I can't imagine how much worse it must be with children and an unhelpful husband.

I love to cook. I hate menu planning. Not party planning, or dinner party planning, but the day in, day out, figuring out what's for dinner kind of menu planning. Too close to "organizing" for me. So, I love any kind of menu planner or suggestion type of services or books, cuz it gives me ideas on what to actually cook. I don't actually follow recipes when cooking (except baking), but I love perusing "weekly menus" for inspiration.

Washing then chopping herbs. Argh!

They end up everywhere...

But I add them nearly every meal..

i love cooking because it's an art. i don't like baking because it's a science.

but what i hate, what i despise, what i would hire someone for is putting clean dishes away. instead of drying them and putting them away straight from the dishwasher, i put them in the sink and then let them linger endlessly "so they are dry."

Oh, this book WAS written for me..

And I think the title has to be put into context. When Bracken published this, women were expected to cook. Expected to. Regardless of desire or skill or inclination. It's a whole different thing now.

I mean, I can feed my kids breakfast cereal for dinner and nobody cares (least of all them).

This cookbook cracks me up! My mom's beef stew came out of it...and the only change I've made to it is using NON-corn-syruped tomato soup. And I cook it in a crockpot rather than the oven. Faster and much safer to leave the crock plugged in (to a GFI on a power strip)than the oven on all day. I mean how often can you get a home cooked meal like mom used to make by dumping two bags of frozen stew veggies, a can of tomato soup and a pack of stew meat into a crock and letting it cook for 5 hours? LOL ;-)

@elsa:
"...a time when traditional mainstream society assumed that women in a household were responsible for doing all the cooking..."

Unfortunately, that still is true for a lot of women the world over. I'm Indian, and while it may not be *that rigid here (anymore), the fact is that cooking is still seen as a 'woman's job'. And if a woman chooses to 'go easy' on meals, she is *mostly seen as a "bad" wife and mother! I generalize, but this loosely applies to a "modern, working" woman too (!!).

Me, I enjoy cooking, I do! But I never have to make more than one meal a day, for just two of us too, and hubby pipes in too...but even then, I don't think I'd enjoy it if it were a more trying routine...especially since the cleaning up is also a woman's "prerogative" (though domestic help is relatively easy to come by in India).....

Another dishes and cleaning up hater here.

@elsa & joran: Thank you for bringing this point to light. I read an article about this book lasts week and it underlined yet again a point of interest for me as a young woman, passionnate about cooking and also a feminist.

The book almost seems ironic when mentioned in my food blogosphere and I can't agree more with you Elsa (and others who mentioned the same idea) that it was a revolution for American women to admit that they hated cooking!

I meditate on this book less for what I hate to do in the kitchen but meditate on my feelings as a feminist and where my place is in this new foodie movement of homecooks, fascinated with the traditional ways of preparing foods, canning, baking, growing foods from scratch. I can't help but see it as backlash to the industrial food revolution of the 1950s and 1960s that liberated my grandmother and mother and has reshaped the American way of eating and the regard for food. This is the meditation I've gotten out of this classic book's anniversary.

I'm not asking what I hate about cooking, I'm asking myself why do I love it so much?

I used to love cooking until I had to start cooking for one. It's much less fun to prepare meals now when I am the only one who is going to enjoy it. To combat this cooking lethargy I set up a weekly potluck for my friends and I which means at least once a week I get excited to make a new dish for my friends to sample.

Oh and I hate to bake and do dishes. bleh!

joran, because the I Hate to CookBook is aimed at a North American audience, it's all too easy to reduce the scope of the conversation, but of course you're right: throughout much of the world, cooking is still overwhelmingly a gendered task and a chore for women.

And the truth is that, despite the great strides made by feminism here and elsewhere, and despite the many egalitarian homes where work is divided without gender as a factor, statistically cooking and kitchen duties in North America still fall disproportionately on the shoulders of women.

I don't mean to distract from the question. "What do I hate about cooking?" is a worthwhile question, even (maybe especially) for people who love so much about it. But it's worth considering the book in its original social and political context.

I love many aspects of cooking, I'm not the most patient person and a lot of things may distract me, but not when I'm prepping and cooking. I get calm and 'zen'--it's like being in my own world. Sometimes I don't notice anything outside the kitchen.

I have a love/hate relationship with cutting onions. It often stings my eyes and I end up 'crying,' but yah, I always think 'Damn, this is one good onion!' B/c only great onions make you cry LOL :)

I hate that my s.o's family treats my love of cooking, my cooking, and my proficiency at cooking with thinly veiled contempt and distain, because THEY hate to cook.

Currently seeking fun, interesting and hungry strangers for Thanksgiving at my place.

@Bowlofjesslove: I'm another feminist about 15 years your senior, and I have a thought for you about this:

I'm not asking what I hate about cooking, I'm asking myself why do I love it so much?

Because it's something you CHOOSE to do. The reason why feminism was so revolutionary wasn't because it was trying to propose what women "should" or "shouldn't" do -- it was suggesting that each individual woman was perfectly capable of deciding for her OWN self what she WANTED to do, thank you.

The feminist movement wasn't about how women "shouldn't" like to do any of these "traditional" arts any more. It was about how women should be able to CHOOSE whether they wanted to do them in the first place. Secondarily, it was also about gaining respect for just how much work it is to make a home and keep it going; the notion of dismissing a lot of these skills as "women's work" belittles how important they can be, and what degree of skill they can take.

But the feminist movement was about how these kinds of things shouldn't be seen as either "mens' work" or "womens' work". They should be seen as "work," work which both men AND women have at their disposal, and should share responsibility for.

The beauty of housework, too, is that -- ideally -- you and your partner each have different things that they like doing; or, at least, you and your partner each have different things that you hate least. You personally happen to really like cooking; that's great. Some people don't, and that's just that; but that isn't a comment on that person's "feminist sensibilities", nor is your liking to cook a comment on your own. You just happen to like to cook, and that other person happens to not. You may hate polishing brass; however, I happen to like that particular task. But I hate taking out the trash. So -- I'd be well suited with a partner who agrees to take out all the trash while I do a lot of the cooking.

But that's it. Why do you like cooking? You just do. Feminism isn't about whether you should or shouldn't like cooking -- feminism is about whether you should or shouldn't be EXPECTED to do all the cooking.

empresscallipygos, you make excellent points, and I agree wholeheartedly with the principles... but for some of us, it isn't quite as simple as that in practice, or even in contemplation.

I do love cooking, and have since I was a tiny child. (Oh, I have such fond memories of my light-bulb-powered stove! I made casseroles in it.)

But I often wonder how much of my enthusiasm for and interest in cooking is personal and idiosyncratic, and how much is me fitting into a gendered role, a role that eases my way through a society that still observes and reinforces gendered division of labor and interests.

There's no good answer to that question: the idiosyncratic I and the socially defined I cannot be separated so cleanly to allow me to observe the dividing line with clarity. It's true that cooking is, in part, a choice I make, and a choice I negotiate with my partner, but it is also a heavily gendered social expectation, one from which my feminist household is not entirely immune.

I recognize that, even within my lifetime, the expectation has become less rigid and less demanding, and I'm mindful enough to be thankful for that change almost every day. But it's a worthwhile question, for me at least, to examine my own choices within a larger context and ask how much my choices are informed by social pressures.

WRT the book and feminism, I love that we've come full circle. For a long time in the freshly minted womens' lib world, women eschewd the traditionally feminine activities of cooking/housekeeping/decorating/gardening. As empresscallipygos points out, this was not the egalitarian intent of the feminist movement, but how it went none the less, at least from my 40 year old perspective. In the 90's popular culture started showing us it was OK to want to enjoy and be good at those things again. Love her or hate her (and certainly there were many others who were influential as well), it's something we can all thank Martha Stewart for.

Great points Empress Callipygos!

Ordinarily, I LOVE to cook (although I don't enjoy vegetable prep...). But I hate the drudgery of making at least 2, if not 3, meals a day for a family (which includes picky eaters) day in day out, week in week out, month in month out... without a break.

I need a BREAK!!!

I am sick to death of my own cooking... and I am a pretty good cook, but I have just hit the blahs...

The problem here is that there is no take out in Geneva... what little take out there is is inconvenient, far away, incredibly expensive, and only starts around 7 pm (too late if you have kids). And then add to that that it is not very good! I miss ethnic food from back home soooooo much! If a Szechuan chef from Alberta would come out here... ohh... I'd swoon... (mmm, good Chinese food!). And boy I miss Pho. And Bahn mi. There is no Vietnamese restaurant in town...

Oh well, there is pretty good Ethiopian (inconvenient, but still) and Indian... And great Italian food is just a 4 hour (and Mont Blanc Tunnel) away...

My mother had this book. I don't think she ever cooked from it though (the further she got from the "old country", the worse a cook my mom became... ).

Ha, someone just gave me a copy of this book last week as a joke! (as I definitely do NOT hate cooking). So funny to see a post on it here.

"I recognize that, even within my lifetime, the expectation has become less rigid and less demanding, and I'm mindful enough to be thankful for that change almost every day. But it's a worthwhile question, for me at least, to examine my own choices within a larger context and ask how much my choices are informed by social pressures."

True, but I'll have to admit that now we're getting one of the particular schools OF feminism with which I personally tend to disagree. Yes, it does help to examine the choices you've made, but -- I suspect that if a person didn't truly, really, deep-down like something, that they couldn't be AS deeply conditioned to like it, no matter how much society pressured them TO like it.

In other words: yes, lots of little girls in the world went swoony over Easy-Bake ovens, and it's very likely that a good chunk of those girls went swoony only because Madison Avenue did a good job of advertising them. But -- I'd also wager that some of those girls grew up to relish the thought of cooking for themselves because they genuinely loved it, while other girls threw it in the back of the closet when they got older and moved on to something else instead. The girls who genuinely love cooking for themselves, the ones who read sites like The Kitchn and who strive to cook a lot for themselves because they genuinely love it, are not the same girls as the ones who threw the Easy-Bake Oven in the back of their closet.

Considering your choices is always good, but there's such a thing as considering them too much, is my point. I've just had a couple of odd conversations with people who tried to convince me that my genuine love of cooking was a sign I had been Brainwashed By The Patriarchy, and...no, it's just because I like cooking, and always have.

Besides: arguing that the only reason I like some particular thing is a sign I have been "brainwashed by the patriarchy" implies that I'm incapable of coming to my own independent likes and dislikes SIMPLY BECAUSE I AM A WOMAN, and I'm not too sure that that's what they want to be saying either.

(Mind you, I know you're not saying I'm "brainwashed by the patriarchy" -- I just tend to be a bit dubious about examining your choices in a particular context overly much, because you do run the risk of second-guessing your own geniuine self and that's not quite a good thing either.)

Oh, and a PS -- I never had an Easy-Bake oven. But that's probably because I was using a real oven by the age of 8 anyway, so I was all, "pffft, All THAT makes is one tiny little cake, I'm gonna go to the kitchen and make me a REAL cake."

If women who love to cook exist because of having been "brainwashed by the patriarchy", how does one explain a woman who claims an equally passionate love of building and construction, do you think?

My favorite food? Food cooked by someone else!

I used to love cooking, but now, that I do it every day, 3 meals a day for my family, I hate it. I hate making stuff my Mr. will eat (he's meat and potatoes) that my boy will eat (just meat and cheese) and I will eat (and I'll be too tired at the end of the day to care)
My brother used to say if it took longer to cook it than eat it it wasn't worth it. I used to make fun of him for that all the time.. now I know what he was talking about....

Overthinking things. That's the biggest drag about cooking for me these days. My mom used to choose a meal, go to the store, buy the ingredients and make it. NOW I let the food choose me, as I wander the aisles of four different stores. Where did each ingredient come from? What was it sprayed with? What country farmed it? Is it endangered? How is it affecting the environment? Can I think of a yummy way to prepare it? And (not least) is it worth the cost? Everything is so fraught now. It's exhausting.

In terms of practical tasks, I find making and rolling pie crust kind of a bore. I'd make quiches and pie all the time if I just bought readymade crusts, but when I look at them in the store I feel too guilty about cheating my way towards something that's not good for me anyway and in the store a pie is never 'urgent' - so I never buy them.

I only enjoy cooking if I'm hungry with the result we rarely have slow cooked food.

empresscallipygos, that's precisely why I used phrases like "for some of us" and "for me at least." It's one viewpoint, and though it's an alternative to yours, it's not trying to supercede yours. It's a choice, not a requirement.

I think we're in agreement on the big things: choice is good, and we each get to make our own choices. That includes both the choice of whether to take on and enjoy a historically gendered task and the choice of whether to periodically examine one's motives for doing so.