Let's get a couple of things straight. I've mentioned before that since we both work and since it is, in fact, the 21st century around here, MrMMO and I share the various household responsibilities. He he sticks mostly to cleaning (vacuuming, dusting, etc) and general repairs (especially the ones that require someone tall), and I cook and do laundry. The dishes go back and forth. Things also switch up every once in a while depending on the schedule, with the exception of cooking dinner, which MrMMO has done only once, when I was incapacitated (His grandmother made the point once when I joked about it that her husband couldn't have done it that one time even if his life had depended on it, so I do have it pretty darn good.). Don't get me wrong; he's capable of feeding himself while I'm at work, and makes a damned good sandwich, and even cooked for me every once in a while when we first dated (including another time I was incapacitated, after a root canal, and he worked diligently to think of anything and everything soft enough for me to eat). It's just that in my house, I do the majority of the cooking. I put things in particular places; I have particular techniques. While we do all the grocery shopping together, I always put everything away by myself so I know where it is. As someone who's competent enough to bring home half the bacon (figurative bacon), I like that I can have my domain actually cooking the bacon (literal bacon...mmm,bacon).
So back to the video. First of all, it does sound really, really condescending, but in a way, I kind of understand the point. I've been in the kitchen pretty much all my life, and by complete choice rather than any sort of requirement. Cooking, especially baking, relaxes me. I use it as a coping mechanism to deal with loss, sadness, frustration, nerves, etc. I'm not talking about eating so much as the sheer act of baking; it makes a lot of sense psychologically, because baking is all about being precise -- it's something I can have almost complete control of even when the situation otherwise may be out of my control. Aside from that, cupcakes are delicious. However, I know that isn't always the case. My mother learned to cook when she was first married, because her mother shooed her out of the kitchen for much of her life before that. And my grandmother only learned to cook when she got married as well (incidentally enough in the early '40s, a few years before this video was made), because she was the baby of the family and her older sisters did most of the work in the kitchen. Suddenly having a husband to feed (and in my grandmother's case, several farmhands as well) three times a day was probably daunting. For me, it just meant buying more pork chops and switching up the routine a little, and I'm really grateful for that.
There are a couple of things in the video that really did irk me though. I can understand the Amelia Bedelia thing with 'creaming the butter,' but pretty much anyone who is completely new to cooking would have the common sense to find out what that meant before doing it, especially if the recipe didn't actually call for any cream. Yes, I know it was the '40s and there was no Google, but most people would still look in the back for a glossary, that's why there were there back in the day. And while some terms like 'soft-ball' and 'stiff peaks' (yeah, try to read that again without laughing, I dare you) really do need in-depth explanation, do we really need a complex discussion of what it means to 'stir?' A basic knowledge of the English language in and of itself should be able to get one to even so much as guess what it means to stir a sauce or batter. Same for boil, though maybe I'm overestimating the ladies of a couple generations ago.
A couple other comments:
- I thought they actually oversimplified kneading a bit.
- I actually learned stewing/braising the other way around -- that stewing involves flour and braising does not, though that may also be a regional thing. Or I just braise a lot less and stew a lot more than I thought I did.
- One of my favorite lines in the whole thing was, 'At some point, you will decide to serve scalloped cauliflower.' I found this interesting because, quite frankly, that is one of the few dishes that I don't ever plan on serving; I hate cauliflower. I've tried it, and I don't like it; the smell nauseates me, and the taste continues the trend the smell began. Even when scalloped. I like to make a few other scalloped dishes, but never that. Ugh.
- What in heaven's name is all over that cake when it's finished? Some sort of nuts, or candied fruit perhaps? I can't tell, and mostly it just served to freak me out.
- I wouldn't recommend making jam/jelly to someone who's not even comfortable creaming butter yet. Even I have not attempted to do so, partially because of lack of the proper equipment, and partially because of an incident in the second half of Little Women, where Meg tries to make jelly. I'm planning to learn sometime soon, but it just seems a bit complex in a video that's also teaching people how to stir.
- The phrase 'and he'll never know the difference' really irked me in two ways. First of all, that man did not need cake. It's not like it was a holiday or his birthday or anything. It was a weekday lunch for crying out loud. What would his reaction be if there was no cake? He probably wouldn't have noticed at all, the ungrateful jerk. If it'd been me, and I screwed up a cake like that (it didn't look ruined, per se, just a bit dense), I either would have made it into a trifle/parfait of some sort, or said, 'Look honey, brownies!'
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