Ugh...the family is watching The Great British Baking Show

(Bob M) #1

At first: We won’t make any of these. Now: We could make that!

It is an intriguing show, because the family gets invested in the people (“Oh no! They let X go! Not X! I loved her/him!”; “I think Y should go - he/she isn’t great.”).

A lot of the stuff I would never attempt, but the show we watched last night had a dessert where there was a small pie crust with a mousse in the middle and a hard chocolate coating on the outside. I’d make and eat that. But the point was to NOT want to make anything…

Anyone watch this show? If so, how do you prevent yourself from wanting to make something?

(Joey) #2

I switch channels to watch The Great British Dental Show.
Works wonders. :uk:

#3

I watch cute bread making shorts on YT :slight_smile: I even tried to make something similar (just easier) last time I baked bread (I do that every week). Living with a high-carber has advantages! (As long as I don’t make the bread too fluffy and tempting in my less determined times.)

The dessert seems okay for keto for some… Depends on the crust, mostly…? I wouldn’t make it as it’s way too complicated and carnivore made me lazy :smiley: And my taste in desserts changed anyway. I gladly watch cake and bread making videos (not that show), it’s for the visuals (and sometimes I want to do it for the art part), I don’t want to eat those things.

It probably helps that I can bake any day, no problem. Not just anything and I know carnivore baking has its limits but I can do it… It surely doesn’t work for everyone (not always does for me, I had a big baking mania in December) but sometimes it helps that some aspects can be done…

(Alec) #4

Food industry advertorials.

(Robin) #5

Love love love this show. Have no issues with temptation. I was never a baker anyway.

(Doug) #6

Good question, and one that’s beyond me. In the end, I don’t prevent myself from wanting to, nor from actually doing it. Not too intelligent or efficacious, I realize… :smirk: Some ‘failure days’ like that…

(Geoffrey) #7

I enjoy watching cooking shows because I love to cook.
But since I’ve become carnivore I have lost all emotional attachment to food. No temptation whatsoever.

(Joey) #8

Perhaps another approach would be to just procrastinate. Many of us are already well studied in this fine art.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #9

:joy::joy::joy::joy:

(Jane) #10

We never turn our TV on except to watch football. My 2 boys are the same way. I cancelled the cable when they were in jr high and high school (no streaming then) and it took them 6 months to notice :rofl:

They played video games instead. Not sure that is better but they were a bit more tame back then.

(Bob M) #11

Well, as an engineer, baking has always appealed to me, because it can be very scientific. There are different fats with different melting points, different flours with varying protein levels, you tend to weigh everything, etc.

The most complex dessert (made a looong time ago) I made was a dacquoise. This was insanely time consuming. It was multilayered and quite challenging. I think this is it:

It was OK. For the amount of swearing it caused, it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. :upside_down_face:

I’ve also made baked Alaska, and way too many other desserts (cheesecake, pudding, pies, many fancy cookies, including one where you had to take it out of the oven - the dough was thin - and immediately put it around a wooden spoon to form it into a tube, then dip into chocolate, etc.).

Cooking meat, unless it’s a big hunk where you put it in the oven with a thermometer in it, is way harder. There’s a lot less "science’.

So the show pulls at me…

(Geoffrey) #12

This is why I like watching Alton Brown as he explains the science behind his methods.

(Cathy) #13

I avoided watching the Great British Baking Show for years and then binge watched all the seasons. What they make isn’t a temptation for me to duplicate but more like art that I can appreciate (or not). One caveat is that I did try to make a keto version of puff pastry with minimal success.

#14

Oh, no photo? I am way too lazy to read such long descriptions :smiley: I usually have some idea about the thing I wish to me, take a look at the ingredients and it’s enough. I don’t do complicated food… The most complicated was some dumplings (the sweet kind, with potatoes…? people here would know what I am talking about)! We have a cake with 6 dough layer, I would NEVER entertain the idea to make it. (2 layers tend to be a big enough challenge anyway :stuck_out_tongue: ).
Making a pretty, decorative bread is joy for me but a complicated dessert isn’t.

So that’s your problem, you can work for your dessert instead of being as lazy as many of us!

But that’s it, it’s way easier, you toss it there and it just gets great without effort :smiley: Unless you turn it into charcoal or use some less cooperative meat… Or you are just that sensitive to things I never noticed… :thinking:
But I think I kind of understand. To me, drawing trees is harder than human heads as the latter has structure and rules. But the former is actually easier, you can get away with way less knowledge… Still, I always was much more comfortable with things with more rules. (Even though heads are quite different from each other so there are no strict rules. they can be used for a generic head but it won’t produce enough variety or resemblance)…

And science or not, I noticed that bread baking is special. There are factors we can’t really control. Doing everything the same as much as we can may not yield the same result… I had that more in the beginning, but even now, the inevitable but noticeable smallish changes affect my result. I personally liked cooking better as I was more free and I can do things more intuitively. And a food seemed pretty obvious about its ingredients. Doughs were mystery and more exact ratios had to be used.

Puff pastry is soooo much fun… I can’t even do it on high-carb, not like I tried, it seems too much work for someone with carnivore-ish as their chosen woe… It’s not like I would do that often even if I could… I do want airy, crispy and crunchy baked goods but they are easy enough.

(Doug) #15

Absolutely! :slightly_smiling_face::sunglasses::clap: I don’t think there is anybody on TV who does that better. 16 seasons of ‘Good Eats’ - a wealth of information. And afterwards Alton made two seasons of ‘Good Eats: Reloaded’ to fix some imperfections and add some new things.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #16

I agree. Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow! :grin:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

Well, first, such baking is well out of my league. Second, I no longer have the same relationship with food, since going carnivore. Those desserts look pretty, but I’m not nearly as interested, these days.

Lastly, I liked Mary Berry a lot, but Pru Leith doesn’t do it for me. Paul Hollywood is gorgeous, especially in the earlier seasons of the show, but the show just wasn’t the same without Sue and Mel, even though I like Sandi a lot.

#18

You may be with them as I am with those totally colorful, georgeous dishes full with plants (not necessarily vegan or vegetarian but meat isn’t the main ingredient. unlike in my SO’s cauliflower-turkey curry today… vegs are expensive, it’s meaty now! :smiley: there were some great turkey sales around here lately…). I really like to look at them but they don’t tempt me the slightest and I know I wouldn’t particularly enjoy them. (And their making would be a pain and they wouldn’t be nearly as pretty… I can make pretty bread, I can’t make pretty veggie dishes. I don’t ever make veggie dishes but that’s not the point.)

Desserts are trickier but I remind myself to my own, superior desserts, tailored to my individual taste and preferences…

(KM) #19

I have almost an opposite problem. I like to bake, I’m not particularly tempted to eat this stuff but I’d love to try my “artistry” with these things. Hubs loves all these shows and he is a carb eater. Sounds perfect, except he doesn’t actually want to eat any of these unusual dishes, his comfort zone for sweets is store bought and familiar. So I’d be making dacoise and bakewell tarts for no one at all.

(Bob M) #20

@Geezy56 and @OldDoug Yeah, I learned a lot from Alton Brown and make many of his recipes to this day. For Christmas, I made this with a gluten-free crust:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beef-tenderloin-in-salt-crust-recipe-1942597

It’s too bad he didn’t continue the second run of his show.

@Shinita It looks like this:

image

I still watch America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country (basically the same), but I’d say most of the recipes are too carby. I have done some great recipes from there, but they tend to eat a lot of carbs.