Cooking music?

14 years ago

Over in Kitchens awhile back there was a bump thread, which was about bumping the thread, but into which someone introduced a cd from Bump Kitchen, a Seattle area, more or less R&B group. I bought the cd because the samples sounded good, and sure enough, it's pretty good cooking music, if a bit hard driving at times.

During the preparations for Passover and during the holiday I played appropriate holiday music.

Since then, I just haven't been in the mood for hunting and pecking around the playlists, and found new go to cooking music: Caliente on XM. It's a lot of merengue, at least when I'm listening, and salsa, and some dance style Latin pop that I'm not cool enough to be able to identify. These are fabulous beats to cook to, and the songs have a lot of the melodic romanticism of classic Latin pop, which is very calming on top of the springy beat. Love it!

What is your cooking music?

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Comments (23)

triciae
14 years ago
Well, tonight we were singing along with John Prine... 'Dear Abby' & 'Spanish Pipedream'!

Then, we "upgraded" our tunes & sang along with the Gatlin Bros. 'Midnight Choir'!

/tricia
lindac
14 years ago
Oh my....classical....loud!
On Saturdays it's Live from the Met....but often it's CDs or something I have on my computer ( which is in the kitchen) and often it's from a folder called "Poles and Russians" and includes lots of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tschaikovsky and Liszt and Brahms Hungarian dances.
But sometimes I do a "theme"...like Christmas music for Christmas cookies and a bit of Linda Ronstadt for Mexican....even the sound track from Frieda...but for pot roast and stuff it's general classical.
Beethoven's 5th Piano concerto is traditional house cleaning music!
Linda C
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Walls. Oh, dear deity, walls. I can remember buying my first home--as a single person, I was looking at condos. My guess is that 99.999% of condos just plunk the kitchen in a corner of the living room, adding a counter/eating bar to create "separation." My agent had a hard time understanding that I wanted a kitchen that was a separate room. Open concept may be great for entertaining or if you have kids. But I am home alone a lot more than I entertain and I don't have kids. What I want is walls to contain the noise of the dishwasher and doors to keep cooking odors contained. The idea of having the kitchen in the living room and the smells and grease getting into my nice furniture is not appealing. And there's the dirty dishes issues, as expressed by lavender lass. There are mornings I don't have time to wash my cereal bowl before dashing out to work. There are days when I eat dinner and just want to collapse. So while the dishes get done promptly most days, some days they don't. And I don't want to curl up in the living room to relax and have those dirty dishes staring at me from across the room, reminding me that I'm being lazy.
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I've had speakers in the ceiling all over the house, with centralized components, for nearly ten years, including in the kitchen. They don't get nearly as dusty as lower ones do because gravity has its way with dust. If you don't put them right where your hood should be, or directly over an unvented oven, they don't get cooking effluent either. I'd say the ceiling is the best place for the speakers. Rather than just going to a cupboard, you can run the wires to a component system in another room. Or you can put them on bluetooth to an ipod dock. One pair of decent speakers should do you fine. The good ones aren't particularly expensive nowadays. Just pay attention to the locations so most of the people spots (work zones and seating) get both speakers instead of just one channel. Cleaning is just a matter of getting up on a ladder, removing the grill and dusting. If you have a lot of dirt incursion into your house, a lot of exterior dust (earth), pollen or pollution, you might need to do this once or twice a year. :) Some people don't like music in the kitchen. I've found that XM caliente is fantastic cooking music! And while I don't generally play holiday music at other times, it's great for cooking for holidays, especially the massive run-up to Passover. Frankly, your husband's argument sounds to me more like an "I don't really care and can't be bothered" than a real concern. That is, it would be if it were any one of the men in my life. If that's what it sounds like to you, overrule him!
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@Carl Arnold, welcome to the cooking forum! And if you really are a person trying to join in, and not trying to drive traffic to some outside website (why I mentioned no link, but sometimes there's a post that's sort of on topic, and the link comes later), you really are very welcome. As Sherry said, we have problems with bots. Your post was overwritten—very beautifully—for this kind of message board. Your follow up was more normal in tone, but unfortunately the new AI is capable of it all. That said, while we do run to older females in traditional families, we try not to exclude our younger, male, non-binary, non-traditional, unique and diverse posters, and it's right to call us out when we fail in that. Your point about cooking roles being more dependent on individual skills than gender is on topic, and an important POV, no matter how many of us have experienced the calcified classic gender roles in the title of the post. I bought a little table top barbecue last year, and have a littler freestanding one that's cute, but harder to use, and generally too small. I'm not really into outdoor cooking, and don't live in a climate where it's necessary. My little barbecues make my menfolk snicker. They have big and bigger gas grills to cook on...but really only for outdoor parties. I don't get the point (it not being an outdoor kitchen for all cooking in too hot and humid for indoors weather). I think barbecues should burn charcoal and aromatic wood chips to be worth the bother. I use a chimney starter. Barbecues are bad for the air quality, however, so mine are minimally used. The ”outdoors” cooking for us is not a gender thing determined by cultural norms, just a combination of attitudes and druthers that fall that way, informed by weather and circumstance.
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annie1992
14 years ago
I must be the only person in the world who doesn't bother. I put Christmas music on when I was baking for Christmas and Elery was going to copy a CD for Ashley last week and had to take the Christmas CD out of the player!

I never think of it, not even when I'm in the Jeep. If I'm reading, I don't notice the music that's on. If I'm working, I don't notice the music that's on and I never just sit and listen to music without doing something else, in which case I don't notice the music that's on!

Annie
doucanoe
14 years ago
Die hard rock-n-roller here. But I get sidetracked amdist measuring and stirring when I "just have to" dance around the living room with my imaginary microphone!

(PS...Tricia, I love John Prine!)

Linda
John Liu
14 years ago
I pick a playlist on the Mac and go to work.

The music is usually something with energy but not cacophony. Grateful Dead; Michael Jackson; Van Morrison; John Coltrane; CSN&Y; Charlie Parker; Cindy Lauper; Talking Heads; Bob Marley; Steely Dan; and so on. Even, so help me, ABBA gets played sometimes.

If I'm feeling especially energetic, then on comes Jimi Hendrix; The Clash ("London Calling" is a great album for searing and stirfrying!); The Rolling Stones; The Who; and Led Zeppelin.

For contemplative tasks - massaging a risotto, reducing a stock, just puttering around - I have some jazz mixes; Diana Krall; Billie Holiday; Keith Jarrett ("Koln Concert", "Vienna Concert"); Joni Mitchell; Nancy Griffith; Carole King; and lately, the soundtrack from "Phantom Of The Opera".

Not too much classical music. When I grew up, that is all my dad listened to - Brahms, Stravinsky, Debussy, Chopin, Mahler - and I think I was overdosed on it in the womb, as it were. Also, much classical music seems to require too much concentration for me as a listener, and the dynamic range is so great - during pianissimo passages I can't hear the music over the vent fan and then the crescendos take me by surprise.

There are two traditional soundtracks for Sunday morning breakfast making around here. Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue", which I used to play in my first apartment out of school, a 5th floor sun-warmed oasis of peace in a then-nasty, now-gentrified area of San Francisco. And John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things", which was the only tape I had during weeks of exploring around France and Switzerland during the summer of my 18th year. I can't hear that music without thinking of those footloose days, eyes as big as my backpack, every day a new sight and sound.
katefisher
14 years ago
A couple of years ago my husband was kind enough to buy me a new record player for my old albums. I have quite a few. The setup is in my office which is off the kitchen so most of the time I just put on an LP and crank it up. This morning that was The Violent Femmes. I also turned VH1 on for a while and heard a new song by the bandShe & Him called 'In the Sun'. Loved it.

I also bought a couple of Pink CD's recently and have been enjoying those. Or you never know I may be in the mood for Billie Holiday. With spring finally beginning to unfold around here I have felt the need for music more and have been doing a lot of digging around the CD and record cabinet just enjoying re discovering what I might come across.

Kate
dgkritch
14 years ago
What Annie said..........(you're not the only one)...

I rarely put any music on. It's OK if someone else puts something on, but I'm likely to "interrupt" and start talking.

Deanna
althetrainer
14 years ago
Annie, you're definitely not the only one. I could have my radio on while cooking but if you asked me what music being played I would have no idea. When I cook, music is just white noise! LOL

Al
teresa_nc7
14 years ago
Sometimes I put on a cd of classic ragtime music - it's always been a happy sounding music to me. It is "Picnics, part of the series of Menus and Music from Sharon O'Connor. ABBA always peps me up if I need to get a lot done. Spanish guitar music is another accompaniment that I like.

Teresa
cotehele
14 years ago
I am with LindaC-all classical!
The local NPR station has classical music from 9a-12, then Performance Today from 12-2p. After that it's CDs. I have some very old favorites: Elgar, Holst, and Fare among others. I also often play flute music (Sir James) as I am a flutist. But my son (classical guitar) and daughter-in-law (soprano) are on most often.

Judy
Lars
14 years ago
Absolutely no classical - it puts me to sleep, and operas just irritate me. As a child I listened to classical until I was about 13, and then I switched. I used to plan the violin, and I still play the recorder. I inherited a clarinet, which I would like to play, but I haven't quite mastered it yet.

I listen to a lot of German bands, including Der Plan, Boytronic (who sing in English), Nina Hagen, Deutsch-Amerikanishe Freundshaft, Andreas Dorau, etc., but I also listen to a lot of early 80s European bands (still), mixed with earlier rock.

Generally, I don't have music on when I'm cooking, but I do when I'm at work, since I spend a lot of time building cardboard models of furniture.

Lars
rachelellen
14 years ago
I have rather eclectic tastes when it comes to music, it's a mood thing. I like just about everything except for rap/hip hop, and hard rock is only in small doses and specific times. But in general, I tend towards Opera, Classical,Country and what I've heard called Soft Jazz or Jazz Fusion.

The thing with Opera, is I love to have it pretty loud so I don't often listen to it unless I'm home alone as my husband likes it o.k.....well, he doesn't mind it (or says he doesn't) but not at the decibel level I do.

When I was single, my favorite pastime of an evening was to curl up on the couch with a good book, but being married really cut into my reading time. My job is physically active but not mentally challenging, so I bought an MP3 and began listening to books at work and often listen while I cook as well.

By the way, if anyone else likes to listen to books, there's a great website called Librivox. All their books are in the public domain (so you aren't going to find anything written before 1920 or so)and are read by volunteers. If you like the old classics, it's a great site, and it's all free. Naturally, some of the readers are better than others and I've found that if there is more than one version of a book, generally speaking the first will be read by a group of readers (a lot of the "beginners") but if there's a second or third version, it's often read by one reader, who is often a more experienced, better reader.

Here is a link that might be useful: Librivox
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
14 years ago
New Age instrumental or more precisely, Direct TV's "Spa" formally "audio visions". Ilk of George Winston, Will Ackerman, etc.

I have many instrumental cds and listen to those in the house. In the car I listen to various ccm music, radio and favorite groups such as Third Day, Toby Mac.
bunnyman
14 years ago
In my CD changer I have Pat Benetar's In the Heat of the Night album (only one I really loved), AC/DC 1978 Powerage, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, and two Eva Cassidy CDs... Songbird and another I didn't note the title.

Jamie Johnson was the last CD I purchased... every thing from brilliant to stupid.

Marshall Tucker Band's Can't You See was the last song played on my computer. Upgraded my computer's sound with a high powered sound card and expensive speakers. I probably should hook up to my house stereo as Youtube is getting to be a primary source of music for me. Youtube has an amazing selection... and cute kitty videos (watch while supper burns).

Just went to fill my coffee and there was Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge CDs laying on the counter. On a Pink Floyd kick in general... hmmm what can I cook that would go good with the C-numb solos?... can't seem to put my finger on it. Who is shouting "brownies"?

: )
lyra
User
14 years ago
Since I live alone, I usually have something on (otherwise I get a bit nuts) - iPod, radio or TV. If I have music, it's country and western. I love to sing along with the great ladies of country music and I love cowboy songs. If it's the radio, it's NPR. Or it might be the TV if a great old movie is on.
User
14 years ago
I'm with Annie, Deanna and Al....no cooking music for me! Not sure why but I rarely have the music playing while I'm cooking.....

Now house work, that's a different story. I usually have Rod Stewart, The Eagles, The Stones, Neil Diamond or Neil Young blasting.
jakkom
14 years ago
Being a Boomer, I've got classic rock music blasting LOUD, because the speakers are unfortunately placed in the opposite direction of the kitchen (note to self - next time, speakers and stereo controls duplicated in the kitchen, LOL).

Everything from Blondie's "Call Me/American Gigolo" to Dire Straits "Money for Nothing", and (Don't Fear) The Reaper by Blue Ãyster Cult to Pointer Sisters "Jump", with some Rolling Stones, Beatles, Elton John, Creedance Clearwater Revival!

Woohoo! That'll get me energized every time!

I wish I could play music during my rare bouts of housework but it's too hard to hear over the vacuum cleaner - LOL.
sands99
14 years ago
Hm Gilmore Girls is usually my background noise at dinner prep time but I do listen to Caribbean music when I'm cleaning

so I don't kill nobody mon.
lindac
14 years ago
Brownies, Lyra....gotcha!
eileenlaunonen
14 years ago
Last night was Latin music... in the yard for grilling its Jimmy Buffett or Doo Wop....my inside kitchen is usually Big Band,Sinatra,Jimmy Roselli,Jerry Vale.
nancylouise5me
14 years ago
Let's see....Renee Flemming for when I'm in the mood for opera, but that is probably the music I listen to the least. I'm a hard rock, R & B, 70's, 80's and 90's type of gal. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Todd Rundgren, Jonny Lang, Blue Man Group, Simply Red, Jefferson Starship. The list goes on and on. And my playlist gets turned up LOUD! Good thing we don't live in an open concept designed house. I can close the door to the kitchen and not disturb our kids and their friends. lol! NancyLouise
plllog
Original Author
14 years ago
ROTFL!!! My musical tastes are very eclectic, so could end up playing a lot of what y'all do, but NancyLouise, the image of you closing the doors so you won't disturb the kids while blasting Todd Rundgren is absolutely priceless!!!

I suppose they'll rebel next by playing nothing but soft strings...
nancylouise5me
14 years ago
Actually plllog, they play "You can leave your hat on" sung by Tom Jones to rebel. They know I prefer the Joe Cocker version. lol NancyLouise

Cooking music?

Comments (23)

triciae

lindac

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Cooking music?

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