Bachelor slop

When I was a kid I was occasionally a picky eater, but at this point I’ve grown out of it. If I don’t really enjoy something, I can still manage to eat it. Because of this tolerance, when I’m cooking for myself I often like to experiment a bit.

Instead of making things by a recipe, I’ll just keep adding ingredients I like and see what happens. Sometimes it’s not that good, and other times it’s genius, but what matters is that I tried something new, I learned from it, and in any case I’m going to eat it. This experiementation is the essence of what I call bachelor slop, a genre of weird food you’d usually only cook for yourself.

The other salient aspect of bachelor slop is the slop part. I have a tendency to stir or mix or just fuss with my food the whole time as I cook it, so whatever I’m making ends up combining into a relatively homogeneous mixture. The consistency usually lands in the realm of a thick sauce or porridge.

If you’re making bachelor slop, I’ve found that a great can to have around is crushed tomatoes. If your slop is on the dry side, they add some moisture. If they make it too wet, it can always be cooked down a little. Best of all, they add rich tomato flavor and a little acidity to the dish, which can really punch up a bland dish.

Today’s post is a little shorter because it’s already almost midnight, but sometime I might put up a recipe here for a bean-based version of bachelor slop I’ve made a few times and enjoyed.

Do you make bachelor slop? Do you like to experiment when you cook? Are you a less picky eater now then when you were a kid? Let me know your thoughts at my Ctrl-C email: gome ​@ ​ctrl-c.club.