Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I love really fresh seafood but it looks so icky in the display cases I can hardly stand to buy it. I have a special problem with shrimp/prawns--yes, they are better fresh, yes, the shells add to broth flavor, etc., etc., but I hate pulling off their little legs and heads at the table. Am I a weenie or what?

I hate garlic and onions, but I love to eat goat curry and Japanese curry.

Corned Beef...
The smell of the pickling spices cooking makes me gag... but what could be better than a corned beef sandwich on homemade rye?

While it doesn't creep me out the odor and mess from deep frying food is something I try to avoid. Oh, and chicken wings in the oven is another smell that lingers. I prefer to fire up the grill for wings, but it's only 13 degrees here so no wings with pizza tonight.

I hate making salad. Washing and drying lettuce, making a big mess of peels, stems and seeds in my sink... I'm getting angry just thinking about it.

I hate to make meatballs. Not because I'm creeped out per se, but because growing up, we always had either deer meat or half a side of beef in the deep freeze and the ground meat was never fully thawed by the time my mother shoved ingredients at me and told me to wash my hands and start mixing. I usually enlist the bf for this if the meat has been frozen at all because just the memory of my hands feeling frozen through from the meat makes me want to order pizza instead.

Otherwise, I'm not too creeped out by anything I like to eat. I refuse to shuck oysters just because it seems like a pain in the ass though. I like to inform my bf of this the second he starts running towards the seafood counter at the grocery store, but he's fine with it and isn't as good at cooking other stuff (like the rockafeller stuffing and side dishes), so the division of labor works well.

Chestnuts. They are so delicious, in both savory and sweet applications. candied, roasted, puréed, in soups and consommé... But peeling chestnuts is the single most tedious and frustrating task I've ever put myself through. I haven't killed and dressed anything yet, but I am sure it's easier than peeling chestnuts.

Deep frying - it doesn't creep me out (that would be live lobsters) or scare me in any way, but the smell, the clean up, and especially, the inevitable issue of disposal of the used oil make it one of the things I rather detest. I get my deep fryer out about once every two years for that very reason. I do, however, love egg rolls, falafel (I usually manage to fry it in a deep skillet instead), chicken wings (I normally bake them) and tempura anything. So when I do get that deep fryer out, I always make all of those things:-). It's good that I have a big freezer.

@lamora - my Mum used to cook beef tongue when we were little and I used to love it! But I can't bring myself to buy one and cook it myself....it's funny, but you've kind of made me want to try anyway, even though you actually hate cooking it:-)

I used to be the opposite. I'd love to cook but hated eating what I made! ;)

Hillary
Chew on That

I hate breaking down raw chickens. It always bothers me, having to dislocate joints and crack bones. If it's already broken down or if it's been cooked, no problem - but raw whole chickens creep me right out. Pity whole chickens are cheaper and are more useful than their broken-down counterparts.

Egg whites. Do they HAVE to look like snot?? I like eating them a lot better than whole eggs though...and the fact that it's healthier is just a bonus.

I also don't like to think about what mushrooms ARE, but I don't mind cooking them, and I LOVE to eat them. When I saute them in butter and garlic to go with steak, I could pretty much skip the steak and eat the mushrooms for dinner.

Veal, lamb, anything that used to be a baby animal. Again, don't mind eating it (in fact I LOVE lamb, especially in Chinese brown sauce with leeks) but don't want to cook it. This happened after I became a mom.

@dearrie: According to The Secret Life of Lobsters:
Q: I swear I've heard a lobster screaming in the pot. Do they scream?
A: Probably not. Spiny lobsters -- the clawless sort that live in the Caribbean -- are known to have a sonic muscle, and research is underway to see if they use sound for communication in any way. But when it comes to the clawed American lobster, so far scientists have found very little evidence that the animal produces any kind of sound. That said, occasionally scuba divers in New England do report hearing an intermittent clicking sound coming from a lobster den. As for a lobster making noise during cooking, a "screaming" sound could certainly be caused by steam escaping from one of a lobster's body cavities -- well after the animal is already deceased.

yep, the screaming you hear from lobsters is a steam whistle. still mentally unnerving though. i cant get the whole can eat it anyhow bit.
one thing that makes me gag in raw form ive never tried cooked, cause, well, why would i buy that. its tripe and ew. even it wrapped in a package in the grocery store, i feel queasy.
oh yeah, and one other thing, i dont like cooking with garam masala. it can taste fine, but it smells nasty when you fry with it.

(Resisting the temptation to do an Anthony Hopkins impersonation: "Have the lobsters stopped screaming, Clarice?").

I don't eat animal protein and have had to prepare it on occasions for others, which I don't enjoy--but regarding food I eat myself, I have to admit I hate 'prep' work--hard boiling and peeling eggs, chopping vegetables, rinsing and draining lettuce, and so forth. So I guess hard boiled eggs, ratatouille (lots of chopped veg), and such would top my list.

I don't think I could kill a live lobster except by dropping it straight into the pot. Whole lobster is about the only animal the cook has to kill before preparing it – am I right?

Of all the [other] things I'm ever likely to eat again, I can't think of anything that's creepier to cook than to eat. More likely the reverse. I've opened live oysters, cut up squid, and helped make brain sandwiches (mom was recovering from a serious illness, and the doctors wanted her to regain lost weight, so they told us to indulge any cravings she had. Yep – deep-fried brain sandwiches on hamburger buns with Heinz chili sauce – a treat she remembered from her youth in – Chicago, I think it was.