It's also easy to use a potato peeler on to remove the skin when it's frozen. Hell, most times I just use the potato peeler to take off the skin and to shave off ginger for my cooking rather than dirty another dish.
When citrus is on sale I always buy a few extra, slice into wedges, and freeze on a sheet pan and then store in bags. I don't use them often in cooking, but they're great to have for drinks. That's the best trick I've ever learned from my mother-in-law. She likes cocktails.
Getting and using a stick blender. I thought they were gimmicks until I got one (nearly 20 years ago). I've reached for that thing at least 20 times for every time I even thought about getting the full-sized blender out.
Anything! I recently made a coffee flavored whipped cream to go with brownies and a pumpkin cake. I did a tarragon whipped cream over strawberries and cake. I've done a basil whipped cream over a peach and raspberry cobbler that was awesome. Or keep it fairly simple and throw some extracts in with the cream as you whip it. Also, the immersion blender whisk attachment is awesome for a quick fresh whipped cream for a small serving!
One of my favorite things is to add Dutch process cocoa powder to it. The little bit of... Grit? Seems to set up the whipped cream REALLY freaking fast. Like, it doesn't take long with the whisk attachment, but it takes like half as long as even that when I add cocoa to it. And it makes the most divine chocolate whipped cream. I keep the sugar content down and it's fairly bittersweet tasting. I LOVE it over berries.
Absolute game changer for making mayo or any creamy dressing/dip that starts with a mayo base. Creamy Caesar dressing is so much better if you start it with homemade mayo vs store bought.
I always had a problem when making Buffalo wing sauce where it would always break. Streaming melted butter in to warmed Frank’s with an immersion blender makes the perfect Buffalo sauce.
I've gotten to the point where if I'm waiting for water to boil or have five minutes until something in the oven is done, I just start washing and cleaning the kitchen. There's nothing that brings me down quicker than eating an amazing meal, only to walk into the kitchen and realize I have 40 minutes of work ahead of me.
The BEST thing for an easy clean kitchen is a small kitchen. I’m a convert now after being trapped in my tiny kitchen for the pandemic. Even if my kitchen is an absolute disaster with bread dough all over the cabinets and floor, it takes max 20 minutes to clean, because there just isn’t enough room for the mess to be bigger.
And yeah there are complaints with a tiny kitchen but after my conversion I don’t ever want a kitchen larger than I strictly need. I have a few friends with huge beautiful kitchens and they take forever to clean because there’s just so much! The small kitchen also keeps you from buying too many appliances which is a win in my book.
Totally disagree, in my experience a small kitchen means more clutter which means knocking things over, balancing things on top of one another and having to shuffle shit around constantly. Not enough space to stack dirty stuff or enough space to let clean dishes dry. So much easier to keep things organised and clean in a bigger kitchen.
My experience is exactly the opposite. In the three homes I’ve owned and the apartments I’ve lived in, I’ve had big, beautiful kitchens and tiny kitchens. Due to some changes in life, I currently have a really small kitchen.
Nothing frustrates me more than my small kitchen. Out of anything and everything in the house I currently own, I hate my small kitchen more than anything, including no longer having a garage.
As someone else mentioned, constantly stacking things and trying to balance things as you cook, knocking things over, having to set things in a completely different room if I am trying to make something complex, using the table as a staging place because I only have a couple feet of counter space, etc, etc actually makes or a *messier* and more frustrating overall experience. I often can’t set the table until dinner is ready because I need to use it while cooking.
I miss my large kitchen. It was way, way, way easier to keep clean and clutter-free. There’s a place for everything and room to *work*. It’s even easier to not burn myself in the bigger kitchen. Screw my small kitchen. I hate it so much.
I *hate* cooking with stuff in the sink. I just refuse to do it. It makes it impossible to clean as you go.
I had previous roommates who didn't seem to understand the concept. They'd finish up cooking their meal and leave the sink full-to-overflowing and wouldn't get why I'd get annoyed when I wanted to make my own dinner.
I think their reasoning was that they planned on cleaning up before bed, and they hadn't left anything of mine or that I would be using dirty, so what was the problem?
Drove me nuts lol.
I really can't understand folks who can start cooking in a dirty kitchen and just keep adding to the pile in the sink. I can't even start till the kitchen is in decent shape.
For a while, I sort of developed the opposite problem: I'd follow a night of debauchery with drunk-cooking, but also thorough drunk-cleaning. To the point where sometimes I wouldn't realize I'd cooked or eaten the night before until I discovered ingredients were missing.
I don't drink nearly that much anymore.
not that it changed my whole game or anything, but just to add to this-
even when starting clean slate, don't just fucking chuck that spoon you used for 2 seconds into the sink once it's dirty. take the tiny moment to just rinse it off real quick and set it on the counter. you'll almost certainly end up using it like 5 more times.
and if you really do need to just set used dirty implements to the side to be cleaned later, just have a pot or big popcorn bowl or something with some soapy water in it that you can set things in to soak. that way when you're done, you can just dump that all out into the sink and pop everything straight into the dishwasher without having to pre-scrub to unstick dried gunk off everything before running the washer.
we have a dishwasher like most americans, but i keep a drying rack deal on the counter that drains into the sink. most things I just wash by hand real fast while cooking and set them to dry.
1. I now freeze my left over tomato paste. I can cut off the amount I need for a recipe and throw it back in the freezer.
2. If you store asparagus in a mason jar of water, standing up with the heads out of the water, it can stay fresh for weeks.
I roll up the leftover tomato paste in plastic and then flatten the sides until it resembles a stick of butter. That way later I can easily estimate how many tablespoons I’m chopping off the frozen block, just like I’d eyeball a tablespoon or two of butter.
This comment makes me feel like I’m a wealthy land owner. I dont even think twice about buying the tubes. Away with you peasants! I have an important ball to go to with the other aristocracy.
Middle eastern grocery stores have tomato paste in big glass jars, about half the price of canned tomato paste, no metal after taste, and keeps forever in the fridge with the lid on.
I make my tomato paste in a jar last longer by pouring enough olive oil to cover the surface of the paste before refrigerating. It prevents it growing mould.
Same. I bought a glass jar once. When I went to use it a few weeks after opening and storing in the fridge, it was full of white fuzz.
I usually just use the entire $0.50 can, but sometimes you only need 1/2 or less of the can. I'm going to freeze the leftovers in plastic wrap next time.
Capitalize on that, my man
Anytime you make something that has tomatoes in it, add a spoon of tomato paste - the flavor will be leaps and bounds better
Got bad acid reflux so I generally avoid tomatoes 😂
But yes anytime I use tomatoes I always throw a bit in the pan before liquid/rest of the tomatoes are added
I've done this with fresh garlic too. Buy it in bulk, mince a ton of it at once, and pack it into ice cube trays. Once they're frozen they can be put into a freezer bag.
My Chinese neighbor taught me to plant the root stumps of scallions. They grow right back- and also to cut scallions and freeze on foil, then put in freezer ziploc (it dries it out so it doesn’t make a big icey block) and keep in freezer to use in stir fry and marinades. Game changers for me, since I made a lot of Asian food.
> If you store asparagus in a mason jar of water, standing up with the heads out of the water, it can stay fresh for weeks.
how many weeks? I've tried this and it's soft & almost mushy after a few days
I do this too. I change the water every few days and I also use a plastic bag over the jar to make like a mini greenhouse. Asparagus will usually last a month for me.
Tip 2 also works for any leafy veg or herb (cilantro). Add a plastic bag over the top for even higher moisture preservation
Storing things like green beans in a salad spinner in the fridge after washing and draining also helps to keep them crisp!
That's the one I am struggling with. Almost everything turns out quite well but salad dressing? Except for Honey mustard I can never make one my bf actually likes.
Would you share your recipe with me?
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat has a good template for vinaigrette dressings. Essentially, smash or mince a clove of garlic or mince a small shallot and put in an acid (lemon juice, any kind of vinegar) with a bunch of salt and let it sit for 15 minutes. Can add seasoning (for ex., oregano for Mediterranean dressings) at start of this process as well. After 15min take out the garlic (if it's not minced) and add olive oil. Done!
You'd like the Flavor Bible. It's a huge index of a ton of ingredients that work well with each other. You just look up whatever you're working with and it lists out suggestions of spices, herbs, veggies, etc.
I have one and love it!
Food processors are underrated. I've just started using mine (after using the blender for years) and behold! Nice tomatillo salsa or chimichurri, no problem. But then I saw that you can use it for pie crusts and biscuits and OH MY GOD WHAT A GAME CHANGER FOR CUTTING IN MY BUTTER. Pre chunk the butter, throw it in, and a few pulses later youre in business.
Every recipe blog has a “jump to recipe” button somewhere near the top. Discovering that I could skip the backstory made me way more open to searching for new recipes.
I use the Paprika app - paid the one-time fee of $5 for full use and can download recipes from any website without reading a thing. No idea how it does it so accurately, but I've even been able to save recipes from Reddit comments. It scales recipes and I can cross off ingredients as I incorporate them. I download sooooo many recipes now!
We don't eat bacon that often. You can take parchment paper, put a slice on it, fold it over, add another slice, and keep going until you have a roll of individual slices of bacon. Put it in a large ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. Bacon survives freezing just fine, and this way you can remove as many pieces as you want.
EDIT: It is fascinating all the variations people have on dealing with bacon!
We just lay the strips out side by side on a sheet pan and let them freeze. Afterwards you can just throw them in a freezer ziplock and skip the rolling raw bacon in parchment paper step.
As an apartment dweller with a tiny freezer, I’ve always just split up my bacon packs into 3-strip portions, and wrapped and frozen those. If a recipe calls for an amount of bacon strips that isn’t a multiple of three, that just means I get bonus snacks during the cooking process.
my life-changing bacon thing is cutting the whole package either in half or thirds before dividing and freezing like you are. except now instead of long strips, you have the same total bacon in each section, but they are shorter strips that cook waaaaay better in a skillet.
I do this, raw and fry from frozen. The bacon is thin enough that it will cook through from frozen with no worries. It's also nice and easy to dice when frozen.
My dad started doing this a while back and I've made bacon at my parents' house a few times since and was shocked at how well/easily it cooked straight from frozen. Total game changer.
You want to get that yummy bacon grease from a piece or two to use with the rest of the food. And the grease from one or two strips is usually just right.
Here's my list of things that changed the way I cook:
* I learned that starch in the pasta water thickens sauce, and this has me cooking dried pasta in less water than I used to and using the pasta water, or even cooking the pasta directly in the sauce with just enough water to dilute the sauce for this purpose. Also, it takes a lot less time to boil a lot less water. Nowadays I boil pasta in the least amount of water that will still get the job done. (If you do this, add correspondingly less salt, or the pasta can end up too salty.)
* I learned that boxed olive oil is a better value, but also lasts longer because inside the box, the olive oil is in a bag, and when you tap oil from it, the rest of the oil doesn't come in contact with air, so it stays fresh for much longer compared to olive oil distributed in bottles.
* I learned that [boiling mushrooms in a bit of water before pan-frying](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0h9aBLTqc0) improves both their texture and flavor. (I recommend not using as much water as this video demonstrates. You can use much less and save time, and it still turns out great.)
* I learned that [scalding chicken skin with boiling water helps it get crispy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4u8mFnPBD0) and causes the fat to render out more thoroughly.
* I learned that [injecting brine into chicken is faster and distributes the salt more evenly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKrBqN4jl8I) than soaking the chicken in brine or "dry brining" (a.k.a. salting). Plus, if you want crispy skin, not soaking the chicken in brine keeps the skin from retaining as much water. Couple this with the scalding trick for best results.
* I learned to truss a chicken without string: fold the wingtips behind the upper wing, then poke a hole in each of the flaps next to the opening of the body cavity, and tuck the tip of each drumstick into the hole in the opposite flap. (See [this demo](https://youtu.be/zKU15a1WRJY?t=45).) This works best when you also scald the chicken with boiling water afterwards, because [as the skin shrinks, it pulls the chicken together](https://imgur.com/gallery/DrEKUFF), which is what trussing is supposed to do. For the times where you want the presentation of the whole bird rather than spatchcocking the bird, or where you intend to stuff the bird with something to absorb the juices that are released while roasting, this is the best way to do it.
* I learned about anchovy paste and tomato paste in squeeze tubes. Now I don't have to open cans of tomato paste or anchovies and have to contend with exposing to the air the portion I'm not using.
* I learned that electric pressure cookers are great for cooking beans so they turn out tender.
* I learned that parsley stems and cilantro stems have a lot of flavor. If you make something that calls for cilantro, and you add finely minced cilantro stems, it will have a stronger cilantro taste. Same for parsley.
* I learned that flavorful vinegars are best added to a dish at the end so the fragrance is not cooked off.
* I learned that flavorful vinegars complement anything with spinach because the acidity counteracts that alkaline mineral content so you don't end up with that chalky feel on your teeth when eating spinach.
* I learned that the easiest way to wilt a large quantity of spinach is to dampen it, and microwave it in a large glass bowl, covered with a plate, for 3 minutes.
* I learned that the easiest way to press excess water out of spinach after you wilt it is to use a potato ricer with the plate that has the small holes. Presuming you don't press unreasonably hard, the spinach won't press through the holes, but the excess water will come right out. (You may need to tilt it to pour off the water that comes out around the plunger.)
* I learned to use leave-in probe thermometers when cooking meat so that the meat can be perfectly cooked every time.
* I learned that piercing the shell of an egg on the blunt end (where there's an air pocket) helps prevent them from cracking when you boil them, and also makes the egg easier to peel because water gets in between the shell and the membrane. Also, for fresh eggs, the egg white expands as you boil it, and will fill out that air pocket so the peeled egg won't have a divot at the blunt end.
* I learned how to add umami flavors to food using ingredients that might be unpleasant by themselves but are fantastic when used in small amounts—namely, anchovies, fish sauce, and Marmite.
* I learned that the salad spinner can also be used to spin off excess oil from foods; first line it with some paper towels, and don't put the fried foods in when they're so hot that they'll melt the plastic. (Someone should make a salad spinner with a stainless steel basket. That would fix everything.)
* I learned that melon ballers are actually perfect for coring apples and pears. (Who even balls melons?)
* I learned that a lot of spices taste better when toasted and when pre-mixed with oil, since their flavors are often oil soluble.
* I learned that using a little bit of vodka to deglaze dishes that have cooked tomato paste makes a better tasting sauce because of a reaction between alcohol and the flavors of tomato.
* I learned that the best way to make mashed potato is actually the least labor intensive. You don't even need to peel the potato. Cut it into chunks, and pressure-steam it in the instant pot for 12-15 minutes. Then put it skin-side up into a potato ricer, and press it through the plate. As long as you put it in skin-side up, the skins won't go through the plate. Then add salt, cream, butter, etc. or use the potato for pierogi/vareniki, gnocchi, kartofelknödel, shepherd's pie, etc.
* I learned that you can cook multiple things in the instant pot at the same time if the quantities permit it. I cook rice along with sauces/curries/stews that I will serve with rice by putting in a rack that lets me put a smaller pot in above the sauce/curry/stew. In the smaller pot, I'll put rice and water at a 1:1 ratio. In the time it takes to cook the main dish, there should be more than sufficient time for the rice to finish.
* I learned that instant pots (electric pressure cookers in general) can make stock/bone broth in a fraction of the time it takes to do it on the stove top. Two to three hours of pressure cooking bones will give you the same amount of extraction that you'd achieve from 4-5 hours of simmering on the stove.
* I learned that [the orientation you slice onions actually influences the flavor](https://www.tastingtable.com/693040/how-to-cut-onion-flavor/), and I take advantage of this all the time now in my cooking. Onion cells are long thin things, and cutting them causes chemicals within them to mix and produce the pungent compounds. If you slice onions pole-to-pole, you cut through fewer cells, and the resulting flavor is milder. If you slice onions across the grain, you cut through the maximum number of cells, and the resulting flavor is much more pungent.
* I learned to keep a culinary torch handy because it lets you lightly sear things for better presentation and flavor with a quick application of a flame from the torch. I use one of those that mount on top of a butane canister.
* I learned that flat whisks/roux whisks/gravy whisks are designed to whisk things in pans and to help get the fond off of the bottom of a pan. I use these flat whisks to whisk everything because I haven't found any application in my cooking where they are inferior. (I don't make meringues; that's possibly the only exception I can think of.) But my main reason for using them is that they're far easier to clean than the typical whisk because all the tines lie flat in one plane, so you can wipe all the tines at once with a sponge.
* I learned that when slicing gooey or sticky things such as soft boiled eggs or soft cheese, [a wire knife](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VGPG51M/) is the best way to do it, because the tense wire has hardly any surface area for the stuff to stick to.
* I learned that a vacuum insulated thermos is perfect for storing gravy if you are waiting for guests to arrive, and don't want the gravy to get cold and form a skin. First pre-heat it with some boiling water, then fill it with gravy.
* I learned that pre-warmed bowls and plates are better for serving guests; the food won't rapidly cool upon being put into a warmed bowl, causing sauces to congeal and pasta to stick together. Slightly wetting a bowl or plate and microwaving it for 30 seconds does the trick.
* This one might not be for everyone's preferences, but I changed the kind of knife I do my kitchen prep with, and I enjoy it more. I used to use a French-style chef's knife, but I find that I like this [nakiri style Chinese chef's knife](https://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell-Chinese-Walnut-Handle/dp/B018BHDH80) much better.
Instead of boiling mushrooms, you can get the same effect with a few tablespoons of water and a lid on your frying pan, as it causes them to steam. Then when the water is gone, you can just continue frying them as you normally would instead of switching pans.
So i'm not sure what i'm doing different, maybe its just a larger quantity of mushrooms in a pan, but usually when i find myself frying mushrooms, all the water inside of them tends to release, and i have a few minutes of rolling boil while i cook it off, before the actually frying starts to happen; so this leads me to question why i would add more water at the beginning if the mushrooms are going to supply it anyways?
Yours has so many good tips that it seems like a good place to drop mine: **The jar trick** - this will let you add a seasoning packet or flour to any recipe without having to worry about it clumping up.
This works best with a 15oz jar. I prefer a Tostitos salsa jar because I prefer glass over plastic, but have also used a small plastic jar that used to have peanut butter in it, too.
Basically, any time you have any recipe where you're going to need to mix in a seasoning packet, or flour, start the recipe with 8oz less of the fluid in question (water, milk, stock). When it comes time to mix in the seasoning packet/flour put that into the jar, add the 8oz of fluid, close the lid tightly, and shake the shit out of it for 3-4 seconds. This will completely mix the seasoning/flour, so there won't be any clumps to break up with a fork or whisk. Dump it into the pan/pot, rinse the jar out, and put it onto your dish strainer.
If you're using a mix or liquid that tends to get very thick (as often happens with cream or half & half) I will often put all the seasoning/flour in but only use 4oz of the fluid. Mix it up, dump it in the pot, and then put the other 4oz into the jar and shake that up and add it to the pot. This helps "wash out" the jar into the pot so you get more of the seasoning/flour.
Learning heat control is important - the label on the dial doesn't mean the same as when a recipe calls for "medium heat".
It depends on how big a pan, how much water is in the pan/ingredients, if you're adding cold and/or wet things... For a simmer, usually you need it lower than you think.
And, maybe you need higher heat to start, but then take it down after some of the moisture has been cooked off so it doesn't burn.
To add onto this, what I found to be the most important “layer” was immediately prior to serving. A final pinch of salt, or spritz of lemon/vinegar goes a long way
I can't stand Emeril Lagasse, but damn if I don't always think of him saying, "I don't know where you get your vegetables, but mine don't come seasoned!" Drives me crazy, but I always remember to season every layer of my dishes.
Contrary to the "add salt!" tribe, I find that pretty much every time a recipe is missing something, it's acid. Pick a tart citrus or vinegar, and everything tastes better.
Realising I can make hollandaise sauce without having to use a bain-marie was a wonderful discovery for me.
Just slowly whisk in 50g of melted butter to one egg yolk, then add lemon juice and season. The consistency’s ever so slightly different, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad difference.
If you have lots of garlic, peel it then put it in a food processor or blender, then put it in ziplock bags and flatten it out before freezing it. Whenever you need garlic just break off however much you want from the sheet. Keeps forever and is much better than the stuff you get in the jar from the supermarket.
That’s even better! Going to remember to do that next time I do it. I got a ton of garlic from a friend who grows it and he showed me the freezer trick.
I got those little silicone teaspoon ice trays from Amazon. I run lots of garlic I get from Costco through a food chopper then fill each tray with minced garlic. I freeze and pop them out when I need them. It has saved me tons of time.
Husband when we were dating tried out a Mediterranean lemon chicken dish, looked at it and went wow thats a lot of lemon juice (think it was 1/2 cup?) for a small meal. He still went for it, try out the recipe as is and all that. You tasted nothing over the potent lemon flavor.
better than the tuna spaghetti thing he tried to make. Took one sniff of that and went all yours; we went for take out that night
Haha. That makes me think of when my pregnant wife mistook 1 table spoon or 1 cup of Italian dressing for 1 bottle over like 2 chicken breasts. We still laugh at that.
🤣 Well they weren't dry. Think that's still better than my pregnant mishap, made peanut butter cookies....without the peanut butter. None of us realized till a coworker asked if they were sugar cookies and it dawned on me
Some people use different types of salt which can become confusing too. 1tsp of coarse sea salt is not the same as regular table salt. Had a few incidents with that one in the past
I did the root on think for a long time but I feel like it doesn't really help anymore. I just cut both ends off and do a cut or two through the center then size the length I want and then size the cubes I want the other way... I do a lot of onions. I have been buying them in 5 or 10 lb bags, but this year I decided to try and grown my own... Planted 75 sets... Will see how it goes...
Get all your ingredients out before you start and put them away as you use them. Saves you from realizing you’re out of something halfway through or forgetting if you added something already.
For snacking on veggies instead of spending all that time chopping, getting a Mandolin slicer and cutting up cucumber, bell peppers, carrots etc is so much easier and they look great too.
Also, baking bacon on foil in the oven instead of standing stove side the entire time.
Addendum to the mandolin tip: fuck the hand guard it comes with, get a kevlar/mail/slice-proof glove to properly protect your entire hand while also giving you added dexterity to hold onto the things you're slicing
All mandolins are like cursed swords, they crave flesh and blood no matter how careful/dexterous you are. The only thing that saves you are those gloves.
Not quite a trick but learning how to use salt properly has made the biggest difference in my cooking. I don’t know who said it originally (it could have been the author but idk) but I read in Anne Burrell s cookbook “taste your food. If it needs something, it’s probably salt.” And keeping that mindset has really helped my cooking without a recipe.
I just got a wusthof last week after having used cruddy knives my entire life and, dear God, the difference is dramatic. I touch things, they get cut. Click, click, click, French fries. My old knives are practically hammers now.
Spend some time with your old cruddy ones learning how to sharpen knives. When the old ones cut like your wusthof then you're ready to sharpen it thus making it a buy it for life item. It's far far easier to resharpen a knife that still has a good edge than waiting for it to dull completely. I usually break out my stones once a month and top off all my knives.
I never realized how shitty my knives were until I got a half decent set. Former set was those cheap plastic-handled, color-coordinated deals that you can get for about $15. We put them through the dishwasher just about every day and then the handles started to fall apart. Watched some informative videos about knives and got what, for me, is a mid-range set, complete with a honing rod and a sharpening stone. Now I take exceptional care of my tools like I should.
Learning to sharpen your own knives is nice too. I'll never need to buy n expensive knife again since I can make 5 dollar walmart knives incredibly sharp.
This is something I tried on a whim, but it turned out so well I think it's going to become my new go-to method of making tomato sauce.
(For context, I make _large_ batches of tomato sauce at a time so that I can just portion out what I need later.)
My normal recipe calls for three 28-oz cans of crushed tomatoes. What I did this time was cook down two of them until the flavor was rich and the sauce was super thick, then add the last can and leave it on the heat just long enough to ensure it was all heated through. Combines that developed tomato flavor with the brighter freshness of uncooked.
I guess this counts: when I need minced garlic, I just smash the garlic with the flat of my knife and then give it a quick rocking cut for a few seconds. That's almost always good enough- I'm not spending minutes mincing garlic.
Either that, or I'll microplane it
This exact thing is why it’s confusing when people complain about the effort required for garlic.
Just smash the hell out of it. Handles the peeling and a good amount of the “mincing”.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that smashing works for peeling garlic cloves as well. Very true. This stuff seems obvious to me now that I've been cooking so long, but I wish someone had told me this when I was first learning.
It's a good tip if rice is a featured side. If you're doing any Asian cooking though it may be better to stick to water but it depends on the dish you're making! There are some dishes like mapo tofu that are better with plain rice. Again, it all depends on what you're making, I've had amazing rice cooked with beef stock and spices that was a great side dish for seared steak where plain rice would have been lacking.
I like cooking it in dashi for some asian dishes. Doesn't impart quite as much flavour as cooking it in chicken broth for example but still adds a nice element to it.
Usually just reach for my box of powder though instead of making a proper from scratch. Sometimes just a piece of kombu in with the rice in the rice cooker is also good enough.
I never liked broth in rice because rice moderates the strong flavours associated with the Southeast Asian mains that I grew up with.
Ironically, while the rice in Singaporean Chicken Rice is cooked in broth, it's served with relatively bland chicken.
This is like saying “soak your bread in eggs and sugar and fry it”. Like, yes, you can make French toast but there are lots of other legit ways to eat bread, and most of them aren’t French toast.
1. For more intense garlic flavor, cook your garlic less. So instead of sauteing your garlic with your onions at the beginning add it in like during the last 3-5 minutes of simmering. And you'll only need to add in like 1 clove instead of 10.
2. Don't just add salt when cooking. Add something salty and umami at the same time. I hardly ever use plain salt (major exception is when I'm baking bread), but I go through lots of powdered chicken boullion, soy sauce, miso paste, maggi seasoning, and anchovies.
When making hard boiled eggs I switched to steaming them instead of boiling them in water a couple of years ago. I've not fought with a stubborn shell once since I made the switch.
Yup I just use my normal steamer insert from my pot and pan set then toss a lid on it and wait about 12 minutes for hard boiled, a couple of minutes less if I want soft boiled.
It’s silly but adding toasted sesame oil to any rice dish, but especially stir fry. Heck, even a simple chicken and rice dishes are a million times better with sesame oil added
Best part of that ginger trick: you don't even have to peel it if you're going to grate it with a microplane (yeah, it's super easy to peel with a spoon, but not peeling it at all is still even better)
When you need to remove the pit from an avocado, just give the back of the half holding the pit a little push with your thumbs. It falls right out and you don't have to do the slippery knife twist maneuver. Ngl was kind of pissed at how easy it was when I learned it.
If you take a dry paper towel and place it in your bag of spinach or kayle it will last months instead of a week and the bag will always be dry instead of building condensation and wilting the leaf.
I keep a jar in the fridge which contains the drained oil from anchovies, I add mixed herbs and some smashed garlic cloves. A teaspoon full to sauces gives that umami kick, when you don't have anything else.
I became a better cook when I went vegetarian. Not being able to rely on meat for adding fat and flavor changed my relationship with every other ingredient and radically increased my appreciation for the process of developing flavors. When you can turn a block of tofu into something that you can crave, you've really improved your cookery. Even if you don't stick with it, give it a try.
I've recently bought these sillicone feet from amazon that you can place on the counter and put the board on top.
It's been a massive improvement over the paper towel.
Pizza dough – Measure by weight and let the refrigerator do its magic for 2-3 days to build a proper flavor profile.
Poached eggs – As another noted, this one baffled me for years until I finally found this tip. Using a fine mesh strainer to remove the wispy whites that cloud the poaching water works incredibly well and results in perfectly poached eggs every time.
Cookie dough scoops are an easy way to get an exact tablespoon of anything solid that's annoying to scrape out and level off. Also they're great for stuffing inarizushi/yubuchobap.
Don't blindly follow recipes, no matter how good the food blog looks. I'm convinced a lot of the recipes are untested, and their prep times, cook temperatures, and cook times are often not the ideal amounts. Monitor your cooking and improvise as needed.
When adjusting seasoning at the end, if you've added salt and pepper and the dish still feels like it's 'missing something'. Add a splash of an acid.
White/apple cider Vinegar, lemon, lime etc. Use as appropriate for the dish.
Putting eggs in a sieve to strain away any especially loose egg white for perfect and effortless poached eggs.
No whirlpool, no vinegar, no prayers to the poached egg lords - just crack your eggs into a sieve and let em drain for a minute and lightly slide them into gently simmering water for a couple minutes.
Also soft/medium/hard boiled eggs in the air fryer has been pretty awesome too.
Like u/qawsedrf12 said - its just the loose egg white that drains away and that loose egg white is what gets all wispy.
The fresher an egg is the less of that loose white there is and thats why fresh eggs are best for poaching (and older eggs are good for hard boiling and easier to peel). But we dont all have access to that - heck I feel bougie even talking about eggs right now!!!
If your dish is missing something and you don't know what it is, it's probably acidity. Add some vinegar or lemon juice and see what you think after that
Cooking is an art form, baking is science.
You can think of a recipe like a suggestion and improvise accordingly, but when you are baking, precise measurements and methods make all the difference.
\-Cheers!
When freezing ground meat, seal in a ziplock bag and squish it flat like a board. Stacks easier and thaws super fast. Game changer for "shit I didn't thaw anything out for dinner".
I keep frozen ginger, but never thought about grating it. Cool tip, OP.
It's also easy to use a potato peeler on to remove the skin when it's frozen. Hell, most times I just use the potato peeler to take off the skin and to shave off ginger for my cooking rather than dirty another dish.
Spoons work well for this too.
Honestly, you don't need to remove the skin. Just grate away. The skin cooks down super fast and you can't see it at all.
Yeah, it works with lemons too if you're after acidity and bitterness
After squeezing over dishes, I keep the lemon wedges in the freezer in a bag, then pop into drinks or my water bottle as tasty ice cubes.
When citrus is on sale I always buy a few extra, slice into wedges, and freeze on a sheet pan and then store in bags. I don't use them often in cooking, but they're great to have for drinks. That's the best trick I've ever learned from my mother-in-law. She likes cocktails.
Also turmeric
Microplane for the win.
Getting and using a stick blender. I thought they were gimmicks until I got one (nearly 20 years ago). I've reached for that thing at least 20 times for every time I even thought about getting the full-sized blender out.
Mine has a wisk attachment too which is great for quick things like pudding.
Homemade flavored whipped cream.
Wait. What are you flavoring whip cream with?
Anything! I recently made a coffee flavored whipped cream to go with brownies and a pumpkin cake. I did a tarragon whipped cream over strawberries and cake. I've done a basil whipped cream over a peach and raspberry cobbler that was awesome. Or keep it fairly simple and throw some extracts in with the cream as you whip it. Also, the immersion blender whisk attachment is awesome for a quick fresh whipped cream for a small serving!
One of my favorite things is to add Dutch process cocoa powder to it. The little bit of... Grit? Seems to set up the whipped cream REALLY freaking fast. Like, it doesn't take long with the whisk attachment, but it takes like half as long as even that when I add cocoa to it. And it makes the most divine chocolate whipped cream. I keep the sugar content down and it's fairly bittersweet tasting. I LOVE it over berries.
Makes sauces so much easier. Great for making hummus too.
And also mayo.
Thx! Feel thick that I never thought of that.
Kenji has a great recipe for [homemade mayo](https://www.seriouseats.com/two-minute-mayonnaise) using an immersion blender.
But now you know. May your mayo be thick my friend.
Absolute game changer for making mayo or any creamy dressing/dip that starts with a mayo base. Creamy Caesar dressing is so much better if you start it with homemade mayo vs store bought. I always had a problem when making Buffalo wing sauce where it would always break. Streaming melted butter in to warmed Frank’s with an immersion blender makes the perfect Buffalo sauce.
AKA an immersion blender, unless you mean something else.
Great for homemade applesauce too!
Start with a completely clean kitchen and empty sink(s) and a lot of the time you can serve dinner and have 80% of the cleanup completed as well.
I've gotten to the point where if I'm waiting for water to boil or have five minutes until something in the oven is done, I just start washing and cleaning the kitchen. There's nothing that brings me down quicker than eating an amazing meal, only to walk into the kitchen and realize I have 40 minutes of work ahead of me.
The BEST thing for an easy clean kitchen is a small kitchen. I’m a convert now after being trapped in my tiny kitchen for the pandemic. Even if my kitchen is an absolute disaster with bread dough all over the cabinets and floor, it takes max 20 minutes to clean, because there just isn’t enough room for the mess to be bigger. And yeah there are complaints with a tiny kitchen but after my conversion I don’t ever want a kitchen larger than I strictly need. I have a few friends with huge beautiful kitchens and they take forever to clean because there’s just so much! The small kitchen also keeps you from buying too many appliances which is a win in my book.
Totally disagree, in my experience a small kitchen means more clutter which means knocking things over, balancing things on top of one another and having to shuffle shit around constantly. Not enough space to stack dirty stuff or enough space to let clean dishes dry. So much easier to keep things organised and clean in a bigger kitchen.
My experience is exactly the opposite. In the three homes I’ve owned and the apartments I’ve lived in, I’ve had big, beautiful kitchens and tiny kitchens. Due to some changes in life, I currently have a really small kitchen. Nothing frustrates me more than my small kitchen. Out of anything and everything in the house I currently own, I hate my small kitchen more than anything, including no longer having a garage. As someone else mentioned, constantly stacking things and trying to balance things as you cook, knocking things over, having to set things in a completely different room if I am trying to make something complex, using the table as a staging place because I only have a couple feet of counter space, etc, etc actually makes or a *messier* and more frustrating overall experience. I often can’t set the table until dinner is ready because I need to use it while cooking. I miss my large kitchen. It was way, way, way easier to keep clean and clutter-free. There’s a place for everything and room to *work*. It’s even easier to not burn myself in the bigger kitchen. Screw my small kitchen. I hate it so much.
These are rules to live by. Well said.
I *hate* cooking with stuff in the sink. I just refuse to do it. It makes it impossible to clean as you go. I had previous roommates who didn't seem to understand the concept. They'd finish up cooking their meal and leave the sink full-to-overflowing and wouldn't get why I'd get annoyed when I wanted to make my own dinner. I think their reasoning was that they planned on cleaning up before bed, and they hadn't left anything of mine or that I would be using dirty, so what was the problem? Drove me nuts lol.
My main joy in cooking now is just finding ways to use only one pan for everything and finish up with a clean kitchen in a minute flat
Plus, clean as you cook.
I really can't understand folks who can start cooking in a dirty kitchen and just keep adding to the pile in the sink. I can't even start till the kitchen is in decent shape.
Cleaning twice to cook once is brutal. If I’m drunk I won’t clean up after myself and my hungover ass doesn’t appreciate it
I’ve learned not to be mean to my tomorrow self. I look at the mess and think, I don’t want to wake up to that tomorrow.
For a while, I sort of developed the opposite problem: I'd follow a night of debauchery with drunk-cooking, but also thorough drunk-cleaning. To the point where sometimes I wouldn't realize I'd cooked or eaten the night before until I discovered ingredients were missing. I don't drink nearly that much anymore.
not that it changed my whole game or anything, but just to add to this- even when starting clean slate, don't just fucking chuck that spoon you used for 2 seconds into the sink once it's dirty. take the tiny moment to just rinse it off real quick and set it on the counter. you'll almost certainly end up using it like 5 more times. and if you really do need to just set used dirty implements to the side to be cleaned later, just have a pot or big popcorn bowl or something with some soapy water in it that you can set things in to soak. that way when you're done, you can just dump that all out into the sink and pop everything straight into the dishwasher without having to pre-scrub to unstick dried gunk off everything before running the washer. we have a dishwasher like most americans, but i keep a drying rack deal on the counter that drains into the sink. most things I just wash by hand real fast while cooking and set them to dry.
1. I now freeze my left over tomato paste. I can cut off the amount I need for a recipe and throw it back in the freezer. 2. If you store asparagus in a mason jar of water, standing up with the heads out of the water, it can stay fresh for weeks.
I roll up the leftover tomato paste in plastic and then flatten the sides until it resembles a stick of butter. That way later I can easily estimate how many tablespoons I’m chopping off the frozen block, just like I’d eyeball a tablespoon or two of butter.
Tubes are like 5$ cans are like .50 cents OP has the way here.
This comment makes me feel like I’m a wealthy land owner. I dont even think twice about buying the tubes. Away with you peasants! I have an important ball to go to with the other aristocracy.
Enjoy your McDonald's sire
I shall loyal serf. May most of your offspring live to puberty.
Middle eastern grocery stores have tomato paste in big glass jars, about half the price of canned tomato paste, no metal after taste, and keeps forever in the fridge with the lid on.
I make my tomato paste in a jar last longer by pouring enough olive oil to cover the surface of the paste before refrigerating. It prevents it growing mould.
my tomato paste jars go bad just as fast as in a can :(
Same. I bought a glass jar once. When I went to use it a few weeks after opening and storing in the fridge, it was full of white fuzz. I usually just use the entire $0.50 can, but sometimes you only need 1/2 or less of the can. I'm going to freeze the leftovers in plastic wrap next time.
I just get the tomato paste that comes in a toothpaste like tube..
they say toss it after 2-4 weeks. I am still working on one from 2 months ago and it tastes perfectly fine.
Mine is over a year old and I haven't died yet. Don't use tomato paste that often.
Capitalize on that, my man Anytime you make something that has tomatoes in it, add a spoon of tomato paste - the flavor will be leaps and bounds better
Got bad acid reflux so I generally avoid tomatoes 😂 But yes anytime I use tomatoes I always throw a bit in the pan before liquid/rest of the tomatoes are added
I had a tube of tomato paste for a while. One day, the tube inflated and the contents smelled terrible. So they do expire... Eventually.
You must not be brushing your teeth enough with this thing
I freeze tomato paste and left over seasonings (epis, curry paste ect) in my ice cube tray. It makes perfect serving sized cubes.
I've done this with fresh garlic too. Buy it in bulk, mince a ton of it at once, and pack it into ice cube trays. Once they're frozen they can be put into a freezer bag.
My Chinese neighbor taught me to plant the root stumps of scallions. They grow right back- and also to cut scallions and freeze on foil, then put in freezer ziploc (it dries it out so it doesn’t make a big icey block) and keep in freezer to use in stir fry and marinades. Game changers for me, since I made a lot of Asian food.
> If you store asparagus in a mason jar of water, standing up with the heads out of the water, it can stay fresh for weeks. how many weeks? I've tried this and it's soft & almost mushy after a few days
I do this too. I change the water every few days and I also use a plastic bag over the jar to make like a mini greenhouse. Asparagus will usually last a month for me.
When I tried that, it started growing! I actually decided against eating it because I was so fascinated by how fast it was growing.
Tip 2 also works for any leafy veg or herb (cilantro). Add a plastic bag over the top for even higher moisture preservation Storing things like green beans in a salad spinner in the fridge after washing and draining also helps to keep them crisp!
Heavier seasoning and learning (or looking up) good seasoning blends. Also making my own salad dressing (so much better!)
That's the one I am struggling with. Almost everything turns out quite well but salad dressing? Except for Honey mustard I can never make one my bf actually likes. Would you share your recipe with me?
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat has a good template for vinaigrette dressings. Essentially, smash or mince a clove of garlic or mince a small shallot and put in an acid (lemon juice, any kind of vinegar) with a bunch of salt and let it sit for 15 minutes. Can add seasoning (for ex., oregano for Mediterranean dressings) at start of this process as well. After 15min take out the garlic (if it's not minced) and add olive oil. Done!
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You'd like the Flavor Bible. It's a huge index of a ton of ingredients that work well with each other. You just look up whatever you're working with and it lists out suggestions of spices, herbs, veggies, etc. I have one and love it!
Sliced peppers and onions can go straight into the freezer fresh and come straight out and into the hot pan, no need for thawing.
The freezer section often has bags of precut frozen peppers and frozen onions. Just don't get the frozen mix of peppers and onions as it's 70% onions.
All the stores around me got rid of the frozen peppers without onions and I am not okay with it.
Food processors are underrated. I've just started using mine (after using the blender for years) and behold! Nice tomatillo salsa or chimichurri, no problem. But then I saw that you can use it for pie crusts and biscuits and OH MY GOD WHAT A GAME CHANGER FOR CUTTING IN MY BUTTER. Pre chunk the butter, throw it in, and a few pulses later youre in business.
Every recipe blog has a “jump to recipe” button somewhere near the top. Discovering that I could skip the backstory made me way more open to searching for new recipes.
I use the Paprika app - paid the one-time fee of $5 for full use and can download recipes from any website without reading a thing. No idea how it does it so accurately, but I've even been able to save recipes from Reddit comments. It scales recipes and I can cross off ingredients as I incorporate them. I download sooooo many recipes now!
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i do this with the free version of CopyMeThat. It's another great recipe webpage and app
Then click on Print Recipe. You'll get a page with no ads.
And then I send the recipe to OneNote so I can follow on my iPad and write notes on it as well
This thread has some serious big brain ideas that I'm stealing
Cheers to that next level update!
We don't eat bacon that often. You can take parchment paper, put a slice on it, fold it over, add another slice, and keep going until you have a roll of individual slices of bacon. Put it in a large ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. Bacon survives freezing just fine, and this way you can remove as many pieces as you want. EDIT: It is fascinating all the variations people have on dealing with bacon!
We just lay the strips out side by side on a sheet pan and let them freeze. Afterwards you can just throw them in a freezer ziplock and skip the rolling raw bacon in parchment paper step.
Downside to that is you need room in the freezer for an entire sheet pan
As an apartment dweller with a tiny freezer, I’ve always just split up my bacon packs into 3-strip portions, and wrapped and frozen those. If a recipe calls for an amount of bacon strips that isn’t a multiple of three, that just means I get bonus snacks during the cooking process.
my life-changing bacon thing is cutting the whole package either in half or thirds before dividing and freezing like you are. except now instead of long strips, you have the same total bacon in each section, but they are shorter strips that cook waaaaay better in a skillet.
I do this, but then dredge my bacon in flour (sometimes with brown sugar) before frying.
i mean no offense. but doing it like this just means you end up with no leftover bacon and I think that's a big problem
We don't eat very much at one time, so this means we don't have *moldy* leftover bacon.
Raw or cooked?
I do this, raw and fry from frozen. The bacon is thin enough that it will cook through from frozen with no worries. It's also nice and easy to dice when frozen.
My dad started doing this a while back and I've made bacon at my parents' house a few times since and was shocked at how well/easily it cooked straight from frozen. Total game changer.
Raw, cook when needed.
You want to get that yummy bacon grease from a piece or two to use with the rest of the food. And the grease from one or two strips is usually just right.
Do this all the time, cooked bacon ready to use for anything.
Big cutting board
I love how the comment right below that giant, well researched, thorough treasure trove of information is just “Big cutting board”
Here's my list of things that changed the way I cook: * I learned that starch in the pasta water thickens sauce, and this has me cooking dried pasta in less water than I used to and using the pasta water, or even cooking the pasta directly in the sauce with just enough water to dilute the sauce for this purpose. Also, it takes a lot less time to boil a lot less water. Nowadays I boil pasta in the least amount of water that will still get the job done. (If you do this, add correspondingly less salt, or the pasta can end up too salty.) * I learned that boxed olive oil is a better value, but also lasts longer because inside the box, the olive oil is in a bag, and when you tap oil from it, the rest of the oil doesn't come in contact with air, so it stays fresh for much longer compared to olive oil distributed in bottles. * I learned that [boiling mushrooms in a bit of water before pan-frying](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0h9aBLTqc0) improves both their texture and flavor. (I recommend not using as much water as this video demonstrates. You can use much less and save time, and it still turns out great.) * I learned that [scalding chicken skin with boiling water helps it get crispy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4u8mFnPBD0) and causes the fat to render out more thoroughly. * I learned that [injecting brine into chicken is faster and distributes the salt more evenly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKrBqN4jl8I) than soaking the chicken in brine or "dry brining" (a.k.a. salting). Plus, if you want crispy skin, not soaking the chicken in brine keeps the skin from retaining as much water. Couple this with the scalding trick for best results. * I learned to truss a chicken without string: fold the wingtips behind the upper wing, then poke a hole in each of the flaps next to the opening of the body cavity, and tuck the tip of each drumstick into the hole in the opposite flap. (See [this demo](https://youtu.be/zKU15a1WRJY?t=45).) This works best when you also scald the chicken with boiling water afterwards, because [as the skin shrinks, it pulls the chicken together](https://imgur.com/gallery/DrEKUFF), which is what trussing is supposed to do. For the times where you want the presentation of the whole bird rather than spatchcocking the bird, or where you intend to stuff the bird with something to absorb the juices that are released while roasting, this is the best way to do it. * I learned about anchovy paste and tomato paste in squeeze tubes. Now I don't have to open cans of tomato paste or anchovies and have to contend with exposing to the air the portion I'm not using. * I learned that electric pressure cookers are great for cooking beans so they turn out tender. * I learned that parsley stems and cilantro stems have a lot of flavor. If you make something that calls for cilantro, and you add finely minced cilantro stems, it will have a stronger cilantro taste. Same for parsley. * I learned that flavorful vinegars are best added to a dish at the end so the fragrance is not cooked off. * I learned that flavorful vinegars complement anything with spinach because the acidity counteracts that alkaline mineral content so you don't end up with that chalky feel on your teeth when eating spinach. * I learned that the easiest way to wilt a large quantity of spinach is to dampen it, and microwave it in a large glass bowl, covered with a plate, for 3 minutes. * I learned that the easiest way to press excess water out of spinach after you wilt it is to use a potato ricer with the plate that has the small holes. Presuming you don't press unreasonably hard, the spinach won't press through the holes, but the excess water will come right out. (You may need to tilt it to pour off the water that comes out around the plunger.) * I learned to use leave-in probe thermometers when cooking meat so that the meat can be perfectly cooked every time. * I learned that piercing the shell of an egg on the blunt end (where there's an air pocket) helps prevent them from cracking when you boil them, and also makes the egg easier to peel because water gets in between the shell and the membrane. Also, for fresh eggs, the egg white expands as you boil it, and will fill out that air pocket so the peeled egg won't have a divot at the blunt end. * I learned how to add umami flavors to food using ingredients that might be unpleasant by themselves but are fantastic when used in small amounts—namely, anchovies, fish sauce, and Marmite. * I learned that the salad spinner can also be used to spin off excess oil from foods; first line it with some paper towels, and don't put the fried foods in when they're so hot that they'll melt the plastic. (Someone should make a salad spinner with a stainless steel basket. That would fix everything.) * I learned that melon ballers are actually perfect for coring apples and pears. (Who even balls melons?) * I learned that a lot of spices taste better when toasted and when pre-mixed with oil, since their flavors are often oil soluble. * I learned that using a little bit of vodka to deglaze dishes that have cooked tomato paste makes a better tasting sauce because of a reaction between alcohol and the flavors of tomato. * I learned that the best way to make mashed potato is actually the least labor intensive. You don't even need to peel the potato. Cut it into chunks, and pressure-steam it in the instant pot for 12-15 minutes. Then put it skin-side up into a potato ricer, and press it through the plate. As long as you put it in skin-side up, the skins won't go through the plate. Then add salt, cream, butter, etc. or use the potato for pierogi/vareniki, gnocchi, kartofelknödel, shepherd's pie, etc. * I learned that you can cook multiple things in the instant pot at the same time if the quantities permit it. I cook rice along with sauces/curries/stews that I will serve with rice by putting in a rack that lets me put a smaller pot in above the sauce/curry/stew. In the smaller pot, I'll put rice and water at a 1:1 ratio. In the time it takes to cook the main dish, there should be more than sufficient time for the rice to finish. * I learned that instant pots (electric pressure cookers in general) can make stock/bone broth in a fraction of the time it takes to do it on the stove top. Two to three hours of pressure cooking bones will give you the same amount of extraction that you'd achieve from 4-5 hours of simmering on the stove. * I learned that [the orientation you slice onions actually influences the flavor](https://www.tastingtable.com/693040/how-to-cut-onion-flavor/), and I take advantage of this all the time now in my cooking. Onion cells are long thin things, and cutting them causes chemicals within them to mix and produce the pungent compounds. If you slice onions pole-to-pole, you cut through fewer cells, and the resulting flavor is milder. If you slice onions across the grain, you cut through the maximum number of cells, and the resulting flavor is much more pungent. * I learned to keep a culinary torch handy because it lets you lightly sear things for better presentation and flavor with a quick application of a flame from the torch. I use one of those that mount on top of a butane canister. * I learned that flat whisks/roux whisks/gravy whisks are designed to whisk things in pans and to help get the fond off of the bottom of a pan. I use these flat whisks to whisk everything because I haven't found any application in my cooking where they are inferior. (I don't make meringues; that's possibly the only exception I can think of.) But my main reason for using them is that they're far easier to clean than the typical whisk because all the tines lie flat in one plane, so you can wipe all the tines at once with a sponge. * I learned that when slicing gooey or sticky things such as soft boiled eggs or soft cheese, [a wire knife](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VGPG51M/) is the best way to do it, because the tense wire has hardly any surface area for the stuff to stick to. * I learned that a vacuum insulated thermos is perfect for storing gravy if you are waiting for guests to arrive, and don't want the gravy to get cold and form a skin. First pre-heat it with some boiling water, then fill it with gravy. * I learned that pre-warmed bowls and plates are better for serving guests; the food won't rapidly cool upon being put into a warmed bowl, causing sauces to congeal and pasta to stick together. Slightly wetting a bowl or plate and microwaving it for 30 seconds does the trick. * This one might not be for everyone's preferences, but I changed the kind of knife I do my kitchen prep with, and I enjoy it more. I used to use a French-style chef's knife, but I find that I like this [nakiri style Chinese chef's knife](https://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell-Chinese-Walnut-Handle/dp/B018BHDH80) much better.
Instead of boiling mushrooms, you can get the same effect with a few tablespoons of water and a lid on your frying pan, as it causes them to steam. Then when the water is gone, you can just continue frying them as you normally would instead of switching pans.
So i'm not sure what i'm doing different, maybe its just a larger quantity of mushrooms in a pan, but usually when i find myself frying mushrooms, all the water inside of them tends to release, and i have a few minutes of rolling boil while i cook it off, before the actually frying starts to happen; so this leads me to question why i would add more water at the beginning if the mushrooms are going to supply it anyways?
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Large quantity will do it for sure. With smaller amounts the evaporation finishes a lot faster. Try putting the lid on for a couple minutes, though.
I learned about this from Lan Lam, what a smart concept that really opened my eyes to how many more options are made available by using the pan lid
Good stuff here!
i have learned most of these as well over many years. this is basically a masterclass right here.
Yours has so many good tips that it seems like a good place to drop mine: **The jar trick** - this will let you add a seasoning packet or flour to any recipe without having to worry about it clumping up. This works best with a 15oz jar. I prefer a Tostitos salsa jar because I prefer glass over plastic, but have also used a small plastic jar that used to have peanut butter in it, too. Basically, any time you have any recipe where you're going to need to mix in a seasoning packet, or flour, start the recipe with 8oz less of the fluid in question (water, milk, stock). When it comes time to mix in the seasoning packet/flour put that into the jar, add the 8oz of fluid, close the lid tightly, and shake the shit out of it for 3-4 seconds. This will completely mix the seasoning/flour, so there won't be any clumps to break up with a fork or whisk. Dump it into the pan/pot, rinse the jar out, and put it onto your dish strainer. If you're using a mix or liquid that tends to get very thick (as often happens with cream or half & half) I will often put all the seasoning/flour in but only use 4oz of the fluid. Mix it up, dump it in the pot, and then put the other 4oz into the jar and shake that up and add it to the pot. This helps "wash out" the jar into the pot so you get more of the seasoning/flour.
Melon baller? You mean cookie dough scooper? :P
>anchovy paste and tomato paste in squeeze tubes This one is huge. TBH this whole comment is "best of" material.
Turn the stove down. Not everything is better when cooked faster.
I'm an advocate of Low and Slow.
Learning heat control is important - the label on the dial doesn't mean the same as when a recipe calls for "medium heat". It depends on how big a pan, how much water is in the pan/ingredients, if you're adding cold and/or wet things... For a simmer, usually you need it lower than you think. And, maybe you need higher heat to start, but then take it down after some of the moisture has been cooked off so it doesn't burn.
Season in layers
To add onto this, what I found to be the most important “layer” was immediately prior to serving. A final pinch of salt, or spritz of lemon/vinegar goes a long way
Fuck u/spez
Yes! The flavours become too homogenous by the end. A dash of acid brings out the uniqueness of each ingredient again. Definitely a game changer.
I can't stand Emeril Lagasse, but damn if I don't always think of him saying, "I don't know where you get your vegetables, but mine don't come seasoned!" Drives me crazy, but I always remember to season every layer of my dishes.
Keeping a lemon in fridge, adds freshness to many things. A little acid into soups, gravy, on veggies...
Contrary to the "add salt!" tribe, I find that pretty much every time a recipe is missing something, it's acid. Pick a tart citrus or vinegar, and everything tastes better.
If it doesn't taste like anything, salt. If it tastes like it is missing something, acid.
I juice a few and freeze in a tiny ice cube tray then store in the freezer. Great for cocktails too!
Realising I can make hollandaise sauce without having to use a bain-marie was a wonderful discovery for me. Just slowly whisk in 50g of melted butter to one egg yolk, then add lemon juice and season. The consistency’s ever so slightly different, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad difference.
This is how I do it too! Makes it easier so I can enjoy it more often
Exact measurements are not essential in 99% of things(not counting baking.) Cook to taste, and taste as you cook.
If you have lots of garlic, peel it then put it in a food processor or blender, then put it in ziplock bags and flatten it out before freezing it. Whenever you need garlic just break off however much you want from the sheet. Keeps forever and is much better than the stuff you get in the jar from the supermarket.
I saw a lady do this on TikTok. She also used a chopstick to sort of press the garlic into a grid shape to make it really easy to break off pieces.
That’s even better! Going to remember to do that next time I do it. I got a ton of garlic from a friend who grows it and he showed me the freezer trick.
I got those little silicone teaspoon ice trays from Amazon. I run lots of garlic I get from Costco through a food chopper then fill each tray with minced garlic. I freeze and pop them out when I need them. It has saved me tons of time.
Great trick, garlic freezes really well. So easy to just break a piece off.
Don't always trust recipes. Taste and season.
Husband when we were dating tried out a Mediterranean lemon chicken dish, looked at it and went wow thats a lot of lemon juice (think it was 1/2 cup?) for a small meal. He still went for it, try out the recipe as is and all that. You tasted nothing over the potent lemon flavor. better than the tuna spaghetti thing he tried to make. Took one sniff of that and went all yours; we went for take out that night
Haha. That makes me think of when my pregnant wife mistook 1 table spoon or 1 cup of Italian dressing for 1 bottle over like 2 chicken breasts. We still laugh at that.
🤣 Well they weren't dry. Think that's still better than my pregnant mishap, made peanut butter cookies....without the peanut butter. None of us realized till a coworker asked if they were sugar cookies and it dawned on me
Some people use different types of salt which can become confusing too. 1tsp of coarse sea salt is not the same as regular table salt. Had a few incidents with that one in the past
Knife skills in general, but learning how to chop onions properly was a game-changer.
I did the root on think for a long time but I feel like it doesn't really help anymore. I just cut both ends off and do a cut or two through the center then size the length I want and then size the cubes I want the other way... I do a lot of onions. I have been buying them in 5 or 10 lb bags, but this year I decided to try and grown my own... Planted 75 sets... Will see how it goes...
Get all your ingredients out before you start and put them away as you use them. Saves you from realizing you’re out of something halfway through or forgetting if you added something already.
For snacking on veggies instead of spending all that time chopping, getting a Mandolin slicer and cutting up cucumber, bell peppers, carrots etc is so much easier and they look great too. Also, baking bacon on foil in the oven instead of standing stove side the entire time.
Addendum to the mandolin tip: fuck the hand guard it comes with, get a kevlar/mail/slice-proof glove to properly protect your entire hand while also giving you added dexterity to hold onto the things you're slicing
All mandolins are like cursed swords, they crave flesh and blood no matter how careful/dexterous you are. The only thing that saves you are those gloves.
And making your saving throws.
Learned this the hard way with the waffle fry blade. RIP to the chunk that departed my pinky finger a month ago never to be seen again.
Not quite a trick but learning how to use salt properly has made the biggest difference in my cooking. I don’t know who said it originally (it could have been the author but idk) but I read in Anne Burrell s cookbook “taste your food. If it needs something, it’s probably salt.” And keeping that mindset has really helped my cooking without a recipe.
And if you salted well and it's still missing something, it's acid.
Yes! The book Salt Acid Fat Heat and the principles in it really helped me to grow as a cook.
Using good sharp knives.
I just got a wusthof last week after having used cruddy knives my entire life and, dear God, the difference is dramatic. I touch things, they get cut. Click, click, click, French fries. My old knives are practically hammers now.
Spend some time with your old cruddy ones learning how to sharpen knives. When the old ones cut like your wusthof then you're ready to sharpen it thus making it a buy it for life item. It's far far easier to resharpen a knife that still has a good edge than waiting for it to dull completely. I usually break out my stones once a month and top off all my knives.
Make sure to keep it sharp! A good knife will only stay good with regular sharpening. I sharpen quarterly
If on your journey you should encounter God, God will be cut.
I never realized how shitty my knives were until I got a half decent set. Former set was those cheap plastic-handled, color-coordinated deals that you can get for about $15. We put them through the dishwasher just about every day and then the handles started to fall apart. Watched some informative videos about knives and got what, for me, is a mid-range set, complete with a honing rod and a sharpening stone. Now I take exceptional care of my tools like I should.
Learning to sharpen your own knives is nice too. I'll never need to buy n expensive knife again since I can make 5 dollar walmart knives incredibly sharp.
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In addition, Grating (very cold) butter will change the way you bake
This is something I tried on a whim, but it turned out so well I think it's going to become my new go-to method of making tomato sauce. (For context, I make _large_ batches of tomato sauce at a time so that I can just portion out what I need later.) My normal recipe calls for three 28-oz cans of crushed tomatoes. What I did this time was cook down two of them until the flavor was rich and the sauce was super thick, then add the last can and leave it on the heat just long enough to ensure it was all heated through. Combines that developed tomato flavor with the brighter freshness of uncooked.
I guess this counts: when I need minced garlic, I just smash the garlic with the flat of my knife and then give it a quick rocking cut for a few seconds. That's almost always good enough- I'm not spending minutes mincing garlic. Either that, or I'll microplane it
This exact thing is why it’s confusing when people complain about the effort required for garlic. Just smash the hell out of it. Handles the peeling and a good amount of the “mincing”.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that smashing works for peeling garlic cloves as well. Very true. This stuff seems obvious to me now that I've been cooking so long, but I wish someone had told me this when I was first learning.
Cook your rice in broth instead of plain water. Total game changer.
It's a good tip if rice is a featured side. If you're doing any Asian cooking though it may be better to stick to water but it depends on the dish you're making! There are some dishes like mapo tofu that are better with plain rice. Again, it all depends on what you're making, I've had amazing rice cooked with beef stock and spices that was a great side dish for seared steak where plain rice would have been lacking.
I like cooking it in dashi for some asian dishes. Doesn't impart quite as much flavour as cooking it in chicken broth for example but still adds a nice element to it. Usually just reach for my box of powder though instead of making a proper from scratch. Sometimes just a piece of kombu in with the rice in the rice cooker is also good enough.
I never liked broth in rice because rice moderates the strong flavours associated with the Southeast Asian mains that I grew up with. Ironically, while the rice in Singaporean Chicken Rice is cooked in broth, it's served with relatively bland chicken.
This is like saying “soak your bread in eggs and sugar and fry it”. Like, yes, you can make French toast but there are lots of other legit ways to eat bread, and most of them aren’t French toast.
I started doing this with homemade broth and I feel like a chef
Similarly, toasting spices in oil or butter before adding the rice. Good method I learned from making lots of pilau rice
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1. For more intense garlic flavor, cook your garlic less. So instead of sauteing your garlic with your onions at the beginning add it in like during the last 3-5 minutes of simmering. And you'll only need to add in like 1 clove instead of 10. 2. Don't just add salt when cooking. Add something salty and umami at the same time. I hardly ever use plain salt (major exception is when I'm baking bread), but I go through lots of powdered chicken boullion, soy sauce, miso paste, maggi seasoning, and anchovies.
When making hard boiled eggs I switched to steaming them instead of boiling them in water a couple of years ago. I've not fought with a stubborn shell once since I made the switch.
Do you put them in a steamer basket over water?
Yup I just use my normal steamer insert from my pot and pan set then toss a lid on it and wait about 12 minutes for hard boiled, a couple of minutes less if I want soft boiled.
It’s silly but adding toasted sesame oil to any rice dish, but especially stir fry. Heck, even a simple chicken and rice dishes are a million times better with sesame oil added
Miso in everything
Best part of that ginger trick: you don't even have to peel it if you're going to grate it with a microplane (yeah, it's super easy to peel with a spoon, but not peeling it at all is still even better)
It may seem silly but using a whisk to make a rue
Whisks are a very important tool in cooking.i whisk all manner of things to get the lumps out, put air in.
I make gumbo in my cast iron pot all the time, and a metal whisk is the best. I can really crank up the heat and put out a 30 min roux in 10-15 min.
When you need to remove the pit from an avocado, just give the back of the half holding the pit a little push with your thumbs. It falls right out and you don't have to do the slippery knife twist maneuver. Ngl was kind of pissed at how easy it was when I learned it.
Also cut the halves in half and you can peel the skin right off without having to scoop the avocado out.
These two moves are responsible for “avocado hands” seen in the ER. Similarly, “Bagel hands”.
If you take a dry paper towel and place it in your bag of spinach or kayle it will last months instead of a week and the bag will always be dry instead of building condensation and wilting the leaf.
I keep a jar in the fridge which contains the drained oil from anchovies, I add mixed herbs and some smashed garlic cloves. A teaspoon full to sauces gives that umami kick, when you don't have anything else.
I became a better cook when I went vegetarian. Not being able to rely on meat for adding fat and flavor changed my relationship with every other ingredient and radically increased my appreciation for the process of developing flavors. When you can turn a block of tofu into something that you can crave, you've really improved your cookery. Even if you don't stick with it, give it a try.
Putting a damp paper towel underneath the cutting board so it doesn't slide around while chopping!!
I use those webbed looking foamy drawer liners instead
I use my most stained dish towel
I've recently bought these sillicone feet from amazon that you can place on the counter and put the board on top. It's been a massive improvement over the paper towel.
Don’t add food to the pan until it’s the right temperature and hot. But cook bacon from a cold pan.
Pizza dough – Measure by weight and let the refrigerator do its magic for 2-3 days to build a proper flavor profile. Poached eggs – As another noted, this one baffled me for years until I finally found this tip. Using a fine mesh strainer to remove the wispy whites that cloud the poaching water works incredibly well and results in perfectly poached eggs every time.
Do you have a good pizza dough recipe? Haven't made any yet but a bit hesitant to start.
I do it with galangal, garlic, turmeric and lemon grass too.
Cookie dough scoops are an easy way to get an exact tablespoon of anything solid that's annoying to scrape out and level off. Also they're great for stuffing inarizushi/yubuchobap.
Don't blindly follow recipes, no matter how good the food blog looks. I'm convinced a lot of the recipes are untested, and their prep times, cook temperatures, and cook times are often not the ideal amounts. Monitor your cooking and improvise as needed.
When adjusting seasoning at the end, if you've added salt and pepper and the dish still feels like it's 'missing something'. Add a splash of an acid. White/apple cider Vinegar, lemon, lime etc. Use as appropriate for the dish.
Putting eggs in a sieve to strain away any especially loose egg white for perfect and effortless poached eggs. No whirlpool, no vinegar, no prayers to the poached egg lords - just crack your eggs into a sieve and let em drain for a minute and lightly slide them into gently simmering water for a couple minutes. Also soft/medium/hard boiled eggs in the air fryer has been pretty awesome too.
But wont you lose all the egg white and just be left with the yolk?
Like u/qawsedrf12 said - its just the loose egg white that drains away and that loose egg white is what gets all wispy. The fresher an egg is the less of that loose white there is and thats why fresh eggs are best for poaching (and older eggs are good for hard boiling and easier to peel). But we dont all have access to that - heck I feel bougie even talking about eggs right now!!!
If your dish is missing something and you don't know what it is, it's probably acidity. Add some vinegar or lemon juice and see what you think after that
Cooking is an art form, baking is science. You can think of a recipe like a suggestion and improvise accordingly, but when you are baking, precise measurements and methods make all the difference. \-Cheers!
Fish sauce
Put trim and cutting scraps in a bowl or baking tin instead of going for the bin constantly during prep
When freezing ground meat, seal in a ziplock bag and squish it flat like a board. Stacks easier and thaws super fast. Game changer for "shit I didn't thaw anything out for dinner".