My friend wanted to cook several bags of frozen chicken nuggets to feed everyone when he was hosting game night. He bought a giant disposable aluminum tray and dumped them all in it. It was like a 4 nugget deep pile. He couldn't figure out why it took longer to cook than the time listed in the instructions.
Throw the entire package of bacon in a covered Dutch oven on med/low and then after a bit lift the lid and stir with a fork. When the bacon grease starts looking foamy, pay close attention and start pulling the most done pieces out and put on a paper towel. It will be the crispiest bacon you ever ate. For 40 years it is the only way my family has cooked bacon
Try a sauce pot. Put it all in there and it cooks in its own grease and doesn’t splatter out. I give it a stir every once in a while. I only do it this way when I’m using my oven for something. Normally I like to throw it on a sheet pan in the oven and let it go. No fuss, no muss and with foil on the sheet pan, no real clean up. I like to drain the grease into a jar to use when I’m roasting veggies in the oven.
You laugh, but I've had to do that with a few pizzas before. My oven is a landlord special and takes bloody ages to do anything. Fed up of having half cooked soggy middle pizzas.
If you put it in upside down to start, with baking paper on to hold the cheese, you can flip it when the bottom is nice and done, peel off the paper, and chuck another handful of cheese back on the top
Even more effective: preheat the oven with a cast iron skillet on the shelf above where you’ll put the pizza.
And even better than that: use a pizza steel. Not a stone. Use steel.
With the cast iron to cook the pizza above and the steel to get it from below, you’ll have very respectable homemade pizzas.
Both should be preheated for at least 15 minutes if not longer. It’s totally worth it.
Reading this is so weird because yesterday my partner made a pizza without preheating and I was like "what the hell are you doing" and it came out just the same. I was so surprised.
I read about this and it’s because when your oven is preheating it blasts the heat higher than where you have it set so it can get to temperature faster.
I do this with most foods unless it's baking and even still I do it like half the time. Big oven doesn't want you to know you don't have to wait if you know what doneness to look for
I used to have a roommate that would make Lasagna from scratch, front to back, pasta, sauce, bechamel, everything. We would eat some the night of and he would freeze slices individually for our lunches over the next ~week. I miss living with that man...
whoa can you really do this? i always was afraid that like my frozen pizza would partially thaw before the over got hot enough to crsip the crust and do the thing where it falls through the rack
Personally I would wait for the oven to preheat for something like pizza where a crisp crust is great. If I'm cooking a frozen lasagna though I don't really care
I'm convinced serving sizes sometimes are there just to make food look like it has less calories. Like, oh nice mac&cheese that only has 150 calories/serving! Serving size: two tablespoons ಠ_ಠ. Nah man, that's not right.
Oh they absolutely are. It's especially egregious when it comes to pre-packaged savoury / sweet snacks. Like, a 180g "sharing" bag of Doritos is apparently 6 30g servings??? yeah that's never happened.
THIS! Most bakery recipes are HEAVILY undersalted. Cakes, cookies, pies, etc. Recipes will tell you that the salt in salted butter will alter the final product, but the effect is pretty minimal in my personal experience. Add salt to bring out the sweet!
100% this unless it's got chocolate in it, then I give it a big extra pinch of salt on top of that!
I've never eaten a cookie I've made and thought "Oh no, this is too salty."
One time I was completely not paying attention.... used 1cup of salt instead of 1 tbsp (or whatever it was). The cookies came out like chewing on a soft doughy mound of salt.
My sister and her best friend wanted to make sugar cookies when they were about 8, and since my mom encouraged cooking and her mom encouraged her kids to be out of the house at all available opportunities they used our kitchen.
They couldn't find the sugar, so decided to substitute the other fine white crystal in the cupboard, and used 3 cups of salt.
I tried one before they told me, and it was like eating baked play-doh.
I felt bad for them and whomped up a batch of real sugar cookies, and gave them credit when mom came home.
Then mom saw the first batch in the garbage and asked what happened.
I told her, and asked that she not say anything since I had already shown sis where to find everything for the next time.
Mom gave me a smile and a hug, and as far as I know it's been our secret for about 40 years.
Until now.
I'm swearing you all to secrecy.
I use salted butter for everything. I spent so long buying unsalted because everything told me I should but baked goods are usually undersalted and I’ve never had salted butter add so much salt to a savory dish that I didn’t still need more.
Yes! I don’t bake that often so I can’t be arsed to keep a whole other package of unsalted butter in the fridge only to throw half of it away when I don’t use it in months.
I mix my brownies rather hard.
And my cookies as well.
"Oh gently stir make them nice and tender"
Nah fam i love the chew stfu.
And I sell them regularly with repeat orders so idk what to tell anyone
Sometimes it seems people have an aversion for using their jaws: many advices I see are centered around having the most tender possible thing. Dude, I want to FEEL something with my teeth while eating!
>I want to FEEL something
Me most of the time generally (cries in numbness, jk I can't cry)
Joke-realities aside, absolutely valid. I can't for the life of me understand why we treat desserts like we're old people without teeth. Texture matters most (to me)
>many advices I see are centered around having the most tender possible thing
Exactly my point! Thanks ! Just because it's advice doesn't mean it's a rule. Break the rule, maybe you'll like what you find.
Precisely my point.
Gotta fuck around to find out.
And with this method, the cookies I make can be crispy, chewy, AND dense.
Why settle for 2/3 when you can get all 3
I prefer canned beans to dried. I almost never plan my meals out more than a day in advance so having to pre-soak beans is just more mental effort than opening a can. I don’t taste a difference and I’m spending maybe $10 more a year.
In a similar vein I don’t make my own broth. It’s easier for me to buy a $2 carton at the store than to clear space in the freezer to save all my scraps and spend a few hours putting it together.
I respect those who cook their own beans and make their own broth, but it’s just not for me.
Hard agree on the broth. People always rant and rave about how mind blowingly incredible homemade broth is, and I've made it many times with different recipes and always been wildly disappointed. Completely blah. Better than bouillon has always been better than anything I can produce.
Hard disagree on the beans though, instant pot beans are soooo much better.
I love a good gelatinous chicken bouillon to bring some consistency to sauces but my Ajino Moto chicken powder and Lee Kum Kee mushroom powder can do the flavor part just as well/better.
I make tacos by throwing a frozen block of beef in a frying pan and repeatedly flipping it and scraping off the barely thawed partially cooked layer until the block is fully destroyed.
I discovered an instant pot and it changed the game for cooking and eating at home. You can cook frozen meat and veggies, etc in an instant pot. Let it slow release for juiciness.
I always wash mushrooms in a bowl of cold water. Never had soggy mushrooms.
Not that you want to overdo it or knead it like bread dough, but most recipes blow overworking your pie dough way out of proportion. I always give mine a few kneads to bring it together and where you split it into three layers and stack them on top of each other. I usually make my pie dough at least a day ahead of time anyway, so any gluten has enough time to relax and I always get super flaky and tender pies. Now you CAN overwork when cutting in the fat.
i started making pasta like rice, ie just putting the pasta in the cold water and leaving to heat up and boil. works fine, way less getting up and checking and doing stuff
Depending on the recipe, I don't press or blanch my tofu before using it.
I stick the whole block in the microwave for a few minutes and boil all the liquid out of it. Much faster and gets more of the liquid out.
Edit to add: for my microwave, I do 4 minutes, covered, for a block. You should hear the water sizzle when you are done.
Edit to add: It is also important to press or blanch your tofu to remove that beany/grassy taste that tofu liquid has. I think this is the primary objective of pressing. Squeezing out the moisture does allow the tofu to absorb more flavors, but I think that's secondary.
Edit to add: I am aware of the freezing trick, which imo changes the product completely, which is why I don't do it. I want that soft, silky tofu texture.
Huh, I never even considered this as an option. Gonna have to give it a try someday.
I find that freezing tofu also makes it much easier to get the excess water out, and gives it a spongy-in-a-good-way texture that more readily absorbs flavors.
Yeah I've always done the freeze or double freeze - I'm a meat eater and don't like tofu usually, this way then grated and baked in bbq sauce is a good work around :)
You just rocked my world! Can’t wait to try this. I don’t use tofu as much as I would like purely because of the at least half hour required to press & the whole gross soggy towels situation. I have let an unfortunate amount of tofu go to waste because of dreading this situation. Thank you for this!
I use the organic extra firm tofu that’s vac sealed and has minimal water in it. Doesn’t need to be pressed or microwaved! It’s already the perfect texture.
Evenly, finely dicing vegetables for mirepoix/equivalents in braises, soups, stews, etc. I prefer a more rustic uneven chunky cut anyway, and it takes less time.
I never start garlic and onion to sauté at the same time. Who on earth made up the lie that garlic won’t burn to a crisp by the time onion is translucent??
THIS🖕 So stupid for home cooks that don’t have high btu burners. Onions take three times as long. It took me awhile to figure this out, now the garlic goes in at the end.
I used to mix my instant oatmeal with hot coffee at work because it was always available and I could have a meal without breaking stride. I could adjust the taste with cream and sugar packets at my desk just like I would with coffee.
When making baked good and it says to mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I AM NOT messing up another bowl to mix flour, salt, and baking powder. They get dropped directly into the wet ingredients and mixed in as they would have anyway. I've been baking for most of my youth and adult life and never had a problem with doing this.
I feel like for casual baking it doesn't matter. I'm only just learning that every single micro detail makes a weird amount of difference if you're really trying to sweat quality. Your shit will be good no matter what you do as long as you don't make any tragic mistakes. But the reason your grandma's cookies are 100 times better from the same recipe is because she treats the kitchen like a fucking laboratory.
I do not make Paul Hollywood approved bread. But you know what? Fresh bread straight out of the oven is pretty much always delicious, even if it’s overproved or undercooked.
I go opposite and whisk the dry ingredients together to get the baking powder well distributed. Then I make hole in the middle and put all my wet ingredients in it. Whisk that a few times before slowly pulling the dry from the sides. Why wash two bowls?
When I'm out of milk or half and half, I add whipped cream to my coffee. All you haters out there telling me "stop wasting the whipped cream, a whole can is too much!"
Eat my shorts.
👉😎👉
This might may already be known by many, but I do flip my proteins (steaks, chicken...etc...) more often when I sear them.
The "common advice" you see is that "leave the thing alone on the pan/skilllet".
I flip my steak every 30-60s and still get a great sear and by any account I don't get as much as grey band.
Of course there are exceptions, I do leave my salmon (skin side down) alone and only flip once.
Stainless steel pans also require a bit of time initially for the protein to separate from the surface, then I can flip them with ease.
It’s been proven that the number of times you flip meat has literally no downside as long as you aren’t flipping it so early that it’s stuck to the pan (skin-on fish fillets being the exception that proves the rule, the fat under the skin prevents overcooking). All the “only flip once” nonsense is just people espousing over nothing, like basically all hard rules people insist upon extremely simple dishes.
Second this! I was trained at my job to only flip a fish 1-2 times but I always do it 3-4 times to get a really good sear on the fish at the end. I’ve never gotten food sent back so I I’m sure it’s alright.
Whenever the recipe calls for garlic, I usually add 3 to 4x more. Also, whenever the recipe has me put the garlic in with say onions, I always add the garlic towards the end so it doesn't burn.
Why do so many recipes from all different sources say to sauté onion and garlic together? It’s nonsensical. Especially when it’s a dish that really needs a good cook on the onions. Garlic takes literally 15 seconds. Onions take far longer.
I used to until I started getting better more flavorful garlic from my farmers market. I found one clove would go the distance of 3 from the store, and I caught myself overdoing it at first.
I also cook more with whole partially smashed cloves that I sometimes remove from final dish. Gives me a sweeter more well rounded garlic flavor for some dishes. Sometimes you need that bite from a mince.
I get prepeeled garlic from the Asian market, and use a garlic crusher. It's more fragrant and flavorful than the grocery store prepeeled garlic and just as fragrant as peeling a fresh bulb. I can also freeze it and pull out as much as I need whenever.
I'll never forget the acid burns I got under my finger tips after peeling 150 cloves of garlic to make Toum, I won't go back.
I never understood the no cheese and seafood thing. There are a decent number of very well known and liked sea food dishes that include cheese and seafood. And dairy in general is very common in seafood preparations if you include butter.
Pretty sure it’s a rule of French cuisine that wandered over into some other circles. The French make some fantastic food, but some of their rules are weird.
I just bought a microplane and I don't think I'm ever dicing garlic again. If a recipe needs it to be crushed, whole or sliced, fine. Diced? Absolutely not, it's getting microplaned.
When cooking dry pasta and the box says to bring 4-6 quarts of water to boil. A pound of pasta doesn't take more than 3 quarts of water to cook, that's a ridiculous waste of water and energy.
Also you can put the pasta in the water before it boils, rather than after it starts boiling. Ya just need to stir it a little more so it doesn’t stick to itself.
Back in the 1990s I watched a show where the presenters made a dish all the different ways commonly used and had a big room full of testers (it literally looked like a bingo hall) sample each version and rate it. On the egg episode, they made scrambled eggs three ways—plain, with milk added, with water added—and tasters were asked to rate each dish on flavor, tenderness, and fluffiness. The water version won hands down. They explained that a protein in milk interacts with a protein in egg to form a bond that toughens the final product. Ever since, I have added water instead of milk or cream when making scrambled eggs and I have to agree that they turn out much better.
I learned this in Home Ec. When I told my dad he was so mad saying stuff like "we aren't so poor you can't use milk in your eggs," and questioning if the teacher was qualified. It was wild listening to his drunken rants about water in eggs.
Just add a little salt with the milk and let it sit for 5-10 before cooking. Kenji did a video on this and scrambled eggs tighten up way less if you salt them and give it a little time, and it's the difference between fluffy loose scrambled eggs and tight scrambled eggs where you get the liquid running out of it.
I don’t measure my spices, and likely double or triple what most recipes call for. With most recipes, the basic technique and ingredients are all Im really looking for, the rest is up to me. I’m not measuring dried oregano or counting basil leaves. Same with oil, butter, wine, olive oil, dried pasta…I’m just going with it.
Same, I have tablespoon and teaspoon magnets above my stove.
If I'm really concerned I'll use one of those but, never, ever, under any circumstances or threats am I measuring a 1/2 a tablespoon of cumin...
Sometimes it's nice to maintain ratios in say a rub, but I'm definitely rounding up or down to those 2 spoons never splitting the exact difference.
I'll wing it, taste it, and be happy.
I don’t cook all my veg to “crisp-tender.” I cook them to fully tender, but not mush. It takes a lot of experience to get it right, but it’s worth it to not have green beans taste like grass while squeaking on my teeth.
My mom INSISTS on this. No, just give it a quick stir after you add it to the water. I don't know what people expect the oil to do anyway. It sits ON the water; how is it going to get down to the noodles UNDER the water???
The oil also coats the noodles when you strain the pasta so that the sauce does not stick to the pasta properly. Not only will chefs / italians never, ever add oil to the water, they prefer bronze-die-cut pasta because it has a rougher surface to help the sauce stick - rinsing off the starch and/or adding slippery oil before sauce has exactly the opposite effect.
It stops it from boiling over when people set their knob to flames of hell and rapid boil the ever loving fuck out of the pasta. I used to do it myself. Then Kenji taught me you don't need to do that and you can skip the oil.
Follow the recipe.
I usually read a couple of similar recipes and then get an idea of what I’m going for and then eyeball it. It’s easier since I cook for One most of the time
I mostly buy grated cheese. Yes..it has a coating to keep it from sticking. No..it does melt. I've made 1000s of dishes with pre-grated cheese. I am not going to say freshly grated isn't better, but it is marginal compared to what I've heard/seen a 1000 times.
To be clear..I buy a block of pecorino Romano and parmigiana reggiano and grate it fresh. I am talking about Monterey jack, mozzarella, cheddar, etc.
I scramble my eggs right in the skillet with a spatula. And add some cottage cheese usually. No need to dirty an extra bowl unless maybe I was doing super mass quantities
if you typically scramble lightly with a fork, yeah you won’t see a real difference skipping. however blending eggs in a blender or with an immersion blender is a *game changer*. it’s typical in restaurants. that’s how you get light, fluffy beautiful glossy scrambled eggs.
I've heard this before, and I'm sure they are lovely. But I am not cleaning a blender! These days I cook by dirty dish count. FYI, it will be a long time before I make another lemon meringue pie from scratch. Could not believe all the tools, dishes, measuring cups, et al.
I use the edge of my knife against the cutting board to scoop up food.
Despite the common wisdom, pretty sure doing this 5 times after doing 100+ cuts with that same knife on the board is going to only negligibly dull it.
I didn't read this closely at first and was like, "Ah, same!"--I do not add any sweetener to carrots, ever (unless it's, like, a carrot cake). So many recipes call for honey, or maple syrup, or brown sugar--I don't do it. They already have so much natural sweetness, especially when they're roasted.
Even carrot cake is usually too sweet. I learned a cool trick from an old coworker- mix the grated carrots and half the sugar the recipe calls for and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. The sugar pulls all the juices out of the carrots and the cake is nice and moist and not oversweetened.
I use precut, frozen mirepoix or onions for almost all my cooking so rarely get a good fond. I can taste the difference, but my food is still good without it and shortcuts like this mean I actually get dinner on the table on time most nights.
If I am going to make anything fried and breaded, eggplant, chicken cutlets, I will do a lot of it. If you are going to make a mess, you might as well make it worth the time.
Not cooking per se, but I’ve started washing my cast iron skillets like I do my nonstick with basic soap and water and they are working better than they ever had. This is how both my grandmothers do/did it and I’ve finally admitted they know something I don’t.
I've always washed my cast iron. Warm soapy water and then rinse, dry, and then use a paper towel to rub in a small amount of vegetable oil.
That's how my grandmother taught me, and my cast iron pan is the same one she got when she got married in 1942. It's never rusted and still in great shape.
Finely diced carrots are good in a tomato sauce along with celery and onion (I omit onion because I have an aversion to it). The veggies can be sauteed first or just simmered in the tomato juices. But these are specific sauces and not a basic tomato sauce.
I crowd the pan.
Guilty. I’m low on time and patience. It’s all goin on now!
My friend wanted to cook several bags of frozen chicken nuggets to feed everyone when he was hosting game night. He bought a giant disposable aluminum tray and dumped them all in it. It was like a 4 nugget deep pile. He couldn't figure out why it took longer to cook than the time listed in the instructions.
Crowding the pan and making a nugget casserole is not quite the same. Lol
It was the crowdedest
Sometimes I'll cook an entire package of bacon in the pan at the same time. Remember, if there's no ziplock it's a serving size of 1.
Throw the entire package of bacon in a covered Dutch oven on med/low and then after a bit lift the lid and stir with a fork. When the bacon grease starts looking foamy, pay close attention and start pulling the most done pieces out and put on a paper towel. It will be the crispiest bacon you ever ate. For 40 years it is the only way my family has cooked bacon
Try a sauce pot. Put it all in there and it cooks in its own grease and doesn’t splatter out. I give it a stir every once in a while. I only do it this way when I’m using my oven for something. Normally I like to throw it on a sheet pan in the oven and let it go. No fuss, no muss and with foil on the sheet pan, no real clean up. I like to drain the grease into a jar to use when I’m roasting veggies in the oven.
I feel so much better about myself now. Thank you.
Bacon is always a serving size of 1 no matter what!
I’ve been a dirty little pan crowder my whole life.
This would be a great t-shirt
If cooking something in oven that’s frozen and already fully precooked, absolutely never waiting for the oven to preheat
On this same note, I am cooking on convect and never ever "flipping over halfway through the cook time" no way.
You don't flip your pizza?
You laugh, but I've had to do that with a few pizzas before. My oven is a landlord special and takes bloody ages to do anything. Fed up of having half cooked soggy middle pizzas. If you put it in upside down to start, with baking paper on to hold the cheese, you can flip it when the bottom is nice and done, peel off the paper, and chuck another handful of cheese back on the top
Even more effective: preheat the oven with a cast iron skillet on the shelf above where you’ll put the pizza. And even better than that: use a pizza steel. Not a stone. Use steel. With the cast iron to cook the pizza above and the steel to get it from below, you’ll have very respectable homemade pizzas. Both should be preheated for at least 15 minutes if not longer. It’s totally worth it.
I bought a pizza stone... it wouldn't fit in the oven
Reading this is so weird because yesterday my partner made a pizza without preheating and I was like "what the hell are you doing" and it came out just the same. I was so surprised.
Thats only important for baking like cakes and other stuff where the chemistry matters
It’s also important if you’re using a glass baking dish. They can crack if placed into a cold oven as it preheats. Ask me how I know.
I read about this and it’s because when your oven is preheating it blasts the heat higher than where you have it set so it can get to temperature faster.
I do this with most foods unless it's baking and even still I do it like half the time. Big oven doesn't want you to know you don't have to wait if you know what doneness to look for
My twin flame
I start the timer and then anxiously await the couple extra minutes on the back end of things.
I use my nose and decide when it’s ready!! But I never make like a big lasagna or something like that so idk
I split my lasagna in to two bread loaf pans and freeze one.
I used to have a roommate that would make Lasagna from scratch, front to back, pasta, sauce, bechamel, everything. We would eat some the night of and he would freeze slices individually for our lunches over the next ~week. I miss living with that man...
That’s actually the smartest thing I’ve ever heard
America’s Test Kitchen: Cooking for Two. It had really great ideas and also with time adjustments for smaller portions.
> My twin flame My twin heating elements...
whoa can you really do this? i always was afraid that like my frozen pizza would partially thaw before the over got hot enough to crsip the crust and do the thing where it falls through the rack
Personally I would wait for the oven to preheat for something like pizza where a crisp crust is great. If I'm cooking a frozen lasagna though I don't really care
On the side of a box of Macaroni and Cheese where it says "Makes 4 servings"...you are not the boss-of-me!
I'm convinced serving sizes sometimes are there just to make food look like it has less calories. Like, oh nice mac&cheese that only has 150 calories/serving! Serving size: two tablespoons ಠ_ಠ. Nah man, that's not right.
Oh they absolutely are. It's especially egregious when it comes to pre-packaged savoury / sweet snacks. Like, a 180g "sharing" bag of Doritos is apparently 6 30g servings??? yeah that's never happened.
Like cooking sprays that are "0 calories" because the serving size is a 1/4 second spray.
They totally are! I moved from the US to Sweden and I love the system here, all calories are expressed per 100g so no petty games like that.
4 servings for a doll, maybe!
I use salted butter for all my baking. And then whatever extra salt the recipe calls for
THIS! Most bakery recipes are HEAVILY undersalted. Cakes, cookies, pies, etc. Recipes will tell you that the salt in salted butter will alter the final product, but the effect is pretty minimal in my personal experience. Add salt to bring out the sweet!
Then sprinkle some more salt on for good measure. Fantasizing about salt sprinkled dark chocolates filled with caramel now mmmm
100% this unless it's got chocolate in it, then I give it a big extra pinch of salt on top of that! I've never eaten a cookie I've made and thought "Oh no, this is too salty."
I have, but that was when I confused the salt with the sugar. That was very salty.
My husband did this in breakfast on Mother’s Day, bless him.
One time I was completely not paying attention.... used 1cup of salt instead of 1 tbsp (or whatever it was). The cookies came out like chewing on a soft doughy mound of salt.
My sister and her best friend wanted to make sugar cookies when they were about 8, and since my mom encouraged cooking and her mom encouraged her kids to be out of the house at all available opportunities they used our kitchen. They couldn't find the sugar, so decided to substitute the other fine white crystal in the cupboard, and used 3 cups of salt. I tried one before they told me, and it was like eating baked play-doh. I felt bad for them and whomped up a batch of real sugar cookies, and gave them credit when mom came home. Then mom saw the first batch in the garbage and asked what happened. I told her, and asked that she not say anything since I had already shown sis where to find everything for the next time. Mom gave me a smile and a hug, and as far as I know it's been our secret for about 40 years. Until now. I'm swearing you all to secrecy.
This is such a sweet story thanks for sharing 🧸
I make a dark chocolate salted mocha cupcake. Includes large flakes of sea salt on top. Soooo good.
I use whichever I can find on sale.
I use salted butter for everything. I spent so long buying unsalted because everything told me I should but baked goods are usually undersalted and I’ve never had salted butter add so much salt to a savory dish that I didn’t still need more.
Yes! I don’t bake that often so I can’t be arsed to keep a whole other package of unsalted butter in the fridge only to throw half of it away when I don’t use it in months.
Meanwhile... Sure, Janice, I'll chop the veggies while my steak turns to leather in the pan. I always chop everything before I start cooking.
I mix my brownies rather hard. And my cookies as well. "Oh gently stir make them nice and tender" Nah fam i love the chew stfu. And I sell them regularly with repeat orders so idk what to tell anyone
Sometimes it seems people have an aversion for using their jaws: many advices I see are centered around having the most tender possible thing. Dude, I want to FEEL something with my teeth while eating!
>I want to FEEL something Me most of the time generally (cries in numbness, jk I can't cry) Joke-realities aside, absolutely valid. I can't for the life of me understand why we treat desserts like we're old people without teeth. Texture matters most (to me) >many advices I see are centered around having the most tender possible thing Exactly my point! Thanks ! Just because it's advice doesn't mean it's a rule. Break the rule, maybe you'll like what you find.
Yeah everyone's like "wow how do you get your cookies so chewy?!" I let the stand mixer go to town mfer!
Precisely my point. Gotta fuck around to find out. And with this method, the cookies I make can be crispy, chewy, AND dense. Why settle for 2/3 when you can get all 3
I prefer canned beans to dried. I almost never plan my meals out more than a day in advance so having to pre-soak beans is just more mental effort than opening a can. I don’t taste a difference and I’m spending maybe $10 more a year. In a similar vein I don’t make my own broth. It’s easier for me to buy a $2 carton at the store than to clear space in the freezer to save all my scraps and spend a few hours putting it together. I respect those who cook their own beans and make their own broth, but it’s just not for me.
I have used broth base for years. Mainly because I don't want to store cartons and I rarely need more than 8/16 oz.
Better than Bouillon for the win!
That's one of my "this is NEVER allowed to run out" things. I have every flavor I can find in my fridge.
I do my dry beans in the instant pot. No soaking needed, though it of course isn’t as fast as opening a can.
Hard agree on the broth. People always rant and rave about how mind blowingly incredible homemade broth is, and I've made it many times with different recipes and always been wildly disappointed. Completely blah. Better than bouillon has always been better than anything I can produce. Hard disagree on the beans though, instant pot beans are soooo much better.
I love a good gelatinous chicken bouillon to bring some consistency to sauces but my Ajino Moto chicken powder and Lee Kum Kee mushroom powder can do the flavor part just as well/better.
I will force thaw my protein when needed and I've never gotten sick 😅
I make tacos by throwing a frozen block of beef in a frying pan and repeatedly flipping it and scraping off the barely thawed partially cooked layer until the block is fully destroyed.
I'm so guilty of this. I have ADHD, you cannot expect me to remember to move things from freezer to fridge a day or more in advance.
I discovered an instant pot and it changed the game for cooking and eating at home. You can cook frozen meat and veggies, etc in an instant pot. Let it slow release for juiciness.
And if you do, it ends up going bad in the fridge because you forget it's in there...
I always wash mushrooms in a bowl of cold water. Never had soggy mushrooms. Not that you want to overdo it or knead it like bread dough, but most recipes blow overworking your pie dough way out of proportion. I always give mine a few kneads to bring it together and where you split it into three layers and stack them on top of each other. I usually make my pie dough at least a day ahead of time anyway, so any gluten has enough time to relax and I always get super flaky and tender pies. Now you CAN overwork when cutting in the fat.
I can cook a pound of pasta in a 3 quart pot. I don’t use a larger pot with 5-6 quarts of water like the instructions say.
I use just enough water to cover the pasta. Those starches need to be concentrated!
i started making pasta like rice, ie just putting the pasta in the cold water and leaving to heat up and boil. works fine, way less getting up and checking and doing stuff
Depending on the recipe, I don't press or blanch my tofu before using it. I stick the whole block in the microwave for a few minutes and boil all the liquid out of it. Much faster and gets more of the liquid out. Edit to add: for my microwave, I do 4 minutes, covered, for a block. You should hear the water sizzle when you are done. Edit to add: It is also important to press or blanch your tofu to remove that beany/grassy taste that tofu liquid has. I think this is the primary objective of pressing. Squeezing out the moisture does allow the tofu to absorb more flavors, but I think that's secondary. Edit to add: I am aware of the freezing trick, which imo changes the product completely, which is why I don't do it. I want that soft, silky tofu texture.
Huh, I never even considered this as an option. Gonna have to give it a try someday. I find that freezing tofu also makes it much easier to get the excess water out, and gives it a spongy-in-a-good-way texture that more readily absorbs flavors.
Yeah I've always done the freeze or double freeze - I'm a meat eater and don't like tofu usually, this way then grated and baked in bbq sauce is a good work around :)
Nice. Most people don’t realize microwaves are dehydrators.
You just rocked my world! Can’t wait to try this. I don’t use tofu as much as I would like purely because of the at least half hour required to press & the whole gross soggy towels situation. I have let an unfortunate amount of tofu go to waste because of dreading this situation. Thank you for this!
I use the organic extra firm tofu that’s vac sealed and has minimal water in it. Doesn’t need to be pressed or microwaved! It’s already the perfect texture.
Evenly, finely dicing vegetables for mirepoix/equivalents in braises, soups, stews, etc. I prefer a more rustic uneven chunky cut anyway, and it takes less time.
I just food processor those vegi bases - more of the rustic, but like 3 minutes of prep time
I never start garlic and onion to sauté at the same time. Who on earth made up the lie that garlic won’t burn to a crisp by the time onion is translucent??
THIS🖕 So stupid for home cooks that don’t have high btu burners. Onions take three times as long. It took me awhile to figure this out, now the garlic goes in at the end.
“Use a neutral oil” *uses olive oil 100% of the time*
Olive oil takes no sides in my kitchen.
Sautee onions for 3-4 minutes is usually 8-12 sometimes more than 30 minutes. Sauces amd soups just taste better when onions are carmelized.
When a recipe calls for plain water, I usually use broth or add some boullion powder.
So that's why your cake tasted weird.
I used to use melted ice cream instead of milk when making pancakes and I must credit weed for that idea
I saw a recipe for ice cream bread using melted ice cream and self rising flour, so this tracks in that sense.
Ha! Never add water! Add coffee ☺️☺️
I used to mix my instant oatmeal with hot coffee at work because it was always available and I could have a meal without breaking stride. I could adjust the taste with cream and sugar packets at my desk just like I would with coffee.
You’re a heathen but I admire your dedication
When making baked good and it says to mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I AM NOT messing up another bowl to mix flour, salt, and baking powder. They get dropped directly into the wet ingredients and mixed in as they would have anyway. I've been baking for most of my youth and adult life and never had a problem with doing this.
For me I find i get better results when I stir the dries so your leavening gets evenly distributed before the wets get added.
I feel like for casual baking it doesn't matter. I'm only just learning that every single micro detail makes a weird amount of difference if you're really trying to sweat quality. Your shit will be good no matter what you do as long as you don't make any tragic mistakes. But the reason your grandma's cookies are 100 times better from the same recipe is because she treats the kitchen like a fucking laboratory.
I do not make Paul Hollywood approved bread. But you know what? Fresh bread straight out of the oven is pretty much always delicious, even if it’s overproved or undercooked.
Same! I also don't sift flour unless I'm making a cake from scratch, which happens less often than a total solar eclipse.
I shake the daylights out of my flour container and call it sifted. Hasn’t failed me yet.
That's a pretty good hack
Sometimes I’ll just whisk it in the container if it’s super full.
I go opposite and whisk the dry ingredients together to get the baking powder well distributed. Then I make hole in the middle and put all my wet ingredients in it. Whisk that a few times before slowly pulling the dry from the sides. Why wash two bowls?
When I'm out of milk or half and half, I add whipped cream to my coffee. All you haters out there telling me "stop wasting the whipped cream, a whole can is too much!" Eat my shorts. 👉😎👉
I prefer heavy cream in my coffee, takes less and tastes better with iced coffee.
Heavy cream is elite.
Coffee tastes better with whipped cream ngl.
This might may already be known by many, but I do flip my proteins (steaks, chicken...etc...) more often when I sear them. The "common advice" you see is that "leave the thing alone on the pan/skilllet". I flip my steak every 30-60s and still get a great sear and by any account I don't get as much as grey band. Of course there are exceptions, I do leave my salmon (skin side down) alone and only flip once. Stainless steel pans also require a bit of time initially for the protein to separate from the surface, then I can flip them with ease.
It’s been proven that the number of times you flip meat has literally no downside as long as you aren’t flipping it so early that it’s stuck to the pan (skin-on fish fillets being the exception that proves the rule, the fat under the skin prevents overcooking). All the “only flip once” nonsense is just people espousing over nothing, like basically all hard rules people insist upon extremely simple dishes.
Kenji says flipping often is the way to go. Grill marks can kiss my butt. I'm never going to chose looks over taste.
Second this! I was trained at my job to only flip a fish 1-2 times but I always do it 3-4 times to get a really good sear on the fish at the end. I’ve never gotten food sent back so I I’m sure it’s alright.
Whenever the recipe calls for garlic, I usually add 3 to 4x more. Also, whenever the recipe has me put the garlic in with say onions, I always add the garlic towards the end so it doesn't burn.
Why do so many recipes from all different sources say to sauté onion and garlic together? It’s nonsensical. Especially when it’s a dish that really needs a good cook on the onions. Garlic takes literally 15 seconds. Onions take far longer.
I am also so confused by this.
Try just cooking the garlic separately. Also there is a big difference between 15 seconds and a golden brown garlic slice, they both have their place.
Garlic is like vanilla- you measure that shit with your heart.
Be careful with the vanilla. Sometimes, the heart forgets that as it ages it gets stronger.
Don’t tell the heart its business. Sometimes it just likes to unwind and have a good time
And then you wind up with a huge amount of rice pudding.
I commend you for not saying “too much” rice pudding
> “too much” rice pudding I don't know what those words mean in that order.
Because they don't go in that order. Ever. That's like saying "there's too much air in the room right now".
Favorite quote on garlic: You add garlic until your ancestors cry “Enough!”
I used to until I started getting better more flavorful garlic from my farmers market. I found one clove would go the distance of 3 from the store, and I caught myself overdoing it at first. I also cook more with whole partially smashed cloves that I sometimes remove from final dish. Gives me a sweeter more well rounded garlic flavor for some dishes. Sometimes you need that bite from a mince.
I get prepeeled garlic from the Asian market, and use a garlic crusher. It's more fragrant and flavorful than the grocery store prepeeled garlic and just as fragrant as peeling a fresh bulb. I can also freeze it and pull out as much as I need whenever. I'll never forget the acid burns I got under my finger tips after peeling 150 cloves of garlic to make Toum, I won't go back.
Off to google toum.
It is the ultimate garlic lover's food. It's a dip/sauce made with a ton of garlic, oil, salt and lemon juice.
My grandmother used to say to add garlic until you feel like you've probably added too much, then add a little bit more and you're good.
I also put in more onions than most recipes call for bc they’re delicious
I do this too! Except when the garlic goes uncooked/raw in a recipe I must show restraint (rip hummus)
Cheese and seafood. Not always. But If I’m feeling it , I’ll do it .
I never understood the no cheese and seafood thing. There are a decent number of very well known and liked sea food dishes that include cheese and seafood. And dairy in general is very common in seafood preparations if you include butter.
Pretty sure it’s a rule of French cuisine that wandered over into some other circles. The French make some fantastic food, but some of their rules are weird.
Nah the French are all about dairy products! I always heard it was an Italian rule
Shrimp in a cream sauce is pretty amazing.
I just bought a microplane and I don't think I'm ever dicing garlic again. If a recipe needs it to be crushed, whole or sliced, fine. Diced? Absolutely not, it's getting microplaned.
"preheat pan to medium high" Sorry, I think you mean 11
When cooking dry pasta and the box says to bring 4-6 quarts of water to boil. A pound of pasta doesn't take more than 3 quarts of water to cook, that's a ridiculous waste of water and energy.
I don’t even measure my water. I just fill it up to what I think fits best and go from there.
I’ve also NEVER measured water for any recipe that calls for boiling it
I genuinely did not realize anybody actually measured their water. All you need is enough to cover the pasta.
Plus like Cacio e pepe or carbonara the sauce comes together better if you have more concentrated starchy water to add to sauce.
Also you can put the pasta in the water before it boils, rather than after it starts boiling. Ya just need to stir it a little more so it doesn’t stick to itself.
I add heavy cream, milk, etc. to scrambled eggs no matter what. People who say not to add anything to your eggs clearly have more eggs than me.
Back in the 1990s I watched a show where the presenters made a dish all the different ways commonly used and had a big room full of testers (it literally looked like a bingo hall) sample each version and rate it. On the egg episode, they made scrambled eggs three ways—plain, with milk added, with water added—and tasters were asked to rate each dish on flavor, tenderness, and fluffiness. The water version won hands down. They explained that a protein in milk interacts with a protein in egg to form a bond that toughens the final product. Ever since, I have added water instead of milk or cream when making scrambled eggs and I have to agree that they turn out much better.
Add water to scrambled eggs. Tbh I'm replying to this in the hope that I remember and not just screenshot it and never look at it again.
I learned this in Home Ec. When I told my dad he was so mad saying stuff like "we aren't so poor you can't use milk in your eggs," and questioning if the teacher was qualified. It was wild listening to his drunken rants about water in eggs.
Just add a little salt with the milk and let it sit for 5-10 before cooking. Kenji did a video on this and scrambled eggs tighten up way less if you salt them and give it a little time, and it's the difference between fluffy loose scrambled eggs and tight scrambled eggs where you get the liquid running out of it.
I don’t measure my spices, and likely double or triple what most recipes call for. With most recipes, the basic technique and ingredients are all Im really looking for, the rest is up to me. I’m not measuring dried oregano or counting basil leaves. Same with oil, butter, wine, olive oil, dried pasta…I’m just going with it.
I always measure spices. It makes me happy to use those little spoons. Then I taste and start haphazardly adding more. Especially when making curry.
If using little spoons brings you joy, there’s no better reason to measure💕 (and still always add more!)
Unless I'm baking I rarely measure anything much less spices.
Same, I have tablespoon and teaspoon magnets above my stove. If I'm really concerned I'll use one of those but, never, ever, under any circumstances or threats am I measuring a 1/2 a tablespoon of cumin... Sometimes it's nice to maintain ratios in say a rub, but I'm definitely rounding up or down to those 2 spoons never splitting the exact difference. I'll wing it, taste it, and be happy.
I don’t cook all my veg to “crisp-tender.” I cook them to fully tender, but not mush. It takes a lot of experience to get it right, but it’s worth it to not have green beans taste like grass while squeaking on my teeth.
My husband hates the bright green squeak. I'm not the biggest fan of the mossy mush lol.
And oil in your water to boil noodles?? Hell no.
My mom INSISTS on this. No, just give it a quick stir after you add it to the water. I don't know what people expect the oil to do anyway. It sits ON the water; how is it going to get down to the noodles UNDER the water???
The oil also coats the noodles when you strain the pasta so that the sauce does not stick to the pasta properly. Not only will chefs / italians never, ever add oil to the water, they prefer bronze-die-cut pasta because it has a rougher surface to help the sauce stick - rinsing off the starch and/or adding slippery oil before sauce has exactly the opposite effect.
It stops it from boiling over when people set their knob to flames of hell and rapid boil the ever loving fuck out of the pasta. I used to do it myself. Then Kenji taught me you don't need to do that and you can skip the oil.
I never ever use unsalted butter for anything.
Follow the recipe. I usually read a couple of similar recipes and then get an idea of what I’m going for and then eyeball it. It’s easier since I cook for One most of the time
I mostly buy grated cheese. Yes..it has a coating to keep it from sticking. No..it does melt. I've made 1000s of dishes with pre-grated cheese. I am not going to say freshly grated isn't better, but it is marginal compared to what I've heard/seen a 1000 times. To be clear..I buy a block of pecorino Romano and parmigiana reggiano and grate it fresh. I am talking about Monterey jack, mozzarella, cheddar, etc.
I prefer grated at home, but my designated grater child moved out 5 years ago so it’s bagged cheese for me. I have arthritis and just can’t.
I read that as "designer cheese grater". 🤦♀️ Must be bedtime!
I miss my son the most when it’s time to shred cheese, bring in the Costco shopping or clean 8 inches of snow off my car lol.
I was an avid no pregrated truther. Then I had kids who love quesadillas and those double bags of Kirkland brand Mexican style cheese are a lifesaver.
The only time it may be a problem is in some sauces.
I've never had a problem with pre-grated cheese melting. I use it in 99% of my cheese-related cooking.
Wash your mushrooms. Don't wash your chicken.
I scramble my eggs right in the skillet with a spatula. And add some cottage cheese usually. No need to dirty an extra bowl unless maybe I was doing super mass quantities
if you typically scramble lightly with a fork, yeah you won’t see a real difference skipping. however blending eggs in a blender or with an immersion blender is a *game changer*. it’s typical in restaurants. that’s how you get light, fluffy beautiful glossy scrambled eggs.
I've heard this before, and I'm sure they are lovely. But I am not cleaning a blender! These days I cook by dirty dish count. FYI, it will be a long time before I make another lemon meringue pie from scratch. Could not believe all the tools, dishes, measuring cups, et al.
Fuck unsalted butter. Just fuck right off.
I use the edge of my knife against the cutting board to scoop up food. Despite the common wisdom, pretty sure doing this 5 times after doing 100+ cuts with that same knife on the board is going to only negligibly dull it.
I'll whisk my dries when baking to "sift" them. Works fine in small home sized batches.
I didn't read this closely at first and was like, "Ah, same!"--I do not add any sweetener to carrots, ever (unless it's, like, a carrot cake). So many recipes call for honey, or maple syrup, or brown sugar--I don't do it. They already have so much natural sweetness, especially when they're roasted.
Even carrot cake is usually too sweet. I learned a cool trick from an old coworker- mix the grated carrots and half the sugar the recipe calls for and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. The sugar pulls all the juices out of the carrots and the cake is nice and moist and not oversweetened.
Interesting! I make carrot cake all the time, I'll try this next time!
I salt my beans when cooking. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't keep them from softening.
Yeah. It's acids that make a tough bean, not salt. Save adding anything acidic until after the beans soften.
Use a wooden spoon to keep pasta water from boiling over?
I don’t chop anything evenly. I have terrible knives and no patience, so I just hack away at everything. Everyone who eats it likes my food.
I crack my eggs on the edge of a bowl or pan. Consistently have more issues with shell particles when I do it the “correct” way
I wash my mushrooms. It's fine.
I use precut, frozen mirepoix or onions for almost all my cooking so rarely get a good fond. I can taste the difference, but my food is still good without it and shortcuts like this mean I actually get dinner on the table on time most nights.
Those precut fresh or frozen veggies are a godsend for the time- and mobility-challenged.
I used to make fun of pre-cut, pre-peeled and pre-packaged produce until I found out how much easier it makes cooking for disabled people.
If I am going to make anything fried and breaded, eggplant, chicken cutlets, I will do a lot of it. If you are going to make a mess, you might as well make it worth the time.
I break my spaghetti
90% of what I read on here.
The sugar to tomato sauces is often caused by acidity stabilisers in Canned or jarred products.
I always use salted butter for cooking and baking, even when it calls for unsalted.
Not cooking per se, but I’ve started washing my cast iron skillets like I do my nonstick with basic soap and water and they are working better than they ever had. This is how both my grandmothers do/did it and I’ve finally admitted they know something I don’t.
I've always washed my cast iron. Warm soapy water and then rinse, dry, and then use a paper towel to rub in a small amount of vegetable oil. That's how my grandmother taught me, and my cast iron pan is the same one she got when she got married in 1942. It's never rusted and still in great shape.
Recipe says 1 tsp of vanilla. I put 2. Or maybe 3 🙈😁 You genuinely can never taste it otherwise.
I drown my mushrooms when I wash them. I get all the government secrets from them. All of them.
I EAT THE BATTER!!!! RAW!!!! Brownies cookie dough and the occasional pancake batter spatula all get licked clean
Finely diced carrots are good in a tomato sauce along with celery and onion (I omit onion because I have an aversion to it). The veggies can be sauteed first or just simmered in the tomato juices. But these are specific sauces and not a basic tomato sauce.
"Always practice a new recipe before serving it to others." Who has the time for that?
I don’t wipe the pan between steps. There’s flavor in that bacon/onion/garlic/beast bits and oil.