Every one of us has cooked food at least a few times during our lives. And it doesn’t matter if your cooking was just making ramen from a store-bought pack or making a complicated meal from scratch. It’s still cooking in some capacity.
And a lot of us have committed some cooking sins. Some of us even did it knowingly. Recently, Reddit users in a thread on the community r/Cooking shared what cooking sins they commit knowingly and shamelessly. Let’s take a look.
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I break my spaghetti in half like a mf champion and never regretted doing so
At home, not a sin, personal preference. In a professional kitchen, definitely a sin. Would ruin the integrity of the plating, appearance, what you're advertising on the menu and the dish in general.
I let my meat defrost on the counter, and if I pay enough attention I´'ll put it in the fridge when its defrosted, but sometimes I totally forget about it and it comes to room temp. My family is still alive.
I scrape the bowl like I’m held at gunpoint. Those heathens on Food Network and their half a**ed wasteful scraping make my blood boil. I’m sorry we can’t all live in the Hamptons and be so rushed that we throw away half the brownie batter Ina, you selfish b+<£.
I make, and eat, raw cookie dough. With eggs. Best treat. Never been sick
The flour is more likely to make you sick than the eggs, I think, but still a pretty low likelihood
I use salted butter and don't add salt in baking recipes. My desserts/baked goods always end up perfectly, slightly salted.
I'll put ketchup on hotdogs and brats. I don't care what others think. I like it.
For me, it depends on the sausage quality. High quality = no condiments. Low quality = Nose melting amounts Colemans English Mustard.
Using a teaspoon to scoop out some spices, then putting it back into the drawer because it was spotless.
I rinse my mushrooms. Ain't nobody got time for carefully wiping off the soil.
I do a lot of ribs in my smoker, and I usually do 'em until they fall off the bone. Spare me all the mumbo jumbo about how the 3-2-1 method is c**p, or that "fall off the bone" ribs are overcooked, that's how my wife likes them, I don't mind them tender like that either, and that's just the way I'm doing them, if you don't like it, buy your own smoker.
No sin here. Fall off the bone is what you should always aim for when it comes to ribs. You should never have to tear at a rib to get the meat off. That's undercooked and obnoxious.
I cook with butter more than oils. It tastes better. Not as healthy, but it’s worth it to me!
I don’t dice onions the proper way (keeping the root end attached). I cut off both ends, slice one way, then the other. I know it’s supposedly easier, but I don’t like doing it that way.
Ah, you're supposed to leave the butt of the onion on when slicing it, that explains a lot! I just cut off both ends, then did as it was supposed to be done with the butt and wondered why anyone considered this more practical.
I use my chef’s knife for everything. All my other knives are just there to look pretty.
Not a sin, pretty common practice, especially with home cooks. I'm a career chef so I do have a serrated, boning, pairing, Japanese santoku for split cuts, slicer, etc. but my chef's knife is definitely what I use the most.
My chef mother taught me NEVER to cut lettuce, only to rip. Ripping the lettuce and then rinsing/washing was my job every night before dinner, and I loathed it. Now, I only cut my lettuce with a knife, I refuse to rip it lol
I'd have to go against mama on that one, too. Ripping lettuce by hand can damage and bruise the leaf and would look like s**t on any professional plate. Kale is the one exception I'd make as massaging and breaking it down by hand is beneficial. Other than that, no, use your knife and soak/wash it in ice water.
My cast iron is seasoned properly so it gets a quick hand wash with soap and rinsed and then dried completely. It will get touch up seasoning when needed. The hysteria is so unnecessary.
I'm a bad person. I use non stick pans. My wrists just won't take cast iron any more. Unfortunately nobody now wants my pans
I sometime use store bought chicken stock or bouillon cubes.
I know! I'm sorry!! It's just... sometimes my stuff is still frozen!!
To actually answer the question rather than dragging OP, I don't care about making sure everything I'm chopping is the same size. Who the hell cares. I'm only cooking for my household, and it's not like I'm hacking food apart like an animal, so everything still cooks in roughly the same amount of time.
I also overcook pasta a little. I don't like it al dente.
Sometimes, I salt the water *before* it is boiling.
It technically doesn't matter when you add the salt when it comes to seasoning water for boiling pasta, etc. The water temperature doesn't change the salt content or make it dissolve any sooner or later, as long as it's done before adding the food.
When I bake I don't weigh anything, and just scoop up the flour in the measuring cup. I know it packs down, but whatever. My cookies always come out great anyway.
My mam does this and there seriously isn't a better baker in the county. She's an artist that's been doing it for so long she can see the weight, whether it 0.5g or 25kg.
I don't do "mise en place"
It's more like a mess in place, but as long as the food turns out good, I'm okay with that lol
Using dry measuring cups for liquids.
Wait...there are people who use the proper ones? Haha, I just use the same measuring cups for the whole recipe.
I don't curl my fingers when cutting things. I've been cooking for 50 years and have only cut myself a few times and usually not when slicing. I feel I get a better grip not curling.
I’ve sliced through the occasional finger nail when chopping things but my fingers have remained intact. Washing glasses is a different matter. More than once I’ve had a glass break whilst washing it and my knuckle has some pretty amazing scars. They look like my initials!
I remove shrimp tails before cooking. Apparently you’re not supposed to but the tails are disgusting
Who wants to have to remove the tails from your cooked seasoned food? Shrimp boil? Yes. Any other meal? No.
🫣 You can cook rice on the stovetop just like you would in a rice cooker. No need to do it pasta style lol. You'd just need to adjust the water to rice ratio and let it go.
I don't taste as I cook. I just season with my eyes.
You can most certainly cook rice on the stove top but the water to rice ratio doesn't change and I'd never cook it "pasta style", that doesn't work.
I made homemade jambalaya a bunch of times until I really had it down, then decided that except for special occasions, it's generally not worth the effort to make from scratch. So these days I'm back to starting from a box of Zataran's and doctoring it up.
My secret ingredient is msg.
Unless it’s going to stay in a dish uncooked, I rarely bother with fresh garlic these days. It’s good enough for weeknight cooking when I mostly just want to make something fast but decent. I chop and freeze onions and buy canned beans for the same reason.
I take a lot of shortcuts like that due to health issues, honestly. Reducing the number of steps until done is helpful in getting myself to actually cook.
We eat a lot of garlic in our house-I make a batch of garlic puree for convenience (3 bulbs of garlic, peel the cloves, put in a mini blender, add a bit of oil-I use rice bran-blend until porridgy). It only takes a few minutes and keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks. It tastes smoother and less harsh this way.
I overcook my eggs, eggs over-hard and scrambled over high heat until they are rubber. It’s probably mostly just because that’s how my mom prepared them and it’s nostalgia. I know how to properly cook an egg and that they are supposed to be at least somewhat runny. I will also never cook them that way.
I'll keep bread in the refrigerator. Especially for grilled cheese where it'll be reheated in butter anyway.
I crowd the pan 🤷🏾♀️
I was watching someone pan fry fish in a video on YouTube. Before they started, they warned viewers not to crowd the pan. Then proceeded to jam all the fish pieces into the pan. Even cut one piece in half in order to fit it in!
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Do any of these people really think that what they're doing is generally regarded as a 'sin'? Many of them sound more like they're posted as 'hacks', almost none actually sound like bad things. Except the overcooked eggs. That's just barbaric;-)
I legitimately can't eat runny eggs so I only eat over cooked ones lol.. that's why Korean omelettes are so good
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Unless you're a purist, I really don't see anything wrong with these. It's all a matter of personal preference/convenience.
I commit all fourteen top sins constantly. I do get ingredients out ahead of time so I don't have any unpleasant surprises (like the cheese is moldy, or we're out of butter) but my mise en place is still a messy place.
Do any of these people really think that what they're doing is generally regarded as a 'sin'? Many of them sound more like they're posted as 'hacks', almost none actually sound like bad things. Except the overcooked eggs. That's just barbaric;-)
I legitimately can't eat runny eggs so I only eat over cooked ones lol.. that's why Korean omelettes are so good
Load More Replies... Unless you're a purist, I really don't see anything wrong with these. It's all a matter of personal preference/convenience.
I commit all fourteen top sins constantly. I do get ingredients out ahead of time so I don't have any unpleasant surprises (like the cheese is moldy, or we're out of butter) but my mise en place is still a messy place.
