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Food can be quite a controversial topic sometimes. It's all about preference, you see: some might want a steak well-done, and others want their meat to be practically mooing on their plate.
Hana Zickgraf, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Psychology who specializes in eating behavior and disorders, claims that about 30% of the population identifies as picky eaters. But is it possible that sometimes people just like food done a certain way?
Some food snobs would have you think that there's only one way to cook pasta, sear a steak, or cook an egg. But these people would like to prove you wrong. At the risk of becoming enemies of the foodie world, these folks were brave enough to share the foods they prepare differently on purpose. So, when one user asked: "What food do you intentionally cook 'incorrectly?'", over 2,000 home cooks rushed in with their hot takes.
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#1
Ramen noodles. I never leave it like soup. I leave just enough water to let the seasoning be able to spread around and then say goodbye to the rest of the water.
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#2
Mashed potatoes with skin on. I love potato skin and refuse to peel them and throw them away. Luckily most of time I’m making it just for myself anyway.
#3
I break my spaghetti and other long pasta in half before putting in boiling water. I still have no problem picking up the pasta with my fork. This "rule" about not breaking pasta is super gatekeepery and absurd. Come at me, Italians.
#4
I use salted butter for everything. It has a longer shelf life at room temperature (where butter is most useful) and the extra salt has never meaningfully changed a recipe aside from making baked goods a million times better.
#5
Eggs. I grew up eating overcooked eggs and somehow settled into that modality?
I hate hate hate eating out for breakfast because it doesn’t matter how many times I tell the staff that I want them OVERCOOKED, nor how many different ways I order them, I always get soft, somewhat liquidy eggs.
Sorry to everyone that may be offended, but there is absolutely nothing appealing about a clear snot/mucus that surrounds a barely cooked yolk. “Fluffy” scrambled eggs that still jiggle and have the texture of hot jello? Absolutely not.
Please, just please scramble the eggs until they’re browned. I want texture and no snot.
#6
I cook rice the way most people cook pasta: Boil it it a big pot of salted water, and drain in a colander.
I have been absolutely *pilloried* online for admitting this. One person actually called it "sacrilege."
But my rice comes out perfect every time. Cooked to a turn, lovely discrete tender grains, no starchiness, no gumminess.
When I tried to cook rice the "right" way, for years, it seemed to always come out either crunchy in the center or tapioca.
Now I never worry about my rice.
#7
Mashed potatoes, I don't mash them untill they're smooth-i like lumpy mash 😁.
#8
Broccoli! I love steaming it until it's very soft and tastes buttery! I don't want my broccoli to be a lil crunchy, it needs to melt in my mouth.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago
I steam broccoli until it is tender (but not quite extremely soft). It is awesome.
#9
Smoked ribs. I love it when they're so tender they fall off the bone.
#10
Burnt hot dogs. I love an over cooked grilled hot dog.\
MAK3AWiiSH: The only way I can eat a hot dog is if it’s charred to a crisp as if it just ascended from the depths of hell
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
Hot dogs, sausages, brats, burn it all, dunk it in the BBQ sauce, and hand it over!
#11
The ‘experts’ say sausages should be cooked in a frying pan over a low heat. But it’s impossible to get an even colour and you end up with brown stripes mixed with pale wobbly skin. I like my sausages cooked in the oven and dark brown all over. No trace of pale wobbly skin thank you.
#13
I dont peel potatoes and carrots. That's where the flavor lives. Nutrition too.
Grape Walls of Ire 1 year ago (edited)
Potato skin has fiber, but otherwise the whole potato is quite nutritious. Carrots have no skin, so clean the dirt off and you're golden. This is coming from a registered dietitian.
#14
Bacon. I like more of a chew to it than a crunch.
Intelligent_Break_12: Crispy bacon is fine for a topping but if I'm eating it as a side or even on a sandwich of some kind, I don't want it so crispy that it falls apart. I want to chew through that fat and have a crisp edge
Taryn Bailey 1 year ago
I make people laugh when I tell them I like my bacon cooked semi -flaccid. It's meat. It should taste and feel like meat
#15
I don't wash my rice. I've literally done it batch washed/unwashed side by side when arguing this point with my wife, she finally agreed. I must be missing something, but I can't figure out what it is.
Yet there are so many sources that say wash your rice, and so folks even do it like half a dozen times because they want the water to perfectly clear.
#16
I like to slightly char some things, like veggies. I justify it by saying it’s a real cooking method, but actually I am just intentionally burning things a little bit. I like my sausages like that too.
#17
My family's chocolate chip cookie recipe is a masterclass in what not to do. I overbeat the sugar and butter, add way too little flour, and bang the trays on the counter (mid-bake and as they come out of the oven). The entire goal is to collapse them and ruin any internal structure so they become super thin and chewy.
Lydsylou (she/her) 1 year ago
If you want them chewier add a ton of golden syrup. It gives flavour as well
#18
Chicken thighs. I know there’s an ideal temperature to cook them at but I find them rubbery when “perfectly cooked” so I overcook the s**t out of them so they may not be as juicy but they still aren’t dry and are sticky and succulent and that rubbery texture is gone.
#19
Bacon in carbonara. I made it with guaciale and it is good. But that sort of meat is extremely hard to find in the states and can only be ordered online. And to me the bacon is yummy. I'm not a fan of pancetta. Tbh, I don't care for it at all.
Elena Witch 1 year ago
Well. The first printed carbonara recipe was published in Chicago in 1947. And it had scrambled eggs, not a cream. Italian culinary history is mostly a sham created around the eighties.
#20
I love to make pizza at home from scratch. Make the dough, too. But I do one thing wrong intentionally. Italians, cover your ears. I use a rolling pin to roll out my pizza dough. It works, it’s fast, and I can get it to fit the pan pretty easily. I’m sorry.
#21
I use heavy cream in my carbonara. I'm sorry to all that might feel offended, but I just like it better that way. Just the cheese and eggs is too acidic for me.
#22
Chewy bacon > crispy bacon.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
Crispy! All three of us will die on this most delicious hill.
#23
I hate this new trend of serving crunchy green beans. I want mine soft, and preferably with some ham or bacon in to season them.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
I love them from a can, cooked in their own juice, with bacon.
#24
When I make scrambled eggs, I salt them when I beat them. The "don't ever salt eggs before cooking" is some kind of old wives tale. A reasonable amount of salt doesn't affect the texture or make them "tough". If you want really fluffy eggs, use a fair amount of fat (butter, back grease) and cook them slowly over low heat.
#25
When making fried rice I take it to the point of crunchy rice.
Rachel Parker 1 year ago
That’s really good, tho! Pretty sure you get that in Asia too. The Spanish go to great trouble to get crunchy edges on their rice dishes.
#26
I put beans in my chili.
Edit so I don't have to keep answering the same couple of things:
* I'm in Texas and beans / no beans is a very big deal among chili purists. The definitive book on chili history, by Joe E. Cooper, is even called 'With or Without Beans'. * [This is a good all around, no-beans-included, traditional chili con carne recipe.] It's like a spicy pot roast, usually more *warm* spicy, not Hot Ones Last Dab spicy. The ancho / poblano chile peppers that usually make up most of the chile flavoring are not terribly spicy though they are delicious and pungent!
(As I understand it, the chili queens - that's what they called them! - of San Antonio served frijoles as a standard side dish with chili con carne. When cowboys and other folks were out on the trail, the chuck wagon cooks would do the same, but since the cowboys weren't eating off of cafeteria trays, the beans and chili would just get all mixed together and lots of them learned to prefer it that way! That's almost certainly apocryphal in whole or in part, of course, but it makes as much sense as anything.)
* Cincinatti chili is it's own separate thing, and is just a name that an otherwise tasty meat sauce got saddled with.
#27
Ratios for vinaigrettes - I’m not doing 3 to 1 oil to vinegar. Depending on other factors it could be anywhere from more vinegar than oil (in sweet dressings) to equal parts to at max 2 to 1 oil to vinegar. I also love adding a little water to vinaigrettes instead of more oil to bring out the water soluble flavors and temper acidity.
#28
Spaetzle. Mine are much bigger chunks than traditional and I love it that way.
#29
I pan-fry my gnocchi although this is becoming an acceptable thing now. And i also like my pasta on the softer side!
#30
Popcorn...just slightlyyyyyy burnt is the best.
#31
I guess on the pasta front, I don't salt my water nearly as much as they say to. The one time I did, the pasta was absolutely disgusting.
#32
I keep my potatoes in the fridge. You’re not supposed to because it turns the starch into sugar which gives them just that slight sweetness I like so much.
#33
I use fried over easy eggs with eggs benedict. My wife and I don't like poached eggs
#34
I mix cheese and seafood sometimes which I think is a totally ridiculous “restriction” anyway. Come at me Italians!
#35
I "overcook" asparagus to most people's standards. No crunch, but not mush. It's a fine line.
#36
I absolutely overcook pasta, i much prefer it really soft. also risotto- i chuck in all the stock and just leave it and stir it every now and again in case the rice sticks to the pan and it’s always turned out fine!
#37
I cook my scrambled eggs within an inch of their life. I HATE any sort of moisture in scrambled eggs, and prefer them the way most people would describe them, rubbery.
#39
I want my toast almost black. Not completely black but on the verge. 13.7 more seconds and it will be black.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 1 year ago
I guess you don't have a smoke detector near the kitchen then, lol
#40
Often skip the "puree" step at the end, especially soups. I enjoy vichyssoise, but when I sit down to dainty potato cubes and leeks set off in their broth, I can only wonder that the "mashed potato" soup version is so much more common. :) And, unlike some weighing in, I really like most veggies lightly cooked to retain more of their own fresh flavors and form. So I tend to add them "too late" or may just incorrectly sautee them, for salads, etc, instead of the roasting that's supposed to change the flavor, don't *want* them sweet, etc.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
I watch a lot of cooking shows on public tv, and they puree the sauces at the end, and I'm like "why". What is wrong with eating soup or sauce in it's natural state. Why dirty one extra machine in the kitchen that you will have to take apart and clean.
#41
I don’t like buttercream frosting, I always make it with vegetable shortening like the grocery store cakes. I like butter as much as the next person but to me the taste in frosting is really off-putting.
#42
Tender brisket and fall off the bone ribs, that competition bite isn’t for me and the fall off the bone ribs always goes before the competition bite one does, always.
#43
Pre-mixed things. Never follow the recipe on box Mac n cheese. It’s terrible. For some Knorr sides, I change the milk to water ratio to be 1:1. The worst one is that I cook pancakes on a higher heat because we like crispy edges. That also means using an oil instead of butter.
#44
I make biscuits and gravy with bacon instead of sausage and I will die on this hill.
#45
Well apparently we weren’t supposed to be microwaving cup noodles all this time. So yeah. That one. I did a LOT of that.
#46
Salmon in the microwave! Put a bit of water on a plate, the salmon fillet and a good sprinkle of your preferred seasoning (I love TexMex on it), cover with MW wrap. Cook on 50% power for 3-4 minutes. Tender, juicy and flavorful.
#47
French fries. I like mine soft and floppy, kind of like fried mashed potato sticks
René Sauer 1 year ago
You do you, but I would hate that, at least when they are the thin ones, like from McD or so.
#48
Listen, you can have a hard cooked egg, slightly chalky, without it being gray 🤢 there's a stage in between jammy and gray where it's just hard cooked and yellow.
Squirrelly Panda 1 year ago
I thought what the OP described is what everyone wants from hard boiled eggs. You want to stop the cooking process in the narrow window between medium soft boiled (jammy) and green.
#50
Oatmeal as a kid and still sometimes as a treat now. I'd put random amount of water with my packets into the microwave until all the water was totally absorbed. Poor in milk, break the solid oatmeal into chunks with my spoon and I've got myself a much more literal hot cereal.
Ace 1 year ago (edited)
I'm shuddering at the thought of 'oatmeal', which I've always thought was just porridge, coming out of a packet, or by the sound of it individual packets, Is this some sort of instant version like Reddy-Brek? Horrible stuff, that was, but at leadt they didn't try to claim that it was porridge.
#51
Salmon. I hate Perfectly Cooked Salmon. I prefer it the texture of canned fish.
fraochmuir: Same. I like my fish to what most people would call overcooked. Otherwise it grosses me out
#52
I like my oatmeal to be undercooked and very soupy.
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
In Mzansi we call that porridge (or "pap"). We do the same with mealie meal (mealie = corn on the cob). Put in some butter, sugar and a bit of milk - delicious.
#53
I prefer to make toast using a pan or my convection oven. I don’t like toasters because they’re a waste of counter space.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 1 year ago
In the '60s, mum used to make toast under the grill. Didn't have a toaster.
#54
I definitely prefer oatmeal to just be heated up in the microwave. On the stove is too gooey for me.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
I always do my oatmeal in the microwave, then just eat it right out of the bowl. No pot to clean.
#55
I saute all my veggies at the same time. No one gets preferential treatment.
Mimi M 1 year ago (edited)
The reason for sauteeing separately is to prevent the vegs from steaming rather than sauteeing. Firstly, you don't want to overcrowd the pan, secondly, each veg (onions, peppers, etc,) has a different moisture content and sautees at a diff temp and for diff period of time. If this person has a large, very hot wok or huge skillet, I'd still say to do the onions separately - or at least sautee first and then add the other vegs - but they still risk overcrowding and steaming instead of sauteeing.
#56
My favorite way to cook hot dogs is to microwave them for a bit too my, until they get weird and chewy.
#58
I occasionally stick bagels with cream cheese into a pressure cooker to pressure steam them for a minute. They turn soft as donuts.
#59
Explaining to the clerk at the Asian market how the way I eat Buldak 2x isn't as spicy because I like soup and eat it with a Better than Bullion broth instead of as a stir fry, I thought she was gonna fight me.
#60
I don't like to put egg wash on pastries or breads when the recipe calls for it. I just leave them bare.
#61
My most controversial take: all cookies are to be baked until crispy. I also like to make thin, overcooked pancakes (but not crapes) that don't fluff up at all for the sake of those crispy edges.
What do you think ?
Rabbit Of ill Portent(she/her) 1 year ago
I have the same outlook on clothes as I do food: if I like it, I'll wear/eat it and I don't give a duck's quack if other people think "it's not done right/you're doing it wrong" blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. Stay in your own lane and I'll stay in mine. So put that in your pipe and smoke it lol
Rabbit Of ill Portent(she/her) 1 year ago
I have the same outlook on clothes as I do food: if I like it, I'll wear/eat it and I don't give a duck's quack if other people think "it's not done right/you're doing it wrong" blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. Stay in your own lane and I'll stay in mine. So put that in your pipe and smoke it lol
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