One of the best things that you can do in life is to learn how to cook. That way, you’re self-reliant, you know for a fact what goes into the food you make, and you can impress all of your friends who like take-out meals a tad too much.
However, getting started isn’t the easiest thing in the world. There are a lot of potential hiccups: from not knowing what ingredients to put into the pan first to how to use the tools, techniques and utensils any food enthusiast should know. That’s why some friendly Reddit cooks took it upon themselves to share the best kitchen hacks they know. Scroll down for some delicious nuggets of kitchen advice and upvote the ones that think everyone should know, dear Pandas. When you’re done, we’d love to hear all about your own kitchen and cooking tips and tricks.
Bored Panda got in touch with redditor u/Sunieta25, who started the thread in the first place. Scroll down for our interview with her. Meanwhile, don’t forget to read on for Bored Panda’s second interview with pie artist, the author of ‘Pies Are Awesome,’ and cooking expert Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin. Both of them shared some advice about working in the kitchen that you Pandas might find very useful.
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Tongs are also oven mitts, juicers, knives, spoons, and extendo-arms. Just make sure you click them at least twice before using them to make sure they are on.
Redditor u/Sunieta25 told us all about the inspiration behind the fun and informative r/AskReddit thread. "A friend of mine has been staying with my husband and I, and he's a good cook. We've been making recipes together but we kept debating on multiple dos and don'ts in the kitchen, so I asked the question to see professional cooks take on the kitchen. To my surprise there was a lot I didn't know," they shared.
They opened up to us about the fact that they love cooking and practicing recipes. "I feel learning new things adds to cooking skills," they said. Their suggestion for everyone is to never wash your chicken. Meanwhile, when cooking, it's best to rememeber that "you can always add but you can never take away."
You follow instructions when baking. You follow your heart when cooking (...but not too much.)
Sometimes when you think something needs more salt, what it really needs is acid — lemon juice, vinegar, etc.
Which is why us older Chefs use a 'Gastric' - basically a mix of Vinegar and Sugar or honey in order to add depth of flavour to a sauce.
A blunt knife is more dangerous than a sharp one. Always keep your knives sharp.
Got my first real set of good quality sharp knives this year. What a game changer!
If your towels or oven mitt get wet (or your hands are wet while using them on something hot), they will NOT protect your hands.
Jessica urged all cooks, amateur or professional, to have all of their kitchen tools and ingredients set up before they start cooking. That way, the entire process is far, far smoother.
“Working mis-en-place and having all your tools and ingredients set out, nice and tidy, before you start certainly helps cut down on the chaos later,” she said that cooks should try to look and plan ahead.
A good kitchen should be equipped with a plentiful supply of clean, dry towels.
This is really important. Buy at least 20 tea towels and regularly (once a day?) pull out a clean one. Drap it over your shoulder when you start cooking and dry your hands when they are wet, whip a surface clean, dryout a recently cleaned frying pan, use it as an oven mitt to pull a tray out of the oven.... just use it all the time. Do not touch raw meat with it -- ie don't use it to pat dry meat before cooking. I often wet one and leave damp over dough that is rising or even buns or bagels out of the oven. Easily one of the most important tools in the kitchen.
I am not a chef but I know for a fact that you shouldn't cook something you aren't familiar with if you are having guests.
Of course, one thing that puts people off from learning to cook is having to clean up a mountain of dishes later. Nobody’s really a fan of scrubbing endless pots and pans after making a delicious meal for their loved ones.
One way to get around this is to incorporate your cleaning routine into your cooking process. “I absolutely recommend cleaning as you go. It gives you something to do while you wait for things to chill, boil, bake, what-have-you, and it makes your life so much easier in the end,” Jessica explained that you can save a lot of time later.
Contrary to popular belief, it often doesn’t work out great if you add your chopped/minced garlic first to hot oil or butter. It burns so quickly and tastes yuck. I like to brown something else first, like onions, and then add the garlic. The onions are like a burn buffer!
Add the garlic at the end of the whole process, just a few minutes before you turn off the pan. It will turn golden and have that signature garlic aroma. You may add minced garlic at the beginning of the process, but you have add some water to let it simmer rather than burn it.
Baking is a perfect example of 'don't tear down walls unless you know why they were built.' If you know the chemistry at play and what each ingredient is doing, you can get creative. Keep in mind that every ingredient does something, so add-ons and substitution can change how everything works together.
I was making some cookies from a bag ( don’t judge me I had 3 kids asking me for desert and nothing at the house and I didn’t want to leave) but I didn’t have eggs so I used mayonnaise and everyone loved them !bi didn’t tell them about the Mayo til after they had enjoyed them 😂
“Having a finished lovely pie/cake/dish, but a kitchen that looks like a tornado hit it depresses me,” Jessica opened up to Bored Panda. “Not everyone is as mess-adverse as I am, so I suppose it depends on your personal tolerance for kitchen chaos.”
However, keeping a tidy kitchen isn’t just about looks. It also trains you to look out for possible safety issues while cooking. “I will say that keeping things tidy makes it a lot easier to spot potential safety issues, like cross-contamination with raw meat or household chemicals,” Jessica explained why it’s important to remember that cooking isn’t just about cooking.
Soy sauce goes on more than just Asian foods. Try a dash in scrambled eggs or towards the end of your caramelized onions. It is a savory salt flavor that compliments many dishes.
The amount of garlic flavor is dependent on WHEN you add the garlic. Add it early for light flavor, add it late for bold flavor.
Olive oil is a condiment and is terrible to fry with.
Use vegetable oil or any other 'neutral' oil, it has a higher flash point and is pretty much flavourless.
And don't be scared of salt & pepper, throw that s**t in there.
Also MSG is good.
Use Refined olive oil (without mixed in virgin olive oil). 3rd highest smoke temperature - 240°C (safflower and rice bran are higher by up to 15°C). Other vegetable oil has lower smoke point down to 205°C.
Earlier, Bored Panda spoke to Jake Butler from ‘Save the Student,’ about cooking at home. He stressed that homecooked meals will always be cheaper than going out for fast food. However, if we’ve got a craving for some takeout, we can always learn to make some healthier versions of it at home.
“The good news is that you can easily recreate your favorites at home for a fraction of the price. It's much healthier this way too. Google is definitely your friend here as you can find fakeaway recipes from a number of sites,” Jake said that some companies have made their recipes available for everyone, free of charge.
'Always be cleaning' is important to end-of-meal satisfaction. It’s such a drag to look up at the end of a great dinner and see a monstrous cleaning task ahead of you.
I really don't mind shutting the door on the kitchen and doing it tomorrow morning, while still half asleep. Each to our own.
Not a chef but everyone should know how to cook eggs. hard boiled. omelets, scrambled, sunny side up, cooked on both sides. Once you master the Recruit difficultly of eggs. Throw some mushrooms or tomatoes or whatever you like in an omelet or scrambled eggs. Gordan Ramsey made a video on eggs and after trying what he did and really getting better at it, my family and friends just make me, make them eggs.
I tried the Gordon Ramsey scrambled eggs and was so disappointed! I love him and couldn’t believe how gross they were. I’ve been cooking eggs since forever and it turns out that I do not want creamy scrambled eggs.
I recommend choosing an acid based on what you are cooking. Italian? Try some red wine vinegar. Mexican? Try some lime juice. Additionally, if you are working with anything cream based, add acidity literally right at the end or else your sauce/dish will curdle.
I gotta stay away from fruit so that's outta the question. Balsamic Vinegar is good. Especially with Kale and minced garlic!
“The good news is that the ingredients for most of these recipes aren't too pricey and you can still hunt for bargains to make the dish cheaper. Buying in bulk is always a winner too when it comes to saving money so it's a great idea to get together with friends and maybe take it in turns to make your favorite fakeaways.”
According to Jake, the secret to a good meal lies in the seasoning. “Salt and pepper won't break the bank, but they can make or break a meal. Don't forget that sugar can take a dish to the next level too.”
Taste as you cook, and do it at various stages of cooking (while safe, please don't taste raw meat). Not only does it let you know if you have too much or little of something, but it also helps you develop your palette for what different seasonings do.
In movies they always have someone serving food to another person, who then proceeds to choke and cough because something is wrong with it (usually being super salty it seems), and I'm always thinking, how did the person cooking manage to not taste any of it at all while making it?? That annoys me more than it should lol!
Massively improve the quality of your proteins (chicken, beef, tofu, anything) with fond. Fond is the dark brown stuff that sticks to your pan when you're cooking. It's not burnt unless its actually black. To get it off the pan and on the food, pour in either an alcohol or acid to dissolve it and get the now-brown liquid to coat your protein.
Different proteins work best with different alcohols. Good rule of thumb — dry white for chicken or any lighter meat. Red for beef. Lemon juice works great for almost everything.
MSG doesn’t give you headaches. That myth is based upon one very flawed study a long time ago. Glutamates are found in many foods already (include almost every vertebrate.)
MSG is sold under the name “Accent” and a tiny bit can really bring out that umami taste in all foods.
Cooking bacon in the oven is exponentially easier to perfect and clean up than on a stove top.
Set the oven to 405º, line a baking sheet with tin foil, and lay your bacon flat on it. Cook it for 13-15 minutes. It's perfect every time, and you can cook a lot more at once this way. Also, the fat hardens on the foil, so you can just throw it away with no mess.
Throw it away? Throw away bacon fat? Are you insane?! Put that bacon directly onto the sheet pan. When it's done, let the fat cool, then spoon portions onto plastic wrap. Wrap it up and freeze it for later use. Yeah, you'll have to wash the sheet pan. That's a small price to pay for half a cup of liquid gold.
Can still be done on aluminum foil and drain off the fat while hot or scrape it later with a rubber spatula.
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Keep those bacon drippings! My #1 use for bacon drippings is to spoon a big chunk into my iron skillet before I pour in cornbread batter. Also, it's good in chili. Also, it's good on pan-fried steak or chicken. Also, it's good mixed into your hamburger patties. Also, it's good to put a little in your scrambled eggs. Also, it's good on sauteed carrots. Also,...
Don't throw the fat away !!! keep it (frozen if you must) and use it to sautee or roast potatoes and root veg in.
Just as they've reversed the warnings about coffee and chocolate - they actually have good nutrients - they've also realized that fat is not as bad as thought. So many of these old studies have been proven faulty, it's amazing. Not only does fat add flavour but our body actually requires some fat to remain healthy. Not only that but animal fat is not bad compared to vegetable oils, which can have their own negatives in regard to health. Nobody likes to admit it but butter is healthier than margarine. So save that bacon grease and reuse it. Not only your taste buds but your body too will be grateful. 😊
Getting pops of fat directly in the eye is great. Pock like burns on the arms are great. 😜
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I just found this idea about a month ago. I tried it and could not believe how easy this was! And no spatter!!!
My mother did this since I was little. She would sprinkle maple sugar over it
Baking is an Army mess hall technique. I prefer mine fried, and I'll handle the clean-up bc fried bacon is worth it. And I'll keep the grease to fry my eggs in. My doctor looked at my arteries' CT scan, and he said they were good. He didn't tell me to eat bacon but he didn't say not to...
Bacon fat makes a really good substitute for butter or oil and tastes so good!! I save mine in a jar/container and use it in pancakes and eggs
I collect it for reuse. While it's still liquid I strain it through a coffee filter, then I pour it into a Han Solo frozen in Carbonite ice tray and freeze it. Perfect little premeasured amounts ready to be used for any number of various cooking uses and by freezing it you don't have to worry about potentially adding rancid grease to your dish
I did my bacon, then instead of getting a new pan to fry eggs over easy, l dropped two eggs into the still hot greased foil & baked the eggs at 350. My husband loved them.
Never preheat your oven for bacon. If you put it in a cold oven you get less splatter and no smoke. And who throws away bacon fat??? Isn't that against the law? 😆😆 this was definitely not written by a southerner.
Render your bacon 75% in the oven then finish in pan. Perfectly meaty crispy everytime. Bacon fat is unstable and greasy. Only good for specific cooking and baking. Do not worry about saving it unless you know you have specific uses for it
It also makes it exponentially easier to glaze your bacon. Brown sugar and real maple syrup are my favorites.
Reading all these about bacon's fat n whats making me mouth watering hungry, especially so now is a fasting month (of holy month of Ramadhan where muslim observes fasting during daytime). Yes I m a muslim, thus bacon (as its made of pork) is prohibited from being eaten by us (ie non-halal), but reading all these comments makes me (mouth-wateringly 😅) wonder if I can try these over non pork meat such as turkey's ham, cow's beef etc?
Sorry...but I use a rack and save the bacon fat. Pours nicely into my bacon jar.
Cook it in microwave- on a bacon rack in 4 minutes perfect straight n crispy
Maybe it also should go without saying but never ever run liquid bacon grease down your sink. Unless you like having your kitchen sink back up from a clog. Room temp grease is solid and messy, your pipes would also be room temp and this would be a disaster to have clogged with grease and potentially backed up. Throwing way the bacon grease or wiping up bacon grease with paper towels is a lot less of a headache.
I've been doing this for years. Sheet pan, aluminum foil at 350F for 20 minutes, give or take on bacon thickness but what satanist would throw out bacon grease? Easily pour into a jar and refrigerate.
Except that the oven will become completely splattered with grease immediately and after about two batches on the broiler, there's enough grease caked onto the sides to catch fire 🤦. Convenient in the short term, pain the a** long term. My oven was dirtier than it's been in five years just after once batch of bacon. I'm not a fan of things that splatter inside the oven. Tried covering it with foil too but then it doesn't brown the same
me, who doesn't cook with meat, grabbing a seat and some popcorn as i enter this comment section
I like bacon, but it has a very strong meat flavor to me (all pork does). So personally I don't like using the fat for anything because then everything just tastes like bacon and it's too much
Pour off the liquid fat through a strainer. Store tightly capped in fridge! Great for flavoring veggies, eggs, browning white meat, etc!
I cant stress how much better cooking bacon in the oven is. For real. I wouldn't even go to 405o. Try it on parchment paper (not foil, and NOT wax paper) at 375o for 20 min, flipping halfway through. It comes out perfectly everytime, and the parchment paper makes capturing and draining the grease into a Tupperware container for later use super easy.
Everyone needs this. I am not a paid spokesperson, just a concerned citizen. https://www.amazon.com/Talisman-Designs-Strainer-Reusable-BPA-free/dp/B07DW6MZWL/ref=asc_df_B07DW6MZWL/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=289076822814&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8633955303883353742&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017002&hvtargid=pla-522327635209&psc=1
Keep the lard in a glass jar! Transfer when it’s still hot liquid. Easy, fast cleanup. You can use it your burger, meat balls, on ribs extra… adds flavor and saves money.
Actually, pork fat reacts much better to being brought up to temperature slowly. Don't set your oven for anything, stick the bacon into the cold oven, then turn it on to 425 for 17 minutes. You'll be much happier with the result.
I always add about 4 tabsp of water and 1 tsp oil to my bacon it cooks quicker with no curling but turn over once about 12 minutes if in the oven
You throw away bacon grease? That's an abomination. Save that precious seasoning. I prepare bacon in my air fryer, and I always save the bacon grease.
When my husband and I were first dating he made me breakfast and put the bacon in the oven. I thought to myself omg he's crazy, I'm falling in love with a crazy person. OMG I could NEVER go back to cooking bacon ANY other way. You honestly need to make it in the oven just once and you'll get it.
I don't eat bacon anymore because of high cholesterol but that's how I always did it. After awhile your oven gets pretty gross.
The propane grill is perfect for low fat bacon, but keep an eye on them. They burn easily
I prefer pan fried bacon to the oven. It is infinitely better. Afterwards I strain the render through a screen and put it in a pint canning jar and keep it right at the stove for daily use. Everything is better cooked with bacon fat.
Then you get bacon spatter all over the oven. Just get a mesh spatter screen and cook it in a normal frying pan.
Yes!! Cooking bacon like this is a game changer. But I agree, don't throw the fat away. Scrape it from the foil into a container and use it to flavour other dishes. I like to use it if I'm cooking onions, or when I fricassee veg.
Genuinely wondering if all the bacon grease lovers happen to be from North America?!
405º is oddly specific. I would think the temp varies more than 5º oven to oven, so why not just say 400º?
I cook bacon on a foil-lined sheet pan on the grill, outside, all year round.
This is the only way I’ll even do bacon anymore ! All that grease the old way !
Whoever wrote this is not human. Oven baked? Throw the fat away? *shudders* It takes no time to fry up bacon and the fat is amazing to saute with.
For thick and nice sauces, use the water you cook your pasta with.
I keep a mug by the pot to remind me, and use it to scoop out some pasta water right before draining the noodles. Then you can add however much you need to the sauce.
Cinnamon isn’t just for sweet foods. It can be really, really good in savory foods, too.
Salt your boiling water.
But not if you're making tea. Or enjoy your salty tea if that's how you like it.
Adding is easy, but removing is hard. People like to argue that you should liberally add butter and seasoning, but tastes differ. It's totally fine to put in less if that's what you fancy.
And it's no shame to put salt and spices on the table so everybody can season to their liking.
Salt is seasoning. It makes food taste more like itself. Acids, like citrus or vinegar can also do this. If your food tastes flat, or like it is missing something, try some salt or acid. Acid is also critical for balancing very rich fatty foods. The reason Americans love tomato ketchup so much is the fact that it adds acid and salt to their food. Adding a bit of "heat" like a pinch of cayenne can also accentuate a the flavor of a dish. Spices are something else. They bring a new and different flavor to the dish.
In sweets, sugar often takes the place of salt and is usually balanced by acid - see passionfruit, raspberry, citrus, etc. But salt plays an important role in sweets as well - often in unexpected ways. Try putting a pinch of kosher salt into your next batch of whipped cream.
I could keep going but I'll leave it there. If you can master these concepts you will have a big advantage over most home cooks.
If you’re getting annoyed because it’s taking you too long to peel garlic, place an unpeeled garlic clove under the flat side of your kitchen knife and press on it with your hand. The garlic peel will separate easily and your garlic will be crushed.
If you want crispness on the outsides of your meats, you should pat them dry before seasoning and putting them in oven or over heat.
Note: this post originally had 89 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Not to be pedantic, but I hate when the term 'hack' is misused like this. These aren't Hacks. Almost all of these are simply tips based on experience. A hack is using things in ways other than their intended function. Using sharp knives isn't a hack, that's just common sense and good advice. Salting pasta water isn't a hack, it's good advice. - - - - Using tongs for juicing citrus - that's a hack. Using a zip-top bag for piping frosting, instead of a piping bag - that's a hack. I really wish people would would quit misusing the term. EDIT: Thank you BP for changing the title. 'Pearls of Wisdom' is much more appropriate. I know it's a silly peeve of mine, but it really bugs me.
You're not being silly. Trendy words are seldom literary gems. "Hack" didn't make my list either.
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Try to learn methods, not recipes. Don't be afraid to try new things. The first attempt probably won't be perfect, but will hopefully be eatable. Each time you make the same, or similar dish, the process will be easier and you can improve the final product.
Yes. When you understand the concepts you are able to invent without following a recipe. I use recipes for inspiration only now or to learn what flavours are meant to be in this cuisine specific dish. Then off to the races
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meanwhile me: pot with water, throw everything I find inside, cook it for 15 minutes, dinner done.
Too much of this advice is geared towards professional kitchens. Much of it can, and likely should, be ignored for a home kitchen. In a home kitchen, you don't need to curl your fingers to chop food. You're not moving that fast, you're resetting after each cut, you're not trying to prep a mountain of vegetables where the time savings of the hyper speed chopping actually matters. You don't need to clean as you go, you need to clean before you start, and keep organized as you go. Don't waste water running to the sink every 5 seconds with a frigging tasting spoon or dirty prep bowl. Just stick it straight into the dishwasher and move on. If you don't use them almost daily cast iron pans are a waste of money. You won't care for them properly, and they WILL rust, stick, or otherwise ruin your cooking experience. Better to invest in a good non-stick pan for eggs, and a few good oven-safe heavy bottom stainless pans for everything else.
I keep a pan of hot sudsy water in the sink and toss the used utensils in as I go, then they are rinsed before they go in the dishwasher. I dry my cast iron skillet on the stove to make sure the moisture is completely evaporated then hit it with olive oil cooking spray to seal moisture out. P.S. If I see little tongue marks in the bottom of the pan, I rinse it out, as my little boy (cat) likes the taste of olive oil!
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First time cooking something, follow the recipe. Later you can improvise. Also when looking for a recipe for a food from a certain region, try to find one where the writer is actually from there. If it's a family recipe, even better. If you can't find it in English - google translate usually works well enough.
The kitchen sink is not a "food trashcan", even if it's got a disposal. You need to keep it as clean as your cookware - minimum. Impress on your family members that it must be kept clean. Not "I wiped it out after rinsing the dinner dishes" clean. "I scrubbed it with a bleach cleanser and then rinsed all the residue away" clean. You will have a lot less stomach problems in the family.
Question: how would a sink drain or garbage disposal give your family stomach problems?
Load More Replies... The best thing you can do is to learn what every individual seasoning and condiment tastes and smells like. That way when you have something out in a restaurant or somebody's home, you will know what is in it and have a rough idea of how to replicate it. This works best with non-spicy (as in hot) foods as the capsaicin will dull your taste buds to the finer ingredients.
Ehhh, Sichuan will numb people's mouths, but capsaicin won't in general. In fact, capsaicin enhances the flavors of some spices and flavors like acidity.
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I just got done watching Kitchen Nightmares and now after this, I feel like cooking :) Edit: What if someone on a cooking show actually doesn't know how to cook, so when you actually do what they said to do, and cooked it the way they did just for it to taste nasty, you'll probably think that you did it wrong?
This actually happens more than you'd think. There are a couple of YouTube channels that react to people butchering recipes on tv. Uncle Roger has some doozies of Jamie Oliver &co _trying_ to cook Asian and Vincenzo's plate shows some truly cry worthy attempts of Italian cuisine that are often from food network and such.
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I recently discovered garum masala, a little in chicken soup gives it a fuller flavour.
Garam masala is amazing. I would recommend Some Chicken Tika masala or Butter chicken if you've never cooked with it besides in chicken soup.
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Thanks for a great and informative article. I’m going to forward it to my two sons who love to cook. Mare
I feel like I just commented on nearly all of these about a month ago…
Not to be pedantic, but I hate when the term 'hack' is misused like this. These aren't Hacks. Almost all of these are simply tips based on experience. A hack is using things in ways other than their intended function. Using sharp knives isn't a hack, that's just common sense and good advice. Salting pasta water isn't a hack, it's good advice. - - - - Using tongs for juicing citrus - that's a hack. Using a zip-top bag for piping frosting, instead of a piping bag - that's a hack. I really wish people would would quit misusing the term. EDIT: Thank you BP for changing the title. 'Pearls of Wisdom' is much more appropriate. I know it's a silly peeve of mine, but it really bugs me.
You're not being silly. Trendy words are seldom literary gems. "Hack" didn't make my list either.
Load More Replies... Try to learn methods, not recipes. Don't be afraid to try new things. The first attempt probably won't be perfect, but will hopefully be eatable. Each time you make the same, or similar dish, the process will be easier and you can improve the final product.
Yes. When you understand the concepts you are able to invent without following a recipe. I use recipes for inspiration only now or to learn what flavours are meant to be in this cuisine specific dish. Then off to the races
Load More Replies... meanwhile me: pot with water, throw everything I find inside, cook it for 15 minutes, dinner done.
Too much of this advice is geared towards professional kitchens. Much of it can, and likely should, be ignored for a home kitchen. In a home kitchen, you don't need to curl your fingers to chop food. You're not moving that fast, you're resetting after each cut, you're not trying to prep a mountain of vegetables where the time savings of the hyper speed chopping actually matters. You don't need to clean as you go, you need to clean before you start, and keep organized as you go. Don't waste water running to the sink every 5 seconds with a frigging tasting spoon or dirty prep bowl. Just stick it straight into the dishwasher and move on. If you don't use them almost daily cast iron pans are a waste of money. You won't care for them properly, and they WILL rust, stick, or otherwise ruin your cooking experience. Better to invest in a good non-stick pan for eggs, and a few good oven-safe heavy bottom stainless pans for everything else.
I keep a pan of hot sudsy water in the sink and toss the used utensils in as I go, then they are rinsed before they go in the dishwasher. I dry my cast iron skillet on the stove to make sure the moisture is completely evaporated then hit it with olive oil cooking spray to seal moisture out. P.S. If I see little tongue marks in the bottom of the pan, I rinse it out, as my little boy (cat) likes the taste of olive oil!
Load More Replies... First time cooking something, follow the recipe. Later you can improvise. Also when looking for a recipe for a food from a certain region, try to find one where the writer is actually from there. If it's a family recipe, even better. If you can't find it in English - google translate usually works well enough.
The kitchen sink is not a "food trashcan", even if it's got a disposal. You need to keep it as clean as your cookware - minimum. Impress on your family members that it must be kept clean. Not "I wiped it out after rinsing the dinner dishes" clean. "I scrubbed it with a bleach cleanser and then rinsed all the residue away" clean. You will have a lot less stomach problems in the family.
Question: how would a sink drain or garbage disposal give your family stomach problems?
Load More Replies... The best thing you can do is to learn what every individual seasoning and condiment tastes and smells like. That way when you have something out in a restaurant or somebody's home, you will know what is in it and have a rough idea of how to replicate it. This works best with non-spicy (as in hot) foods as the capsaicin will dull your taste buds to the finer ingredients.
Ehhh, Sichuan will numb people's mouths, but capsaicin won't in general. In fact, capsaicin enhances the flavors of some spices and flavors like acidity.
Load More Replies... I just got done watching Kitchen Nightmares and now after this, I feel like cooking :) Edit: What if someone on a cooking show actually doesn't know how to cook, so when you actually do what they said to do, and cooked it the way they did just for it to taste nasty, you'll probably think that you did it wrong?
This actually happens more than you'd think. There are a couple of YouTube channels that react to people butchering recipes on tv. Uncle Roger has some doozies of Jamie Oliver &co _trying_ to cook Asian and Vincenzo's plate shows some truly cry worthy attempts of Italian cuisine that are often from food network and such.
Load More Replies... I recently discovered garum masala, a little in chicken soup gives it a fuller flavour.
Garam masala is amazing. I would recommend Some Chicken Tika masala or Butter chicken if you've never cooked with it besides in chicken soup.
Load More Replies... Thanks for a great and informative article. I’m going to forward it to my two sons who love to cook. Mare
I feel like I just commented on nearly all of these about a month ago…
