Whether you’re a cooking aficionado with a burning fire (and often, burnt fingertips) for everything food-related or, on the contrary, entrust your taste buds to your holy kitchen majesty, aka the microwave, you can always take your inner chef to a whole new level. And it’s easier than you’d think.
Thanks to the professional chefs of Reddit, who recently shared what simple things “we're probably all doing wrong in the kitchen” in this thread, we can roll up our sleeves and work on the actual things to improve them.
Think of simple things, like never adding an onion and garlic at the same time (so you don’t have that icky burnt garlic aftertaste in a meal you otherwise put your heart into) or having things, ingredients and tools ready at hand to avoid “someone, help me!”-kind of hysteria in the middle of meal prep. Take your notes, everyone, I already have mine.
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Using tongs, you must clink them together at least five times to channel your inner crab.
Let’s face it, regardless of how fast we binge-watched Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, The Great British Bake Off, Masterchef in all countries it aired in, we didn’t actually learn to cook better. Instead, we now know all about the drama, about the blessing and the curse of being a chef, about nurturing your talent, dreaming hard and working harder… Wait, are we still talking about cooking?
So in order to take us all back to Earth, or rather our kitchen counter, and to find out what exactly we can do to improve our cooking game, since we nailed the watching part already, we spoke with Beth Moncel, a food lover and the founder of “Budget Bytes” where she has been sharing her passion for cooking and delicious recipes designed for small budgets since 2009.
Since I didn't see it in here: instead of adding more salt, try adding an acid. A splash of vinegar or lemon/lime juice can make flavors pop without over salting.
Never add garlic and onions at the same time.
Onions take about 8 minutes to saute and garlic takes about 30 seconds. If you add them together you're gonna have burnt, bitter garlic.
Clean as you go. Throw away trash, wipe up what you spill, get unnecessary utensils out of the way. If your kitchen looks like a tornado struck after you're done cooking, you f*cked up.
When asked what are the most common cooking mistakes people tend to make, Beth said it’s assuming that if they swap out an ingredient, they'll still get the same result. “Changing ingredients often changes both the flavor and texture of a dish, and in some cases can drastically affect the chemical reactions needed to make a recipe work,” she explained.
If you want perfect roasted potatoes (oven roasted, chopped pieces) with crispy outside and fluffy insides then boil them for about 5-10 minutes in salt water first. Then roast them.
And if you want them extra extra crispy you should try the belgian double roasting technic. Wash them with salt water and dry them. then roast them on a lower temperatur very short then let them cool on a paper and roast them on higher temperatur until crispy
Most people suck at roasting vegetables. Brussel sprouts are the number one f*ck up and most people lose their sh*t when I serve them properly done brussels.
Toss with olive oil (more than you think), salt (more than you think), and any other herbs/spices (e.g. curry spices with cauliflower), lay cut side down on a baking sheet, and throw that sh*t into a 200C/400F oven until it's visibly browned. Depending on the veggie (e..g carrots) you'll probably want to turn over to the otherside and continue roasting for a bit. Once they're done you can toss with pepper or fresh/delicate herbs before serving (e.g. mushrooms with tarragon or parsley).
Just because it's fork tender and cooked through doesn't mean it's delicious. Yet.
Unfortunately, not liking brussels sprouts might be genetic: https://www.centreofthecell.org/blog/science-questions/why-do-some-people-hate-brussels-sprouts/. According to various studies, some people have a hereditary high sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide, which leads to a very bitter taste even in trace amounts. If you have two of these genetic TAS2R38 markers, no preparation or seasoning can make brussels sprouts edible for you.
Beth reminds everyone that the best way to gain confidence in the kitchen is to practice. “Don't let a failed recipe keep you from trying again. Try new recipes often. The more you cook, the more you'll understand the nuances of cooking and you'll build intuition,” she said. “Before you know it, you'll be cooking freestyle and you won't even need a recipe!” Beth concluded positively.
There is a really simple rule when cooking a steak: Leave the steak alone. Stop f*cking with it. Stop poking and prodding and moving it an flipping it around. Let it cook. Let the heat do what it's supposed to do. Get to know your heat source and learn to trust it. Almost everybody I know violates this rule.
I leave my steak alone, put a timer on, used a meat thermometer, rest it and I still manage to f**k it up. Tried a few different methods and have only managed to get it right ONCE. Followed the same method a few more times without success. Have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
It is the fat that carries the flavor. If your going to saute something, put the herb and spices with the butter or oil that is in the skillet. Don't put them in the flour you're using to bread the food.
Not having things ready and in place.
Have you ever been halfway done with a dish and realize you didnt have the cheese grated? Now everything is on hold (and over cooking) while you grate cheese?
Having everything ready to go at the start lets you add the things when they need adding and helps put dishes out at the appropriate time.
Don’t stare at a toaster, it will jumpscare you. (Learnt this from personal experience)
Putting oil in the pot when you're boiling pasta. If you do that, the sauce will just slide right off your pasta. The starchier the water, the better the sauce will stick.
Nah, I finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. Makes it so much tastier.
Sharp knives. Makes things a million times easier, and is actually sooo much safer in the end. Combined with the proper grip and a bit of practice, and suddenly cutting things for prep goes from the most hated step of everything to just another step, maybe even becomes fun for some people.
Cooking too hot to speed things up. If the recipe calls for something to cook for one hour at 350 degress, cooking it at 425 degrees for 35 minutes is not a substitute. Some things just need to be cooked slowly and gently.
You're more likely to undercook the inside and over cook the outside if you do that.
Crack your damn eggs on a FLAT surface, not the side of a bowl or pan. Cracking on a flat surface makes it easier to open as well as preserving your yolk. If you crack it on an edge it pushes shell inside the egg and is more likely to break the yolk (which sucks if you are making it sunny side up, poached or separating whites) Also, if by some chance there is bacteria or icky gross stuff on the shell it is more likely to contaminate the inside when shell gets pushed in.
After 50+ years of cracking eggs on the side of the bowl, I’m good. Doing it on a flat surface for me just makes a mess, actually. 🤣
My chef brother-in-law taught me how to deglaze a pan to make a sauce like a boss. Leave it hot, and douse it with a cup or more of wine, stock, or water, and you can turn even basic things into an amazing pan of goodness! The stuff in your pan that you're scrubbing off after you're done cooking is all the good sh*t, so learn to deglaze!
It is not even about LEARNING to deglace, the key is just doing it and realizing that the pan residue is your friend. You can make amazing sauces with it, often you do not even need to thicken them. Of course, this only is true if none of the ingredients are burnt, and deglacing works best with cast iron or steel pans. Sorry, but your easy-to-clean-teflon-coated skillet simply is not suitable.
-Under salting your food!
Everyone is so afraid of sodium but the vast majority of sodium in your diet is coming from processed snacks and fast foods not home cooking.
-Also dry your meat before you sear or sauté it. You’re steaming it if not.
-Taste as you go.
Being afraid of fattier cuts of meat. People are so used to that boneless skinless chicken breast that they sub them out for recipes that are 10,000x better using chicken thighs instead. If your primary concern is to reduce fat, sure, but if you're eating in moderation or going for flavor instead of low-fat, thighs thighs thighs my friend.
Practice your recipes. Don’t find one risotto you like and never make a different one. Cook 10 different risottos two or three times each over a long period of time. Doing this helps you understand the basics of how to make it and allows you to spot bad recipes, recognize good ones, and improvise without one.
Idk if this will get buried but my dad is a chef and I know what he would say here.
Always keep trying new things, in different preparations, with different ingredients to compliment them. And if you think you hate a specific meal or ingredient but you haven't tasted it in 10 years, give it a try again.
We were never picky eaters as kids because we were always encouraged to just try things we were unsure about and it opened me up to so many great foods as an adult!
So many people get stuck with what they know for sure they like, not even realizing how much it limits you.
Unless it Marmite! If you didn't like when you tried it 30 years ago, you're still not going to like it!
Leave your meat out to go to room temp before you cook it.
My dog would snatch it off the counter the second I turn my back!
Way too many people over clutter their kitchen and think they need a gadget for everything. In reality, a well-crafted, sharpened French knife, a pairing knife and a peel can get you a long way.
MISE EN PLACE! Everything has a place and everything has a purpose.
Also, steak should never be cooked to more than medium.
Nothing wrong with a well done juicy steak. Some people know how to cook well done steaks and keep them juicy, tender and flavorful.
Not sanitizing your hands and work area after handling raw meat, especially chicken.
Can't count the number of times I've been cooking with friends or family and have to stop them from chopping salad veggies on the same cutting board as raw meat, or running their hands under cold water for a second to 'clean them' before going to grab stuff out of the fridge or drawer or even just going about their day.
Same goes for giving your slimy raw-chicken cutting board a quick scrub to wash it using the same sponge you use for everything else.
If it's touched raw meat, it needs to be throughly cleaned and sanitized with hot water and either soap (your hands) or bleach (everything else).
Don't buy tomatoes that are pink and have no smell. Fresh, good heirloom tomatoes should have a distinct smell and be nice and red/solid yellow. The walmarts and safeway's of the world are selling you these horrific non-tomato tomatos....devoid of flavor and frequently unripe. Don't do it.
Never seen a pink tomato, or a smell-less one. Also not everyone can afford or in some cases even find an heirloom variety.
Most grocery store tomatoes are pink rather than red. It's far more likely you've never seen a red tomato and all the ones you're looking at are more pinkish. They aren't hot pink. They're just a dull red and look pinkish compared to the blood red of a ripe heirloom. Virtually every tomato ever served at a fast-food restaurant will be this pinkish tomato. It's true they have a less rich flavor, but I disagree that they're flavorless and horrific. And they're certainly not "non-tomatoes". I agree with you also that cost can be a factor.
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There are many areas of the U.S. where good produce is absolutely not available at all except by paying for very expensive shipping from somewhere else. Corporations are slowly starving us of nutrition. Don't let this happen to your country!
More importantly, don't put your tomatoes in the fridge. Put them on the counter in the sun and leave them for a day or so. You can also up the flavor by cutting/slicing them and adding a little salt and let them sit for 15 minutes.
Depends on the kind of tomato. Where I'm from we have a sort that is called pink tomato and, as the name suggests, they're not red. They have a sweet smell to them, are very soft when ripened and are the tastiest tomatoes ever.
I came to say the same. Where I come from we have some varieties of pink tomatoes and they are delicious.
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Growing your own tomatoes is such a satisfying process, but not every greenhouse tomato is devoid of taste. I’m fortunate to live in an area surrounded by market gardeners and there are literally dozen of greenhouse operations to choose from, and not one of them would offer up one of those pale pink, tasteless abominations for sale. In the dead of winter, a fresh, salty, succulent red cherry tomato-on-the-vine is a gift from the gods.
My husband and I have a large garden in our backyard. Every May we go to our local garden centre and buy all kinds of tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce and herbs and grow them ourself. There is nothing better than sweet, home grown tomatoes.
yep, and if you dont have a yard tomatoes can be grown in a pot or bucket even...they are sturdy,strong plants....dont be afraid to try ! soooo worth it.😁
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I'm not going to pay over $5 a lb. for heirlooms, I'll stick with my Wallyworld Roma's for $1.18 per lb. with a much better flavor in my humble opinion. And, yes, I've had heirlooms. I think they look so awesome with their shapes and colors, however, I didn't find them very flavorful.
In Bulgaria we have pink tomato called "Buffalo heart" and they are wonderful - full of taste and aroma. It really matter where you live
there are pink heirloom strains of tomatos - Pink Brandywine, Mikado Pink ... the appropriate word would be "pale"
Since moved out of my home country I finally understood why many people don't like tomatoes. The variety your get in Billa/Aldi/Kaufland/Tesco/ADEG/Auchan and all other major EU chains are horrible. most of them are a Spanish import and I'm sorry to say but for a country with so much sunshine they export the horror to the rest of the EU. So yeah rant kind of over and eat tomatoes from May to end of September
Tommy tomatoes are the worst. They live forever but they have no flavor, no juice and are stiff.
Buy your apples with your nose. Smell the apple, if it smells nice, buy it, if it smells like pool cue, leave it.
Grow your own where possible I have grown great tomatoes in a bucket on my porch! Or balcony!
There are so many different types of tomatoes. I'm from the region where tomatoes were first used before being taken back to Europer from the America's. I'm tired of this type of advice, it's a no for me
I prefer cherry tomatoes for this reason. More expensive but atleast they have flavour...
All of the tomatoes at nearly every store in my small town are like that. I started buying Kumatoes from the Grocery Outlet. They always taste like perfectly ripened, home grown tomatoes.
Says someone who lives in an area with lots of shopping choices. If it's not Walmart or Safeway here, it's nothing.
i call those winter tomatoes, they usually move on by april or so in favor of redder ones that have more flavor
When the food smells like the flavor then you have good produce. i.e. when celery smells sweet it tastes sweet. When it smells bitter it tastes bitter.
When heirloom tomatoes are $3 or $4 a piece, not everyone can afford them. If your tomatoes are underripe when you buy them just leave them on a sunny surface and they will ripen.
I remember reading an article about this a few years back. Yes tomatoes come to stores unripe, but the major loss of flavour turned out to be cross breeding. The dominant strains that have taken over lost a couple key genes that give tomatoes that tangy odour and signature tartness. There is currently a joint research team from the UK and Italy working on breeding the taste back into modern tomatoes while preserving their current longer lasting form.
Better tasting home grown varieties usually come from unaffected seed lines, especially heirlooms. Heirloom shapes don't work well with conveyor belts, and people prefer to buy tomatoes that are perfectly shaped, so they never got much modification.
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Also, if you can get your hands on seeds of old tomato breeds - grow them yourself! They are so much better, there even isn't a proper word to express it. Bigcorp tomatos are bred to last up to six weeks after harvest, while older ones only last about a week, and some even shorter, but in case you harvest them prior to meal preparation, that bears no relevance. They're a lot better tasting, and actually taste different between sizes and kinds, and not just random-standard-tomato which, at best, is a bit more intense in some.
Where I live we can't get good tomatoes. They just taste like nothing. We switched to cherry / plum tomatoes and it's so much better
It depends on where you live, really. In areas with a lot of farming, many local grocers carry local produce, even at chain stores. Idk about Walmart specifically, but I know a few in my area do. You don't have to go to a farmer's market and pay more.
Wait, what? Do tomatoes have a smell?? Seriously, the only 2 different varieties we can get, both are smelless...
Winter tomatoes have no flavour in Canada unless they are greenhouse. Picked unripe and shipped from the south.
This is why we only eat tomatoes that have come from either our garden or the local farmer's market. Tomatoes from grocery stores are flavorless crap.
Something I find hilarious are these idiots who want only "organic, nonGMO" stuff, and then buy a beefsteak tomato. You...you don't realize those have a bit of cow DNA in order to make the plants big, do you?
Try to find a food co-op (mostly foods and products from local farms and local artisans and small businesses) or try farmer's market. Or if you have time and good sun spots you can always try growing your own.
We get them in our supermarkets. I buy ones on the vine ( Truss tomatoes)and they ripen if left out. Best not to put in the fridge as no flavour.
or better to say, don't buy fresh tomatoes in winter. Use canned instead.
"horrific non-tomato tomatoes??" I thought they pretty much the same--my girlfriend goes to the Farmers Market, and I go to any grocery store and never noticed a difference....and, yeah, mentioning it once lead to eye-rolling, so I never mentioned it again....but still.....
The difference between a ripe vine ripened tomato and a supermarket hot house tomato that was picked green and then gassed to turn red is astounding. The former is delicious, the last is tasteless and bland because it's not actually ripened.
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I've found pretty damn good produce at Walmart. But ours sources from local farms and tells you where they came from. But during the summer I prefer to grow my own and can my own.
Where on earth do we still get tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Since we sold the farm and had harvested seeds from our previous lot, I haven't eaten a REAL tomato in years and years. They all taste like paper maché. I've gone to the local market and found that they buy tomatoes in the same place the grocery store does and get away with calling them "farm fresh".
I've had fried green tomatoes, which are neither pink, red, nor yellow, and they tasted great. It depends on what you're making.
If you have to drain your rice after cooking it, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!
You should be measuring your rice:water as 1:2 ( 1 cup rice : 2 cup water. Get proper measuring cups, don't use a coffee mug...) and you should no liquid left if cooked properly. Simmer on low after initial boil, lid closed, fluff with a fork about 3/4 of the way, that's it.
And wash the rice until water runs clear. Othersie you're eating dust and bug poop ( Basmati and Jasmine rice mainly...don't wash arborio rice)
MY entire process is:
-Wash rice thoroughly under cold water
-Place washed/drained rice in clean pot and set on stove on low-med heat to slowly dry and toast the rice.
-Add 2bsp oil to the hot dry rice and make it sing, but should not get any color!
-Boil water in your kettle; add salt, pepper and other seasoning(Chicken stock powder is great for rice..or you know, MSG) to your measuring cup, dissolve with the water.
-Dump all the liquid in the pot; it will boil virgorously for like 5 seconds, don't be scared.
-Lower heat to a simmer, cover with the lid ( Big plus if it has a small vent)
-Fluff with a fork at 10mins in, then about 5mins later it should be ready to serve.
Pressing/squashing burger patties down as they cook on the BBQ (you're just making them drier by squeezing out the juices IMHO)
Ex-chef here, and this is a dumb one but I've seen it so many times in student halls. Don't microwave a f*cking steak, or eggs, to cook it.
Pouring water into a grease fire. That's actually SUPER dangerous.
NOT using a mandolin for all your veg. A good one, not the cheapo plastic ones.
Where it can take a good 45 minutes to matchstick fine dice your carrots, courgette, red onion, garlic, red, green & yellow bell pepper & ginger.... All this will take about 15 minutes with a nice quality mandolin.
Make sure you get a finger guard and use it, and always use the utmost caution with the beast & go slowly until you gain confidence through repeated uses.
Once you've mastered the mandolin, your knives won't leave the butcher block as often as they used to.
Get one with the V configuration, not one that's just a slant, those are rubbish.
Seriously, mastering the mandolin changes everything in terms of prep time. It's amazing how fast tomatoes get sliced, how blissfully paper thin fine you can get your onions in just a few seconds!
I love that thing. I have one with a handle & a knob that adjusts the depth of the blade, all in one. I think it cost about 70 bucks.
Toss your hardboiled eggs in an icewater bath right when they're done to make them peel easier.
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My grandmother taught me to always put a little bit of salt in sweet things and a little bit of sugar in savoury things. It does really help bring out the flavours of both.
My mum (rip) always put 2 chocolate chips in with any beef-based sauce. She was the best.
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Heart disease runs in my dads family, so grew up on a low to no salt diet. I continued this into my adult hood. As a consequence I now have a salt deficiency that is worse than someone who has too much salt. I have to take a prescription grade tablets of a type of sodium chloride daily since my system can no longer absorb and maintain sodium levels.
I can relate, but my doctor figured out what was going on before I had to take pills. Just adjusting my diet.
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My grandmother gave me these five rules for cooking and they have served me very well my entire life: 1. Sharpen your knives; 2. Fresh is best; 3. Season high; 4. Taste everything at every stage; 5. Clean as you go.
All the comments about salting foods. My Dad has had several strokes, salt is a major no no, food should reflect dietary needs and health concerns but you see all these television chefs cooking "healthy" food and throwing in handfuls of salt.
The latest research shows that salt doesn't have that much effect on health after all. In terms of heart disease, strokes, blood pressure, etc. the difference between a low salt and a high salt diet makes <5% difference.
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One of the important ones I didn't see listed, NEVER TRY TO CATCH A FALLING KNIFE!
And don't take a perfectly good nicely seasoned cast iron skillet and ruin it with dish soap and steel wool
Don't blame it on the salt while you are eating like 10 burgers/day! Salt is a very important for our health, specially iodine in it .Keeps our organs to funktion properly.
This list is presented as objective facts from professionals, but for the most part they're just differences in style or taste preferences.
Seems like Liucija is having writer’s block. Wasn’t this very same thing posted just a few months ago? And the one about different architecture? Usually there’s some new content, but it all looks the same to me
I like the one about trying thing you didnt like before again. My coworker (also a chef) didnt eat fish. He and his wife didnt like it so they never ate it. When cooking fish at the restaurant he was always unsure about it. When we had leftover fish, he ate it and realized he actually likes it. Makes creating new dishes a whole lot easier
As a chef myself I find these useless rules are meant for regular folk who don't know how to cook. Or maybe for 10 year Olds.
"Regular folk who don't know how to cook" is redundant. --A Regular Person
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The difference between a meal that's taste "meh" and great is often salt and seasoning.
I grew up on salty, Spicy (but not hot spice) foods - Hungarian - and I can tolerate salt very well. I’ve never had heart disease or high blood pressure and I eat salty food everyday.
Would've been better without half of the chefs swearing unnecessarily like unsupervised preteens. Makes it hard to take one seriously.
Would have been a much better article without all the profanity. Not sure the cooking mistakes rose to the level requiring so much anger and vulgar language.
My grandmother taught me to always put a little bit of salt in sweet things and a little bit of sugar in savoury things. It does really help bring out the flavours of both.
My mum (rip) always put 2 chocolate chips in with any beef-based sauce. She was the best.
Load More Replies... Heart disease runs in my dads family, so grew up on a low to no salt diet. I continued this into my adult hood. As a consequence I now have a salt deficiency that is worse than someone who has too much salt. I have to take a prescription grade tablets of a type of sodium chloride daily since my system can no longer absorb and maintain sodium levels.
I can relate, but my doctor figured out what was going on before I had to take pills. Just adjusting my diet.
Load More Replies... My grandmother gave me these five rules for cooking and they have served me very well my entire life: 1. Sharpen your knives; 2. Fresh is best; 3. Season high; 4. Taste everything at every stage; 5. Clean as you go.
All the comments about salting foods. My Dad has had several strokes, salt is a major no no, food should reflect dietary needs and health concerns but you see all these television chefs cooking "healthy" food and throwing in handfuls of salt.
The latest research shows that salt doesn't have that much effect on health after all. In terms of heart disease, strokes, blood pressure, etc. the difference between a low salt and a high salt diet makes <5% difference.
Load More Replies... One of the important ones I didn't see listed, NEVER TRY TO CATCH A FALLING KNIFE!
And don't take a perfectly good nicely seasoned cast iron skillet and ruin it with dish soap and steel wool
Don't blame it on the salt while you are eating like 10 burgers/day! Salt is a very important for our health, specially iodine in it .Keeps our organs to funktion properly.
This list is presented as objective facts from professionals, but for the most part they're just differences in style or taste preferences.
Seems like Liucija is having writer’s block. Wasn’t this very same thing posted just a few months ago? And the one about different architecture? Usually there’s some new content, but it all looks the same to me
I like the one about trying thing you didnt like before again. My coworker (also a chef) didnt eat fish. He and his wife didnt like it so they never ate it. When cooking fish at the restaurant he was always unsure about it. When we had leftover fish, he ate it and realized he actually likes it. Makes creating new dishes a whole lot easier
As a chef myself I find these useless rules are meant for regular folk who don't know how to cook. Or maybe for 10 year Olds.
"Regular folk who don't know how to cook" is redundant. --A Regular Person
Load More Replies... The difference between a meal that's taste "meh" and great is often salt and seasoning.
I grew up on salty, Spicy (but not hot spice) foods - Hungarian - and I can tolerate salt very well. I’ve never had heart disease or high blood pressure and I eat salty food everyday.
Would've been better without half of the chefs swearing unnecessarily like unsupervised preteens. Makes it hard to take one seriously.
Would have been a much better article without all the profanity. Not sure the cooking mistakes rose to the level requiring so much anger and vulgar language.
