30 Priceless Cooking Tips That Were Passed Down To People By Their Parents, Grandparents, And Great-Grandparents
They say if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. But the same can be applied to kitchens. Learning your way around the pots and pans takes a great deal of time and effort, and it's much easier when there's an expert to guide you. Like your dad. Or grandma.
Recently, Reddit user u/OoopsieWhoopsie made a post on the platform, asking everyone to reveal their most prized family cooking tips. And some people agreed to do it; sharing really is caring. From getting the most out of your leftovers to adding an extra oomph to your dishes, continue scrolling to check them out!
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My grandma would save butter wrappers in the fridge and use the leftover butter on them for greasing dishes when she baked. I can’t help but stockpile wrappers, it’s really so handy.
A tablespoon of cocoa powder creates boldens the flavor profile of chili (I know it sounds crazy, but our chili recipe is delicious.
Don’t hollow out a bread bowl; shove the inner bread down to create a thicker bottom. This will prevent leaks and sogginess.
Use a little more butter and a little more cheese than the recipe says.
Putting a little fish sauce into a stew or sauce that needs umami. It's basically liquid anchovies.
My Uncle Arthur's tip is "clean while you cook!", and he will not let you forget it, either.
Not really sure if its a tip but my Papa Searcy used to microwave bacon on old newspapers...it was always delicious! In hindsight it's probably bad for you and you should never do it. I have weird memories of the smell of newspaper and bacon.
Yes. YES! Clean while you cook is the very first law in the kitchen.
Better Than Bouillon Veggie is a million times better than any other veg stock.
Adding sour cream to scrambled eggs instead of milk will make them insanely fluffy.
Save all scraps for stocks. Almost anything can be made into soup.
Add a pinch of nutmeg to anything with dairy in it, you can't taste the nutmeg but it makes the dairy richer and taste better.
What does it mean "you can't taste the nutmeg"? Maybe you're using very old nutmegs.
Cook them onions - cook them onions loooong n slow. Then add tomato, cook that tomato, cook that tomato looooooong and slow.
Sprinkle sea salt on cookies right before or right after baking. The extra salt brings out the flavors more and helps balance out the sweetness.
A dollop of sour cream in mashed potatoes.
Bacon always comes out better if you cook it in an oven, and it’s important to put the bacon in before turning the oven on; preheating the oven will make the bacon stick to the cookie sheet
I put homemade stock into ice cube trays to freeze then store in bags. 1 cube = 1.5 Oz liquid or so.
This works even better when you let the stock reduce before for super rich and concentrated flavor
Want to make icing delicious? A pinch of salt. It cuts the pure sugar and makes it dangerously good.
A TBSP of ground coffee in brownies really kick it up a notch. The more quality the beans the better.
You're probably using too much flour in your yeast dough. Many recipes say it should not be sticky. On the contrary, you want it a little yucky and sticky before you let it rest. That's how you get yummy fluffy stuff that doesn't dry out within hours.
Also, to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, you don't use flour. You use vegetable oil
Keep in mind I’m from a very Midwestern Scandinavian family. Cream of mushroom soup is kind of a universal solution for improving any dish.
The reasoning that this should be specifically a can of condensed soup is because a. the flavor is super concentrated in this form and b. It is very thick so it will not water down your dish's texture and will add an overall richness
And, in the days of old (before low sodium alternatives), a not insignificant salt kick.
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It's basically bechamel in a can. If you don't want to go to the trouble of whipping up a butter-flour-milk mix (or milk-cornstarch mix if you're feeling bold), cream of mushroom soup makes a good substitute.
Love the stuff and so hard to come by in Japan...with pork chops...soooo good!
lol this is very true to northeasterners, too. Any kind of chicken or pork dish fried in a pan will have a can or half a can of this in it. With the pan drippings it makes a sauce.
One of my favorite home-assembled (I hesitate to call it "cooking") comfort foods is made with stew meat, cream of mushroom soup with an equal amount of water, and onion soup mix baked in the oven for several hours. Mom used to serve it over minute rice but I prefer to use mashed potatoes. Heck, I've eaten it out of a bowl by itself on more than one occasion!
Its only the image that has the can, not all cream of mushroom soup comes from a can-
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My grandmother used to make poor man’s steak, crushed up soda crackers soaked in milk then mixed with ground beef (seasoned with salt and pepper) and formed into patties, browned then put into a casserole dish and topped with cream of mushroom soup and baked. One of my childhood favourites.
I always add a can of chopped/sliced mushrooms into anything I cook with Creme of Mushroom soup.
When you can afford other stuff this can make dishes better. People who don't like this haven't been there where the 5 of you are splitting this soup for 3 days . When your hungry enough you eat ANYTHING! This was a way to make normal things a little better.
Weird to assume that people who don't like "have never been there". I like it. But I've also had to live off rice and beans pretty much exclusively for nearly a year. Yeah in the moment when you're hungry and desperate you eat what you can. But after that? I don't blame anyone for turning on it and refusing to ever touch it again. Ain't no way I'm eating red beans and rice ever again. Might get my creole card taken away but idc. No force on earth can make me go back (i did try some from a local Cajun place recently to see if maybe it had been long enough and maybe if I'm not desperately making it with almost nothing added in but seasonings it's different enough for me to like it again. Nope still hate it and got way too triggered trying to eat it). I have issues even adding in rice or beans into anything else. Easier with rice but even trying to thin out hamburger meat with black beans brings back trauma from the bad days (I'm still in poverty and all that. But no longer so restricted on my diet. Recent inflation and red state hatred of helping poor and disabled people/letting us have a decent quality of life might just lead to my [redaction] tho)
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Nutritional yeast in mashed potatoes.
If a dish feels flat it's often the acidity that's missing. Dash of White Modena vinegar is the secret to my red sauce for example, even though it's inherently acidic.
I see this one EVERY TIME. And it’s such a “new culinary school student” thing. As a professional chef, I can say “the thing that’s missing” is *not* always acidity and is often NOT acidity to be honest. It’s often sweetness, or umami, or even just more herbs. Adding more acidity to your tomato sauce? Even the best chefs in the world will tell you: No, a pinch of sugar.
My oma would add plain seltzer to her matzah balls… she said it made them fluffier.
Add citrus zest to enhance flavor and acidity, especially in sauces/salsas…desserts too!
Salt your water liberally when boiling pasta/potatoes, and blanching vegetables
Actually, 7-10 g/l is a very good salt-water proportion for cooking pasta.
Rub a lemon wedge on the inside of your mixing bowl when you're making meringue. It works better than cream of tartar and you'll get a more stable meringue.
I thought adding cocoa powder to chili was pretty common.
I like to add some apple cider to baked beans and a bit of cinnamon to chocolate cake.
MSG makes just about everything better. I add it to the salt mixture when I'm seasoning meats. It also helps make ripe tomatoes pop by accentuating the naturally occurring MSG, keep that in mind when you're making tomato salads and tomato sandwiches.
My family owns a catering business, starting from my grandparents who came to the states from Portugal. One thing I've learned that greatly improve my meals is to add butter to your noodles (for saucy pasta like Spaghetti)
Nope. Like oil which I've seen suggested loads of time this will simply stop the sauce from sticking to your pasta, so you end up eating buttery noodles with the sauce on the side. Better to cook the pasta just slightly al dente so that some of the sauce is absorbed into it between cooking and serving.
Adding Worcestershire sauce, a bit of soy sauce, and Dijon mustard to your pan-fried chicken livers would ascend them into deityhood (not to forget the caramelized onions, chicken stock stock, garlic, and mushrooms).
A really good sharp knife and running the onion over water can help prevent the teary eyes. (Also holding a piece of bread in your mouth).
Every knife should be kept perfectly sharp. This is not a tip, it's a basic.
Note: this post originally had 58 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
There is nothing wrong using box stuff. I hate it when people act like the cake doesn't count because it came from a box.
Those weird elitist types would lose their s**t if they found out most professional bakeries start with boxed cakes and focus on enhancing that, decorations, and properly shaping for the occasion/aesthetic My stepdad was super into making so many things purely home made. And he wasn't bad at making cakes or anything. But one time i showed up and he was super impressed by this cake i made and wanted to steal tricks from me. Only to become some offended because i used a box as the base and then built up from there and that was some kind of an insult towards him and how he taught me
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Of course there’s negative comments, it’s BP. We’re judgemental here, it’s what we do. 😉
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No two cooks will salt soup the same ---- my great-grandma. In short: It's always taste, habit, preference, and sometimes, just weird AF.
Yep. Hence the old adage, too many cooks spoil the broth.
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What I get most from these food related columns is that one person's meat is another person's poison, to paraphrase an old adage. Let's agree to disagree and put as much salt in our nosh as we like and let other people do the same. You're safer with tips like freezing your extra soup stock rather than suggesting that the other person's soup stock must be icky because it's got something you loathe in it. That kind of tip is helpful and doesn't start food wars. Such as, save your cute jam jars for leftovers, and save the planet. 😉
Why am I even reading this? I couldn't cook something edible if my life depended on it!!
I have a beginners cookbook and it helped a ton. Start with simple things and get more complicated.
Load More Replies... By #13, I was getting nausea from those cockamamie tips -- UGH !!! If I wanted to be sick, I'd watch CNN for five minutes.
So American-focused *sigh* and people just assuming that everyone else is cooking American-style with American ingredients and brands
Sorry but I get tired of seeing this same somewhat offensive post making the assumption we're not aware of other countries and cultures. There aren't enough people from other countries contributing so they go take these from reddit and know they'll get views because topics like this do. Start a post for non-American recipes. Why do those of us from the US have to feel bad about that or get shamed for it when we had little to do with it? Post something. I'd love to hear tips and ideas from other countries. Even for people in the the US...some of us have roots elsewhere. Share! But getting annoyed about too much 'american' when there aren't enough contributions from others is kind of silly.
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There is nothing wrong using box stuff. I hate it when people act like the cake doesn't count because it came from a box.
Those weird elitist types would lose their s**t if they found out most professional bakeries start with boxed cakes and focus on enhancing that, decorations, and properly shaping for the occasion/aesthetic My stepdad was super into making so many things purely home made. And he wasn't bad at making cakes or anything. But one time i showed up and he was super impressed by this cake i made and wanted to steal tricks from me. Only to become some offended because i used a box as the base and then built up from there and that was some kind of an insult towards him and how he taught me
Load More Replies... Of course there’s negative comments, it’s BP. We’re judgemental here, it’s what we do. 😉
Load More Replies... No two cooks will salt soup the same ---- my great-grandma. In short: It's always taste, habit, preference, and sometimes, just weird AF.
Yep. Hence the old adage, too many cooks spoil the broth.
Load More Replies... What I get most from these food related columns is that one person's meat is another person's poison, to paraphrase an old adage. Let's agree to disagree and put as much salt in our nosh as we like and let other people do the same. You're safer with tips like freezing your extra soup stock rather than suggesting that the other person's soup stock must be icky because it's got something you loathe in it. That kind of tip is helpful and doesn't start food wars. Such as, save your cute jam jars for leftovers, and save the planet. 😉
Why am I even reading this? I couldn't cook something edible if my life depended on it!!
I have a beginners cookbook and it helped a ton. Start with simple things and get more complicated.
Load More Replies... By #13, I was getting nausea from those cockamamie tips -- UGH !!! If I wanted to be sick, I'd watch CNN for five minutes.
So American-focused *sigh* and people just assuming that everyone else is cooking American-style with American ingredients and brands
Sorry but I get tired of seeing this same somewhat offensive post making the assumption we're not aware of other countries and cultures. There aren't enough people from other countries contributing so they go take these from reddit and know they'll get views because topics like this do. Start a post for non-American recipes. Why do those of us from the US have to feel bad about that or get shamed for it when we had little to do with it? Post something. I'd love to hear tips and ideas from other countries. Even for people in the the US...some of us have roots elsewhere. Share! But getting annoyed about too much 'american' when there aren't enough contributions from others is kind of silly.
Load More Replies... 