30 Cooking Myths That People In This Online Thread Wish Others Knew Are False

That's a really good example of "Empirical Superstition". The prescription of always stirring clockwise dates back to cooking manuals and practices from the Middle Ages. It's unclear if that's linked to some older superstitions, or if it's just part of the common practice -at the time- of trying to regulate and put order in all the aspects of an art so to create an orderly, cohesive, ritual practice that was easy to teach to uneducated trainees. What the people at the time did not know though is WHY IT WORKS. Mind you, the direction doesn't really matter as long as it's constant. It has been proven that moving in the same direction helps avoiding turbulent flow and crate a better texture in long proteins (such as gluten or albumine), reduce air inclusion and improves mixing of sieved powders. Depending on the recipe, it could have (minor) effects in making your bread rise better, prevent spoilage in preservation or avoid lumps.

And with your right hand only!!! I lived with a great-aunt when I was in high school and she insisted the soup be stirred clockwise only, and I must use my right hand. I had been taught to follow no set pattern, as long as you were moving stuff from the outer to the inner pot to get it to heat evenly.

I stir both ways… 😉

Apparently you believed her a little.

I usually stir clockwise, but simply because it's more comfortable for me. My cousin, who's left handed, almost always stir anticlockwise, because it's more comfortable for him. It doen't matter which way you stir, and most of people couldn't care less.

For people who say they need to wash the slime off the meat, chicken meat shouldn't be slimy. If it's slimy then you need to change your supplier because there's something seriously wrong.

The only time chicken needs washing is when it's slaughtered. Unless you're doing at home slaughtering and butchery your store bought chicken is as clean as raw meat is ever going to get.

It has also been proven that washing you chix just spreads bacteria all around your sink

Don't wash it anymore. Was very sick at the time the UK government changed their advice on this, purely coincidental, after washing out a whole chicken pre roasting.

People do not need to wash raw chicken. The reason you have to cook it to reach a certain temperature is because the cooking to that temperature kills the bacteria.

Me too. It’s just better

Al Fun

Al Fun

Community Member • points

posts

comments

upvotes

FollowUnfollow

Premium

Premium user. Get details.

My aunt one made her buttercream cake with salted butter by mistake. The biggest kitchen disaster in our family history.

I do the opposite. Some recipes don't call for salt at all and when it does, I prefer to measure it myself.

Agree with the comments. I don't bake so I only use salted butter. I don't use a lot of salt because I try to cook from scratch and use fresh ingredients so not much salt is needed. Or butter. A little olive oil and salt goes a long way on veggies sautéed or grilled. Might be why in my 50's my cholesterol levels are great. My mom and dad who drown everything in butter, salt and any oil are on all kinds of d***s for blood pressure.

I always use salted butter. Unsalted butter just makes me sad. Never has negatively effected my puff pastry, baking, etc.

I also cook pasta completely in my sauce. I'm lazy, so I cook the ground beef, add onions, then spices, then tomato sauce with lots of extra water, then stir in the pasta. I don't use long thin shaped pasta, I use shaped pasta like penne or rotini. All in one big pot. I've seen that method of cooking pasta in cooking show on public television.

Using more water is better for cooking pasta that has a tendency to stick together like linguine.

I hate cooking pasta...I don't eat clothes of pasta so I have my son eat a piece while cooking till he says ...OK ma.now it's done lol

Well, the temperature of the water will go down much more the less you use. That could make a difference.

This explains why the tiktok boxed mac n cheese hack is so good. (If you're wondering you dump everything in the pot - noodles, sauce pack, butter - then cover with water to just above the pasta. Then you just cook until the noodles are tender and the sauce thickens. Some people add milk after but I like it without. Add a little grated cheese and you're good. Easy way to elevate a cheap food.)

To be a bit nerdy: The different shapes of pasta exists because they are optimised for different kind of sauces. E.g. screws has a large surface area and can soak up and hold onto a lot of sauce. If you coat the pasta in slippery oil, you totally ruin this ability. It is mainly pasta that has been coocked a long time ago and been allowed to cool that will stick toghether, or pasta that has been compressed a lot, at the bottom of a big pot. So if you simply boil your pasta, in reasonable quantities, right before you serve it, you should be good without the oil.

Over boiling is the reason you're supposed to use a large pot with plenty of water. Putting a utensil like a wooden spoon across the pot can also help disruption the surface tension if does begin to foam.

This entry is currently #12, and is the first sensible, correct and non-completely-dumb entry in this list.

Oil is to break the surface tension and stop the pot from boiling over. It doesn't stick to the noodles. Seriously though, a half tsp of oil will let you not even worry about boil-overs. Oil quiets water. They used to calm waves by throwing oil in the ocean. It works incredibly well.

Don't want it to boil over, place a wooden spoon across the top, works everytime.

Oil should be only added to the COLD skillet in non-stick pans. Heating a pan without the oil causes quick heat buildup that damages the nonstick finish. For uncoated steel skillets, it makes no difference except it's safer to add oil to the cold pan because it prevent spraying of overheated oil.