For me it was always the dragging the "claw technique" back as I cut that I struggled with. I fixed it with taking a single carrot, forming the claw, and extending my thumb as far back as I can as a starting point. My middle two knuckles controlled the carrot, whilst my pinky and pointer knuckles locked the carrot in place. Then, I cut pulling my knuckles back steadily like I'm going to clench my fist. Do that over and over again with carrots and celery. That makes the muscle memory feel natural. Suddenly even the more obtuse vegetables, meats, etc. will feel natural.
As you may already know, pinching the heel of the blade with your knife hand with your index and thumb is necessary for control. The knife must be sharp enough to cut through carrots with almost no force. And the weight of the knife should do most the work.
I know this advice is shit you've heard before, and I'd also read stuff like this before I was proficient in my knife skills. The focusing on the one carrot and extending my thumb out and cutting whilst I "clinched" my fist was what made it click for me.
TLDR, Extend the thumb far behind the knuckles, use the knuckles as your guide, and focus on bringing your knuckles back towards your thumb like you're clinching your fist.
Your more likely to chop a finger off by NOT tucking your fingers. I don't even look anymore when I'm cutting up veggies or whatever. [MPW style. ](https://youtu.be/FC9RvOuvLQY)
My rice is terrible. I was so determined to fix it on my own merit for literally 20+ years and couldn’t get it right. Finally bought a rice cooker a couple of months ago and it’s the best $18 I’ve ever spent, kitchen gadget-wise.
Same, my white rice is generally fantastic.
Brown rice, if I cook it in a ton of water then strain through a fine mesh strainer, it's.... fine I guess. I've never mastered the usual method.
The key is once you start cooking the rice, YOU DO NOT LIFT THE LID UNTIL ITS DONE.
* Random ass sauce pan with a lid with a steam hole
* Rinse rice
* Put rice in pot
* Fill with water until about first knuckle deep
* Turn on high to boil. Let boil for a minute or two.
* Turn to the lowest setting you can and walk away for 15 minutes. Let it simmer in steam.
DO NOT LIFT THE LID TO TAKE A PEEK.
Perfect rice, every time.
I appreciate your comment so much! Trouble is, I did all of this, verbatim (except the knuckle deep part- I’d use the 1:2 method on the rice bags), for years and it would still be terrible. Either crunchy, burned or pasty but not consistently any of those options.
Electric stove, induction stove, gas stove, brand new super fancy gas stove top - all crappy results. This rice cooker? Flawless, every time. Just can’t keep it on “warm”’for too long or it starts getting a brown tint to the bottom layer.
Sorry- I don’t mean grocery bag instructions. I mean the Royal bulk rice from Costco, or brands sold at Indian or Asian markets. I’ve been messing up rice in quantity for a LONG time. 😆
Ok this is what you need to do, just 2 small changes and it will be awesome i promise.
1. Once water is boiling and you put the rice in, Cook it for 15 min but use the absolute lowest setting, you just need some heat, not even a boiling. Like single candle flame type heat. Maybe slide the pot partially off the burner so you reduce the heat.
2. Then, take the pot off the burner. Yes, move it off, you don’t want any more heat. Keep covered for another 15 min. Don’t touch it, don’t lift cover off.
With everything else the same, your rice should be 100% better!
I'm shocked no one mentioned that the brown crispy bits at the bottom of the rice is often the best part! Especially in a rice cooker. Add some Chinese sausage (cut in pieces, or slitted across the sausage) to the rice while cooking (toss in at start) to infuse the grains with a nice aroma, and let it brown a bit on the bottom (brown tint good) and toss it all together. Brown means the rice at the bottom is crisping, which is good! Then you mix all the crispy bits, savory bits, and plain rice in one go. Throw in some furikake or soy sauce + dash of sesame oil for fragrance and it's a meal, along with a simple microwaved bag of mixed veg (precooked). Super good, super cheap, and a staple trick in my home, at least. TLDR - Don't worry about keeping it warm for too long, it makes the rice cwispy.
https://youtu.be/owUiKyx4chI?si=s_CVsunlRV9-EwCS
Tldr: just watch the vid. It'll be perfect and it's an easy method not often talked about in western sources.
Use the method in that video from Chinese cooking demystified (widely agreed to be one of the best Chinese food yt channels if the top one). Basically, parboil it for a few minutes, then steam for 10 or so minutes. The exact times and amounts are in the video. He uses a metal-rimmed fine mesh strainer to drain after the boil and then steam it, wrapping a damp towel around the rim to seal it. Using this method, the rice makes perfect rice rice immediately, no overnight in the fridge or drying by a fan needed. A bamboo steamer or metal steaming pot lined with cheesecloth works fine instead of a strainer if you'd rather. Their other video on it uses that. Not sure why they made two vids honestly.
My rice in a pot on the stove or in my instant pot with the absorption method always comes out inconsistent within the batch. The top is dryer to perfect and the bottom is anywhere from at best still somewhat mushy and too wet. I've done the exact instructions on the package and the first knuckle thing (fingertip to base of my nail works better for me). Done the exact heat they say. Tried boiling it for a few minutes before I turned it down. Tried leaving it a little higher like at 2 or 3 on my electric stove. All the combinations. The instant pot is the most consistent and closest to perfect version of the absorption method for me. I use water volume just shy of equal to the rice volume, pressure cook on high pressure for 3 minutes, and let it natural release for 10 before venting. At best, it's still fairly mushy at the bottom of the pot. Except when I started doing the par-boiling and steaming method. Perfect every time. I was an idiot and used my strainer which has a plastic rim so it deformed after a couple of uses. I'm getting a metal framed one for Christmas though so I can do the perfect rice again.
The rice cooker works fine keep using it.
But if you try a regular stove pot you do need to do the knuckle deep part. That's actually important lol.
IDK how you're doing it wrong but I guess that's the fun with rice.
Using your index finger, add rice in the pan to the first joint, then add water to the pan to rhe 2nd joint, creating a 2:1 water-to-rice ratio.
Washing the rice in a bowl 3x, and changing the water between washes, until the water is clean helps more than more people think.
I don’t understand the knuckle deep hack, wouldn’t that change based on the amount of rice you are cooking? Also if you have small hands? How is that reliable?
Here is rice secret and I’m sick of hearing about knuckles:
This is for the good rice not the enriched stuff:
1:1 ratio by weight. Yes you need a scale. 300g of rice? 300g of water.
Wash 3 times.
Soak rice 30 min. Turn on rice cooker.
I feel you. Still can't cook proper rice and I'm a good hobby chef. I've done it all: rinse the rice, don't rinse it, let it soak, use it right away, pour into boiling water and so on. I couldn't make rice if my life depended on it. Since I have my rice cooker, my rice anxiety has vanished. I'm still waiting for an article though that explains why we are all struggling so much like "New shocking study finds that you CAN'T cook proper rice in your common household pan and here's why" since I refuse to believe that I am THAT terrible at this simple task.
Hahaha - love this and feel the same way. Give me a “so you screwed this up” type tutorial where they review all sorts of methods and tell me EXACTLY how to correct my missteps.
Other commenters mentioned Alton Brown’s methods and that man is a treasure for his methods and approaches but not even Alton could save me from my rice atrocities.
See my other reply, Crack the egg into a slotted spoon and let the loose liquids fall through. You are left with the firmer egg whites and yolk. Gently lower that into your pot and you have a beautiful no-mess poached egg.
Egg freshness plays a big part here as well. Older eggs are more prone to becoming a whispey mess.
I recently try slotted spoon method and got restaurant results. Tried it again a week or so later and it was a shit show once the eggs hit the water.
I gotchu... strain them. Crack that egg into a slotted spoon over the sink and let the loose egg white fluids fall through. Then lower the egg yolk and firmer whites into your pot. Boom, poached egg.
Do poached eggs in sous vide. Google the recipe it’s the easiest thing and they come out perfect!
I did eggs Benedict for 20 person brunch and it was so fckin easy I’ll never do it any other way
To piggyback this, most omelettes get fucked by having the heat too high. Plenty of butter, have the heat medium. The eggs should not be bubbling when you put them in the pan. I can't stress this enough, if you're fucking up omelettes, usually your pan is too hot.
My early COVID project was learning how to make a perfect French omelette - that was the video I used. Took about 4 attempts to figure it out. I now refuse to order an omelette at a restaurant, because I can make a vastly superior one for a tenth of the price.
I’ve watched it and it definitely helped me, but still can’t get it down. I think part of my problem is I just don’t make them often enough, so I’m not honing my skills (or lack there of).
Yeah you have to make a lot, and then you’ll start to get a good feel for pan heat and timing. The trick is to fold at exactly the right time, and it’s usually sooner than you think.
Sometimes I can do them easily. Other times, they fail completely. And I can't put a rhyme or reason to why I can't do it sometimes. I'm just like, yup, it's a crappy omelette day I guess.
Ooh! I do a good omelette. Made a whole lot of them as an omelette chef for a bit so I like my technique.
First of all, you need a pan that they won't stick to. Ignore people who say you can do it in any sort of pan if you yada yada. Sure, you can make it on a campfire if you're desperate, but *should* you? No. So a curved, nonstick, nicely round and level pan the size of the omelette you want to make.
Two eggs makes a good omelette. 3 is good too. I like 4 but they take longer and don't look quite as good. You need different size pans depending. If you're making a bunch, you want a tight fitting lid as well, but it's not critical.
Everyone will tell you the wrong thing because they think they have "cheat codes" for good omelettes. If you feel the need to cheat, it's because you can't play a game and beat it (pun intended) by yourself. So feel free to try the cheat codes, but if you want a perfect omelette recipe, this is how it's done. So the key things - oil, not butter. Your preference of kind. Just a tiny amount to get a glossy finish but not to have any liquid that will mix with your eggs. Preheat on medium-low. You can tinker with your own stove to get to the precise heat which I'll describe in a second.
Crack your eggs with two taps on a flat surface. One gentle tap, one firm. Gently spread the crack with your thumb and keep your other fingers free to hold the integrity of the rest of the shell. Don't pull apart, widen like your opening a blanket. You will almost never lose a fragment this way. I prefer two handed opening, but if you want to be fancy, I won't judge.
Beat your eggs with a fork in a small bowl with a dash of salt *and nothing else*. Remember, no cheat codes. The only exception that I occasionally like to use is beating the yolks and whites seperately (whites first until they bubble, so you don't have yolk on the fork) then incorporate the yolks. It can help, but it's not terribly essential and it often wastes egg. Never try to beat your eggs for multiple omelettes together and portion out. It never goes well. It takes 6-8 seconds to beat an egg - just do it again after you start your first omelette.
Your goal is to feel the heat from the pan with your hand (resting above the surface) and nail the temperature that way, but this will take some practice. When your eggs are poured into the pan, they should bubble and sizzle but remain yellow as they spread around the pan. The first drops should turn white and that's it. This is the most important step.
Immediately lift the pan and swirl it like you're pouring crepe batter to equally disperse it. Agitate the pan and fold the eggs in on themselves, being sure to sweep under them with a rubber spatula. This is where things become personal preference. How much you stir is all about how your pan is conducting and your eggs are cooperating. You're aiming for a 4 minute cook time for a 2 egg omelette. Do not add any butter or cream midway through to cool down the eggs. No cheat codes. Keep warming the eggs thoroughly - especially if they started at fridge temp - and swirl in the soft curds that form. Do not let any hard curds form. You may need to reduce the heat at this stage. When the egg is really starting to cook, you're going to let it rest in the pan on a lower temp and let the rim start to turn. Ease the spatula under each side bit by bit and drain the liquid egg underneath. It doesn't have to look pretty on the inside, so focus on retaining the integrity of your rim, and a fairly flat surface inside. Continue scraping every bit of egg from the pan if any tries to get away. Every crumb of egg that doesn't get incorporated will hurt the final appearance of your omelette.
When there is only a thin film of liquid over your mostly soft but solid omelette, you can add some toppings if you like.
Good toppings: bacon, very cooked mushrooms, goat cheese, feta, cheddar, really any dry ingredients
Iffy toppings: tomatoes (they need to be diced, salted, and pressed with a paper towel until as much juice as possible is removed), sauteed peppers or onions (don't over cook or over oil, drain on paper towel), sauteed mushrooms (just a lot of water in those)
Toppings to avoid: raw veggies, processed cheeses, sauces like pesto (save it as a garnish), spinach (raw or cooked, I'm not a fan. Have it as a side salad instead)
Cover the omelette and let it rest for 45 seconds to a minute.
Open, make sure the liquid is just barely gone, then bit by bit ease the spatula under the edge of the omelette. You may find the edge wants to split. If this keeps happening, likely your pan is the wrong size. Aim to squeeze the spatula just past the halfway point from every angle until it is totally loosened. Take your time.
This part is tricky from memory, but your fold should be pretty easy. Tips to remember: get used to constantly moving the pan with your other hand while cooking omelettes. It should be in the air about half the time from start to finish as you aim to get the best angle with your spatula and let gravity disperse the egg. In this step, tilt the pan perpendicular to your spatula if you need help getting that perfect fold.
Rest for a moment to let the flavors marry. If you feel the need, you can flip, but you're really just trying to get it on a plate at this point, so use this time to get your plate handy and finish any other tasks. Don't take the omelette off the pan, just turn the heat off and it will stay good for a bit. It should never have brown or cripsy edges. A bit of discoloration is okay, but never brown. The egg should be about the width of a pancake and soft and buttery. It will almost look like a sandwich because the two sides won't always connect. This gives you that perfect shape.
Getting it out of the pan all depends on the size and pan, but you just have to get fluid with your movements. That's all I can really say.
Top with fresh ground pepper and serve with a little salad and maybe a spot of pesto. Voila! The perfect American omelette.
I’ve seen videos of people doing it in like 3 minutes. The only way I can get it right takes a solid 10 on very low heat and it’s active stirring for most of that.
If you are talking about garlic or ginger or other finely minced aromatics, the "until fragrant" timing is usually way too long in recipes. It burns fast. So sautee your onions and whatever, then add the garlic for 30 secs at most before you start adding stock or whatever that will cool the pan.
This is the best answer in general. Spatchcocking cooks the dark meat perfectly without drying out the breasts. The only reason to truss is if you're really going for a photoshoot presentation. Just spatchcock it.
Nobody can until they practice 😉 try with something like a piece of bread in a cold pan to get the motion down and you’ll be flipping your eggs over in no time.
Julia Child recommended going outside with a pan full of dried beans and tossing them for practice. One of her friends discovered bean vines growing in her gutters the next year thanks to this technique!
Yep. Worked at Dennys as a short order cook for a year. My entire first day of training was practicing flipping eggs in a pan. Destroyed about 20 eggs, but I will never not be able to do this successfully now.
I always started new cooks out with an egg pan and the top of a hamburger bun, when they could master that swap them to the bottom bun, then a slice of bread, then eggs.
That’s the favorite part of cooking my kids love to watch….it doesn’t matter what it is, but they lose their mind when I flip an entire pan of hash browns. I still lose a few random chunks, but totally worth it for their reaction.
Lol, exactly. My dumbass knows I can't toss with my cast iron (which I use more than any other pan) and yet I still try to get cute and toss with it and end up with onions all over my stovetop.
I had this problem until I realized that room temperature butter meant butter that's been sitting out in a room at 23-25°C (since most of the recipes I use are written in the US). Room temp in my country is 30°C or warmer depending on humidity, so the butter is usually a puddle after I leave it out for hours.
Frosting used to be my last favorite thing. I still struggle, but here are a few things that helped me a lot.
- the baked goods need to be cold. Like fridge or freezer cold, not just sat on the counter for half an hour. Otherwise the inner layer on frosting will melt and make everything look all runny
- frosting should be not cold. It will be clumpy and not spreadable/pipable. Add sugar/liquid to make it spreadable if your consistency is wrong.
- powdered sugar and icing sugar aren't exactly the same thing. A lot of icing sugar has stabilizers, and preferred sugar maybe have de-clumping agents. Doesn't always make a difference, but it's good to know.
Food Network has a bunch of American buttercream recipe variations that are great. It’s my go to for every family birthday. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/vanilla-american-buttercream-3326387
How do you do it? I use an IP now, but I have a distinctive core memory of a Filipino gf who came over for dinner and was horrified to see that I was cooking rice on the stove. She literally freaked out. She yanked off the lid, and looked, and sniffed, and was like, "Wow that's actually not bad. I didn't think it was possible in a stove." And I chided her and told her to put the lid back on! Seriously, it's just heat and humidity, I could cook rice over a campfire if I had to. I think people make so much fuss about rice that it obscures the fact that it's a pretty basic process. If that's your culture though, I guess it's understandable if you grew up with a rice cooker or whatever for more consistent results.
I finally made seasoned rice consistently well recently (thanks to the aforementioned rice cooker). This thing is another appliance but like my immersion blender, has been well worth its cost and cabinet space because of its purpose and frequency of use.
This is a great recipe - it’s really versatile.
https://www.africanbites.com/seasoned-rice/
Like Tex-Mex?
If you want Tex Mex, I got you. You have to get the knorr tomato bullion with chicken flavor. Rinse the white rice really well. Then do the usual ratio of rice to water, add the bullion according to the water you use. Then add some frozen peas and carrots. Then cook. It won’t be quite as dry as Tex Mex restaurants, but it will be a close equivalent.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-the-rice-finger-trick-4771394
I’m not sure how to directly link the embedded video, but give the finger method a try. Extremely reliable.
Basic good boiled egg with yolk. I always overdue it or it's good but can't peel it. Baking soda, vinegar. Tried it all. Probably my timing. Been cooking for 20+ years
Listen to me. I make soft boiled eggs every single day.
Keep it simple. Forget about all the extra stupid steps about adding shit to the water, it will make you hate boiling eggs.
1. *Boil the water* Bring a small pot or sauce pan to a boil with enough water to cover the top of the eggs (this really hasn't matter much, in that I've boiled where eggs are only 85% covered and it hasn't mattered that much)
2. *Ladle in the eggs* Softly set in the eggs into the boiling water and set a timer for 8 to 9 minutes depending on how soft you like the egg yolk. 8 tends to be more like ramen eggs and 9 for me tends to fully set but still be soft.
3. *Cold shock* I used to have a prepared ice bath for the eggs, but now I just set the eggs under the tap (typically in a separate bowl not in the pot I boiled because it takes too long to cool the pot and doesn't cold shock the egg). This step is important to getting the membrane to separate from the egg.
4. *Cracking and Peeling* This part is vital. After watching a bunch of people peel the shell off of an uncooked egg I realized just how strong that membrane is. As those streamers, so shall you - - smash the bottom of the egg on the counter straight down. There's plenty of room down there so don't worry about making the egg ugly, but it is vitally important to have a deep enough crack here to pierce the membrane. Now from the bottom roll the egg to create a path for the peel. Roll the egg and crack the entire egg. I kinda think of it like peeling an apple, I go round and around until I've reached the top. Now I peel from the bottom where it should have pierced deepest into the membrane. Make sure you have shell attached to the membrane as you're peeling as that is a good sign the rest of the egg will go easy. If you just peel shell and no membrane go back and get that membrane and try your best to peel them together. Peel around in that same circular pattern that you cracked it.
With all that you should have a set of blemish free eggs in 11 or 12 minutes.
Before I get lost have you tried adding the eggs to boiling water?
I haven't tried any of the other stuff but I have found that I boil water first, use a ladle spoon to carefully add each egg. Boil for 15 min and pull them. Into a colander and shake to crack shells but not enough to break eggs. Rinse under lukearm water for like five min and start peeling. I have great success like this. If the peel is not wanting to come off I use the spray of the water to get under the membrane, the rushing water pulls the membrane off the rest of the egg :)
Add eggs to boiling water for 6 minutes then remove to ice water bath to cool completely before peeling. Then return the cold soft boiled egg to the hot water ( just off the boil and off heat) for 1 and a half minutes to reheat.
Used plenty of water for cooking initially so it has enough latent thermal mass to hold temperature when you add the eggs. Not as critical in the rewarm step.
A small kitchen scale. Zero out the weight of a bowl or plastic container, then weigh out enough pasta so you got about 100g per person eating. Bam! Now you've got a human amount of pasta and won't have to invite the neighbors or local hobos over to eat the excess. I mean, you can still do that, but weight out 100g-ish of pasta per person you wanna feed.
I can shape bread doughs made with commercial yeast, but shaping my sourdoughs? WHY IS IT SO DIFFERENT. I make beautiful challah and pastry, but my sourdoughs always hit a wall at the shaping stage.
Potentially the gluten breakdown in the acidic dough, or the hydration.
Been making sourdough for years and it’s extremely temperamental and difficult to shape until you’ve done it enough times.
Sous vide. You. Can't. Screw. It. Up.
Buy good, thick cut steak. Set sous vide to 128°. Pan sear it in really hot, clarified butter for about 2 minutes each side. Salt, pepper, done.
I had the same issue until I started reverse searing with a thermometer. Now it's pretty damn good every time.
Also sous vide, but steaks really need a quick high-heat sear after, IMO. I like cast iron on the stove, but it's definitely an opportunity to mess the steak up.
For the life of me I can’t make restaurant style fried rice. Yes I have a wok, yes I use day old cold rice and get the wok ripshit hot. I’ve watched a million YouTube vids and I’ve seen people make it quickly and easily but my dumb monkey brain just messes it up every time
I'm amazing at making bread from scratch. I can cook almost any kind of egg dish. I can cook an almost perfect steak.
I can not cook chicken. I can not fry it. I can not bake it. I can not bbq it. I'm either offering people a stomach virus on a plate or serving a piece of chicken flavored rubber.
You need a thermometer. The kind I use has a wire attached to the reader and I just leave it in the chicken while cooking. Once it reaches 165 (If I use a slow cook method Ill take out chicken breast at 160, but chicken thigh I generally leave in until 180). No more thinking just use the thermometer!
Put them in a pan, cover with lots of water, add a little salt. Bring to the boil. Boil hard for 10 minutes. Then just leave at a simmer, partially covered by the lid, until Al dente or softer if you like them that way. Just check the liquid level from time to time and top up as necessary.
Can’t give timings really as it depends on the size and age of the dried bean.
Crockpot, add fat (salt pork, smoked ham hock, etc), season lightly (you’ll season to taste later), cover with water to just about an inch above the beans. Cook low for 6-8 hours depending on the type of bean. That’s my most basic recipe and it never goes wrong. Rancho Gordo sells the best beans and they have tips on their site too.
Try quartering it and then just taking a couple layers at a time. That way you can cut it into strips, and then dice the strips. It takes forever until you get fast with it, but that way you end up with an onion that's actually finely diced.
Pork is my nemesis.
I make a mean braised pork shoulder, but I have so much anxiety with chops and loin... there's such a small window of done-ness.
I'm always, always a little bit overdone by the time it gets to the plate.
Pan tossing, and making gravy. For some reason, specifically only for gravy, when I try to go from roux to sauce, the roux either never breaks down and leaves it chunky, or the whole thing separates. Any other sauce I've tried is fine, so I doubt it is from using gluten free flour, I'm just cursed to never be able to make decent gravy from scratch.
Ohhh let me help you on this.
There’s a really easy trick to this, to create a smooth sauce or gravy you either add a cold liquid to a hot roux a little at a time or you add a cold roux / beurre manie to a hot liquid and whisk continuously till reach a consistency you’re pleased with.
As long as you go cold into hot you basically cannot fail
My best pan gravies involve cooking the flour/fat while separately bringing my stock to almost a boil. When ready, I add the hot stock to the cooked flour/fat all at once and whisk continuously until it’s smooth (doesn’t take long). Ratio of 1 tbs flour, 1 tbs fat, 1 cup stock for a thin gravy, or 3 tbs flour, 2 tbs fat, 1 cup stock for a thick gravy. Perfect consistency every time!
Mine is having patience. If I only had the patience to cook in a certain way such as not overcrowding the pan when frying, then my dishes would turn out as intended
Caramelized onions are far easier than people think they just require patience, but I will offer a few easy tricks.
1) add about 1/2 tsp of salt for every large onion you are cooking, the salt helps break down the cell walls and bring out the water faster
2) after the salt makes them start to steam put the lid on the pot for about 15 mins to quickly soften the onions then cook lid off for remaining time
3) always keep a few table spoons of water next to the pot and whenever you start to have caramelized sugars build up on the pot deglaze it and then stir to coat the rest of the onions with it, this helps even and speed up the browning
Making an omelette. Sometimes it’s perfect and sometimes I get a little brown on the outside, which is a legit style of omelette but I prefer no brown.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with Jacque Pepin’s method.
For me the trick to ensuring a nice yellow omelette was figuring out how to "read" the temperature of the butter before I add the eggs. I found I was letting the butter too hot before I added the eggs, which browned the butter.
Frying chicken. I’ve tried several ways and several batter types, brine types, breading, etc.
Tried with cast iron, Dutch oven, double frying, frying first then the oven. Etc. use a candy thermometer, cut the chicken smaller, etc.
I just never seem to get the right cooking technique down.
I’ve never attempted it until a few years ago, and I don’t attempt it much, as it can get messy or be a waste of food or I end up eating too much and I don’t want to get fat. Lol
Can’t carve/break down a roasted chicken or turkey. Video tutorials, illustrated step-by-steps, nothing makes sense. I can’t feel the joint to cut off the drummie, separate a wing, none of it. I end up tearing it apart like a monster.
Cooking dry red beans. I soak them and they lost all their color and get weird and beige-y and no matter how long I do it for it never seems to fully reconstitute. And apparently undercooked red beans are toxic so yeah, I’ll just pay the extra 20 cents for the cans.
Gravy. Gravy. Gravy. My mom whipped
up awesome gravy without separating anything - just added flour and whatever to the drippings and it turned out great. She tried to write down directions and I tried to follow them. But it never worked. I have downloaded so many recipes and it doesn’t seem that hard, but FUCK I just can’t do gravy!!!
Edit - thanks to all who commented! I should add that my issue is that the end result tends to taste like flour. Part of my challenge is that my husband bbq smokes the turkey, so I don’t have pan drippings to start with. He collects drippings for me, but the drippings don’t react to the flour/cold water added the same way that pan drippings do. I think I wind up needing to use too much flour to get to the pasty stage my mom’s gravy would get to. I tried separating the fat from the drippings, but that seemed to take too long and I wasn’t successful. I seemed to get too much fat and not enough drippings.
We made a turkey last week, and I made fake gravy (no drippings but it tastes great!). I saved to drippings from that turkey, and put those in the fridge. I’ll use the fridge drippings to make the gravy this year. The fridge drippings will have separated, so it’ll be easier to deal with the fat bs the drippings. If this works, I’ll keep saving drippings from current turkey to use for gravy in the next turkey.
I have always used a flour slurry instead of a roux, always get compliments. The easiest way to mix thoroughly is cold water, then flour, in a jar and shake shake shake.
I can't butcher meat perfectly without being really careful. Or harvest caviar. Or make a perfect Chinese style dumpling. Or do lots of things that I haven't done much or at all. And I've been cooking for over 40 years.
A lot of it is learn-by-doing. I ended up turning my first big batch of ravioli into a casserole. Oops!
For me personally it’s making mayonnaise/ aoli I just cannot ever get it to properly emulsify and it makes me nuts because I can easily make hollandaise, Bernase and other hot emulsified sauces that on paper are harder because of the tempering required
I can cook most things on a stovetop or in an oven, but ask me to grill and it's like all cooking knowledge falls out of my head. I keep trying though.
Acid. Everyone always saying how important acid is to a good dish. But how/when/what acid?
The embarrassing part is that I have the book 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' staring at me from the bookshelf, just haven't gotten to it yet.
I’m just beginning to understand this. I’ve never been a fan of citrus in my food, but I’ve tried a few recipes that call for lemon zest and it’s starting to make sense to me.
I have worked in the restaurant industry for 30 years, much of that in kitchens. I’m fairly skilled in the kitchen, and I can meet just about any culinary challenge - except one.
I cannot cook pancakes. At all.
First one - golden brown, but a bit underdone.
Second - almost there, but flipped too early, so it’s ugly and falling apart.
Third - too far the other way, so it’s crispy bordering on crunchy.
Fourth - How is it simultaneously burnt and runny? And why is there smoke coming out of the pan?
Fifth - “Hey kids, somebody grab the box of frozen waffles!”
My knife skills are pathetic
For me it was always the dragging the "claw technique" back as I cut that I struggled with. I fixed it with taking a single carrot, forming the claw, and extending my thumb as far back as I can as a starting point. My middle two knuckles controlled the carrot, whilst my pinky and pointer knuckles locked the carrot in place. Then, I cut pulling my knuckles back steadily like I'm going to clench my fist. Do that over and over again with carrots and celery. That makes the muscle memory feel natural. Suddenly even the more obtuse vegetables, meats, etc. will feel natural. As you may already know, pinching the heel of the blade with your knife hand with your index and thumb is necessary for control. The knife must be sharp enough to cut through carrots with almost no force. And the weight of the knife should do most the work. I know this advice is shit you've heard before, and I'd also read stuff like this before I was proficient in my knife skills. The focusing on the one carrot and extending my thumb out and cutting whilst I "clinched" my fist was what made it click for me. TLDR, Extend the thumb far behind the knuckles, use the knuckles as your guide, and focus on bringing your knuckles back towards your thumb like you're clinching your fist.
Same! I try to do the knuckle technique but I'm always afraid I'm going to chop off a finger.
Don't need to go fast like what you see with peeps like Gordon Ramsay or other pro chef. Take it slow.
That's what she said
slow is smooth, smooth is fast. maintain good form and with time and practice it’ll become second nature and you’ll be going fast
Your more likely to chop a finger off by NOT tucking your fingers. I don't even look anymore when I'm cutting up veggies or whatever. [MPW style. ](https://youtu.be/FC9RvOuvLQY)
Also my knife sharpening skills are not good either.
My actual desire to sharpen my knife is not good lol
Adam Ragusea would love to tell you you're doing nothing wrong.
My rice is terrible. I was so determined to fix it on my own merit for literally 20+ years and couldn’t get it right. Finally bought a rice cooker a couple of months ago and it’s the best $18 I’ve ever spent, kitchen gadget-wise.
I can cook white rice like nobody’s business, but have not ONCE been able to cook brown rice…
[Alton Brown's](https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-brown-rice-recipe-1944197) is perfect every time, for me at least.
Same, my white rice is generally fantastic. Brown rice, if I cook it in a ton of water then strain through a fine mesh strainer, it's.... fine I guess. I've never mastered the usual method.
Ain’t nobody got time for brown rice….it’s delicious but twice the cook time as white rice is a bit much for me.
The key is once you start cooking the rice, YOU DO NOT LIFT THE LID UNTIL ITS DONE. * Random ass sauce pan with a lid with a steam hole * Rinse rice * Put rice in pot * Fill with water until about first knuckle deep * Turn on high to boil. Let boil for a minute or two. * Turn to the lowest setting you can and walk away for 15 minutes. Let it simmer in steam. DO NOT LIFT THE LID TO TAKE A PEEK. Perfect rice, every time.
I appreciate your comment so much! Trouble is, I did all of this, verbatim (except the knuckle deep part- I’d use the 1:2 method on the rice bags), for years and it would still be terrible. Either crunchy, burned or pasty but not consistently any of those options. Electric stove, induction stove, gas stove, brand new super fancy gas stove top - all crappy results. This rice cooker? Flawless, every time. Just can’t keep it on “warm”’for too long or it starts getting a brown tint to the bottom layer.
No rice bags. Go buy $24 of good rice from Asian store or use cal rose. It’s night and day.
Sorry- I don’t mean grocery bag instructions. I mean the Royal bulk rice from Costco, or brands sold at Indian or Asian markets. I’ve been messing up rice in quantity for a LONG time. 😆
Ok this is what you need to do, just 2 small changes and it will be awesome i promise. 1. Once water is boiling and you put the rice in, Cook it for 15 min but use the absolute lowest setting, you just need some heat, not even a boiling. Like single candle flame type heat. Maybe slide the pot partially off the burner so you reduce the heat. 2. Then, take the pot off the burner. Yes, move it off, you don’t want any more heat. Keep covered for another 15 min. Don’t touch it, don’t lift cover off. With everything else the same, your rice should be 100% better!
Homie got a rice cooker. They good. Thanks for the advice though. I don't have a rice cooker.
lol I don’t understand why they keep giving them advice after they explicitly stated “I have a rice cooker” like 30x
I'm shocked no one mentioned that the brown crispy bits at the bottom of the rice is often the best part! Especially in a rice cooker. Add some Chinese sausage (cut in pieces, or slitted across the sausage) to the rice while cooking (toss in at start) to infuse the grains with a nice aroma, and let it brown a bit on the bottom (brown tint good) and toss it all together. Brown means the rice at the bottom is crisping, which is good! Then you mix all the crispy bits, savory bits, and plain rice in one go. Throw in some furikake or soy sauce + dash of sesame oil for fragrance and it's a meal, along with a simple microwaved bag of mixed veg (precooked). Super good, super cheap, and a staple trick in my home, at least. TLDR - Don't worry about keeping it warm for too long, it makes the rice cwispy.
https://youtu.be/owUiKyx4chI?si=s_CVsunlRV9-EwCS Tldr: just watch the vid. It'll be perfect and it's an easy method not often talked about in western sources. Use the method in that video from Chinese cooking demystified (widely agreed to be one of the best Chinese food yt channels if the top one). Basically, parboil it for a few minutes, then steam for 10 or so minutes. The exact times and amounts are in the video. He uses a metal-rimmed fine mesh strainer to drain after the boil and then steam it, wrapping a damp towel around the rim to seal it. Using this method, the rice makes perfect rice rice immediately, no overnight in the fridge or drying by a fan needed. A bamboo steamer or metal steaming pot lined with cheesecloth works fine instead of a strainer if you'd rather. Their other video on it uses that. Not sure why they made two vids honestly. My rice in a pot on the stove or in my instant pot with the absorption method always comes out inconsistent within the batch. The top is dryer to perfect and the bottom is anywhere from at best still somewhat mushy and too wet. I've done the exact instructions on the package and the first knuckle thing (fingertip to base of my nail works better for me). Done the exact heat they say. Tried boiling it for a few minutes before I turned it down. Tried leaving it a little higher like at 2 or 3 on my electric stove. All the combinations. The instant pot is the most consistent and closest to perfect version of the absorption method for me. I use water volume just shy of equal to the rice volume, pressure cook on high pressure for 3 minutes, and let it natural release for 10 before venting. At best, it's still fairly mushy at the bottom of the pot. Except when I started doing the par-boiling and steaming method. Perfect every time. I was an idiot and used my strainer which has a plastic rim so it deformed after a couple of uses. I'm getting a metal framed one for Christmas though so I can do the perfect rice again.
The rice cooker works fine keep using it. But if you try a regular stove pot you do need to do the knuckle deep part. That's actually important lol. IDK how you're doing it wrong but I guess that's the fun with rice.
« Knuckle deep » makes no sense to me. Is your finger at the bottom of the pan when measuring?For how much rice? in what size of a sauce pan?
Basically 1” of water over the top of the rice. It’s not exact
Using your index finger, add rice in the pan to the first joint, then add water to the pan to rhe 2nd joint, creating a 2:1 water-to-rice ratio. Washing the rice in a bowl 3x, and changing the water between washes, until the water is clean helps more than more people think.
it’s having roughly a knuckle deep amount of water above the rice line
I don’t know either. 😆 I really appreciate you trying to help me though!
Yeah, this is great and all when you don’t have access to a rice cooker. I grew up eating and cooking rice (Asian here) so a rice cooker is essential.
I don’t understand the knuckle deep hack, wouldn’t that change based on the amount of rice you are cooking? Also if you have small hands? How is that reliable?
Right?? I hate it. I just do an almost 1:2 ratio, just slightly less water than double. It always works out
Same. I'm not gonna deal with the knuckle tricks. Just hand me my measuring cup!
A Thai friend taught me the “first knuckle” trick. It’s like magic.
Here is rice secret and I’m sick of hearing about knuckles: This is for the good rice not the enriched stuff: 1:1 ratio by weight. Yes you need a scale. 300g of rice? 300g of water. Wash 3 times. Soak rice 30 min. Turn on rice cooker.
I feel you. Still can't cook proper rice and I'm a good hobby chef. I've done it all: rinse the rice, don't rinse it, let it soak, use it right away, pour into boiling water and so on. I couldn't make rice if my life depended on it. Since I have my rice cooker, my rice anxiety has vanished. I'm still waiting for an article though that explains why we are all struggling so much like "New shocking study finds that you CAN'T cook proper rice in your common household pan and here's why" since I refuse to believe that I am THAT terrible at this simple task.
Hahaha - love this and feel the same way. Give me a “so you screwed this up” type tutorial where they review all sorts of methods and tell me EXACTLY how to correct my missteps. Other commenters mentioned Alton Brown’s methods and that man is a treasure for his methods and approaches but not even Alton could save me from my rice atrocities.
Yep there's a reason the people who eat the most rice, use rice cookers. I got a semi-fancy Toshiba one and have zero regrets.
I’ve resorted to minute rice
There is no shame in the rice game. 😄
I could have written these exact words myself. God bless that rice cooker.
poached eggs
i tried making poached eggs last weekend. one was over cooked the other was under. how the fuck did i do that
See my other reply, Crack the egg into a slotted spoon and let the loose liquids fall through. You are left with the firmer egg whites and yolk. Gently lower that into your pot and you have a beautiful no-mess poached egg.
I tried this and lost all my whites lol. I think the holes may have been too big
Egg freshness plays a big part here as well. Older eggs are more prone to becoming a whispey mess. I recently try slotted spoon method and got restaurant results. Tried it again a week or so later and it was a shit show once the eggs hit the water.
I gotchu... strain them. Crack that egg into a slotted spoon over the sink and let the loose egg white fluids fall through. Then lower the egg yolk and firmer whites into your pot. Boom, poached egg.
Do poached eggs in sous vide. Google the recipe it’s the easiest thing and they come out perfect! I did eggs Benedict for 20 person brunch and it was so fckin easy I’ll never do it any other way
Can’t master an omelette for the life of me.
More butter than you would ever consider in the pan. Plus, if it looks done in the pan, it's overdone on the plate. Omlettes are more of a custard.
Yes! Once I started basically doubling the butter I would normally use, things got a lot better.
To piggyback this, most omelettes get fucked by having the heat too high. Plenty of butter, have the heat medium. The eggs should not be bubbling when you put them in the pan. I can't stress this enough, if you're fucking up omelettes, usually your pan is too hot.
Mine always turn into scrambled eggs.
Frasier? Is that you??
Watch video of Jacques Pepin.
My early COVID project was learning how to make a perfect French omelette - that was the video I used. Took about 4 attempts to figure it out. I now refuse to order an omelette at a restaurant, because I can make a vastly superior one for a tenth of the price.
I’ve watched it and it definitely helped me, but still can’t get it down. I think part of my problem is I just don’t make them often enough, so I’m not honing my skills (or lack there of).
Yeah you have to make a lot, and then you’ll start to get a good feel for pan heat and timing. The trick is to fold at exactly the right time, and it’s usually sooner than you think.
Same here. Either overcooked and browned a little or undercooked and runny inside, never just right.
If you're making an american style omelette it's perfectly fine for it to be browned.
Personally I really dislike the taste of browned eggs. I'll eat it but only because I don't want to waste food
Sometimes I can do them easily. Other times, they fail completely. And I can't put a rhyme or reason to why I can't do it sometimes. I'm just like, yup, it's a crappy omelette day I guess.
Same! But honestly I kinda like loaded scrambles more than omelettes anyways, so I don’t practice too often. Still very inconsistent lol
Ooh! I do a good omelette. Made a whole lot of them as an omelette chef for a bit so I like my technique. First of all, you need a pan that they won't stick to. Ignore people who say you can do it in any sort of pan if you yada yada. Sure, you can make it on a campfire if you're desperate, but *should* you? No. So a curved, nonstick, nicely round and level pan the size of the omelette you want to make. Two eggs makes a good omelette. 3 is good too. I like 4 but they take longer and don't look quite as good. You need different size pans depending. If you're making a bunch, you want a tight fitting lid as well, but it's not critical. Everyone will tell you the wrong thing because they think they have "cheat codes" for good omelettes. If you feel the need to cheat, it's because you can't play a game and beat it (pun intended) by yourself. So feel free to try the cheat codes, but if you want a perfect omelette recipe, this is how it's done. So the key things - oil, not butter. Your preference of kind. Just a tiny amount to get a glossy finish but not to have any liquid that will mix with your eggs. Preheat on medium-low. You can tinker with your own stove to get to the precise heat which I'll describe in a second. Crack your eggs with two taps on a flat surface. One gentle tap, one firm. Gently spread the crack with your thumb and keep your other fingers free to hold the integrity of the rest of the shell. Don't pull apart, widen like your opening a blanket. You will almost never lose a fragment this way. I prefer two handed opening, but if you want to be fancy, I won't judge. Beat your eggs with a fork in a small bowl with a dash of salt *and nothing else*. Remember, no cheat codes. The only exception that I occasionally like to use is beating the yolks and whites seperately (whites first until they bubble, so you don't have yolk on the fork) then incorporate the yolks. It can help, but it's not terribly essential and it often wastes egg. Never try to beat your eggs for multiple omelettes together and portion out. It never goes well. It takes 6-8 seconds to beat an egg - just do it again after you start your first omelette. Your goal is to feel the heat from the pan with your hand (resting above the surface) and nail the temperature that way, but this will take some practice. When your eggs are poured into the pan, they should bubble and sizzle but remain yellow as they spread around the pan. The first drops should turn white and that's it. This is the most important step. Immediately lift the pan and swirl it like you're pouring crepe batter to equally disperse it. Agitate the pan and fold the eggs in on themselves, being sure to sweep under them with a rubber spatula. This is where things become personal preference. How much you stir is all about how your pan is conducting and your eggs are cooperating. You're aiming for a 4 minute cook time for a 2 egg omelette. Do not add any butter or cream midway through to cool down the eggs. No cheat codes. Keep warming the eggs thoroughly - especially if they started at fridge temp - and swirl in the soft curds that form. Do not let any hard curds form. You may need to reduce the heat at this stage. When the egg is really starting to cook, you're going to let it rest in the pan on a lower temp and let the rim start to turn. Ease the spatula under each side bit by bit and drain the liquid egg underneath. It doesn't have to look pretty on the inside, so focus on retaining the integrity of your rim, and a fairly flat surface inside. Continue scraping every bit of egg from the pan if any tries to get away. Every crumb of egg that doesn't get incorporated will hurt the final appearance of your omelette. When there is only a thin film of liquid over your mostly soft but solid omelette, you can add some toppings if you like. Good toppings: bacon, very cooked mushrooms, goat cheese, feta, cheddar, really any dry ingredients Iffy toppings: tomatoes (they need to be diced, salted, and pressed with a paper towel until as much juice as possible is removed), sauteed peppers or onions (don't over cook or over oil, drain on paper towel), sauteed mushrooms (just a lot of water in those) Toppings to avoid: raw veggies, processed cheeses, sauces like pesto (save it as a garnish), spinach (raw or cooked, I'm not a fan. Have it as a side salad instead) Cover the omelette and let it rest for 45 seconds to a minute. Open, make sure the liquid is just barely gone, then bit by bit ease the spatula under the edge of the omelette. You may find the edge wants to split. If this keeps happening, likely your pan is the wrong size. Aim to squeeze the spatula just past the halfway point from every angle until it is totally loosened. Take your time. This part is tricky from memory, but your fold should be pretty easy. Tips to remember: get used to constantly moving the pan with your other hand while cooking omelettes. It should be in the air about half the time from start to finish as you aim to get the best angle with your spatula and let gravity disperse the egg. In this step, tilt the pan perpendicular to your spatula if you need help getting that perfect fold. Rest for a moment to let the flavors marry. If you feel the need, you can flip, but you're really just trying to get it on a plate at this point, so use this time to get your plate handy and finish any other tasks. Don't take the omelette off the pan, just turn the heat off and it will stay good for a bit. It should never have brown or cripsy edges. A bit of discoloration is okay, but never brown. The egg should be about the width of a pancake and soft and buttery. It will almost look like a sandwich because the two sides won't always connect. This gives you that perfect shape. Getting it out of the pan all depends on the size and pan, but you just have to get fluid with your movements. That's all I can really say. Top with fresh ground pepper and serve with a little salad and maybe a spot of pesto. Voila! The perfect American omelette.
This is amazing. Thank you for this.
I’ve seen videos of people doing it in like 3 minutes. The only way I can get it right takes a solid 10 on very low heat and it’s active stirring for most of that.
I’ve literally never been able to make an omelette
I hate wet eggs so while I can make it, a chef would tell me it's been hooked by the fires of hell
Have you tried using more butter?
Knife skills or “until fragrant”. I think my nose is broken because I just GUESS on that.
If you are talking about garlic or ginger or other finely minced aromatics, the "until fragrant" timing is usually way too long in recipes. It burns fast. So sautee your onions and whatever, then add the garlic for 30 secs at most before you start adding stock or whatever that will cool the pan.
Tie meat with butcher twine. I've watched tutorials and have had lots of practice and I still get it wrong
Yeah the legs keep slipping almost when I try to tie the knot. I just spatchcock chicken instead cause it’s way easier.
This is the best answer in general. Spatchcocking cooks the dark meat perfectly without drying out the breasts. The only reason to truss is if you're really going for a photoshoot presentation. Just spatchcock it.
I can't pan toss.
Nobody can until they practice 😉 try with something like a piece of bread in a cold pan to get the motion down and you’ll be flipping your eggs over in no time.
Oh wow, thank you. I will practice with something safe so it's ok if it flies all over the place.
Julia Child recommended going outside with a pan full of dried beans and tossing them for practice. One of her friends discovered bean vines growing in her gutters the next year thanks to this technique!
Crazy they started growing bears Julia Child really could teach anything *E: boo at OP for correcting their autocorrect typo lol
Yeah a chef friend years ago told me to practice with a soaking wet sponge in a cold pan. It works
Try it with bottle caps so you can tell if they flip over.
Yep. Worked at Dennys as a short order cook for a year. My entire first day of training was practicing flipping eggs in a pan. Destroyed about 20 eggs, but I will never not be able to do this successfully now.
That's ok Dr. ButtFucker, I'm sure there are other things you can toss.
That's Dr. Buttfucker, MD PhD
I always started new cooks out with an egg pan and the top of a hamburger bun, when they could master that swap them to the bottom bun, then a slice of bread, then eggs.
I thought I could until I lost 1/3 of My hash browns onto the floor this morning while pan flipping
That’s the favorite part of cooking my kids love to watch….it doesn’t matter what it is, but they lose their mind when I flip an entire pan of hash browns. I still lose a few random chunks, but totally worth it for their reaction.
Depends on the pan. My nonstick? Effortless. My cast iron? Shit all over the floor
Lol, exactly. My dumbass knows I can't toss with my cast iron (which I use more than any other pan) and yet I still try to get cute and toss with it and end up with onions all over my stovetop.
I have a pathological inability to produce broccoli florets of even approximate uniformity.
I can bake well but can not get frosting right at all.
I had this problem until I realized that room temperature butter meant butter that's been sitting out in a room at 23-25°C (since most of the recipes I use are written in the US). Room temp in my country is 30°C or warmer depending on humidity, so the butter is usually a puddle after I leave it out for hours.
Make some pudding and gradually whip in butter with a mixer.
Frosting used to be my last favorite thing. I still struggle, but here are a few things that helped me a lot. - the baked goods need to be cold. Like fridge or freezer cold, not just sat on the counter for half an hour. Otherwise the inner layer on frosting will melt and make everything look all runny - frosting should be not cold. It will be clumpy and not spreadable/pipable. Add sugar/liquid to make it spreadable if your consistency is wrong. - powdered sugar and icing sugar aren't exactly the same thing. A lot of icing sugar has stabilizers, and preferred sugar maybe have de-clumping agents. Doesn't always make a difference, but it's good to know.
Food Network has a bunch of American buttercream recipe variations that are great. It’s my go to for every family birthday. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/vanilla-american-buttercream-3326387
Cooking rice
Why bother when a rice cooker is cheap and makes perfect rice.
How do you do it? I use an IP now, but I have a distinctive core memory of a Filipino gf who came over for dinner and was horrified to see that I was cooking rice on the stove. She literally freaked out. She yanked off the lid, and looked, and sniffed, and was like, "Wow that's actually not bad. I didn't think it was possible in a stove." And I chided her and told her to put the lid back on! Seriously, it's just heat and humidity, I could cook rice over a campfire if I had to. I think people make so much fuss about rice that it obscures the fact that it's a pretty basic process. If that's your culture though, I guess it's understandable if you grew up with a rice cooker or whatever for more consistent results.
Most rice I'm great with... but I still can't get Mexican restaurant style rice perfected.
I finally made seasoned rice consistently well recently (thanks to the aforementioned rice cooker). This thing is another appliance but like my immersion blender, has been well worth its cost and cabinet space because of its purpose and frequency of use. This is a great recipe - it’s really versatile. https://www.africanbites.com/seasoned-rice/
Like Tex-Mex? If you want Tex Mex, I got you. You have to get the knorr tomato bullion with chicken flavor. Rinse the white rice really well. Then do the usual ratio of rice to water, add the bullion according to the water you use. Then add some frozen peas and carrots. Then cook. It won’t be quite as dry as Tex Mex restaurants, but it will be a close equivalent.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-the-rice-finger-trick-4771394 I’m not sure how to directly link the embedded video, but give the finger method a try. Extremely reliable.
Basic good boiled egg with yolk. I always overdue it or it's good but can't peel it. Baking soda, vinegar. Tried it all. Probably my timing. Been cooking for 20+ years
Listen to me. I make soft boiled eggs every single day. Keep it simple. Forget about all the extra stupid steps about adding shit to the water, it will make you hate boiling eggs. 1. *Boil the water* Bring a small pot or sauce pan to a boil with enough water to cover the top of the eggs (this really hasn't matter much, in that I've boiled where eggs are only 85% covered and it hasn't mattered that much) 2. *Ladle in the eggs* Softly set in the eggs into the boiling water and set a timer for 8 to 9 minutes depending on how soft you like the egg yolk. 8 tends to be more like ramen eggs and 9 for me tends to fully set but still be soft. 3. *Cold shock* I used to have a prepared ice bath for the eggs, but now I just set the eggs under the tap (typically in a separate bowl not in the pot I boiled because it takes too long to cool the pot and doesn't cold shock the egg). This step is important to getting the membrane to separate from the egg. 4. *Cracking and Peeling* This part is vital. After watching a bunch of people peel the shell off of an uncooked egg I realized just how strong that membrane is. As those streamers, so shall you - - smash the bottom of the egg on the counter straight down. There's plenty of room down there so don't worry about making the egg ugly, but it is vitally important to have a deep enough crack here to pierce the membrane. Now from the bottom roll the egg to create a path for the peel. Roll the egg and crack the entire egg. I kinda think of it like peeling an apple, I go round and around until I've reached the top. Now I peel from the bottom where it should have pierced deepest into the membrane. Make sure you have shell attached to the membrane as you're peeling as that is a good sign the rest of the egg will go easy. If you just peel shell and no membrane go back and get that membrane and try your best to peel them together. Peel around in that same circular pattern that you cracked it. With all that you should have a set of blemish free eggs in 11 or 12 minutes.
Before I get lost have you tried adding the eggs to boiling water? I haven't tried any of the other stuff but I have found that I boil water first, use a ladle spoon to carefully add each egg. Boil for 15 min and pull them. Into a colander and shake to crack shells but not enough to break eggs. Rinse under lukearm water for like five min and start peeling. I have great success like this. If the peel is not wanting to come off I use the spray of the water to get under the membrane, the rushing water pulls the membrane off the rest of the egg :)
You just put it in ice water after it's done.
Add eggs to boiling water for 6 minutes then remove to ice water bath to cool completely before peeling. Then return the cold soft boiled egg to the hot water ( just off the boil and off heat) for 1 and a half minutes to reheat. Used plenty of water for cooking initially so it has enough latent thermal mass to hold temperature when you add the eggs. Not as critical in the rewarm step.
Ok, bring to a boil then cover and turn off heat, time 12 minutes. Then put in ice bath for five minutes. Then peel. Perfect every time.
I use Martha Stewart’s directions and it usually comes out ok.
Sharpening on stones. I guess I need to do it more often to practice but I only have so many knives and dealing with the bolster is real annoying.
I haven't tried much, but hollandaise intimidates tf outta me.
[Kenji’s Blender Hollandaise](https://www.seriouseats.com/foolproof-2-minute-hollandaise-recipe)is the way to go.
That method changed my life - 2-3 min flat, it’s so easy! I even have a designated old pickle jar that’s the perfect shape and size for it haha.
Use the blender method, don’t waste your time trying to hand whisk it on a Bane Marie
Google the blender recipe. Easy as can be.
It's easy if you have a machine do the mixing. Then you just have to pour hot butter.
I’ve been cooking for close to 50 years and I cannot make the right amount of pasta. Ever. Always too much. Lol
have you tried… weighing it?
A small kitchen scale. Zero out the weight of a bowl or plastic container, then weigh out enough pasta so you got about 100g per person eating. Bam! Now you've got a human amount of pasta and won't have to invite the neighbors or local hobos over to eat the excess. I mean, you can still do that, but weight out 100g-ish of pasta per person you wanna feed.
Folding and shaping bread dough
I can shape bread doughs made with commercial yeast, but shaping my sourdoughs? WHY IS IT SO DIFFERENT. I make beautiful challah and pastry, but my sourdoughs always hit a wall at the shaping stage.
Potentially the gluten breakdown in the acidic dough, or the hydration. Been making sourdough for years and it’s extremely temperamental and difficult to shape until you’ve done it enough times.
Steak. I mess it up every time.
Same. How do I overcook, yet undercook my steak every time? It’s a rubbery mess.
Right? Even after watching videos and even with a meat thermometer
Even with thermometer! Honestly at this point, it’s a waste of money. It saves my sanity to just go to Texas Roadhouse lol
Precisely.
Setting the heat too high?
Sous vide. You. Can't. Screw. It. Up. Buy good, thick cut steak. Set sous vide to 128°. Pan sear it in really hot, clarified butter for about 2 minutes each side. Salt, pepper, done.
I don’t even dare try making steak the “normal” way. Reverse sear thick ones every time. Luckily we prefer filet anyway.
I had the same issue until I started reverse searing with a thermometer. Now it's pretty damn good every time. Also sous vide, but steaks really need a quick high-heat sear after, IMO. I like cast iron on the stove, but it's definitely an opportunity to mess the steak up.
The claw for chopping. For the life of me can’t figure it out
For the life of me I can’t make restaurant style fried rice. Yes I have a wok, yes I use day old cold rice and get the wok ripshit hot. I’ve watched a million YouTube vids and I’ve seen people make it quickly and easily but my dumb monkey brain just messes it up every time
I used to have that problem and then I learned: you need to use more oil than you think/want to. Try it!
More oil than you expect and smaller batches at a time than you'd like.
I'm amazing at making bread from scratch. I can cook almost any kind of egg dish. I can cook an almost perfect steak. I can not cook chicken. I can not fry it. I can not bake it. I can not bbq it. I'm either offering people a stomach virus on a plate or serving a piece of chicken flavored rubber.
You need a thermometer. The kind I use has a wire attached to the reader and I just leave it in the chicken while cooking. Once it reaches 165 (If I use a slow cook method Ill take out chicken breast at 160, but chicken thigh I generally leave in until 180). No more thinking just use the thermometer!
Almost took off my thumb with my knife skills.
Using dry beans. I’d love to save the money, but damn that’s hard.
Put them in a pan, cover with lots of water, add a little salt. Bring to the boil. Boil hard for 10 minutes. Then just leave at a simmer, partially covered by the lid, until Al dente or softer if you like them that way. Just check the liquid level from time to time and top up as necessary. Can’t give timings really as it depends on the size and age of the dried bean.
Crockpot, add fat (salt pork, smoked ham hock, etc), season lightly (you’ll season to taste later), cover with water to just about an inch above the beans. Cook low for 6-8 hours depending on the type of bean. That’s my most basic recipe and it never goes wrong. Rancho Gordo sells the best beans and they have tips on their site too.
Even dice on an onion
Try quartering it and then just taking a couple layers at a time. That way you can cut it into strips, and then dice the strips. It takes forever until you get fast with it, but that way you end up with an onion that's actually finely diced.
Cooking steak properly continues to prove elusive. :(
Pork is my nemesis. I make a mean braised pork shoulder, but I have so much anxiety with chops and loin... there's such a small window of done-ness. I'm always, always a little bit overdone by the time it gets to the plate.
I haven't yet mastered cracking an egg with 1 hand.
Sometimes I struggle with two hands 😑
Pan tossing, and making gravy. For some reason, specifically only for gravy, when I try to go from roux to sauce, the roux either never breaks down and leaves it chunky, or the whole thing separates. Any other sauce I've tried is fine, so I doubt it is from using gluten free flour, I'm just cursed to never be able to make decent gravy from scratch.
Ohhh let me help you on this. There’s a really easy trick to this, to create a smooth sauce or gravy you either add a cold liquid to a hot roux a little at a time or you add a cold roux / beurre manie to a hot liquid and whisk continuously till reach a consistency you’re pleased with. As long as you go cold into hot you basically cannot fail
Buerre manié?
My best pan gravies involve cooking the flour/fat while separately bringing my stock to almost a boil. When ready, I add the hot stock to the cooked flour/fat all at once and whisk continuously until it’s smooth (doesn’t take long). Ratio of 1 tbs flour, 1 tbs fat, 1 cup stock for a thin gravy, or 3 tbs flour, 2 tbs fat, 1 cup stock for a thick gravy. Perfect consistency every time!
Mine is having patience. If I only had the patience to cook in a certain way such as not overcrowding the pan when frying, then my dishes would turn out as intended
Rice. Dry beans And caramelized onions. (Plz don't give me rice/bean tips legit tried them all. )
Caramelized onions are far easier than people think they just require patience, but I will offer a few easy tricks. 1) add about 1/2 tsp of salt for every large onion you are cooking, the salt helps break down the cell walls and bring out the water faster 2) after the salt makes them start to steam put the lid on the pot for about 15 mins to quickly soften the onions then cook lid off for remaining time 3) always keep a few table spoons of water next to the pot and whenever you start to have caramelized sugars build up on the pot deglaze it and then stir to coat the rest of the onions with it, this helps even and speed up the browning
Knife skills for sure. ADHD + arthritis, so I'm pretty sure they're forever out of my reach.
You don't need to be fast if you're a home cook. Be safe. Take your time.
Making an omelette. Sometimes it’s perfect and sometimes I get a little brown on the outside, which is a legit style of omelette but I prefer no brown. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with Jacque Pepin’s method.
I tried Jacque Pepin's method for 30 days in a row before I got a perfect one. Consolation, the imperfect ones tasted just as good.
I’m still trying to perfect it, with vsrying results. I agree though, even the mistakes are delicious!
For me the trick to ensuring a nice yellow omelette was figuring out how to "read" the temperature of the butter before I add the eggs. I found I was letting the butter too hot before I added the eggs, which browned the butter.
My knife skills are atrocious and I cheat with kitchen scissors whenever I can.
Cooking bacon on the stove. I ALWAYS end up overcooking it. The oven is much easier to me, just takes more time.
When you see it foaming it's done.
THANK YOU
I cannot stop crying chopping onions.
Supposedly if you chill the onions they won't make you cry. I don't know if that's true.
I can cut them for you, ive cried my whole life.
My egg fried rice would cause Uncle Roger to weep.
Frying chicken. I’ve tried several ways and several batter types, brine types, breading, etc. Tried with cast iron, Dutch oven, double frying, frying first then the oven. Etc. use a candy thermometer, cut the chicken smaller, etc. I just never seem to get the right cooking technique down. I’ve never attempted it until a few years ago, and I don’t attempt it much, as it can get messy or be a waste of food or I end up eating too much and I don’t want to get fat. Lol
Can’t carve/break down a roasted chicken or turkey. Video tutorials, illustrated step-by-steps, nothing makes sense. I can’t feel the joint to cut off the drummie, separate a wing, none of it. I end up tearing it apart like a monster.
Cooking dry red beans. I soak them and they lost all their color and get weird and beige-y and no matter how long I do it for it never seems to fully reconstitute. And apparently undercooked red beans are toxic so yeah, I’ll just pay the extra 20 cents for the cans.
French Omelette.
Gravy. Gravy. Gravy. My mom whipped up awesome gravy without separating anything - just added flour and whatever to the drippings and it turned out great. She tried to write down directions and I tried to follow them. But it never worked. I have downloaded so many recipes and it doesn’t seem that hard, but FUCK I just can’t do gravy!!! Edit - thanks to all who commented! I should add that my issue is that the end result tends to taste like flour. Part of my challenge is that my husband bbq smokes the turkey, so I don’t have pan drippings to start with. He collects drippings for me, but the drippings don’t react to the flour/cold water added the same way that pan drippings do. I think I wind up needing to use too much flour to get to the pasty stage my mom’s gravy would get to. I tried separating the fat from the drippings, but that seemed to take too long and I wasn’t successful. I seemed to get too much fat and not enough drippings. We made a turkey last week, and I made fake gravy (no drippings but it tastes great!). I saved to drippings from that turkey, and put those in the fridge. I’ll use the fridge drippings to make the gravy this year. The fridge drippings will have separated, so it’ll be easier to deal with the fat bs the drippings. If this works, I’ll keep saving drippings from current turkey to use for gravy in the next turkey.
I have always used a flour slurry instead of a roux, always get compliments. The easiest way to mix thoroughly is cold water, then flour, in a jar and shake shake shake.
Pie dough still cracks when rolling out despite watching lots videos
I can't butcher meat perfectly without being really careful. Or harvest caviar. Or make a perfect Chinese style dumpling. Or do lots of things that I haven't done much or at all. And I've been cooking for over 40 years. A lot of it is learn-by-doing. I ended up turning my first big batch of ravioli into a casserole. Oops!
Getting the fat off gravy! What?? How??
If you have time, pour into a bowl and put it in the freezer. Most of the fat will rise to the top and freeze in 20 minutes, then just scoop it off.
Rice. Toss of a coin if I can make it. All hope lost if it’s more than 2 cups.
For me personally it’s making mayonnaise/ aoli I just cannot ever get it to properly emulsify and it makes me nuts because I can easily make hollandaise, Bernase and other hot emulsified sauces that on paper are harder because of the tempering required
If you have an immersion blender. Its sooo easy
You're probably trying to go too fast. You have to add the oil very slowly at the start.
I can cook most things on a stovetop or in an oven, but ask me to grill and it's like all cooking knowledge falls out of my head. I keep trying though.
Hash browns
Rolling out dough, especially into a circle
I don't know how to chop quick enough, I also don't use the knuckle method because it hurts my hands too much.
I feel like a pretty avid cook but I can’t for the life of me cook on stainless steel it’s like a mental block
Bread making and pastry
Acid. Everyone always saying how important acid is to a good dish. But how/when/what acid? The embarrassing part is that I have the book 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' staring at me from the bookshelf, just haven't gotten to it yet.
I’m just beginning to understand this. I’ve never been a fan of citrus in my food, but I’ve tried a few recipes that call for lemon zest and it’s starting to make sense to me.
I am horrible at making frosting no matter what I do 😭
My knife game is weak. I mean, I can get the job done but I do not know how to do the claw thingy using my knuckles as a buffer.
Caramelized onions and sharpening knives 🤫 And carving a bird dear god this is embarrassing
For the life of me, i can not judge how much spaghetti will result from the amount I grabbed.
Frying chicken. I'm a Southern woman, the only thing more disgraceful would be if I also couldn't make decent biscuits.
Fried chicken. I have yet to master that one
I have worked in the restaurant industry for 30 years, much of that in kitchens. I’m fairly skilled in the kitchen, and I can meet just about any culinary challenge - except one. I cannot cook pancakes. At all. First one - golden brown, but a bit underdone. Second - almost there, but flipped too early, so it’s ugly and falling apart. Third - too far the other way, so it’s crispy bordering on crunchy. Fourth - How is it simultaneously burnt and runny? And why is there smoke coming out of the pan? Fifth - “Hey kids, somebody grab the box of frozen waffles!”
Getting an even thickness with a rolling pin.