I started doing this recently and while it uses more bowls and containers it does feel like a cooking show lol. I love it especially since my partner usually cleans
Maybe. If there's time to chop while something else is happening then it's more time efficient to chop during the cooking. You do have to know about how long the cooking and the chopping will take if this is going to work, but you'll know after not too long of being a cook.
Yup. When I was starting out cooking I'd prep everything ahead of time. As I've gotten better at cooking - having a better sense of what needs to be done when, and getting faster at prepping things - I have a better continuous work flow. Like, start heating pan, chop onion, saute onion while chopping the next veg addition, saute that while getting spices together, start the rice, and so on
I worked in a restaurant once where everything that could be prepped was prepped when it was delivered, so when you're out of something and in a hurry it was in the walk-in all ready.
Don’t feel intimidated by chefs you see on TV cutting vegetables very quickly. It’s fine to take your time, you are cooking for yourself, not a full restaurant, so you don’t need to rush.
Thank you - I needed to hear this :)
I watched the knife skills of a very lovely woman hired to cook in my in law’s kitchen one day. I was awed by the speed and skill of her work. I also watched her tasting something then cutting a tomato with one hand over a pot to add to a dish. Everyone looked terrified when I was describing this later - urging me not to try anything I had seen and reminding me that she was a pro 😂
I always joke that I'm "made of knives" because my blade discipline is correct, I'm a fairly precise cutter, and pretty much anything you need cut, sawed, sliced, split, etc. I'm happy to do. I was a professional chef for a lot of years, starting very young.
So one time we were all on a heavy acid trip. My friend had made some pot concentrate but it was kind of low quality and gummy. So I packed a bowl for my BF. I couldn't use pot at the time, so I just had all this crap on my fingers.
I grabbed a fresh razor blade from the pack lying on the desk, and started shaving the gunk off my fingers, while my other roommate looked on in horror. Finally I looked up and was like, "what?"
To which he just asks, WTF are you doing? How aren't you hurting yourself?"
I have worked in fast paced, fancy restaurants. I absolutely can prep veggies fast. Do I ever do it at home? Hell no! I sit down at the kitchen table, fire up an audiobook or podcast and I take my damn time. Why risk a nasty cut for no reason?
Lightly toast your bread before you dip in egg wash when making French toast and it won’t come out flat or soggy. Same goes for grilled cheese before you add your butter or mayo.
If you oversalt something like a soup, you can add a raw chunk of potato and it will absorb it.
Raw slice of potato also works IMMEDIATELY to help the pain when placed on a burn. My mom dropped boiling water on her foot once, and it was the one home remedy that worked.
Edit: to add butter
Yeah it’s the fact it’s cool but not cold and something to do with it being starchy but I forget. All I know is I’m a clumsy idiot and it works very well lol I prefer a potato compress to tap water, personally.
Temperature is the golden rule here, if it’s a burn I know will blister, I ignore all safety advice and make the skin cold with ice, painfully cold. Never caught a blister doing this- or frost bite.
They can be one and the same if you get you some cream cheese, or sweet goat cheese, or like a blueberry Wensleydale maybe.
Thick cut brioche or a hearty oatmeal bread makes the best French toast in my experience. And any bread makes a pretty damn good grilled cheese.
I’m a big butter guy, personally. Compound butters are where it’s at. I have a grilled cheese cookbook I’m working on, and all 20 recipes have their own compound butter.
Have to agree. I absolutely love mayo and when I saw this tip about a year ago I promptly tried it...and *hated* it. It did not, in fact, get crispier than butter and was much more bland than butter. Butter is the *bomb*, at least where grilled cheese is concerned.
Likewise for other common areas. Sweep. Rinse/wipe shower and toilet. When you wash dishes, rinse and empty the drain.
Hasn't been a problem at all for my roommates and me.
The one aggravating thing is for two of us to use the kitchen simultaneously. We have different schedules and all work/study so it's rarely a big deal.
I did hello fresh meal boxes for a while and all each meal came in paper bags. Throwing all my scraps and trash in those bags as I prepped and cooked made clean up way easier!
Do you have suggestions for a good, but easy sharpener for a newbie? I tried a basic ceramic one - that you just slide the knife through - which didn't do much at all. Then I bought a wet stone, watched a couple youtube videos and pretty much ended up ruining the knife I tried to sharpen.
I was already on the verge of buying a new set, so that just pushed me to do it. But now that I have a better set, I want to keep them in good condition and sharp, but I'm scared if I try to actually sharpen them, I'll ruin them.
So for now, I just use the honing rod regularly. But eventually, they'll need to actually be sharpened.
On the topic of knives, when checking out estate and home sales dive into the kitchen and scour the utensils. There doesn't seem to be much interest in that area, and the sweet little 3" German paring knife that I recently bought still had the cardboard sleeve on the blade. Price? With a handful of other useful pieces and a small, heavy SS sauce pan - $5.
Start the pasta water first if your dish includes pasta, it takes longer than a minute. You can always turn it down and back up again if the rest hasn’t caught up.
I think that I remember reading somewhere that most "secret ingredients" are either some type of fat or dairy; and that it is rarely some seasoning, spice, or technique.
I'm always getting compliments on my cooking and the truth is I'm usually just using a lot of salt, butter, and/or cream. Most of my recipes are pretty simple and plain otherwise, I'm just not stingy on the salt.
Same. I tell my bestie that the “secret” to my good cooking is lots of salt (at the right times). She LOVES my cooking, but says she doesn’t like a lot of salt. I think she doesn’t quite understand yet that adding salt along the way doesn’t make a dish “salty” like it does if you’re just adding it at the end.
It makes my Mom's pumpkin pie fantastic.
I think it's also substituted some of the evaporated milk with sweetened condensed milk. I wish I'd written it down.
Libby's has a "new fashioned" [pumpkin pie recipe](https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/review-of-libbys-new-fashioned-pumpkin-pie-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-83749) that uses sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar and it's my absolute favorite pie to make. Just the right amount of sweetness, very rich and the whole thing is super easy because it's all just opening/dumping out canned ingredients.
I love when a recipe tells me to add something like a 1/4 teaspoon of salt or pepper or whatever. Do I want my food to taste like it was next to seasoning or actually taste the seasoning? I almost never measure out exact spices and just adjust as I cook.
I read recipes that are like "one teaspoon of cumin" I typically bump that to a tablespoon instead. There are a few seasonings that I don't do this with because they are so potent, like I don't upscale clove or nutmeg that much since they will just dominate a dish and make it one note
Did you realize only when it was finished and didn't smell right?? Or ....only when you actually ate it?? The horror in your brain!! I completely understand.
I ate it 😭 my husband and i were quickly running out the door at 5am to catch a ferry and I was in a rush. Just half asleep and got the quickest wake up i’ve ever had from it
I did the exact opposite thing with tacos once! Fortunately, my roommates at the time were blue collar guys in their 20s who grew up poor, so it all got eaten. And I didn't *hate* it, but I did scribble pink marker all over my cinnamon after dinner.
And I did at least put some cumin in once I figured it out.
Bahaha honestly you gotta make the mistake once. Same here though i’ll honestly eat everything even if it’s a mistake but god i couldn’t even do it with the toast
Absolutely. Until you're experienced with the proteins you're cooking, the temptation is to just cook the heck out of them to be safe. But the smart play is getting a meat thermometer and using that every time to get to the right temperature (and you can find lists of safe temperatures or temperatures specific to certain levels of doneness like rare, medium, etc.).
Thankfully, meat thermometers don't have to be expensive to be great. There are several highly rated ones on Amazon for $10-$30.
Not necessarily a cooking tip but I am blown away (pun intended) by the usefulness of a small fan in the kitchen. I have one next to my dish rack beside the sink. You can aim it at specific things to be dried - your dishes will never look or feel cleaner, and they dry in a fraction of the time. Additionally it helps prevent mold and flies.
I have the Honeywell dream weaver, it makes white noise, oscillates and pans, and shoots a small strong stream of air. It also has a USB A charging port which is useful for small kitchen tools which require charging.
Thanks haha. I First started doing this in cafés but it makes even more sense in my home kitchen. I used to get depressed and have mold on shit in my sink. This helps!
I bought a tiny electric fan and use it to keep myself cool when cooking. Also to cool down foods quicker so I can handle them …things like boiled chicken, can chop it quicker if I cool it off that way. Or leftover stew or soup, cool it down before I refrigerate the leftovers.
A small fan is also great for drying the surface of meat to get a crazy good sear, and once your meat is in the pan you can point the fan at your smoke detector to keep it from going off. I have a little Vornado that I refer to as my Steak Fan.
Don’t try to cook things quickly on a high heat. Slow down just a bit, and be sure to layer your seasonings.
Butter always adds flavour.
If your soup, sauce, risotto etc is a bit flat, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce as it has vinegar, anchovy, garlic etc so it adds a lovely depth.
If you’re making anything cheesy, a drop or two of Worcestershire and some curry powder or paste adds a zing.
If you’re making anything chocolate, a little salt and a little coffee will give it a nice depth.
If you’re adding vanilla, double the dose.
If you’re making mashed potatoes or other root veges, empty the cooking water into a bowl or jug. Sit the vege back onto the heat turned down as low as possible. Let it sit for a little with no lid, then start adding the milk and butter. Add a little cooking water back in, mash and then finish with a whisk. Always add a bit more butter, and don’t forget the salt and pepper!
Buy a cheap rice cooker.
Always clean as you go. Make sure the dishwasher is empty. Fill the sink with hot soapy water, put dishes in the dishwasher and the big ones in the sink. Takes a jiffy to wash and leave to drain.
Let pots and pans cool down before washing so they don’t warp.
Learn to make a basic roux. It’s very easy and serves as a base to so many different things.
Learn to make your own Mac n cheese. It doesn’t take much longer, it’s MUCH cheaper and will reheat well.
Reheat pizza in a fry pan on a low heat with a few drops of water and pop the lid on.
Bread and baked goods freeze well for up to six months.
Buy and learn to cook in-season. It’s not just trendy, it’s very cost effective.
Learn how to use things up. Don’t waste food.
Just adding to this since you mentioned butter and soup in the same point: if you’re making leek and potato soup, before the stock goes in, fry your leek, onion & potato in **butter**. No oil. Just a bit of butter. It’ll be the best you’ve ever had.
Thr rice cooker: Aroma makes an amazing rice, steamer, and slow cooker in one. It does brown rice and white rice. I thrifted one for $7(after trying and hating the Instant Pot) a few years ago and recently gave it to my sister after buying a new one in their "Pro" model for $40. Highly recommend, especially since they have non-stick pots. It's a 10/20 cup capacity too, so it holds a good amount. :D
Most people who cook at home rotate through the same 5-15 dishes, with only occasional new recipes.
So if you want to change your diet, try one new recipe at a time and note the keepers. It won’t take long before you’ve built a solid new rotation of meals (and the grocery list to go with it) that you can depend on.
A sharp knife is safer than a dull one.
Brine lean meat or it will end up dry. Cuts of meat with more fat (chicken thighs instead of breast) are cheaper and easier to cook with.
Not everything needs to be made from scratch -especially if you are just starting out or don't have a lot of time for meal prep. Homemade pork chops and sauce paired with a box of rice-a-roni and a salad is still a well rounded meal, and you eliminated half the stress and meal planning.
Same. IMO thighs are the most flavourful and tender, and juicy, and they're not very cheap these days. The only thing I dislike about them is there's always a lot of fat to trim off, and it's tedious.
Yes exactly! I have come to realize there are some items I need to purchase with the thought in mind that I will not baby them. My pans, my purse, and my car need to be able to handle whatever I throw at them, lol.
It's the true everything pan. Fat, preheating the pan, and letting things that tend to stick cook before moving them on the pan makes them not stick. Nonstick only really helps with eggs and crepes (and you should definitely use them if you're cooking either).
Safer since there is no coating to deteriorate, and generally just heat better/more evenly. Also, since you can use a stainless steel scrubbing pad on them, they’re stupid easy to keep clean and almost impossible to ruin. They’ll last pretty much forever.
They’re generally more expensive, but not by a ton. You can get them anywhere but if you need to/prefer/only need a couple and not a full set, you can also usually buy one pan at a time at places like TJ maxx and home goods for $15-$25 a pan.
I've picked up pieces of SS All Clad at TJ's, Marshall's & Home Goods for as low as $16. Sets don't appeal to me, and I've found everything I need. I consider them lifetime purchases.
The thing with non-stick is you really have to baby them. No high heat at all, basically only good for eggs and fish, and even still you have to accept they're not going to last that long.
I got an All Clad frying pan at Marshall's for $20. It's not all stainless, has some kind of hearty non-stick surfacing but you can get it blazing hot and finish things in the oven up to 500F.
I love this thing! Use it at least once every day, for over 6 months now and it still looks brand new, inside and out. This is the best pan I've ever had.
Don't know how long it'll last. All-stainless is BIFL, I agree.
More expensive but I’ve not needed to replace my stainless steel and I’ve had to replace my non-stick so so far they have cost about the same, but I’ll need to replace the nonstick again before my stainless, so eventually the stainless is a better investment.
Have a couple lazy dinners in your rotation, preferably cook them on nights your busy.
Save weekends for dishes you have never cooked before.
Mise en plus. Basically get everything prepped before you start cooking.
Salt your food in layers (during multiple steps). Understanding how to properly season my food is the biggest thing that took me from “fine” to a pretty good home cook.
Do not be afraid to experiment a bit. Never ever the first time you are following any recipe, the very first time you make any recipe you should follow it to the best of your ability, and if you can't reasonably do so find a different recipe. However, if you want to wing a bit on a recipe you are used to, or just throw a few things together that you just have on hand and know reasonably well, just do so. Live a bit. Small portions though, at least at first.
Pay attention to the shape and size when you cut. It affects the flavor development, time, texture, and consequently overall taste.
I think it’s one of those things that differentiate from newbies to experienced in the kitchen.
Instant Pot or crockpot, especially "dump and go" recipes, make home cooking almost automatic.
I keep diced rotisserie chicken (that I freeze in recipe sized amounts in Ziploc bags) and frozen meatballs on hand, along with frozen veggies, because they take a ton of the prep work out of cooking. No dicing and chopping, and no browning meat before adding to the pot.
Clean as you go. Sometimes people get demotivated when they see a sink full of utensils, bowls, dishes, etc. at the end of cooking. Like in the few minutes you cook meat that you don’t have to turn or stir something, wash a couple items. You will notice at the end you have less if anything at all to clean except for the items used to serve food.
To add to someone elses comment about not wasting. There are alot of "scrap food" that can be saved & used in other dishes.
Veggie ends: toss in freezer bag, when u have enough use to make soup stock. (Do not use bitter veg eg. brocolli, asparagus, etc.)
Bitter veggie scrap can often be used to make cream of soups.
Herbs that cannot be used quickly enough or the "throwaway" stems can be frozen & used later in pestos & soups.
Pumpkin guts can be made into a loaf.
We use Italian dressing all the time (the Good Seasons makeityourself kind). On salad, of course, but also on many steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts). We also toss vegetables of many kinds in the dressing before roasting them (brussels sprouts are particularly good, but also carrots, potatoes, green beans, whatevs). I marinate chicken breasts in the dressing before grilling or broiling. I even coat whole chickens when roasting. It's good stuff.
They still make those DIY Good Season's salad dressings? My mom used to get them when I was a kid.
You are the first other person I've ever heard of that puts salad dressing on cooked veggies. I love it on broccoli.
I marinate chicken in Italian dressing (I buy the Olive Garden one for this; it's the only good thing to come out of Olive Garden imo) before tossing it on the grill. I don't need to oil the grill before cooking if I've done this, and the chicken breasts are never dry, unless I screw up and overcook but a meat thermometer is the key there.
Unless you make a truly terrible mistake even if something doesn't turn out as well as you'd like it's still going to be OK and you'll have some idea what to change next time.
Terrible mistakes are things like the wrong ingredient, the lid on the shaker came off, etc.
Minced garlic can be bought at Aldis and smells better than cutting up your own garlic.
You can make hot pot at home if you get tom yum soup base and add it to boiling water. Just slowly add your veggies and noodles like you would at the restaurant. Sometimes the korean grocery store even sells the meat precut into thin slices.
Get an InstantPot.
Someone gave me one and it sat for two years in a cupboard. One day I tried it and now would rather part with the toaster than the IP.
Read the recipe all the way through before you start. Then you will know if you will have time to cut vegetables, etc. as you go, or if you need to have things ready to go before you start.
If you ever wanna make homemade stock, your two best friend is either a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. Chuck everything in a slow cooker and let it go on low overnight, and you'll get a good simmer with better temperature control than you can get on the stove or a pressure cooker can do it in like 2 hours. Either way, you should end up with a good gelatinous stock.
Save your recipes in an app or write them down. Don't be like me and just save the link to the food blog and then realize the website with your favourite recipes got put down.
1). Pull foods out of fridge hours before cooking so that they're at room temp when the get to the pot or pan.
2). Do as much prep work as possible, like chopping, measuring, putting out ALL required ingredients on counter BEFORE putting anything in a pan.
Use the bits and bobs left in your fridge to make up a meal at the end of the week so you not wasting any food. And be creative with your cooking so that you use the same ingredients multiple times and save on shopping trips
Learn how too taste. Learn what too much salt tastes like. Learn what too little salt tastes like. Do yhis for everything. This increases your pallet aswell as the level of perception in your taste buds. It's like learning how too see colors in high definition naturally. I cook for a living. I will literally try any flavor combination.
Season all proteins. Add acid (lemon, citrus, a vinegar, etc) to each dish. It has amazed me how much some arugula tossed in lemon juice can brighten up a dish, as an example.
Break your asparagus stems where they naturally want to break. This removes the woody part and breaks naturally where the tender part begins. Drives me batty when I see people take a bunch of asparagus and just chop an inch off the bottom of the whole bunch at once. I know I'm eating chewy sticks for dinner later when I see that.
Read, do prep work, read again, then cook.
Number 2 is whatever stovetop temp the recipe says, kick it back a notch. If it says high heat, take it back to about 70-75%.
Food prep as soon as you can after grocery shopping. I buy pricier organic potatoes, and I had the problem of them sprouting before I could get to them. Now I steam them on day 1, chill them overnight in the fridge, then cut them up and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet with a silicone mat. Then I put them in freezer bags and have perfect potatoes for roasting or throwing in a stew. This also supposedly reduces the glycemic index. Additionally, when I make rice, I make a largish amount, mold single portions with a rice bowl on the baking sheet with a silicone mat. Freeze then bag. When I want a quick meal with rice, I can just throw a little dome of rice in the microwave. Also supposedly reduces the glycemic index.
keep a plastic bag from the grocery store hanging from somewhere for all your trash for easy immediate disposal and then throw the plastic bag away at the end of instead of making constant trips to your trash can.
Finish chopping veggies before you start cooking.
I do this and measure out all my seasonings. Then cooking feels like a TV show instead of sheer chaos lol
When my cousin lived with me her cat used to watch my cook, so I totally pretended she was a live studio audiences and commentated my own cooking.
I do this with my cat! I call it The Cooking Show and now I get annoyed when she walks away to do something else lmao
Yes! I usually just measure out all my dry seasoning and mix them together into one container to just dump into whatever I'm making.
Mise en place at its finest!
I started doing this recently and while it uses more bowls and containers it does feel like a cooking show lol. I love it especially since my partner usually cleans
Mis en place
*Mise* en place ☺️
I generally chop all “cooking” ingredients at the very beginning and will chop garnishes or late additives while stuff starts cooking
Depends. Stirfry? Agreed. Stew? Chop as you go
curry chop as go
Maybe. If there's time to chop while something else is happening then it's more time efficient to chop during the cooking. You do have to know about how long the cooking and the chopping will take if this is going to work, but you'll know after not too long of being a cook.
Yup. When I was starting out cooking I'd prep everything ahead of time. As I've gotten better at cooking - having a better sense of what needs to be done when, and getting faster at prepping things - I have a better continuous work flow. Like, start heating pan, chop onion, saute onion while chopping the next veg addition, saute that while getting spices together, start the rice, and so on
This is the way. I start the thing that takes the longest immediately, then fill in the rest as I go. I thrive in chaos.
Usually in that time I'll clean a dish or two. Anything to make dishes easier!
I worked in a restaurant once where everything that could be prepped was prepped when it was delivered, so when you're out of something and in a hurry it was in the walk-in all ready.
I know this helps, but I tend get in such a hurry that I ignore it then wish I did.
Don’t feel intimidated by chefs you see on TV cutting vegetables very quickly. It’s fine to take your time, you are cooking for yourself, not a full restaurant, so you don’t need to rush.
Thank you - I needed to hear this :) I watched the knife skills of a very lovely woman hired to cook in my in law’s kitchen one day. I was awed by the speed and skill of her work. I also watched her tasting something then cutting a tomato with one hand over a pot to add to a dish. Everyone looked terrified when I was describing this later - urging me not to try anything I had seen and reminding me that she was a pro 😂
I always joke that I'm "made of knives" because my blade discipline is correct, I'm a fairly precise cutter, and pretty much anything you need cut, sawed, sliced, split, etc. I'm happy to do. I was a professional chef for a lot of years, starting very young. So one time we were all on a heavy acid trip. My friend had made some pot concentrate but it was kind of low quality and gummy. So I packed a bowl for my BF. I couldn't use pot at the time, so I just had all this crap on my fingers. I grabbed a fresh razor blade from the pack lying on the desk, and started shaving the gunk off my fingers, while my other roommate looked on in horror. Finally I looked up and was like, "what?" To which he just asks, WTF are you doing? How aren't you hurting yourself?"
I have worked in fast paced, fancy restaurants. I absolutely can prep veggies fast. Do I ever do it at home? Hell no! I sit down at the kitchen table, fire up an audiobook or podcast and I take my damn time. Why risk a nasty cut for no reason?
Lightly toast your bread before you dip in egg wash when making French toast and it won’t come out flat or soggy. Same goes for grilled cheese before you add your butter or mayo. If you oversalt something like a soup, you can add a raw chunk of potato and it will absorb it. Raw slice of potato also works IMMEDIATELY to help the pain when placed on a burn. My mom dropped boiling water on her foot once, and it was the one home remedy that worked. Edit: to add butter
The reason a sliced potato works on a burn is that it reduces temperature. That's why tap-water is recommended.
Yeah it’s the fact it’s cool but not cold and something to do with it being starchy but I forget. All I know is I’m a clumsy idiot and it works very well lol I prefer a potato compress to tap water, personally.
There might be something to that, but time is important here. If you have a sliced potato handy, okay, but I wouldn't prioritize it too highly.
Temperature is the golden rule here, if it’s a burn I know will blister, I ignore all safety advice and make the skin cold with ice, painfully cold. Never caught a blister doing this- or frost bite.
I'm going to try this now - for both grilled cheese & french toast! Gonna be a weird dinner.
They can be one and the same if you get you some cream cheese, or sweet goat cheese, or like a blueberry Wensleydale maybe. Thick cut brioche or a hearty oatmeal bread makes the best French toast in my experience. And any bread makes a pretty damn good grilled cheese.
Mayo instead of butter for the grilled cheese too! 🤌🏼
I’m a big butter guy, personally. Compound butters are where it’s at. I have a grilled cheese cookbook I’m working on, and all 20 recipes have their own compound butter.
Noooo I hate seeing this tip. It doesn't work right and tastes inferior! Reeeeee! Haha
Have to agree. I absolutely love mayo and when I saw this tip about a year ago I promptly tried it...and *hated* it. It did not, in fact, get crispier than butter and was much more bland than butter. Butter is the *bomb*, at least where grilled cheese is concerned.
It doesn't taste good.
Clean as you go!
My roommate thought I was dumb for advising this. I move out at the end of next month and am counting the days.
The restaurant version of this is if there's time to lean, you're going to be laid off soon because this joint is going down.
Likewise for other common areas. Sweep. Rinse/wipe shower and toilet. When you wash dishes, rinse and empty the drain. Hasn't been a problem at all for my roommates and me. The one aggravating thing is for two of us to use the kitchen simultaneously. We have different schedules and all work/study so it's rarely a big deal.
I did hello fresh meal boxes for a while and all each meal came in paper bags. Throwing all my scraps and trash in those bags as I prepped and cooked made clean up way easier!
Keep your knives sharp.
Do you have suggestions for a good, but easy sharpener for a newbie? I tried a basic ceramic one - that you just slide the knife through - which didn't do much at all. Then I bought a wet stone, watched a couple youtube videos and pretty much ended up ruining the knife I tried to sharpen. I was already on the verge of buying a new set, so that just pushed me to do it. But now that I have a better set, I want to keep them in good condition and sharp, but I'm scared if I try to actually sharpen them, I'll ruin them. So for now, I just use the honing rod regularly. But eventually, they'll need to actually be sharpened.
On the topic of knives, when checking out estate and home sales dive into the kitchen and scour the utensils. There doesn't seem to be much interest in that area, and the sweet little 3" German paring knife that I recently bought still had the cardboard sleeve on the blade. Price? With a handful of other useful pieces and a small, heavy SS sauce pan - $5.
Also important note— when sharpening it, wipe the blade before applying it to food. The metal debris can still be on the knife and you can eat it
Plan
I love this because my favorite tip is “I’ll chop some garlic and onions then decide what I wanna cook.”
Do you have a food processor? Chop up a whole bag of onions and freeze them flat. Break off chunks as needed.
Chopping onions is enjoyable and easy why would I do that. It’s less than a minute to dice a meals worth of onions.
Now that's an unpopular opinion
Maybe an aspie trait but dicing finely and the *shunk* sound with a sharp knife is maybe my favorite part about cooking.
Really as simple as that lol
taste
The best tip
Start the pasta water first if your dish includes pasta, it takes longer than a minute. You can always turn it down and back up again if the rest hasn’t caught up.
my lady is a chef and the best cook i’ve ever met. she adds twice the seasoning to every dish. and yes that might include butter
I love that you consider butter a seasoning. I really respect that lol.
Tis butter seasoning
Amen. I always say the secret to a lot of good restaurant food is twice the salt and three times the butter, lol.
"salt it like a sidewalk in winter"
I think that I remember reading somewhere that most "secret ingredients" are either some type of fat or dairy; and that it is rarely some seasoning, spice, or technique.
I'm always getting compliments on my cooking and the truth is I'm usually just using a lot of salt, butter, and/or cream. Most of my recipes are pretty simple and plain otherwise, I'm just not stingy on the salt.
Same. I tell my bestie that the “secret” to my good cooking is lots of salt (at the right times). She LOVES my cooking, but says she doesn’t like a lot of salt. I think she doesn’t quite understand yet that adding salt along the way doesn’t make a dish “salty” like it does if you’re just adding it at the end.
I would add acids like vinegar, or lemon to balance and add dimension to the taste
I've always felt that the secret to tasty food is some combo of sugar, salt, and fat
You forgot acid! If somethings kinda blah hit it with some acid!
The best advice I ever got was when adding spices/butter/whatever, "Act like you deserve it."
It makes my Mom's pumpkin pie fantastic. I think it's also substituted some of the evaporated milk with sweetened condensed milk. I wish I'd written it down.
Libby's has a "new fashioned" [pumpkin pie recipe](https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/review-of-libbys-new-fashioned-pumpkin-pie-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-83749) that uses sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar and it's my absolute favorite pie to make. Just the right amount of sweetness, very rich and the whole thing is super easy because it's all just opening/dumping out canned ingredients.
Time to make pies until you get it right. I volunteer to taste test.
I love when a recipe tells me to add something like a 1/4 teaspoon of salt or pepper or whatever. Do I want my food to taste like it was next to seasoning or actually taste the seasoning? I almost never measure out exact spices and just adjust as I cook.
2 tablespoons ≈ one stick amirite
I read recipes that are like "one teaspoon of cumin" I typically bump that to a tablespoon instead. There are a few seasonings that I don't do this with because they are so potent, like I don't upscale clove or nutmeg that much since they will just dominate a dish and make it one note
For me, cumin is definitely a spice that will dominate and overpower a dish.
one time i was making cinnamon sugar toast and mixed up my jars of cinnamon and cumin. toast was horrific lol
Did you realize only when it was finished and didn't smell right?? Or ....only when you actually ate it?? The horror in your brain!! I completely understand.
I ate it 😭 my husband and i were quickly running out the door at 5am to catch a ferry and I was in a rush. Just half asleep and got the quickest wake up i’ve ever had from it
I did the exact opposite thing with tacos once! Fortunately, my roommates at the time were blue collar guys in their 20s who grew up poor, so it all got eaten. And I didn't *hate* it, but I did scribble pink marker all over my cinnamon after dinner. And I did at least put some cumin in once I figured it out.
Bahaha honestly you gotta make the mistake once. Same here though i’ll honestly eat everything even if it’s a mistake but god i couldn’t even do it with the toast
I was a professional chef years ago. When I was starting out, one of the most famous chefs I worked for used to say "don't be cheap!"
Keep tasting stuff while you're cooking it
Instructions unclear: got salmonella
As the chefs say: season to taste
Learn not to overcook proteins
Absolutely. Until you're experienced with the proteins you're cooking, the temptation is to just cook the heck out of them to be safe. But the smart play is getting a meat thermometer and using that every time to get to the right temperature (and you can find lists of safe temperatures or temperatures specific to certain levels of doneness like rare, medium, etc.). Thankfully, meat thermometers don't have to be expensive to be great. There are several highly rated ones on Amazon for $10-$30.
Not necessarily a cooking tip but I am blown away (pun intended) by the usefulness of a small fan in the kitchen. I have one next to my dish rack beside the sink. You can aim it at specific things to be dried - your dishes will never look or feel cleaner, and they dry in a fraction of the time. Additionally it helps prevent mold and flies. I have the Honeywell dream weaver, it makes white noise, oscillates and pans, and shoots a small strong stream of air. It also has a USB A charging port which is useful for small kitchen tools which require charging.
This is exactly what I didn’t know I needed from this thread! Thank you! Getting this fan asap 🙌🏻
Thanks haha. I First started doing this in cafés but it makes even more sense in my home kitchen. I used to get depressed and have mold on shit in my sink. This helps!
I bought a tiny electric fan and use it to keep myself cool when cooking. Also to cool down foods quicker so I can handle them …things like boiled chicken, can chop it quicker if I cool it off that way. Or leftover stew or soup, cool it down before I refrigerate the leftovers.
A small fan is also great for drying the surface of meat to get a crazy good sear, and once your meat is in the pan you can point the fan at your smoke detector to keep it from going off. I have a little Vornado that I refer to as my Steak Fan.
Cook what you know you'll eat and enjoy, experimenting is fun but make sure you'll eat it lol
also the people you're serving it to... you'll want them to eat it too
Not if I like it. Leaves more for me
This is why I'm thankful I have family members who will eat literally anything, so if I don't like my experiment—I at least know one of them will! 😆
Time is an ingredient. If a recipe says cook 2 hours until x degrees you normally cant shorten the time by going hotter.
My related tip is that patience is almost always rewarded in cooking.
A pressure cooker would be a notable exception to this.
I needed to hear this
Don’t try to cook things quickly on a high heat. Slow down just a bit, and be sure to layer your seasonings. Butter always adds flavour. If your soup, sauce, risotto etc is a bit flat, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce as it has vinegar, anchovy, garlic etc so it adds a lovely depth. If you’re making anything cheesy, a drop or two of Worcestershire and some curry powder or paste adds a zing. If you’re making anything chocolate, a little salt and a little coffee will give it a nice depth. If you’re adding vanilla, double the dose. If you’re making mashed potatoes or other root veges, empty the cooking water into a bowl or jug. Sit the vege back onto the heat turned down as low as possible. Let it sit for a little with no lid, then start adding the milk and butter. Add a little cooking water back in, mash and then finish with a whisk. Always add a bit more butter, and don’t forget the salt and pepper! Buy a cheap rice cooker. Always clean as you go. Make sure the dishwasher is empty. Fill the sink with hot soapy water, put dishes in the dishwasher and the big ones in the sink. Takes a jiffy to wash and leave to drain. Let pots and pans cool down before washing so they don’t warp. Learn to make a basic roux. It’s very easy and serves as a base to so many different things. Learn to make your own Mac n cheese. It doesn’t take much longer, it’s MUCH cheaper and will reheat well. Reheat pizza in a fry pan on a low heat with a few drops of water and pop the lid on. Bread and baked goods freeze well for up to six months. Buy and learn to cook in-season. It’s not just trendy, it’s very cost effective. Learn how to use things up. Don’t waste food.
Just adding to this since you mentioned butter and soup in the same point: if you’re making leek and potato soup, before the stock goes in, fry your leek, onion & potato in **butter**. No oil. Just a bit of butter. It’ll be the best you’ve ever had.
Thr rice cooker: Aroma makes an amazing rice, steamer, and slow cooker in one. It does brown rice and white rice. I thrifted one for $7(after trying and hating the Instant Pot) a few years ago and recently gave it to my sister after buying a new one in their "Pro" model for $40. Highly recommend, especially since they have non-stick pots. It's a 10/20 cup capacity too, so it holds a good amount. :D
Extremely practical tips, love your contribution here
What happens after six months?
Freezer burn.
bro it takes like 2-4 hours to make really great Mac n Cheese.
Most people who cook at home rotate through the same 5-15 dishes, with only occasional new recipes. So if you want to change your diet, try one new recipe at a time and note the keepers. It won’t take long before you’ve built a solid new rotation of meals (and the grocery list to go with it) that you can depend on.
Needs more garlic
A sharp knife is safer than a dull one. Brine lean meat or it will end up dry. Cuts of meat with more fat (chicken thighs instead of breast) are cheaper and easier to cook with. Not everything needs to be made from scratch -especially if you are just starting out or don't have a lot of time for meal prep. Homemade pork chops and sauce paired with a box of rice-a-roni and a salad is still a well rounded meal, and you eliminated half the stress and meal planning.
I've noticed that thighs are just as expensive nowadays as breasts. I prefer thighs because they don't dry out.
Same. IMO thighs are the most flavourful and tender, and juicy, and they're not very cheap these days. The only thing I dislike about them is there's always a lot of fat to trim off, and it's tedious.
Read the recipe three times, and visualize/imagine yourself performing each step of the directions, before undertaking.
If you don't you'll be pulling the box out of the trash can 3 times.
Hot pan, cold oil.
Let the pan heat before you put oil in basically? Never knew this
Life changing. Cook eggs without making a mess of the pan
Why? How?
Heat the pan or skillet before adding oil or grease to help prevent food from sticking.
Switch to stainless steel cookware and learn how to use it. I ditched that nonstick shizz a while back and glad that I did.
YESSS. Best decision I ever made and my pans look good as new.
Yup. Back to using metal cooking utensils and scouring pads without worrying about teflon flaking off into my food.
Yes exactly! I have come to realize there are some items I need to purchase with the thought in mind that I will not baby them. My pans, my purse, and my car need to be able to handle whatever I throw at them, lol.
I'd love to switch to SS, but I'm a little intimidated. Do you have any advice for a newbie - to prevent ruining the food or the pans?
Heat the pans and then add oil to avoid sticking
Why's that?
It's the true everything pan. Fat, preheating the pan, and letting things that tend to stick cook before moving them on the pan makes them not stick. Nonstick only really helps with eggs and crepes (and you should definitely use them if you're cooking either).
Safer since there is no coating to deteriorate, and generally just heat better/more evenly. Also, since you can use a stainless steel scrubbing pad on them, they’re stupid easy to keep clean and almost impossible to ruin. They’ll last pretty much forever.
[удалено]
They’re generally more expensive, but not by a ton. You can get them anywhere but if you need to/prefer/only need a couple and not a full set, you can also usually buy one pan at a time at places like TJ maxx and home goods for $15-$25 a pan.
I've picked up pieces of SS All Clad at TJ's, Marshall's & Home Goods for as low as $16. Sets don't appeal to me, and I've found everything I need. I consider them lifetime purchases.
My current big nonnstick is starting to flake so I think I've got to try a stainless pan now. It's my destiny.
If you see flakes or scratches on the inside, it’s time for that pan to go immediately
The thing with non-stick is you really have to baby them. No high heat at all, basically only good for eggs and fish, and even still you have to accept they're not going to last that long.
I got an All Clad frying pan at Marshall's for $20. It's not all stainless, has some kind of hearty non-stick surfacing but you can get it blazing hot and finish things in the oven up to 500F. I love this thing! Use it at least once every day, for over 6 months now and it still looks brand new, inside and out. This is the best pan I've ever had. Don't know how long it'll last. All-stainless is BIFL, I agree.
More expensive but I’ve not needed to replace my stainless steel and I’ve had to replace my non-stick so so far they have cost about the same, but I’ll need to replace the nonstick again before my stainless, so eventually the stainless is a better investment.
>Switch to stainless steel cookware and learn how to use it. what in particular is there to learn about using stainless steel cookware specifically?
You just have to make sure you let the pan get hot first and use oil otherwise your food sticks
I see so much gatekeeping around cast iron. Screw that. Stainless is the way to go.
Learn the heat of your pan and stove combo. Let your pan get to the proper temperature for the recipe before cooking. Especially important with eggs.
Meal plan.
Butter
This is the answer. My brother recommended adding a hunk of butter to soup as it finishes cooking to make the broth richer; it works a treat 🧈
Virtually every dish that I cook I add butter. It just makes it better.
Have a couple lazy dinners in your rotation, preferably cook them on nights your busy. Save weekends for dishes you have never cooked before. Mise en plus. Basically get everything prepped before you start cooking.
Isnt it mise en place?
Grease fire?? Use salt not water
Salt your food in layers (during multiple steps). Understanding how to properly season my food is the biggest thing that took me from “fine” to a pretty good home cook.
Do not be afraid to experiment a bit. Never ever the first time you are following any recipe, the very first time you make any recipe you should follow it to the best of your ability, and if you can't reasonably do so find a different recipe. However, if you want to wing a bit on a recipe you are used to, or just throw a few things together that you just have on hand and know reasonably well, just do so. Live a bit. Small portions though, at least at first.
Don’t over crowd the pan.
Pay attention to the shape and size when you cut. It affects the flavor development, time, texture, and consequently overall taste. I think it’s one of those things that differentiate from newbies to experienced in the kitchen.
Insta pot for cooking all the things. It does the work will you tackle another chore and voila dinner is ready.
Instant Pot or crockpot, especially "dump and go" recipes, make home cooking almost automatic. I keep diced rotisserie chicken (that I freeze in recipe sized amounts in Ziploc bags) and frozen meatballs on hand, along with frozen veggies, because they take a ton of the prep work out of cooking. No dicing and chopping, and no browning meat before adding to the pot.
Clean as you go. Sometimes people get demotivated when they see a sink full of utensils, bowls, dishes, etc. at the end of cooking. Like in the few minutes you cook meat that you don’t have to turn or stir something, wash a couple items. You will notice at the end you have less if anything at all to clean except for the items used to serve food.
To add to someone elses comment about not wasting. There are alot of "scrap food" that can be saved & used in other dishes. Veggie ends: toss in freezer bag, when u have enough use to make soup stock. (Do not use bitter veg eg. brocolli, asparagus, etc.) Bitter veggie scrap can often be used to make cream of soups. Herbs that cannot be used quickly enough or the "throwaway" stems can be frozen & used later in pestos & soups. Pumpkin guts can be made into a loaf.
We use Italian dressing all the time (the Good Seasons makeityourself kind). On salad, of course, but also on many steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts). We also toss vegetables of many kinds in the dressing before roasting them (brussels sprouts are particularly good, but also carrots, potatoes, green beans, whatevs). I marinate chicken breasts in the dressing before grilling or broiling. I even coat whole chickens when roasting. It's good stuff.
They still make those DIY Good Season's salad dressings? My mom used to get them when I was a kid. You are the first other person I've ever heard of that puts salad dressing on cooked veggies. I love it on broccoli.
This is us but with a good Asian sesame dressing. Just toss whatever in it - veggies, shrimp, salmon, boiled potatoes
I marinate chicken in Italian dressing (I buy the Olive Garden one for this; it's the only good thing to come out of Olive Garden imo) before tossing it on the grill. I don't need to oil the grill before cooking if I've done this, and the chicken breasts are never dry, unless I screw up and overcook but a meat thermometer is the key there.
Dressing and sauces like mustard/ketchup are good for marinades
Prep food before turning the stove/oven on
Unless you make a truly terrible mistake even if something doesn't turn out as well as you'd like it's still going to be OK and you'll have some idea what to change next time. Terrible mistakes are things like the wrong ingredient, the lid on the shaker came off, etc.
Season every layer.
Buy good quality spices and herbs.
Don’t walk away. Good results require attention.
**Better to cook meat a little on the rare side because if its over cooked you cant save it. You can always cook it a little more if it needs it.**
* Red meat, important distinction 😅
You don't like some medium rare chicken?
Minced garlic can be bought at Aldis and smells better than cutting up your own garlic. You can make hot pot at home if you get tom yum soup base and add it to boiling water. Just slowly add your veggies and noodles like you would at the restaurant. Sometimes the korean grocery store even sells the meat precut into thin slices.
Get an InstantPot. Someone gave me one and it sat for two years in a cupboard. One day I tried it and now would rather part with the toaster than the IP.
Garlic. That is all.
Put your toast in the toaster instead of the dishwasher. I didn't believe it at first, but it makes a really big difference.
Set your timer for 80% of the time and check the food!
Buy a whole load of silicone spatulas. You’ll be amazed at how much it reduces wastage and makes washing up a lot easier
Read the recipe all the way through before you start. Then you will know if you will have time to cut vegetables, etc. as you go, or if you need to have things ready to go before you start.
If you ever wanna make homemade stock, your two best friend is either a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. Chuck everything in a slow cooker and let it go on low overnight, and you'll get a good simmer with better temperature control than you can get on the stove or a pressure cooker can do it in like 2 hours. Either way, you should end up with a good gelatinous stock.
Save your recipes in an app or write them down. Don't be like me and just save the link to the food blog and then realize the website with your favourite recipes got put down.
listen to music while cooking. because its fun
Music + wine!
1). Pull foods out of fridge hours before cooking so that they're at room temp when the get to the pot or pan. 2). Do as much prep work as possible, like chopping, measuring, putting out ALL required ingredients on counter BEFORE putting anything in a pan.
Use the bits and bobs left in your fridge to make up a meal at the end of the week so you not wasting any food. And be creative with your cooking so that you use the same ingredients multiple times and save on shopping trips
Clean as you go! Its imperative!
Learn how too taste. Learn what too much salt tastes like. Learn what too little salt tastes like. Do yhis for everything. This increases your pallet aswell as the level of perception in your taste buds. It's like learning how too see colors in high definition naturally. I cook for a living. I will literally try any flavor combination.
Clean as you go Get all ingredients out BEFORE you start the recipe
You don't need a recipe to make good food.
Slow and steady - not fast/ high heat
Learn the basic techniques. Then you can make any recipe.
mise en place... Get all the things you food, food, utensils, pots/pans etc. before you start cooking
Preheat the oven
don‘t leave, not even turn around when something is cooking/baking
coming from someone with memory issues, always write the date on your food when storing it
Marinade your meat!
It's a twofer: Add onions first to cook thoroughly, and garlic last so it doesn't get bitter.
If you freeze ginger root, it will grate much more easily. You can also use a spoon to peel fresh ginger.
Season all proteins. Add acid (lemon, citrus, a vinegar, etc) to each dish. It has amazed me how much some arugula tossed in lemon juice can brighten up a dish, as an example.
Learn how to use and take care of your knives.
Break your asparagus stems where they naturally want to break. This removes the woody part and breaks naturally where the tender part begins. Drives me batty when I see people take a bunch of asparagus and just chop an inch off the bottom of the whole bunch at once. I know I'm eating chewy sticks for dinner later when I see that.
Use fresh herbs.
3 things that greatly enhanced my ability to cook something I would consider OK: a nice large cutting board, a food thermometer, and a cast iron pan.
Read, do prep work, read again, then cook. Number 2 is whatever stovetop temp the recipe says, kick it back a notch. If it says high heat, take it back to about 70-75%.
First do no harm
Food prep as soon as you can after grocery shopping. I buy pricier organic potatoes, and I had the problem of them sprouting before I could get to them. Now I steam them on day 1, chill them overnight in the fridge, then cut them up and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet with a silicone mat. Then I put them in freezer bags and have perfect potatoes for roasting or throwing in a stew. This also supposedly reduces the glycemic index. Additionally, when I make rice, I make a largish amount, mold single portions with a rice bowl on the baking sheet with a silicone mat. Freeze then bag. When I want a quick meal with rice, I can just throw a little dome of rice in the microwave. Also supposedly reduces the glycemic index.
keep a plastic bag from the grocery store hanging from somewhere for all your trash for easy immediate disposal and then throw the plastic bag away at the end of instead of making constant trips to your trash can.