What are the best practices you’ve learned to save time or make a meal better.
Ok I might get downvoted to oblivion but I use MSG. It enhances the flavors so much that I have stopped going to restaurants.
Edit- I did my research and found no credible source that says MSG is harmful.
Edit2- If you go to a restaurant or order KFC chances are they use MSG as well
Anti-MSG propaganda actually comes from Asian racism, and was born out of the idea that Chinese food with its MSG was causing headaches and other health effects that were entirely made up. MSG is perfectly fine for you, and it makes a ton of things even tastier. I use it all the time in home cooking.
There is nothing wrong with MSG. It being bad for you is made up by racists.
Uncle Roger agree with you!
Hahaha true
- Nothing goes on a plate without being tasted
- If it’s too sour, add sugar
- if it’s sweet and you haven’t added acid, add a splash of vinegar.
- if it’s too hot, add fat
- if you burn it, throw it out.
- IF you taste it early, it should taste weak. If it’s fantastic when when it starts to simmer, it’ll be too harsh once it’s reduced.
- Taste it and it tastes empty or boring? Smell it. Smell all your herbs/spices on hand, which ever one it smells the closest to, add a healthy pinch and salt if it doesn’t taste salty already.
- know your oils and use the right ones. Olive oil can handle some heat and is great for savory, grapeseed is almost flavorless. Canola has a distinct flavor that doesn’t go with everything.
- season your meat before you cook it.
deleted by creator
Only thing I’d add is that, on 8, learn what rancid oil smells like. Most people keep things like olive oil in poor conditions (that’s without us even getting into quality of oil, or how people buy FAR MORE oil than they’ll reasonably be able to use), and the oil goes bad far faster than they think it will.
yeahhh, Hell, there are a couple exceptions, but nothing that goes into a dish should smell bad.
Biggest hack? Realizing that humans have been cooking for millennia, and that it’s in the best interest of big business to convince you that it’s difficult/expensive/extremely complicated.
You don’t NEED the fancy equipment every company out there is trying to sell you.
Not everything needs to be gorgeous on the plate, or a whole production to make.
The poorest people in the world cook delicious food every day.
For instance, you don’t need NEED a +$150 Japanese chef knife to cook at home. What you need is something that can hold an edge through general maintenance, a whet stone, a kitchen towel to dry off your blade immediately after you hand wash it, and a little bit of patience.
IKEA sells some surprisingly great single construction (steel blade, steel handle) knives, and their single body chef knife is like $25. Just get an honing rod for use before you start slicing, and a whet stone for periodic sharpening (there’s TONS of YouTube videos of all the different ways of sharpening your knife), and remember to wash and hand-dry after you’re finished. My chef knife cost me barely anything, and I’ve used it for years and years, and it still slices through a tomato without a problem. Also, I only cook for myself, so I can absolutely 100% guarantee my whet stone will “outlive” me.
That being said, a mandoline can save a lot of time, and a kevlar glove paired with that will save a lot of fingers.
Not exactly a mandoline, but I used to work at a place with a cheese slicer named “Old Nubby.” It had blooded the entire team at least once.
Did they ever learn to use protection?
Each one of them did after nubby took its toll
Legend has it the blood was never cleaned off either
When I have to use parchment paper, I crumple the paper ip into a little ball first, then press it out flat into the cooking vessel (sheet pan or loaf pan or whatnot) and it lays flatter/conforms to the pan better without rolling up all over the place rather than trying to just use a pristine sheet of parchment. It really works great.
LPT - go buy a box of half-size sheets from a restaurant supply store. Webstaurant was my go to until they sent their shipping prices into the stratosphere. I buy 1000 sheets at a time and store it with the sheet pans (the box is only a couple inches tall) and it lasts forever. Costs about $50-60 a box iirc which is way cheaper than buying in rolls.
Butter makes everything better
This is why restaurant food tastes so good. Fat is flavor. But beware, restaurants don’t give a shit about your cholesterol. They want you to have good food that you want to come back for. They’ll give you butter and grease all day long. You can cook tasty food at home that won’t clog your heart, but it takes a lot to meet the flavor standards of bacon or butter using poultry or vegetable oil. The trick is moderation. Not every meal needs to be a greasy bacon cheeseburger, but you don’t have to completely boycott that either.
Often recipes are really inefficient and sequenced wrong… Read the whole thing and find the “long pole” , and do that first… could be starting the oven preheat early, starting the rice cooker right away vs at step 6 or run things in parallel.
Instead of using a pastry cutter to incorporate butter, freeze the butter then grate it with a box grater then mix it in. It stays much colder. Perfect for pastry or biscuits.
Use a meat thermometer! All your meat will come out perfect, without being under or over cooked.
Imo this is the single most important tip that made me cook better. Get one of the instant-read ones, they are worth the money.
Also, flatten your chicken so it cooks evenly.
Thermoworks.
Grilled cheese hack: assemble the sandwich open-faced on a baking sheet and place under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling and slightly browned, then close it up and cook it like normal in a covered skillet on medium heat with butter. The cheese will be completely melted and (more importantly) it will stay melted while you’re actually eating the sandwich, and the browning on the cheese adds a big flavor component.
I used to make them the normal way just in a skillet, and even if the cheese was just barely melted it would cool off and re-solidify before I started eating it. And often I would burn the crust just trying to get the cheese melted.
deleted by creator
I worship at the altar of Alton Brown, but I almost think he was kidding with that video. So much extra work just to melt the cheese.
It was a bit of a high effort shitpost. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from it. I’m definitely not pulling out a grill and full chimney of charcoal just to make literally grilled cheeses but fresh shredded cheese blends with spices as the filling? Hell yeah! Premelt the cheese so it gets bubbly and crispy? Do it under a broiler! Use something other than Wonderbread? Yes please!
I do love high effort shitposts. They have an oddly profound beauty to them
Replace everything plastic with glass.
Any brand recommendations? My pyrex lids are all cracked. Probably shouldn’t have put them in the dishwasher…
Unless it’s a cutting board. Plastic cutting boards are great cause you can throw them in the dish washer.
But if you do this, replace it often. Tiny cuts make places for bacteria to grow and you end up cutting tiny bits of plastic into your food.
Generally I completely agree, but I do have an embarrassingly large number of deli containers in various sizes. Great for leftovers or drinking water.
I use plastic containers if something’s going in the freezer.
Don’t be afraid of spices. Use more than you think is necessary. Onion and garlic can make a meal 100x better.
Agree. Especially the onion 🧅
Not good advice with certain hot peppers.
To each their own
Reverse taring - instead of placing the bowl on the scale and taring before weighing, place your ingredients on the scale and tare, and you can then scoop out and see the negative weight of how much you have used. This is especially helpful if you are trying to weigh an ingredient into a hot pan you can’t just set on the scale
Now that’s a great idea. Timesaver too.
deglazing. it’s when you use an acid to pull all the glaze off the bottom of a pan. it flavors the dish and makes cleaning your pan easier.
rice vinegar and red or white wines are favorites
I also like to freeze leftover stock into an ice cube tray for deglazing, when I just need a little but and not have to open a whole new carton.
If you can take 1 or 2 cubes (or how many you need) out before cooking so they’re melted before, great, but I’ve also had success just throwing the frozen cubes directly into the pan in a pinch.
Mandolines are not you friend. They thirst for blood.
Seriously if you get one get a safety mandoline like the once for all brand.
Alton Brown recommends a Kevlar glove when using a mandolin.
Can confirm.
If you’re American, you don’t want to have to pay an ER bill when you slice the tip of your finger off, like I did.
Or pair it with a pair of kevlar gloves or similar. But yes, every commercial cook I know says the worst kitchen incident they’ve seen involved a mandolin.
Yup, two big and noticable scars on my fingers now. Didn’t lose digits thankfully. If I use that thing ever again I’m using the guard and just cutting what’s left with a regular knife.
Kevlar glove.
It’s not really a hack I think, but having a good instant probe thermometer really gives you the ability to be consistent no matter what, especially if you’re cooking proteins or have something that’s temperature dependent.
I had started with a cheaper one and eventually graduated to a Thermapen when I realized how critical it was to the things I was making.
The cheapest Thermapen brand one is worth 10 generic ones.
Removed by mod
I have both. I like that the thermopen actually does read faster and I can see the temp gradient in my meat and find the coolest spot faster. The ergonomics are better. Also, a name brand thermopen, on sale, costs less a kilogram of prime filet.
Removed by mod