Cooking is as much about breaking the "rules" as it is about following them. That's why you taste the dish you're preparing even if you're following a recipe.
Even some restaurant chefs might be deemed as anarchists for abandoning convention but still have their tables booked.
So to find out what practices people have thrown out their kitchen window, Redditor ThatSpyGuy made a post on the platform, asking other users, "What commonly repeated cooking tip is just completely wrong?"
I think it's important to highlight that intention is what matters the most around cooking pots. The ability to recognize precisely what you want on your plate and how your actions impact the end results. We can't really categorize all of the replies ThatSpyGuy has received in terms of "bad" and good". What we can do, however, is appreciate the thinking and experimenting.
#21
Great homemade salsa has to have cilantro. Half of us don’t like cilantro. You can substitute:
Celery Leaves (this is pretty good)
Parsley
Mint Leaves
Leave it out all together
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65points
#22
Myth: Using flour makes chicken the crispiest.
Truth: Using Potato Starch makes it WAYYY more crispy.
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63points
#23
“When cooking a hamburger patty, press down on it with your spatula to make it cook more evenly/faster.” All this does beside flatten your patty is make all the juices escape, leading to a more dried out burger with less flavour.
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61points
#24
Every baking recipe I've seen has you add spices with the dry ingredients. It's so much more flavorful if you add them with the butter and even more so if toast or gently fry them first. You can even use the microwave for this, cook just until fragrant.
Also, all my chocolate stuff got better when I realized that cocoa is a spice. Oil-soluble flavenoids.
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56points
#25
That you can't ever have too much garlic. I’ve heard this so many times. My wife made a babaganush one time with so much garlic it burned our mouths. Too much garlic can be a thing.
50points
#26
This one is cooking related.
Myth: never use soap on cast iron.
Reality: you absolutely can use soap and scrub a well seasoned cast iron. Just don't soak it.
47points
#27
People think you can just use eggs and butter at fridge temp for baking but it’s so much better if you do room temp
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47points
#28
Use aluminum foil shiny side in.
Reynold's says the shiny side is a result of the manufacturing process and not intended to speed up cooking. The impact of having the shiny side in is so minimal and negligible you will not notice a difference.
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43points
#29
This one has been disappearing lately but ...
Don't overcook mushrooms and don't rinse them.
It's nearly impossible to overcook mushrooms. Chitin is hard to break down so just keep cooking them. Rinsing may add water, but it's just more liquid to cook off and may in fact help steam them which helps them release more water. Besides, you should wash all produce before use, especially mushrooms. Doubly so if they are wild.
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41points
#30
More heat cooks things faster.
Used to believe it but found out the hard way when shallow frying chicken schnitzels. The outside was burnt and the inside was raw. Now I cook them at the lowest heat and always perfectly cook them.
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37points
