According to baking expert, TV pie judge, and author Jessica, making a mistake in the kitchen isn't the end of the world. For instance, if you add way too much sugar to your recipe, you could solve the problem by cutting down the portion size for your guests. Or you could pair the dessert with something far less sweet, maybe even something with a savory taste profile.
"For example, if your pie filling is too sweet, you can still use it in hand pies with an unsweetened crust because the ratio of crust to filling is much higher in something akin to a pop tart and your guests won't be getting a giant mouth full of diabetes like they would with a traditional deep dish pie. Or even skip the pie crust altogether and serve your mega sweet filling drizzled over some brie on a cracker! Won't your friends think you’re posh…," Jessica explained how a good imagination and some flexibility can turn any challenge or disaster into an opportunity.
The pie artist herself opened up to Bored Panda and told us that she's a big fan of pairing sweet flavors with sharp, sour notes. For instance, you could pair tart cherries with chocolates, sautée Granny Smith apples in brown sugar syrup, etc.
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"This keeps your tastebuds on their toes!" Jessica said. "In general, anything that will create a bit of contrast will help your flavors shine in your dish—a tiny bit of exposure to the opposite flavor always makes the sensation of your key flavor stronger."
The pie artist suggested that you try and blend your sweet tastes with something salty like salted nuts. You could also replace the saltiness with something sour like citrus fruits or even something bitter (e.g. dark chocolate). That way, you'll enhance both flavors. However, try not to go overboard! Experimentation is great, but not when you turn your guests into unwitting guinea pigs.
"Be careful to contrast rather than confuse the palate. You want opposite flavors, not competing flavors. Lemon with sweet cream = good. Lemon with mint or espresso = ummm… probably not."
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In our personal experience, practice is better than theory when it comes to honing your skills with the knife, spoon, and pan. It’s one thing to understand how flavor profiles work and the dozen+ different uses of butter on a theoretical level, it’s something else entirely to get the results you want when you’re sweating from all the effort.
In short, we feel that the very best chefs, bakers, and food experts are the ones who learn from their mistakes and strive to get better every single day. As opposed to folks who order in pizza, watch pro chefs messing up on TV, and mumble ‘how could you make such an obvious mistake, I could have done better than that’ in between mouthfuls. We salute everyone who burns their eggs and overcooks their rice, and sees every mistake as a valuable lesson.
The fact is that many of us have lots of misconceptions about food. We tend to ‘inherit’ them from the people who raised them. If your parents or grandparents used to cook food a specific way with very particular ingredients, odds are that you’ll follow in their footsteps without thinking too much about whether or not it’s the ‘right’ or ‘best’ way to do things.
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Also get to know your butcher, he will guide you through the world of meat better than any book or website if he's any good.
Pork ftw.
Talented pie artist and food expert Jessica recently explained to Bored Panda the link between culinary knowledge and traditions.
“Culinary knowledge is usually passed down generationally. If that’s how your mum/dad/gran did it, that’s how you do it. There’s a lot of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality around the dinner tables of the world,” she said that people can’t tell what the ‘correct’ version of a dish tastes like if, well, they haven’t tried it out. You can’t say that something’s ‘wrong’ if you don’t have anything to compare it to.
“And even then, due to warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings the foods of our youth often invoke, some people may prefer the ‘incorrect’ version. Overcooked pasta just like mother used to make!” Jessica said that there are a lot of feelings of nostalgia hidden in each bite of a meal cooked in a very particular way.
“Of course, there is a line between ‘sub-optimal’ and ‘inedible’ when it comes to food. But if no one is puking up a lung or dying of obvious malnutrition, most busy parents don’t see much of an impetus to change,” the food expert told Bored Panda.
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One thing’s for sure, our understanding of what’s healthy and what isn’t tends to follow fads. For instance, Jessica noted that when she was a kid, butter was “the enemy.” Meanwhile, at that same time, muffins were “the epitome of healthy diet food.” Imagine eating a 1k calorie bran muffin, “slathered in margarine,” with a cup of black coffee while thinking it’s incredibly healthy.
“There are certainly some historical food misconceptions that have done a lot of harm. The vilification of fat by the sugar lobby in the 1960s is a big one that springs to mind, as well as the whole ‘eating a giant bowl of glorified marshmallows is a-ok for breakfast’ phase,” the cooking expert said.
“Outside of broad societal attitudes towards certain foods and diets, there are a number of common everyday cooking mistakes that people make in the preparation of their food—our handling of rice and pasta are high on the list here—but outside of food safety violations, I tend to be pretty sanguine about these things,” she said that as long as there’s nothing dangerous to one’s health, we shouldn’t be too stressed about it. Unless we want to make something taste far better, of course!
“No one ever died from over-cooked pasta, or vegetables boiled within an inch of their life. Sure, they’re missing out on a heightened culinary experience, but do you really want to be ‘that guy?’ I know I’m not going to tell my grandma how to perfect her pasta boiling technique (and if you knew my grandma, you wouldn’t either!),” Jessica quipped.
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You can make popcorn in the microwave with just kernels, a bowl, olive oil, salt, and plastic wrap. It is way healthier than bags, cheaper, and the oil makes it super crunchy.
If making a grilled cheese, butter your bread with softened butter, not melted butter. The fats solids emulsified in the butter when sufficiently toasted with the bread makes for much better flavor. Also, make sure all ingredients in your grilled cheese is room temp before cooking. Cheese will be less likely to separate and the sandwich itself will cook more evenly.
If boiling vegetables or pasta, make sure to salt the water. It makes the pasta taste better and the vegetables brighter in color. Cook both these slightly underdone because carryover cooking occurs even after taking it off the heat.
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