Watching cooking shows is a guilty pleasure of ours. There’s nothing like looking at delicious food and enjoying the rush of a world-class kitchen to inspire you to cook something fancier than mac and cheese. But things don’t have to be as dramatic and fiery as a TV show with an overly-angry chef (“It’s RAW!") to help us up our cooking game. For instance, we’re big fans of down-to-earth friendly advice that we find online.
Redditor u/boogerflinger served up a delicious thread over on r/AskReddit when they asked the site’s resident chefs to share their most useful tips and tricks. It’s the kind of kitchen wisdom that pretty much everyone should know. From putting in the effort to prep all of your ingredients beforehand and not crowding the frying pan with food to awesome hacks on cooking a good steak and more!
You’re almost guaranteed to start feeling hungry while reading this list. So make sure you’ve got a snack or two to tide you over till you can rush to the kitchen and try all of these cooking tips out yourselves, Pandas. Upvote the advice you thought was the most helpful, and share your own cooking hacks in the comments. There’s really only one left to say: bon appétit.
Talented and well-known pie artist Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, the author of 'Pies Are Awesome' was kind enough to share with Bored Panda some of her wisdom about creating contrasting taste profiles and how to cut back on overwhelming sweetness in recipes. She revealed to us that one of her personal pet peeves is when desserts end up being overly sweet. One-note flavors aren't all that impressive. And no matter how much we love sweet foods (and trust us, we do! Guess who's munching on a chocolate chip cookie right now?), it's pretty darn boring if that's the only thing going on.
"If your recipe calls for a just bonkers amount of sugar, you want to offset that with something bold like a big citrus hit, daring amount of spice, or other strong component like really dark chocolate or something new and exotic to your guests’ palates," she said how bakers can turn the overwhelming sweetness into something far more interesting. "On the flip side, when you are working with more delicate, subtle flavors like magnolia petals or certain roasted nuts, you really want to go easy on the sweetness so the 'star flavors' get their moment in the sun!" Scroll down for the full interview if you want to learn what taste contrasts work and which ones will probably end up befuddling your guests' palates.
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#21
The Roux - Probably one of the most useful things in cooking, it's used as base for sauces. heat up a few tbs of butter in a saucepan and stir in an equal amount of flour. Once it is thick and frothy you can add a liquid of your choice for the base of your sauce (milk or chicken stock are my favorites) add as much as necessary to reach your desired consistency. Add spices or melt cheese to make a great cheese sauce. Be creative!
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80points
#22
If you're using raw, chopped onions in a dish, soak them in cold water first to draw out some of that bite. It's a really small thing, but it can make a world of difference
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72points
#24
Cooking with softened butter and melted butter yield entirely differently results. For example, grilled cheese. If you butter your bread with softened butter instead of just melting the butter in the pan, you'll get a much more flavorful (and crispy) result. The fat solids emulsified in the softened butter make the bread crispier when it gets toasted over high heat
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67points
#25
Learning proper knife safety and knife skills aren't all about chopping things as quickly or impressively as possible — when you know how to use a knife properly, you'll also save a lot of effort and make yourself far less prone to injuries
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67points
#26
Use dried spices as early as possible when cooking as they need time to rehydrate. Use fresh spices at the end immediately before serving. Don't salt your food until you're about to serve.
Edit: I honestly don't understand what's so contentious about this comment. It's the advice I've been given by professional chefs both in person and boilerplate text in practically every recipe I've followed over the years. Maybe because I said "spices" instead of "herbs"? It doesn't matter when you add turmeric, but it damned sure matters when you add dried rosemary.
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54points
#27
When making pork chops cut the ribbon of fat so that it is in pieces instead of one long piece.
It prevents the chop from curling in the pan and cooking unevenly.
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48points
#28
Perfect cake - weigh however many eggs you need. (2 or 3 generally) everything else should be the same weight (marg, flour, sugar etc)
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40points
#29
SALT. My god salt your food. If there is one mistake that home cooks make, and then wonder why it doesn't taste as good as a restaurant, it is usually too little salt. Salt opens up the receptors on your tongue and enhances the flavor of pretty much everything.
Easiest example is salting the water you would use to boil any starch (pasta, potatoes, etc). You should put **a lot** of salt in the water. Think about how much you would consider a lot, then double it, and add that much. This is the best time to season any starch, when it is boiling. Then adjust the flavor (add more) if needed once it is cooked.
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39points
#30
Peanut butter can really round out the flavour in sauces and stew-like dishes.
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39points