35 People Reveal Their Dirtiest Kitchen Secrets That Should Probably Stay A Secret

I only wash my vegetables/fruit if someone else is watching me cook (of if they’re visibly dirty obviously). I just can’t be arsed and I figured if pesticides/production contamination are what kills me, I was meant to eat fast and die young

My closely guarded family secret brisket recipe:
Brisket

Sliced onions

Heinz chili sauce (the whole bottle)

Lipton onion soup mix (must be the powder, must be Lipton)

12-16oz of the soda of your choosing. Mom does root beer, I do Dr Pepper.

Throw everything in the crockpot for at least 6 hours on low.

Also works for pork shoulder (for that I like ginger ale).

i use Better than Bouillon 'roast chicken' flavor base/bouillon in every soup i make, or anything that calls for broth/stock. sometimes i also add a little BTB mushroom base too, for even more umami. it tastes amazing, lasts forever, and saves time/space/waste. sometimes on special occasions i'll make stock from scratch, or i'll make specific stocks from scratch as a recipe calls for it (shrimp stock is easy/fast enough to make, and if i make pho or ramen i definitely go from scratch. but that's a rare project). but 9 times out of 10 i'm more than happy to use BTB, i think it tastes great.

For the holidays I make cranberry sugar cookies for my grandma (her recipe), last year I completely forgot to mix the cranberry into the dough and she didn't notice. She blamed her lack of taste for the holiday weather and I let her, she kept lamenting on how she knows I'm so good at cooking and yada yada. Oh well, try again to remember to mix it in this year!

Also throw out stuff from my parents pantry that's old or that they'll never eat (looking at you canned creamed spinach) but I move boxes and cans forward to it looks like their shelves are full so they won't buy more stuff.

I chop storebought creamy caesar dressing in with the meat when I make a Philly cheesesteak. No one has ever guessed it, and everyone is blown away at how awesome they taste.

I worked at a restaurant where a kid made balsamic reduction out of the 3L of 25 year old balsamic.

To this day he’s known as “Money Bals”. That was 2012 😬

MSG seasoning on pretty much all things

As a mexican, Doña María mole with a couple of large tomatoes cooked in chicken broth, blended with extra mexican chocolate and peanut butter for a "homemade" classic, lol. Thanks to my ex sis in law for the "family recipe".

I drank more wine than usual a few weeks ago and ate half a bag of Cheetos (family size) for dinner.

The secret ingredient to my famous from scratch mac and cheese is Velveeta. I have done it with real cheddar, gouda, swiss you name never as good as when there is a little Velveeta.

All my friends and family think I'm a great cook.
They tell me that all the time.

My dirty secret: I have very under-developed taste buds.
I'm only good at shape & texture of foods.

My sister always insists only one specific pepper blend is any good to her. I replaced the pepper in her grinder with grocery store pepper. It still tastes good to her.

I use these bullion cubes that aren't the super hard rocks, and before I drop them in l like to pinch off a corner and eat it.

I make tomato sauce for shakshuka “from scratch“ by adding tomato purée to diced tomatoes from a can. The tomatoes where I live suck and the stuff from the can is at least consistent with regard to flavour / acidity profile. Everyone loves me for “homemade” shakshuka ;)

My lemon bars I make for my family/coworkers every July 4 is just from the Pillsbury website.

The recipe literally ended up in a cookbook thing we did at work like it was something special I made up