Whether you’re a cooking aficionado with a burning fire (and often, burnt fingertips) for everything food-related or, on the contrary, entrust your taste buds to your holy kitchen majesty, aka the microwave, you can always take your inner chef to a whole new level. And it’s easier than you’d think.
Thanks to the professional chefs of Reddit, who recently shared what simple things “we're probably all doing wrong in the kitchen” in this thread, we can roll up our sleeves and work on the actual things to improve them.
Think of simple things, like never adding an onion and garlic at the same time (so you don’t have that icky burnt garlic aftertaste in a meal you otherwise put your heart into) or having things, ingredients and tools ready at hand to avoid “someone, help me!”-kind of hysteria in the middle of meal prep. Take your notes, everyone, I already have mine.
#1
Using tongs, you must clink them together at least five times to channel your inner crab.
453points
Let’s face it, regardless of how fast we binge-watched Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, The Great British Bake Off, Masterchef in all countries it aired in, we didn’t actually learn to cook better. Instead, we now know all about the drama, about the blessing and the curse of being a chef, about nurturing your talent, dreaming hard and working harder… Wait, are we still talking about cooking?
So in order to take us all back to Earth, or rather our kitchen counter, and to find out what exactly we can do to improve our cooking game, since we nailed the watching part already, we spoke with Beth Moncel, a food lover and the founder of “Budget Bytes” where she has been sharing her passion for cooking and delicious recipes designed for small budgets since 2009.
#2
Since I didn't see it in here: instead of adding more salt, try adding an acid. A splash of vinegar or lemon/lime juice can make flavors pop without over salting.
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360points
#3
Never add garlic and onions at the same time.
Onions take about 8 minutes to saute and garlic takes about 30 seconds. If you add them together you're gonna have burnt, bitter garlic.
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320points
#4
Clean as you go. Throw away trash, wipe up what you spill, get unnecessary utensils out of the way. If your kitchen looks like a tornado struck after you're done cooking, you f*cked up.
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276points
When asked what are the most common cooking mistakes people tend to make, Beth said it’s assuming that if they swap out an ingredient, they'll still get the same result. “Changing ingredients often changes both the flavor and texture of a dish, and in some cases can drastically affect the chemical reactions needed to make a recipe work,” she explained.
#6
If you want perfect roasted potatoes (oven roasted, chopped pieces) with crispy outside and fluffy insides then boil them for about 5-10 minutes in salt water first. Then roast them.
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244points
#7
Most people suck at roasting vegetables. Brussel sprouts are the number one f*ck up and most people lose their sh*t when I serve them properly done brussels.
Toss with olive oil (more than you think), salt (more than you think), and any other herbs/spices (e.g. curry spices with cauliflower), lay cut side down on a baking sheet, and throw that sh*t into a 200C/400F oven until it's visibly browned. Depending on the veggie (e..g carrots) you'll probably want to turn over to the otherside and continue roasting for a bit. Once they're done you can toss with pepper or fresh/delicate herbs before serving (e.g. mushrooms with tarragon or parsley).
Just because it's fork tender and cooked through doesn't mean it's delicious. Yet.
211points
Beth reminds everyone that the best way to gain confidence in the kitchen is to practice. “Don't let a failed recipe keep you from trying again. Try new recipes often. The more you cook, the more you'll understand the nuances of cooking and you'll build intuition,” she said. “Before you know it, you'll be cooking freestyle and you won't even need a recipe!” Beth concluded positively.
#8
There is a really simple rule when cooking a steak: Leave the steak alone. Stop f*cking with it. Stop poking and prodding and moving it an flipping it around. Let it cook. Let the heat do what it's supposed to do. Get to know your heat source and learn to trust it. Almost everybody I know violates this rule.
210points
#9
It is the fat that carries the flavor. If your going to saute something, put the herb and spices with the butter or oil that is in the skillet. Don't put them in the flour you're using to bread the food.
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196points
#10
Not having things ready and in place.
Have you ever been halfway done with a dish and realize you didnt have the cheese grated? Now everything is on hold (and over cooking) while you grate cheese?
Having everything ready to go at the start lets you add the things when they need adding and helps put dishes out at the appropriate time.
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195points
#11
Don’t stare at a toaster, it will jumpscare you. (Learnt this from personal experience)
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193points
#12
Putting oil in the pot when you're boiling pasta. If you do that, the sauce will just slide right off your pasta. The starchier the water, the better the sauce will stick.
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179points
#13
Sharp knives. Makes things a million times easier, and is actually sooo much safer in the end. Combined with the proper grip and a bit of practice, and suddenly cutting things for prep goes from the most hated step of everything to just another step, maybe even becomes fun for some people.
174points
#14
Cooking too hot to speed things up. If the recipe calls for something to cook for one hour at 350 degress, cooking it at 425 degrees for 35 minutes is not a substitute. Some things just need to be cooked slowly and gently.
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174points
#15
Crack your damn eggs on a FLAT surface, not the side of a bowl or pan. Cracking on a flat surface makes it easier to open as well as preserving your yolk. If you crack it on an edge it pushes shell inside the egg and is more likely to break the yolk (which sucks if you are making it sunny side up, poached or separating whites) Also, if by some chance there is bacteria or icky gross stuff on the shell it is more likely to contaminate the inside when shell gets pushed in.
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162points
#16
My chef brother-in-law taught me how to deglaze a pan to make a sauce like a boss. Leave it hot, and douse it with a cup or more of wine, stock, or water, and you can turn even basic things into an amazing pan of goodness! The stuff in your pan that you're scrubbing off after you're done cooking is all the good sh*t, so learn to deglaze!
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159points
#17
-Under salting your food!
Everyone is so afraid of sodium but the vast majority of sodium in your diet is coming from processed snacks and fast foods not home cooking.
-Also dry your meat before you sear or sauté it. You’re steaming it if not.
-Taste as you go.
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158points
#18
Being afraid of fattier cuts of meat. People are so used to that boneless skinless chicken breast that they sub them out for recipes that are 10,000x better using chicken thighs instead. If your primary concern is to reduce fat, sure, but if you're eating in moderation or going for flavor instead of low-fat, thighs thighs thighs my friend.
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156points
#19
Practice your recipes. Don’t find one risotto you like and never make a different one. Cook 10 different risottos two or three times each over a long period of time. Doing this helps you understand the basics of how to make it and allows you to spot bad recipes, recognize good ones, and improvise without one.
151points
#20
Idk if this will get buried but my dad is a chef and I know what he would say here.
Always keep trying new things, in different preparations, with different ingredients to compliment them. And if you think you hate a specific meal or ingredient but you haven't tasted it in 10 years, give it a try again.
We were never picky eaters as kids because we were always encouraged to just try things we were unsure about and it opened me up to so many great foods as an adult!
So many people get stuck with what they know for sure they like, not even realizing how much it limits you.
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135points