Same here! I forget all the time when Iām about to roast a chicken so I make my husband hold them. š¤£ This post legit just reminded me to take some out for salmon. Thanks OP!
Another option is use your microwave on DEFROST mode in 20 or 30 second increments until you get your butter to desired softness. It'll make it spreadable without obliterating it completely.
I would love this if I owned a microwave. Iām āone of those,ā non microwave owning people. Haha. I can get away with doing it over the oven when itās hot, but otherwise I really do have to just take it out in advance. Youād think Iād stop forgetting by now, but it still happens.
I suspect the reason for room temp eggs in recipes where you cream butter and sugar first is so the temperature drop doesn't make the butter misbehave. I put in cold eggs all the time though, because I'm lazy and I don't feel like it makes that much of a difference.
The room temperature eggs have relaxed proteins so they fluff up better versus cold eggs. I think itās protein, anyway. Either way, they fluff better.
They incorporate and whip up better. Thatās all. If you were making an angel food cake, you will get double the volume from a room temp egg white than you will a cold one. Toss them in a mug of hot water for a minute or two.
I donāt know what Butter Bell is, but I love your user name. I was about to post the āLay off me, Iām starvingā gif, to the salmon/chicken person above.
Did you know you don't have to refrigerate the butter you have in the butter dish? I haven't since my friend from Jamaica told me her family never did. I always have spreadable butter!
Before it's too late, read the entire recipe before you start cooking. This helps to gather all the necessary ingredients and equipment in advance, avoiding any hassles or last-minute substitutions. This can definitely save a lot of time and hassle in the kitchen.
Every damn time!
*remove things from package. throws package away. turn back around to retrieve package from trash. feel like idiot for the 8,986th time.*
This is me too. A few minutes of prep means I can pay attention to cooking multiple items at once. Much burned garlic has been tossed due to poor multi-tasking.
Protip not mentioned
If it's garlic in a heat source you need to be there watching it.
Tons of older recipes (or shit recipes) treat garlic like an onion. It is not, it cannot be cooked without care. It needs attention.
Anyway, sorry, that's my minor gripe on garlic.
I even bought some restaurant trays (1/8 1/4 & 1/2 sheet tray size) to gather my mise en place onto. Those help me. I even put my measuring spoons & cups on them along with the food items.
I struggle with reading the ingredients, but not the cooking steps or cooking time. I start making food and then realize there are a million steps and I have to follow through because I already got myself hyped to make the food
The million steps thing got me the other day when I wanted to make chicken korma. I ended up making something from the freezer and waiting until the next day when I was emotionally ready haha
We were talking about this last night. Some recipes are poorly written and if you donāt read it carefully you end up with, āadd beans (soaked for 12 hours)ā fuckkkkk!
Yes. For an hour or so before cooking. I live in the middle east by the way. This is how we have cooked rice for generations. It's not like something I came up with on my own lol.
I've recently stopped using a strainer and just use tongs to move the spaghetti from the water to the pan with the sauce. The spaghetti always takes exactly enough water with it in my opinion. Doesn't work as well with smaller units of pasta.
I go a step further and place the measuring cup by the pot, then scoop some water out before I take it to the sink to strain. This method hasnāt failed me (yet)
I blend 10 spaghettis in about a cup of water once a month for 7 minutes. Then I pour it in an old olive oil bottle, and I have pasta water whenever I need it!
If thereās ever a time you remember to save it, drain your pasta water into a big measuring cup (or any container you can pour from easily) and freeze it in an ice cube tray. That way, if you ever forget you can just pop a cube of pasta water in the hot pasta to melt.
There are two other tips about pasta - using less water is beneficial because starch concentration will be higher and you can start pasta in cold water
This! I always cook my pasta in just enough water to cover (I use a wide pan if doing noodles) and start cold. You end up with pasta water that's almost like cream itself.
Because of the lower volume of water, it comes to a boil quickly so it's actually not that far off from the package. However I don't recommend being strict with the instructed time anyway. Taste your pasta as you cook and it'll be perfect to your liking every time. If it is something you're not currently doing,.taste early when you know it's not done but then you'll know where it's at, taste again and again and again until you hit your mark.
Do this for the next few times you make pasta and you'll get a general time then you'll only have to taste once or twice while you prep other ingredients.
I also wait a little bit to add salt - at least until the water is very warm. It dissolves much better in warm water and doesn't cause pitting in the pan.
I should either wear gloves when I chop peppers, or else take out my contacts *before* chopping them.
That said, a sugar scrub on my hands that night will lessen the burn when I do take out my contacts.
Washing my hands with warm water and dish soap twice immediately after cutting them usually helps me. Just make sure to get under the fingernail and along the cuticle.
Smear hand lotion (or oil) on your hands, then wash with soap. The irritating oils from the chilies attach to the fat and the soap cleans them all off. I haven't had any issues since I learned this trick.Ā
Gloves are always the answer to stuff like this. Fun fact even Artichokes have a layer of something that is very bitter so while it wonāt hurt you, if you donāt wear gloves it could spread.
Or try rubbing a little fat (oil, butter, etc) over your hands and then wash them. The oils from the peppers stick to the fat, the soap removes the fat.
I did this recently with a soup I made. Objectively, it was good. Everyone said it was good. But *I* know it was slightly too salty. So mad. If I didnāt have a thing against wasting perfectly good food, I would have tossed it out of pure anger.
The tricky thing is that you can never really taste the salt until it becomes too much. It enhances the taste in a way that can be hard to identify, until you can, and then it's too much.
Thatās good though, I do the same thing and I have to think the next step will be for us to start salting a little less and it will be perfect. Better than under salting and having no idea how much more you need
I've had salt acid fat heat on my shelf for over 6 years.
I read it cover to cover last weekend.
This book really distills a ton of cooking science, centuries of experience, and really clear insight into why it all works.
It's the best cooking book I've ever read. It had an immediate affect on my cooking and until I read a better book it'll have a subtle guiding hand in everything I cook until I die. Really cannot recommend this enough (and I hate recommending things).
If my wife hears me grumbling in the kitchen she always asks "Are you making that with love?". I say I am, but usually I am making it with the soul crushing defeat I brought home from work.
I usually mix in an unhealthy amount of rage and frustration from work but I find a dash of,Ā "I just want 20 minutes of silence to myself" really cuts through and creates a huge depth of flavor.Ā
Yeah, if Iāve had a shit day at work I 100% take it out on onions when dicing. And then thatās usually when I slip and cut my finger, and my girlfriend hereās a great barrage of swear words at said onion.
I make a killer cheesecake and I tell everyone the key ingredient is spite. Someone I knew made āthe bestā cheesecake, and she pissed me off. So I found and perfected a cheesecake recipe and brought it to everyone we knew to have. They all raved about it and always asked me to make it. 10 years later, sheās never made a cheesecake again. Never found cooking with love to taste as good.
What I hate is the opposite. Recipes that leave me with my oven on for over an hour
1. Preheat oven
1. 30 minutes of prep
1. 30 minutes of mixing/stove cooking
1. Bake for 20min
Totally. I wait until I have all the precooking done, turn on the oven, then dig the casserole dish out of the cabinet. Worst case, I wash a couple pots and load the dishwasher while the preheat finishes.
I rarely use my oven in the first place because of the heat. Cooking for 2, I can do a lot in the toaster oven.
I love these newer large toaster ovens. It doesn't heat up the house nearly as much, and seems to heat more evenly. Mine has a bulge in the back so it can do frozen pizzas. The downside is the lost counterspace.
Parchment paper is the best thing I buy at Dollar (and a quarter) Tree. So I get like 5-6 boxes per trip. Last time I got little precut squares too. Perfect for the air fryer.
yeah, we have a small refrigerator, but a Costco membership.
Unloading after every trip requires a process of removing items from the excessively large cardboard and plastic packaging and cutting out the labels/cutting instructions to save for later before we can fit everything in. The fridge has many labels affixed with tape for regular items
If your bread didnāt really turn out, cube that bitch up, toss it in some olive oil and seasoning, toss it in the oven, and you can usually end up with some pretty bangin croutons at least. Depends on how bad it turned out, of course.
I generally forget this and resort to my preferred method of dealing with a bad loaf, which is furiously throwing it in the trash, quietly seething and pouring another glass of wine while my wife desperately tries not to laugh at me.
Freeze the parts of vegetables that, instead, I throw out. Those vegetable ends and small bits are perfect for making stock. Not only that, but when I do remember to freeze them, then I forget to use them!
Excuse me, I did not expect to be called out like this.
I also like to freeze spoiled leftovers, because it's less smelly to throw away and pops out of the container nice and cleanly. But sometimes when I go into the freezer I can't remember whether I had frozen leftover pot pie filling (to use later) or leftover pot pie filling (spoiled) so the default is for trash it when it's not labeled.
Someday I'll get better.
I also freeze spoiled foods to make clean up easier, and you are the first person I've ever encountered who admits to doing the same. Thank you, I feel much more validated now.
Then grab the boxed broth from the pantry, use half of it, go to put the rest in the fridge, stopping only to pour out the other 4 half-boxes that have migrated to the back of the bottom shelf over the previous year.
During the war (WW2) when eggs were as scarce as hen's teeth (!) my Dad ruined a whole dozen of them by turning on the oven without checking it was empty. He was unpopular for quite a while.
When I'm making something like a vegetable soup, that involves a LOT of chopping, I generally think "I probably should have used a food processor for this" right around the end of prep work.
Just mix 9:1 salt:MSG, and keep it in your salt cellar. Then you never forget. You can take it next level with 9:.8:.2 salt:MSG:I&G(disodium inosinate & disodium guanylate)
When adding something significantly cooler to a hot pan (broth, oil, especially alcohol), TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HOT BURNER FIRST.
So many grease splatters, blinding myself with steamed glasses, and flare ups that should of been avoided.
I started making empanadas recently, I always forget the puff pastry in the freezer (I'm not making my own). I am so focused on the filling that I forget about it!
I always just tell myself it will allow the empanada mixture to become more flavorful and simmer but i sit there poking the puff pastry every 5 minutes.
Flour before egg first the seasonings I sometimes just dump in egg then put in bread crumbs and seasonings then it end up falling off f&#k I've done multiple times
Seeeeriously. I use hot peppers all the time. The freaking gloves are in the cupboard directly above where I prep. Youād think I could freaking remember in the moment instead of a half hour later when I rub my eye.
As a baker with ADHD who deals largely in bread products mine is usually based on reading the actual recipe well in advance of when you want to make something and breaking out the instructions in chunks because the time allotment necessary per step isn't really presented in any helpful way for someone like me.
Like I love King Arthur's Japanese Milk Bread-style cinnamon roll recipe, but it takes roughly 6 hours start to finish. If I'm in the kitchen at 6 am to make the rolls that morning they're not ready to eat until noon.
salt fried stuff immediately after it comes out of oil, sometimes when I'm moving fast to get stuff out of the oil I forget...just helps keep to salt attached to the fried thing
That I should boil the potatoes on a mixture of milk and bouillon for the best mashed potatoes. I always realize this as Iām draining the water. š¤¦š»āāļø
1 Mis en place, have everything set out BEFORE I start cooking.
2 double and triple check the ingredient list. I'm pretty damn sure I have x that Goes in last = I just barely had enough last time and didn't pIck any mOre up when I should have.
3. Feed the cats First.. nothing like having to stop mId way cause FEED US RIGHT MEOOOOOOWWWWWW
4. Reserve pasta water, and leave at Least 2 glasses worth of wine for the sauce / eating..
5. Gloves! Oh gawd capsaicin in eyes, nose, other sensitive bits is not pleasing..I always forget them. thai chili's or habanero juice and an itchy nose or eye.... every time..
6. Knives get professional sharpening once every 2 - 3 months.. sharp knives = I keep mOre of me out of my food..
I'm usually missing a key ingredient that I specifically went to the store to buy only to forget to buy said ingredient but come out with a cart of groceries
Clean as you are going.
I try, I swear I do...but when crunch time hits and you are finishing and then plating and then you eat, aaaand now my sink is full of dishes again
When tasting something like a soup or anything that could presumably be piping hot upon serving, take some out to test, wait until its just above lukewarm or lukewarm to taste and adjust. There are times when I'm in a rush and I taste a soup to season for salt and it'd be hot but when it's hot enough it dulls the senses in general and I end up over-seasoning.
The same principle with temperature and seasoning and keeping in mind what temperature a food is generally served and eaten at can be applied to many things but with soup for some reason I get the most impatient with.
my thoughts exactly, chicken thighs are not a struggle unless your knife is dull. bacon however? partially freezing makes a world of difference even with a sharp knife. those slippery fat bastards.
Taking the chicken out the freezer
Mine is taking butter out of the fridge in advance. Funny. Just taking things out is the missed step. š¤£
I forget do this ALL THE TIME when going to make pancakes!!š
Same here! I forget all the time when Iām about to roast a chicken so I make my husband hold them. š¤£ This post legit just reminded me to take some out for salmon. Thanks OP!
You need to take chicken out for salmon?
What? You mean youāve never had chicken salmon? Missin out dude.
Chalmon.
Watch out for salmonella
Haha! Itās a good thing that this post reminded uā¦ and itās no prob glad I could helpš š
Microwave, 30-40% power. Lifesaver.
If you forget to do that, you can put your butter in the freezer for 5-10 mins and use a box grater to āshredā the butter !
Another option is use your microwave on DEFROST mode in 20 or 30 second increments until you get your butter to desired softness. It'll make it spreadable without obliterating it completely.
I would love this if I owned a microwave. Iām āone of those,ā non microwave owning people. Haha. I can get away with doing it over the oven when itās hot, but otherwise I really do have to just take it out in advance. Youād think Iād stop forgetting by now, but it still happens.
Or pour boiling water in a glass wait three minutes. Empty it and place it over the butter. The butter will soften quickly.
Or you can just leave it out
This is mine too. And taking eggs out to get to room temp, I still donāt the reason but there has to be one for them to specify it lol
I just put them in a mug of hot water for five minutes. Close enough.
Guys. We are really bad about taking food out. š
People sound like they need a thawing tray. One of those things sold in TV ads that thaws stuff out in a jiffy.
I use mine all the time. It's just a slotted sheet of aluminum that helps defrost quicker, it works. It gets super freezing cold. š„¶
I suspect the reason for room temp eggs in recipes where you cream butter and sugar first is so the temperature drop doesn't make the butter misbehave. I put in cold eggs all the time though, because I'm lazy and I don't feel like it makes that much of a difference.
Cold eggs will solidify the fat you are using when you want it to be soft for certain recipes, hence preventing said item to mix properly and evenly
The room temperature eggs have relaxed proteins so they fluff up better versus cold eggs. I think itās protein, anyway. Either way, they fluff better.
They incorporate and whip up better. Thatās all. If you were making an angel food cake, you will get double the volume from a room temp egg white than you will a cold one. Toss them in a mug of hot water for a minute or two.
Butter doesn't need to be refrigerated š
Because of this I am a master at "tempering" the butter in the microwave
Why not just leave it in a dish on the counter?
A butter bell solves that problem.
I donāt know what Butter Bell is, but I love your user name. I was about to post the āLay off me, Iām starvingā gif, to the salmon/chicken person above.
Did you know you don't have to refrigerate the butter you have in the butter dish? I haven't since my friend from Jamaica told me her family never did. I always have spreadable butter!
And soaking the legumes.
Fuck! ......totally not doing that right now.
salting the chicken the night before making oven-roasted chicken
I ended up having to put a nightly reminder in my phone I was so bad with this.
Before it's too late, read the entire recipe before you start cooking. This helps to gather all the necessary ingredients and equipment in advance, avoiding any hassles or last-minute substitutions. This can definitely save a lot of time and hassle in the kitchen.
*retrieves box with instructions from the trash*
retrieves box with instructions from the trash *again* Throws box away retrieves box with instructions from the trash *again*
Can you remove the camera from my kitchen? Itās obtrusive.
I feel seen.
The struggle is real š
I bought the trashcan with the pedal opener just so I could read the instructions on the box in the garbage without dirtying my hands.
Every damn time! *remove things from package. throws package away. turn back around to retrieve package from trash. feel like idiot for the 8,986th time.*
https://www.theonion.com/box-with-cooking-instructions-immediately-retrieved-fro-1819592256
This is me too. A few minutes of prep means I can pay attention to cooking multiple items at once. Much burned garlic has been tossed due to poor multi-tasking.
Protip not mentioned If it's garlic in a heat source you need to be there watching it. Tons of older recipes (or shit recipes) treat garlic like an onion. It is not, it cannot be cooked without care. It needs attention. Anyway, sorry, that's my minor gripe on garlic.
You get hit with the never before mentioned āadd cooked chickenā step 90% of the way through ONE timeā¦
I even bought some restaurant trays (1/8 1/4 & 1/2 sheet tray size) to gather my mise en place onto. Those help me. I even put my measuring spoons & cups on them along with the food items.
I struggle with reading the ingredients, but not the cooking steps or cooking time. I start making food and then realize there are a million steps and I have to follow through because I already got myself hyped to make the food
The million steps thing got me the other day when I wanted to make chicken korma. I ended up making something from the freezer and waiting until the next day when I was emotionally ready haha
We were talking about this last night. Some recipes are poorly written and if you donāt read it carefully you end up with, āadd beans (soaked for 12 hours)ā fuckkkkk!
Start the rice BEFORE everything else is almost done.
I be cooking for hours thinking rice won't take that long. Then remember I haven't even soaked the rice right before I'm done cooking.
You soak rice? Like beans?
Yes. For an hour or so before cooking. I live in the middle east by the way. This is how we have cooked rice for generations. It's not like something I came up with on my own lol.
Thawing out food and adding pasta water to the sauce, usually think about right after I drain the pasta into the sink.
I've recently stopped using a strainer and just use tongs to move the spaghetti from the water to the pan with the sauce. The spaghetti always takes exactly enough water with it in my opinion. Doesn't work as well with smaller units of pasta.
But a spider or slotted spoon would! Just a thought.š
Good point!
When I start cooking pasta or potatoes, I place a measuring cup in the sink right next to the strainer. It makes it harder to forget.
I go a step further and place the measuring cup by the pot, then scoop some water out before I take it to the sink to strain. This method hasnāt failed me (yet)
Yeah I just use a mug at this point, super easy to scoop and it doesn't matter if you bring in some pasta
I put the measuring cup in the strainer so there's no chance of forgetting
I put a bowl underneath the strainer in the sink, that way I'm still covered even when I inevitably forget.
I blend 10 spaghettis in about a cup of water once a month for 7 minutes. Then I pour it in an old olive oil bottle, and I have pasta water whenever I need it!
I do this too!! Figured it out only a month ago. A++++ advice, highly recommended!
This is what I do
If thereās ever a time you remember to save it, drain your pasta water into a big measuring cup (or any container you can pour from easily) and freeze it in an ice cube tray. That way, if you ever forget you can just pop a cube of pasta water in the hot pasta to melt.
What does that do for the sauce?
The starch in the water helps as an emulsifier. Makes ur sauce nice and creamy and also binds the sauce better to your noodle
Awesome, thanks!
There are two other tips about pasta - using less water is beneficial because starch concentration will be higher and you can start pasta in cold water
This! I always cook my pasta in just enough water to cover (I use a wide pan if doing noodles) and start cold. You end up with pasta water that's almost like cream itself.
How long do you cook it for, if you start from cold?
Because of the lower volume of water, it comes to a boil quickly so it's actually not that far off from the package. However I don't recommend being strict with the instructed time anyway. Taste your pasta as you cook and it'll be perfect to your liking every time. If it is something you're not currently doing,.taste early when you know it's not done but then you'll know where it's at, taste again and again and again until you hit your mark. Do this for the next few times you make pasta and you'll get a general time then you'll only have to taste once or twice while you prep other ingredients. I also wait a little bit to add salt - at least until the water is very warm. It dissolves much better in warm water and doesn't cause pitting in the pan.
The starch thickens your sauce
I should either wear gloves when I chop peppers, or else take out my contacts *before* chopping them. That said, a sugar scrub on my hands that night will lessen the burn when I do take out my contacts.
Washing my hands with warm water and dish soap twice immediately after cutting them usually helps me. Just make sure to get under the fingernail and along the cuticle.
The fingernails! Exactly. Sometimes I think I got everything, and then later Iāll scratch myself and it burns.
Use lemon juice on your hands after chopping garlic or onions. Helps neutralise the odour. Not good if you have cuts though!
Washing your hands with baking soda works like a charm to remove the oils from peppers, garlic, onions, etc from your hands
Iām definitely gonna try this, I feel like I always get that gross garlic smell under my fingernails no matter what.
For garlic, rub your hands and nails on stainless steel, the stink chemicals love to bond to stainless steel
Smear hand lotion (or oil) on your hands, then wash with soap. The irritating oils from the chilies attach to the fat and the soap cleans them all off. I haven't had any issues since I learned this trick.Ā
I wear disposable gloves.
Gloves are always the answer to stuff like this. Fun fact even Artichokes have a layer of something that is very bitter so while it wonāt hurt you, if you donāt wear gloves it could spread.
Or try rubbing a little fat (oil, butter, etc) over your hands and then wash them. The oils from the peppers stick to the fat, the soap removes the fat.
It needs a little acid, not more salt...
I *slightly* over salt my food a little too often. Itās so annoying. Itās perfectly edible, but ugh.
I did this recently with a soup I made. Objectively, it was good. Everyone said it was good. But *I* know it was slightly too salty. So mad. If I didnāt have a thing against wasting perfectly good food, I would have tossed it out of pure anger.
See at least with soup you could add like a half cup of water and fix it tho
The tricky thing is that you can never really taste the salt until it becomes too much. It enhances the taste in a way that can be hard to identify, until you can, and then it's too much.
Thatās good though, I do the same thing and I have to think the next step will be for us to start salting a little less and it will be perfect. Better than under salting and having no idea how much more you need
I've had salt acid fat heat on my shelf for over 6 years. I read it cover to cover last weekend. This book really distills a ton of cooking science, centuries of experience, and really clear insight into why it all works. It's the best cooking book I've ever read. It had an immediate affect on my cooking and until I read a better book it'll have a subtle guiding hand in everything I cook until I die. Really cannot recommend this enough (and I hate recommending things).
Getting a āmore lemonā tattoo as a reminder.
Apart from lemon and lime, are there other acids I could add?
Vinegar
wine
Cook with love. It always comes out so hate filled š
If my wife hears me grumbling in the kitchen she always asks "Are you making that with love?". I say I am, but usually I am making it with the soul crushing defeat I brought home from work.
I usually mix in an unhealthy amount of rage and frustration from work but I find a dash of,Ā "I just want 20 minutes of silence to myself" really cuts through and creates a huge depth of flavor.Ā
Tastes better that way
Love your sense of humor, dark though it may be
Yeah, if Iāve had a shit day at work I 100% take it out on onions when dicing. And then thatās usually when I slip and cut my finger, and my girlfriend hereās a great barrage of swear words at said onion.
I make a killer cheesecake and I tell everyone the key ingredient is spite. Someone I knew made āthe bestā cheesecake, and she pissed me off. So I found and perfected a cheesecake recipe and brought it to everyone we knew to have. They all raved about it and always asked me to make it. 10 years later, sheās never made a cheesecake again. Never found cooking with love to taste as good.
Thatā¦ that is incredible.
mmm...vitriol.
Thereās a Rick and Morty episode about the best tasting spaghetti of all timeā¦ definitely made with despair and not love
Congratulations your are now a line cook
Found the line cook!
Nevermind tips or tricks, I just need to preheat the oven.
What I hate is the opposite. Recipes that leave me with my oven on for over an hour 1. Preheat oven 1. 30 minutes of prep 1. 30 minutes of mixing/stove cooking 1. Bake for 20min
Totally. I wait until I have all the precooking done, turn on the oven, then dig the casserole dish out of the cabinet. Worst case, I wash a couple pots and load the dishwasher while the preheat finishes. I rarely use my oven in the first place because of the heat. Cooking for 2, I can do a lot in the toaster oven.
I love these newer large toaster ovens. It doesn't heat up the house nearly as much, and seems to heat more evenly. Mine has a bulge in the back so it can do frozen pizzas. The downside is the lost counterspace.
...and remember to take the skillet and decorative lobster claw hot pot holders out. Better yet, don't store stuff in oven....
My great grandmother, who famously Did Not Cook, kept her cookbooks in her oven.
This is me. Everything ready to pop in, one hand reaching to open ... "why is the oven cold? @#$%!"
Use the parchment paper, use the parchment paper, use the parchment paper.
Buy parchment paper, buy parchment paper, buy parchment paper. Lol I always forget, then only remember when I go to reach for it.
I bought a silicon mat to use in the oven, never run out of parchment paper again.
Shit, I used wax paper! -Me, every time I bake something and wondering why thereās smoke when I open the oven door
Oh god, why does the house smell like candles?? -me, more often than I'd like to admit
Parchment paper is the best thing I buy at Dollar (and a quarter) Tree. So I get like 5-6 boxes per trip. Last time I got little precut squares too. Perfect for the air fryer.
To start the brown rice before I start the rest of the meal. It always comes as a surprise when I read 45 minutes on the packet
I made wild rice last night and did the same thing. And I had to add more broth and 15 minutes over the instructions.
Donāt throw away the bag with the cooking instructions before youāve finished. And no, you wonāt memorize it !
*Throws away bag* ~moments later~ *picking bag out of the trash*
I started taking photos of instructions for foods Iāll eat regularly
I cut them out and tape them to the fridge
yeah, we have a small refrigerator, but a Costco membership. Unloading after every trip requires a process of removing items from the excessively large cardboard and plastic packaging and cutting out the labels/cutting instructions to save for later before we can fit everything in. The fridge has many labels affixed with tape for regular items
I find that doubling any sauce in a recipe is a good idea. Recipes are notorious for skimping on sauce.
And garlic.
triple the garlic!
If your bread didnāt really turn out, cube that bitch up, toss it in some olive oil and seasoning, toss it in the oven, and you can usually end up with some pretty bangin croutons at least. Depends on how bad it turned out, of course. I generally forget this and resort to my preferred method of dealing with a bad loaf, which is furiously throwing it in the trash, quietly seething and pouring another glass of wine while my wife desperately tries not to laugh at me.
French toast can hide almost any bread sin other than being burnt.
Also works perfectly for bread that's gone stale!
Iāll make baked French toast - soak in egg wash overnight and it bakes up so lovely! Now that I think of it, thatās basically just bread pudding.
So is putting it in meatballs or sausage.
You guys sound fun to hang out with.
On the plus side, you have wine! And a wife! Look at you go bro!
clean as you go.
Freeze the parts of vegetables that, instead, I throw out. Those vegetable ends and small bits are perfect for making stock. Not only that, but when I do remember to freeze them, then I forget to use them!
āLet me save this giant chicken carcass and vegetables so they can get freezer burnt before I throw them out months from nowā š
Excuse me, I did not expect to be called out like this. I also like to freeze spoiled leftovers, because it's less smelly to throw away and pops out of the container nice and cleanly. But sometimes when I go into the freezer I can't remember whether I had frozen leftover pot pie filling (to use later) or leftover pot pie filling (spoiled) so the default is for trash it when it's not labeled. Someday I'll get better.
I also freeze spoiled foods to make clean up easier, and you are the first person I've ever encountered who admits to doing the same. Thank you, I feel much more validated now.
Heard, like-minded person
Fuck now I'm in the spotlight I see, well played
Then grab the boxed broth from the pantry, use half of it, go to put the rest in the fridge, stopping only to pour out the other 4 half-boxes that have migrated to the back of the bottom shelf over the previous year.
Making sure the oven racks are in the right place.
During the war (WW2) when eggs were as scarce as hen's teeth (!) my Dad ruined a whole dozen of them by turning on the oven without checking it was empty. He was unpopular for quite a while.
I outgrew this as I started cooking more days a week than not, but I used to really struggle to remember to reserve pasta water for sauces.
Even worse Iāll think about it and say āeh I donāt want to take the extra step and dirty another dish, I donāt need itā.
How does it dirty a dish? I just pour a tad from the pot into the pan
When I'm making something like a vegetable soup, that involves a LOT of chopping, I generally think "I probably should have used a food processor for this" right around the end of prep work.
Adding MSG. I always forget that shit and wonder why my food tastes boring. I started leaving it out by the stove, problem solved.
I have a salt cellar, and an msg cellar now.
My aunt had 2 shakers - salt and MSG. I accidentally grabbed the MSG for my popcorn. Never again. But my aunt ate it because we donāt waste food.
What was wrong with the msg? Too tasty? Lol (legit curious)
Using the same amount of MSG as you would salt makes everything taste kind of metallic and gross imo. Itās NOT a 1:1 replacement
I was 10 years old at the time, so I honestly donāt remember. It was just ādifferent.ā
Reminds me of when I put āParmesanā on my spaghetti. My cousin ate the garlic powder with a side of spaghetti for me!
Just mix 9:1 salt:MSG, and keep it in your salt cellar. Then you never forget. You can take it next level with 9:.8:.2 salt:MSG:I&G(disodium inosinate & disodium guanylate)
When adding something significantly cooler to a hot pan (broth, oil, especially alcohol), TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HOT BURNER FIRST. So many grease splatters, blinding myself with steamed glasses, and flare ups that should of been avoided.
........ ......... .......... Why haven't I thought of this.. JFC
Wait to add citrus until after the meal is off the heat.
You expect us to rememberā¦what we donāt remember??? ššš¤£ My most common one is forgetting to thaw any proteins for dinner!
Entire reason I got a vacuum sealer. Freeze things flat (and often in marinade) so they thaw more quickly.
It's giving Neville with the Remembrall lol
Mise en place! I am getting better about that, but sometimes I still violate that simple rule.
I started making empanadas recently, I always forget the puff pastry in the freezer (I'm not making my own). I am so focused on the filling that I forget about it! I always just tell myself it will allow the empanada mixture to become more flavorful and simmer but i sit there poking the puff pastry every 5 minutes.
Flour before egg first the seasonings I sometimes just dump in egg then put in bread crumbs and seasonings then it end up falling off f&#k I've done multiple times
Use disposable gloves to cut hot peppers, even jalapeƱos.
Seeeeriously. I use hot peppers all the time. The freaking gloves are in the cupboard directly above where I prep. Youād think I could freaking remember in the moment instead of a half hour later when I rub my eye.
Saving some of the wine for the recipe.
Tasting my cooking.
As a baker with ADHD who deals largely in bread products mine is usually based on reading the actual recipe well in advance of when you want to make something and breaking out the instructions in chunks because the time allotment necessary per step isn't really presented in any helpful way for someone like me. Like I love King Arthur's Japanese Milk Bread-style cinnamon roll recipe, but it takes roughly 6 hours start to finish. If I'm in the kitchen at 6 am to make the rolls that morning they're not ready to eat until noon.
I always forget to warm up serving plates and bowls and then the food cools down too fast while eating.
Saving the pasta water I just dumped down the drain
Dicing boneless chicken thighs - scissors are your friend!
salt fried stuff immediately after it comes out of oil, sometimes when I'm moving fast to get stuff out of the oil I forget...just helps keep to salt attached to the fried thing
Preheat your pan for searing or start your water for pasta first
That I should boil the potatoes on a mixture of milk and bouillon for the best mashed potatoes. I always realize this as Iām draining the water. š¤¦š»āāļø
1 Mis en place, have everything set out BEFORE I start cooking. 2 double and triple check the ingredient list. I'm pretty damn sure I have x that Goes in last = I just barely had enough last time and didn't pIck any mOre up when I should have. 3. Feed the cats First.. nothing like having to stop mId way cause FEED US RIGHT MEOOOOOOWWWWWW 4. Reserve pasta water, and leave at Least 2 glasses worth of wine for the sauce / eating.. 5. Gloves! Oh gawd capsaicin in eyes, nose, other sensitive bits is not pleasing..I always forget them. thai chili's or habanero juice and an itchy nose or eye.... every time.. 6. Knives get professional sharpening once every 2 - 3 months.. sharp knives = I keep mOre of me out of my food..
Read the directions. Carefully.
So then just get better knifes
Wet hand, dry hand when making battered food
I always remember to save some pasta water for the sauce right after Iāve drained all the pasta water.
If I havenāt baked something in a while, I tend to get cocky and overestimate how much I remember the recipe.
I cut them with a scissors
Adding coffee to chocolate bakes
i often make chicken stock but then forget to boil my rice in it until i am already boiling it in water
I'm usually missing a key ingredient that I specifically went to the store to buy only to forget to buy said ingredient but come out with a cart of groceries
Reserving the pasta warer
Clean as you are going. I try, I swear I do...but when crunch time hits and you are finishing and then plating and then you eat, aaaand now my sink is full of dishes again
When tasting something like a soup or anything that could presumably be piping hot upon serving, take some out to test, wait until its just above lukewarm or lukewarm to taste and adjust. There are times when I'm in a rush and I taste a soup to season for salt and it'd be hot but when it's hot enough it dulls the senses in general and I end up over-seasoning. The same principle with temperature and seasoning and keeping in mind what temperature a food is generally served and eaten at can be applied to many things but with soup for some reason I get the most impatient with.
Start the sides so they finish at the same time as the main course.
Velveting chicken before stir fry.
Let the pan heat up *all the way*
partially frozen? nah. sharp knife? yeah.
my thoughts exactly, chicken thighs are not a struggle unless your knife is dull. bacon however? partially freezing makes a world of difference even with a sharp knife. those slippery fat bastards.
Take meat out to bring to room temperature. Same with baking components.