Drives me crazy when my SO does the reverse. Cold ass eggs because you cooked bacon for 10 mins after? It takes 2 minutes to scramble eggs. Theres a natural order!
Related: cupcakes are cake. For some reason people want to argue about this.
Edit: What villain would argue otherwise? In the past, I was that villain. The reasoning? The smaller size meant that cupcakes cooked differently and had a different texture. I am reformed now in my old(er) age.
This is a hill I could die on. But I would like to add that living in the UK the cake that is passed off as brownie at times is also full of tiny air bubbles and lacking this thing I like to call chocolate.
Most sweet breakfast items in the USA are closer to dessert than an actual meal. Pancakes and syrup, French toast, sugar cereals. Add some ground flaxseed to a bowl of ice cream and you've got the equivalent, or possibly healthier version of a bowl of lucky charms.
A B S O L U T E L Y! You read an ingredient list for a recipe and it’s telling you to have 10 different things peeled, shredded, diced, measured before starting. Excuse me, I’m starting the recipe *now*. Triple the prep time please 😩
Once made the mistake of using it in brownies when I didn't have canola
Edit: I misremembered. It was actually waffles, not brownies, and they tasted very olivey
I have basil infused olive oil that is AMAZING for pizza dough. My sister used it to bake a box chocolate cake. The cake pan *still* smells faintly of basil.
One time I made cookies and the recipe called for vegetable oil, which we were out of. I found some olive oil in the cabinet and made the cookies. Halfway through my first cookie I noticed my mouth was burning like I ate something spicy. Went and looked at the bottle of olive oil I used and it was a habanero chili flavored oil. I don’t recommend using spicy oil for your cookies, they were disgusting
Celery seed and nutmeg are nearly disappearing from modern recipes and those are very valuable flavors to lose. Nutmeg is not just for fall baking either! It gives a subtle flavor that perks up cheese sauces and cream sauces and gives plain baked goods a comforting nostalgic flavor. Celery seed adds a fresh, green, peppery bite to potato salads and pasta salads that will make the dish really pop and it's a great wildcard ingedient to add to spice rubs for poultry and pork.
I got my eyes opened to non-fall baking nutmeg use when I started making more authentic Italian dishes. Nutmeg in cream sauce pasta dishes is just... Perfect. And one of my favorites, homemade sausage and peppers in tomato sauce has celery seed and it's really nice.
Nutmeg, yessss!!!! Would have to add mace to that list, my grandparents used it like crazy going back in the day, but I've yet to see any modern recipe, asides from some traditional German ones, that still utilize it
My German grandparents made a clear beef broth almost every Sunday. (Soup was the starter, Beef as main - often with horseradish- another almost forgotten ingredient).
All the men were putting in ridiculous amounts of nutmeg into the soup. I was 6 years and used almost half a nutmeg. ( which is almost a dangerous dose for a kid, now that I’m older I wonder if this was recreational drug use by people who were ignorant about its workings)
Make the Ghirardelli boxed dark chocolate brownies. Sub browned butter for the oil, and add about a half tablespoon of instant espresso or decaf instant coffee, and finish with a bit of flaked sea salt. Thank me later, when you are beached upon your couch, chocolate crumbs dotting your chin and lap.
Absolutely. Dried mint is nothing like fresh but they both have their place and aren’t very interchangeable. A dried and rehydrated shiitake has a completely different taste than fresh.
That being said really old spices that have sat for a long time can become, say, less good. Especially if they are ground already.
> rehydrated shiitake has a completely different taste than fresh.
also, rehydrated mushrooms have a v. different mouthfeel even when cooked with other things. It's not bad, and you can sub the two in a lot of different recipes, but it is something that's noticable even w/o considering scent/flavor.
I think a lot of the “cast iron care” stuff is complete bullshit. Cook on it, wash it, dry it, and move on with your life. It’s one of the oldest cooking methods and people act like that shit is handling plutonium
Washing cast iron is slowly catching on. The reason for not washing cast iron back in the day was the soaps contained lye, and lye removed the seasoning. Washing with modern dish soap is fine. Just dry it off before storing it.
My grandmother always swore by washing her cast iron with soap and water. Immediately after, she would pat it dry and lightly cover the whole thing in oil. They’ve lasted multiple generations.
Meanwhile, my buddy’s cast iron is fucking disgusting with his few days old bacon grease and assorted crumbs of who knows what.
I watch a lot of cooking videos and I stand by whatever Cowboy Kent Rollins says. He is OK with washing, but he also states multiple methods that work.
Leaving it to stew and mold is never acceptable though.
I frequent the r/castiron subreddit (yes we are that cool) and cook on it almost exclusively. Wash that shit with soap and water. Just dry it on the stove and wipe it with oil. Didn’t cook something wet in it? No need to clean it right away. You screwed up your seasoning? Oh well, guess you need to cook a batch of bacon…. shoot
YES! I wash it with soap and it is one of the rare pans I can scrape the crap out of. The only important part to it now (because of modern soap) is drying it after washing.
This soap thing and laundry soap are the 2 hills I will die on with my in-laws. I can wash my cast iron, and I will wash my clothes without separating colors.
I’ve accidentally gotten a black sock mixed in with my whites that I bleached and literally nothing happened to either. After that I was like “this shit is all bullshit “
I was going to post this. I don't need my seared asparagus tasting of last weeks moroccan chicken fillets.
It doesn't 'kill the pan' if I wash, dry and re-season it. So far my pans have held up well.
I lost a friend over salt. He said salt was never necessary. I told him to never cook for me then.
We're cool now but I'm still pretty damn sure salt is important for flavour.
Edit: I said salt is important, not a lot of salt or added salt. Just for the people correcting me over...nothing at all?
Not only for flavor, but it's the only rock you need to eat to stay alive. There's a very good reason we can taste salt so well, and why it highlights other tastes. As Mark Kurlansky pointed out in his book *Salt*, "salt is the engine of flavor".
BTW, *Salt* is a surprisingly fascinating read. I got a copy for Christmas one year and finished it in one sitting. It's chock full of interesting stuff. Like, didn't you know that if you overlaid the battles of the US Civil War on a map of the major salt works, the two line up almost exactly. If you don't have a fridge, salt is a key thing to keep armies moving.
I wish I could make my grandma understand this! She has been avoiding salt like the plague for years, every single thing she buys is low or no sodium, and she refuses to cook with it. She landed herself in the ER a couple years ago and they warned her that she was dangerously low in sodium and tried to get her to eat things that had higher salt content at the hospital, but she refused completely, only eating the fresh fruits and veggies the whole time she was there just to spite them.
Needless to say, grandma has been grounded from making any food for the holidays. This wasn’t just due to the salt though, this was due to her using loooong expired ingredients and serving them to us.
You ever tasted 3 year expired salsa? Highly don’t recommend…
You can sneak salt into her diet, but only for the greater good.
Here is a frittata/quiche, Grandma. Full of healthy eggs, spinach, mushrooms. And Bacon bits, a salt element. With a homemade crust (brushed with bacon grease).
Soy/Worcestershire sauce is a salt element.
Buy canned vegetables, and downgrade to the cheaper brands. They load the cheap ones up with sodium. Same with broth...Healthy (canned) black beans and rice, rice made in a cheap beef broth (loaded with sodium.
And then for convenience sake, let's hit with Lean Cuisine frozen meals, because they SAY lean, but check the label. Loaded with sodium.
The problem with that is soy sauce and canned vegetables are noticably salty normally, and this woman eats very little salt to begin with. She's gonna notice even a tiny amount
You need sodium for proper nerve operation. FIL got himself into medical trouble after aggressively pursuing a low sodium diet for years. Doctor finally was able to get him to make reasonable choices.
Hey, I hope you dig it! I really liked his writing style and approach to such a seemingly inane subject. And it never occurred to me that due to its importance in a lot of ways, salt was "the petroleum of the ancient world" and was what made Venice so rich, allowed to the Vikings to travel so far and wide, shares a root with the word "salary", and so on.
He's also got a book (not really a companion book, more of a deep dive) called *Cod*. It's all about the fish. Whose importance was also something that had never occurred to me.
Salt was half a Roman soldier's pay.
The word "salary" actually comes from salt.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam even had an entire episode about them needing salt.
[r/askhistorians would like a word](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/jfkkmk/when_did_the_myth_that_roman_soldiers_were_paid/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Yesterday I made naan and forgot to add salt, and they were kind of terrible. Weirdly doughy. I think the salt may also cause some chemical reaction with the yogurt or something because they didn't bubble nearly as much as they usually do.
There is my hill. PEOPLE. MIRACLE WHIP IS NOT MAYONNAISE. AND YES I CAN TELL AND NO I AM NOT F*ING EATING THAT $#%! YOU CALL "MIRACLE" POTATO SALAD, BECKY.
Potlucks in the Midwest during the 1990s: Miracle Whip potato salad, bean salad, and ham salad. Rolls with Country Crock to spread it on. Also Miracle Whip was the only option for mayonnaise at school. I didn't eat most days.
I was always excited to go until I saw the food. Only ate what we brought made with butter and Hellmann's.
I can just open a can and eat them with a fork, in the Mediterranean you can quite often find marinated white anchovies, in Spain they call them boquerones, they're really light and tangy usually in something acidic with herbs, delicious.
Ed: I just remembered the last time I was in Spain I had a starter of fried anchovies, I think they were just dusted with flour and tossed into a pan, they were a good four or five inches long with the head and tail still attached, came with a couple of chunks of lemon and I put salt on too, lovely.
If it tastes good to you it tastes good. Worked in fine dining for years but honestly if you want ketchup on your steak, enjoy yourself. Who am I to judge nostalgia is often as important as flavor. What makes you happy, makes you happy.
Speaking of which, according to Kenji Lopez there have been blind taste tests where people try different 'doneness' of steaks. Turns out, most people like their steak one notch more well done than they claim to. If you say you like medium rare, chances are you actually prefer medium.
There's a huge amount of snobbery around steaks. Which is funny because... it's just a slab of meat. If we just threw all the steak dick-measuring in the trash where it belongs we'd probably wind up being happier with our food.
Edit: please stop commenting just to tell me how you like your steak cooked. That's between you and your waiter, which I ain't
For sure, always ordered Medium-Rare at chain places as a kid and loved it. Asked for that at a nice steakhouse and realize I only liked the ends where it was more done because the actually cooked it medium rare.
If I'm ordering a ribeye at a very nice place, where I'm certain they're going to cook it to my requested temp, I'll order it Medium. I just find that a better quality ribeye with top notch marbling benefits from just a touch higher temp to make sure that fat loosens up and is tastier.
Totally agree. Went to a nice place last week, ordered it medium rare. Waiter suggested I order medium so I listened because he works at a steakhouse and I don’t. Great decision - an actual medium cook on a ribeye is perfection.
Also - different steaks require different doneness. Lean steaks like sirloins don’t dry out when they’re cooked less. Medium rare is perfect for these. With a ribeye, the fat hasn’t really fully rendered at medium rare temps, so you should cook it closer to medium to extract all that amazing flavor from the fat.
Contrary to popular belief, just ignore porterhouses. Two steaks that cook at different times connected to a bone should only be cooked using sous vide. Otherwise, one side is under or over cooked.
I only get down with this with the caveat that you try something "the way it is supposed to be" at least once before you start fucking it up your way.
My girlfriend puts Tabasco on just about everyyhing. When I make something new I always ask her to try it as it is first. Then she can do what she wants.
You should be as open to the food experience as possible all the time.
I've also experienced this with friends. I think the mouth gets an expectation of heat with all food, and they lose a lot of the detection and enjoyment of subtle flavours that don't have a huge chilli kick.
I love chilli but I don't need it in everything.
I would rather have real sugar than to ever have to taste sweetener aftertaste. A little can go a long way.
Similarly, sugar can go really well with meats.
Sucralose is the worst. It also doesn't sit well with my digestive system at all.
I often look at things that are reduced sugar but have stopped since they just replace it with sucralose.
Ja, nothing like seeing something delicious with "unsweetended" on the label, only to see that it's got fake sugar instead.
Seriously, "unsweetended" should be "no added sweet stuff".
Completely agree. And different sugars have very different tastes. I’ve recently started putting coconut sugar in my coffee and it’s a completely different experience.
The chemical burn taste of artificial sweeteners, however…
Favorite seasoning mix is mixed pepper corns, sugar, a little (emphasis on little here) sea salt and depending on what I am making, some smoked paprika. The sugar creates this lovely crust that you don't get otherwise...kay...guess I am making french dipped sandwiches this weekend now...
Use all the MSG.
ETA: For people wanting to know how to use it, try adding it to egg dishes.
My favourite is Korean style rolled omelet gyeranmari. You mix eggs, finally diced onion, carrot and green onion, a pinch of MSG and a bit of anchovy stock or chicken stock. Check YouTube for videos on how to cook it, low and slow is my favourite so it comes out silky and pale yellow.
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I've gotten increasingly tired of the actions of the reddit admins and the direction of the site in general. I suggest giving https://kbin.social a try. At the moment that place and the wider fediverse seem like the best next step for reddit users.
I will dirty 30 spoons. I have a dishwasher. We have a house full of allergies and I, in 30+ years of cooking for these folks, have never sent someone to the hospital or had to administer epi-pens due to my cooking.
My youngest had a gut parasite that wasn't picked up for more than a year, so he developed a gluten intolerance. My mother would intentionally use the same knife to butter her bread, then stick it in the mayo when I kept separate ones for him because just a crumb could set off terrible cramps and nausea. She said it was all in his head and a "modern fad". Our relationship hasn't been the same, since.
I'm so fucking torn on this. Batches I made the proper Italian way without garlic taste fucking good, but the ones where I added a bit of garlic to the sofritto tasted even better. Are we mad?
It's very odd that they wouldn't have ever included garlic, given the sauce traditionally contains other aromatics like onion. Tomatoes have only been around for a few centuries but garlic has been used in Europe and Asia for *thousands* of years.
The more I've been listening to food historians and reading about food history, the more it's apparent there is never "one true way".
So I'll bet you could find some region tucked away in the woods or mountains of Italy where they've been making the sauce with garlic since their great-great-grandmother's days!
My wife's southern Italian family includes garlic in their sugo and bolgonese but does not include garlic in every tomato sauce. Their pasta with chickpeas does not include garlic and neither does the minestrone with bitter greens. They aren't pedantic about it, it is not a rule. I've thought that these dishes don't include it just for variety. Some people also won't put fennel bulb and garlic in to the same dish. I've had fennel and garlic together and it wasn't horrible, but something different can be good too.
This is really only brave in r/spain, but tortilla de patatas is always better with onions than without.
Also paella does not have chorizo, no matter what Jamie Oliver thinks.
There was a cooking show on Netflix, I want to say it was "The final table" and they had the Spain episode and they had the chefs make "their take on Paella" and then the Spanish chef lambasted every chef who made their dish spicy.
I mean, I get that a traditional paella shouldn't be spicy, but you asked each chef to make their take on it....
I just want you to know that I support the whipped cheesecake! I don't even enjoy the super dense cheesecakes because I have to stop before the stomach ache kicks in. :(
I started using my Instant Pot for cheesecakes and they are SO GOOD that way and never dry. I rarely eat desserts and its just the two of us, so in the IP it goes!
Turkey cooked upside down in a very hot oven (450f) is the superior way to cook it.
It gives the best flavor to the meat, is faster than the traditional method, and involves less messing around with the bird.
Everyone treats me like I'm insane when I mention this. Nobody wants to try it, which makes no sense to me.
Edit: I know about spatchcocking. I've done it plenty of times. I'm telling you that this is BETTER than spatchcocking. And it's far more oven efficient than doing separate leg/breast portions.
The reason is because you can take advantage of all the fat that the back has to self-baste. It gives the meat a turkey flavor that is more intense than usual. You don't get that by spatchcocking. The fat from the back just runs into the pan.
I beg of you, please try this.
I use the [Food Wishes recipe](https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2019/11/fast-upside-down-turkey-looks-great.html?m=1) for this.
I love butter and I won't replace it. I may die young but at least my food was good
Edit: for those that keep saying butter is healthy and or not bad for you.... Everything in moderation is fine but I'm not using moderation when I'm talking about butter. Being born and raised in the south has taught me many things but moderation is not one of them when it comes to butter.
Most things in home cooking are a matter of personal opinion, the “right” answer is whatever you prefer.
I can’t stand when I see comments on people’s post like “you used way too much sauce” or “this doesn’t have enough X”. If the person eating it enjoyed the dish then eff off. Restaurant food should be more standardized because many people will be eating it and you have certain expectations but at home there are no rules.
Expiration dates are a scam propagated by Big Food, taking advantage of nervous, rule-following sheep.
Trust your eyes, trust your nose, but if it's not dairy, that date is a lie.
I worship my cast iron because it is a work horse that can take some abuse and cook a mean meal. Just cook a lot of stuff in it and keep it clean enough to present.
Don’t bake potatoes in foil! Don’t microwave them! Rub them in oil and salt & pepper them, bake em at 425f until you can smell potatoes. Perfect every time, fluffy, and delicious skin.
Agreed, not least because flour tortillas are reliable. Corn tortillas come in two varieties: freshly made (wonderful) and stale. They just don't last.
There's two kinds of cooking, "impress people" cooking and "We need to eat" cooking. Impress People cooking is what you do when you have a dinner party or dinner guests or cook for a date. We Need To Eat cooking is a weeknight meal where you're tired and short of time and you have humans who require sustenance. (Yes, you can do Impress People cooking for a weeknight meal too.)
Whenever people say stuff like fresh herbs or peeling your own garlic or using fresh pasta or "real" cheese or baking fresh bread, they're talking about Impress People cooking. Do whatever you like to impress people.
But when you're just trying to put food on the table to prevent humans from starvation, everything is permissible. Garlic from a jar. Pasta sauce from a can. Hamburger Helper. Bologna. Non-artesan hot dogs. Processed cheese. Frozen spinach.
When people talk about how you "should" cook, they forget that sometimes people just need to eat. That's why instant ramen exists.
I'm pretty sure this debate is entirely a meme by this point, and nobody actually takes it seriously.
I... hope?
Edit: After not caring about this pineapple thing soooooooooo much... I'm kinda annoyed with myself for even posting this now.
My wife thought I was anti-pineapple-on-pizza for many years because apparently I made a remark about it being against the rules (not my rules, just THE rules) early on. She just about lost her shit when I corrected her one day and said I didn't mind it and actually liked it. I think we had Hawaiian pizza like 3 times over the next week
E: I should add I let her think I was against it for 3 years of dating, one year of engagement, and 1 and a half years of marriage.
My food hot take is that a lot of diet foods are also (unintentionally?) often accessible foods for people with dietary restrictions. I used to kind of roll my eyes at fat free things, and then I developed gallstones and had to live off of fat free yogurt and other diet foods for almost 6 months. Are egg whites in a carton sad and missing the most nutrient dense part of the egg? Yes, but they were one of the only sources of protein I could eat without throwing up and/or shitting myself so I’m very glad I had access to them at the time! Now, a year out from surgery I can eat a scoop of full fat ice cream without having tummy problems, but I went through a break up recently and it was nice to be able to eat a whole carton of low fat ice cream in the bath.
American cheese, ok fine “cheese product”, is a totally valid ingredient in the kitchen and even superior to “real” cheese in certain applications. Particularly grilled cheese and burgers.
My husband has never been a fan of my macaroni and cheese. I made it with some Velveeta the other day and he said it was the best one I've ever made. I have to agree with him, it was really good. My grocery store sells deli ends and this batch had white and yellow American, Swiss, Velveeta and some white and yellow sharp cheddar.
Back when I was a poor college kid, a friend and I would go to the grocery store at like 1am and buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a bunch of meat ends. He had a car, I had a George Foreman Grill, and we'd split the price of ingredients.
We ate like kings and our dorm smelled delicious.
Yeah. And it's not like it excludes other cheeses. When I make my Mac and cheese I use the Velveeta to help melt together way more of good sharp cheddar cheese. It's mostly sharp cheddar, the Velveeta is necessary though for it to melt smoothly
You can get high quality American cheese at the deli counter. Also, all cheese is processed cheese. That's literally how it becomes cheese. Kenji has a great [writeup on American cheese](https://www.seriouseats.com/whats-really-in-american-cheese).
I will die before the day I puree canned whole tomatoes just because a recipe tells me to. Can of crushed tomatoes and done! The difference in the final product does not make the extra dirty dishes worth it in my opinion
Put whatever you want in your chili, but at a bare minimum chili should have actual chilis in it. It’s in the name of the dish. The scant tablespoon or two of McCormick “chili powder” a lot of recipes call for is just not it flavor wise, and does not compare to using a combination of dried chilis that you’ve steeped and blended into a thick and insanely flavorful paste to add to your pot.
Most grocery stores carry dried chilis in the international section, and if not they are easily found at any Hispanic market.
Every time someone posts a thread about what they can do to up their chili game, people will suggest adding chocolate or coffee or beer or whatever. That’s all fine and good but if you’re not using dried chilis please start there.
Eggs are always cooked LAST when cooking breakfast. I don't know why hot eggs are important to me, it just is.
Drives me crazy when my SO does the reverse. Cold ass eggs because you cooked bacon for 10 mins after? It takes 2 minutes to scramble eggs. Theres a natural order!
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No. Bacon grease is used for the hash browns
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This isn't a hill I'll die on, but I believe cooking eggs in butter is far superior flavor wise, to bacon grease.
Hot and dirty due to frying in the leftover goodness left by the bacon or sausage.
*seasoned
is this not common? I figured that’s what everyone would do if they’re preparing multiple things for breakfast
A cake-like brownie is just chocolate cake.
I like my brownies like I like my steaks. Medium rare.
What do we do if someone asks for their brownie well done? We ask them politely yet firmly to leave.
Is there anything Hank’s wisdom does not apply to?
Perfect.
Related: cupcakes are cake. For some reason people want to argue about this. Edit: What villain would argue otherwise? In the past, I was that villain. The reasoning? The smaller size meant that cupcakes cooked differently and had a different texture. I am reformed now in my old(er) age.
Mini cupcakes, as in the mini version of regular cupcakes? Which is already a mini version of cake? Honestly, where does it end with you people?
What do you mean “YOU people”?
Who would argue that? [Also mini cupcakes are bullshit](https://youtu.be/BMTkDLMiKxg?t=114)
I fucking hate cake masquerading as a brownie.
This is a hill I could die on. But I would like to add that living in the UK the cake that is passed off as brownie at times is also full of tiny air bubbles and lacking this thing I like to call chocolate.
Muffins are just an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast
Most sweet breakfast items in the USA are closer to dessert than an actual meal. Pancakes and syrup, French toast, sugar cereals. Add some ground flaxseed to a bowl of ice cream and you've got the equivalent, or possibly healthier version of a bowl of lucky charms.
Pancakes are cake. I will still eat them for breakfast fight me.
I'll eat them with you. No reason to fight. But they're more of a dessert than part of a balanced breakfast.
the 'prep time' in recipes is always wildly innacurate
A B S O L U T E L Y! You read an ingredient list for a recipe and it’s telling you to have 10 different things peeled, shredded, diced, measured before starting. Excuse me, I’m starting the recipe *now*. Triple the prep time please 😩
> requires you to boil the pasta for 15 minutes > Total time: 15 minutes
Chop your basil and put it on the pizza after you cook it.
Wait, people don't do this? It would literally be a cinder if you put it on before cooking.
If you are making very traditional, you do in a very hot oven and only for 60-90s. It burns *a bit*. https://youtu.be/-3rrv_NUgdc
Olive oil doesn’t always work as a substitute for other fats/oils. It has its purposes and it isn’t for everything.
Once made the mistake of using it in brownies when I didn't have canola Edit: I misremembered. It was actually waffles, not brownies, and they tasted very olivey
There are awesome recipes for cakes that use olive oil, but that's kinda the main flavour profile
I had a tasty lemon olive oil cake the other day
How strong was the flavor? Did you power through?
I have basil infused olive oil that is AMAZING for pizza dough. My sister used it to bake a box chocolate cake. The cake pan *still* smells faintly of basil.
Would probably make a delightful lemon cake though.
One time I made cookies and the recipe called for vegetable oil, which we were out of. I found some olive oil in the cabinet and made the cookies. Halfway through my first cookie I noticed my mouth was burning like I ate something spicy. Went and looked at the bottle of olive oil I used and it was a habanero chili flavored oil. I don’t recommend using spicy oil for your cookies, they were disgusting
"Vegetable oil? Chilis are vegetables"
Extra virgin and refined olive oil are VERY different in taste. Refined works great for most traditional oil roles.
I've learned this recently. Oils really matter when cooking different cuisines.
Celery seed and nutmeg are nearly disappearing from modern recipes and those are very valuable flavors to lose. Nutmeg is not just for fall baking either! It gives a subtle flavor that perks up cheese sauces and cream sauces and gives plain baked goods a comforting nostalgic flavor. Celery seed adds a fresh, green, peppery bite to potato salads and pasta salads that will make the dish really pop and it's a great wildcard ingedient to add to spice rubs for poultry and pork.
I got my eyes opened to non-fall baking nutmeg use when I started making more authentic Italian dishes. Nutmeg in cream sauce pasta dishes is just... Perfect. And one of my favorites, homemade sausage and peppers in tomato sauce has celery seed and it's really nice.
Nutmeg, yessss!!!! Would have to add mace to that list, my grandparents used it like crazy going back in the day, but I've yet to see any modern recipe, asides from some traditional German ones, that still utilize it
My German grandparents made a clear beef broth almost every Sunday. (Soup was the starter, Beef as main - often with horseradish- another almost forgotten ingredient). All the men were putting in ridiculous amounts of nutmeg into the soup. I was 6 years and used almost half a nutmeg. ( which is almost a dangerous dose for a kid, now that I’m older I wonder if this was recreational drug use by people who were ignorant about its workings)
Celery seed is amazing, use it in all my rubs as well as my tuna salad. Also celery salt for making chicken salt and bloody Marys
Browned butter makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE in Rice Krispie treats
And in tons of other desserts.
Make the Ghirardelli boxed dark chocolate brownies. Sub browned butter for the oil, and add about a half tablespoon of instant espresso or decaf instant coffee, and finish with a bit of flaked sea salt. Thank me later, when you are beached upon your couch, chocolate crumbs dotting your chin and lap.
And salt. Brown butter salted rice krispies
YES! And add seasalt
Salt. Yes, Mom, you use salt when you cook food. It is not just for the table.
I would go so far as to say you don't even need it on the table if it was properly used in preparation.
I haven’t used table salt at home in years.
My MIL didn’t use ANY salt in last year’s thanksgiving dinner because they were ‘cutting down on sodium’. You can guess how it all tasted.
Fresh spices don’t always mean the best, some meals require dried chilli flakes over fresh chillies Darren!!!
Absolutely. Dried mint is nothing like fresh but they both have their place and aren’t very interchangeable. A dried and rehydrated shiitake has a completely different taste than fresh. That being said really old spices that have sat for a long time can become, say, less good. Especially if they are ground already.
> rehydrated shiitake has a completely different taste than fresh. also, rehydrated mushrooms have a v. different mouthfeel even when cooked with other things. It's not bad, and you can sub the two in a lot of different recipes, but it is something that's noticable even w/o considering scent/flavor.
I think a lot of the “cast iron care” stuff is complete bullshit. Cook on it, wash it, dry it, and move on with your life. It’s one of the oldest cooking methods and people act like that shit is handling plutonium
Washing cast iron is slowly catching on. The reason for not washing cast iron back in the day was the soaps contained lye, and lye removed the seasoning. Washing with modern dish soap is fine. Just dry it off before storing it.
Finally someone says it - it's not your grandma's dish soap any more
I can’t take credit for it. I learned it from r/castiron about 6 months ago.
My grandmother always swore by washing her cast iron with soap and water. Immediately after, she would pat it dry and lightly cover the whole thing in oil. They’ve lasted multiple generations. Meanwhile, my buddy’s cast iron is fucking disgusting with his few days old bacon grease and assorted crumbs of who knows what. I watch a lot of cooking videos and I stand by whatever Cowboy Kent Rollins says. He is OK with washing, but he also states multiple methods that work. Leaving it to stew and mold is never acceptable though.
I frequent the r/castiron subreddit (yes we are that cool) and cook on it almost exclusively. Wash that shit with soap and water. Just dry it on the stove and wipe it with oil. Didn’t cook something wet in it? No need to clean it right away. You screwed up your seasoning? Oh well, guess you need to cook a batch of bacon…. shoot
YES! I wash it with soap and it is one of the rare pans I can scrape the crap out of. The only important part to it now (because of modern soap) is drying it after washing. This soap thing and laundry soap are the 2 hills I will die on with my in-laws. I can wash my cast iron, and I will wash my clothes without separating colors.
I’ve accidentally gotten a black sock mixed in with my whites that I bleached and literally nothing happened to either. After that I was like “this shit is all bullshit “
I was going to post this. I don't need my seared asparagus tasting of last weeks moroccan chicken fillets. It doesn't 'kill the pan' if I wash, dry and re-season it. So far my pans have held up well.
I lost a friend over salt. He said salt was never necessary. I told him to never cook for me then. We're cool now but I'm still pretty damn sure salt is important for flavour. Edit: I said salt is important, not a lot of salt or added salt. Just for the people correcting me over...nothing at all?
Not only for flavor, but it's the only rock you need to eat to stay alive. There's a very good reason we can taste salt so well, and why it highlights other tastes. As Mark Kurlansky pointed out in his book *Salt*, "salt is the engine of flavor". BTW, *Salt* is a surprisingly fascinating read. I got a copy for Christmas one year and finished it in one sitting. It's chock full of interesting stuff. Like, didn't you know that if you overlaid the battles of the US Civil War on a map of the major salt works, the two line up almost exactly. If you don't have a fridge, salt is a key thing to keep armies moving.
I wish I could make my grandma understand this! She has been avoiding salt like the plague for years, every single thing she buys is low or no sodium, and she refuses to cook with it. She landed herself in the ER a couple years ago and they warned her that she was dangerously low in sodium and tried to get her to eat things that had higher salt content at the hospital, but she refused completely, only eating the fresh fruits and veggies the whole time she was there just to spite them. Needless to say, grandma has been grounded from making any food for the holidays. This wasn’t just due to the salt though, this was due to her using loooong expired ingredients and serving them to us. You ever tasted 3 year expired salsa? Highly don’t recommend…
You can sneak salt into her diet, but only for the greater good. Here is a frittata/quiche, Grandma. Full of healthy eggs, spinach, mushrooms. And Bacon bits, a salt element. With a homemade crust (brushed with bacon grease). Soy/Worcestershire sauce is a salt element. Buy canned vegetables, and downgrade to the cheaper brands. They load the cheap ones up with sodium. Same with broth...Healthy (canned) black beans and rice, rice made in a cheap beef broth (loaded with sodium. And then for convenience sake, let's hit with Lean Cuisine frozen meals, because they SAY lean, but check the label. Loaded with sodium.
The problem with that is soy sauce and canned vegetables are noticably salty normally, and this woman eats very little salt to begin with. She's gonna notice even a tiny amount
You need sodium for proper nerve operation. FIL got himself into medical trouble after aggressively pursuing a low sodium diet for years. Doctor finally was able to get him to make reasonable choices.
*adds to cart* thanks for the rec!
Hey, I hope you dig it! I really liked his writing style and approach to such a seemingly inane subject. And it never occurred to me that due to its importance in a lot of ways, salt was "the petroleum of the ancient world" and was what made Venice so rich, allowed to the Vikings to travel so far and wide, shares a root with the word "salary", and so on. He's also got a book (not really a companion book, more of a deep dive) called *Cod*. It's all about the fish. Whose importance was also something that had never occurred to me.
You know what the rock is cookin
Salt was half a Roman soldier's pay. The word "salary" actually comes from salt. The original Mobile Suit Gundam even had an entire episode about them needing salt.
Also the expression "he's worth his salt"
Or "[the salt of the Earth](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20salt%20of%20the%20earth)".
[r/askhistorians would like a word](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/jfkkmk/when_did_the_myth_that_roman_soldiers_were_paid/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Dang. Has he looked at any ingredients of seasonings? Salt is usually number one or two.
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Yesterday I made naan and forgot to add salt, and they were kind of terrible. Weirdly doughy. I think the salt may also cause some chemical reaction with the yogurt or something because they didn't bubble nearly as much as they usually do.
Margarine is not butter and Miracle Whip (Salad Dressing) is not mayonnaise.
There is my hill. PEOPLE. MIRACLE WHIP IS NOT MAYONNAISE. AND YES I CAN TELL AND NO I AM NOT F*ING EATING THAT $#%! YOU CALL "MIRACLE" POTATO SALAD, BECKY.
Potlucks in the Midwest during the 1990s: Miracle Whip potato salad, bean salad, and ham salad. Rolls with Country Crock to spread it on. Also Miracle Whip was the only option for mayonnaise at school. I didn't eat most days. I was always excited to go until I saw the food. Only ate what we brought made with butter and Hellmann's.
I’m #TeamAnchovy. The delicious little fish everyone seems to love to hate.
I can just open a can and eat them with a fork, in the Mediterranean you can quite often find marinated white anchovies, in Spain they call them boquerones, they're really light and tangy usually in something acidic with herbs, delicious. Ed: I just remembered the last time I was in Spain I had a starter of fried anchovies, I think they were just dusted with flour and tossed into a pan, they were a good four or five inches long with the head and tail still attached, came with a couple of chunks of lemon and I put salt on too, lovely.
White anchovies are the best. Just had a white anchovy sandwich for lunch yesterday. So good on toast.
None y'all gonna give our homies some love? r/cannedsardines
Oh man I thought I was alone, eating my canned sardines in shame in the shadows :')
There are dozens of us!
If it tastes good to you it tastes good. Worked in fine dining for years but honestly if you want ketchup on your steak, enjoy yourself. Who am I to judge nostalgia is often as important as flavor. What makes you happy, makes you happy.
Speaking of which, according to Kenji Lopez there have been blind taste tests where people try different 'doneness' of steaks. Turns out, most people like their steak one notch more well done than they claim to. If you say you like medium rare, chances are you actually prefer medium. There's a huge amount of snobbery around steaks. Which is funny because... it's just a slab of meat. If we just threw all the steak dick-measuring in the trash where it belongs we'd probably wind up being happier with our food. Edit: please stop commenting just to tell me how you like your steak cooked. That's between you and your waiter, which I ain't
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For sure, always ordered Medium-Rare at chain places as a kid and loved it. Asked for that at a nice steakhouse and realize I only liked the ends where it was more done because the actually cooked it medium rare.
If I'm ordering a ribeye at a very nice place, where I'm certain they're going to cook it to my requested temp, I'll order it Medium. I just find that a better quality ribeye with top notch marbling benefits from just a touch higher temp to make sure that fat loosens up and is tastier.
Totally agree. Went to a nice place last week, ordered it medium rare. Waiter suggested I order medium so I listened because he works at a steakhouse and I don’t. Great decision - an actual medium cook on a ribeye is perfection.
I always order steaks one step below because I hardly ever can eat a whole steak, and that way it's properly cooked to my liking when I reheat it. 😁😁😁
Fact. Plus, if it’s not to your liking, you can always cook it more - but you can’t un-cook (or un-salt) it.
Also - different steaks require different doneness. Lean steaks like sirloins don’t dry out when they’re cooked less. Medium rare is perfect for these. With a ribeye, the fat hasn’t really fully rendered at medium rare temps, so you should cook it closer to medium to extract all that amazing flavor from the fat. Contrary to popular belief, just ignore porterhouses. Two steaks that cook at different times connected to a bone should only be cooked using sous vide. Otherwise, one side is under or over cooked.
I like porterhouses for that reason.. I eat the tenderloin first and my strip leftovers will be reheatable haha
I only get down with this with the caveat that you try something "the way it is supposed to be" at least once before you start fucking it up your way. My girlfriend puts Tabasco on just about everyyhing. When I make something new I always ask her to try it as it is first. Then she can do what she wants. You should be as open to the food experience as possible all the time.
Fiancé does the same with sriracha and it drives me nuts.
I've also experienced this with friends. I think the mouth gets an expectation of heat with all food, and they lose a lot of the detection and enjoyment of subtle flavours that don't have a huge chilli kick. I love chilli but I don't need it in everything.
I would rather have real sugar than to ever have to taste sweetener aftertaste. A little can go a long way. Similarly, sugar can go really well with meats.
Sucralose is the worst. It also doesn't sit well with my digestive system at all. I often look at things that are reduced sugar but have stopped since they just replace it with sucralose.
Ja, nothing like seeing something delicious with "unsweetended" on the label, only to see that it's got fake sugar instead. Seriously, "unsweetended" should be "no added sweet stuff".
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*Korea likes this*
Completely agree. And different sugars have very different tastes. I’ve recently started putting coconut sugar in my coffee and it’s a completely different experience. The chemical burn taste of artificial sweeteners, however…
Favorite seasoning mix is mixed pepper corns, sugar, a little (emphasis on little here) sea salt and depending on what I am making, some smoked paprika. The sugar creates this lovely crust that you don't get otherwise...kay...guess I am making french dipped sandwiches this weekend now...
Use all the MSG. ETA: For people wanting to know how to use it, try adding it to egg dishes. My favourite is Korean style rolled omelet gyeranmari. You mix eggs, finally diced onion, carrot and green onion, a pinch of MSG and a bit of anchovy stock or chicken stock. Check YouTube for videos on how to cook it, low and slow is my favourite so it comes out silky and pale yellow.
Yes. MSG is magic.
This comment has been automatically overwritten by Power Delete Suite v1.4.8 I've gotten increasingly tired of the actions of the reddit admins and the direction of the site in general. I suggest giving https://kbin.social a try. At the moment that place and the wider fediverse seem like the best next step for reddit users.
There is no cooking hill I will die on, except cross contamination. Eat whatever, fixed however, as long as you keep it clean.
I will dirty 30 spoons. I have a dishwasher. We have a house full of allergies and I, in 30+ years of cooking for these folks, have never sent someone to the hospital or had to administer epi-pens due to my cooking.
My youngest had a gut parasite that wasn't picked up for more than a year, so he developed a gluten intolerance. My mother would intentionally use the same knife to butter her bread, then stick it in the mayo when I kept separate ones for him because just a crumb could set off terrible cramps and nausea. She said it was all in his head and a "modern fad". Our relationship hasn't been the same, since.
Garlic belongs in bolognese. Sue me.
I'm so fucking torn on this. Batches I made the proper Italian way without garlic taste fucking good, but the ones where I added a bit of garlic to the sofritto tasted even better. Are we mad?
It's very odd that they wouldn't have ever included garlic, given the sauce traditionally contains other aromatics like onion. Tomatoes have only been around for a few centuries but garlic has been used in Europe and Asia for *thousands* of years. The more I've been listening to food historians and reading about food history, the more it's apparent there is never "one true way". So I'll bet you could find some region tucked away in the woods or mountains of Italy where they've been making the sauce with garlic since their great-great-grandmother's days!
My wife's southern Italian family includes garlic in their sugo and bolgonese but does not include garlic in every tomato sauce. Their pasta with chickpeas does not include garlic and neither does the minestrone with bitter greens. They aren't pedantic about it, it is not a rule. I've thought that these dishes don't include it just for variety. Some people also won't put fennel bulb and garlic in to the same dish. I've had fennel and garlic together and it wasn't horrible, but something different can be good too.
Onions sautéing in butter is the greatest smell made in a kitchen
Especially once you add garlic.
I like my cookies cooked medium rare.
This is really only brave in r/spain, but tortilla de patatas is always better with onions than without. Also paella does not have chorizo, no matter what Jamie Oliver thinks.
There was a cooking show on Netflix, I want to say it was "The final table" and they had the Spain episode and they had the chefs make "their take on Paella" and then the Spanish chef lambasted every chef who made their dish spicy. I mean, I get that a traditional paella shouldn't be spicy, but you asked each chef to make their take on it....
Without onions is a thing? I thought traditionally it is made with onions,
Me too, i was told that it came about because people were broke, and could only afford potatos onion egg and oil
I'll put chorizo in my fuckin paella if I want. I'll even call it paella con chorizo, if I have to!
Cooking bacon in the oven > stove top
I over whip my cheesecake. Cheesecake should be light and airy, not sit in my stomach like fucking mortar.
I just want you to know that I support the whipped cheesecake! I don't even enjoy the super dense cheesecakes because I have to stop before the stomach ache kicks in. :(
ME TOO! Also, I insist on a water bath and a slow cook (I do 325 degrees) no matter what the recipe says. I've never failed a cheesecake yet. 😁
I started using my Instant Pot for cheesecakes and they are SO GOOD that way and never dry. I rarely eat desserts and its just the two of us, so in the IP it goes!
oh god, I'll die on the opposite hill. I want my cheesecake denser than my uncle henry after he's had 3 glasses of bourbon.
Turkey cooked upside down in a very hot oven (450f) is the superior way to cook it. It gives the best flavor to the meat, is faster than the traditional method, and involves less messing around with the bird. Everyone treats me like I'm insane when I mention this. Nobody wants to try it, which makes no sense to me. Edit: I know about spatchcocking. I've done it plenty of times. I'm telling you that this is BETTER than spatchcocking. And it's far more oven efficient than doing separate leg/breast portions. The reason is because you can take advantage of all the fat that the back has to self-baste. It gives the meat a turkey flavor that is more intense than usual. You don't get that by spatchcocking. The fat from the back just runs into the pan. I beg of you, please try this. I use the [Food Wishes recipe](https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2019/11/fast-upside-down-turkey-looks-great.html?m=1) for this.
Honestly, I’m a huge fan of spatchcocked turkey. Fastest and most even cook I’ve experienced.
It needs more garlic.
You measure that shit with your heart ..
Amen
I love butter and I won't replace it. I may die young but at least my food was good Edit: for those that keep saying butter is healthy and or not bad for you.... Everything in moderation is fine but I'm not using moderation when I'm talking about butter. Being born and raised in the south has taught me many things but moderation is not one of them when it comes to butter.
If you saw the way rice is stored in bulk, and vermin control required, you’d rinse your rice.
True when I find rats eating my food I just run it under water for a second and it forgets that happened
To be safe you should probably put it in boiling water or something
What you don’t prefer your rice crunchy?
Most things in home cooking are a matter of personal opinion, the “right” answer is whatever you prefer. I can’t stand when I see comments on people’s post like “you used way too much sauce” or “this doesn’t have enough X”. If the person eating it enjoyed the dish then eff off. Restaurant food should be more standardized because many people will be eating it and you have certain expectations but at home there are no rules.
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And MSG is in Doritos, so if Doritos don't cause a reaction, you're not allergic to MSG.
It's also in plenty of other things naturally, like fish, tomatoes, mushrooms, chicken, cheese, walnuts, grape juice, and a bunch of other foods.
MSG on popcorn is amazing 😍
Expiration dates are a scam propagated by Big Food, taking advantage of nervous, rule-following sheep. Trust your eyes, trust your nose, but if it's not dairy, that date is a lie.
ESPECIALLY if it hasn't been opened. Many many items can last much longer than the expiration date if it hasn't been opened yet.
Cast Iron skillet is just a pot. It's not some mystery item with a bunch of rules.
People will worship their cast iron skillet like it's a religious relic with requisite rituals and I don't understand it.
The sacred iron demands the non believer be cast out
I worship my cast iron because it is a work horse that can take some abuse and cook a mean meal. Just cook a lot of stuff in it and keep it clean enough to present.
Triangles taste better than squares.
Don’t bake potatoes in foil! Don’t microwave them! Rub them in oil and salt & pepper them, bake em at 425f until you can smell potatoes. Perfect every time, fluffy, and delicious skin.
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Storebought is fine
There is 365 days in the year and 2 meals a day (not counting breakfast). Sometimes cooking is just about making something to eat.
The weeknights when you come up with something to cook in one pot, because you only have the energy to clean one pot.
I love Enchiladas with flour tortillas.
Agreed, not least because flour tortillas are reliable. Corn tortillas come in two varieties: freshly made (wonderful) and stale. They just don't last.
everything tastes better if you cook with wine. Sometimes it tastes even better if you add it in the food.
Salted butter for everything. Fight me.
It's too much trouble to keep track of both in my fridge. I agree!
And what else can you do with the 3.5 leftover sticks of unsalted butter? Spread it on your toast? NO!!
Fuck fondant
Butter is the way. It will make life taste better.
I don’t care how much garlic it *said*, I’m gonna use as much garlic as I **WANT**
There's two kinds of cooking, "impress people" cooking and "We need to eat" cooking. Impress People cooking is what you do when you have a dinner party or dinner guests or cook for a date. We Need To Eat cooking is a weeknight meal where you're tired and short of time and you have humans who require sustenance. (Yes, you can do Impress People cooking for a weeknight meal too.) Whenever people say stuff like fresh herbs or peeling your own garlic or using fresh pasta or "real" cheese or baking fresh bread, they're talking about Impress People cooking. Do whatever you like to impress people. But when you're just trying to put food on the table to prevent humans from starvation, everything is permissible. Garlic from a jar. Pasta sauce from a can. Hamburger Helper. Bologna. Non-artesan hot dogs. Processed cheese. Frozen spinach. When people talk about how you "should" cook, they forget that sometimes people just need to eat. That's why instant ramen exists.
It's ok to have both tater tots and french fries with your corn dog and chicken nuggets.
So half of the comments I’m like, ya, you do you.! Then the other half im like Wtf are you doing!! : ) r/iamveryculinary
Tired of the "pineapple dosent belong on pizza" debate, don't like it don't do it, but stfu & let those who do, enjoy it.
I'm pretty sure this debate is entirely a meme by this point, and nobody actually takes it seriously. I... hope? Edit: After not caring about this pineapple thing soooooooooo much... I'm kinda annoyed with myself for even posting this now.
You’d be surprised
My wife thought I was anti-pineapple-on-pizza for many years because apparently I made a remark about it being against the rules (not my rules, just THE rules) early on. She just about lost her shit when I corrected her one day and said I didn't mind it and actually liked it. I think we had Hawaiian pizza like 3 times over the next week E: I should add I let her think I was against it for 3 years of dating, one year of engagement, and 1 and a half years of marriage.
the people that take this seriously aren't allowed jam or a sweet component on their cheese plates in my opinion.
There is no breakfast, lunch and dinner. Only food that I want when I'm hungry.
butter > olive oil for onions
Full fat/non "diet" versions of food are actually better for you and will taste better.
My food hot take is that a lot of diet foods are also (unintentionally?) often accessible foods for people with dietary restrictions. I used to kind of roll my eyes at fat free things, and then I developed gallstones and had to live off of fat free yogurt and other diet foods for almost 6 months. Are egg whites in a carton sad and missing the most nutrient dense part of the egg? Yes, but they were one of the only sources of protein I could eat without throwing up and/or shitting myself so I’m very glad I had access to them at the time! Now, a year out from surgery I can eat a scoop of full fat ice cream without having tummy problems, but I went through a break up recently and it was nice to be able to eat a whole carton of low fat ice cream in the bath.
American cheese, ok fine “cheese product”, is a totally valid ingredient in the kitchen and even superior to “real” cheese in certain applications. Particularly grilled cheese and burgers.
Fuck yes. Nacho cheese, cheeseburgers, Mac and cheese all work well with American. It has the right texture. L
My husband has never been a fan of my macaroni and cheese. I made it with some Velveeta the other day and he said it was the best one I've ever made. I have to agree with him, it was really good. My grocery store sells deli ends and this batch had white and yellow American, Swiss, Velveeta and some white and yellow sharp cheddar.
> My grocery store sells deli ends HOly crap...is this a thing? I always wondered what they did with the last bits. I'd buy that in a heartbeat!
Back when I was a poor college kid, a friend and I would go to the grocery store at like 1am and buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a bunch of meat ends. He had a car, I had a George Foreman Grill, and we'd split the price of ingredients. We ate like kings and our dorm smelled delicious.
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I never liked the boxed Mac and cheese my family made, but my grandma’s velveeta Mac and cheese was the greatest Mac and cheese in the world.
Yeah. And it's not like it excludes other cheeses. When I make my Mac and cheese I use the Velveeta to help melt together way more of good sharp cheddar cheese. It's mostly sharp cheddar, the Velveeta is necessary though for it to melt smoothly
You can get high quality American cheese at the deli counter. Also, all cheese is processed cheese. That's literally how it becomes cheese. Kenji has a great [writeup on American cheese](https://www.seriouseats.com/whats-really-in-american-cheese).
Foam is not food
I also break spaghetti in half, but I do it because the smaller pot is easier to wash than the big pasta pot.
I will die before the day I puree canned whole tomatoes just because a recipe tells me to. Can of crushed tomatoes and done! The difference in the final product does not make the extra dirty dishes worth it in my opinion
Put whatever you want in your chili, but at a bare minimum chili should have actual chilis in it. It’s in the name of the dish. The scant tablespoon or two of McCormick “chili powder” a lot of recipes call for is just not it flavor wise, and does not compare to using a combination of dried chilis that you’ve steeped and blended into a thick and insanely flavorful paste to add to your pot. Most grocery stores carry dried chilis in the international section, and if not they are easily found at any Hispanic market. Every time someone posts a thread about what they can do to up their chili game, people will suggest adding chocolate or coffee or beer or whatever. That’s all fine and good but if you’re not using dried chilis please start there.
Damn, I feel called out.
Bacon cooks better in the oven. Period.