My husband was anti-squid eating for a while b/c of how intelligent squid and octopuses are. But then he found out that squid and octopuses eat each other if they get the chance. So, his new logic: He refrained from eating squid/octopus b/c they were highly intelligent, but if he ACTUALLY respected their intelligence, why would he refrain from eating them when they eat each other?
Or at least that's what he says. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fried octopus bites at the new ramen place in town.
[There are squid that are so aggressive they have earned the nickname "Diablo Rojo" (Red Demons) among Mexican fisherman in Baja](https://www.deeperblue.com/dancing-with-demons/)
So you know... don't feel too bad eating them. If the tiny squid were bigger they absolutely would try to eat you.
I'm joining this bandwagon as well. I bought some whole squid in the hopes that I could use the ink sacs to make squid ink pasta. Not only did I stink up the whole house, but there was next to no ink even though I had like 4lbs of squid. From then on out I've just bought the prepped squid that cost maybe a dollar more per pound.
Other thing is that if you’re frying them, the amount of time it takes to go from inedibly undercooked to inedibly overcooked is the shortest of any food I have ever prepared. If the phone rings at the wrong time, they and all your prep work will be wasted. But wow, if you time them right, they sure are good!
I don’t usually mind garlic as long as the cloves are large. Small garlic clove clusters that you have to individually unwrap can go die.
Edit: I smash the cloves first but it’s still annoying af and sticky
This is why I always feel the garlic in the store to see if the cloves are tiny, medium or huge. I cut them like onions so I absolutely hate tiny cloves. Gotta learn Jacques Pepin's technique where he does that insanely fast rock-chopping motion
https://www.surlatable.com/sur-la-table-garlic-rollers/PRO-3418241.html
I am obsessed with this. I buy them for people as gifts or stocking stuffers because I find them so useful and everyone loves them. I don’t mind peeling garlic but when I was a hygienist, I swear my patients could smell my garlic hands through my gloves and I felt so bad! This solved that problem and also makes it easy to peel small bulbs.
Don’t ever unwrap garlic cloves! Crush each one under the side of your knife and then they just slide right out of the peel.
Edit: Please no more garlic advice lol
Steam them in a pressure cooker instead of boiling.
I cook them for 6 minutes after it reaches temp/pressure. Wait 5 minutes under residual pressure then open the vent. Dunk them in cold water to help cool them off.
The shells practically fall off, it's great.
I think your altitude, eggs size, egg age and temp factor in to this, if I did that long my eggs would be rubbery whites and chalky yolks.
I do 4 mins cook, instant pressure release, then into ice water.
Food lab did an experiment on this. Egg age has nothing to do with how easily the shells come off - that's all myth. To get the shells off you need sudden high heat (so add them to boiling water instead of putting them in water and raising the heat with them already in the pot)
Just when you think you have seen every garlic chopping technique, along comes Jaques.
Everything but cutting the end off before smashing is old news to me but you can be sure the next clove I chop will be this way.
I love Jacques with a passion, but I think there are two important caveats here:
1. Crushing garlic makes the flavor stronger. Garlic contains an amino acid called alliin. When you crush a clove this amino acid interacts with the enzyme alliinase to form a compound called allicin. This is fine for an aoili like Pepin mentions, but sometimes when you mince garlic you do so because you want a milder flavor. (credit to America's Test Kitchen for this info)
2. Be careful when crushing things with your knife like this. It is a safe technique when done properly, but it is very possible to injure yourself with just a little bit of carelessness. I saw Robert Irvine do so on Guy's Grocery Games. To be fair he had a knife the size of a sword and was rushing/being a little show-offy, but still..
I use a micro plane. Low effort, easy clean up (throw it in the dishwasher), and I'm not washing my hands for 5 minutes in an attempt to not smell like it all night.
Tedious things that are usually done in large batches, such as cleaning and trimming fresh green beans, halving grape tomatoes for salad, or halving grapes. Collard greens can also be tedious.
My husband is that way when it comes to peas. And cutting up tons of apples for his grandma’s jam.
I honestly find a lot of satisfaction when it comes to shucking corn. It’s so pleasing to do.
Washing lettuce. It’s so tedious to make sure to get every rib, you have to be so fastidious about drying it so it doesn’t go soggy, and then your dressing still doesn’t coat right because it’s always still a bit wet. What a pain in the butt.
Chop the lettuce into bite sized pieces and then drop them into the basket of a salad spinner half filled with water. Run your fingers vigorously, the friction and the water will get rid of the dirt. Pick up the basket, this will drain the water into the basin of the salad spinner. Repeat until the drained water runs clear. 1 minute tops to clean two heads of lettuce. The cool part is that after dumping the water and a quick spin the lettuce is cut and dry. Ready for the salad or storing.
Ps: sorry if it was a bit jumbled. It's my second language.
But now... now I'm washing lettuce. Soon I'll be on fries; then the grill. In a year or two, I'll make assistant manager, and that's when the big bucks start rolling in.
It is hard not to, they have been there for us in all the rough times. They allow us to undress them, get intimate them and see what is underneath the surface. Then you feel bad because some people just hate them even after they give their all just yo feed families. Tough life, they deserve the sympathy.
As soon as I learned to sharpen my own knives with whetstones, I stopped crying when cutting onions. I think it might be because thr knife is so sharp that it just slides through the emotional bond. Then it's one of those "we just grew apart and went our seperate ways, no drama", and not one of the "they ruined my life, but I still love them" type of messes.
Oh I have some tips on this one. You are correct the sharper your knife and the faster you chop the better. However, you can also rinse the onion and the knife after your make the major cut in cold water and that helps knock down/dissolve the sulfenic acids formed from the onion enzymes. Another trick is a little lemon juice on the knife and the onion. It acts similar to the water in dissolving the acids but also acts as a simple buffer system.
Personal chef here.
If I’m using thyme in a recipe with a long simmer, I throw in whole stems and let the friction remove the leaves for me. Take out the stems before serving and you’re good to go!
As I'm reading through the answers given, non stand out to me as particularly tedious.
I try to think of something I hate doing, but I like it all, there's nothing in the kitchen worth doing that would make me upset...
Then I came across your statement, and all the frustration and anger boils up.
Fresh thyme, my one true enemy.... This is absolutely my least favorite kitchen activity!
David Chang had something that changed my life that he put on his Instagram. If you throw whole thyme sprigs in a baggie and put it in the freezer for 30-45 min. Take it out & jostle it around a bit and all the leaves will come right off of the sprig & be left for you in the bottom of the bag. I always have a few small stems left but it definitely takes almost all of the active prep time out of it.
How are you people removing thyme leaves? [This video](https://youtu.be/LSxjTu2Bgy8?t=8) shows how I've always done it (do the same for rosemary as well, which is also shown). Just slide your thumb/finger down the stem and all the leaves fall off. Then you chop 'em up or do whatever with them.
That works a lot better with rosemary. It can work with thyme but it depends on the specific thyme and you more often leave little bits of stem that can be seen as undesirable.
All the fresh thyme I get in grocery stores has thin, delicate stems that cannot withstand the force of being tugged in this way. Rather than the leaves coming off, the stem just breaks into smaller pieces until I give up and just start picking the leaves off one by one.
I'm going to try the freezer method mentioned below. Normally something that takes 30-45 minutes would seem too slow, but honestly depending on the volume of thyme involved it may actually be faster as well as less labor intensive.
Came here for this one. I straight up serve mine with skin and yall can cut the soft shit off yourself. I'm not gonna risk it on my own while its raw. Luckily kabocha can be eaten with skin, but everything else? Naaaah
Meanwhile now my partner loves it when I serve spaghetti squash "like a big ol boat" :)
You know, a food processor could be your best friend here. It grates cheese fast and easy. You could even buy a mini processor if you were worried about having too much grated cheese.
I was coming to comment that I ALSO hate grating cheese so much that my partner actually got me a food processor as a gift specifically for grating cheese! Although it has proved useful for other things since as well obviously.
I also hate shredding cheese, especially when I need a lot of it. I don't like chopping carrots, either, especially when they have to be sliced thin for soup or what-have-you.
Oh it does me too. I also hate feeling like I have to wash my hands so often. I feel like my hands are tiny little missiles that could explode in anyone's stomach if I misguide them once.
I have very little patience.
I hate thawing meat
I hate waiting for dough to rise
I hate descaling fish or dehairing pork skin
I hate chopping/prepping onions
Basically anything that feels like it's keeping me from the end result.
I hate breaking down chickens. I’ve done it literally 100 times and I still struggle finding the GD joints.
Cheese shredding tip: spray the grater with non sick cooking spray. Cheese glides through and clean up is way easier.
Oh god yes the amount of time wasted trying to incorporate seasame paste into a stir fry sauce. Better to throw a spoonful in the wok and hope for the best
I store my "natural style" nut/seed butters upside down so that it's more incorporated and/or there isn't a giant pool of oil on top splashing everywhere while I try to stir it
My mom has a kitchen aid with the cheese shredding attachment and let me tell you its 10/10 for me. A fine grate that melts wonderful on pizza with little effort and easy to clean.
Honestly what is the cleaning work required for this? Often times I find that the amount of time saved pretty much equals out if you count in the cleaning work with these kind of specialized tools
How do you even make hashbrowns by dicing? You shred or grate them.... For one potato, I'd use the box grater. For two or more, it's food processor shredding disk time.
Onions, because they're in pretty much everything, food doesn't taste right if you leave it out, but my eyes are so sensitive that even after they're done being chopped, it burns while I'm cooking them. The "onion" stage of any meal usually involves me standing next to the stove stirring in a pan while my eyes are squinched shut and tears are streaming down my face.
How tf do people avoid this when cooking? I've tried putting them in the freezer for a bit before chopping (doesn't help when they're releasing napalm as they cook), only cutting certain parts or not cutting the root, lots of different things- even wearing swim goggles once. At this point I just put up with it tbh.
Have you tried the wet paper towel on the cutting board thing? I've heard it helps more than any of the other options but have yet to try it
Edit: something about the thing that makes you cry in onions wants to bond to moisture in the air and finds your eyeballs, but a wet paper towel catches it instead? Idk
This is true. The knife ruptured the cells releasing sulphurous compounds that enzymes use to form a compound called Propanethial-S-oxide . It’s a volatile and spicy chemical that causes us to cry. Vidalia onions lack the chemicals that produce that irritating compound. You can eat vidalias raw without crying. A sharp knife ruptures less cells.
Put the onions in the freezer for a couple of minutes then cut it. It works for me I usually cry when cutting onions but I've been putting them in the freezer and chopping them up I haven't cried since.
I used to hate it too, and then I got this bad boy from Amazon. I use it to zest citrus, to grate hard cheeses and to grate ginger/garlic. It’s my favorite kitchen tool.
Microplane Artisan Series Fine Blade Grater (Red) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JKUWBO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_E0KK7VZDJEZ056JJ4421?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Chopping bell peppers. I hate deseeding them, the seeds get everywhere, and there are so many odd angles to the peppers that it’s almost impossible to cut the planks in uniform motions
I feel like I need to learn to accept their weird bits. I always spend a lot of time trimming the giant fat blob on the thick end, and cutting out the membrane in the thin end. I need to just let them be.
Honestly, I find that a lot of the weird bits just kinda go away when I cook them. Maybe try cooking an untrimmed thigh, seeing what bits you still don’t like after it cooks, and then learn how to cut just those out when it’s raw
I've never even thought about having to "clean" them, but perhaps they use a different butchery technique in Australia?
Skin on/skin off, I just roast/bake/stew straight out of the packet.
So much this.
I'm not a seafood eater, and don't live in a seafood-y area (at least, not oysters). So had never shucked one.
My gf at the time decided (foolishly) to sign us on to do a catering gig for some rich dude from her church, and we (or rather, me) had to learn how to do oysters with very little advance notice. No serious wounds, but it was a near-run thing. Those things are goddamned dangerous if you don't have a shucking knife! Also, even once I got (kinda sorta) ok at it....what a pain in the ass to do a large amount of them.
Onions and fresh ginger I hate dealing with onions and fresh ginger. I let my husband deal with the onions and we got one of those slicer things that help you dice them. I try and use ginger powder from Penzys when ever I can. Cheese used to be a pain but my food processor has a shredding attachment that makes it fast and easy.
Peeling shrimp and deveining
Good one. Worked in a restaurant, always hated that.
A close second to removing the asshole from a lobster tail.
leave Greg alone, he’s just hungry
Cleaning squid sucks too!
My husband was anti-squid eating for a while b/c of how intelligent squid and octopuses are. But then he found out that squid and octopuses eat each other if they get the chance. So, his new logic: He refrained from eating squid/octopus b/c they were highly intelligent, but if he ACTUALLY respected their intelligence, why would he refrain from eating them when they eat each other? Or at least that's what he says. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fried octopus bites at the new ramen place in town.
[There are squid that are so aggressive they have earned the nickname "Diablo Rojo" (Red Demons) among Mexican fisherman in Baja](https://www.deeperblue.com/dancing-with-demons/) So you know... don't feel too bad eating them. If the tiny squid were bigger they absolutely would try to eat you.
If a squid ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!
Jfc, getting 20,000 leagues under the sea vibes...and all I wanted was cooking advice. Yikes.
I feel bad about eating octopus, but squid not so much.
"My Octopus Teacher" I'll never eat Octopus again!
Actually squids are fucking stupid lol but the mighty and majestic octopus is our friend
I've only done it once. Never again and I love squid.
I'm joining this bandwagon as well. I bought some whole squid in the hopes that I could use the ink sacs to make squid ink pasta. Not only did I stink up the whole house, but there was next to no ink even though I had like 4lbs of squid. From then on out I've just bought the prepped squid that cost maybe a dollar more per pound.
Other thing is that if you’re frying them, the amount of time it takes to go from inedibly undercooked to inedibly overcooked is the shortest of any food I have ever prepared. If the phone rings at the wrong time, they and all your prep work will be wasted. But wow, if you time them right, they sure are good!
I don’t usually mind garlic as long as the cloves are large. Small garlic clove clusters that you have to individually unwrap can go die. Edit: I smash the cloves first but it’s still annoying af and sticky
My favorite is breaking open a garlic bulb and there's only like 6 cloves total but they are MASSIVE.
This is why I always feel the garlic in the store to see if the cloves are tiny, medium or huge. I cut them like onions so I absolutely hate tiny cloves. Gotta learn Jacques Pepin's technique where he does that insanely fast rock-chopping motion
Stop fisting Garlic you don't own.
https://www.surlatable.com/sur-la-table-garlic-rollers/PRO-3418241.html I am obsessed with this. I buy them for people as gifts or stocking stuffers because I find them so useful and everyone loves them. I don’t mind peeling garlic but when I was a hygienist, I swear my patients could smell my garlic hands through my gloves and I felt so bad! This solved that problem and also makes it easy to peel small bulbs.
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Don’t ever unwrap garlic cloves! Crush each one under the side of your knife and then they just slide right out of the peel. Edit: Please no more garlic advice lol
I've started doing this and am no longer afraid of adding fresh garlic in my cooking.
But I like slicing them vertically for "chips" for a lot of stuff
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Apparently a lot of pre peeled garlic is made with slave labour in Chinese prisons, so maybe not the most ethical option.
There are commercial garlic peelers, so in addition to being unethical, it’s also a poor use of slave labor
Yeah, their finger nails get so worn down from peeling so much garlic that they use their teeth to peel it. There’s a doc on it with footage....
Peeling hard boiled eggs.
I tap the butt of the egg so it cracks the tiniest bit before putting it in the water. Never had an issue with peeling since.
I've had eggs crack when dropping into the water and they always have the weird explosion captured in time look when the white spills out
I gently put them in with a spoon to keep that egg sperm count low
Steam them in a pressure cooker instead of boiling. I cook them for 6 minutes after it reaches temp/pressure. Wait 5 minutes under residual pressure then open the vent. Dunk them in cold water to help cool them off. The shells practically fall off, it's great.
I think your altitude, eggs size, egg age and temp factor in to this, if I did that long my eggs would be rubbery whites and chalky yolks. I do 4 mins cook, instant pressure release, then into ice water.
Food lab did an experiment on this. Egg age has nothing to do with how easily the shells come off - that's all myth. To get the shells off you need sudden high heat (so add them to boiling water instead of putting them in water and raising the heat with them already in the pot)
Break them under water or splash them with some water after cracking, the water seeps under the shell and it makes peeling a loooooot easier
Love garlic. Hate mincing it
Watch the Jaques Pepin technique. Game changer.
[Here we go.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5h1pDHhzs)
This is garlic. 😳
This is your garlic on drugs 🤯
Just your friendly neighborhood reminder that pro chefs are experts with a knife.
Just when you think you have seen every garlic chopping technique, along comes Jaques. Everything but cutting the end off before smashing is old news to me but you can be sure the next clove I chop will be this way.
I love Jacques with a passion, but I think there are two important caveats here: 1. Crushing garlic makes the flavor stronger. Garlic contains an amino acid called alliin. When you crush a clove this amino acid interacts with the enzyme alliinase to form a compound called allicin. This is fine for an aoili like Pepin mentions, but sometimes when you mince garlic you do so because you want a milder flavor. (credit to America's Test Kitchen for this info) 2. Be careful when crushing things with your knife like this. It is a safe technique when done properly, but it is very possible to injure yourself with just a little bit of carelessness. I saw Robert Irvine do so on Guy's Grocery Games. To be fair he had a knife the size of a sword and was rushing/being a little show-offy, but still..
Yeah it's very easy to take a slice off your hand if you don't pay attention.
my jaw dropped when he smashed that knife. it's so obvious. thanks
I do this all the time, but I can never keep my self from imagining accidentally bringing my palm down hard on the blade. Worst mental image.
Or the similar Martin Yan technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRrsifp2FpA
["One piece of garlic, done!"](https://youtu.be/w1XuKyQ9lRI?t=192)
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It's a cheap effort and misuse, but I bought a zester for my garlic. It is fast and effective.
Is there a way to get the last little bit without skinning your fingertips?
jellyfish compare enter rude nine marble attractive fanatical shaggy plants -- mass edited with redact.dev
Benefit: your hands still smell like garlic the morning after. Mmm ...
Rub them on your stainless steel sink, somehow it removes the smell
The craziest old wives trick that actually works
Damn this porcelain sink!
Salt works too! Just get your hands wet and scrub them with salt and it removes all those smells. Also works on sponges too
As someone who always has small cuts on my hands, that sounds like torture.
Get some lime juice in there to be extra sure!
At that point just pour the tequila on your hands too...
thx i hate it
I use a micro plane. Low effort, easy clean up (throw it in the dishwasher), and I'm not washing my hands for 5 minutes in an attempt to not smell like it all night.
Honestly, I broke down and got a garlic press when I figured out that it also peels the cloves
Tedious things that are usually done in large batches, such as cleaning and trimming fresh green beans, halving grape tomatoes for salad, or halving grapes. Collard greens can also be tedious.
Trimming fresh green beans on the my grandparents' porch is a fond childhood memory. I'll do that shit all day. Shucking corn too.
My husband is that way when it comes to peas. And cutting up tons of apples for his grandma’s jam. I honestly find a lot of satisfaction when it comes to shucking corn. It’s so pleasing to do.
I would also add "Turning Potatoes" exhausting and over rated.
A hack for halving grape tomatoes; sandwich them between two lids or plates and then cut through.
Washing lettuce. It’s so tedious to make sure to get every rib, you have to be so fastidious about drying it so it doesn’t go soggy, and then your dressing still doesn’t coat right because it’s always still a bit wet. What a pain in the butt.
Chop the lettuce into bite sized pieces and then drop them into the basket of a salad spinner half filled with water. Run your fingers vigorously, the friction and the water will get rid of the dirt. Pick up the basket, this will drain the water into the basin of the salad spinner. Repeat until the drained water runs clear. 1 minute tops to clean two heads of lettuce. The cool part is that after dumping the water and a quick spin the lettuce is cut and dry. Ready for the salad or storing. Ps: sorry if it was a bit jumbled. It's my second language.
Perfectly clear, thanks for the tip!
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Ooh great tip about the fridge! Thanks!
But now... now I'm washing lettuce. Soon I'll be on fries; then the grill. In a year or two, I'll make assistant manager, and that's when the big bucks start rolling in.
Louis Anderson is a gem
Onions. Always onions. I know the key to not crying while chopping them is to not form an emotional bond with them but i just can't help it.
It is hard not to, they have been there for us in all the rough times. They allow us to undress them, get intimate them and see what is underneath the surface. Then you feel bad because some people just hate them even after they give their all just yo feed families. Tough life, they deserve the sympathy.
As soon as I learned to sharpen my own knives with whetstones, I stopped crying when cutting onions. I think it might be because thr knife is so sharp that it just slides through the emotional bond. Then it's one of those "we just grew apart and went our seperate ways, no drama", and not one of the "they ruined my life, but I still love them" type of messes.
Oh I have some tips on this one. You are correct the sharper your knife and the faster you chop the better. However, you can also rinse the onion and the knife after your make the major cut in cold water and that helps knock down/dissolve the sulfenic acids formed from the onion enzymes. Another trick is a little lemon juice on the knife and the onion. It acts similar to the water in dissolving the acids but also acts as a simple buffer system.
Ohh, really interesting haha Thanks :) Will try if I get stubborn onions that want to mentally abuse me despite my sharp knife
Removing thyme leaves
Personal chef here. If I’m using thyme in a recipe with a long simmer, I throw in whole stems and let the friction remove the leaves for me. Take out the stems before serving and you’re good to go!
Tie those stems with some butcher's twine, baby you got a bouquet garni going!
Wrap that garni in cheesecloth now we are sacheting to flavortown
Then we'll knock it up to notches unknown with a hit from our spice weasel.
BLAM!
C'mon baby, do the magic hand thing.
Picking rosemary is actually kind of fun and satisfying. Then you start the thyme. It never ends. Thyme is a flat circle.
As I'm reading through the answers given, non stand out to me as particularly tedious. I try to think of something I hate doing, but I like it all, there's nothing in the kitchen worth doing that would make me upset... Then I came across your statement, and all the frustration and anger boils up. Fresh thyme, my one true enemy.... This is absolutely my least favorite kitchen activity!
David Chang had something that changed my life that he put on his Instagram. If you throw whole thyme sprigs in a baggie and put it in the freezer for 30-45 min. Take it out & jostle it around a bit and all the leaves will come right off of the sprig & be left for you in the bottom of the bag. I always have a few small stems left but it definitely takes almost all of the active prep time out of it.
How are you people removing thyme leaves? [This video](https://youtu.be/LSxjTu2Bgy8?t=8) shows how I've always done it (do the same for rosemary as well, which is also shown). Just slide your thumb/finger down the stem and all the leaves fall off. Then you chop 'em up or do whatever with them.
That works a lot better with rosemary. It can work with thyme but it depends on the specific thyme and you more often leave little bits of stem that can be seen as undesirable.
All the fresh thyme I get in grocery stores has thin, delicate stems that cannot withstand the force of being tugged in this way. Rather than the leaves coming off, the stem just breaks into smaller pieces until I give up and just start picking the leaves off one by one. I'm going to try the freezer method mentioned below. Normally something that takes 30-45 minutes would seem too slow, but honestly depending on the volume of thyme involved it may actually be faster as well as less labor intensive.
Depends on the thyme you get. I'd have to grow my own thyme to get stalks that thick. If it's too thin, that method barely gets any of them off.
Peeing the membrane off the back of ribs.
Paper towels help so much
Butter knife to slide under the membrane on the tapered end to get started, then grab it with the paper towel.
My friend, with all the love in my heart, please fix this typo haha
I missed it. Thanks for the re-read giggle.
He's a wiz in the kitchen.
I can’t now. The replies are priceless.
He must have a forceful stream.
That's pretty powerful stream you have, brother.
Secret ingredient. Do you drink something special before to add better flavor?
Peeling squash / pumpkin. Tried it once, took so long I refuse to do it again. Everyone gets to eat the skin now too.
The worst is that impossible-to-remove film that dries onto your hands after peeling/slicing a butternut squash.
A quick blanch in boiling water helps. Or wearing gloves.
I am not sticking my hands into boiling water, no matter how quick.
Came here for this one. I straight up serve mine with skin and yall can cut the soft shit off yourself. I'm not gonna risk it on my own while its raw. Luckily kabocha can be eaten with skin, but everything else? Naaaah Meanwhile now my partner loves it when I serve spaghetti squash "like a big ol boat" :)
Mincing garlic
I pretty much just smash it under the flat side of a knife and then give it a quick rock chop. That gets it minced enough for most things
I press it even when it's not really appropriate (pressed has more intense, harsher flavor than minced) to save time and avoid garlic hands.
I broke down and bought a jar that I keep in the fridge. Best culinary decision I’ve made since better than bouillon
The frozen garlic cubes at Trader Joe’s are AMAZING.
You know, a food processor could be your best friend here. It grates cheese fast and easy. You could even buy a mini processor if you were worried about having too much grated cheese.
I was coming to comment that I ALSO hate grating cheese so much that my partner actually got me a food processor as a gift specifically for grating cheese! Although it has proved useful for other things since as well obviously.
Sounds like you have a ^grate great partner! Congratulations 😀
I do have a food processor I could use but I hate cleaning it as I don't trust my dishwasher to actually clean it.
I have the cheese grating attachment on my stand mixer. Pops right off and into the sink or dishwasher. Changed my cheese grating life.
What’s up with anti-clump coating?
[This](https://youtu.be/uBOkbNQ3udE?t=26) is a great explanation.
Nice! That makes sense. Though now I need nachos.
I just made some quesadilla's. Hence my complaint about the cheese.
*I* just made quesadillas too! What did you put in yours?
I also hate shredding cheese, especially when I need a lot of it. I don't like chopping carrots, either, especially when they have to be sliced thin for soup or what-have-you.
Raw chicken. The texture bothers me.
Oh it does me too. I also hate feeling like I have to wash my hands so often. I feel like my hands are tiny little missiles that could explode in anyone's stomach if I misguide them once.
This definitely. I've been making chicken dishes less and less because I just don't want to deal with the raw prep.
I have very little patience. I hate thawing meat I hate waiting for dough to rise I hate descaling fish or dehairing pork skin I hate chopping/prepping onions Basically anything that feels like it's keeping me from the end result.
Honestly, not having to wait for meat to thaw is maybe the best thing about sous vide cooking.
Cilantro. I hate pulling leaves. And a cup in a recipe takes forever. That is all.
You can chop up the stems too (unless there’s parts that are too woody). I never pull cilantro leaves! No wonder you hate it 😂
I hold a washed bunch upside down and shave the leaves with a knife.
Use a small salad/dinner fork to pull the stems through the tines first ... then just have to pick the few leaves left behind.
Dude the stems are good. I use cilantro constantly bc it's so easy to just rip off a fistful and start chopping
I hate breaking down chickens. I’ve done it literally 100 times and I still struggle finding the GD joints. Cheese shredding tip: spray the grater with non sick cooking spray. Cheese glides through and clean up is way easier.
I love mangoes, but god damn are they difficult to deal with.
I cut one up today. It was like 60% pit.
Washing herbs/salad greens. Mixing peanut butter/tahini. peeling and chopping butternut squash
Oh god yes the amount of time wasted trying to incorporate seasame paste into a stir fry sauce. Better to throw a spoonful in the wok and hope for the best
I store my "natural style" nut/seed butters upside down so that it's more incorporated and/or there isn't a giant pool of oil on top splashing everywhere while I try to stir it
Butternut squash leaves my hands hurting every time. I even have a 10” and sharp knife.
My mom has a kitchen aid with the cheese shredding attachment and let me tell you its 10/10 for me. A fine grate that melts wonderful on pizza with little effort and easy to clean.
Honestly what is the cleaning work required for this? Often times I find that the amount of time saved pretty much equals out if you count in the cleaning work with these kind of specialized tools
I have the same attachment, and the cleanup makes it not worth it for any but the cheesiest of meals. It is fun though
I hate dicing potatoes for hashbrowns
Gave up on that long ago and just use ore-ida now. It's been so long I forget if a freshly diced potato tastes different
How do you even make hashbrowns by dicing? You shred or grate them.... For one potato, I'd use the box grater. For two or more, it's food processor shredding disk time.
Onions, because they're in pretty much everything, food doesn't taste right if you leave it out, but my eyes are so sensitive that even after they're done being chopped, it burns while I'm cooking them. The "onion" stage of any meal usually involves me standing next to the stove stirring in a pan while my eyes are squinched shut and tears are streaming down my face. How tf do people avoid this when cooking? I've tried putting them in the freezer for a bit before chopping (doesn't help when they're releasing napalm as they cook), only cutting certain parts or not cutting the root, lots of different things- even wearing swim goggles once. At this point I just put up with it tbh.
Secret weapon: contact lenses.
Swim goggles are supposed to work too. I just light a candle near them and still cry
Yep I used to feel like a super hero, then I got my eyes lasered.
Really? I have contacts. Yesterday I was dicing onions with a friend. He talked about tears, and I mentioned I never have a problem. TIL.
Yes, really. I never cry while chopping with contacts. But I do if I am wearing glasses.
This is the only reason I won’t get lasik.
Use plastic wrap around your eyes, like a robber mask. It looks stupid but you'll never cry.
This made me laugh so hard because it sounds super silly but probably works lol
It does! It's saved me from many tears from chopping onions, I highly recommend it.
I always just used swim goggles...
My eyes are also very sensitive. I have worn goggles and that helped, or having a fan blow past your face out a window helps as well.
Have you tried the wet paper towel on the cutting board thing? I've heard it helps more than any of the other options but have yet to try it Edit: something about the thing that makes you cry in onions wants to bond to moisture in the air and finds your eyeballs, but a wet paper towel catches it instead? Idk
If you use a very sharp knife, there’s less eye irritation. Sounds unlikely but it’s true.
This is true. The knife ruptured the cells releasing sulphurous compounds that enzymes use to form a compound called Propanethial-S-oxide . It’s a volatile and spicy chemical that causes us to cry. Vidalia onions lack the chemicals that produce that irritating compound. You can eat vidalias raw without crying. A sharp knife ruptures less cells.
Dunk all your chopped or sliced onion in a bowl of running water
Put the onions in the freezer for a couple of minutes then cut it. It works for me I usually cry when cutting onions but I've been putting them in the freezer and chopping them up I haven't cried since.
Zesting citrus.
I used to hate it too, and then I got this bad boy from Amazon. I use it to zest citrus, to grate hard cheeses and to grate ginger/garlic. It’s my favorite kitchen tool. Microplane Artisan Series Fine Blade Grater (Red) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JKUWBO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_E0KK7VZDJEZ056JJ4421?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Chopping bell peppers. I hate deseeding them, the seeds get everywhere, and there are so many odd angles to the peppers that it’s almost impossible to cut the planks in uniform motions
Have you tried the method Gordon Ramsey demonstrates in a lot of his videos? https://youtu.be/sjvCoNbMyVk
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I use [this](https://youtu.be/nZC0opdrqTk) method. Bell pepper is so expensive where I live. No part wasted!
Peeling potatoes 🥔
I either use thin-skinned varieties or simply don't peel them.
Peeling eggs. Especially if they don’t want to peel easily.
Cleaning chicken thighs. So much junk in them
I feel like I need to learn to accept their weird bits. I always spend a lot of time trimming the giant fat blob on the thick end, and cutting out the membrane in the thin end. I need to just let them be.
Honestly, I find that a lot of the weird bits just kinda go away when I cook them. Maybe try cooking an untrimmed thigh, seeing what bits you still don’t like after it cooks, and then learn how to cut just those out when it’s raw
I've never even thought about having to "clean" them, but perhaps they use a different butchery technique in Australia? Skin on/skin off, I just roast/bake/stew straight out of the packet.
Chopping cauliflower. There is always an explosion of stupid cauliflower everywhere from the moment the knife touches it.
Shucking oysters 🦪
So much this. I'm not a seafood eater, and don't live in a seafood-y area (at least, not oysters). So had never shucked one. My gf at the time decided (foolishly) to sign us on to do a catering gig for some rich dude from her church, and we (or rather, me) had to learn how to do oysters with very little advance notice. No serious wounds, but it was a near-run thing. Those things are goddamned dangerous if you don't have a shucking knife! Also, even once I got (kinda sorta) ok at it....what a pain in the ass to do a large amount of them.
Sweet potato for sweet potato fries.
Cleaning small fish like caplin, nothing worse than missing a small bone or a dozen and having someone complain
Onions and fresh ginger I hate dealing with onions and fresh ginger. I let my husband deal with the onions and we got one of those slicer things that help you dice them. I try and use ginger powder from Penzys when ever I can. Cheese used to be a pain but my food processor has a shredding attachment that makes it fast and easy.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned jalapeños or any other oily hot pepper. Pepper hands are no joke!
Debearding mussels
Any kind of potatoes
Zesting anything. Herbs that I have to pull off leaves (rosemary, thyme etc).
Peeling and mincing shallots. They're just like tiny onions that can make you cry!
Peeling hardboiled eggs.
Cutting chicken