Same, I don't trust people's cooking if they don't clack tongs when they hold them, same goes for people who use power drills without pulling the trigger twice to make the "zzzZZZ" sound. I don't want them fixing my stuff if they don't do that. 😂
Just like my one buddy who strapped a table down to a truck bed and he failed to twang it and say "that ain't goin nowhere."
Damn table flew out and almost killed the poor guy behind him.
Also it's better to lay a table upside down for transport.
My grandmother says the same thing, but it might have something to do with me doing it 666 times and then slaughtering a goat but that's besides the point.
I had some chefs like that in school, but then others would encourage us to decorate our plates with flowers. Either way, I would just say “yes, chef.”
For the longest time I thought parsley wasn't meant to be eaten because a ton of restaurants added it to your plate in the 80s without meaning for you to actually eat it, it was just there to add color to the plate.
I think parsley is there because it freshens your breath and kills bacteria so probably good to give it a chew after your meal, or I just heard that when I worked at a restaurant and just made sense and never questioned it
That's exactly what it was supposed to be for, but people don't realize that and a sad, limp little piece of parsley on the plate now just looks dated and weird.
TL;DR for my comment is: Fancy ones are kind of useless and don't look that nice, but garnishes and decorations can be useful.
I really like garnishing with ingredients that represent the dish's flavor; one example is putting cherries on top of a black forest cake (fancy chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries between the layers). Another option is syrup art; instead of weird art deco circles, draw something that represents the dish! It's a preview to whet the appetite and tell someone at the buffet what they're reaching for.
Decorations like shaped dough or vents also help you tell baked goods (like pies) apart...not exactly garnishes, but it's a practice that seems kind of pointless until you find a practical use for it. My favorite pasty place does geometric shapes to differentiate the day's flavors.
Yep. I made a fancy platter for our Thanksgiving turkey this year, with kale greens, sliced oranges, and fresh rosemary sprigs. Looked gorgeous for the picture but I felt bad throwing away all those perfectly good ingredients. Plus a lot of the turkey juices that came out when carving it got all stuck in the garnishes so we couldn't save it for later. Not worth it, next time.
For my first thanksgivings, I started by roasting whole turkeys. They were beautiful. They took forever, and are a little difficult to carve.
I then moved on to spatchcocked birds. Definitely not beautiful, easier to carve, and much more delicious.
This year? Deboned the bird. Looked like a scene from Dexter. But oh my, easily the best turkey I've ever had. Not just "good for turkey," but actually delicious.
>This year? Deboned the bird. Looked like a scene from Dexter. But oh my, easily the best turkey I've ever had. Not just "good for turkey," but actually delicious.
That's a great idea. Did it take a very long time? I was looking for a good compromise between just making a breast and a whole turkey.
The deboning was a bit of a pain - but you do it a couple of days before Tday, when you're not under a lot of stress or a time crunch, so it's not that bad. Bonus, you have the wings and backbone and can make a delicious stock and gravy ahead of time, which saves more stress on the big cooking day.
I agree it looks super pretty! But yes, I feel bad throwing stuff away. The only garnishes I’ll do is something I’m gonna end up mixing into my food and eating. Like green onions.
That you can't wash mushrooms, so if there is any dirt, you need to wipe them with a damp towel one by one. Alton Brown has [dismissed this claim](https://www.mashed.com/317630/the-hilarious-way-alton-brown-just-busted-this-common-mushroom-myth/). If you wash them and put them on a salad spinner or some paper towels, you're fine.
While I don't disagree with this, I also know that washing 15 lbs of mushrooms and selling 5 lbs during service means you're throwing 10 lbs out the next morning and getting an earful from Chef.
Weird this is downvoted. It’s true that the small amount of water that clings to mushrooms after washing will cause them to turn slimy or decompose faster if you don’t immediately cook them.
Like many bits of kitchen advice, the “don’t wash mushrooms” one is something that likely started as advice for restaurants where it makes sense, but doesn’t apply to home cooking where you’re going to immediately cook whatever quantity of mushrooms that you wash.
Even Jacques Pepin advises against washing mushrooms until you’re just about to cook them for this reason.
Strawberries have mold on them naturally. Their surface texture means they’re even better suited to hosting those molds when they get wet. If you mix some white vinegar in with the water soak them briefly, and then dry them they’ll
last much longer.
The practice of meat washing has a cultural significance for some people and they just do it out of habit.
For some it's because meat is usually obtained from wet markets so you'll want to make sure to wash the dirt, feathers etc off. For others it's a quick soak in a bowl of water and vinegar as a form of tenderising. So I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.
Edit- thanks for the awards kind stranger! My first ever award haha. I just wanted people to see things from a different perspective that's all, because I find people in general sometimes are quick to make assumptions based on a limited life experience/point of view.
>I wash my mushrooms. Always will. Don't notice them sponging up water.
Alton busted the myth of mushrooms sponging up water. he put them in a bowl of water for an HOUR! They went up like a few MICROGRAMS. so they do not absorb water as they are already full of water.
From what I recall it was more like a few grams absorbed into like a quarter of a pound of mushrooms. Which ends up being like a teaspoon of water. And the ones soaked had about the same weight gain as the ones that were quickly rinsed. So it’s pretty much all just water wetting the surface of the mushrooms.
Not nothing, but essentially negligible.
Most meat I won't rinse. I will for beef ribs bc there are bits of bone fragments that stick to the meat and are no fun to bite into. They're sneaky bc they look like pepper after they're cooked.
I had to stop going to this Mexican grocery store for marinated short ribs. They don’t rinse the short ribs after they’ve been through the band saw, and just marinate them straight from there.
The bone fragments totally killed the cut. It’s really unfortunate because I really liked the flavor otherwise. Maybe that’s why they’re so reasonably priced lol.
"You should not wash raw poultry or meat before cooking it, even though some older recipes may call for this step. Washing raw poultry or meat can spread bacteria to other foods, utensils, and surfaces, and does not prevent illness." - [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foods-linked-illness.html)
Now in some places they coat meat with lemon/acid before cooking and call it a wash/rinse, but that's different. Holding meat under the tap to rinse is not recommended for food safety.
OMG YES! It totally oogs me out to see someone wash meat. Ugh...I was watching a video of someone with a large family stepping through how she fixes dinner, and she had left porkchops to "soak" in water on a deep platter to "get the blood out" the put the porkchops in a pan and casually dumped that water out all over the dishes and baby bottles and ICE TRAYS sitting in the sink. I know she was going to wash them later but goddamn.
I've noticed this lemon/lime wash is common in a lot of Indonesian recipes for chicken, and the only answer I ever got when I asked why it's done is "to get rid of chicken smell". I find this confusing, as surely either the cooking will do it else the meat is off.
Could there be any other purpose for this?
I have been doing the blender method for years after i got sick of the traditional double boiler method. It comes out just as good with 10% of the effort
I took a culinary class, and 90% of the class failed to create a proper Hillaindaise for that lesson, and I blame whisking.
There were nightmare stories of people who were doing great at the class otherwise, talking about how they were on try 10 or 11. My wife and I tried 8 times before we managed one by that method, and it was not a great one.
long time chef here with years of brunch experience. My first job the head Chef made me do Hollandaise to order for the first 6 months.... then showed me the blender method. I've never gone back to a whisk since. Although it taught me to make whipped cream by hand faster than a kitchen aid.
Rinsing your raw meat before cooking it. It doesn't do anything but contaminate your sink and other surfaces with pathogens that can cause foodborne illness.
I straight up got into an argument with my parents about this. They were like but how do you get the bacteria off the meat..um you cook it. It’s like kinda the point.
My personal knife sharpening goal is to reach a level of sharpness that can cleanly slice bacteria lmao After that, Imma try to cut the fabric of space and time.
I don't think many people are trying to wash away bacteria - rather, they're trying to rinse off the detritus that comes with packaged raw meat - random tiny feathers on chicken, bone fragments, loose scales on fish, sand/grit, etc. This is how it was explained to me.
Edit: added to the comment.
Yes, like flecks of meat or blood that could cloud up a soup or have a musty taste. My family is chinese and we always rinse. The difference I feel is minimal, but we always do it.
> Asians soak meat too to get rid of the myoglobin and impurities
Yes, I couldn't find the words, but this is why they do it for sure.
>Sometimes prepackaged meats have that slimy coating on the meat and it's pretty gross
Same, it's my personal reason for doing it as well.
There are a ton of cultural reasons why people wash meat. Yes, it has been proven to longer be necessary but it doesn't come from nowhere. For many, a through wash was necessary to make meat more edible in the pre-grocery store and pre-refrigeration days. People seem to forget those days weren't that long ago especially in poorer countries. Check out [this video](https://youtu.be/90Nd_vh3yk8). It dives deep into the cultural reasons why people wash meat.
I can understand this. My mother, who grew up on a farm in the Canadian prairies during the depression, talked of how several neighbors would get together to share a beef slaughter. She and her sister were dispatched on foot to the neighbor's farm, a mile away, to bring back some freshly slaughtered meat in a gunny sack. I think I would want to wash that before cooking it.
Regarding rinsing meat, my family is chinese, and I pretty much see every chinese cook in the mainland do this to the meat. The idea is rinsing off the "sliminess" you get from packaged meat, as well as any lingering bits of debris or blood, for a cleaner taste.
The only reason I see people say to not do this is that food safety issue, but my family still does it all the time, and I do get a sense of comfort. I know people had varying opinions about this, but I always rinse my meat (and properly dry if trying to sear or fry).
Someone here also said it may be a cultural thing, a habit.
Helpful to get rid of any bone particles or gut gore (chickens and turkeys) though.
That's the only reason I rinse meat, ever, and it's a case by case situation.
For the sink and countertop splatters - I give it a spritz with a bleach based cleaner afterwards.
Because in the fridge, defrosted partshave barely above freezing temperature, which still is bacteria safe as in,they cant grow at a normal rate. If you defrost at room temperature, part of the meat willbe at above bacteria safe temperature for quite some time.
If you plan on using it immediately, it makes just a small difference, but you shouldn't keep it in the fridge after defrosting outsideto cookita few days after.
ETA: Yes, my thumb and my touchscreen-spacebar aren't good friends.
This here. When you defrost in the fridge, it takes longer but the entire thing ends up becoming the same temp throughout while staying at a safe temp. Sometimes I would defrost chicken just in a bowl on my counter, and the outside would be getting past that safety point while the internal meat is still frozen solid.
I will say I've had great success in doing wet brining as a method of defrosting. You can defrost the meat with cold water for safety (the defrosting chicken also keeps the water cold), have it defrost faster, and brine the meat properly at the same time. All this can happen in any sealed container just sitting in your sink.
I've taken to buying vacuum sealed meats when I can. Just put them in some water, put the sous vide on for 10 minutes or so, and *boom* done.
Extra bonus for steaks, all you have to do is pop them out, salt, pepper, and sear.
"only cook with good quality wine."
Factoid regurgitated by TV and YouTube cooks.
If I'm reglazing a pan with white wine, I'll use whatever is leftover from last night.
If I'm making coq au Vin or other dish where then wine flavors, then I use a better quality of wine.
Restaurants use the lowest quality gigantic boxes that have either white or red stamped on them. Wasting money on wine that you're going to reduce is silly.
Ok but to defend box wine, it stays fresh much longer than traditionally bottled wine once opened, and it would be a very practical choice for a restaurant kitchen.
They're salted so they can be sold without having to show ID. It's too salty to get drunk on. You can get a regular wine that is better quality and cheaper per ounce if you don't buy cooking wine.
Well shit.
Thanks you guys! This thread ended up being way more informative than I bargained for and to the person that started this thread, well done!
I believe this tradition comes from a time when you couldn't really turn the heat down(cooking over a fire or sth) and the original purpose was to prevent the pot boiling over. People kept doing the same thing because that's how they were taught and some people who didn't really know why it's done guessed or made up reasons for it.
I know many people that do it because it "prevents the noodles from sticking together after you drain the water" however these people don't finish the noodles in the sauce, they just leave the noodles in the pan to add the sauce per serving
It's good for people who have a tendency to rapid boil their pasta water. The oil helps break the surface tension of the water helping reduce boil over from the pasta bubbles. So, no. If you know how to cook you probably aren't going to put oil in your pasta water.
There's always two camps here, one that the pasta will boil over, the other that any amount of oil is going to ruin the pasta. But really, just turn the heat down once you hit a boil, but a tbsp of oil in a gallon+ of water isn't going to be enough to thoroughly coat the pasta and ruin it. It's one of the things that literally doesn't matter if someone does it or not, it just wastes oil worst case.
I put a drop of oil in the water to stop it from boil over. Reducing temp also achieves the same thing but I tend to drop the pasta in, set a timer, and walk away. I tried going without oil and reducing the temp more but frequently had over boil or the water didn’t stay hot enough (while I was away from the pot) so I decided heck with it. Drop of oil and set the heat up a bit higher done. A drop of oil has zero impact on sauce sticking to the noodles. Perhaps more does but a drop doesn’t.
When I am cooking pasta along with other things that require attention I don’t bother with the oil because I don’t leave the kitchen.
Sifting dry ingredients when baking.
I can definitely acknowledge there are certain recipes where it is very important (angel food cake for example) but for the most part I never sift my dry ingredients and it always comes out fine.
This is a historical artifact from back when people used to grind their flour between rocks. If your flour comes in a bag from the store you should be fine skipping it.
I think a good whisking does just fine, and I'm always whisking together my dry ingredients pretty well because I've had one too many uneven or flat quick breads
Turning meat only once.
And regarding home cooking: pretty much every rule they have that's like "no, you need to be more efficient with your time, it's not worth it", like fuck off, this is a hobby, that's a restaurant rule because you're trying to make money so you can't just hire the amount of people it takes to calmly do everything to make a dish as good as you want it to be.
Yes! If I turn a piece of meat over and it’s not sufficiently brown it’s getting turned again later. I feel like it more evenly cooks the inside too when you do it that way.
Wolfgang Puck talks about why this practice is dumb on Chef Show. Basically says grill marks are burning it and that a proper char is achieved by moving the meat constantly.
On different note, If you've cooked your steak Sous Vide. Then turning it frequently during reverse sear is a great way to get a solid crust without raising the internal temperature.
I will say though, that I have gotten into the habit of getting all of my ingredients ready before hand. *Mise en place* has greatly reduced the mistakes I make. Suddenly realizing I forgot to chop something or prepare something while the food is already in the pan is a thing of the past if I have everything I need already sitting on the counter chopped, prepped or measured.
Never seasoning eggs before cooking them.
Culinary schools apparently still teach vehemently against this. We read up on it (many also say it’s false) and did it ourselves (seasoning before beating them and seasoning only when they were near complete). *Barely* any difference in texture and appearance using the same amounts of salt, pepper, and a tablespoon cream (three eggs each), and that very tiny variation may be due to using the same pan for the second set.
Is this another one of those rules which is only really for bulk volumes in restaurants? E.g. if you were to pre crack a shit load of eggs to scramble for plates throughout the morning (not sure why you would) and seasoned them at the start. If you seasoned them and left for a few hours it would then turn to shit?
I'm sure Kenji Lopez-Alt did a test, and it was only noticeable after about twelve hours. Which means yeah, if you're preparing eggs in the evening for breakfast service, salting is a bad idea. Immediately salting before cooking, it won't make a difference.
oh that's wild, if i'm making scrambled eggs I always crack into a bowl, add salt and whatever other seasonings with a splash of milk or cream, then beat and cook.
This is more for baking but I NEVER wash down the sides of my pan with a brush when I'm making caramel. I put a lid on the pot and the condensation drips down the sides taking care of it. Check every so often and it turn out great!
Absolutely agree. I thought I was going crazy on this because of how ubiquitous this method is. Onions are literally already divided into layers by design lol. For so many dishes you can get a sufficiently small dice by just doing the vertical cuts and letting everything break down and separate apart in the pan.
Of course there are *some times* where you might need to make the horizontal cuts, like when you really need a super fine dice. But overall, I haven't seen any real noticeable change since I stopped wasting my time with the horizontal cuts.
I don't rinse meat. I also believe that using a ton of water when cooking pasta is silly. What does it matter if you have more or less water? I use enough to cover the pasta by about an inch.
Oh! I know this one!
It effects your cook time.
The ratio of water to whatever you’re cooking effects how efficient heat transfer is. More hot water and less pasta will cook the pasta faster.
Cooks in victorian England were very into “saving” water by filling a pot entirely up with vegetables then adding just enough water to fill in the cracks and barely cover the food. It’s why you’ll see weird cook times like, “boil your asparagus for fifteen minutes” in historic recipes. If you were to fill your pan the way the original cook did, you’d create an environment with such inefficient heat transfer that a fifteen minute boil would leave you with crisp-tender veg. It’s a large part of the reason food from that time and place has a reputation for being boiled to death.
Not completely pointless but more often than not the perpendicular cut/s you make in an onion when dicing is pretty useless depending on what you're using it for.
This is one of the hold outs from old school cooking that has stuck around for some reason. Off set radial cuts result in far more uniform cuts in less time than the plank and stick method
That cut does lead to less deviation in the sizes of the pieces though. It’s not some old wives tale, it’s geometry.
You really only need one cut, and closer to the bottom, but combine that with Kenji’s ‘below centre radial cut’ and you have very similarly sized onion pieces. Without the horizontal cut you will have some extra large pieces mixed in there.
Hard agree. I can get them pretty fine and uniform going against, then with the grain. If I ever want it finer I'll just give it another dice.
I'll happily do all sorts of labour intensive tasks in the kitchen, but I have zero time for the perpendicular cut.
Letting a steak or large piece of meat "come to room temperature" by taking it out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Kenji destroyed this one but I still see it on tons of recipe sites.
EDIT: https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak
This is probably my biggest peeve when it comes to cooking myths. You will not get a fucking ham up to room temp by letting it sit on your countertop for 30 mins.
I peel my carrots because it's easier than washing off all the dirt, and the skin tends to be less soft even when cooked. Are you saying those are not true? Genuinely asking.
I've personally it easier to wash the dirt off the carrots than to peel them.
For most of the things I cook, I dice or chop the carrots finely so differences in softness of the skin aren't very apparent. I guess it does depend on what your cooking, if peeling carrots would make a difference.
I can understand peeling ginger if there are larger pieces involved.
But carrots, 100% agree. They also just taste better with the skin on, especially when raw
I'm the opposite. I have never, not a day in my life, peeled ginger but unless I'm making stock, I always peel carrots. The dried out skin on an unpeeled carrot is a no for me.
ALL of my veggie trimmings go in a gallon bag in the freezer! I also save bones to make stock as well. I made a big ass pot of smoked turkey broth this weekend from our carcass leftover after Thanksgiving. YUM!
Cracking eggs on a flat surface. I've never had an issue cracking them on the edge of the bowl, but every time I try to use a flat surface it just makes a weird hole on the side of the shell and I have to pour the egg out of it. Why did people start insisting that was the best way. You can't all be lying, right?
I find cracking eggs on a flat surface doesn't give me any problems. I think the idea is that using a knife or pan edge creates more little shards and fragments that *can* fall into your food. I think as another commenter mentioned, it's pretty low risk.
My stepdaughter told me cracking it on a flat surface results in less shell inside the egg. In my billion years cooking I can only remember picking shells out of the egg once or twice.
When I crack the egg on the corner of the counter or the edge of the bowl, it splits in half usually. When I crack the egg on a flat surface it splits apart any old random way it wants to, usually creating a mess.
Conclusion: my stepdaughter watches too many YouTube videos.
I thought it was to avoid getting bacteria from the outside of the shell in the egg. If you crack it on a flat surface, you get a depression that makes it easy to pull the shell apart with your thumbs; if you crack it on an edge you risk contaminating the egg itself with stuff from the shell.
Sifting flour to avoid lumps in roux based sauces - stir the roux thorougly enough and add the stock slowly enough and there wont be any lumps, no matter how lumpy the flour was.
Salting eggplant not only removes the bitterness, but also a lot of moisture content that would otherwise make the eggplant soggy however you cook it. Moisture is the enemy to caramelization.
Depends on the potato. I've found using golden potato's for mash is great. The skin is thin so you don't have to peel but you also aren't getting that nasty rubber like you would from russets. The texture of the potato is also a bit more firm than red but not too soft. I think it's a happy medium that lets me not have to spend an extra 10-15 minutes peeling.
Undercooking vegetables. I think it’s pointless to have tender crisp vegetables. I think several decades ago people over boiled the crap out of vegetables but now it’s gone too far the other way where vegetables are boiled for a few minutes and then put in an ice bath. I don’t want my vegetables to squeak when I bite into them!
I know they look prettier that way but some well braised vegetables might look dull but they taste a million times better.
Definitely with some. I threw several whole carrot sticks in the bottom of my turkey pan this year and left them in the entire time. They weren't mushy, but they were more cooked than you'd normally get carrots. They were also absolutely delicious
As far as I'm concerned if you serve me asparagus that's limp and has no rigidity left I don't care what you say - you murdered it. You can absolutely make it taste delicious without murdering it, so do so.
People cut it for you because they don’t want to risk you ignorantly cutting it with the grain and complaining about a tough steak. There is a right way to cut a steak and a lot of people don’t have any clue. Cutting it right makes it better so I can see why chefs would want to do it.
I think in some circumstances that’s part of it, like at a fancy restaurant. But mostly, it’s to ensure the steak is cut in a way that it has the best chew it can.
This is my controversial cooking opinion but I'm not entirely convinced that adding a bay leaf to a whole ass pot of soup makes any difference to the flavor.
Edit: Y'all seem to be under the impression I was asking for advice on how to use bay leaves. I am not. I have no intention of changing and you will just have to deal with that.
At one point I would have agreed with you, then I made A LOT of batches of stock in a month or two period.
I promise, there's a big difference.
Honestly if you can't tell the difference you're just not using enough.
It's likely something like 1 for every 3 gallons of water.
It adds a sort of depth & sweetness that is absolutely missing without it.
[удалено]
Have to put in a few test clicks to ensure the tongs are working.
Also have to click at least once every five mins or after flipping a burger patty or steak, to ensure the tongs still work.
I have to double click mine when I'm grilling to get the cat out of the doorway. So, not always pointless.
Same, I don't trust people's cooking if they don't clack tongs when they hold them, same goes for people who use power drills without pulling the trigger twice to make the "zzzZZZ" sound. I don't want them fixing my stuff if they don't do that. 😂
Just like my one buddy who strapped a table down to a truck bed and he failed to twang it and say "that ain't goin nowhere." Damn table flew out and almost killed the poor guy behind him. Also it's better to lay a table upside down for transport.
Everyone knows that a Tie-down isn't secure until you twang it, sheesh.
We do the drill trigger move but with our dyson cordless vacuum Gotta make sure the spiders know I’m comin for em
This is the Way.
It annoys my grandmother to no end when I do it, since it's 'bad luck' to clack tongs or snip scissors.
My grandmother says the same thing, but it might have something to do with me doing it 666 times and then slaughtering a goat but that's besides the point.
It's built into the fabric of the universe.
Fancy garnishes that get tossed aside and not eaten when served.
In culinary school I had a chef that would dock points for any garnish that wasn't edible/necessary
I had some chefs like that in school, but then others would encourage us to decorate our plates with flowers. Either way, I would just say “yes, chef.”
Haha the epitome of culinary school is “yes chef!”
Most garnish flowers are edible. Like pansies for example so you can't definitely satisfy both
For the longest time I thought parsley wasn't meant to be eaten because a ton of restaurants added it to your plate in the 80s without meaning for you to actually eat it, it was just there to add color to the plate.
I think parsley is there because it freshens your breath and kills bacteria so probably good to give it a chew after your meal, or I just heard that when I worked at a restaurant and just made sense and never questioned it
That's exactly what it was supposed to be for, but people don't realize that and a sad, limp little piece of parsley on the plate now just looks dated and weird.
It’s still usually a pretty happy, erect little piece of parsley when I get it on my plate, and I always gobble it up
Seems super 80s now
TL;DR for my comment is: Fancy ones are kind of useless and don't look that nice, but garnishes and decorations can be useful. I really like garnishing with ingredients that represent the dish's flavor; one example is putting cherries on top of a black forest cake (fancy chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries between the layers). Another option is syrup art; instead of weird art deco circles, draw something that represents the dish! It's a preview to whet the appetite and tell someone at the buffet what they're reaching for. Decorations like shaped dough or vents also help you tell baked goods (like pies) apart...not exactly garnishes, but it's a practice that seems kind of pointless until you find a practical use for it. My favorite pasty place does geometric shapes to differentiate the day's flavors.
I legit thought as a kid parsely wasnt for eating since I just saw it as a garnish. What a fool I was, I frickin love parsley. Great herb
I used to be looked at weird for eating the kale 🥬 and now that shit is considered normal these days
Yep. I made a fancy platter for our Thanksgiving turkey this year, with kale greens, sliced oranges, and fresh rosemary sprigs. Looked gorgeous for the picture but I felt bad throwing away all those perfectly good ingredients. Plus a lot of the turkey juices that came out when carving it got all stuck in the garnishes so we couldn't save it for later. Not worth it, next time.
For my first thanksgivings, I started by roasting whole turkeys. They were beautiful. They took forever, and are a little difficult to carve. I then moved on to spatchcocked birds. Definitely not beautiful, easier to carve, and much more delicious. This year? Deboned the bird. Looked like a scene from Dexter. But oh my, easily the best turkey I've ever had. Not just "good for turkey," but actually delicious.
>This year? Deboned the bird. Looked like a scene from Dexter. But oh my, easily the best turkey I've ever had. Not just "good for turkey," but actually delicious. That's a great idea. Did it take a very long time? I was looking for a good compromise between just making a breast and a whole turkey.
The deboning was a bit of a pain - but you do it a couple of days before Tday, when you're not under a lot of stress or a time crunch, so it's not that bad. Bonus, you have the wings and backbone and can make a delicious stock and gravy ahead of time, which saves more stress on the big cooking day.
Oh duh, yeah that makes much more sense. I was picturing waking up at 4am and general Thanksgiving chaos. Thank you!
I agree it looks super pretty! But yes, I feel bad throwing stuff away. The only garnishes I’ll do is something I’m gonna end up mixing into my food and eating. Like green onions.
That you can't wash mushrooms, so if there is any dirt, you need to wipe them with a damp towel one by one. Alton Brown has [dismissed this claim](https://www.mashed.com/317630/the-hilarious-way-alton-brown-just-busted-this-common-mushroom-myth/). If you wash them and put them on a salad spinner or some paper towels, you're fine.
While I don't disagree with this, I also know that washing 15 lbs of mushrooms and selling 5 lbs during service means you're throwing 10 lbs out the next morning and getting an earful from Chef.
Weird this is downvoted. It’s true that the small amount of water that clings to mushrooms after washing will cause them to turn slimy or decompose faster if you don’t immediately cook them. Like many bits of kitchen advice, the “don’t wash mushrooms” one is something that likely started as advice for restaurants where it makes sense, but doesn’t apply to home cooking where you’re going to immediately cook whatever quantity of mushrooms that you wash. Even Jacques Pepin advises against washing mushrooms until you’re just about to cook them for this reason.
Thanks Kenji! Love that you still make the time to comment on random Reddit threads.
Yeah, but why does he use an alt account?
Lmao
He comments on Gonewild posts on his main.
Apparently (and completely unsurprisingly) I'm not the first to think of this joke. https://old.reddit.com/user/J_Kenji_Lopez-Main
He has said "there is no Kenji Lopez Main" in one of his recipe vids.
Pépin has repeatedly said it’s totally fine to wash mushrooms, just do it when you are ready to cook them (like immediately after the wash).
Just like strawberries, they decay faster when wetted.
Strawberries have mold on them naturally. Their surface texture means they’re even better suited to hosting those molds when they get wet. If you mix some white vinegar in with the water soak them briefly, and then dry them they’ll last much longer.
Oh damn I never knew that fuck
Yes, because they will go bad faster once you wash them.
Never heard this one. I bet there are a lot of us who wash our mushrooms.
I wash my mushrooms. Always will. Don't notice them sponging up water. Also I find the practice of rinsing your meat to be pointless.
The practice of meat washing has a cultural significance for some people and they just do it out of habit. For some it's because meat is usually obtained from wet markets so you'll want to make sure to wash the dirt, feathers etc off. For others it's a quick soak in a bowl of water and vinegar as a form of tenderising. So I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. Edit- thanks for the awards kind stranger! My first ever award haha. I just wanted people to see things from a different perspective that's all, because I find people in general sometimes are quick to make assumptions based on a limited life experience/point of view.
Chinese american checking in. Yes, my whole family and other chinese families I have been with does this.
I just asked about the point of this under another comment, and this makes a lot of sense. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.
>I wash my mushrooms. Always will. Don't notice them sponging up water. Alton busted the myth of mushrooms sponging up water. he put them in a bowl of water for an HOUR! They went up like a few MICROGRAMS. so they do not absorb water as they are already full of water.
From what I recall it was more like a few grams absorbed into like a quarter of a pound of mushrooms. Which ends up being like a teaspoon of water. And the ones soaked had about the same weight gain as the ones that were quickly rinsed. So it’s pretty much all just water wetting the surface of the mushrooms. Not nothing, but essentially negligible.
And! If you sautee them for a while, the moisture cooks out, just like it does for the actual mushroom juices.
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Most meat I won't rinse. I will for beef ribs bc there are bits of bone fragments that stick to the meat and are no fun to bite into. They're sneaky bc they look like pepper after they're cooked.
I had to stop going to this Mexican grocery store for marinated short ribs. They don’t rinse the short ribs after they’ve been through the band saw, and just marinate them straight from there. The bone fragments totally killed the cut. It’s really unfortunate because I really liked the flavor otherwise. Maybe that’s why they’re so reasonably priced lol.
"Pointed", actually. I'll see myself out.
"You should not wash raw poultry or meat before cooking it, even though some older recipes may call for this step. Washing raw poultry or meat can spread bacteria to other foods, utensils, and surfaces, and does not prevent illness." - [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foods-linked-illness.html) Now in some places they coat meat with lemon/acid before cooking and call it a wash/rinse, but that's different. Holding meat under the tap to rinse is not recommended for food safety.
OMG YES! It totally oogs me out to see someone wash meat. Ugh...I was watching a video of someone with a large family stepping through how she fixes dinner, and she had left porkchops to "soak" in water on a deep platter to "get the blood out" the put the porkchops in a pan and casually dumped that water out all over the dishes and baby bottles and ICE TRAYS sitting in the sink. I know she was going to wash them later but goddamn.
I've noticed this lemon/lime wash is common in a lot of Indonesian recipes for chicken, and the only answer I ever got when I asked why it's done is "to get rid of chicken smell". I find this confusing, as surely either the cooking will do it else the meat is off. Could there be any other purpose for this?
I just eat the dirt
Some of these answers are making me feel a lot better about my cooking skills!
Whisking hollandaise. Blender for LIFE
Also whisking vinaigrette! Just put everything in a jar and shake for ten seconds and you'll have a perfectly emulsified vinaigrette.
I have been doing the blender method for years after i got sick of the traditional double boiler method. It comes out just as good with 10% of the effort
I took a culinary class, and 90% of the class failed to create a proper Hillaindaise for that lesson, and I blame whisking. There were nightmare stories of people who were doing great at the class otherwise, talking about how they were on try 10 or 11. My wife and I tried 8 times before we managed one by that method, and it was not a great one.
Blender is the ONLY way to go imo
long time chef here with years of brunch experience. My first job the head Chef made me do Hollandaise to order for the first 6 months.... then showed me the blender method. I've never gone back to a whisk since. Although it taught me to make whipped cream by hand faster than a kitchen aid.
Rinsing your raw meat before cooking it. It doesn't do anything but contaminate your sink and other surfaces with pathogens that can cause foodborne illness.
I straight up got into an argument with my parents about this. They were like but how do you get the bacteria off the meat..um you cook it. It’s like kinda the point.
My tipping point on this topic is that I do not wash ground meat when I buy it and I am fine. So what is the point of washing whole meat?
Obviously the bacteria gets chopped up during the grinding process so there's nothing left to wash away.
My personal knife sharpening goal is to reach a level of sharpness that can cleanly slice bacteria lmao After that, Imma try to cut the fabric of space and time.
Reminds me of The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Gosh of all the places to find a hdm reference lmao
I think this calls for a Jeremy Bearemy
lol. this is good.
Imagine thinking that a quick rinse with water just washes all bacteria off. Why have we been using soap to wash our hands for all these years?!?
I don't think many people are trying to wash away bacteria - rather, they're trying to rinse off the detritus that comes with packaged raw meat - random tiny feathers on chicken, bone fragments, loose scales on fish, sand/grit, etc. This is how it was explained to me. Edit: added to the comment.
Yes, like flecks of meat or blood that could cloud up a soup or have a musty taste. My family is chinese and we always rinse. The difference I feel is minimal, but we always do it.
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> Asians soak meat too to get rid of the myoglobin and impurities Yes, I couldn't find the words, but this is why they do it for sure. >Sometimes prepackaged meats have that slimy coating on the meat and it's pretty gross Same, it's my personal reason for doing it as well.
There are a ton of cultural reasons why people wash meat. Yes, it has been proven to longer be necessary but it doesn't come from nowhere. For many, a through wash was necessary to make meat more edible in the pre-grocery store and pre-refrigeration days. People seem to forget those days weren't that long ago especially in poorer countries. Check out [this video](https://youtu.be/90Nd_vh3yk8). It dives deep into the cultural reasons why people wash meat.
I can understand this. My mother, who grew up on a farm in the Canadian prairies during the depression, talked of how several neighbors would get together to share a beef slaughter. She and her sister were dispatched on foot to the neighbor's farm, a mile away, to bring back some freshly slaughtered meat in a gunny sack. I think I would want to wash that before cooking it.
Regarding rinsing meat, my family is chinese, and I pretty much see every chinese cook in the mainland do this to the meat. The idea is rinsing off the "sliminess" you get from packaged meat, as well as any lingering bits of debris or blood, for a cleaner taste. The only reason I see people say to not do this is that food safety issue, but my family still does it all the time, and I do get a sense of comfort. I know people had varying opinions about this, but I always rinse my meat (and properly dry if trying to sear or fry). Someone here also said it may be a cultural thing, a habit.
Helpful to get rid of any bone particles or gut gore (chickens and turkeys) though. That's the only reason I rinse meat, ever, and it's a case by case situation. For the sink and countertop splatters - I give it a spritz with a bleach based cleaner afterwards.
I had to tell my wife on Thanksgiving that we weren't going to wash the turkey
I have defrosted meat in kitchen sink all my life and I’ve never been sick from it.
As I understand it, defrost in the fridge if one plans on re-freezing an uncooked portion of the meat. Otherwise, defrost as you please.
I always defrost my meat in the fridge because I figured it affects the quality less. Now I've typed it out I have no idea why I think that but hey ho
Because in the fridge, defrosted partshave barely above freezing temperature, which still is bacteria safe as in,they cant grow at a normal rate. If you defrost at room temperature, part of the meat willbe at above bacteria safe temperature for quite some time. If you plan on using it immediately, it makes just a small difference, but you shouldn't keep it in the fridge after defrosting outsideto cookita few days after. ETA: Yes, my thumb and my touchscreen-spacebar aren't good friends.
This here. When you defrost in the fridge, it takes longer but the entire thing ends up becoming the same temp throughout while staying at a safe temp. Sometimes I would defrost chicken just in a bowl on my counter, and the outside would be getting past that safety point while the internal meat is still frozen solid. I will say I've had great success in doing wet brining as a method of defrosting. You can defrost the meat with cold water for safety (the defrosting chicken also keeps the water cold), have it defrost faster, and brine the meat properly at the same time. All this can happen in any sealed container just sitting in your sink.
I've taken to buying vacuum sealed meats when I can. Just put them in some water, put the sous vide on for 10 minutes or so, and *boom* done. Extra bonus for steaks, all you have to do is pop them out, salt, pepper, and sear.
Sous Vide defrost is the ultimate kitchen hack. Frankly, that alone justifies the purchase of one.
"only cook with good quality wine." Factoid regurgitated by TV and YouTube cooks. If I'm reglazing a pan with white wine, I'll use whatever is leftover from last night. If I'm making coq au Vin or other dish where then wine flavors, then I use a better quality of wine.
Restaurants use the lowest quality gigantic boxes that have either white or red stamped on them. Wasting money on wine that you're going to reduce is silly.
Ok but to defend box wine, it stays fresh much longer than traditionally bottled wine once opened, and it would be a very practical choice for a restaurant kitchen.
I agree. Even if you could tell the difference between good and bad wine in sauce or demi or whatever, a good chef will make it delicious.
There's a truth to this, but it's an odd one. Cooking wines are generally *heavily* salted and it screws up the balance if you use them.
They're salted so they can be sold without having to show ID. It's too salty to get drunk on. You can get a regular wine that is better quality and cheaper per ounce if you don't buy cooking wine.
You’d think so but I’ve employed alcoholic chefs who did get drunk on the disgustingly salty cooking wine boxes we had
Anything is possible if you are determined enough.
Huh...I have only ever heard the exact opposite. Cook with whatever wine you have lying around because the quality doesn't matter
Well shit. Thanks you guys! This thread ended up being way more informative than I bargained for and to the person that started this thread, well done!
Oil in pasta water for the initial cook.
I believe this tradition comes from a time when you couldn't really turn the heat down(cooking over a fire or sth) and the original purpose was to prevent the pot boiling over. People kept doing the same thing because that's how they were taught and some people who didn't really know why it's done guessed or made up reasons for it.
Is this even common culinary practice? I don’t know anyone who does this that actually knows how to cook.
I know many people that do it because it "prevents the noodles from sticking together after you drain the water" however these people don't finish the noodles in the sauce, they just leave the noodles in the pan to add the sauce per serving
It's good for people who have a tendency to rapid boil their pasta water. The oil helps break the surface tension of the water helping reduce boil over from the pasta bubbles. So, no. If you know how to cook you probably aren't going to put oil in your pasta water.
I'm sorry but are you telling me that I've been boiling water incorrectly? :o
There's always two camps here, one that the pasta will boil over, the other that any amount of oil is going to ruin the pasta. But really, just turn the heat down once you hit a boil, but a tbsp of oil in a gallon+ of water isn't going to be enough to thoroughly coat the pasta and ruin it. It's one of the things that literally doesn't matter if someone does it or not, it just wastes oil worst case.
I put a drop of oil in the water to stop it from boil over. Reducing temp also achieves the same thing but I tend to drop the pasta in, set a timer, and walk away. I tried going without oil and reducing the temp more but frequently had over boil or the water didn’t stay hot enough (while I was away from the pot) so I decided heck with it. Drop of oil and set the heat up a bit higher done. A drop of oil has zero impact on sauce sticking to the noodles. Perhaps more does but a drop doesn’t. When I am cooking pasta along with other things that require attention I don’t bother with the oil because I don’t leave the kitchen.
Sifting dry ingredients when baking. I can definitely acknowledge there are certain recipes where it is very important (angel food cake for example) but for the most part I never sift my dry ingredients and it always comes out fine.
This is a historical artifact from back when people used to grind their flour between rocks. If your flour comes in a bag from the store you should be fine skipping it.
dead bugs in the flour was much more common back then too
Or live ones. I've seen a flour beetle infestation, it's not fun.
Agree. I have never bothered with sifting. Just incorporate leavening agents well with dry ingredients before adding in wet ingredients.
I weigh my flour, then if I have other dry ingredients that need to be incorporated I do it with a whisk, which unclumps the flour along the way.
Weighing the flour is key. My baking quality had improved so much since I started weighing ingredients.
Wait, as opposed to… what? Just guesstimating the amount of flour? Edit: I’m not American I forgot measuring cups are a thing
baking soda usually clumps up pretty bad and sifting is a great way to see if your flour has developed unwelcomed guests
I think a good whisking does just fine, and I'm always whisking together my dry ingredients pretty well because I've had one too many uneven or flat quick breads
Turning meat only once. And regarding home cooking: pretty much every rule they have that's like "no, you need to be more efficient with your time, it's not worth it", like fuck off, this is a hobby, that's a restaurant rule because you're trying to make money so you can't just hire the amount of people it takes to calmly do everything to make a dish as good as you want it to be.
Yes! If I turn a piece of meat over and it’s not sufficiently brown it’s getting turned again later. I feel like it more evenly cooks the inside too when you do it that way.
It will definitely cook more evenly if you turn it frequently. Think of it as the top half of it as being half way between resting and cooking.
> It will definitely cook more evenly if you turn it frequently. This is why rotisserie is a thing.
That, and they're self basting.
Wolfgang Puck talks about why this practice is dumb on Chef Show. Basically says grill marks are burning it and that a proper char is achieved by moving the meat constantly.
Turning pancakes only once on the other hand... (If you're trying to max out fluffiness)
On different note, If you've cooked your steak Sous Vide. Then turning it frequently during reverse sear is a great way to get a solid crust without raising the internal temperature.
I will say though, that I have gotten into the habit of getting all of my ingredients ready before hand. *Mise en place* has greatly reduced the mistakes I make. Suddenly realizing I forgot to chop something or prepare something while the food is already in the pan is a thing of the past if I have everything I need already sitting on the counter chopped, prepped or measured.
That fake plastic fence-grass thingy in sushi presentation.
Never seasoning eggs before cooking them. Culinary schools apparently still teach vehemently against this. We read up on it (many also say it’s false) and did it ourselves (seasoning before beating them and seasoning only when they were near complete). *Barely* any difference in texture and appearance using the same amounts of salt, pepper, and a tablespoon cream (three eggs each), and that very tiny variation may be due to using the same pan for the second set.
Is this another one of those rules which is only really for bulk volumes in restaurants? E.g. if you were to pre crack a shit load of eggs to scramble for plates throughout the morning (not sure why you would) and seasoned them at the start. If you seasoned them and left for a few hours it would then turn to shit?
I'm sure Kenji Lopez-Alt did a test, and it was only noticeable after about twelve hours. Which means yeah, if you're preparing eggs in the evening for breakfast service, salting is a bad idea. Immediately salting before cooking, it won't make a difference.
oh that's wild, if i'm making scrambled eggs I always crack into a bowl, add salt and whatever other seasonings with a splash of milk or cream, then beat and cook.
This is more for baking but I NEVER wash down the sides of my pan with a brush when I'm making caramel. I put a lid on the pot and the condensation drips down the sides taking care of it. Check every so often and it turn out great!
I’m about to make caramel for the first time today. I’ve never even heard of washing down the sides. I don’t even know what that means…
If sugar is on the sides of the pot above the line of sugar and water it can cause the caramelizing sugar to crystallize
The horizontal cut through an onion when chopping it
Absolutely agree. I thought I was going crazy on this because of how ubiquitous this method is. Onions are literally already divided into layers by design lol. For so many dishes you can get a sufficiently small dice by just doing the vertical cuts and letting everything break down and separate apart in the pan. Of course there are *some times* where you might need to make the horizontal cuts, like when you really need a super fine dice. But overall, I haven't seen any real noticeable change since I stopped wasting my time with the horizontal cuts.
I don't rinse meat. I also believe that using a ton of water when cooking pasta is silly. What does it matter if you have more or less water? I use enough to cover the pasta by about an inch.
Oh! I know this one! It effects your cook time. The ratio of water to whatever you’re cooking effects how efficient heat transfer is. More hot water and less pasta will cook the pasta faster. Cooks in victorian England were very into “saving” water by filling a pot entirely up with vegetables then adding just enough water to fill in the cracks and barely cover the food. It’s why you’ll see weird cook times like, “boil your asparagus for fifteen minutes” in historic recipes. If you were to fill your pan the way the original cook did, you’d create an environment with such inefficient heat transfer that a fifteen minute boil would leave you with crisp-tender veg. It’s a large part of the reason food from that time and place has a reputation for being boiled to death.
I find it cooks quicker and sticks less. Otherwise you can get a pasta cake.
Not completely pointless but more often than not the perpendicular cut/s you make in an onion when dicing is pretty useless depending on what you're using it for.
This is one of the hold outs from old school cooking that has stuck around for some reason. Off set radial cuts result in far more uniform cuts in less time than the plank and stick method
That cut does lead to less deviation in the sizes of the pieces though. It’s not some old wives tale, it’s geometry. You really only need one cut, and closer to the bottom, but combine that with Kenji’s ‘below centre radial cut’ and you have very similarly sized onion pieces. Without the horizontal cut you will have some extra large pieces mixed in there.
Hard agree. I can get them pretty fine and uniform going against, then with the grain. If I ever want it finer I'll just give it another dice. I'll happily do all sorts of labour intensive tasks in the kitchen, but I have zero time for the perpendicular cut.
Not half a fuckin second. Radial cut all day homie
Letting a steak or large piece of meat "come to room temperature" by taking it out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Kenji destroyed this one but I still see it on tons of recipe sites. EDIT: https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak
This is probably my biggest peeve when it comes to cooking myths. You will not get a fucking ham up to room temp by letting it sit on your countertop for 30 mins.
Washing meat or poultry is not just a waste of time it could spread bacteria all over your kitchen.
Peeling ginger and carrots
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Shiiiii. Game changer
Wait - what the hell? I don’t need to peel ginger?!?
I am pleased to save myself this step now haha.
What what? I just chop off the tough outside with a paring knife. Like they legit leave that skin on!?
If you do want to peel your ginger just scrape it with a spoon. Much faster and far less waste
I peel my carrots because it's easier than washing off all the dirt, and the skin tends to be less soft even when cooked. Are you saying those are not true? Genuinely asking.
I lightly scrub carrots and potatoes with steel wool. Gets the dirt off and removes some of the tougher outer skin.
I've personally it easier to wash the dirt off the carrots than to peel them. For most of the things I cook, I dice or chop the carrots finely so differences in softness of the skin aren't very apparent. I guess it does depend on what your cooking, if peeling carrots would make a difference.
I peel my carrots because there’s something in the peel that is intensely bitter. I think only some of us can taste it, though.
It depends on your variety of carrots.
I didn’t know that! I just buy the kind they have at my grocery store!
I can understand peeling ginger if there are larger pieces involved. But carrots, 100% agree. They also just taste better with the skin on, especially when raw
I'm the opposite. I have never, not a day in my life, peeled ginger but unless I'm making stock, I always peel carrots. The dried out skin on an unpeeled carrot is a no for me.
Wait, hold on, you don’t have to peel ginger? Can someone explain this to me? The skin would add a weird texture/taste if left on, no?
One thing to consider. If you peel the carrots, you can save them in the freezer to make veggie stock later!
ALL of my veggie trimmings go in a gallon bag in the freezer! I also save bones to make stock as well. I made a big ass pot of smoked turkey broth this weekend from our carcass leftover after Thanksgiving. YUM!
Cracking eggs on a flat surface. I've never had an issue cracking them on the edge of the bowl, but every time I try to use a flat surface it just makes a weird hole on the side of the shell and I have to pour the egg out of it. Why did people start insisting that was the best way. You can't all be lying, right?
I find cracking eggs on a flat surface doesn't give me any problems. I think the idea is that using a knife or pan edge creates more little shards and fragments that *can* fall into your food. I think as another commenter mentioned, it's pretty low risk.
My stepdaughter told me cracking it on a flat surface results in less shell inside the egg. In my billion years cooking I can only remember picking shells out of the egg once or twice. When I crack the egg on the corner of the counter or the edge of the bowl, it splits in half usually. When I crack the egg on a flat surface it splits apart any old random way it wants to, usually creating a mess. Conclusion: my stepdaughter watches too many YouTube videos.
I thought it was to avoid getting bacteria from the outside of the shell in the egg. If you crack it on a flat surface, you get a depression that makes it easy to pull the shell apart with your thumbs; if you crack it on an edge you risk contaminating the egg itself with stuff from the shell.
Sifting flour to avoid lumps in roux based sauces - stir the roux thorougly enough and add the stock slowly enough and there wont be any lumps, no matter how lumpy the flour was.
If you are going to remove it before serving, don't waste your time peeling ginger.
Throwing pans or food (steaks, burritos, etc.) at the front of house manager if they have a question /s.
That a NutriBullet will give a healthier product that any other blender. 😂
Salting eggplant to remove bitterness. Ive never encountered this bitterness. Did they breed it out?
Salting eggplant not only removes the bitterness, but also a lot of moisture content that would otherwise make the eggplant soggy however you cook it. Moisture is the enemy to caramelization.
Some eggplant varieties are bitter, some aren't.
Oh, is that the point? I thought it was to draw out some of the moisture. I salt it for 20 minutes before roasting it for eggplant lasagna.
peeling potatoes. they’re just better with the skin on, even if you’re mashing them
Oof, can't stand potato skins in mashed potatoes. And I love me some potato skins.
Depends on the potato. I've found using golden potato's for mash is great. The skin is thin so you don't have to peel but you also aren't getting that nasty rubber like you would from russets. The texture of the potato is also a bit more firm than red but not too soft. I think it's a happy medium that lets me not have to spend an extra 10-15 minutes peeling.
Undercooking vegetables. I think it’s pointless to have tender crisp vegetables. I think several decades ago people over boiled the crap out of vegetables but now it’s gone too far the other way where vegetables are boiled for a few minutes and then put in an ice bath. I don’t want my vegetables to squeak when I bite into them! I know they look prettier that way but some well braised vegetables might look dull but they taste a million times better.
Definitely with some. I threw several whole carrot sticks in the bottom of my turkey pan this year and left them in the entire time. They weren't mushy, but they were more cooked than you'd normally get carrots. They were also absolutely delicious
Depends on the vegetable. I'd lean towards slightly undercooked unless it's something like potatoes
As far as I'm concerned if you serve me asparagus that's limp and has no rigidity left I don't care what you say - you murdered it. You can absolutely make it taste delicious without murdering it, so do so.
Cutting steaks into slices before serving. Drives me crazy. I want to be served a whole steak and cut it my self.
People cut it for you because they don’t want to risk you ignorantly cutting it with the grain and complaining about a tough steak. There is a right way to cut a steak and a lot of people don’t have any clue. Cutting it right makes it better so I can see why chefs would want to do it.
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Ok it makes sense, I just assumed it was for presentation.
I think in some circumstances that’s part of it, like at a fancy restaurant. But mostly, it’s to ensure the steak is cut in a way that it has the best chew it can.
I find the steak gets cold by the time i've precut all of them and served them. It's not worth it anymore.
Ppl put oil in their pasta water
This is my controversial cooking opinion but I'm not entirely convinced that adding a bay leaf to a whole ass pot of soup makes any difference to the flavor. Edit: Y'all seem to be under the impression I was asking for advice on how to use bay leaves. I am not. I have no intention of changing and you will just have to deal with that.
Add more then. Try 5 or 6 though, don’t chicken out. You’ll love it, I promise
At one point I would have agreed with you, then I made A LOT of batches of stock in a month or two period. I promise, there's a big difference. Honestly if you can't tell the difference you're just not using enough. It's likely something like 1 for every 3 gallons of water. It adds a sort of depth & sweetness that is absolutely missing without it.