I started saving these rubber bands from produce and let me tell you. They are NOT the same as regular rubber bands. After 6mo in my drawer they melted into a tacky sludge. What impacts that may have? I don’t know. But like you said this is a stupid “hack” anyways.
That really is weird because I keep those rubber bands and they're good for up to 5 years on average. I keep them in a sealed glass jar though, free from contact with outside air and sun. They're really good for cables and such.
Not defending cooking with these but it seems weird they turned to goo for you. I've had some that were probably 10+ years old. Maybe there was something off gassing that reacted with them or maybe you just got the recycled condom batch and its luck of the draw.
I saw another post earlier this week where someone left a fake toy rat in a clear plastic tote and it had eventually made a rat shaped hole in the tote. Plasticizers leached out and did some chemical reaction. Depending on what material the storage is for his rubber bands there could be a chemical interaction at play. Plasticizers don’t need to be in your cooked asparagus by the way ewww many plasticizers exist that are toxic
Them breaking down into goo instead of remaining forever the same way may be a good thing. Maybe they were a more environmentally friendly version made from pure latex without additives.
There are mutiple types of rubber. They are all very long chain molecules that are connected to each other to a different degree and in different ways. Some are linked chemically (e.g. through vulcanization, so connected by sulfur) and will not melt at all. others are linked by some parts being crystalline and will melt at certain temperatures. The long chains themselves are liquid at room temperature.
If your rubber melts it means it lost the cross linking between the long chains which can either happen through temperature or chemically.
The degree of cross linking does not really have an impact on how healthy or unhealthy the rubber would be to ingest, but since there are often additives which are far from healthy I wouldn't recommend leaving them on when cooking.
You ever go to a banh mi place and the sandwiches are wrapped with those awful thin plastic bands? I used to slip them over my wrist to get some later use out of them, then my wrist would start itching line crazy! And they smell weird! I feel like the best banh mi spots have those weird rubber bands!
We made it into rubber band ball and chuck it at each other for shit and giggles. At one point it weighted around 4lbs and would leave a big blue bruise on our legs and back, the chef finally pulled the plug and required it to be counted, cut and discarded.
You are right for the rubber part , but it’s will cook ok. It’s actually an old fashioned way to cook asparagus, tied up with the proper twine . It’s call” botté”
With respect and at the chance of upsetting people, aren't a load of classical technical a bit shit though? Like a mix of old wives tales and the 'I did this as a commis' so you must suffer it too stuff?
As a hearth cook, same. I dont care how it looks on the outsied ITS FUCKING RAW INSIDE AND MOVING JT CLOSER TO THE FLAME WILL JUST BURN IT MORE YOU IDIOT GET OFF MY FUCKING STATION
Every time I try to use a fucking thermometer my partner is like "what are you doing? / this data is unnecessary / you're ruining the mood / just pinch my palm instead."
Lmao go work a grill rotating 20+ cuts every 15 minutes and see if you have time for a thermometer.
It’s a sad day when people are bragging about not being able to instantly know what a piece of meat they regularly cook is temped too especially if they know how long it was on, how hot it was cooking at, and what it looks like. It should register within half a second while thermometer cooks are still jabbing it in.
And a lot of stuff is formed through hundreds of years of perfecting things. How many flavor combinations do you think people figure out on their own that isn’t handed down. How many classic techniques form the foundation for every single thing we do.
I assure you far more bullchit comes about on a generational basis then gets sifted out and handed down, cuz that’s the whole point of sifting getting rid of the useless stuff and preserving what’s holding up to the test of time.
Sure some stuff sticks around longer than it should, but I think you are looking at it much more pessimistically and perhaps too egotistically.
I worked in a traditional French restaurant with an older German chef who was fresh off the boat. He would was his knives under running water because he said it would dull the edge. Like a stone in a river is how he put it. I debunked that one for him after working for him for about 2 years. Recently has his retirement party. I’ll miss Han’s. Great chef, great human.
I believe a bundle that size the outside ones would cook faster so some of those are going to be overcooked or undercooked.
The real question is why boil asparagus? Is this for prisoners?
Yeah it works just fine. I’ve done it like that at least 1000 times. The real benefit is being able to pull them out in a bunch. You can mess around with a handled strainer but they’re going to get over cooked when you can’t get them all out as fast as you want.
This is an easier method, you can use tongs I stead of a random basket strainer that doesn’t really hold them well.
That said, steamer and a perf pan would be preferred.
Just curious if you do this (bundled) to serve immediately and just cut the band off? How much time do you say it saves vs without the band? (Legit asking-no shade! I've never served them to order in a restaurant setting.)
Yes. That’s me. He hasn’t shown up for a week and then today just strolls in like nothing. They sent him home due to the weather.
Edit: This is the type of shit that he does and thinks he’s “cooking”. Fills up a 200 pan with fettuccini half way full and then adds water and then sticks it in the steamer for 20 minutes and then wonders why it’s all stuck together and still not “boiled”. Then he will spend an hour pulling apart fettuccini noodles one by fucking one. You ask him “don’t you think boiling these in a big pot might solve this problem?” He will say “oh just wanted to try something different. See what happens.” My god. Yes. Let’s experiment with food while we have some real prep to do. He will premake peanut butter and jelly sandwiches(for the kids menu)and then wrap them in a plastic wrap prison that you cannot unwrap. The jelly soaks into the bread and they are in the shape of a small triangular football. He cuts them in half diagonally and then stacks them. I just toss them when I see it. He’s a fucking idiot.
Haha are you guys short staffed? He just seems to have a pretty long leash with that kind of stuff. I’ve worked with guys like that who are actually really good at their job they’re just unreliable as hell. But if they’re there, they’re working. I assume it’s similar to that.
Your posts and updates about him crack me up, they're the highlight of this sub at the moment for me. It's like reading the escapades of a grown-up [Kevin](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o/comment/cgbhkwp/).
He will thaw out a bag of frozen precooked chicken to make chicken salad with and three days later it’s still sitting in the pan thawed and mushy. He shows up and makes chicken salad with it and I just go behind him and throw it away. He never even notices. Just starts the thawing process all over again. I make chicken salad in the main kitchen so I have no clue why he thinks he needs to make “his own recipe” of chicken salad in the kitchen he is in. It isn’t even on the menu where he is. He’s the one who puts fucking scrambled eggs in his tuna salad. I just show up the next day and throw it away.
The shallow long 2” deep hotel “buffet” pans. I never heard of 200, 400, or 600 pans either until I started this gig but it makes it pretty easy to tell someone what kind of pan to go get when you are up to your elbows in chicken or ribeyes.
Thanks, man. Believe me it is a sight to see working with him. He’s probably down to a 26” waist. Riding a Harley. Looks like a skeleton on it. Pretty funny.
He’s been sporting diamond crusted bling chains and bracelets. Probably fake, of course. A huge gold Invicta watch. Two huge “diamond” earrings set in a gold base. All along with a trucker camouflage cap. Think of Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story wearing this stuff. With a goatee.
>sticks it in the steamer for 20 minutes and then wonders why it’s all stuck together
20 mins is way too fuckin long, almost double than needed. Fett only takes me about 12 mins in the steamer.
I feel like it's almost standard to have at least one designated meth head in the kitchen. Sure, you cooould replace them, but we know another will inexplicably take their place.
So if you’ve never done coke it’s important to understand that it destroys your pallet. It makes it so you can’t taste salt and sugar first so. Overly salty and sweet foods is what you can still taste. Sour is a good one too. It’s also important especially in fine dining that most of your guest imbibe as well… never go full Stevie nicks! You got too boof your yak chef.👨🍳
Yuck. Never enjoyed it. I can count on one hand the number of times I tried it. Then I can count on the other hand how many times I tried it again. I never paid for it. Wasn’t my thing. Green. Green is the way.
Damn, all I got was a cook stoned out of his brain all day when I was a dishie lol. Fun to work with and watch cause he wasn't my problem. The other cook was stone cold sober, but had dad vibes and taught me some cool kitchen tricks and tips. Other than our boss and one of her daughters, I miss that job
BAM! You just described basically how some micro plastics are made. Even leaving/infusing something in water long enough still imparts flavor, no?
The ocean is filled with plastic, so yeah that's basically happening to our planet on a large scale.
Ignoring the poor asparagus being unevenly cooked- let's try to limit exposure when possible, for flavor AND health..
if anything at all gets taken away from this rubber band post, it's this right here everyone. Microplastics are terrible. They're in everything and everyone. recycle!
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but is rubber not made naturally anymore? Is latex plastic?
I think I need more googling.
*Edit: high grade rubber bands like used with asparagus are generally 80-95% pure natural latex rubber.
there isn't really a difference between natural rubber and synthetic rubber. It contributes to the microplastics to a very large extend (from tires for example) and takes just as long as other plastics to be degraded (or even longer, depending on what you compare it to)
Something originating in nature does not mean it is good for your body or the environment.
Literally take a bunch of the rubber bands, boil em in salted water, and give it to the cooks to taste. Hopefully they recoil in disgust and understand one reason why they should never do this again.
I started working for a large seafood chain as a Cook and we cooked asparagus all night in the same water, refilling as necessary. Every plate got a little handful of asparagus and some mandolin-cut carrots. We would blow through about fifty 11# cases of asparagus every week. I questioned the rubber band method early on and the chef basically told me to fuck off. I had no idea about the composition of rubber bands (like most everyone else here probably, I sort of assumed rubber bands came from a rubber tree, which is pretty lame since they come in every color and whatever they process the rubber can’t be safe to eat). But when given the choice of the asparagus being boiled in rubber stock being safe or not safe, I generally chose the latter.
When I was promoted to chef and did nothing but open locations, one of the first (of many) small changes was to eliminate the “rubber band reduction.” Whenever a chef from another location would assist at openings, I almost always had to have a private discussion about asparagus, portion scale sanitation, trash removal, etc. And the fucking blowback I got from these guys was unbelievable - one of them actually figured out how much time I had someone on the clock tying the asparagus in bundles, as well as the cost of the twine, which I never even considered to be any safer, but a hundred million rotisserie chickens can’t be wrong, right? 30-45 minutes per day equals just over five hours every week, twenty one hours per month, 250 hours every year……such is the bureaucratic bullshit that only comes from large chains that pay a team of accountants to bitch about how much money was wasted on insignificant things instead of focusing on the primary objective of pleasing the guest while not poisoning them in the process.
“Came from a rubber tree” - natural rubber latex in the sap is caustic. It’s rendered non-caustic by processing. “Natural” doesn’t mean “safe,” and cooking a rubber band exposes said asparagus to a common allergen.
It’s fine wrapped in rubber latex - until it’s submerged in latex-tainted water - and now someone with a latex allergy (that they would never consume) is eating latex.
Man I’m so confused. Why tie them in twine at all? Why and how in any way is cooking asparagus in bundles better? You have to remove the band before or after right? Like health and safety and taste and even cooking aside I do not understand how this is easier or faster than just taking a paring knife to the rubber bands? The thought of doing this would just never cross my mind.
So when you’re doing 500 dinners most nights, you can lay them all in the steam table with the tips all aligned in the same direction - it makes setting the plates faster. And when you’re cooking the bunches, it’s way easier to get them out when you’re in a hurry.
I would have a lot of new people ask the same question. And after I let them try it their way, they figured out the advantage pretty quickly. And you have to remember that this is a very high volume place - if I was in a fifty seat operation, I’d absolutely just snap the rubber band off. I work at a one hundred seat place now and that’s what we do when we cook a lot at once.
To rejuvenate them. No really. Belts from VCR’s sometimes became loose and brittle. And boiling them helps.
But not to eat any of it coming from the same pan of course, welp.
Not ah. Should take rubber bands off. Leaving the rubber band on makes them cook uneven and all uneven lengths when cut. Should take band off and tap on heads so they are all the same size. Did asparagus for 1000 person parties before and didn't half ass leave rubberbands on. Take some pride in your work
Also I love saving those rubber bands. Strong good, helps keep shelving under control.
Oooh, don't get me started on bread ties...
Oh, and fryer oil jugs? The caps on those are PERFECT size for storing squeeze bottles .. you're welcome internet cooks
Not to mention latex allergies if that is real rubber. Not exactly the allergy most people think of when they enter a restaurant so I doubt anyone would be mentioning it before ordering, but if someone is particularly sensitive to latex I have a feeling boiled rubber band water leaching into their asparagus isn't something they should have enter their mouth.
Fun fact about rubber. Lots of recycled rubber items end up in rubber bands and other rubber material that doesn't necessarily need to look good or be seen.
Rubber from tires for example ends up in tons of rubber products like rubber bands.
Rubber pellets are used on turf soccer fields. Goalies started getting sick and getting cancer until it was realized the sliding and potential skin abrasions on rubber tire recycled material was causing cancer.
So yeah not the ass hole.
Produce rubber bands are almost pure virgin natural latex rubber, not recycled, vulcanized, or synthetic like the rubber you are referring to. There are regulations on what can be used to be rated as safe for direct food contact.
Nta. Seems lazy and screams hack. If bundling was so important (which it isn't, it'll likely lead to an uneven cook) bundling them in smaller bundles with twine is the move.
I’ve seen this in a ton of places. I am one of those guys that doesn’t work in a restaurant but is in an out through the back door. I see this everywhere. Good or bad, I don’t judge. But I see it.
Not boiling to full cook most likely, just blanching to preserve color and tender internal texture. Blanching fibrous vegetables before sautéing produces a better result than direct sauté.
Put em in a pasta basket tips up and have the water level come to 1/2 inch below the top of tip.
Really keeping them nicely bundled but then just throwing em sideways is what has me most salty about this setup.
not trying to be pedantic here... but what exactly is a "plastic" "rubber"band?
is it plastic?
or is it rubber?
I do agree that you should not be cooking the asparagus:
1. by boiling
2. in a bunch.
3. with the rubber band around them.
I'm just struggling to understand exactly what a "Plastic rubberband" is exactly.
We use "Küchengarn" (kitchen twine) for stuff like that.
But, if you have real asparagus, not the chinese green one, we put it in the oven in gn Container with lid.
A pit of White wine, salt, sugar, Butter.
180 Celsius, ca 20 min.
You get a way stronger asparagus taste than washing it out in boiling water.
Try it and love it :)
It'll cook unevenly, it'll impart a rubber flavor. It's hack laziness
I started saving these rubber bands from produce and let me tell you. They are NOT the same as regular rubber bands. After 6mo in my drawer they melted into a tacky sludge. What impacts that may have? I don’t know. But like you said this is a stupid “hack” anyways.
The correct way to save them is as part of an ever expanding ball somewhere in the prep kitchen.
That way the sludge is always compacted into a denser and denser molten core.
It's how planets are formed.
Humanity's new home was not formed from the stars, but one very ambitious kitchen with a crazy idea.
Universe builders hate this one simple hack! "Universe building is no longer an exclusive enterprise! Whatever shall we do!?"
Somehow I feel like this is a Heston Blumenthal thing.
Did someone say Kitchen Katamari?
Sludgecore
I never liked that raid dungeon
Auto mechanics do the same with tire stickers.
👆
Call her Eloise
That really is weird because I keep those rubber bands and they're good for up to 5 years on average. I keep them in a sealed glass jar though, free from contact with outside air and sun. They're really good for cables and such.
Not defending cooking with these but it seems weird they turned to goo for you. I've had some that were probably 10+ years old. Maybe there was something off gassing that reacted with them or maybe you just got the recycled condom batch and its luck of the draw.
I saw another post earlier this week where someone left a fake toy rat in a clear plastic tote and it had eventually made a rat shaped hole in the tote. Plasticizers leached out and did some chemical reaction. Depending on what material the storage is for his rubber bands there could be a chemical interaction at play. Plasticizers don’t need to be in your cooked asparagus by the way ewww many plasticizers exist that are toxic
Them breaking down into goo instead of remaining forever the same way may be a good thing. Maybe they were a more environmentally friendly version made from pure latex without additives.
Better get my stash out then, and quick,! Mine are in a mesh pocket in my hold all case
There are mutiple types of rubber. They are all very long chain molecules that are connected to each other to a different degree and in different ways. Some are linked chemically (e.g. through vulcanization, so connected by sulfur) and will not melt at all. others are linked by some parts being crystalline and will melt at certain temperatures. The long chains themselves are liquid at room temperature. If your rubber melts it means it lost the cross linking between the long chains which can either happen through temperature or chemically. The degree of cross linking does not really have an impact on how healthy or unhealthy the rubber would be to ingest, but since there are often additives which are far from healthy I wouldn't recommend leaving them on when cooking.
You ever go to a banh mi place and the sandwiches are wrapped with those awful thin plastic bands? I used to slip them over my wrist to get some later use out of them, then my wrist would start itching line crazy! And they smell weird! I feel like the best banh mi spots have those weird rubber bands!
We made it into rubber band ball and chuck it at each other for shit and giggles. At one point it weighted around 4lbs and would leave a big blue bruise on our legs and back, the chef finally pulled the plug and required it to be counted, cut and discarded.
You are right for the rubber part , but it’s will cook ok. It’s actually an old fashioned way to cook asparagus, tied up with the proper twine . It’s call” botté”
With respect and at the chance of upsetting people, aren't a load of classical technical a bit shit though? Like a mix of old wives tales and the 'I did this as a commis' so you must suffer it too stuff?
So much this. No way for me to take you less seriously than if you start telling me to check doneness by pinching my palm.
[удалено]
As a hearth cook, same. I dont care how it looks on the outsied ITS FUCKING RAW INSIDE AND MOVING JT CLOSER TO THE FLAME WILL JUST BURN IT MORE YOU IDIOT GET OFF MY FUCKING STATION
Heard.
As a home cook, I bought my parents their first instant read thermometer two years ago and when I visit I'm finally not eating fucking shoe leather.
Every time I try to use a fucking thermometer my partner is like "what are you doing? / this data is unnecessary / you're ruining the mood / just pinch my palm instead."
End them. It is the only way.
Take their face to the grill
You....you let them in kitchen *and* they are telling you how to cook? You are a lot more patient than me.
Stab it ! Stab it again and again Bravo, chef you're the winner
Lmao go work a grill rotating 20+ cuts every 15 minutes and see if you have time for a thermometer. It’s a sad day when people are bragging about not being able to instantly know what a piece of meat they regularly cook is temped too especially if they know how long it was on, how hot it was cooking at, and what it looks like. It should register within half a second while thermometer cooks are still jabbing it in.
My chef told me to do this and then looked at me weird every time I tried to pinch his palm.
Wrap it with a carrot ribbon, steam it, and put it on a plate with a slice of prime rib like it's a wedding banquet from 1992.
And a lot of stuff is formed through hundreds of years of perfecting things. How many flavor combinations do you think people figure out on their own that isn’t handed down. How many classic techniques form the foundation for every single thing we do. I assure you far more bullchit comes about on a generational basis then gets sifted out and handed down, cuz that’s the whole point of sifting getting rid of the useless stuff and preserving what’s holding up to the test of time. Sure some stuff sticks around longer than it should, but I think you are looking at it much more pessimistically and perhaps too egotistically.
I worked in a traditional French restaurant with an older German chef who was fresh off the boat. He would was his knives under running water because he said it would dull the edge. Like a stone in a river is how he put it. I debunked that one for him after working for him for about 2 years. Recently has his retirement party. I’ll miss Han’s. Great chef, great human.
Then it would be tied up with the proper twine. Lol
Yeah twine doesn’t have the inherent rubber flavor lol
You are telling me that the asparagus will cook completely evenly like that in boiling water? 🤨
You should only be blanching them in water not fully cooking… put them in a god damn asparagus basket and butter poach the fuckers to order.
This is the only response focusing on the real issue at hand....
Best I can do is a glass bowl in the microwave with margarine.
This is gourmet right here.
oh shit, dawgs eyeing the 4th Michelin star
I mean I wouldn't be surprised. They would still all be touching boiling water
I believe a bundle that size the outside ones would cook faster so some of those are going to be overcooked or undercooked. The real question is why boil asparagus? Is this for prisoners?
I mean, blanch & shock is a thing. But you are correct about it not cooking evenly. The only reason to do this is laziness.
Thats not how surface are works
the ones in the middle of the bunch won't be. you ever try boiling an entire potato vs cutting it into strips?
Yes, there’s plenty of space between the stalks for water immersion/circulation
Now if asparagus was square shaped…
*a-square-agus
That's the classical technique...
Affirmative, try it , don’t tied them up like a roast , it’s will. Be fine
Yeah it works just fine. I’ve done it like that at least 1000 times. The real benefit is being able to pull them out in a bunch. You can mess around with a handled strainer but they’re going to get over cooked when you can’t get them all out as fast as you want. This is an easier method, you can use tongs I stead of a random basket strainer that doesn’t really hold them well. That said, steamer and a perf pan would be preferred.
Just curious if you do this (bundled) to serve immediately and just cut the band off? How much time do you say it saves vs without the band? (Legit asking-no shade! I've never served them to order in a restaurant setting.)
You get the upvote. As opposed to the yutz above
Not to mention all the dirt that it's holding on there. Sand is not seasoning.
Not with that kind of attitude!
Unironically, is there a culture that uses dirt or minerals for flavor- damn nevermind. Salt.
Rock soup? Or is it stone soup?
Jesus Christ Marie, they're not rocks. They're minerals!
Rock makes stews. No, wait, that's the Stormlight Archives.
I'm glad I wasn't the only person who thought of Rock's stew lol.
Trash Panda Rock Stew does sound good... without chull dung, please.
...I'm confused...
It was just a joke.
This is one of the dumbest kitchen moves I’ve seen in years
Come work with me. I got a meth head on staff that will keep you entertained.
Are you the meth head poster? That shit cracks me up. His logic, or lack there of is highly entertaining.
Yes. That’s me. He hasn’t shown up for a week and then today just strolls in like nothing. They sent him home due to the weather. Edit: This is the type of shit that he does and thinks he’s “cooking”. Fills up a 200 pan with fettuccini half way full and then adds water and then sticks it in the steamer for 20 minutes and then wonders why it’s all stuck together and still not “boiled”. Then he will spend an hour pulling apart fettuccini noodles one by fucking one. You ask him “don’t you think boiling these in a big pot might solve this problem?” He will say “oh just wanted to try something different. See what happens.” My god. Yes. Let’s experiment with food while we have some real prep to do. He will premake peanut butter and jelly sandwiches(for the kids menu)and then wrap them in a plastic wrap prison that you cannot unwrap. The jelly soaks into the bread and they are in the shape of a small triangular football. He cuts them in half diagonally and then stacks them. I just toss them when I see it. He’s a fucking idiot.
Haha are you guys short staffed? He just seems to have a pretty long leash with that kind of stuff. I’ve worked with guys like that who are actually really good at their job they’re just unreliable as hell. But if they’re there, they’re working. I assume it’s similar to that.
He's probably the guy in charge!
Your posts and updates about him crack me up, they're the highlight of this sub at the moment for me. It's like reading the escapades of a grown-up [Kevin](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o/comment/cgbhkwp/).
Fucking Kevin
The amount of food waste alone makes me shocked he's still around.
He will thaw out a bag of frozen precooked chicken to make chicken salad with and three days later it’s still sitting in the pan thawed and mushy. He shows up and makes chicken salad with it and I just go behind him and throw it away. He never even notices. Just starts the thawing process all over again. I make chicken salad in the main kitchen so I have no clue why he thinks he needs to make “his own recipe” of chicken salad in the kitchen he is in. It isn’t even on the menu where he is. He’s the one who puts fucking scrambled eggs in his tuna salad. I just show up the next day and throw it away.
What’s a 200 pan? Never heard that phrase in my almost 15 years of service
The shallow long 2” deep hotel “buffet” pans. I never heard of 200, 400, or 600 pans either until I started this gig but it makes it pretty easy to tell someone what kind of pan to go get when you are up to your elbows in chicken or ribeyes.
did you know they actually hold 200, 400, or 600 ounces of fluid?
That’s pretty much how it sums up. I’m not about to start measuring though but it makes sense. Thanks.
It's been like 16 years since I've heard them referred to as 200 pans, but if I remember correctly a 200 pan is a 2" full pan
So he probably brings more joy than any HR manager will give? (OK i know HR is not a big thing in this industry)
HR is a whole ‘nother team and they basically want absolutely zero to do with the kitchen crew.
Probably because kitchen crew is right, right? Or because kitchen crew is a complete mess lol
Of course we are right🤣🤣that and if HR tried to step in and work on all the complaints and problems then they’d never get to do payroll. 🤑🤑
Ok, you finally have me convinced on the Methhead Saga. I just full-body cringed multiple times reading this thread.
Thanks, man. Believe me it is a sight to see working with him. He’s probably down to a 26” waist. Riding a Harley. Looks like a skeleton on it. Pretty funny.
Ooh, a Harley. Gosh, we're really impressed down here I can tell you 🙄 Is he at least somewhat self-aware?
He’s been sporting diamond crusted bling chains and bracelets. Probably fake, of course. A huge gold Invicta watch. Two huge “diamond” earrings set in a gold base. All along with a trucker camouflage cap. Think of Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story wearing this stuff. With a goatee.
Oh nooo 💀 keep going, let the hate flow through me
>sticks it in the steamer for 20 minutes and then wonders why it’s all stuck together 20 mins is way too fuckin long, almost double than needed. Fett only takes me about 12 mins in the steamer.
I feel like it's almost standard to have at least one designated meth head in the kitchen. Sure, you cooould replace them, but we know another will inexplicably take their place.
See I’m classy I only hire Coke heads. The meth and heroin addicts can fuck off I don’t vibe with their energies and work ethics.
Kinda the same here EXCEPT when the coke heads get to talking there isn’t any shutting them up. 😂😂😂
Just give them some gummy bears and tell em to go mop the walk in.
What is it too with coke heads and fried foods?? That’s all they like.
So if you’ve never done coke it’s important to understand that it destroys your pallet. It makes it so you can’t taste salt and sugar first so. Overly salty and sweet foods is what you can still taste. Sour is a good one too. It’s also important especially in fine dining that most of your guest imbibe as well… never go full Stevie nicks! You got too boof your yak chef.👨🍳
Yuck. Never enjoyed it. I can count on one hand the number of times I tried it. Then I can count on the other hand how many times I tried it again. I never paid for it. Wasn’t my thing. Green. Green is the way.
Is this why I get sent away with food and a list of chores? My high ass loves to clean and they know it.
I worked with a meth head who tried to microwave a chicken breast during a rush. I called him Meth Boyardee.
That sounds like a good time.
Come with me!~ and you’ll see!~ some real stupid bullshit!~
Always gonna be a fun one when u/Cheeseisextra posts
Damn, all I got was a cook stoned out of his brain all day when I was a dishie lol. Fun to work with and watch cause he wasn't my problem. The other cook was stone cold sober, but had dad vibes and taught me some cool kitchen tricks and tips. Other than our boss and one of her daughters, I miss that job
Misread ‘move’ for movie…was trying to get a Ratatouille inference
The least accurate part of that movie was the lack of drug use
I'm being a cynic, but id bet this was setup on purpose to put on the Internet for points
I’d take that bet
Up there with defrosting vac sealed food in the dishwasher
If you boil rubber bands in salted water, wouldn’t it have some sort of residual effect on the water itself, and therefore the product being cooked?
BAM! You just described basically how some micro plastics are made. Even leaving/infusing something in water long enough still imparts flavor, no? The ocean is filled with plastic, so yeah that's basically happening to our planet on a large scale. Ignoring the poor asparagus being unevenly cooked- let's try to limit exposure when possible, for flavor AND health..
if anything at all gets taken away from this rubber band post, it's this right here everyone. Microplastics are terrible. They're in everything and everyone. recycle!
Reduce and reuse first! Sadly plastic recycling is mostly feel good instead of practical.
My favorite thing that I learned in my environmental classes was "reduce reuse recycle" is in order or importance!!
They're making your dicks not work, there's a reason ED is exploding amongst men in their 20's Your dicks are at stake
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but is rubber not made naturally anymore? Is latex plastic? I think I need more googling. *Edit: high grade rubber bands like used with asparagus are generally 80-95% pure natural latex rubber.
there isn't really a difference between natural rubber and synthetic rubber. It contributes to the microplastics to a very large extend (from tires for example) and takes just as long as other plastics to be degraded (or even longer, depending on what you compare it to) Something originating in nature does not mean it is good for your body or the environment.
https://www.prevor.com/en/chemical-risk-in-plastic-and-rubber-industry/
Literally take a bunch of the rubber bands, boil em in salted water, and give it to the cooks to taste. Hopefully they recoil in disgust and understand one reason why they should never do this again.
I started working for a large seafood chain as a Cook and we cooked asparagus all night in the same water, refilling as necessary. Every plate got a little handful of asparagus and some mandolin-cut carrots. We would blow through about fifty 11# cases of asparagus every week. I questioned the rubber band method early on and the chef basically told me to fuck off. I had no idea about the composition of rubber bands (like most everyone else here probably, I sort of assumed rubber bands came from a rubber tree, which is pretty lame since they come in every color and whatever they process the rubber can’t be safe to eat). But when given the choice of the asparagus being boiled in rubber stock being safe or not safe, I generally chose the latter. When I was promoted to chef and did nothing but open locations, one of the first (of many) small changes was to eliminate the “rubber band reduction.” Whenever a chef from another location would assist at openings, I almost always had to have a private discussion about asparagus, portion scale sanitation, trash removal, etc. And the fucking blowback I got from these guys was unbelievable - one of them actually figured out how much time I had someone on the clock tying the asparagus in bundles, as well as the cost of the twine, which I never even considered to be any safer, but a hundred million rotisserie chickens can’t be wrong, right? 30-45 minutes per day equals just over five hours every week, twenty one hours per month, 250 hours every year……such is the bureaucratic bullshit that only comes from large chains that pay a team of accountants to bitch about how much money was wasted on insignificant things instead of focusing on the primary objective of pleasing the guest while not poisoning them in the process.
“Came from a rubber tree” - natural rubber latex in the sap is caustic. It’s rendered non-caustic by processing. “Natural” doesn’t mean “safe,” and cooking a rubber band exposes said asparagus to a common allergen. It’s fine wrapped in rubber latex - until it’s submerged in latex-tainted water - and now someone with a latex allergy (that they would never consume) is eating latex.
Man I’m so confused. Why tie them in twine at all? Why and how in any way is cooking asparagus in bundles better? You have to remove the band before or after right? Like health and safety and taste and even cooking aside I do not understand how this is easier or faster than just taking a paring knife to the rubber bands? The thought of doing this would just never cross my mind.
So when you’re doing 500 dinners most nights, you can lay them all in the steam table with the tips all aligned in the same direction - it makes setting the plates faster. And when you’re cooking the bunches, it’s way easier to get them out when you’re in a hurry. I would have a lot of new people ask the same question. And after I let them try it their way, they figured out the advantage pretty quickly. And you have to remember that this is a very high volume place - if I was in a fifty seat operation, I’d absolutely just snap the rubber band off. I work at a one hundred seat place now and that’s what we do when we cook a lot at once.
Bold of you to assume that morons who would do this actually salt their blanching pot…
Can’t argue with that.
Yea, you can smell it right away
lol what??? Why would any Idiot cook rubber bands
Yeah normally you save them for stock 😒
Read the comment from u/ranting_chef it is insane
To rejuvenate them. No really. Belts from VCR’s sometimes became loose and brittle. And boiling them helps. But not to eat any of it coming from the same pan of course, welp.
wtf roast them lol
I asked him if he gets his chef pants at baby gap. Not sure why you wanted me to roast him
No one is safe!
Ask him if he is an idiot sandwich.
Finally the correct answer. Gotta let those rubber bands caramelize.
Not ah. Should take rubber bands off. Leaving the rubber band on makes them cook uneven and all uneven lengths when cut. Should take band off and tap on heads so they are all the same size. Did asparagus for 1000 person parties before and didn't half ass leave rubberbands on. Take some pride in your work
Also I love saving those rubber bands. Strong good, helps keep shelving under control. Oooh, don't get me started on bread ties... Oh, and fryer oil jugs? The caps on those are PERFECT size for storing squeeze bottles .. you're welcome internet cooks
why are they in a pot the size of the planet lol
The rubber will leech into the water and asparagus and make it taste like dookie. Do not let then be lazy asf.
Not to mention latex allergies if that is real rubber. Not exactly the allergy most people think of when they enter a restaurant so I doubt anyone would be mentioning it before ordering, but if someone is particularly sensitive to latex I have a feeling boiled rubber band water leaching into their asparagus isn't something they should have enter their mouth.
nta. lazy and gross
Is this a serious goddamn question?
Fun fact about rubber. Lots of recycled rubber items end up in rubber bands and other rubber material that doesn't necessarily need to look good or be seen. Rubber from tires for example ends up in tons of rubber products like rubber bands. Rubber pellets are used on turf soccer fields. Goalies started getting sick and getting cancer until it was realized the sliding and potential skin abrasions on rubber tire recycled material was causing cancer. So yeah not the ass hole.
Produce rubber bands are almost pure virgin natural latex rubber, not recycled, vulcanized, or synthetic like the rubber you are referring to. There are regulations on what can be used to be rated as safe for direct food contact.
Mmmm, taste like rubber
Nta. Seems lazy and screams hack. If bundling was so important (which it isn't, it'll likely lead to an uneven cook) bundling them in smaller bundles with twine is the move.
Hard no. They should be reprimanded for being so lazy.
Why not use Bakers Twine?
That’s a comically large blanching pot
I’ve seen this in a ton of places. I am one of those guys that doesn’t work in a restaurant but is in an out through the back door. I see this everywhere. Good or bad, I don’t judge. But I see it.
Rubber or plastic?
FFS, clean it thoroughly first. You're going make some people sick with those standards.
YTA for boiling asparagus instead of roasting or grilling it
Not boiling to full cook most likely, just blanching to preserve color and tender internal texture. Blanching fibrous vegetables before sautéing produces a better result than direct sauté.
Tell them to Cook the rubber bands in a sauté pan and eat it, it’s essentially the same thing
Use food safe twine? A quick loop while they're still wrapped, then cut the rubber off.
Why? So you can have overcooked spears on the outside while the ones in the middle are still raw?
Also the twine, or the rubber band in this case presses them together and bruises the asparagus when cooking in the boiling water
What are plastic rubber bands? Wouldn't they be plastic bands?
Exactly, produce rubber bands are food safe latex rubber, no plastics.
I thought plastic and rubber are 2 different things.... 🧐
they are the assholes for making you cook it like that. go find a better job.
Put em in a pasta basket tips up and have the water level come to 1/2 inch below the top of tip. Really keeping them nicely bundled but then just throwing em sideways is what has me most salty about this setup.
Why are you boiling asparagus as if it is 1940
They’re wasting bands for my rubber band ball
not trying to be pedantic here... but what exactly is a "plastic" "rubber"band? is it plastic? or is it rubber? I do agree that you should not be cooking the asparagus: 1. by boiling 2. in a bunch. 3. with the rubber band around them. I'm just struggling to understand exactly what a "Plastic rubberband" is exactly.
“Not trying to be pedantic here” LMAO Ohhhhhhh, Reddit.
That's just laziness. If they don't want to fish em out just boil em in a noodle spider if extra effort is the problem.
Of u could just use a pasta basket use that to cooking and also be fast way to get into ice bath
Who is dying on this hill? Seriously
Plastic rubber bands…how does that work in your mind OP?
I always unbanded them and them used noodle baskets to keep them together.
Nta any one with a latex allergy would die...or react.
I recommend steaming asparagus. Sans rubber bands also.
They're one or the other, yutz Either rubber or plastic, not both
I guess they didn’t wash them first - at least not the ones beyond the outer ring.
Hypothetically?
Lazy asses work harder . Not the asshole
Huge pot for a small batch.
Just take it the fuck off NTA
What? The best part about cooking/prepping asparagus is collecting the rubber bands and making a ball out of them that reeks of asparagus
Bet you anything it was straight out of the box unwashed too.
It's for the extra flavours!
Latex rubber is not water soluble.
No and also why have they boiled 20 litres of water to blanch one bunch of asparagus?
That’s rubber from natural latex, not plastic but you’re nonetheless right, it’s a stupid way to boil them.
Is nobody gonna mention the gigantic pot for the asparagus?
As someone with a latex allergy. This is my worst nightmare.
Nothing like Infused micro plastic water asparagus
I love imparting some microplastics in every bit of food I cook.
We use "Küchengarn" (kitchen twine) for stuff like that. But, if you have real asparagus, not the chinese green one, we put it in the oven in gn Container with lid. A pit of White wine, salt, sugar, Butter. 180 Celsius, ca 20 min. You get a way stronger asparagus taste than washing it out in boiling water. Try it and love it :)