Not everyone excels at cooking, and that's okay.
As long as you can follow recipe directions and paying attention to measuring ingredients, the tasty dishes you prepare should be an accomplishment you should be proud of.
But what about the details that are not necessarily mentioned in cook books that can lead to better results?
Redditor Tw1sted_inc asked:
"Chefs of Reddit, what are some cooking tips everyone should know?"
Unless you are running the Food Network on your TV, 24/7, it appears there is a lot to learn. Got your cooking aprons on? Let's go!
That's Sharp
"a falling knife has no handle."
"The worst cut I've ever had was from trying catch one on reflex. I got sliced across all my fingers, great tip to internalize."
Spicing Things Up
"Two things for beginners:"
"First, taste as you cook. At various stages of cooking, while safe (not raw meat) taste your food as you cook it. This let's you know if you have too much of something or too little. It also helps you develop your palette for what different seasonings do."
"Second, if you're just starting out and don't know which spices to buy. Pick a specific cuisine you like. Are you a fan of italian food? Focus only on Italian recipes for a while. Most use similar herbs and spices because the cuisine of the area used what they had available to them."
"This will let you learn several recipes without having to buy massive amounts of spices to make it work. Eventually you will build up a good stock and be set to handle most things."
Highly Flammable
"Oven mits can in fact catch on fire."
"A good kitchen should be equipped with a plentiful supply of clean dry towels."
– Ben_zyl
Never Ever Do This
"Whatever you do do NOT put your coconut in the microwave."
"If it's a whole coconut I feel like the coconut water might as it evaporetes create a huge pressure inside of the coconut shell which will build up until it's strong enough to physically shatter the hard shell, at which point it's also strong enough to f'k sh*t up. But pure guesswork :P"
Restaurant Quality
"Three or four times the amount of butter and salt is a big part of why your food doesn't taste like restaurant food."
Don't Drain The Boiled Water
"For thick and nice sauces, use the water you cook your pasta with."
– IZiOstra
Master These Concepts
"Salt is seasoning. It makes food taste more like itself. Acids, like citrus or vinegar can act the also do this. If your food tastes flat, or like it is missing something, try some salt or acid. Acid is also critical for balancing very rich fatty foods. The reason Americans love tomato ketchup so much is the fact that it adds acid and salt to their food. Adding a bit of 'heat' like a pinch of cayenne can also accentuate a the flavor of a dish. Spices are something else. They bring a new and different flavor to the dish."
"In sweets, sugar often takes the place of salt and is usually balanced by acid - see passionfruit, raspberry, citrus, etc. But salt plays an important role in sweets as well - often in unexpected ways. Try putting a pinch of kosher salt into your next batch of whipped cream."
"I could keep going but I'll leave it there. If you can master these concepts you will have a big advantage over most home cooks."
Timing Is Everything
"The amount of garlic flavor is dependent on WHEN you add the garlic. Add it early for light flavor, add it late for bold flavor."
In Honor Of The Best Chef – Mom
"I've been crushing the home chef game since [the virus] started. Mom was a massive cook, always cooking up the best sh*t at the church potluck, always giving folks who were sick some Dope a**, none-caseroll, Wildly delicious Puerto Rican-Iowan farmer fusion type sh*t. Everyone agreed she was the best cook they had ever known. So I grew up hearing this and started paying attention when I realized none of my friends moms even cooked at home other than one or two meals a week."
"My mom was making up every single meal from scratch. Oh you want oatmeal? 'I'll bake my own, it's cheaper and better.' Or 'let's make tacos next week, I'll start sprouting the oats so I can grind my own flower for the tortillas' woman was insanely talented. Never made mistakes. Knife skills off the charts. Pressure cooking bones and veggies for a whole day before the chicken noodle soup (at which, of course, she made her own noodles from scratch). Mom's even had her own (massive) garden, and we butchered our own chickens (small hobby farm).
"So when this pandemic hit, I started throwing the f'k down in the kitchen. Well... needless to say I've been using garlic a good bit because—let's be honest if you're not using garlic, you're not cooking most meals right—it's f'king delicious. And this one tip is going to level up my game so f'king hard it's not even funny. RIP, mom. You are hugely missed. I'll keep cooking till I die and every time I hit the recipe/idea just right, imma think of you."
