id stringlengths 5 7 | question stringlengths 33 6.65k | answers stringlengths 0 6.42k | score int64 3 2.69k |
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ygnpk9 | Silly question from a silly fight Hi all. My wife made blueberry pancake batter. Only changes to a standard recipe were using sprouted whole wheat flour and a tiny amount of yogurt. When it came time to fry them on our non-stick pans we discovered we were out of canola oil. We usually use canola oil for pancakes s... | The fact that NEITHER of you want to use butter for pancakes indicates that you are both broken individuals who cannot be saved. Use butter, heathens. | 2,685 |
kq2hih | Would it be bad etiquette to ask a restaurant for a recipe? There have been times where I’ve gone to restaurants and had some amazing dishes and being an avid home cook I want to recreate them at home since I can’t afford to eat out a lot. So today I was trying to recreate a parm crusted chicken dish from a restaurant ... | It's just like asking out a potential romantic partner- not at all rude to ask, but if you get a "no" and kick up a fuss you'd be a total asshole. Many times those of us in the industry have no problem with people knowing our recipes because that's not the hard part- it really is more about the technique, reliably sou... | 2,454 |
x1xf7e | How do you grate the last part of the cheese? Whenever I grate, I get a small nub that's all flimsy and it just crumbles. Is there a trick to it? How can i get every last bit out of this cheese? | Just eat it | 2,235 |
rgjgmr | How did this restaurant cut their carrots like this? Diagram inside. Was at Christmas dinner at this fancy restaurant. The sliced carrots that came with the trimmings was in this shape as suggested by the diagram B (in the link). Usually the edges of the sliced carrots are softened when it's cooked for long and moved ... | Ah, the ancient, sadistic French culinary tradition of tournage. The blessed craft of turning vegetables into seven sided footballs, a practice designed to torture culinary students into finger cramped insanity. And yes, it is usually done by hand and ask any ancient French chef to do it and they will execute them per... | 2,100 |
l8xudb | Why do my burgers taste so different from restaurant ones? I believe I’m doing everything properly, I shape them into balls and press them down on a pan, not smash burgers though I just feel like they have a more even shape and usually are sized better, and I season them with salt ,pepper, garlic powder (I cook them i... | Your probably just underseasoning. Most home cooks underseason. If you want your food to taste professional you need to fry your taste buds by becoming a fellow chain smoking alcoholic like us, only then will you use the correct amount of butter and salt. | 2,056 |
j10pvd | Did I just ruin this cast iron skillet before ever using it? I bought a pre-seasoned Lodge cast iron skillet. I briefly searched online for any tips or need-to-knows before first use of a cast iron skillet. One article I found suggested added a layer of seasoning anyways before first use just for good measure. Seemed e... | Your pan is fine. it's basically impossible to ruin a cast iron pan. For some reason, Reddit think's that you need to go though some kind of elaborate process when, frankly, you're going to get exactly the kind of performance and non-stick you want/need by using the pan for days/weeks/years. Forget about 'seasoning f... | 1,535 |
jp7pur | Why is my chicken stock like jelly? I made chicken stock two days ago and it is almost exactly the texture of jelly. I left it in the fridge for these two days before I went to use it. It was cooled in a water bath before going in the fridge and has now gone slightly grey too. It tasted and looked fine before cookin... | You got the good stuff. The collagen from joints and skin. Its going to be richer than other stocks and absolutely delicious. Itll come back to normal texture when heated | 1,529 |
tabc1i | Is it a bad idea to stab Chicken Strips to cook faster in a deep fryer? Currently my girlfriend is working a new job at a fancy Pub at a country club! I'm excited for her but today her manager who is a questionable cook asked her to stop stabbing chicken strips as the oil gets inside and ruins the chicken. My girlfrien... | Your GF is wrong, her manager is correct. Natural juices are now leaving the chicken and oil is taking it's place. | 1,489 |
nk4dtw | Are we not supposed to wash mushrooms? I read somewhere online that we are not supposed to wash mushrooms but to wipe the dirt off with a cloth in order to clean them. Does anyone know why? | In an old Alton Brown Good Eats episode he soaked the mushroom at 3 different time lengths and weighed the before/after soaked mushrooms and the absorption is neglible. Wash away. | 1,442 |
losqnc | Why is it safe to eat raw eggs in mayo or eggnog. But not on other things? I've wondering why is it ok to eat raw eggs in stuff like mayo, eggnog, hollandaise sauce, salad dressings or frosting. How come you don't get sick with salmonella? Yet it's a big no to eat raw cookie dough | 1- The risk of Salmonella from raw eggs is extremely low, especially when combined with other antibiotic conditions (acidic mayos, alcoholic eggnogs, etc). 2- Raw cookie dough contains raw flour, which is considered on average to be more dangerous than raw eggs since there have been numerous e. Coli and Salmonella ou... | 1,359 |
gvlseo | What's the difference between using lime (green colored) and lemon (yellow colored) in my food? I honestly don't know why I should one or the other on my food. | Food science answer: They have very extensive volatile flavor differences. Both contain relatively the same concentration of citric acid in their juice, so there won't be much of an acidity difference. It comes down to the flavor that each brings. Lemons contain higher concentrations of "light" and "candylike" flavor c... | 1,297 |
mzso6v | Cooking food to be eaten on an aeroplane! Hello, so my partner is a pilot and will be flying again shortly. I'm going to be cooking and baking for his meals. On board, he will have access to hot water, and an oven. Of course, altitude and air affect your taste, so I was wondering if anyone has any idea of how much ext... | I worked for an executive jet catering company for a couple of years. My advice would be: -tomato sauces good, cream sauces bad -leave everything slightly underdone if you’ll be reheating on board. - spiced food is excellent. -add 10-15% more salt than you would at ground level -don’t have eggs -vinegar, lemon and... | 1,286 |
y9usmv | Any way to cook a Thanksgiving turkey but in the shape of a cube? Hear me out and apologies if this doesn't belong here. I am cooking the turkey for Friendsgiving this year and as a little fun gag we're doing a Minecraft theme where everything will be in cubes. I am trying to figure out a way to make the whole roasted ... | debone the bird, find an appropriately sized cube mold. vac seal the bird into the cube, sous vide until cooked. chill the meat cube, and remove the meat from the cube. tie meat to retain shape, fry or roast until proper color is achieved. it's going to take days to accomplish and hopefully you have access to the cor... | 1,274 |
57l4pg | Just hired at fancy restaurant; need advice TL;DR Just hired in a fancy restaurant, overwhelmed. Advice? I've been a cook since i was 15, everywhere from Wendy's to Dennys to iHop and more recently privately owned local restaurants that pay a bit more. I never took a job in my life unless it was for more than I was... | Learn how to work quietly. Like I never thought about how important closing drawers and cooler doors lightly helps the equipment, as well as the things inside (an absentminded lowboy door slamming shut can shake your sauce out of a container and spill around your lowboy over the rest of your mis en place). And same wi... | 1,266 |
nmzfiy | What does adding eggs one at a time do? Some recipes often say “add eggs one at time until combined” or similar wording. What does this actually do to the end result? Has anyone ever tested the difference between adding all the eggs and adding one at a time? | I used to have to make a batch of eclairs once a week at work. You boil the water, add the salt and butter, melt, stir in the flour, move it to a mixing bowl, add eggs slowly, then form, and bake. Easy. After I put in my 2 week notice I was showing someone else how to do the recipe. I explained that it's super simple,... | 1,255 |
in2ofp | Why is the cream cheese at my local bagel place so much better than the supermarket version? It's lighter and less dense yet somehow creamier than when I buy a packet of cream cheese and try to spread it on a bagel. My theories: - very high quality cream cheese (any recommendations?) - they get it to room temp before... | Full fat cream cheese whipped in a stand mixer with heavy cream and salt. | 1,222 |
jqcxwi | How can I purposely get clumps in my spaghetti Ok this is a weird one guys, but I have an autistic kid and his absolute favourite thing in the world to eat is 'spaghetti chunk'... so like you know when you boil the dried pasta and you get a little lump where some of the spaghetti has fused together? I dont know if I'm ... | I find that I unintentionally produce this effect when I overcrowd the pasta in a pan and forget to agitate it while it is cooking. As the pasta softens it becomes sticky and holds to the neighboring pieces of pasta. Let it go like this long enough and it becomes irreversible, as the pasta fuses into clumps. Also, I am... | 1,200 |
w4wfhr | [Rare Ingredient] My daughter really wants to forage for dragonflies for me to cook. Can anyone point me to a resource for how to humanely kill dragonflies so I can batter and fry them? First, I'm not kidding. I've searched extensively and the closest I've found to an answer was a possible suggestion to "freeze them." ... | I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to eat wild caught insects because they carry all kinds of nasty parasites and pathogens. Works in a survival situation, but can be risky. Proceed with caution OP. | 1,182 |
kc0rnf | Why do we leave the tails on shrimp? Especially in dishes that shouldn’t need our hands like noodle dishes. Sorry if this has been asked before... but for some reason it just makes me so mad that if I wanted shrimp fettuccine some places leave the tails on. Like wtf I don’t want to dig through fettuccine sauce to take ... | So my family was poor for a long time and scratched for every nice thing. Most of our clothes were hand-me-downs and I only ever had like 2 pairs of shoes. But one time my parents took us to a really nice restaurant (I think it was probably like a Ruby Tuesday's, but by our standards, it was a 5 star place) and my br... | 1,139 |
p3f084 | Is it rude to ask small businesses for their recipes? (Cakes) I run a business and it’s growing pretty well, but still considered a small business. We’re the first one to make it on our country (as far as we know) and we’d love to keep that edge. But at the same time, recipes of our product is posted all over online, n... | When I worked at a bakery, it was our policy to politely decline any requests for recipes. Also, it's one thing if someone wants a recipe for their own home baking but for them to ask so they can open their own business? No way! Rude! | 1,129 |
japhtz | 600 lbs. of Green Tomaotes. Need I say more? My college just harvested \~600lbs of green tomatoes. Iʼd like the collective vision of reddit to help me gaze beyond just fried green tomatoes or 600lbs of pickles. Please enlighten me. Please help. | YOU GOT: Plant em: Shove em in dirt and see what happens SOUP: You got, tomato basil (equal parts weight tomato and basil and a bit of cream), tomato leek (leeks in stovepot, medium high until lightly caramelized, then 20 min on medium low with 0.5 cup of veggie stock covered. Then, make tomato soup and add leeks), t... | 1,114 |
nnjfb1 | Why is washing a pan in water straight away bad while deglazing isn’t? Everywhere I read says you shouldn’t take a hot frypan off the stove and wash it in water straight away because it’s bad for the pans. But how is this any different from deglazing with liquid? | Engineer here. Heat and temperature are two separate things. Temperature is what you think it is and heat is temperature times mass. When you deglaze, you have the same temperature differential as dipping the pan in a giant body of cold water, but not the same heat differential because the mass of the pan vs the tiny b... | 1,102 |
f7o689 | What do Michelin star chefs do differently with vegetables? I recently had the opportunity to eat at Septime, and I was blown away with the endive that was served (https://imgur.com/a/FWx55eM). I couldn't really figure out how they prepared it, other than that it had some char marks visible. So in an attempt to dupli... | To me, that looks like poached endive in fat, drained and patted dry then was them charred over hot coals or in a broiler. Septime's style is very simple but his flavors come from his sauces. The way he balances his flavors is pretty amazing. | 1,101 |
kn1t08 | Boiled stock for risotto, dipped ladle and IT EXPLODED. I had cranked the burner and it was boiling a bit more violently then intended. Killed the heat, dunked the ladle and it immediately and violently bubbled up a truly insane amount - bubbling several inches up and around the ladle and dumping about a cup+ of liqui... | When materials undergo a phase change, the points at which the molecules go from one phase to another happen at "nucleation points." They're the points where it takes the least amount of energy to change phases, often pointed bits on the surfaces of the container. For example, beer glasses and champagne flutes are some... | 1,100 |
xlvnme | Do spices actually expire? Most dried spices have a super long shelf life, but I am cooking at my parents house this weekend and some of their spices are years past the expiration date. I’m trying to figure out if they have actually gone bad and will make everyone sick, have lost all their flavor, or are fine to use. I... | When we talk about expiration in food, there are 2 types of expiration: food safety expiration (typically worded "use by") and food quality expiration (typically worded "best before") Most spices don't have a "food safety" expiration as they're, genetically speaking, not hospitable to bacteria and fungus which is what... | 1,098 |
gzzd9f | How do you taste your food constantly and remain sanitary and not have a thousand dirty spoons? When I'm cooking for myself I taste the food almost constantly it's the only way I'm able to control how it comes out, but if I'm cooking for other people I either have to use lots of spoons or just not taste it so much whic... | Use your cooking utensils to transfer the taste portion to a small dish and then just use the same spoon. Don't cross contaminate by touching, drop or pour the portion onto the dish. I have small 1.5 ounce sauce cups that I drop a taste into and then dump it (like a shot) into my mouth. I use the same sauce cup the ... | 1,057 |
uyoub1 | When preheating an oven, I often see directions say "preheat the oven to 400 for 10 minutes". When my oven "dings" to let me know it's reached 400, do I need to let it sit for 10 min at that temperature or can I just put the food in? I've had trouble googling the answer to this. | Alton Brown says that an oven that's just come up to temperature will lose more heat when you open the door to out the food in than an oven that's been at temperature for a while. The walls, shelves etc will retain more heat. So if the temperature is critical then wait | 1,046 |
y25ozn | A question about Mexican rice I haven't seen addressed yet I've already searched through a million and one reddit posts and YouTube tutorials made by sweet old Mexican grandmothers, and I swear I'm still not getting it right. It's not that I'm not following the recipes correctly. The ones I've tried have all been delic... | Knorr Caldo de Tomate | 1,001 |
ukd70e | Cat peed on pizza stone. I bought a pizza stone and left it on the counter. Minutes later my cat peed on it. I've cleaned it with water and a brush, but just now I put it in the oven and it reeks horrendous. Does anybody have experience with something similar, can I remove the stench, or is it ready for the trash can? | Definitely throw it out. A cat peed on my family’s pizza stone a decade+ ago and no one noticed. We had people over for dinner and my mom preheated the stone in the oven. The whole house reeked of cat urine. | 997 |
wfliug | How do restaurants make their scrambled eggs so soft ??? When I get scrambled eggs eating out they’re very soft and moist and delicious and my own never turn out like that. Clearly I am missing a key step ! | Scrambled eggs continue to cook after they are removed from the stove. Taking them off when they look done to too late. I take them off when they look slightly wet on top. The cooking that occurs from latent heat with give you that softness you want. | 995 |
l9smfj | What are other examples of "secret" spices like nutmeg in Mac and cheese? I have seen nutmeg in a regular bechamel, but never saw it in Mac n cheese until today. What are other examples of nuanced little spices or "secret" ingredients used in common dishes in the industry? | Dark cocoa powder in chili | 981 |
u3t8nd | Why is a binder necessary for meatballs but not burgers? Is it simply because a sphere is more difficult to uphold, or does the binder double as a textural/flavor component? | Everybody here is wrong and I am here to bring joy and wisdom to you. Meatballs don't need binder, but they benefit from it. Imagine you're an old Italian nonna. Meat is spendy. Real spendy. You're not super wealthy. (Even today Italian per capita gdp is significantly less than Mississippi's). Your meat is often not ... | 961 |
kholxz | Flour Moths I've never dealt with flour moths before, but we have tons fluttering around in our kitchen and it's disgusting. My roommate and I have very different ideas of how our kitchen should be kept. She says she is used to flour moths from her experience. Any advice would be much appreciated! Are these moths harmf... | Oh, please don't get used to it. They don't just live in flour, they live in chocolate and nuts and all kinds of things. They form webs and have little maggots and are NOT normal. Throw away anything contaminated, seal everything not visibly contaminated, clean everything, and watch for new moths so you can repeat if... | 958 |
y0jo2k | Beer in chili at a school function So here’s my problem, I’m tasked with providing a chili for a chili cook off contest at our sons school. I have a competition winning recipe that is amazing that I’ve been using for 20 years but here’s where the dilemma comes in….. It includes a small amount of beer, and it really mak... | A bit of beer in a chili recipe doesn't make it bad for kids. The alcohol will cook off after a few hours, leaving just the flavor. It's not like you're serving up a rum-soaked cake. Besides, who needs to know anyway? It's your secret chili recipe that you don't need to disclose. | 946 |
zly4b0 | When nice restaurants cook with wine (beef bourguignon, chicken piccata, etc), do they use nice wine or the cheap stuff? I've always wondered if my favorite French restaurant is using barefoot cab to braise the meats, hence the term "cooking wine" | Nah, they’re certainly not using anything fancy. Boxed wine is quite popular in commercial kitchens of all calibers | 939 |
fdydm5 | Why are tomato based pies not a thing? Think of a savoury pie... What are you thinking? Chicken pie? Beef pie? Veg pie? A creamy mushroom pie? A cheese pie even? These are all pretty popular, normal pies. Now, tomato based dishes are extremely common. So why are tomato based pies not a thing? Thanks | Hi, pizza. (Especially deep dish) | 937 |
ahw2as | Why did our mother die? There’s only 4 of us doing everything top to bottom in our small restaurant and we’ve been consistently and correctly maintaining our mother for our house made sourdough for almost 2 1/2 years straight. Tuesday it suddenly dies and we’ve tried what feels like everything in our combined knowledge... | I was not interpreting the correct kind of “mother” when I started reading this, lol 😂. | 935 |
g16qd7 | Is there a difference between coconut milk you can buy in the supermarket fridges near the regular milk, and canned coconut milk you buy near all the spices, curry pastes, etc? Tried googling the answer and I'm coming up blank! | The coconut milk used for milk substitute is usually way more dilute and feels watered down to the point where I can't really tell for sure if it has coconut in it (I grew up in a region that uses coconut milk for cooking rather heavily, so the dilute ones meant for drinking are kind of an oddity to me). The canned co... | 934 |
qat5m1 | I'm looking for a dessert with the softness of cheesecake and the crunchiness of potato chips Now, I know what you're thinking: what in the heck kind of nutty idea is that? But, I thought about: what if you combine a soft, more creamy, sweet dessert (like cheesecake) with something as crunchy as potato chips (not neces... | You should eat a cannoli. | 932 |
k7oy9o | What are the differences in ingredients / restaurant food supply sources between low end, middle range, and high end dining establishments? | I have been in restaurant food supplies for 18 years and worked for 6 different suppliers. I don't think I even know where to begin with debunking all the misinformation in this thread already. This is a much more huge and complex question than most people realize. Even the high end dining establishments with two ver... | 931 |
qgcra8 | Why did a lime destroy my chili? I'm a pretty good home cook and have been at it for quite awhile, so I like to think I generally know what I'm doing. About once a year I have a complete and total failure and last week's chili was one of the absolute worst. I've been trying to move away from tomato based chili and use ... | 100% the problem is that you added entire fruit (skin, rind, pith) into the chili and didn't just use the juice. Have you ever tried to eat the skin/rind of a citrus? | 930 |
e76s1x | Found this unusual lump in my lamb leg. Should I be concerned? I got this grass-fed leg of lamb today, and while eating I found this hard yellow-ish pale lump. It's firm all the way through, and immediately wigged out thinking it could be parasite related. Out of all the steaks and roasts I've ever eaten rare, I've nev... | Public health veterinarian here! This is likely an abscess from either an injection site infection or from a lil bug called Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (RARELY zoonotic, def not when cooked). Either way, sheep and cattle are great at walling off buggos so it t e c h n i c a l l y could be safe to eat, but tbh, i... | 910 |
w4g8c5 | How do I hold asparagus so it doesn’t get soggy when I have to serve it later in the day? I am going over to my sister’s house for dinner later today, and I told her I would bring asparagus. The only problem is she lives about a half hour away, and I don’t want the asparagus to get soggy before I get there. Is it best ... | Pick a different preparation. Braised asparagus is incredible and reheats really well. There’s a recipe in my book and on serious eats. You can also blanch and shock it and serve it cold with a nice fresh herb mayonnaise. Those would be my first two suggestions. | 903 |
oplahi | how is it that foods like instant ramen or mcdonalds are viewed as "sodium bombs" but don't taste unpalatably salty? if i think a big mac is just salty enough for my tastes, and i make a burger at home the same size as a big mac that is also just salty enough for my tastes, why's the big mac worse? basically, i don't g... | Sodium is in ingredients other than the “salt” that you think of as a seasoning. MSG and preservatives that are common in processed foods are different types of sodium. Sodium chloride, the stuff that tastes “salty” is only one ingredient contributing to overall sodium content. When you’re cooking from scratch at home ... | 892 |
wa82jl | Why can't you eat shellfish that didn't open during cooking? I've tried to look this up, and find conflicting information. Is this just an old wives tail? | Generally because it's assumed the critter was already dead when it went into the pot, and might have been dead for some time. When a creature dies, microorganisms move in, and while cooking to temperature will kill the microorganisms, often times their waste products are toxic and heat won't do anything about that. It... | 873 |
wp4w28 | This one sauce blew my mine but I cannot figure out what it is. I'm going to get straight to the point. I had a seafood dish which came with a special white sauce and the chef refused to share the recipe with me. He was telling the story about how a french writer gave him this specific recipe so I automatically assume... | Unrelated but perhaps helpful. In reverse engineering a famous local recipe, a group of people called the place over a period of months, and pretended to be allergic to various things in order to find out what was and was not in the recipe. Took a while, but it worked! | 863 |
lmaw8t | Is there a garlic supply problem or something? I feel like I've had terrible luck with garlic for the last like 3 years. Almost always a green stem in the cloves, or just going brown fast. I also feel like I'm noticing more green in youtube chefs' garlic now. But maybe I'm just looking for it. Has something happened ... | The thing I always see seems like bad handling, the outer cloves will have dents or divots and those spots go brown first. Like something in processing or handling is too rough on them. Also just a lot of garlic going around the past few years with a few decent sized cloves and a whoooole bunch of tiny cloves that are... | 856 |
revw2h | Why do a lot of chefs sprinkle salt instead of grinding it? When I season my food, I always just use the salt grinder and I've never really felt the need to deviate from this method. Yet in cooking videos, chefs always seem to grab pinches of salt from a ramekin or bowl. At first glance this seems like unnecessary work... | Pinching makes it easy to get a lot of salt quickly, and also to have a very easy idea of how much salt you’re using. Grinding is slower and harder to measure. Plus, grinding provides no culinary benefit (it’s not like freshly grinding spices, there aren’t volatile aromatics in the salt that are retained better in larg... | 853 |
j49z5t | Why aren't there more spices? Most recipes use the same 20-30 spices. Why aren't there more spices? - Nutmeg and mace are the pit of a fruit. Why don't we use every other fruit pits as spices? - Cumin seeds, coriander seeds, dill seeds, mustard seeds, are just the seeds of some plants. Why don't we use the seeds of o... | There's lots of spices and spice blends. I'd start looking at international cuisines and see how they are utilized by various regions with different ingredients, preparation methods, etc. As a general rule "if no cuisines use it it's probably poison" | 849 |
u0hjyy | How to go about handing my recipe over to a possibly large company? I’ve been a pastry chef for a long time specializing in gluten/dairy free, for friends and family and people who hear about me, not a business runner. A millionaire friend of mine is starting a company around a specific gluten free item and they asked ... | You should also contact a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights. Even if just for a paid consultation. | 843 |
ftcuyv | Suggestions for Culinary School type exercises for a home cook? I'm a semi-competent home cook, and now that there's nothing else to do I'd kind of like to use the time to expand my repertoire. Is there a good website or cookbook that takes home cooks through a basic culinary school syllabus? I'm thinking along the lin... | This was effectively my Culinary Foundations 1/2 class: Buy a massive bag of carrots, potatoes, and onions, and get chopping. Download and print a knife cuts guide. Learn large dice, then cut that into medium and small. Cut batons, cut that into small dice. Cut julienne, cut that into brunoise. Make sure your knife i... | 828 |
kem42k | We salt the water water when we make pasta to season it. How come I never see recipes calling for other seasoning or even garlic in the pasta water to flavor it? It seems to me that garlic would work well, no? | Many flavor compounds, including those in garlic, are fat soluble, and therefore would not transfer to the pasta in the water. Salt is water soluble, so the flavor makes its way in. You could try it with other water soluble aromatics - maybe bay leaves, for example, but you'd need a ton to really make a noticeable diff... | 823 |
kkqge4 | Can you ACTUALLY tell the differences between authentic Parmesan Reggiano and good/well-aged/well produced other types of Parmesan? A super thin wedge of reggiano is about $12 for me and a larger wedge of American made 24 months aged Parmesan costs about half as much. I bet there is a minute difference but can you AC... | Yes, I have done side-by-side blind taste tests. Yes, you can tell them apart. Costco is your best bet for good, authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's $12.49/lb and it's a huge wedge that will last for months in your fridge. | 801 |
vo5ffk | How do big restaurants and take-away places not 'overcrowd' the pan? Overcrowding the pan is terrible when frying literally anything that requires heat, so if I'm cooking for more than just me and my SO, I'll usually end up frying in batches. E.g. when I'm stir frying chicken for let's say 10 people, I literally end up... | They have wok burners that have like 5 times the output of your home stove. | 800 |
lr8nak | Kneading dough in water until water runs clear, then frying? Is there a name for this technique? A friend showed me a strange video/gif recipe for what looks like some type of bannock--hoping AskCulinary could shed some light on what's happening: It's a flour and water dough that's kneaded to come together into a fair... | You've made seitan. Tons of recipes out there. | 797 |
jetgkk | Is mixing spices before putting them on the food better than just sprinkling them one by one? When cooking for eg. meat I put all of the spices I intend on using in a tiny jar and give them a good shake, then I pour it over the meat. I think that way the spices are evenly spread out, but my mom thinks it's redundant- s... | As an Indian, I think I can add a little bit or a lot of depth to the discussion. We treat spices very differently compared to most cuisines. First of all, know what you want to do with the spices and what you want them to do for you. Same spice can give you very different flavours depending on how you treat it. For ex... | 792 |
hhdyvj | Did I just accidentally make vegan aioli? I was working on a quick vinaigrette dressing for some subs, and it consisted of: oil, garlic, red wine vinegar and some fresh herbs. I decided to use my hand blender to buzz up the garlic and herbs and mix everything, and at the last second decided to sprinkle in some xanthan ... | Garlic alone is capable of forming a thick emulsion with oil. The most traditional version of aioli doesn’t have any egg (which is part of why people sometimes get grumpy about garlic mayo being called aioli) | 780 |
njifl6 | Everything I read insists that you must rest a grilled steak for 10 min, but then the steak isn't hot when j eat it. I've experimented with tin foil the resting meat but I find it tends to further cook it, maybe even steaming it, ruining the crust I worked so hard on. Please help. Should I rest in a low temp oven, rest... | Rest for less time, and use a warm plate, but also, the "rest" is the time starting the second the steak leaves the grill and ending the second your knife hits the steak. If you pay close attention, you may find that your rest clock is starting a couple minutes after you actually pull it (once you've dealt with shuttin... | 775 |
z4jr9a | Why are people frying turkey whole? Why not just cut it up first into smaller pieces before frying? I'm seeing video recipes online of frying a turkey and all of them do so whole, but is that really necessary? Why not just cut up the bird into smaller pieces before frying them especially since turkey is a much larger b... | Same reason people roast them whole; they want that symbolic “centerpiece” to their thanksgiving meal. | 772 |
oebqvq | Demystifying the "how spicy would you like it on a scale of 1-5?" question at American Thai restaurants? When American Thai restaurants ask "How spicy would you like your food - on a scale of 1-5?", **what are they doing to adjust the spice level?** Is it as simple as shaking more red pepper flakes into a 4 vs a 2? Or... | Hi I am a Thai chef and can probably answer this question decently. In your run of the mill restaurant it is likely just how much dried pepper they use which is a damn shame. I eat hot food but some places will ruin a dish by just making it dry with the amount of pepper flakes they put on it. Truthfully, you can almost... | 768 |
wcqg23 | Why are the eggs in eggs benedict specifically poached? Is there something about them being in boiling water vs. fried over easy/medium that makes them taste better? | IMO because hollandaise is such an unctuous fat bomb, the last thing the dish needs is to have the eggs cooked in butter or oil. In addition, the poached eggs are just softer and break into the whole dish more beautifully than hacking through a fried egg. Poached eggs also fit nicely on an english muffin. | 761 |
s34c35 | Do I need to stabilize my whipping cream if I'm a chocolate mousse? I always stabilize my whipping cream when working with it. I want to make an eggless chocolate mousse. It will be my first time making and any tips are welcome :) | It doesn't matter if you're a person or a chocolate mousse, you don't need to stabilize the whip cream. It does help, however, if you plan to make in advance. Pure whip cream and chocolate will start to split in the fridge after a day or so -- you'll see it get more 'wet'. Make it, chill it, eat it, you'll be fine. | 757 |
fqo8gu | Are there different cuts of meat in different cultures or does everyone basically butcher the same way? | Yes, different cultures have different cuts of meat, however they mostly all follow the same patterns because the musculoskeletal structure of the animals doesn't change. A good example of this would be the differences in American (US) style butchery and Spanish butchery. The primal cuts are pretty much the same with s... | 755 |
h968ox | Why does the taste of sesame oil overpower dishes when I cook at home vs ordering from a restaurant? I love all kinds of Asian style foods, so I attempt to cook many of them. In case it matters, I attempt a lot more Korean dishes. Most use sesame oil, which always overpowers the dish and it’s all I taste. I never n... | There are 2 kinds of sesame oil - regular and toasted. Regular is light-colored (like canola or vegetable oil), has a pretty neutral flavor, and is commonly used as a cooking oil. Toasted is dark brown, has a strong flavor, and is generally used in very small amounts as a finishing flavor. My guess is you’re using ... | 753 |
xg5mc3 | BBQ pizza sauce -- Would it be offensive to just add jarred sauce to a homemade pizza sauce? BBQ pizza sauce seems to have a massive amount of ingredients, but Stubb's makes one of my favorite BBQ sauces, so I figure I could omit the sugar from Kenji's pizza sauce recipe and add some BBQ to taste? Going for a BBQ-fet... | I mean, you're making a BBQ pizza, not some kind of super authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, so you really have the freedom to do whatever you want. Go for it. | 752 |
hkm3q6 | Butter in vanilla cupcakes vs. oil in chocolate cupcakes? Why do most recipes I see for chocolate cupcakes use oil as the fat when vanilla cupcakes use butter? I can’t find a reliable chocolate cake/cupcake online that uses butter and I feel like oil-based batters feel too much like a muffin to me. If anyone has any in... | Notice that oil is liquid at room temperature, while butter is semi-solid. Oil provides more of a moist mouthfeel than butter in baked goods. However, oil is also flavourless (assuming a neutral oil of course), while butter has that rich flavour that is so important in cooking. Vanilla cakes have a very subtle flavour... | 752 |
c9uwiw | How do Michelin Star restaurants make a profit? I’m a chef, worked in some nice restaurants, but have never worked in a Michelin star restaurant. Any time I see Michelin star restaurants I always see huge staffs (like 10-15 cooks minimum, not including FOH), they’re constantly posting renovations and decor updates on i... | i have to imagine they make absolutely absurd margins on the wine side. | 751 |
g1vnef | What's the deal with kosher salt in American recipes? Why does the salt have to be kosher? You don't mention kosher pepper, kosher flour, kosher vegetable oil etc. What's the deal? Does a rabbi bless it or something? | My understanding is that the salt was used for "koshering meat" (pulling out the blood, Leviticus 7:26). It's not actually manufactured under any religious guidelines, and is really just a flaked salt without iodine. | 749 |
ecuyuv | I’ve just bought a live 1kg lobster to cook tonight. Is resting it in the freezer the best way to put him to ‘sleep’ before boiling? Also, how long would I boil it for? | Cognitive dissonance strong with this thread. Yes, ripping a lobster in half sounds brutal but it’s the only way to sever all the nerve connections as quickly as possible. First of all, the “brain” you’re referring to is a large clump of ganglia. Their nervous system is not centralized. If you’ve pierced behind the ... | 748 |
p0v8j9 | Is gelato in Italy just regular ice cream? In America, when we get gelato it’s usually a denser version of ice cream. On a trip to Italy I went to a famous gelato store and noticed the density was the same as regular ice cream in America. I don’t know if there’s different types there like Americans with their soft serv... | No, it's not the same. Gelato is made with less fat and contains fewer ice crystals. Interestingly, Rome recently started cracking down on subpar gelato. If too many ice crystals are found, the shop can face a fine up to $15,000 Source | 747 |
m4uvku | What do you do with soup you intend to eat across 3 days? Why? When I make soup, it's usually enough for 9 portions, which we tend to eat for 3 consecutive evenings. I normally just let the pot cool down for a couple of hours, often on the kitchen balcony, store in fridge until the next day, then just before dinner, I... | No one else seems to be biting on the actual food safety issue at hand, so I’m going to address one aspect. You mentioned that you “bring the soup to a boil to kill off anything that may have developed in it.” With food poisoning the concern isn’t always that you’ll be infected with live bacteria. There is also the i... | 739 |
feuyeh | In the very high end fine-dining/michelin star restaurants, do the chefs measure out their spices exactly (quarter tsp of this, half a tbsp of that) to get every dish perfect, or do they tend to eyeball it and just add a little more if needed after tasting? I can imagine that since every dish needs to be at an extremel... | The thing is even the ingredients vary subtly in flavour or intensity. There are standard recipes but the the seasoned chefs typically eye ball it then taste later and adjust. Junior chefs, like myself, have to follow the recipe exact then get a seasoned chef to taste it. Then the juniors taste it to try and lock on to... | 734 |
ji35ai | Are there "movements" in the history of the culinary arts, as there is in music, painting, etc? There seem to be certain dishes and ingredients that are in vogue for a time and then fall out of fashion, but nothing like the difference between, baroque classical and country western, or realism and surrealism. Is it that... | Yes, there have been plenty of movements since the onset of 'haute cuisine'. There was the transition from French style dining (where the cooks would create an impressive "display" table for each course that was laden with food, and the diners would stay seated while the tables were taken in and out of the room) to Rus... | 733 |
nc6gml | why do chefs make their pans catch fire 1. is it purely for show or there's actually something that you get .. | It depends on what's cooking. Flambéing is just a part of cooking with high levels of alcohol. As for accidentally setting pans on fire that can easily happen when the flames gets too high in a pan heavy with oil or grease. People here can act like a true chef would never do that, but these people have never had to w... | 733 |
ojjds5 | Why are green peppers or toppings other than onions generally not considered normal to put on a Philly Cheesesteak? So I've seen this a lot around Reddit and the internet; someone makes a cheesesteak with peppers or mushrooms then someone comments "well it has x ingredient therefore it's not a philly". My thing is ma... | Some people are overly concerned with finding the 'most authentic' and original version of a foodstuff, then deifying it and gatekeeping other people's enjoyment of it. No food is authentic, everything has developed through cross pollination and evolution of tastes. If it tastes good on it to you, that's all that matt... | 729 |
sddex2 | I'm roasting a chicken tonight but can't really be bothered to make stock afterwards as it's quite late already, can I put the carcass in the fridge overnight and make the stock tomorrow? The title covers it mostly I think. | I freeze carcasses to make stock later all the time. | 728 |
ws1hr1 | What is the point of salting your pasta water if you’re just going to sauce it later? I’ve always salted my pasta water and today I thought about why. Any pasta I make is either in a red sauce, cream sauce, olive oil and garlic or butter and Parmesan. Only one of those options doesn’t contain salt. | Because if you don't salt the pasta water you'll have a lovely sauce served over flavorless filler. Try a taste test using the same sauce with a little bit of unsalted pasta and you'll notice how bland it is by comparison. | 725 |
zt549u | Are you supposed to eat the rind of Brie cheese? I never thought about it as I’ve always ate it. Just want to confirm. | Like everyone is saying, yes, but if it's crappy brie or too cold it won't be enjoyable. Super cheapo brie rinds can have a sort of ammonia taste, and if it's right out of the fridge the mouthfeel won't be pleasant. But a nice wedge that's been sitting out and is getting all Salvador Dali on you??? Eat that shit | 711 |
rkyyu5 | Indian food (dals, curries etc) always tasting bland, spiceless and watery no matter how many aromatics I shove in. I can simmer a 2 serving curry for 2 hours with 1 aniseed star, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, 3 green cardamom, 1 black cardamom, 1 tejpat , 2 curry leaves, 1 inch ginger, 3 garlic cloves, a whole onion and... | Salt!!! | 707 |
nrjxpt | Taste Fatigue Hi! So I suffer from taste fatigue (fun radiation times and then three years of healing later...). Last night I was at a fancy restaurant, and the chef said he can cook around it -- and damn if he didn't tweak the dish so that it was amazing throughout my whole meal! I wanted to ask him what he did, ... | I would probably email the resto and let them know what great chef they have and that it really made your night. You could probably ask for some tips from him and that way they could respond accordingly, and management would know what a great experience he gave you too. Sorry, i dont have any ideas other than that but ... | 705 |
uvvkpg | Why use mushroom powder, marmite, soy sauce, etc? I'm wondering because isn't it the same as adding MSG? Is it because of the umami synergy? | Why use honey, maple syrup, etc. and not just sugar? Why use lime juice, lemon juice, balsamic and not just vinegar? Yes the main "taste" of all of the ingredients listed is umami the same way all the ingredients I listed are mainly sweet/sour but of course they all differ in texture, flavor profile, reaction to he... | 699 |
qq6phs | Citrus juice, rather than vinegar, seems to be the preferred source of acidity in drink recipes across cultures. Why? Was that always the case? Vinegar can be made out of just about any grain or fruit, whereas citrus juice requires specific fruit that doesn't grow everywhere. But I've never seen a vinegarade, a vinega... | Lemon and lime taste better | 697 |
nxenio | What should I throw out if I will be gone for 2 months? I am going to be away from my (Mexican Caribbean, so very hot and humid) apartment for the months of July and August. Obviously I will clean my fridge of perishables but I've never left food products for so long, and I don't know if it'll be fine, especially in th... | Adding to say if you want an easy check to see if the power did go out while you're gone, stick a small bag of ice cubes in the freezer. if they're a lumpy mess, or a clump of ice when you return, you'll at least know there was an outage and to check your stuff accordingly | 691 |
u5mxtg | Is adding "starchy" pasta water to pasta dishes to thicken and make the sauce cling to the pasta a myth? I add the pasta water to my pasta dishes sometimes and sometimes I add just normal water. I notice no difference either way in the end products. Has anyone actually made any side to side tests for comparison? It se... | Yes this has been tested and is not a myth. SeriousEats have tested this. https://www.seriouseats.com/does-pasta-water-really-make-difference | 682 |
epok44 | Why is it easier for a Japanese restaurant to get a 4.5+ star rating than a Thai place? I adore Thai food. But I've noticed that even my very favorite Thai spots usually get a max of 4.4 stars on Google. It's very difficult for them to break that barrier. By contrast, I've eaten at very well-rated Japanese places. And... | Online reviews such as from Google and Yelp have lots of variability. A lot of Asian restaurants in general have very swingy reviews because people with and without an understanding of the cultures will read things very differently. For example, many great "hole in the wall" places get bad reviews from non-Asian eate... | 677 |
dsrqd6 | Why is puff pastry the universally accepted prepackaged ingredient that is not considered "cheating" at cooking? | Not much difference in quality premade versus making it from scratch or it’s just not worth the time. There are plenty of other things that fall into this category as well. Condiments and such. Like, could you make your own mustard? Yeah but you’re not going to. | 675 |
lg9d40 | I'm Mark Bittman, and I believe that food matters: Ask me anything you want about food! I was born and raised in NYC, and worked as a cabbie, a daycare teacher, a truck driver, and a traveling salesman before I started writing about food in 1980. After writing How to Cook Everything (1998), I became aware that food was... | Mark! I just wanted to let you know how much you have helped me in my life...for real. I was depressed, lost, and even suicidal. I had dropped out of University, and had no idea what to do with my life. My father saw this, and bought me your book, "How to Cook Everything", and something just "popped" in me. I devo... | 674 |
wmthmx | Why is celery almost always included in mirepoix? Onions are onions, they go in practically every soup or sauce. Carrots bring sweetness to balance the onions. Why is celery almost always included? What about these three ingredients make it such a standard for aromatics? | It adds a mineral taste that completes the base with its moderate amounts of sodium potassium and magnesium. | 672 |
ew92zp | What’s that fancy way to cut whole potatoes called? For French dishes? They kind of look like a jewel? Describing it on google isn’t pulling anything up. Someone on here once told me (on a nuked alt, or I’d dig) that the best way to pan fry whole potatoes was to cut them into this special shape so the entire thing cook... | Tournage is the act of turning vegetables into a ridiculous shape of consistent size for even cooking, a pleasing look for the eye and so every chef in the kitchen makes them the same damn way over and over again. Traditionally seven sides and blunt ends. The specific name depends on the size. Bouquetière- 3cm, Cocott... | 667 |
luk2kg | What is the product that lots of inexpensive breakfast places use on their grill in place of butter? I don't really know what margarine tastes like, so it could be that, but a couple times a year I end up getting breakfast at a small local place that serves cheap food (like 4.99 for a breakfast platter). Every item tha... | Liquid margarine. The place you go to is probably not cleaning their flat top very well. | 665 |
s8o9up | The taste of certain food items has completely changed for me. Has this ever happened to you? Any ideas on what caused it? I’ve noticed over the last few months that the taste and smell of certain food items has completely changed for me. It’s hard to describe the sensation of taste sometimes, but I know my brain is te... | Bad oil or Covid. My buddy can’t drink coffee anymore and used to love it | 656 |
mddvtb | Who uses curly parsley, when flat-leafed is as available, and why? Aside from the authenticity argument, under what circumstances would anyone choose curly parsley over flat-leafed? Is it just me who thinks flat-leafed is near universally superior? What dishes would you recommend to demonstrate curly parsely's worth? | As a chef, I can tell you curly parsley is 1000% easier to finely chop | 655 |
l1ee1g | Is this Korean gochujang? https://i.imgur.com/ze9a8EB.jpg I was looking for gochujang to making a few Korean dishes but this was all I could find at my local grocery store. Thanks! | Yup. A few tips to look for Korean groceries: the tubs of various sauces are generally color-coded. Red for gochujang, tan for doenjang, green for ssamjang, etc. additionally Korean language is easy to identify by looking for circles as characteristic shapes of the letters. As a non-Korean married into a Korean family,... | 648 |
gt5ffs | my dad gave me 12 pounds of dried of dried cherries.... What do I do with them? Someone my dad knew had waaaaaaaay too many dried cherries and was giving them out. I said I'd take some of them but now have no idea what to do with them. I put some in wild rice but now what? Especially looking for non desert ideas. | You are living a life I can only dream of. If I had 12 pounds of dried cherries I would eat 12 pounds of dried cherries and die happy. Anyways, they are great in granola, fruitcakes, chicha morada, and chocolate bark. You can also make something like this, or rice pudding. | 640 |
mvj4dw | Maybe the wrong place to ask, but how did indian food become hot and spicy when chili peppers are from the new world? Are dishes that involve hot peppers a relatively new invention in relation to the history of India or did they take over for a different plant that once provided heat? | Here's an interesting interview with a botanist/historian about this exact topic. https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2018/07/11/how-chili-peppers-conquered-the-world-or-at-least-most-of-it | 639 |
z2nsap | Halal help My son's best friend Muslim and eats Halal. They have requested tacos (the north american version, not the authentic one). I have purchased halal meat for them, but I don't want to make any mistakes as this is the first time he has had a friend over for dinner. Other than insuring that the meat is halal and ... | No booze. No pork product at all. You should be fine with that. | 635 |
ufbptw | Why do a lot of stir-fries have you fry the garlic and ginger in the beginning while in western cooking they are generally some of the last ingredients to be added? Pretty much every recipe I've seen in stir-fries frying the aromatics, most of the time garlic and ginger, at the begging, and then they add the hardier ve... | When sweating aromatics you'll add garlic last as to not burn it. The same applies while stir-frying although it gets added first. It's to flavor the wok's oil. You almost immediately add other ingredients to cool the oil and stop the garlic from burning. | 635 |
fufgcu | I’ve somehow misplaced my bottle of peppercorns. I’m not ready to go out for groceries and my area is currently having a burst of new COVID cases. What can I use instead? I have most basic spices I’d say, I’m out of a couple things. I do not have white pepper at the moment. Thanks!! | You could just not use it... Pepper makes most dishes better but very few are ruined without it | 633 |
o8xea7 | What’s the quickest way to make caramelized onion? Making caramelized onion is extremely time consuming. Are there any tricks to make this process easier and faster? | There really aren't many short cuts when developing the flavour. But, some tips from a chef who has made hundred of pounds of them while working for a french onion soup obsessed Ukrainian head chef/crazy person..... * Slice the onion thin, more surface area, quicker cook time. * Salt early to help it break down and... | 632 |
m4g1e5 | Please don't shame me. Frozen meat question: So I was cleaning out my freezer and discovered a frozen lamb leg (no bone) that had been in there for probably a year or... Or more... I don't remember buying it. The expiration date on it said June 2020. I put it in the fridge to defrost thinking that it'd probably be fr... | No shame. If it smells fine go for it. It would be crazy to waste good food and lamb is expensive. | 626 |
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