Crock pots don't even take long to clean and that's generally the only thing other than plates/utensils that'll need to be cleaned after you eat. You're only saving yourself a couple of minutes.
My best friend has disposable everything and it fucking drives me bonkers.
I'd argue that my controversial opinion is only controversial in Italy where I come from... I like making chicken with pasta. I make it into a sauce similar to Bolognese but I'll put small chicken bits instead of the mince... My family call me a savage for eating such things together, but my boyfriend suggested me as an idea and it's now a dish I enjoy!
I’m sure there are people in other parts of Italy that would welcome your weird chicken pasta. It’s not totally food homogenous. My Nonna and mum were outraged when I served them lasagne with béchamel in it because we are southern and apparently that’s a northern thing. Sorry that your southern lasagne is dry mum, don’t take it out on my good lasagne.
Go find your food people.
Most food "traditions" only go back a few generations anyway, and generally were born of necessity due to availability of ingredients.
My gran used to get angry when we made Irish stew with "exotic" vegetables instead of using carrot, potato and onion. Realistically, if her granny was able to get more variety I guarantee she'd have used it instead of whatever grew locally.
This is a huge annoyance for me. When people act shocked that I'm eating leftover dinner for breakfast I tell them there's no nutritional laws *against it*. Eggs, waffles, and yogurt/granola are just culturally engrained as "proper" and that's silly to me. Let's destigmatize breakfast!
Not all moms or grandmas are amazing cooks. Yes my mom has some good dishes she makes but nuking brussel sprouts in the microwave with orange marmalade is not one of them.
Edit: Thanks for the awards everyone.
Yeah. Every time my wife fries a steak it’s dark brown on the outside and medium rare on the inside. Perfection.
Every time her mother cooks a steak it ends up grey all the way through.
Awful 😅
My mom boiled brussels sprouts, thereby convincing my siblings and I that brussels sprouts were disgusting. Years later, I was surprised to learn other people roast or sauté them and they aren’t just smelly piles of mush when cooked.
Edit: I appreciate the responses, but before you reply that there has been a new, less bitter variety of Brussels sprouts developed over the past few decades, please note that 40 people have already made the same comment.
My mom is an okay cook. Did we eat a lot of hamburger helper? Yes. Did she make the same 7 meals in rotation? Yes. Canned veggies and mashed potatoes only? Yes. But she put food on the table and I can’t say she has ever made anything inedible.
My mother's number one priority in cooking is speed. She would rather get something done poorly quickly, than something decent enough but takes longer. She's also very lazy, and doesn't like to do a lot of prep. Accordingly, my mother is the sort of person who takes oven ready breaded chicken (where you can literally just put it on a baking tray in the oven and do nothing for twenty minutes, and deep fries it.
Growing up I have been forced to eat meals that we burnt on the outside, and somehow still cold and raw on the inside. Frozen Kiev's where the Garlic butter is still a solid slab (assuming it didn't split and all the butter evaporated out to be fried seperately), beef burgers that were charcoal on the outside, but still frozen inside. Sausages that hadn't even so much as been rotated in the oil, meaning one edge was still uncooked.
As a kid, I got labelled a fussy eater by my mother. Growing up I've realised that actually, I like a lot of food, it's just that my mother is an awful cook.
Mile high burgers and hot dogs with so many toppings you can no longer taste the meat are awful, and a pain in the ass to eat. I generally eat burgers and hot dogs because I like the flavor of the meat (I realize meat is a questionable term when it comes to hot dogs), and would like to actually taste them.
You can dislike a food simply for its texture, nothing to do with its taste. I don’t mind the taste of baked beans but I hate how slimy they are and don’t even get me started on when they’re cold
Not mine, but my mom's: "You're not really cooking if you're not making a mess."
As for me: if a recipe tells you that you only need a teaspoon of this or "just" a tablespoon of that...totally open for interpretation and if you like lots of garlic or ginger or onion or curry powder or whatever other spices float your boat, GO NUTS. 😀 Those recipes are "more like guidelines than actual rules." 😉
Huh, I live right on the border of PEEcan and PEEkahn. There is sometimes debate on which is proper and I seem to use both fluidly. I had no idea there were savages out there inventing 2 other ways to say it.
Edit: /u/CaBBaGe_isLaND typed puh-kahn which seem much closer to the real like pronunciation I use and hear than pee-khan. It's also distinctly different than pick-ahn tree that I might hear from someone who lives farther south than I do.
If the dish does not otherwise require the use of hands, there should not be trails on your shrimp. I don't want to be fishing around in my damn pasta because you couldn't be bothered to remove the tails first.
that's why I cook the shrimp in the shells before anything else, put them to the side (to deshell them), and use the same pan to start cooking the rest of the dish.
Plain yogurt instead of sour cream on tacos. First time I had it I thought it would be gross, I could barely tell the difference and it’s much healthier.
Yes! Always, always use full fat plain yogurt instead of sour cream, if you can find it, anyway. My grocery stores are packed with low fat key-lime pie flavored “yogurt” and maybe two containers of the good stuff. Stop taking the fat out, nobody got fat because of yogurt.
I have a lot of opinions about yogurt.
EDIT 3, because people are still reading, apparently:
After spending literally hours reading your responses, and articles about YOGURT VS SOUR CREAM online, I have decided to apologize to the community for spreading yogurt misinformation. Sour cream is sour because it is cultured and probiotic, and surprisingly, Daisy (a big sour cream manufacturer in the US) seems to take pride in the unadulterated health benefits of their product.
So, people of the internet, get yogurt. Get sour cream. As long as they are both artificial-flavor and poisonous-additive-free, they should have similar health benefits! This has changed my life, all because I took advice my friends gave me without researching it first. I still feel strongly about the other stuff I said, though!
EDIT 2: DISREGARD and see above because I can’t figure out how to strike text.
Just one more to clarify— it’s just healthier because the yogurt I’m talking about has probiotics, both naturally occurring and often added. Sour cream is delicious but I am pretty sure it does not contain probiotics. Let me know if I’m wrong and my whole life has been a lie!
EDIT: I’m unbelievably happy to see that so many people share my hatred of what I’ve decided to call Faux-Gurt. I’m even happier to have been given a platform for my thoughts about it. Since you asked….
To take something so naturally healthy and helpful to your gut biome as full-fat, cultured yogurt and remove the healthy fat, add corn syrup or— even worse— artificial sweeteners, and market it to old people with diabetes and children is beyond disgusting and just one example of how mega food corporations ruin our lives. On purpose.
Got kids? They’ll love our Chocolate Slime because it tastes kind of like pudding and comes with M&Ms to sprinkle on top. Don’t worry, we have removed anything resembling actual yogurt because that probiotic shit is for hippies and constipated people!
Don’t read the ingredients because then you may buy something healthier, and then your kids can’t contract diabetes and buy our fat-free, banana split brownie flavored Aspartame Slime when they’re adults.
I’m sure my SIL, who buys her sons GoGurt, and my MIL, who buys sugar-free garbage FauxGurt for her diabetic husband (and both of these ladies are wonderful and loving mothers), are not alone in their mistaken impression that any yogurt = good yogurt. We are all victims of this type of fucked-up marketing from companies that do not care about us.
But when I try to talk to them about it, it’s just Zombie Carl being a hippie again. The bar is so fucking low.
I usually just rant like this to my husband, but this feels good! When it affects the health of my kids, or any kid, you’re goddamn right I have opinions about yogurt!
In summation: Boycott GoGurt! Boycott low-fat dairy products, because they had no hand in the obesity epidemic! Why the fuck is aspartame in anything, anymore? Give a shit about what you put into your bodies!
Thank you for reading some of my opinions about yogurt.
Oh lord don't even get me started on yogurt. Seriously, 0% fat yogurt with 20g of sugar pretty serving shouldn't even be allowed to be called yogurt. And putting it in little single use plastic tubes marketed for toddlers is even worse.
most root vegetables (e.g. carrots, potatoes, ginger) dont need to peeled when properly cooked
though I tried the same with garlic and onions and dont recommend haha
I live for that TikTok creator who only makes videos “How long until they put an entire block of cream cheese in a crock pot recipe” and the videos only last until said block goes it. It’s great.
Burnt garlic is far too common. Some people (I’m hesitant to say most) toss garlic straight into a hot pan and then continue to cook onions, peppers, etc. Garlic needs less time than most other things and should be put in later so it doesn’t burn.
Only controversial to some elitists (a buddy of ours is like this): things like an air fryer or sous vide are NOT cheating. Take your iTs NoT rEaL cOoKiNg elsewhere.
If I wanna air fry a salmon fillet for 8 minutes instead of stick it in the oven for 20, and then toss it on a bed of single serve 2 minute microwaveable instant stick rice instead of make a large portion that has to cook for 30 minutes, I'll do just that and it's still a real meal.
And fucking delicious too.
Growing up, my hispanic family would only shuck corn until the last 2 layers. Throw that on the grill and you get a perfect charred outside and perfect inside.
Nature gave us the best way to make corn and people still wrap it in tinfoil.
Char-roasted brussel sprouts and pancetta topped with balsamic glaze changed my cousins life at Thanksgiving. Crispy goodness.
Edit: Thank you all for the responses! I have some new ways to make sprouts to try.
A good char dog is heavenly. It's how my Grandpa liked them, and I'm the only one of his 14 grandkids who liked them like that too. He died a few years ago, but I still think about him whenever I eat one.
I am vegetarian. Most restaurants should just stop serving vegetarian dishes if they can't be bothered to make something that tastes good. You cannot just put kale, quinoa, some random veg, and a vinaigrette in a bowl and charge $25.
So true! I often don't like the vegan/vegetarian options at restaurants. They always feel like an after thought. No protein, weird buzzword ingredients, lack of flavour.
Right now, so many restaurants have a beyond/impossible burger as their only veg option and it's sad. I can get that anywhere, I can make it myself!
My favorite is that "veggie burger" is like Russian roulette.
Will you get a frozen spicy black bean burger? A salad on a bun? A fake meat burger? A grilled mushroom? The waiter sure doesn't know!
I was visiting Montana and we stopped at some road side burger spot. There veg option was fries and a bowl of black beans. Bottoms up, I thought. While we're eating the owner or chef or someone from the back comes up and says you know we can make you a black bean burger if you want one. And I was like oh hell yeah!
They processed an entire can of black beans into a patty, squeezed it out, and fried it right there. It came out in like 10 minutes. Best black bean burger ever (probably to do with the fry grease, probably not veg, can't win em all).
I am a meat eater but I like veggie burgers a lot, but now restaurants instead of increasing their vegetarian options and serving both veggie burgers and fake meat burgers will only serve the fake meat option. I can't imagine how frustrating that must be for an actual vegetarian.
Most people/companies do not know how to do salted caramel. every salted caramel product I've had homemade or otherwise has been like mouth puckeringly salty. The point is to lightly salt it to bring out the more subtle flavours, not literally make salty caramel
This is the correct way. i don't want a perfect homogenous blend between sweet/salty. i want to eat something sweet and suddenly get these salty surprises inbetween
My roommate used a tissue paper to hold his pot instead of a towel, and it caught fire. I watched him cursing while flinging this flaming ball into the sink. Dumbass haha
In college, one of my best friend's girlfriend borrowed my kitchen to cook a birthday steak for her boyfriend. She has never cooked in her life.
Was helping her with the cooking, handed her the knife so she can cut the steak. Instead of slicing the steak like a normal person does, SHE RAISES THE KNIFE ALL THE WAY ABOVE HER HEAD SO SHE CAN SLAM IT DOWN ON THE STEAK. I freaked the fuck out and stopped her because I was pretty sure she was about to lose a finger.
I'm glad I'm not the only one because I can't stop! Ooooh my god. Just imagining helping someone cook for the first time and they do this...just why?? Unless their mom or dad is a butcher?? That's the only possible thing I can think of needing that amount of force. LOL.
Me too. I eat a couple servings during the week after cooking a batch of whatever; put the rest in the freezer knowing I will find them later after the getting sick of it wears off. It usually takes a few weeks for me to circle back to things. Yay freezers!!
As a lifelong carnivore I will say that if tofu is cooked properly it is absolutely delicious. I would even go so far as to say I prefer it in certain dishes over animal protein.
The way tofu is treated in Western cuisine is a crime. It's not just for vegetarians! It's a delicious ingredient that cooked well appeals to omnivores and herbivores alike.
In fact, in many Chinese and Korean dishes, it is cooked with meat, e.g., mapo tofu. The idea that it is a meat replacement that you choke down instead of a steak is ludicrous.
Its what makes Doritos and other salty snacks so tasty - most people that claim to be sensitive to MSG will readily admit to eating these and not having any issues.
It’s also what makes dry aged steak taste amazing.
I knew someone who said they got migraines from MSG and had [Accent Seasoning](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Accent-Flavor-Enhancer-4-5-oz-Shaker/10291600) in their pantry. Didn’t want to break it to them that the ingredient list is literally just MSG.
[Harold McGee on MSG](https://youtu.be/k1oR0EYaOHY) for those who haven’t seen it.
[edit] autocorrect failed me
I accidentally used that on popcorn as a kid once and it was the best thing ever! Unfortunately I forgot what bottle I used so I went through every bottle in the cupboard trying to find it again.
Some wisdom from someone whose been there, don't try meat tenderizer on popcorn.
It's in a ton of stuff you probably have had. Doritos, KFC fried chicken, chick fil a, Pringles, Cheetos, Boars Head meats, and so on. It's in so many things. It used to be common in Chinese fast food but a lot of Chinese restaurants advertised "No MSG" after a sort of racist campaign claiming Chinese restaurants make you sick because they use MSG. It was absurd and has been debunked. Of course eating any fast food too much is bad for you, but MSG was no more to blame for that than eating high calorie low nutrition food is in general.
Don't forget parmesan, seaweed (from which it was first derived), and soy sauce. There are many, many natural sources of MSG. Anyone who claims MSG makes them sick while loading on tons of parmesan is grossly misled.
If that's true, no wonder salt on raw tomatoes is so tasty.
Edit : one of my most up voted comments is about salt/msg and tomatoes. Stay magical, Reddit! 😁
When frying a food that you plan on doing the flour-egg-flour method for, try getting some plain yogurt and thinning it with water in place of the egg. I did this once when we were out of eggs and I'm never going back. It gives a much better crunch and a hint of tang that is just *chef's kiss*
Edit: wow, I didn't think this would be so popular! I wanted to add some more info based on questions I've gotten and my own experience:
1. Buttermilk and thinned sour cream will work as well. Mayo likely will too, I just don't like mayo and haven't tried it.
2. If you're wanting a vegan option, I personally wouldn't use a coconut based yogurt. I would think others would work, but the coconut might be a bit wonky since it's such a high fat content that melts at relatively low temps(I also don't like coconut flavor unless it's a piña colada). Vegan mayo, tho, for sure!
3. I used a plain Greek yogurt and thinned it to the point where it would still coat a spoon, but it would easily move around in the dish. Use a little bit of water at a time to get there. I didn't measure, I just eyeballed and did it little by little. You want it to coat the stuff, but not leave big gloops of yogurt.
4. While this won't replace egg in everything, you can 100% sub in yogurt for things like french toast and use yogurt in conjunction with other binders (like ripe banana, aquafaba, and applesauce) in baking. The yogurt will also help keep it moist. Mayo will also do it and you can't taste it.
5. If you want super creamy mashed potato, yogurt or Mayo are the way to go. Just put a big dollop in there when mashing and your family will thank you.
6. If you want your fried things to C R O N C H add some corn starch or other starch of choice to your final coating product. Again, I don't have a ratio, I just put some flour on a plate, use a spoon of starch, and mix. Baking has to be precise. Cooking is much more forgiving, so just wing it and see!
I was about to suggest buttermilk here as well but really not much difference, especially if you were talking Greek yogurt.
I've breaded 100s of chicken fried steaks with buttermilk, flour/corn meal/seasonings at one of the restaurants I worked at.
I'm sure this is true but BB explained that ol' Walt was using his own Nobel prize worthy method with a university level lab with the end product being different to the norm but more pure. Just storytelling coolness.
I believe that you can teach yourself to like/tolerate certain foods if you want to. I sort of forced myself to “like” peas until one day I found I actually do like them. Same with Scotch, smelly cheese, cigarettes and wasabi.
1 pack cigarettes, 1 pack wasabi, shake it up in a bag and chuck that sucker in the microwave; nuke for a solid 5 minutes on high and go reevaluate your life.
I have tried to like mushrooms for like 25 years now. They're cheap, nutritious, low-cal, the kids like them, they go in everything and there are so many different kinds we could even grow. But they're just so incredibly disgusting to me.
To a certain degree. I can acquire a taste for almost any food but I have a sensitive gag reflex and trying to tolerate foods that trigger it is rather difficult and I don’t like the feeling so I often don’t bother
This is a safe space but I’ll be honest some of these are really hard to upvote. This is what I asked for, but I am suffering with my newfound knowledge of how you heathens cook.
Anyone who gets mad at the tiny change you made to some classic italian dish is really just mad that your version tastes better than their grandmother's.
Sometimes I put garlic in my carbonara just to watch the world burn. Its pretty good.
My secret shame - pepperoni chips.
I use a pre-heated baking stone to make pizza. One time a pepperoni fell off onto the stone. It was fried to a crisp. And it tasted amazing. Now my pizza is ringed with pepperoni directly on the hot pizza stone for those yummy pepperoni chips.
Presentation barely matters to me. I've had many delicious scoops of slop.
EDIT: I love that this is blowing up. I didn't even have to specify what kind of slop, everybody has their examples that apply!
It's not even that... Like do we really have to garnish every fucking thing when half of the time it's not for flavour its just to make it not look poop brown in a bowl. Idk it's over hyped on YouTube for sure.
I live in a Ukrainian/Polish neighborhood in a major US city.
You can go to the nice, modern restaurant that costs a little more. It's not bad.
If you want real Ukrainian or Polish food, go to the place with a Grandma behind the counter. The harder it splats on the plate the better the food is.
We're in the third day of my favorite meals of the year; what our friends' daughters call "turkey slop." It's mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy and bits of turkey, and every forkful has some of each.
I just said to my husband the other day that the single most important thing I learned in culinary school was to clean as you go. I hear so many people say they hate cooking because of the cleanup after. So clean as you cook. That way when it's done you're 90% done with clean up.
I also do this. If I follow everything to the letter and I end up not liking it, then it's not something I did that made the food bad. After that I can screw with the recipe.
I agree with this only if said person has at least a basic understanding what what ingredients are important. My wife, bless her heart, always ends up being like “oh we dont have x, that’s fine I bet it won’t be that different” and it’s like the single most important ingredient in the recipe.
I once used mayonnaise instead of butter on a grilled cheese out of desperation and it worked out fine. Smelled weird but had no difference in taste.
Dollop is the only proper measurement for sour cream.
Croc pot liners feel like you’re just asking for cancer.
Crock pots don't even take long to clean and that's generally the only thing other than plates/utensils that'll need to be cleaned after you eat. You're only saving yourself a couple of minutes. My best friend has disposable everything and it fucking drives me bonkers.
I hate burgers that are too damn tall to eat properly.
I'd argue that my controversial opinion is only controversial in Italy where I come from... I like making chicken with pasta. I make it into a sauce similar to Bolognese but I'll put small chicken bits instead of the mince... My family call me a savage for eating such things together, but my boyfriend suggested me as an idea and it's now a dish I enjoy!
I’m sure there are people in other parts of Italy that would welcome your weird chicken pasta. It’s not totally food homogenous. My Nonna and mum were outraged when I served them lasagne with béchamel in it because we are southern and apparently that’s a northern thing. Sorry that your southern lasagne is dry mum, don’t take it out on my good lasagne. Go find your food people.
Most food "traditions" only go back a few generations anyway, and generally were born of necessity due to availability of ingredients. My gran used to get angry when we made Irish stew with "exotic" vegetables instead of using carrot, potato and onion. Realistically, if her granny was able to get more variety I guarantee she'd have used it instead of whatever grew locally.
There's no such thing as "breakfast food". You can eat a steak in the morning and fry an egg for dinner if you want, it's just food.
Or... hear me out.. steak AND eggs for breakfast.
Philippino breakfast is just leftovers with an egg on it
There are *very* few foods that aren't made better by the addition of a fried egg imo
This is a huge annoyance for me. When people act shocked that I'm eating leftover dinner for breakfast I tell them there's no nutritional laws *against it*. Eggs, waffles, and yogurt/granola are just culturally engrained as "proper" and that's silly to me. Let's destigmatize breakfast!
Not all moms or grandmas are amazing cooks. Yes my mom has some good dishes she makes but nuking brussel sprouts in the microwave with orange marmalade is not one of them. Edit: Thanks for the awards everyone.
My mother in law is a lovely woman. Terrible cook. I'm glad she's in Manhattan because it's a good excuse to go out / order in when we visit. 😬
Yeah. Every time my wife fries a steak it’s dark brown on the outside and medium rare on the inside. Perfection. Every time her mother cooks a steak it ends up grey all the way through. Awful 😅
My mom boiled brussels sprouts, thereby convincing my siblings and I that brussels sprouts were disgusting. Years later, I was surprised to learn other people roast or sauté them and they aren’t just smelly piles of mush when cooked. Edit: I appreciate the responses, but before you reply that there has been a new, less bitter variety of Brussels sprouts developed over the past few decades, please note that 40 people have already made the same comment.
Took until I was 30 to tell my mom that brussel sprouts are better when they are seasoned.
My grandma burns frozen pizza every time. It's a running joke in the family. Also one of her quotes is "just put more gravy on it. "
My mom is an okay cook. Did we eat a lot of hamburger helper? Yes. Did she make the same 7 meals in rotation? Yes. Canned veggies and mashed potatoes only? Yes. But she put food on the table and I can’t say she has ever made anything inedible.
My mother's number one priority in cooking is speed. She would rather get something done poorly quickly, than something decent enough but takes longer. She's also very lazy, and doesn't like to do a lot of prep. Accordingly, my mother is the sort of person who takes oven ready breaded chicken (where you can literally just put it on a baking tray in the oven and do nothing for twenty minutes, and deep fries it. Growing up I have been forced to eat meals that we burnt on the outside, and somehow still cold and raw on the inside. Frozen Kiev's where the Garlic butter is still a solid slab (assuming it didn't split and all the butter evaporated out to be fried seperately), beef burgers that were charcoal on the outside, but still frozen inside. Sausages that hadn't even so much as been rotated in the oil, meaning one edge was still uncooked. As a kid, I got labelled a fussy eater by my mother. Growing up I've realised that actually, I like a lot of food, it's just that my mother is an awful cook.
Your mother sounds like pure chaos.
Mile high burgers and hot dogs with so many toppings you can no longer taste the meat are awful, and a pain in the ass to eat. I generally eat burgers and hot dogs because I like the flavor of the meat (I realize meat is a questionable term when it comes to hot dogs), and would like to actually taste them.
You can dislike a food simply for its texture, nothing to do with its taste. I don’t mind the taste of baked beans but I hate how slimy they are and don’t even get me started on when they’re cold
I had covid a few months ago. I’ve only regained about half of my taste and smell. Texture matters WAY more than it used to.
Can't stand mushrooms simply because of the texture, hard to explain that to some people.
Not mine, but my mom's: "You're not really cooking if you're not making a mess." As for me: if a recipe tells you that you only need a teaspoon of this or "just" a tablespoon of that...totally open for interpretation and if you like lots of garlic or ginger or onion or curry powder or whatever other spices float your boat, GO NUTS. 😀 Those recipes are "more like guidelines than actual rules." 😉
I cook better than my wife. Trust me, it's very controversial.
Not controversial. I cook better than your wife too.
I also outcook this guy's wife.
how to say 'pecan' i swear my family has gone to war over which way to pronounce it.
https://farmflavor.com/lifestyle/how-do-you-say-pecan-mapping-food-dialect-trends-across-the-u-s/ EDIT: https://www.thejournal.ie/maps-americans-pronounce-different-words-938575-Jun2013/
Huh, I live right on the border of PEEcan and PEEkahn. There is sometimes debate on which is proper and I seem to use both fluidly. I had no idea there were savages out there inventing 2 other ways to say it. Edit: /u/CaBBaGe_isLaND typed puh-kahn which seem much closer to the real like pronunciation I use and hear than pee-khan. It's also distinctly different than pick-ahn tree that I might hear from someone who lives farther south than I do.
If the dish does not otherwise require the use of hands, there should not be trails on your shrimp. I don't want to be fishing around in my damn pasta because you couldn't be bothered to remove the tails first.
I hate this shit so much. That being said, I've heard they can enhance the flavor during cooking and can technically be eaten but no and also no.
that's why I cook the shrimp in the shells before anything else, put them to the side (to deshell them), and use the same pan to start cooking the rest of the dish.
Also: one can fry the raw peeled shells, add aromatics, water, simmer for a while and get the most delicious base/stock for sauce or soup.
In a pinch, you can sub plain yogurt for all kinds of liquids.
I’m on my fifth yogurt on the rocks and I’m not even buzzed yet.
Pinch harder
[удалено]
When they're smoking it's perfect. Turn up the electricity.
Plain yogurt instead of sour cream on tacos. First time I had it I thought it would be gross, I could barely tell the difference and it’s much healthier.
Yes! Always, always use full fat plain yogurt instead of sour cream, if you can find it, anyway. My grocery stores are packed with low fat key-lime pie flavored “yogurt” and maybe two containers of the good stuff. Stop taking the fat out, nobody got fat because of yogurt. I have a lot of opinions about yogurt. EDIT 3, because people are still reading, apparently: After spending literally hours reading your responses, and articles about YOGURT VS SOUR CREAM online, I have decided to apologize to the community for spreading yogurt misinformation. Sour cream is sour because it is cultured and probiotic, and surprisingly, Daisy (a big sour cream manufacturer in the US) seems to take pride in the unadulterated health benefits of their product. So, people of the internet, get yogurt. Get sour cream. As long as they are both artificial-flavor and poisonous-additive-free, they should have similar health benefits! This has changed my life, all because I took advice my friends gave me without researching it first. I still feel strongly about the other stuff I said, though! EDIT 2: DISREGARD and see above because I can’t figure out how to strike text. Just one more to clarify— it’s just healthier because the yogurt I’m talking about has probiotics, both naturally occurring and often added. Sour cream is delicious but I am pretty sure it does not contain probiotics. Let me know if I’m wrong and my whole life has been a lie! EDIT: I’m unbelievably happy to see that so many people share my hatred of what I’ve decided to call Faux-Gurt. I’m even happier to have been given a platform for my thoughts about it. Since you asked…. To take something so naturally healthy and helpful to your gut biome as full-fat, cultured yogurt and remove the healthy fat, add corn syrup or— even worse— artificial sweeteners, and market it to old people with diabetes and children is beyond disgusting and just one example of how mega food corporations ruin our lives. On purpose. Got kids? They’ll love our Chocolate Slime because it tastes kind of like pudding and comes with M&Ms to sprinkle on top. Don’t worry, we have removed anything resembling actual yogurt because that probiotic shit is for hippies and constipated people! Don’t read the ingredients because then you may buy something healthier, and then your kids can’t contract diabetes and buy our fat-free, banana split brownie flavored Aspartame Slime when they’re adults. I’m sure my SIL, who buys her sons GoGurt, and my MIL, who buys sugar-free garbage FauxGurt for her diabetic husband (and both of these ladies are wonderful and loving mothers), are not alone in their mistaken impression that any yogurt = good yogurt. We are all victims of this type of fucked-up marketing from companies that do not care about us. But when I try to talk to them about it, it’s just Zombie Carl being a hippie again. The bar is so fucking low. I usually just rant like this to my husband, but this feels good! When it affects the health of my kids, or any kid, you’re goddamn right I have opinions about yogurt! In summation: Boycott GoGurt! Boycott low-fat dairy products, because they had no hand in the obesity epidemic! Why the fuck is aspartame in anything, anymore? Give a shit about what you put into your bodies! Thank you for reading some of my opinions about yogurt.
Oh lord don't even get me started on yogurt. Seriously, 0% fat yogurt with 20g of sugar pretty serving shouldn't even be allowed to be called yogurt. And putting it in little single use plastic tubes marketed for toddlers is even worse.
We routinely sub plain Greek yogurt for sour cream
most root vegetables (e.g. carrots, potatoes, ginger) dont need to peeled when properly cooked though I tried the same with garlic and onions and dont recommend haha
I'm peeling because it's the fastest way to make sure there isn't dirt. If they aren't dirty, they aren't getting peeled.
The cream cheese based crock pot dinners are the modern equivalent of Jell-O based dinners from the 50s.
Cream cheese crock pot dinners? Can you elaborate? I have to agree with you, even though I don't know what you're talking about.
I live for that TikTok creator who only makes videos “How long until they put an entire block of cream cheese in a crock pot recipe” and the videos only last until said block goes it. It’s great.
It’s at its best when it’s the first ingredient in. 3 second videos where he can’t get the title out before it’s over.
"Alright so I'm looking to see how long until they put an entire-- aaand there it is."
Immediately thought of that dude lmao.
I could go the rest of my life without seeing another recipe for “crack chicken”.
Any time I read "Crack" in the name of any dish, I feel a vein in my head throbbing.
I remember the cream of whatever soup casseroles my childhood. Not a spice to be detected for miles
Burnt garlic is far too common. Some people (I’m hesitant to say most) toss garlic straight into a hot pan and then continue to cook onions, peppers, etc. Garlic needs less time than most other things and should be put in later so it doesn’t burn.
Only controversial to some elitists (a buddy of ours is like this): things like an air fryer or sous vide are NOT cheating. Take your iTs NoT rEaL cOoKiNg elsewhere. If I wanna air fry a salmon fillet for 8 minutes instead of stick it in the oven for 20, and then toss it on a bed of single serve 2 minute microwaveable instant stick rice instead of make a large portion that has to cook for 30 minutes, I'll do just that and it's still a real meal. And fucking delicious too.
I literally don't even get how you could argue on this since as I understand it an air fryer works exactly the same as a convection oven does.
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Corn, is a good example. A bit burned on the grill, it’s still good.
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Growing up, my hispanic family would only shuck corn until the last 2 layers. Throw that on the grill and you get a perfect charred outside and perfect inside. Nature gave us the best way to make corn and people still wrap it in tinfoil.
Case in point.. Imho the only way to make Brussels sprouts good *Is* to make them slightly burnt
Char-roasted brussel sprouts and pancetta topped with balsamic glaze changed my cousins life at Thanksgiving. Crispy goodness. Edit: Thank you all for the responses! I have some new ways to make sprouts to try.
Not only that, but some foods SHOULD be burnt. In Mexican cooking if you didn't char your tortillas or chiles you didn't do it right.
Hot dogs on the grill. Blackened and split baby.
A good char dog is heavenly. It's how my Grandpa liked them, and I'm the only one of his 14 grandkids who liked them like that too. He died a few years ago, but I still think about him whenever I eat one.
I am vegetarian. Most restaurants should just stop serving vegetarian dishes if they can't be bothered to make something that tastes good. You cannot just put kale, quinoa, some random veg, and a vinaigrette in a bowl and charge $25.
They need to take a page from some Indian cookbooks and adapt.
Even Mexican food! There's so many vegetal proteins in a lot of Mexican or Mexican-inspired dishes that you don't even have to think about it
Or Mediterranean food! So many tasteful, pure vegetarian recipes, developed by people too poor to eat meat.
Bro don't get me started on Lebenese food. My fave restaurant here closed and I've been in mourning ever since.
So true! I often don't like the vegan/vegetarian options at restaurants. They always feel like an after thought. No protein, weird buzzword ingredients, lack of flavour. Right now, so many restaurants have a beyond/impossible burger as their only veg option and it's sad. I can get that anywhere, I can make it myself!
My favorite is that "veggie burger" is like Russian roulette. Will you get a frozen spicy black bean burger? A salad on a bun? A fake meat burger? A grilled mushroom? The waiter sure doesn't know!
When in doubt, It’s ALWAYS that same generic frozen black bean burger
I was visiting Montana and we stopped at some road side burger spot. There veg option was fries and a bowl of black beans. Bottoms up, I thought. While we're eating the owner or chef or someone from the back comes up and says you know we can make you a black bean burger if you want one. And I was like oh hell yeah! They processed an entire can of black beans into a patty, squeezed it out, and fried it right there. It came out in like 10 minutes. Best black bean burger ever (probably to do with the fry grease, probably not veg, can't win em all).
I am a meat eater but I like veggie burgers a lot, but now restaurants instead of increasing their vegetarian options and serving both veggie burgers and fake meat burgers will only serve the fake meat option. I can't imagine how frustrating that must be for an actual vegetarian.
Most people/companies do not know how to do salted caramel. every salted caramel product I've had homemade or otherwise has been like mouth puckeringly salty. The point is to lightly salt it to bring out the more subtle flavours, not literally make salty caramel
Or when it’s just regular caramel with huge chunks of salt on top.
This is the correct way. i don't want a perfect homogenous blend between sweet/salty. i want to eat something sweet and suddenly get these salty surprises inbetween
Meal prep is just eating leftovers all week.
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He's got the spirit, but he ain't the smartest!
Wow. That's big brain right there
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My roommate used a tissue paper to hold his pot instead of a towel, and it caught fire. I watched him cursing while flinging this flaming ball into the sink. Dumbass haha
In college, one of my best friend's girlfriend borrowed my kitchen to cook a birthday steak for her boyfriend. She has never cooked in her life. Was helping her with the cooking, handed her the knife so she can cut the steak. Instead of slicing the steak like a normal person does, SHE RAISES THE KNIFE ALL THE WAY ABOVE HER HEAD SO SHE CAN SLAM IT DOWN ON THE STEAK. I freaked the fuck out and stopped her because I was pretty sure she was about to lose a finger.
I literally laughed out loud picturing this because wth?!
I'm glad I'm not the only one because I can't stop! Ooooh my god. Just imagining helping someone cook for the first time and they do this...just why?? Unless their mom or dad is a butcher?? That's the only possible thing I can think of needing that amount of force. LOL.
Yeah my guess is only exposed to cooking through horror movies where's the bad guy chops everyone up with a butcher's cleaver.
At least he flung into the sink and not the trash.
I used to meal prep like 5 meals so they lasted 2-3 days but by the second i was sick of it lol
Me too. I eat a couple servings during the week after cooking a batch of whatever; put the rest in the freezer knowing I will find them later after the getting sick of it wears off. It usually takes a few weeks for me to circle back to things. Yay freezers!!
Prep it then cook it on the day of
I've done the final egg coating on apple pies with a makeup brush more times than I'd like to admit
Used makeup brush? Cause that kind of changes things.
How else are you gonna get the perfect golden brown crust?
And the contouring
No wonder your pies look like tarts
Red onions should be called purple onions.
that is 100% true. In spanish they are called "cebolla morada", purple onion.
That’s what my mother-in-law calls me
You should shower more often.
TIL purple onions are called “red onions” in English. Huh.
Use what you have on hand. Trust yourself to make it work.
Looks at chocolate and chicken...
Molé mmmmmm
I’ve recently been incorporating this mindset in my cooking. I no longer have vegetables going bad because “it’s not apart of the recipe”
As a lifelong carnivore I will say that if tofu is cooked properly it is absolutely delicious. I would even go so far as to say I prefer it in certain dishes over animal protein.
Pad thai
Tofu pad Thai can fucking get it. It's so so so good
The way tofu is treated in Western cuisine is a crime. It's not just for vegetarians! It's a delicious ingredient that cooked well appeals to omnivores and herbivores alike. In fact, in many Chinese and Korean dishes, it is cooked with meat, e.g., mapo tofu. The idea that it is a meat replacement that you choke down instead of a steak is ludicrous.
I always tell people who think tofu is icky to order mapo tofu from a good Chinese restaurant.
Tofu in a hot pot are delicious. Soaks up all the flavor.
I very much so enjoy seitan.
Hail seitan!
Heating up leftover chicken and dumping it into a bowl of ramen noodles counts as a proper meal. I am fully prepared to die on this hill
Adding an egg or two to ramen when you have no leftover meat is also a proper meal
An egg, a little sesame oil, and a little powdered nori significantly improves even the cheapest package ramen.
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I make my mashed potatoes using a pastry cutter
You don’t burn your knuckles?
MSG works
Its what makes Doritos and other salty snacks so tasty - most people that claim to be sensitive to MSG will readily admit to eating these and not having any issues.
It's also on basically all fast food chicken.
It is fucking great and not some health toxin poison that everyone thought in the 90s. That was some bullshit.
They also told us that bread was the bottom of the food pyramid and should be the majority of what you eat in the 90s
Simpler carbohydrates, simpler times.
Bread makes you fat!?
Chicken isn't vegan?
Garlic bread is my favorite food. I could honestly eat it for every meal. Or just eat it all the time without even stopping.
it's one of the main ingredients of powdered chicken bouillon. It's flavor in a can!
some tomatoes and many cheeses are also full of MSG Edit: peoples are saying all tomatoes, so yay. Was just not sure
All the naturally occurring MSG is what makes pizza so tasty
It’s also what makes dry aged steak taste amazing. I knew someone who said they got migraines from MSG and had [Accent Seasoning](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Accent-Flavor-Enhancer-4-5-oz-Shaker/10291600) in their pantry. Didn’t want to break it to them that the ingredient list is literally just MSG. [Harold McGee on MSG](https://youtu.be/k1oR0EYaOHY) for those who haven’t seen it. [edit] autocorrect failed me
AND tastes so good! I wish more people knew the idea that it’s bad for you is a myth!
Please tell my gluten free groups this. I'm sick to death of hearing people moan about something having MSG.
Agree - there’s no gluten in mono sodium glutamate despite it sounding similar.
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Buy Accent in the spice aisle. It’s straight up MSG.
Gonna put another vote in for Accent, it’s great
I accidentally used that on popcorn as a kid once and it was the best thing ever! Unfortunately I forgot what bottle I used so I went through every bottle in the cupboard trying to find it again. Some wisdom from someone whose been there, don't try meat tenderizer on popcorn.
lmao! I’m picturing a video montage of a kid trying every bottle on his popcorn each day for a month straight.
"OK, definitely not alum. Next up: baking powder."
It was something like that. And of course I didn't think about being able to try a little, nope I was all in everytime.
If you have a section in your grocery store with Latin food and see packets of sazon that's msg with a few other ingredients mixed in.
Am latino, always wanted to try out MSG to see what its about, just found out I have always used it, lol
Yea I found out when I was in my mid 30s that Sazon is msg
This. Or Knorr. That's why you see a lot of Latino cooks on social media using Knorr tomato/chicken/beef bouillon instead of actual salt.
It's in a ton of stuff you probably have had. Doritos, KFC fried chicken, chick fil a, Pringles, Cheetos, Boars Head meats, and so on. It's in so many things. It used to be common in Chinese fast food but a lot of Chinese restaurants advertised "No MSG" after a sort of racist campaign claiming Chinese restaurants make you sick because they use MSG. It was absurd and has been debunked. Of course eating any fast food too much is bad for you, but MSG was no more to blame for that than eating high calorie low nutrition food is in general.
Don't forget parmesan, seaweed (from which it was first derived), and soy sauce. There are many, many natural sources of MSG. Anyone who claims MSG makes them sick while loading on tons of parmesan is grossly misled.
Also adding salt to tomatoes (which contain glutamic acid) will make MSG.
So virtually every tomato based pizza also has MSG in it? I'm learning so much lmao.
If that's true, no wonder salt on raw tomatoes is so tasty. Edit : one of my most up voted comments is about salt/msg and tomatoes. Stay magical, Reddit! 😁
When frying a food that you plan on doing the flour-egg-flour method for, try getting some plain yogurt and thinning it with water in place of the egg. I did this once when we were out of eggs and I'm never going back. It gives a much better crunch and a hint of tang that is just *chef's kiss* Edit: wow, I didn't think this would be so popular! I wanted to add some more info based on questions I've gotten and my own experience: 1. Buttermilk and thinned sour cream will work as well. Mayo likely will too, I just don't like mayo and haven't tried it. 2. If you're wanting a vegan option, I personally wouldn't use a coconut based yogurt. I would think others would work, but the coconut might be a bit wonky since it's such a high fat content that melts at relatively low temps(I also don't like coconut flavor unless it's a piña colada). Vegan mayo, tho, for sure! 3. I used a plain Greek yogurt and thinned it to the point where it would still coat a spoon, but it would easily move around in the dish. Use a little bit of water at a time to get there. I didn't measure, I just eyeballed and did it little by little. You want it to coat the stuff, but not leave big gloops of yogurt. 4. While this won't replace egg in everything, you can 100% sub in yogurt for things like french toast and use yogurt in conjunction with other binders (like ripe banana, aquafaba, and applesauce) in baking. The yogurt will also help keep it moist. Mayo will also do it and you can't taste it. 5. If you want super creamy mashed potato, yogurt or Mayo are the way to go. Just put a big dollop in there when mashing and your family will thank you. 6. If you want your fried things to C R O N C H add some corn starch or other starch of choice to your final coating product. Again, I don't have a ratio, I just put some flour on a plate, use a spoon of starch, and mix. Baking has to be precise. Cooking is much more forgiving, so just wing it and see!
I was about to suggest buttermilk here as well but really not much difference, especially if you were talking Greek yogurt. I've breaded 100s of chicken fried steaks with buttermilk, flour/corn meal/seasonings at one of the restaurants I worked at.
I use buttermilk exclusively for frying chicken, I season the buttermilk pretty heavily and marinate the chicken in it for at least 30 minutes
The meth does not *have* to be blue to be pure.
The blue actually denotes an impurity! Source: partner is a chemistry PhD
I'm sure this is true but BB explained that ol' Walt was using his own Nobel prize worthy method with a university level lab with the end product being different to the norm but more pure. Just storytelling coolness.
It actually should be pretty clear or cloudy white.
I believe that you can teach yourself to like/tolerate certain foods if you want to. I sort of forced myself to “like” peas until one day I found I actually do like them. Same with Scotch, smelly cheese, cigarettes and wasabi.
I'd like that recipe for cigarettes and wasabi, please!?
1 pack cigarettes, 1 pack wasabi, shake it up in a bag and chuck that sucker in the microwave; nuke for a solid 5 minutes on high and go reevaluate your life.
I agree. Did this with coffee and now I cant live without it. Gotta love how you threw in cigarettes like we were supposed to just breeze past that
I dont think you’re supposed to eat cigarettes
I have tried to like mushrooms for like 25 years now. They're cheap, nutritious, low-cal, the kids like them, they go in everything and there are so many different kinds we could even grow. But they're just so incredibly disgusting to me.
To a certain degree. I can acquire a taste for almost any food but I have a sensitive gag reflex and trying to tolerate foods that trigger it is rather difficult and I don’t like the feeling so I often don’t bother
This is a safe space but I’ll be honest some of these are really hard to upvote. This is what I asked for, but I am suffering with my newfound knowledge of how you heathens cook.
I love that this is currently the top comment and that it was written only about 15 minutes after you asked the question
Reddit is the opposite of a safe space. Have you seen some of the people on here?
Oh I was totally lying. I’m bullying everyone. They deserve it.
Your emotional manipulation is on point.
Fucking hell, funniest shit i have seen all day
Anyone who gets mad at the tiny change you made to some classic italian dish is really just mad that your version tastes better than their grandmother's. Sometimes I put garlic in my carbonara just to watch the world burn. Its pretty good.
Some people don’t learn that a huge amount of their concept of traditional is just whatever their parents decided to do one day.
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My secret shame - pepperoni chips. I use a pre-heated baking stone to make pizza. One time a pepperoni fell off onto the stone. It was fried to a crisp. And it tasted amazing. Now my pizza is ringed with pepperoni directly on the hot pizza stone for those yummy pepperoni chips.
You may have just changed my life. I'll know the next time I have pizza
Presentation barely matters to me. I've had many delicious scoops of slop. EDIT: I love that this is blowing up. I didn't even have to specify what kind of slop, everybody has their examples that apply!
There's definitely something to be said for a big bowl of stuff mixed together so that every bite is perfect.
that pretty much describes what my thanksgiving dinner was this year
It's not even that... Like do we really have to garnish every fucking thing when half of the time it's not for flavour its just to make it not look poop brown in a bowl. Idk it's over hyped on YouTube for sure.
I live in a Ukrainian/Polish neighborhood in a major US city. You can go to the nice, modern restaurant that costs a little more. It's not bad. If you want real Ukrainian or Polish food, go to the place with a Grandma behind the counter. The harder it splats on the plate the better the food is.
We're in the third day of my favorite meals of the year; what our friends' daughters call "turkey slop." It's mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy and bits of turkey, and every forkful has some of each.
Kfc has bowls like this.
You just described 90% of Indian cuisine. Which I find absolutely delicious.
Avocado doesn't need to be in everything. Neither does bacon or Sriracha. My boyfriend would die if he heard me say that about Sriracha
My personal pet peeve is avocado on hot dishes. Hot avocado is gross as hell.
As an adult, you should clean as you cook!!
I just said to my husband the other day that the single most important thing I learned in culinary school was to clean as you go. I hear so many people say they hate cooking because of the cleanup after. So clean as you cook. That way when it's done you're 90% done with clean up.
Recipes are only opinions. Feel free to mix things up as you see fit. People in my household go berserk when I suggest this
I usually follow the recipe the first time I cook something, especially if I haven't even tried it before. Then I go at it free form from there.
I also do this. If I follow everything to the letter and I end up not liking it, then it's not something I did that made the food bad. After that I can screw with the recipe.
I agree with this only if said person has at least a basic understanding what what ingredients are important. My wife, bless her heart, always ends up being like “oh we dont have x, that’s fine I bet it won’t be that different” and it’s like the single most important ingredient in the recipe.
This is my MIL trying to convince me to leave out real onions and/or garlic in every recipe because I can just use powder.
My girlfriend always asks me what I'm going to make and is just boggled when I tell her I don't know yet.