Cooking

Stop mincing garlic and just get a fucking microplane. Thank you Rachel Ray.

If you cook by using a cooking recipe you can be creative (within reason). If you BAKE by following a baking recipe stick to the letter!

Not really cooking, just preparation, but I used to eat pomegranates from our tree as a kid. Pomegranates have little seeds that stain and which are really hard to avoid puncturing. My dad used to have us eat on a picnic table out back rather than indoors, because we'd invariably be squirting the stuff all over.

Years later, I ran across someone pointing out that you can just take a bowl of water, and break open the pomegranates under the surface of the water. The (edible) seeds and (inedible) rind mostly separate, and there's no mess. It worked wonderfully.

I wish that we'd known about that back then. Would have made eating them way easier.

Take care of your knives. Hand wash them, dry with a towel, and put them back in a block when you're done. They'll stay sharper for much longer that way, instead of letting them bang around in the dishwasher and then thrown into a drawer.

Also the Ninja Foodi is the best cooking device ever made, second only to the invention of pots and pans.

Probably known, but stainless steel cookware is the best you just need to make sure it's hot enough first before you start to cook. Drop a pinch of water in the pan, if it dances around you're good too go.

Knife skills.

Buy a very good chef's knife. There are expensive options, there are some more affordable options. Carbon steel is best, but there are some very good stainless alloys too. Do some research. Don't cheap out, this is a tool you'll buy for life if properly maintained. Pro range Wüsthof, Zwilling or Kai are great options.

Learn how to properly and safely use it.

Learn how to maintain it and keep it razor sharp (not exaggerating, you should be able to shave your arm after sharpening it). I use a dual sided Japanese wet stone (1000/3000 grit), it's great.

Not only proper knife skills with a good, balanced, sharp knife are much safer and save a lot of time, they also make cutting a joy instead of a chore.

Not really a cooking hack but freezing grapes works really well and they're a yummy and easy snack especially in summer. If you think your grapes might go off before you can use then or you got a batch that isn't as crisp as you'd like just freeze em.

deglazing. it's when you use an acid to pull all the glaze off the bottom of a pan. it flavors the dish and makes cleaning your pan easier.

rice vinegar and red or white wines are favorites

Bake bacon on cookie sheets at 375 for about 20 minutes. You can make a ton of bacon very quickly, with almost no mess, and all the bacon is perfectly flat. We have a double oven and we can make about 4 pounds of bacon in about 30 minutes this way. :)

• MSG. My favorite use for it is in soups. It only takes a small amount and it makes a significant difference.
• Slow cookers are awesome for preparing dry beans, infused oil, and roasting beets in aluminum foil.
• Know your emulsifiers and keep them handy. I always have a nice mustard as well as soy lecithin on hand, and if I’m ever worried about an emulsion breaking or I want a nice even sauce or dressing, I have at least one neutral and one savory option. Soymilk also works if it works for your recipe.

When slow cooking a roast lay it on a bed of potatoes or whatever other sides you want, fill the water to the top of the veggies (or taters) then soak the roast in your sauce of choice. Gravity and heat will help the sauce work into the veggies giving them a nice flavor. The roast pretty much always comes out perfectly moist and you get amazing veggies out of the deal.

There are still people who don't user probe thermometers. This is the single best cooking tip I can give:

• Get a probe thermometer (preferably a fast reading one).
• Use it.
• Know your temps.

Use a piping bag to fill muffin tins/cupcakes. Saves so much mess and crumpled paper.

pay attention. stay with what you are cooking as you are cooking it. don't let yourself become distracted. taste as you go. take notes. use unsalted butter. know your equipment and its pros/cons. shop at different stores for the best ingredients. fresh herbs are waaay better if you can swing it.

Adding Knorr brand Caldo de Tomate to your rice cooker turns your plain old rice into Spanish rice. Blew my mind when I tried it.

Taste as you go and taste everything! Understanding how the components of your meal taste is a great way to make yummy things. It also helps you learn how ingredients manifest in the end result and will help you expand your cooking versatility

Unless baking or doing a watery/clear soup, never add just water. Anything with flavor that matches the style of cooking will be better.. could be just stock/boujong, wine, beer, cola or acids like vinegar or fruit juices, clam juice, etc. Anything liquid is an opportunity to add flavors.

To actually cook things enough. I wasn't cooking them to unsafe levels before, and please don't cook my steak above medium rare, but some foods just taste better cooked more. Almost no one cooks ground meats enough, who the hell wants grey beef, get some color on that bitch. Also if you cook sausage meat enough it gains color and the flat renders out a little it tastes better. Get some colour on those roast veggies and no one likes a pale insipid fry. A change in color is flavor, use it to your advantage. And yes sometimes you want your veggies firm and for the love of god don't overcook your garlic.

Best thing I've done for my bread baking is weighing my flour rather than doing it by volume. It also makes it easier to check your ratio of flour to water

Just from a practical perspective: use your microwave as rarely as possible! Leftovers can be really amazing - sometimes as good or better than the original dish - but only when heated properly!

More ways to measure are always better. It can give you more data as to what works, what doesn't, and how to reproduce it.

Simply adding a kitchen scale and a digital temperature kettle has upped my coffee game. A meat thermometer has removed the guesswork from my fish/steaks/roasts/chicken, and they're perfectly cooked every time. Out of the three, the kettle is the only one that was more than $30 (because I decided to go boojee and get a gooseneck for pourover coffee).

Also:

• its a lot easier to add salt/sugar/spice than it is to take it out.
• Never add directly from the container. Always go container>palm>food. This saves you from accidentally having a runaway seasoning avalanche (see previous point).

If you need to cool your pot down now pour running cold tap water on the outside of the pot. Not something you need when everything goes smoothly, but trying new recipies sometimes things go a little bit wrong and cooling the pot down quickly can save your dinner.

Running cold water will cool a pot to room temperature in seconds. Just beware if your pot is really hot cooling it down that fast could damage it. Should be fine at sensible cooking temperatures though.

Add salt as you cook, not all at the end.

Brine chicken breast. I save brines from things like pickles and feta for this and choose whichever one best matches what I'm making. Feta + chipotle makes awesome burritos.

I always see recipes say to heat a pan until the oil shimmers but I've never been able to see the difference. Instead, I drop a couple pieces of diced onion into the pan and wait to hear a sizzle. This is extra helpful for someone with adhd like me who would absolutely start a fire if I didn't have a noise to remind me that I'm cooking

Use an instant pot for beans. Saves water and a ton of time. You can also use it to cook rice or pasta.

Exact measurements and specific spices aren't that important if you're just making a meal at home. The point is just to make it tasty and probably healthy.

To caramelize onions quickly, sprinkle them with a small amount of baking soda.