Cooking

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

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

Buy a jar of msg to sit next to the salt. Game changer.

Also, salt+fat+acid+heat = flavor. Sometimes a pinch of sugar. I was chronically underutilizing fat and acid.

Always keep canned tomatoes in the pantry. Particularly tomato paste. It's a great ingredient that can add a depth of flavor to a variety of dishes.

Whole spices really do make a big difference and it's worth knowing how to use them even if you don't make them part of your everyday cooking. When its time to make a special dish, using whole spicessl that you grind fresh will be worth it.

Use acid in your cooking. Citrus, viniger, wine, yogurt, etc will often upgrade a dish.

Parchment paper/aluminum foil is your friend. Minimize your time scrubbing dishes by minimizing the mess you make when baking food.

Instant pot wasn't just a craze. You can take a 6 hour chili and get it done in 90 minutes.

That said, while they're not one trick ponies, they're not as good at most of their other tricks as regular cookware. That said, you need to sear meat and cook a stew in one it, it's completely reasonable.

Sousvide is amazing, as long as you like rare-medium meat and corn. If you're going to cook it to medium well, sousvide is a waste of your time.

I'm a big fan of frozen herbs, frozen cubes of garlic save a ton of time breaking open cloves, frozen basil still has that fresh taste and smell relative to dried.

If you make pizza in a home oven, baking steel is a game changer. It gets nice and hot and makes your crust crispy. Like a pizza stone but better.

If you have a blender, try making your own almond milk for a fraction of the cost. It's easy.

For easy to peel hard boiled eggs, cool them slowly and peel while still warm. More detailed instructions: when done boiling, set the pot, undrained, in the sink with a butter knife under one side to slightly tilt the pot. Run a very thin stream of cold water from the faucet into the pot and go do something else for 20 minutes or so. When the eggs are comfortably warm, roll them against the inside of the sink until the shell is well cracked and they should slip easily out of the shell. If you get a stubborn one, just dip it back into the pot and it should pop out easily. Thanks Grandma for teaching me this one!