fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3906 ]

[ SECRET POST #3906 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3906 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 14 secrets from Secret Submission Post #559.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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Whatever is useful.

Turn the temperature higher than you hink you need.

Ehhh, not sure this is good advice. Lots of beginners seem to think that super high heat is the way to cook everything just because they heard it's good for steak and stir fry. They end up burning the crap out of everything and then wondering what they did wrong.

*shrug*

in my experience it's the opposite - people are really gunshy about burning stuff and so they don't really use the full heat that they need to get the good flavor out of things

Re: Give me some cooking tips.

(Anonymous) - 2017-09-14 01:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Give me some cooking tips.

(Anonymous) - 2017-09-14 02:22 (UTC) - Expand

Don't do this when baking. Nothing will work right.

Yes! This is why I don't bake: because you have to follow instructions exactly, and I hate following instructions exactly.

Re: Give me some cooking tips.

(Anonymous) - 2017-09-14 01:16 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Give me some cooking tips.

tabaqui - 2017-09-14 02:01 (UTC) - Expand

This isn't very good advice. You're assuming that everyone will underestimate the amount of heat they need, but not everyone does. Because some of us read the recipe! In some cases, turning the heat up too high will just burn your food and possibly warp your pans.

Put sea salt on sweet stuff. Particularly caramel or chocolate. It's so good because it brings out the taste of the sweet.

When I make tea, I put a pinch of salt in with the sugar. Mind you, I make tea by the jug-full, so it's not like a pinch of salt in a single teacup.

Right at the moment the supermarket has salted caramel Mars bars available. I love them.

personally not a tea person (except for chai tea sometimes) but I can imagine how that would taste good to people who like it.

Mmm now that sounds fantastic. Salted caremel is my favorite of the salted sweets. I'm enjoying starbucks' salted caramel mocha myself. Every year for the last 3 years I've looked forward to when it starts coming around in fall. It makes September a little better for me, something other than being "one month til October" for me.

Invest in a decent knife and cutting board and practice your knife skills.

THIS.

A number of years back, my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said "How bout some decent knives?" They bought me a very small set of what I later realized were quite expensive knives and THEY ARE AMAZING. I travel a lot for work and bring my own "traveling kitchen" that includes what I thought was a decent paring knife with a sheath and it is total shit compared to my nice knives.

I can't go back to the shit knives.

And keeping your knives sharp makes all the difference, too!

Don't use water to put out a grease fire. Or flour. Use baking soda (or salt) or try to smother with a lid.

Also its wise to know how to deal with various kinds of fires. In the kitchen and everyday life.

(I probably saved my house from a huge fire by remembering what had been pounded into my head growing up by my engineer dad- "don't use water on an electrical fire, unplug the source of power then snuff out the flames if they don't go out by themselves. My (then) 12 year old sister also knew this from a young age)

Boil the water first, then add the pasta or other thing that needs boiled! If you know you're cooking something by boiling it, start the water on the stove before you prep anything else.

Don't buy store-cut veggies. They're more expensive and not as fresh, no matter how pretty they look packaged up that way. It's """quicker""" but it's not healthier, cheaper, or more nutritious. And really, it's not THAT much quicker than taking five minutes to chop a few veggies. Chopping is the easiest part of cooking, in my opinion!

Buy things when they're in season and cheaper. For instance, citrus in the summer is rarely fresh or cheap around here. In the winter, it's a great time to eat citrus! But in the summer there are all sorts of more local and fresh veg / fruit that will taste better and not cost as much. Fresh things eaten in season is literally how people ate for a very long time, and it's one of the healthiest things you can do. (Also, IDK about you, but I actually enjoy and get hungry for seasonal produce right when it's in season. I crave asparagus desperately, but usually only in the springtime!)

If there are any local farmer's markets or stands along the road, etc., check them as regularly as you can. Buy what's on sale and looks fresh. It's more likely to be local and very fresh, and better for you as well as cheaper. There's less overhead, farmers are more likely to be getting paid, and for certain things that don't keep well, it may be your best chance to actually enjoy them.

IDK about you but canned green beans are gross...I'd rather not eat green beans at all. But recently I got some at a farmer's market, a big pile for $1...and they're delicious. Who knew??? Anyway, you can find great things like that a lot of the time if you have access to a farmer's stand/market. When you get it...eat it!

You can save money and guilt by putting the things you need to use first in the front of the fridge rather than the back. If you have to trash something, just do it, don't eat mold, but if it's still OK to eat, try to use it first.

Don't be afraid to experiment a little with food combinations for a meal. If it's fresh and cooked properly, lots of unusual things can go great together.

Don't feel guilty about doing no-cook meals. A tin of sardines, some bread/crackers, fresh fruit and nuts is a perfectly healthy meal.

Don't buy store-cut veggies.

If you have health or time issues that mean buying precut is the difference between some veggies or none at all... buy the precut veggies.

Frozen veg keep their nutritional value, are cheaper, and don't rot in your fridge if you forget to use them in the next five days. There will be a trade-off in texture, but if you're using them to fill out a stew or summat, it won't be noticeable.

I didn't mean frozen, but the expensive plastic wrapped "fresh" cut veg they overcharge for! Nothing wrong with decent frozen veg

let the butter sit out of the fridge for several hours before you make cookies; it should be soft but not melted completely into liquid. Either liquid melted butter or rock-hard cold butter will give your cookies a weird texture.

Boil your pierogies then fry them with a bit of butter and salt & pepper tbh

If you want to bake, get a thermometer to go inside your oven (preferably one you can set on the rack in the position where your food will go) to make sure your oven is at the right temperature. Not all ovens are calibrated properly or the temp gauge may be in a place that gets hotter or cooler than the middle where the cooking actually happens.

If you want to freeze food for later (e.g. a big batch of soup, some fresh meat you just bought, leftover whatever, etc.) and have enough for more than one meal/portion, split it into portion- or meal-sized chunks and package it so it freezes separately. Otherwise you will have to partially thaw it to get the amount you want. When I buy meat, I'll position it in a big zip-log in such a way that I can fold it up and separate the portions, then I can put the folded wad in a second zip-loc and put it in the freezer. With bacon, I separate it into pairs of strips (2 strips = 1 portion), cut each pair in half so they won't be too long for my pan, then put them in a bag so I can accordion fold to separate the pairs. Freezer-safe jelly jars are good good for things like pasta sauce portions.

Make pie dough from scratch. That's like 90% of the secret to a good pie.

Do the dishes and tidy/wipe down the kitchen regularly so you have clean spaces and clean tools to work with.

Even if you are a single person living alone, making multiple portions of things at once is great since now you have lunches to take to work or easy meals to reheat for dinner. How much you can make in advance depends on the food, though. Some things will get moldy or dry fairly quickly or just don't taste good when no fresh, so you have to experiment.

Put everything you need out on the counter first, so you know you have it all. Then turn the oven on. My oven, for instance, takes *forever* to fucking heat up.

Clean as you go. It might seem anal or whatever, but if you just go nuts and leave a huge mess, you not only won't want to deal with it once you're done, but it'll put you off doing it in the future. As your thing is cooking (unless it needs watched), do the dishes you used and wipe down/put away. That way, you're ready to take out your cake, cookies, roast, whatever into a clean kitchen with plenty of space.

Also - a good, big cookie/cooling rack is your best friend.

Know the smoke point (the point it'll start to burn) of whatever your cooking oil is.

You don't have to know the exact number, but have a general idea of whether it has a high or low smoke point, and make sure you keep track. There's nothing worse imo than having an otherwise amazing dish ruined by the taste of burnt oil in the background.

Also salt your pasta water after it boils, but before putting the pasta in. It flavors your pasta a bit.

Use online recipe sites and look at the reviews.

Ignore any that say "I swapped out the flour for shredded carrots and the baking soda for powdered sugar and the eggs for the last soft sigh of childhood captured in a mason jar, and my pancakes turned out terrible." but if twenty say "1 tablespoon of salt was like deepthroating a salt golem, reduce it to 1 teaspoon, it's probably a typo." then take note.

Practice with stuff you don't mind fucking up and throwing out. Better to burn twenty pancakes than your entire week's food budget. You will fuck up, it's part of learning.

Not always true, but try the simple recipes first. I've found if there's a version that uses 20 ingredients and a version that uses 5, a lot of the time the simple one will be tastier.

Don't be afraid of the microwave. Need to add a 1/4th cup honey to something? Put it in a glass measuring cup and nuke that honey! It'll pour easier. Need to dissolve sugar in hot water? Microwave, baby! Lots of leftovers microwave wonderfully. Defrosting frozen veggies for soup?
Into the microwave with you! Melted butter? You get the point. I cringe when I see people saying that real cooks don't even own a microwave. Obviously they're not great for everything, but people who say real cooks can't ever use the microwave are just being stupid elitists.

Cheesecake with cracks in it from baking tastes the same as cheesecake without cracks.

Get a rice cooker. The rice robot can make rice perfectly every time, but rice is a bitch to do on the stove,

Steam your eggs (in your rice cooker is a good way) instead of boiling them, they peel so much easier.

TASTE WHAT YOU'RE COOKING AS YOU COOK IT.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH.

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