When you cook, you never stop learning new things. And every once in a while you experience an ah-ha moment that makes you think, how did I not do this sooner? Well, Redditor Ok-Eggplant7751 asked, “What is something you learned as a home cook that you thought should have been obvious once you learned it?” Here are some of the seemingly simple cooking lessons that are actually game-changers.
1.
‘When I realised that I didn’t have to religiously stick to the time stated in the recipe. If the time limit has been reached, but the ingredients aren’t where they’re supposed to be, then just keep going. The recipe timing should just be a guide, not gospel.”
2.
“After salt, mise en place, and knife skills, the most important thing I’ve learned is that cooking is really about heat management. Not too high, not too low, not too fast, not too slow.”
3.
“Freeze homemade ‘soup kits.’ A lot of times, I’d buy celery and herbs for stock and only use what I need. I’ve since made little kits from leftovers so I can make homemade soups whenever I want.”
4.
“Bloom your spices! Since I learned about this, I’ve been frying them in a pan with hot oil for years. Recently, I learned a trick from a friend to take this even further: While making homemade ranch dressing, she bloomed all her dry ingredients in the buttermilk. She allowed it to sit for a few minutes to hydrate the dry spices before continuing with the rest of the recipe steps. I never thought to do this outside of sauteeing! It was a ‘duh’ moment for me.”
5.
“Thinking of time as an ingredient. Don’t put ingredients together too quickly. Rather, give ingredients the proper time they need to develop optimal flavor.”
6.
“I didn’t realize that different seasoning mixes can elevate the same cut of meat from blah to beautiful.”
7.
“Caramelized onions are a game changer. And you can freeze them in little ‘chunks’ to stir into tons of dishes to up the umami.”
8.
“Quickly soak diced potatoes in water and then dry them off well. This easy process makes for wonderfully crispy roasted taters.”
9.
“Don’t crowd the pan! Things will boil or steam instead of sauté if you don’t have enough space for the excess water to evaporate quickly.”
10.
“Using acid (like a squeeze of lemon or a dash of vinegar) instead of salt in my cooking. It’s been a huge game changer for me across so many dishes.”
11.
“For me, it was preheating, then oiling the pan in the oven for roasted vegetables. For years, I struggled with scraping stuck food or wasting aluminum and parchment that didn’t fit my pan. Then I read an almost off-hand comment in a recipe, and it clicked. I preheat my skillet so nothing sticks. Why wouldn’t it work with the oven? It’s so simple now.”
12.
“Mince fresh parsley (or basil) and spread it out in a gallon zipper freezer bag and freeze. When it’s completely frozen, squeeze out the air, roll it up, and tuck it somewhere handy in your freezer. It stays green and you can use as much or as little as you want. The same idea with tomato paste. Empty the can into a freezer bag, flatten it out, and freeze it. You can just break off what you need without wasting most of the can.”
13.
“Mise en place. It’s a French term (everything in its place), which means having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc, before you start cooking. All of your cooking tools are in place, and your prepped ingredients are close at hand and organized in order of use.”
14.
“The act of turning drippings into a pan sauce is so easy and also makes a dish way more delicious. Everyone always comments on how extra special it is with the ‘juice.'”
15.
“If you don’t let your ground beef sit long enough in the pan when browning, and instead move the beef around constantly, you may not get any Maillard reaction. You may just end up with steamed ground beef, aka greyed beef.”
16.
“No need to get a big pot of water boiling to cook fresh corn on the cob. Instead, wrap each ear in damp/wet paper towels and pop it into the microwave. Done in five minutes!
17.
“Adding a cold pat of butter to your eggs while scrambling makes them velvety. The butter does not stick to the edges, but rather it melts into the curd.”
18.
“Using acid as a finishing touch to earthy and vegetal foods. I’m sure in the past I finished with acid sometimes, but it wasn’t until I made a soup that I thought would be great, but was particularly flat when finished. I was baffled. But as I stood there tasting it, it hit me that red wine vinegar was the answer. And somehow this is when it hit me that so many meals need that final splash of citrus or vinegar to brighten them up.”
19.
“Adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda per pound of beef and letting it sit for at least 15 minutes also helps it brown tremendously.”
20.
“I used to always panic when searing meat because the meat stuck, no matter how much oil/butter I used. I would force it to unstick right away, often ripping up the meat in the process. It took my years to learn that the meat will unstick itself once some of the fats render out.”
21.
“Freeze your ginger and grate it from frozen without peeling. Peels end up on the outside of the grater, and it lasts for ages in the freezer. You’ll always have fresh ginger on hand.”
22.
“Prepping ingredients right away when I buy them, like marinating chicken or salting and drying a steak in the fridge. I like to let things chill in the fridge for at least a day and sometimes a few. For chicken specifically, I usually bulk-marinate a couple of pounds. For the next few days, I can just pull a few out, toss them into the oven, and get to work on whatever else I’m making.”
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