35 Professional Chefs Reveal The Kitchen Hacks Home Cooks Need To Master Immediately

16.

“Pro baker here. This is for baking, but a lot of the same logic works for cooking, though it’s true that you can have a bit more leeway with cooking. Baking is a science. It’s formulaic and ratios. Cooking is an art, but it still requires proper technique. Get a scale. Weigh everything. Filling cups by volume is very different than filling cups by weight. You are going to put too much flour in that recipe. Cake flour is four ounces per cup, and all-purpose flour is four and a half ounces per cup. Please don’t use corn starch to lower the protein in your AP flour if you bake regularly; just buy some cake flour. When you substitute cornstarch, you are not only removing some of the protein in AP flour, but you are also removing everything that gives structure to your baked goods.”

“It’s okay in a pinch, for a one-off if you never bake and will never use the cake flour again, but please, if you’re doing it regularly, ESPECIALLY if you are selling baked goods, buy some frigging cake flour and a scale. 

Lemon juice in milk works for buttermilk, but it’s not ideal. The lactic acid in buttermilk softens the proteins in flour, giving you a heavenly crumb to your cake. Again, if you are doing a one-off, yes. Often or selling, no.

Set a timer. You are going to forget those cookies in the oven. I saved countless batches of cookies and layers of cakes at my old job because my boss would put stuff in the oven and not set a timer. By the time he remembered, the items were already out and cooled. The days I was off, he ended up with many cheesecake crust crumbs because he’d burn the cookies and salvage the product by running them through the Robot Coupe to use as crusts or streusel-ish topping.

Don’t mess with a recipe until you know it; if you do, don’t blame the recipe for your product not turning out properly. I got tired of mentoring in groups because I’d post a no-fail-if-followed recipe, and someone would change a thing, then blame my recipe. No. Do it like I posted, I’ve used it and sold for years off that recipe. I know you added the rest of the egg or too much flour.”

—SnackBottom