Kitchen Tricks - Cook Smarter!

[Crystal Golem]

The slimy water in the can of chickpeas is called Aquafaba and it can be whipped into peaks like a merringue(and baked hard) or left smooth and used as a mayonnaise/dressing substitute and a bunch of other things.

I'm not a big fan of substitutions but since I'm using cans of chickpeas anyways it's kinda cool to make stuff with it.

 

[Slap47]

Have a bunch of meat or veggies frozen together? Throw them against a fence outside.

 

[neverendingmidi]

If you cooked something in a cast iron pan and burned something in (especially with grill pans), add hot water to it as soon as your done cooking (like too hot to stick your hand under hot), don't leave it overnight, but scrub it after you eat and it will be so much easier to get burned on stuff off.

And never use any brand italian dressing as a marinade if you're cooking in cast iron. Dear god the sugar content, you might as well just burn condensed sweetend milk in it.

 

[mindlessobserver]

If you cooked something in a cast iron pan and burned something in (especially with grill pans), add hot water to it as soon as your done cooking (like too hot to stick your hand under hot), don't leave it overnight, but scrub it after you eat and it will be so much easier to get burned on stuff off.

And never use any brand italian dressing as a marinade if you're cooking in cast iron. Dear god the sugar content, you might as well just burn condensed sweetend milk in it.

Yikes no. Never clean a cast iron pan with water. Wipe everything out with a clean towel, then put it in the oven until it's scorching hot. Take out and as it cools add some kosher salt and oil. Scrub thoroughly. Wipe all the oil out adding a little salt as needed until Clean.

Unless it's one of those cheap pans you don't care about. Then. Fine. Let it rust away.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Yikes no. Never clean a cast iron pan with water. Wipe everything out with a clean towel, then put it in the oven until it's scorching hot. Take out and as it cools add some kosher salt and oil. Scrub thoroughly. Wipe all the oil out adding a little salt as needed until Clean.

Unless it's one of those cheap pans you don't care about. Then. Fine. Let it rust away.

Got an enamelled Staub grill pan free from a guy who apparent never cleaned it. Used it once and left all the burned on crud on it because it was too hard to clean. Hot water in it when it's been removed from the heat loosens up shit.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

Yikes no. Never clean a cast iron pan with water. Wipe everything out with a clean towel, then put it in the oven until it's scorching hot. Take out and as it cools add some kosher salt and oil. Scrub thoroughly. Wipe all the oil out adding a little salt as needed until Clean.

Unless it's one of those cheap pans you don't care about. Then. Fine. Let it rust away.

I have to disagree. Put water in it, let it cool enough to wipe with a sponge, then put back on the oven top on high till dry. Water is fine as long as it's put away dry.

 

[A Gay Retard]

If your eyes burn when you're cutting onions your knife simply isn't sharp enough. You're crushing the cell walls and kicking off more of the sulfenic acids.

Get your nonstick pans from restaurant supply stores and discard them after 1-2 years. They aren't Le Creuset enameled cast iron, they aren't meant to last forever. Kys if you touch anything metal to them, though.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Buy yourself a bag of MSG

The shit makes everything taste better.

 

[𝕺𝖑' 𝕯𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝕱𝖆𝖙𝖘𝖔]

If your eyes burn when you're cutting onions your knife simply isn't sharp enough. You're crushing the cell walls and kicking off more of the sulfenic acids.

Get your nonstick pans from restaurant supply stores and discard them after 1-2 years. They aren't Le Creuset enameled cast iron, they aren't meant to last forever. Kys if you touch anything metal to them, though.

Restaurant supply stores are a goldmine for kitchen tools in general. Inexpensive and everything is made really sturdily to stand up to restaurant kitchen levels of use.


If you have a bunch of leftover scallions, chop them up and freeze them in a ziplock. They defrost instantly so you can just add them right onto a bowl of soup.

Sometimes I cook a large batch of extremely simple marinara sauce (no basil, just garlic/tomatoes/oil) and then use it as an ingredient in various dishes for a few days: pasta, shakshuka, tikka masala, taco meat, pizza, pretty much anything that involves sauce and tomatoes works lmao

 

[Agoodpotroast]

If you have some old bananas and put them in the freezer, when they thaw you don't have to mash them when you make banana bread. They just sorta fall to mush all by themselves.