What Have You Cooked Recently?

[mindlessobserver]

How can I stop making bland food? I'm using the right spices for what I cook. I'm using Salt and Pepper, and yet I keep having my food come out bland. What am I doing wrong?

You are not using enough salt. Simple as. I know people say to go light on it. But those people are morons. Give that shit a toss when cooking anything. You'll fuck up and add too much. Learn. Eventually you will figure out what the right amount is.

As for spices, spices are a crutch. Each ingredient has its own flavor. A smarter choice is learning how to apply butter, oil, and animal fat (like bacon grease, lard and tallow). For example, I have a green bean recipe.

Boil Green Beans in Frying pan for 5 minutes.

Remove green beans and set aside. In same pan, add bacon grease saved over from the bacon you had for breakfast, and half an onion. Diced. Fry onions for a few minutes. Then reintroduce the green beans. Fry Beans and Onions in pan for a few more minutes. Add salt to taste.

Serve.

At no point was any spice used. None in fact. Its not necessary. The onions, salt and beans fried in bacon fat add all the flavor required. Adding something like chili powder or black pepper would just ruin the flavor.

 

[AnOminous]

You are not using enough salt. Simple as.

Also the salt goes in the water you boil the pasta in. Put more in than you think is a good idea. It's your only chance to get flavor actually INSIDE the pasta.

 

[Star Platinum]

i did shaved beef, mushrooms, and onions, all marinated in a frankenstein mix of gochujang, chili oil, some sweet/savory sauce, and minced garlic. served it in a bowl with white rice and a sunny side up fried egg

 

[Betonhaus]

I think I have a plan for the lentil cakes. Cook them with chicken broth, fry up some onions and garlic, chop up, then fry in oil or bacon grease. I'll wander through the store for a good sauce, maybe chipotle alioli or currywürst or something. Or maybe a spicy cheese sauce....

 

[The I Scream Man]

You are not using enough salt. Simple as. I know people say to go light on it. But those people are morons. Give that shit a toss when cooking anything.

There is such a thing as overdoing it but yeah, recipes and people in cooking videos say "a pinch" and I think they mean it literally lol, depending upon what you're doing you might not even notice up to a full teaspoon (or more!).

Just don't treat it like its a flavor by itself, its a flavor enhancer @ChaosReignsOnSomeSaturday

 

[mindlessobserver]

My general rule of thumb when it comes to salt is to open that little metal valve on the box and shake the thing from one end of the pan to the other. The moment I see salt crystals everywhere is my definition of "a pinch".

You don't want to see piles of salt. What you want is each crystal to be distinct. There really is no accurate way to describe it. It's just a thing that you know.

 

[Troonos]

You are not using enough salt. Simple as. I know people say to go light on it. But those people are morons. Give that shit a toss when cooking anything. You'll fuck up and add too much. Learn. Eventually you will figure out what the right amount is.

As for spices, spices are a crutch. Each ingredient has its own flavor. A smarter choice is learning how to apply butter, oil, and animal fat (like bacon grease, lard and tallow). For example, I have a green bean recipe.

Boil Green Beans in Frying pan for 5 minutes.

Remove green beans and set aside. In same pan, add bacon grease saved over from the bacon you had for breakfast, and half an onion. Diced. Fry onions for a few minutes. Then reintroduce the green beans. Fry Beans and Onions in pan for a few more minutes. Add salt to taste.

Serve.

At no point was any spice used. None in fact. Its not necessary. The onions, salt and beans fried in bacon fat add all the flavor required. Adding something like chili powder or black pepper would just ruin the flavor.

Disagree that spices are a crutch, but agree about salt.

If someone says, "this food is underseasoned" they 100% of the time mean it's undersalted though they don't realize that's the etiology.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Disagree that spices are a crutch, but agree about salt. If someone says, "this food is underseasoned, they 100% of the time mean it's undersalted" though they don't realize that's the etiology.

Spice depends on the dish and what you are trying to do.

Salt however, Salt is eternal. No matter what it is you are cooking, from pie to steak, you will use salt. There is not a dish on earth that does not have salt in the preparation somewhere. The only difference is in how much salt a dish requires.

 

[Betonhaus]

if you're doing a keto diet its recommended that you drink snake juice, which is pretty much just four types of salt. Salt is a necessity for life, so stuff with salt tastes better.

 

[Troonos]

if you're doing a keto diet its recommended that you drink snake juice, which is pretty much just four types of salt. Salt is a necessity for life, so stuff with salt tastes better.

Yeah, you need more electrolytes than the average person if you're doing keto.

 

[thejackal2]

Once and awhile I get a hankering for simple ground beef nachos like my mom used to make for us kids. Made some last night, just 80/20 cooked in a saute pan then add that to the cheese and chips after they come out of the oven. Add some refried beans and salsa and it really hits the nostalgia and it's a nice bite when you get the beans, beef, cheese, chip and salsa.

 

[fìddlesticks2.0]

Also the salt goes in the water you boil the pasta in. Put more in than you think is a good idea. It's your only chance to get flavor actually INSIDE the pasta.

This is also the tip that differs from chefs to cooks in general for mashed potato

You need to cook the potatoes in salty water. Like a lot! You got to think about seasoning inside and outside! And starches dull it. If your food is too salty try boiling a potato in it to remove the salt too! And or add acid. Also.

When people say salt to taste. They mean salt it till you taste salt. Like think mint flavour. You don't want to over powering of course. But taste of mint! Like you can taste salt.

This video I highly recommend
https://youtu.be/gYwkKaK5yeQ?si=8C8xevcanf7fAhyN

 

[Srumab]

Got off work early but still way too tired to do anything much. Here's some 90 minute chicken sans any black pepper because my fucking shaker broke. Think I'm going to get a metal one tomorrow. Still tasted okay. just ate some rolls with it.

All of that liquid in the bottom is fat from the chicken breast. This is why I cook it for as long as possible.

 

[Betonhaus]

The lentil cakes were not good.

If someone held a gun to my head I could probably make them again but better.

 

[fìddlesticks2.0]

The lentil cakes were not good.

If someone held a gun to my head I could probably make them again but better.

Oh dear. What was the culprit you think?

 

[thejackal2]

Got off work early but still way too tired to do anything much. Here's some 90 minute chicken sans any black pepper because my fucking shaker broke. Think I'm going to get a metal one tomorrow. Still tasted okay. just ate some rolls with it.

All of that liquid in the bottom is fat from the chicken breast. This is why I cook it for as long as possible.View attachment 5332035

Home cooked bird is always nice. I like to put some cubed taters and sliced carrot at the bottom, maybe some onion too. Let them simmer in the bird fat, usually comes out pretty tender and flavorful.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Tilapia
Lentils (meh)
Falafel (I burned it and it was kind of shitty compared to the cafeteria, came out of a box of mix)
Couscous

 

[afternoon_tea]

I made savory cheese pierogi with cabbage, bacon and mushrooms and tomato soup on the side

 

[Betonhaus]

I got some pork marinating in a lemon garlic sauce and will cook up some rice and vegetables

 

[Betonhaus]

Made some Salisbury steak. Took less time to cook then it took to find a recipe that wasn't horribly Americanized or required a dizzying amount of specific spices and shit.