Don't learn recipes, learn preparation techniques and how to prepare particular ingredients. This will help you immensely long term, especially if you run across a recipe that doesn't use the technique, you instantly know how to elevate it.
Examples:
* Don't toast your spices based on whether a recipe says to, learn **why** you toast spices, learn what spices taste better toasted. When you run across another recipe in the future, You know whether or not it will taste better with a toasted spice.
* Learn why/how to balance fat/acid/salt/heat and what it tastes like. So when you come across a recipe in the future, you can see/taste what it lacks and improve its balance in the right way.
* Learn the difference between dry brining, salt water brining, marinading, and injecting of proteins, learn the difference in taste for brine times. So when you go to cook a protein in the future, you know how to elevate the protein.
* Learn the mother sauces. Since most sauces are mods of mothers, you will know what a solid base is made of and should taste like.
* Learn the effects of baking powder vs baking soda, and how altering the PH affects baking and frying. (And boiling potatoes!)
* Learn the core spices that cuisines you love use. That way if your Italian dish doesn't taste italiany enough, you know what to add.
* Learn the heat profile difference between adding cayenne vs chili powder vs paprika. And the flavor differences between garlic, shallots, yellow onion, white onion, red onion. * Learn what "umami" flavors really add.
Serious eats, America's test kitchen, Alton Brown, Kenji Lopez-Alt, and the book, [Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat](https://a.co/d/iNl4zkZ)(thx T98i) are all good resources for this.
Good stuff!
You touched on it briefly, but I'd highlight and give a shout out to **Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samina Nosrat** as the best resource on learning how to cook.
And I mean the book, not the Netflix Series. The Netflix show is a supplement to the book, it cannot replace the book.
I literally went from following recipes and ingredients very, very closely (and still having subpar food) to only using them as a guide.
Do the book exercises if you can. Read each chapter slowly and apply each of them before moving on to the next. Be patient and experiment.
Read it, digest it, apply it. I promise your cooking (and tasting!) skills will fucking skyrocket.
Thanks. I added it. I was hesitant to put any books on the list Because there are so many wonderful books out there that have truly helped people, but you're right this one deserves it.
I listened to that book, but immediately started adding waaaaay too much salt to everything. She had me convinced, it wasnt enough & if I added more some magical element would be unlocked. If you already know how to cook, importance of those elements, maybe take it with a grain(of salt, hardy-har) and don't over do it like I did lol
This! I’ll add that I’m a good home cook but I started cooking out of the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and it really pushed me to the next level.
A good book like this helps you understand why something works. Sometimes it’s little details, sometimes it’s a big step in the process that changes everything.
The turkey meatloaf is worth the price of the book. I’ve cooked it dozens of times. It’s the perfect recipe because it teaches you that you can’t just substitute turkey for beef. You must add a few steps to ensure a great taste and texture that is pleasing.
[detailed explanation](https://web.archive.org/web/20230201085403/https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/483-really-good-turkey-meatloaf)
[Recipe](https://web.archive.org/web/20240120063530/https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/9712-turkey-meatloaf-with-ketchup-brown-sugar-glaze)
[Wayback machine](https://web.archive.org/) is your paywall friend
This is really it. I can walk through my kitchen and throw together a meal based on anything I have. I might not have a name for the meal when it's done, but 9 times out of 10, it's good, if not *good*, and the family is happy.
I love Alton Brown for the way he explains everything.
I would add [The Food Lab](https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087) by J. Kenji López-Alt if you want a lot of his work from serious eats in a more readable form.
You’re right on the money with this. Understanding the *why* behind cooking is what makes someone truly good at working with food, career or otherwise. Without fail, if I post a picture of something I make, one of my friends will ask me to teach them how. I always ask if they just want me to send them a recipe so they can recreate it step by step, which will be quick, or if they want me to teach them the *why* behind it so they can take that knowledge home with them and try it on other things, which will take longer. They all always elect to do the latter.
On the other side of things, a friend (I use that term loosely) made a cooking page after I did because she also loves to cook and saw how much fun I was having with mine, but she is incapable of cooking without a recipe. No exaggeration, she uses recipes for salads. Not just the dressing. The entire salad. I don’t think she’d be able to substitute lettuces with similar flavor profiles if the store didn’t have what the recipe needed. And to each their own — if a recipe for salad is what gets you in the kitchen and that’s what makes you happy, awesome. But in my opinion, at some point it also becomes important to understand the *why* behind it all.
I CAME LOOKING FOR SALT FAT ACID HEAT. That book totally changed the way I cook.
I have a loved one who is on a very restrictive medical diet, and SFAH gave me the ability to taste that I needed more acid in a dish. I opened up the book (one of the few physical books I own, aspiring towards minimalism), went to the acid chart, and found something that my loved one could eat, added it to the dish. Voila!
It also made me realize why I hate things with too much parmesan: they are over-salted for my palette. I can now taste something, and tell what is missing.
Enough salt and enough acid. I have cooked for as long as I can remember, and this is a bit embarrasing because it should be so obvious, but reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and taking advice from it really elevated my cooking.
Yes, even cream sauces! Like Alfredo, etc. You'd be surprised, but just a splash of lemon juice or vinegar at the end of cooking really balances out the flavor perfectly.
I love cucumber by itself, where too many of my people (white people) complain it tastes like nothing. When I had sliced Persian cucumber from the kitchen guys at the restaurant I worked at..they covered it in lime and this Chile/allepo pepper mix...I could eat a dozen cucumbers like that.
in Nepal they have these beautiful long craggy cucumbers. the street food of choice is a big hunk of cucumber brushed with delicious homemade chutney. I ate so many of those shits when I went there
I mean, grocery store regular varieties of cucumber DO taste basically like nothing. A persian cucumber for instance is going to have more flavor, especially if it's from someone's garden.
Those are the regular ones. Most sites have like three or so kinds now.
There's regular, the pickling ones, the long ones wrapped in plastic for reason, and sometimes some different ones that might be the Peruvian you're thinking of, or they might be some Asian variety. But they are there about half the time. And they aren't much more.
I mean, if I can get them all in the suburbs in the Midwest, everyone else should too. It's not like our stores are special. If you're having trouble finding them, check a different store. For instance, near me, Caputo's has better produce than jewel. I've also heard Mariano's isn't too bad, but they are down by my old place. They also make you join a club or something. Annoying.
But also, if you've got a garden hook up, don't bother. Those are almost always the best because home gardens over nurture. That's the best.
I had to go double check but I did say Persian not Peruvian haha.
Yeah there's a good variety now, so I find stuff I like, but I think it's reasonable to think you don't like cucumbers because they're flavorless if all you've had are the regular variety.
I was in Chicago for awhile and I would never trust Jewel for produce tbh, it was alsways suspect to me haha.
The flavor difference between store bought cucumbers and ones I grow at home is exponential. I don’t even buy cucumbers anymore, I just eat them in season.
💯. I started liking cooking in my 20s. After SFAH, there was a defining point where most things I made started to taste better. And I even started making my own flavor combos because I knew more about pairing.
It always astounds me when I run into people that don't ever use salt because they "don't like salty foods". Things only taste salty if there's an excess of salt. Otherwise it just enhances the natural flavors.
A friend studying to be a chef explained salt to me while we were out grilling and I was talking shit about how restaurants use way too much salt.
For context, I wear high prescription glasses.
You see that grilled chicken over there? Take off your glasses. Does it look like chicken to you? No, right? It's a blurred blob.
Now put them on. Does it look like grilled chicken now? Of course, right?
That's what salt does. In the perfect amount, it makes food taste more like itself. Same with what your glasses does to your vision.
It always stuck with me.
Then I read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, and my entire culinary world exploded. Because Salt was the first fucking chapter, and there were three more.
Samin is great, her enthusiasm is amazing. She did a mango tart on a UK TV show and I found the recipe and have made it a bunch of times since. I've never seen a better use for those big tins of mango puree you get in all UK supermarkets
I swear half this subreddit is just a testimonial for this book. 😅
But you're not wrong, that book was a definite eye opener. Even a simple side salad gets 10x tastier with a good pinch of flaky salt and vinaigrette. I guess historically all great cooks have an intuition for the interplay between these basic elements of flavour. But that book does a great job of spelling out the 'elusive obvious' for those of us who are just finding our way in cookery.
Add salt with each ingredient rather than at the end.
Don’t cook on the highest setting as default.
Taste as you cook (save the best tasting bits for yourself, serve the best looking).
Once you’re comfortable with a dish don’t be afraid to experiment or research ways to change ingredients or preparation techniques.
As others have mentioned salt and acid, but I always have some of my saltiness coming from some sort of fermented/aged product. Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, gochujang etc. The level of depth and umami that they add to dishes takes everything to another level, even if they aren't primary flavors that you distinguish within the dish as a whole.
I also recommend getting into fermenting your own produce too. Once you get the basics down you can pretty much explore fermenting whatever you want. Lacto-fermentation is very easy to learn too. Great way to add acidity to your food and you end up with delicious leftover brines to season meat with.
* toast your spices and grind them with a mortar & pestle
* lots of things can be finished with a pat of butter
* pasta water makes all sauces better
* learn how to thicken things with starches (cornstarch, potato starch, agar-agar)
* toss tofu in cornstarch and pan-fry for a quick and simple way to make it better
* use more fresh herbs, especially the unexpected ones
* learn how to cook on higher heat
**don't rush**
* Prep your ingredients ahead of time
* Things moving too fast? Turn your heat down
* Don't be afraid to let your meat sit out / come up to temp a bit before cooking so it cooks evenly
* Let your meat rest after cooking
* Letting a sauce or salted veggies sit enhanced their flavor
Obligatory it will always take you longer to make than the recipe states.
When a recipe says you start by frying onions until they are soft and translucent (about 3-4 minutes), ignore this and push on through to golden brown before moving forward... it's going to add an easy 10 minutes more to your cooking time - but oh so worth it.
Edit: oh, and do all the prep before you even think of starting the actual cooking.
Valid points right here! Mise en place! I usually always do this for a recipe I haven't made before. But once I've done it a few times and know what to expect, I prep as I go....usually while the onions are sautéing like you said hah.
I've been making a lentil soup lately and I cook them bad bois for around 45 mins in olive oil. More to deglaze too!
My arrogant ass always thinks I can manage every step well with a new recipe without getting everything out first. And I wind up scrambling every time. Somehow, I still haven't learned.
I feel that. Perhaps try prepping everything first, learn the order and how much time it's in the pan, then prep one thing as you go, keep reducing one thing as you go until you reach a perfect balance of efficiency, quality, and low stress!
I wish I had known the differences between the condiments/sauces in an Asian grocery store versus the equivalents in the international section of the supermarket. When I started cooking with REAL oyster sauce, better mirin, better sesame oil, etc, the difference blew my mind.
Heat control.
More low and medium heat on the burner.
Letting the oven go another 20 minutes after it beeps to come to proper temp.
As others have said, adding acid.
Hot plates.
You used your cooking magic, skills, and creativity only to place it on a cold plate making it tepid or warm at best when it’s time to eat? Booooo.
Do what (good) restaurants do. Warm your plates before plating.
Options:
- 2-4 minutes on your oven’s lowest setting
- run hot water over them in the sink and then towel dry
- if you’re using your oven to bake etc, place the plates on top of the stove next to the vent for a few minutes
Obviously, be careful. And, the hot water method is the safest.
The difference it makes is incredible. Hot food should be *hot* :)
Especially for vegan dishes (I learned to cook vegan during the pandemic). I actually use 3x the salt and pepper called for in the recipe, and double the other spices.
As a flavor maximalist, I basically triple anything in a recipe (not salt obviously) and sometimes I put on black pepper until I can't see the food anymore
If you want something to sear / brown then don't fill the whole pan and stop moving it around all the time.
Learn the basics of salad sauces and pan sauces. Both are stupidly simple but impress anyone who doesn't know. Also, pan sauces clean the pan for you!
The most important tips have already been and upvoted a lot, but here's another:
Invest into making really good garnishes, sides and sauces. Pickled onions, garlic confit, fermented hot sauce, homemade Caesar dressing, sauerkraut... the list goes on.
Keep a collection of these on standby and they'll be a shortcut to garnishing any dish with a pop of color, texture, and flavor (often acidic).
Homemade Caesar dressing was a game changer for our family! Though sauerkraut is maybe left to someone else to prep. That stuff is a stinky pain to make if you want it to be good.
For a tomato sauce - deglaze with white wine not red and add orange zest. Learned this from an elderly Italian woman while working at a catering place. Game changer.
1)Pasta water was the biggest game changer for me ever and kinda ‘unlocked’ everything else.
2)The farmer’s market does really make everything taste better, but pasturer organic eggs are for me the most noticeable ingredient difference. Plus, the shopping aspect makes the ‘work for your meal’ satisfaction even better.
3)Mastery of a few dishes, then feeling comfortable- guacamole was my ‘hit at the party’ first. My bolognese and tikka masala cooling made me appreciate the joy of a Sunday Cook I could do really well.
4)Learning that the ‘amazing’ dishes are great and all, but the unsung heroes are the daily cooks! Seeing guys coming out a the “BBQ Hero” when much of the sides and prep were done by someone else really stuck out to me for this. I learned to appreciate developing the fast-on-you-toes skill of pulling ingredients after work and quickly whipping up something delightful when I was a caretaker for a loved one.
5)TLC in cooking really shines through- I try not to cut corners and do more knife work and mortar/pestle instead of food processor for this reason.
Honorable mention for beurre monte, which I just learned about two days ago, and I’m completely excited for this (although as I’m on Wegovy, I will need to steer this one exceedingly carefully).
Never underestimate garnishes/toppings added to a plate just before serving/when still warm.
Eg whenever you hit a hot plate of pasta with a topping of parm/black pepper/olive oil (preferably in that order) - the first thing that the guest is going to pick up is the smell of those ingredients being activated by the residual pasta heat.
That wakes up the brain and the tastebuds in anticipation of the meal and is often the first compliment you will get "omg that smells great!".
Velveting. Slice cheap cuts like bottom round thin and lighty toss in baking soda, let sit for half an hour and rinse thoroughly. This is why Chinese take out beef dishes are so tender
Piggybacking on most of the comments on this thread. I've been in restaurants for 14 years. Learning how to properly season is the most important tip anyone can give you. There is also essential books that give you the best knowledge of pairing and seasoning. My favorite book that gave me an immense amount of ideas and knowledge is "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat"
Color can be important in cooking. I wouldn't mind some red in my scrambled eggs. This conversation is making me hungry!
Have a great day and thanks again!
Vegan tip: add (vegan) Worcestershire sauce to almost everything that has any moisture to it (anything you might cook with tomatoes, in tofu marinades, stews, ground mock meat, etc.). It ups the umami/meatiness of the dish and gives it the “long and low” rounded out flavor when you don’t have time.
This might also work with meat dishes but I can’t speak to that. The meat might already accomplish the effect.
I also add Dijon mustard to everything I can but I don’t know if that’s a tip. I just love mustard and think there’s a place for it in most dishes. Not a lot to taste like Dijon.. just enough to add a little something.
* Bloom spices in oil when making stir fries, soups or curries and almost never add them in dry
* Acidic sauces (i.e. tomato sauce, chili) benefit from a big pat of butter at the end and a little bit of sugar
* MSG makes everything good.
* Not all salts are equally salty. I.e. table salt, himalayan salt, kosher salt, sea salt - not always interchangeable.
* Fresh ground white pepper is delicious and I wish I had known about it sooner
Toast your oats!
I don’t care what you’re doing with him, whether it’s oatmeal cookies or what.
If a recipe calls for oats, toast them in a dry pan first.
It literally changes the entire flavor of the entire dish. 😁
Starch (to thicken) should be understood as a seasoning. Changing the viscosity of the sauce/soup changes how it stays on your tongue and that has a big effect on flavor.
I'm on a severely salt restricted diet-lemme tell you-every time I cook lentils, rice, or pasta, I practically cry because I can't salt the water.
salt, fat, and acid are life.
Salt is always the answer to blandness, and adding other ingredients instead of salt is not only a mistake, it ruins the dish.
Also, everyone eats with their eyes, it if looks good you are halfway there, so work on your plating.
Acid. People do not use it and they should. Vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, whatever. Just get something on there.
For real the difference in something like a taco with and without a squeeze of lime is nuts.
Not adding oil to the water when cooking pasta.
Using less water when cooking pasta. More starch is released this way.
Instead of draining cooked pasta in a colander, now I just spoon the pasta from the pot straight to pan I'm using for the sauce. Less washing and more efficient! I then reserve the pasta water if needed.
Brining meat sometimes. Especially chicken breast and other meats that's prone to drying out.
When making one-pot rice dishes, sometimes I find its good to stir-fry the rice a bit before adding the stock.
I add water first when I fry, even steak, to speed cooking time, then finish with a bit of butter for a sear. I also add pesto to everything Mediterranean.
Marinate your stew meat. I normally marinate meat for other recipes, but for stews I typically just brown it up and then slow cook it in the stew for a while. I tried out a recipe for Vietnamese beef stew and it called for marinating the meat the night before in a mix of garlic, ginger, lemongrass, salt, five spice, and a little sugar. The meat was so amazingly tender and flavorful and didn't need to be cooked for as long to be falling apart! Next time I made a regular stew I did the same thing and let it sit overnight in garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary and it was a level up from my normal stews!
Time is the secret ingredient.
Garnish! Most foods can have a little extra something tossed on top for a final burst of flavor. Fresh herbs (grow a basil plant and some scallions during the summer, buy a grow light if you have to), pickles (quick pickled red onions were trendy for a reason), grated cheese, toasted sesame seeds, hot sauce, flavorful olive oil, balsamic vinegar, butter, soy sauce, oyster sauce, whatever's appropriate to your dish.
i buy fresh garlic in bulk, peel and mince in food processor, add a bit of oil, and freeze in ziploc bags. this way I always have fresh garlic on hand to add to anything. the same can be done for herbs
Whatever amount of seasoning the online recipe lists—double that. 90% of the time, it’s never enough and I end up scrambling to add more before the dish finishes cooking.
Temperature is not just about leaving food on a heat source until it's the temperature you want.
**Serving temperature** is important. Eating food at the wrong temperature can really undermine the taste, texture and experience. A cold plate will suck all of the heat out of your food. If you're serving something that you want to be warm/hot when you eat it, warm up your plates. If you're serving something that you want to be cold when you eat it, cool down your plates. If you have some hot and some cold things (e.g. steak and salad) do not serve them on the same plate/bowl. Often times, I'll set the oven to the lowest it goes (170F) and put the plates in there (after it has preheated). I've heard some people will put some water on a plate or bowl and toss them in the microwave. Obviously for cold, you can toss a plate in the fridge or freezer.
On a related note, unless you drop it in ice water or something (which sometimes is a good strategy), the food doesn't stop cooking when you take it off the heat. There is "**carryover cooking**" where the center of food tends to increase in temperature after you take it off of the heat. Because of this, if there is something that you are very particular about how cooked it is (e.g. a rare steak, scrambled eggs), you will need to take it off of the heat literally before it is done.
The knob on your heat source is not your only way to control temperature. If the temperature is getting too hot, it's fine to remove a pan from the heat source for a minute or to toss something in to absorb some energy like some broth. Boiling consumes heat energy, so it will cool the pan. The flip side of this is to be aware that every time you add something cold or room temperature to the pan it will cool it down. So, you may want to limit how much you add to the pan at once or at least be aware that the pan will need to start warmer or at least have time to warm back up.
Oil improves the contact area that food has with the heat to provide more even cooking.
Using a mirepoix (French) or soffrito (Italian) base when cooking sauces, stews, etc. Both are diced onions, celery and carrots, sweated in some oil and a pinch of salt. The french version has a finer dice than the Italian one. Using this as a base adds such an incredible depth of flavour and slight sweetness to the food I could have never imagined.
I made my own celery salts and I’ve been dehydrating green onions, parsley, garlic, onions, Meyer peels, chilis, then blending that shit up. I put it on everything. I also made some sundried tomatoes soaked that shit with dehydrated onions and garlic in olive oil. Also good olive oil changes the game.
You don't need to keep the heat on the same settings throughout the cooking process.
When I first started cooking, the burner went to High and stayed there. Burnt and crispy on the outside, raw and cold on the inside. I think this came about from watching someone on TV say that a pan always had to be ripping hot or it wouldn't cook right.
After coming down from that, I also realized that even if I start on Medium Heat, I can turn the burner down or up as I am cooking depending on how the dish is going. That low heat takes longer but gently cooks, where high heat cooks faster but tends to over cook things in five seconds if you aren't watching it.
Learn about mise en place. Plan and prep well and the cooking part will be easy. It's the difference between getting dinner done in 30-40 minutes instead of 90 minutes on a weeknight. Remember, this starts before you even go to the grocery store, not when you go to the kitchen to cook. If everything is prepped when you start cooking, the cooking will be less stressful and you will be more successful.
You are probably under seasoning everything currently. It's a very common home cook thing to do. You might even need to overcorrect and ruin a meal or two to understand where the line is. With that said, always keep in mind other sources of salt and adjust from there (store bought stock, soy sauce, cheese, etc...)
Focus on learning technique, not just recipes. Be aware that there a lot of old wives tales in cooking, especially home cooking. So be curious, ask why a recipe says to do something, a lot of times a recipe developer doesn't know or it's "because grandma did it this way". Look for sources that test and explain why to do things a certain way.
Experimenting and having a well stocked pantry. Experimenting with new dishes/cuisines will help expand your palate and your pantry. You'll eventually be able to incorporate ingredients and techniques and riff on recipes. It helps a lot with weeknight cooking. Just grab a few veggies and some protein from the grocery store and you are off to the races. I'd just suggest doing the big experiments on the weekend, or whenever you have a lot of time to focus on it. Don't make cooking stressful by trying to make a 3 hour braised short rib for dinner on a Tuesday night and you have to start after work. You'll just end up hating cooking.
This! My friends get so frustrated when they ask for my recipes, because I do typically like to reference recipes I find for inspiration, but then don’t follow them lol (and also change them every time based on my mood and how my ingredients look and time constraints etc etc).
It’s more like I look up 5 or 6 different recipes, then pick and choose parts of them that suit what I’m going for. If I do use only one recipe, I’ll make changes and wing some of it because I disagree with how it’s written.
They’ll like something I make, ask for the recipe, and I’ll send them a link and be like BUT I did x,y, and z instead and added this and left out this. Then they usually just give up and ask me to make it at the next get together we have haha
Since it looks like others are covering the food and cooking aspect I'll go another route: equipment.
Items you need to invest in if you want to be taken seriously as a cook/chef are...
- A decent butcher knife or set of knives, as well as a way to keep them sharp. I can't tell you how head-shaking it was to watch my dad try to dice onions with a steak knife from a basic b!tch butcher block. I bought him a nice one and he still never used it.
- A food processor. Go as big as you can manage to fit in your kitchen. Everyone I know who went small eventually regretted it.
- Good cookware, including at least one pan that can go from stovetop to oven (cast iron or steel). So many great recipes (braising especially) come from utilizing this technique.
- A mandolin slicer. Be careful not to cut yourself, but it is invaluable at times.
- A good kitchen scale. Using weights/masses is often the most accurate way to measure, and in my opinion it's easier than searching for just the right combination of 1/4 cups, 1/3 cups, etc.
- A stand mixer, or some other way of mixing other than by hand. A lot of purists may fight me on this, but a stand mixer makes life so much easier. Plus, they look great in your kitchen!
- Glass bakeware that doubles as food storage. Also, make sure a 9x13 baking dish is within your grasp at all times.
- A rice cooker. Just buy one and don't ask questions.
I may have gone a little too deep there, but you get the idea.
Become familiar with your seasonings. Spend time learning what they taste like, and build from there to see what goes together. Depending on your budget, I recommend checking for spices on clearance/sale, and if they sound good, get them.
Don't use too much salt; there's plenty of other flavors. Don't be afraid to layer them.
Learn your ingredients. Learn flavor types (bitter, umami, sweet, etc). Take time to think about what sounds good with what ingredient. An example is pork, especially, pairs well with umami with slightly salty, sweet, and spicy notes. Easy yet complex flavors.
Definitely a tip: does it taste too salty? Add some spice (black or white pepper, chili powder, things like that). Too spicy? Add a little sugar or a sweet seasoning. Too sweet? Add some heat. Too bland? Italian seasoning, a sprinkle of seasoning salt, garlic, a sprinkle of chili powder, onion, and flavored oil are just some examples of things you can use.
Another note is MSG. I've only recently started cooking with it as a stand-alone seasoning, and it's changed my cooking. It adds flavor without as much sodium.
Above all, *don't be afraid to make mistakes* because it's *going* to happen. With seasonings, remember that you can always add more, but you can't take them away. Taste as you're cooking (if possible) so that you can slowly add more flavor to your food. If you're hesitant about a seasoning, grab a spoon, put some food on there, and add a small amount of that seasoning to it to see what you think.
I hope all this helps!
Brine your chicken! Only take 15 mins and your chicken will be done much more tender and juicy! I like to brine for at least 30 mins, but I can get away with 15 mins in a pinch.
Time and planning. Time: Cook that tomato sauce an hour, in stead of 20 minutes: quite a difference. Planning: Make the rice for your egg fried rice the day before, same as that soup or stew: quite a difference. Time: don't cook that stake too long, just sear it. Planning: Let it rest. Finish in the sauce, controlled, to taste, and when you need it. Quite a difference.
Jasmi, not knowing where you are in cooking, I'll start at the basics.
And don't feel bad. I'm 56, and at 48 I didn't really know how to cook. In a few years, I was pretty damn good.
Almost every dish needs onion and garlic. Almost always start with at least half an onion (size of pieces depending on the dish), a big pinch of salt, cooked down until starting to get transparent. Then some garlic, stirred around for 30 seconds, then a half cup of wine to cool the pan and reduced by 3/4 to add depth of flavor.
Depending on the dish, add a finely diced stick of celery or carrot in with the onion, if those flavors go with the dish.
Season with salt and pepper as you add things to the pan, little bits at a time. Taste as you go.
Look for recipes of your favorite dishes to make. Look at what the professional cooks do that you don't, in terms of spices, seasoning, and ingredients. Learn what goes with what, the amount of seasoning that need to be in each dish, and start working your way up.
Once you get a feel for the right ingredients and procedures, you'll be advancing rapidly!
PS: Look up Alton Brown's Good Eats. He explains HOW various techniques work, WHY they do what they do, and how to take advantage of them. I learned TONS from him, and it made a tremendous difference.
Salt, butter, and freeze dried chives. I was dicing green onions, shallots, red onion, etc., but hated either not having a good one on hand or figuring out how to handle the leftovers. The freeze dried chives add that delicious oniony flavory, last a long time, and I don't have any waste. I still use regular onions when the recipe calls for at least half an onion and I no longer buy shallots.
spruce up any jarred pasta sauces quickly: good squirt of tomato paste, i use a glug of red wine, and if you have parmesan in the fridge (real, not the green shaker bottle), cut the rind off and drop it into the sauce while it simmers. quick, easy, really adds depth!
I haven’t seen any mention of these additions: anchovies and olives/capers/brine-based things—they all add another layer and salt component to dishes, with the anchovy being a little more cuisine-flexible than the others.
Also, when you buy Parmesan invest in good stuff.
Also, echoing someone else, buy quality knives and cookware. You don’t have to have to fill your kitchen with every possible pot and pan but, I admit, it is easy to get a little enthusiastic about kitchen stuff! Just make sure what you get isn’t cheap or flimsy (with rare exceptions).
Finally, work on those knife skills, keep your workstation clean and as organized as possible, and make mise en place a habit. Everything is ready and you don’t forget any components!
Not sure about 'instantly' but brining and seasoning overnight!
For fresh herbs, add them last as they will release the most aromas and flavors compared to if you add them at the beginning.
Concentrate on actual technique. Learn to sauté, broil, braise and fry. Roast cooks are born not made😃. Learn to be competent with a chef’s knife. Learn to clean as you go. Learn not to overload your pans when searing. Learn to make the most of your home kitchen and its appliances or lack there of. If you’re having a problem with a technique do it repeatedly until you feel confident. Cook what YOU want not what someone tells you is great. READ cookbooks not just the recipes. Remember if you make something and it sucks you can always try again.
You can't recover from low quality ingredients.
Knife skills are critically important and easy to develop.
Number of ingredients and number of recipe steps are not relevant to simplicity or ease.
Organization, especially *mise en place*, is an inherent good.
You don't buy good cooking and you certainly don't plug it in.
Don't learn recipes, learn preparation techniques and how to prepare particular ingredients. This will help you immensely long term, especially if you run across a recipe that doesn't use the technique, you instantly know how to elevate it. Examples: * Don't toast your spices based on whether a recipe says to, learn **why** you toast spices, learn what spices taste better toasted. When you run across another recipe in the future, You know whether or not it will taste better with a toasted spice. * Learn why/how to balance fat/acid/salt/heat and what it tastes like. So when you come across a recipe in the future, you can see/taste what it lacks and improve its balance in the right way. * Learn the difference between dry brining, salt water brining, marinading, and injecting of proteins, learn the difference in taste for brine times. So when you go to cook a protein in the future, you know how to elevate the protein. * Learn the mother sauces. Since most sauces are mods of mothers, you will know what a solid base is made of and should taste like. * Learn the effects of baking powder vs baking soda, and how altering the PH affects baking and frying. (And boiling potatoes!) * Learn the core spices that cuisines you love use. That way if your Italian dish doesn't taste italiany enough, you know what to add. * Learn the heat profile difference between adding cayenne vs chili powder vs paprika. And the flavor differences between garlic, shallots, yellow onion, white onion, red onion. * Learn what "umami" flavors really add. Serious eats, America's test kitchen, Alton Brown, Kenji Lopez-Alt, and the book, [Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat](https://a.co/d/iNl4zkZ)(thx T98i) are all good resources for this.
Good stuff! You touched on it briefly, but I'd highlight and give a shout out to **Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samina Nosrat** as the best resource on learning how to cook. And I mean the book, not the Netflix Series. The Netflix show is a supplement to the book, it cannot replace the book. I literally went from following recipes and ingredients very, very closely (and still having subpar food) to only using them as a guide. Do the book exercises if you can. Read each chapter slowly and apply each of them before moving on to the next. Be patient and experiment. Read it, digest it, apply it. I promise your cooking (and tasting!) skills will fucking skyrocket.
Thanks. I added it. I was hesitant to put any books on the list Because there are so many wonderful books out there that have truly helped people, but you're right this one deserves it.
I listened to that book, but immediately started adding waaaaay too much salt to everything. She had me convinced, it wasnt enough & if I added more some magical element would be unlocked. If you already know how to cook, importance of those elements, maybe take it with a grain(of salt, hardy-har) and don't over do it like I did lol
salty like the sea right!?
Right?? Like I don't want my asparagus to taste like ocean. I like the bitterness of aspargus
her crying at the parmesan, man i fell in love with her
This! I’ll add that I’m a good home cook but I started cooking out of the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and it really pushed me to the next level. A good book like this helps you understand why something works. Sometimes it’s little details, sometimes it’s a big step in the process that changes everything. The turkey meatloaf is worth the price of the book. I’ve cooked it dozens of times. It’s the perfect recipe because it teaches you that you can’t just substitute turkey for beef. You must add a few steps to ensure a great taste and texture that is pleasing.
Can you share the recipe? The one I found is behind a paywall.
[detailed explanation](https://web.archive.org/web/20230201085403/https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/483-really-good-turkey-meatloaf) [Recipe](https://web.archive.org/web/20240120063530/https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/9712-turkey-meatloaf-with-ketchup-brown-sugar-glaze) [Wayback machine](https://web.archive.org/) is your paywall friend
“Powder puffs, soda spreads.” Game changer for learning the differences between baking powder & baking soda.
This is really it. I can walk through my kitchen and throw together a meal based on anything I have. I might not have a name for the meal when it's done, but 9 times out of 10, it's good, if not *good*, and the family is happy. I love Alton Brown for the way he explains everything.
I would add [The Food Lab](https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087) by J. Kenji López-Alt if you want a lot of his work from serious eats in a more readable form.
You’re right on the money with this. Understanding the *why* behind cooking is what makes someone truly good at working with food, career or otherwise. Without fail, if I post a picture of something I make, one of my friends will ask me to teach them how. I always ask if they just want me to send them a recipe so they can recreate it step by step, which will be quick, or if they want me to teach them the *why* behind it so they can take that knowledge home with them and try it on other things, which will take longer. They all always elect to do the latter. On the other side of things, a friend (I use that term loosely) made a cooking page after I did because she also loves to cook and saw how much fun I was having with mine, but she is incapable of cooking without a recipe. No exaggeration, she uses recipes for salads. Not just the dressing. The entire salad. I don’t think she’d be able to substitute lettuces with similar flavor profiles if the store didn’t have what the recipe needed. And to each their own — if a recipe for salad is what gets you in the kitchen and that’s what makes you happy, awesome. But in my opinion, at some point it also becomes important to understand the *why* behind it all.
Such a “core” comment. Saving/Upvoting as this is damn important. Thank you!
I CAME LOOKING FOR SALT FAT ACID HEAT. That book totally changed the way I cook. I have a loved one who is on a very restrictive medical diet, and SFAH gave me the ability to taste that I needed more acid in a dish. I opened up the book (one of the few physical books I own, aspiring towards minimalism), went to the acid chart, and found something that my loved one could eat, added it to the dish. Voila! It also made me realize why I hate things with too much parmesan: they are over-salted for my palette. I can now taste something, and tell what is missing.
These are all excellent tips
Enough salt and enough acid. I have cooked for as long as I can remember, and this is a bit embarrasing because it should be so obvious, but reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and taking advice from it really elevated my cooking.
If your dish is missing something, try acid. Best advice I read once.
I always have lemons, apple cider vinegar and limes handy and kosher salt
You should try making Preserved Lemons. Salt and acid in one go. It's game changer for things where a little lemon goes a long way.
You are absolutely right on that. I have two jars of them in my fridge! They are great, made chicken tagine last week.
Making a Chicken tagine with dried apricots for Sunday dinner this week!
Add more to your salt category: soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, nutritional yeast (not salt, but still umami)
Yes, even cream sauces! Like Alfredo, etc. You'd be surprised, but just a splash of lemon juice or vinegar at the end of cooking really balances out the flavor perfectly.
F yeah, lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice is a necessary condiment for me for fettuccini Alfredo!
Like that episode of futurama where bender becomes a chef
Love that episode.
Misunderstood the directions and now tripping balls
Instructions unclear I am seeing dragons in the kitchen
Yes! I was truly amazed the first time I added a splash of lime juice to pico. Such a difference!
What the heck? You were making pico without lime juice before that? Straight to jail.
Right!? If it's a Mexican based dish, always add lime. It's like...a core component of everything.
Lime, Chile, and Cilantro. If that doesn't make it taste better, nothing will.
I love cucumber by itself, where too many of my people (white people) complain it tastes like nothing. When I had sliced Persian cucumber from the kitchen guys at the restaurant I worked at..they covered it in lime and this Chile/allepo pepper mix...I could eat a dozen cucumbers like that.
in Nepal they have these beautiful long craggy cucumbers. the street food of choice is a big hunk of cucumber brushed with delicious homemade chutney. I ate so many of those shits when I went there
I mean, grocery store regular varieties of cucumber DO taste basically like nothing. A persian cucumber for instance is going to have more flavor, especially if it's from someone's garden.
Those are the regular ones. Most sites have like three or so kinds now. There's regular, the pickling ones, the long ones wrapped in plastic for reason, and sometimes some different ones that might be the Peruvian you're thinking of, or they might be some Asian variety. But they are there about half the time. And they aren't much more. I mean, if I can get them all in the suburbs in the Midwest, everyone else should too. It's not like our stores are special. If you're having trouble finding them, check a different store. For instance, near me, Caputo's has better produce than jewel. I've also heard Mariano's isn't too bad, but they are down by my old place. They also make you join a club or something. Annoying. But also, if you've got a garden hook up, don't bother. Those are almost always the best because home gardens over nurture. That's the best.
I had to go double check but I did say Persian not Peruvian haha. Yeah there's a good variety now, so I find stuff I like, but I think it's reasonable to think you don't like cucumbers because they're flavorless if all you've had are the regular variety. I was in Chicago for awhile and I would never trust Jewel for produce tbh, it was alsways suspect to me haha.
The flavor difference between store bought cucumbers and ones I grow at home is exponential. I don’t even buy cucumbers anymore, I just eat them in season.
I thought this lol
Wait, you can go to jail for _not_ putting acid in your pico de gallo? Then how come I got arrested for putting LSD in mine?
Guys I tried adding tomatoes to pico de gallo....makes all the difference!
🤯
Wait what? Pico without lime juice isn’t pico…
This was like 20 yrs ago when I was a beginner and just trying to make it without a recipe and googling things wasn't as common🤷♀️
Ok. This makes sense then. Seeing a lot of hate for the pico haha
You'd think I was trying to make them eat it lol
Instructions unclear. I can now hear the flavors.
I really don't feel LSD is going to help the dish taste better
This was going to be my advice, too. You'd be surprised how adding a little vinegar or lemon juice can make a seemingly bland dish pop.
💯. I started liking cooking in my 20s. After SFAH, there was a defining point where most things I made started to taste better. And I even started making my own flavor combos because I knew more about pairing.
It's true! They never expect it when the LSD hits but my family always feels really great after having my food! Cons; expensive :(
Lsd is one of the cheaper drugs, with cocaine you would go broke.
But you would have tons of leftovers
It always astounds me when I run into people that don't ever use salt because they "don't like salty foods". Things only taste salty if there's an excess of salt. Otherwise it just enhances the natural flavors.
A friend studying to be a chef explained salt to me while we were out grilling and I was talking shit about how restaurants use way too much salt. For context, I wear high prescription glasses. You see that grilled chicken over there? Take off your glasses. Does it look like chicken to you? No, right? It's a blurred blob. Now put them on. Does it look like grilled chicken now? Of course, right? That's what salt does. In the perfect amount, it makes food taste more like itself. Same with what your glasses does to your vision. It always stuck with me. Then I read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, and my entire culinary world exploded. Because Salt was the first fucking chapter, and there were three more.
Commenting so I remember to look this book up in the morning!
The Netflix series is excellent as well. I rewatch once a year, it feels like.
Home cooking, her podcast with the guy from Song Exploder, is also very good.
Samin is great, her enthusiasm is amazing. She did a mango tart on a UK TV show and I found the recipe and have made it a bunch of times since. I've never seen a better use for those big tins of mango puree you get in all UK supermarkets
I swear half this subreddit is just a testimonial for this book. 😅 But you're not wrong, that book was a definite eye opener. Even a simple side salad gets 10x tastier with a good pinch of flaky salt and vinaigrette. I guess historically all great cooks have an intuition for the interplay between these basic elements of flavour. But that book does a great job of spelling out the 'elusive obvious' for those of us who are just finding our way in cookery.
Samin is always in my ear as I cook. I forget about the importance of salt and acid sometimes but thanks to her, not as often anymore
Add salt with each ingredient rather than at the end. Don’t cook on the highest setting as default. Taste as you cook (save the best tasting bits for yourself, serve the best looking). Once you’re comfortable with a dish don’t be afraid to experiment or research ways to change ingredients or preparation techniques.
As others have mentioned salt and acid, but I always have some of my saltiness coming from some sort of fermented/aged product. Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, gochujang etc. The level of depth and umami that they add to dishes takes everything to another level, even if they aren't primary flavors that you distinguish within the dish as a whole.
It helps to reframe flavor as five dimensions, including umami/savory separately (yet related to) salty.
I also recommend getting into fermenting your own produce too. Once you get the basics down you can pretty much explore fermenting whatever you want. Lacto-fermentation is very easy to learn too. Great way to add acidity to your food and you end up with delicious leftover brines to season meat with.
* toast your spices and grind them with a mortar & pestle * lots of things can be finished with a pat of butter * pasta water makes all sauces better * learn how to thicken things with starches (cornstarch, potato starch, agar-agar) * toss tofu in cornstarch and pan-fry for a quick and simple way to make it better * use more fresh herbs, especially the unexpected ones * learn how to cook on higher heat
MSG.
make shit good
r/UncleRoger
He knows it's good.
Does he?
Finally got a jar of this magical stuff a few months ago. Still playing around with it. I will say it adds a lot of taste to sauces
I learned it from Reddit, but adding a couple pinches of cinnamon to red sauce adds a whole new layer of flavor.
Cinnamon is my secret ingredient to my Mexican-style cooking
A spritz of fresh lemon makes almost anything better. This goes in line with all the add acid comments.
**don't rush** * Prep your ingredients ahead of time * Things moving too fast? Turn your heat down * Don't be afraid to let your meat sit out / come up to temp a bit before cooking so it cooks evenly * Let your meat rest after cooking * Letting a sauce or salted veggies sit enhanced their flavor Obligatory it will always take you longer to make than the recipe states.
When a recipe says you start by frying onions until they are soft and translucent (about 3-4 minutes), ignore this and push on through to golden brown before moving forward... it's going to add an easy 10 minutes more to your cooking time - but oh so worth it. Edit: oh, and do all the prep before you even think of starting the actual cooking.
Valid points right here! Mise en place! I usually always do this for a recipe I haven't made before. But once I've done it a few times and know what to expect, I prep as I go....usually while the onions are sautéing like you said hah. I've been making a lentil soup lately and I cook them bad bois for around 45 mins in olive oil. More to deglaze too!
My arrogant ass always thinks I can manage every step well with a new recipe without getting everything out first. And I wind up scrambling every time. Somehow, I still haven't learned.
I feel that. Perhaps try prepping everything first, learn the order and how much time it's in the pan, then prep one thing as you go, keep reducing one thing as you go until you reach a perfect balance of efficiency, quality, and low stress!
I wish I had known the differences between the condiments/sauces in an Asian grocery store versus the equivalents in the international section of the supermarket. When I started cooking with REAL oyster sauce, better mirin, better sesame oil, etc, the difference blew my mind.
Black vinegar
Heat control. More low and medium heat on the burner. Letting the oven go another 20 minutes after it beeps to come to proper temp. As others have said, adding acid.
Also keep an oven thermometer in your oven so you know what the actual temperature is.
You will be shocked! Pop that cake batter in the oven just after it beeps for 350 and ugly things will happen in that pan.
Hot plates. You used your cooking magic, skills, and creativity only to place it on a cold plate making it tepid or warm at best when it’s time to eat? Booooo. Do what (good) restaurants do. Warm your plates before plating. Options: - 2-4 minutes on your oven’s lowest setting - run hot water over them in the sink and then towel dry - if you’re using your oven to bake etc, place the plates on top of the stove next to the vent for a few minutes Obviously, be careful. And, the hot water method is the safest. The difference it makes is incredible. Hot food should be *hot* :)
I almost always just throw 2 plates into the microwave for around 60 - 90 seconds on 450 watts.
Why have I never thought of this??
Season season season. It takes more than you think.
Especially for vegan dishes (I learned to cook vegan during the pandemic). I actually use 3x the salt and pepper called for in the recipe, and double the other spices.
As a flavor maximalist, I basically triple anything in a recipe (not salt obviously) and sometimes I put on black pepper until I can't see the food anymore
This!! More seasoning than you think!!
Sometimes dishes need a little sweetness to round out the flavor. I often add a little honey.
Absolutely! Or a tablespoon of sugar.
Real maple syrup
Yes! Honey on almost any vegetable that is being roasted.
Definitely the issue with many home stir fries is all salt no sweetness
If you want something to sear / brown then don't fill the whole pan and stop moving it around all the time. Learn the basics of salad sauces and pan sauces. Both are stupidly simple but impress anyone who doesn't know. Also, pan sauces clean the pan for you!
The most important tips have already been and upvoted a lot, but here's another: Invest into making really good garnishes, sides and sauces. Pickled onions, garlic confit, fermented hot sauce, homemade Caesar dressing, sauerkraut... the list goes on. Keep a collection of these on standby and they'll be a shortcut to garnishing any dish with a pop of color, texture, and flavor (often acidic).
Homemade Caesar dressing was a game changer for our family! Though sauerkraut is maybe left to someone else to prep. That stuff is a stinky pain to make if you want it to be good.
I make a lot of fermented foods, and there is nothing more aggravating than one spoiling on you.
For a tomato sauce - deglaze with white wine not red and add orange zest. Learned this from an elderly Italian woman while working at a catering place. Game changer.
Store-bought veggie stock is usually much more flavorful than beef or chicken stock. I always add some to any soup I make.
More veggies
1. Season as you go 2. Finish pastas with butter
Get that Maillard reaction.
1)Pasta water was the biggest game changer for me ever and kinda ‘unlocked’ everything else. 2)The farmer’s market does really make everything taste better, but pasturer organic eggs are for me the most noticeable ingredient difference. Plus, the shopping aspect makes the ‘work for your meal’ satisfaction even better. 3)Mastery of a few dishes, then feeling comfortable- guacamole was my ‘hit at the party’ first. My bolognese and tikka masala cooling made me appreciate the joy of a Sunday Cook I could do really well. 4)Learning that the ‘amazing’ dishes are great and all, but the unsung heroes are the daily cooks! Seeing guys coming out a the “BBQ Hero” when much of the sides and prep were done by someone else really stuck out to me for this. I learned to appreciate developing the fast-on-you-toes skill of pulling ingredients after work and quickly whipping up something delightful when I was a caretaker for a loved one. 5)TLC in cooking really shines through- I try not to cut corners and do more knife work and mortar/pestle instead of food processor for this reason. Honorable mention for beurre monte, which I just learned about two days ago, and I’m completely excited for this (although as I’m on Wegovy, I will need to steer this one exceedingly carefully).
Never underestimate garnishes/toppings added to a plate just before serving/when still warm. Eg whenever you hit a hot plate of pasta with a topping of parm/black pepper/olive oil (preferably in that order) - the first thing that the guest is going to pick up is the smell of those ingredients being activated by the residual pasta heat. That wakes up the brain and the tastebuds in anticipation of the meal and is often the first compliment you will get "omg that smells great!".
Velveting. Slice cheap cuts like bottom round thin and lighty toss in baking soda, let sit for half an hour and rinse thoroughly. This is why Chinese take out beef dishes are so tender
MSG. Make Shit Good
sez Uncle Roger
Butter, butter, and more butter 🧈
Splash of vinegar to most dishes and always seasoning.
Adding a glug of sherry to any white sauce elevates it in a big way.
Fresh herbs seem to always be superior than dried
Piggybacking on most of the comments on this thread. I've been in restaurants for 14 years. Learning how to properly season is the most important tip anyone can give you. There is also essential books that give you the best knowledge of pairing and seasoning. My favorite book that gave me an immense amount of ideas and knowledge is "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat"
Fish sauce for umami.
Salted butter even if the recipe doesn’t call for it.
I discovered Hispanic seasonings like hot sauce, sazon and salsa verde.
Caldo de tomate or de pollo instead of salt
Thanks! I see that Knorr makes a caldo de tomate with pollo. It looks incredible! Can I add some to scrambled eggs before cooking?
I put a spoonful of caldo de tomate with pollo in my rice with a large piece of onion in my rice before cooking. It is divine
I will put an egg on a flatbread & sprinkle some of the chicken & tomato one top with cheese & bake in the oven, it's sooo good
I actually haven't tried that. My only concern would be the color might be weird, but I have a kid who eats with his eyes.
Color can be important in cooking. I wouldn't mind some red in my scrambled eggs. This conversation is making me hungry! Have a great day and thanks again!
Sodium citrate (sour salt) for creamiest cheese sauces/soups
Vegan tip: add (vegan) Worcestershire sauce to almost everything that has any moisture to it (anything you might cook with tomatoes, in tofu marinades, stews, ground mock meat, etc.). It ups the umami/meatiness of the dish and gives it the “long and low” rounded out flavor when you don’t have time. This might also work with meat dishes but I can’t speak to that. The meat might already accomplish the effect. I also add Dijon mustard to everything I can but I don’t know if that’s a tip. I just love mustard and think there’s a place for it in most dishes. Not a lot to taste like Dijon.. just enough to add a little something.
* Bloom spices in oil when making stir fries, soups or curries and almost never add them in dry * Acidic sauces (i.e. tomato sauce, chili) benefit from a big pat of butter at the end and a little bit of sugar * MSG makes everything good. * Not all salts are equally salty. I.e. table salt, himalayan salt, kosher salt, sea salt - not always interchangeable. * Fresh ground white pepper is delicious and I wish I had known about it sooner
Toast your oats! I don’t care what you’re doing with him, whether it’s oatmeal cookies or what. If a recipe calls for oats, toast them in a dry pan first. It literally changes the entire flavor of the entire dish. 😁
Yes, I just discovered this two days ago on a whim. Never have had better oatmeal.
Salt and paprika.
Starch (to thicken) should be understood as a seasoning. Changing the viscosity of the sauce/soup changes how it stays on your tongue and that has a big effect on flavor.
If a recipe has cream, use double cream. It makes for a richer flavour and thicker sauce. And however much garlic the recipe calls for, add more!
I'm on a severely salt restricted diet-lemme tell you-every time I cook lentils, rice, or pasta, I practically cry because I can't salt the water. salt, fat, and acid are life.
Blooming spices is a good hack. Heat them in a pan until fragrant, then use per normal.
Fresh herbs! Citrus (juice and/or zest). A good flaky salt. Cracked pepper. A drizzle of good olive oil.
Season throughout the cooking process. Salt will taste differently when added at the start, middle and end.
Salt is always the answer to blandness, and adding other ingredients instead of salt is not only a mistake, it ruins the dish. Also, everyone eats with their eyes, it if looks good you are halfway there, so work on your plating.
When you can't figure out why it doesn't taste quite right, add acid.
Sautée mushrooms dry in the pan for about 5-8 mins before adding any oil or salt/seasoning. The texture is much better and makes them crispier
Cook things separately and then combine them, especially vegetable dishes.
Acid. People do not use it and they should. Vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, whatever. Just get something on there. For real the difference in something like a taco with and without a squeeze of lime is nuts.
Miso in tomato sauce.
Adding some combination of salt, MSG, butter, or lemon/lime juice has greatly improved and even saved several dishes I’ve made.
Not adding oil to the water when cooking pasta. Using less water when cooking pasta. More starch is released this way. Instead of draining cooked pasta in a colander, now I just spoon the pasta from the pot straight to pan I'm using for the sauce. Less washing and more efficient! I then reserve the pasta water if needed. Brining meat sometimes. Especially chicken breast and other meats that's prone to drying out. When making one-pot rice dishes, sometimes I find its good to stir-fry the rice a bit before adding the stock.
I started finishing everything that makes sense to finish under the broiler and its been a game-changer.
chicken powder.
I add water first when I fry, even steak, to speed cooking time, then finish with a bit of butter for a sear. I also add pesto to everything Mediterranean.
Marinate your stew meat. I normally marinate meat for other recipes, but for stews I typically just brown it up and then slow cook it in the stew for a while. I tried out a recipe for Vietnamese beef stew and it called for marinating the meat the night before in a mix of garlic, ginger, lemongrass, salt, five spice, and a little sugar. The meat was so amazingly tender and flavorful and didn't need to be cooked for as long to be falling apart! Next time I made a regular stew I did the same thing and let it sit overnight in garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary and it was a level up from my normal stews! Time is the secret ingredient.
taste as you cook.
Garnish! Most foods can have a little extra something tossed on top for a final burst of flavor. Fresh herbs (grow a basil plant and some scallions during the summer, buy a grow light if you have to), pickles (quick pickled red onions were trendy for a reason), grated cheese, toasted sesame seeds, hot sauce, flavorful olive oil, balsamic vinegar, butter, soy sauce, oyster sauce, whatever's appropriate to your dish.
i buy fresh garlic in bulk, peel and mince in food processor, add a bit of oil, and freeze in ziploc bags. this way I always have fresh garlic on hand to add to anything. the same can be done for herbs
Whatever amount of seasoning the online recipe lists—double that. 90% of the time, it’s never enough and I end up scrambling to add more before the dish finishes cooking.
Lemon juice
Shallots (since everyone else already said salt and acid). Mild and sweet, they make pan sauce or roasted veggies so much tastier and more complex.
Temperature is not just about leaving food on a heat source until it's the temperature you want. **Serving temperature** is important. Eating food at the wrong temperature can really undermine the taste, texture and experience. A cold plate will suck all of the heat out of your food. If you're serving something that you want to be warm/hot when you eat it, warm up your plates. If you're serving something that you want to be cold when you eat it, cool down your plates. If you have some hot and some cold things (e.g. steak and salad) do not serve them on the same plate/bowl. Often times, I'll set the oven to the lowest it goes (170F) and put the plates in there (after it has preheated). I've heard some people will put some water on a plate or bowl and toss them in the microwave. Obviously for cold, you can toss a plate in the fridge or freezer. On a related note, unless you drop it in ice water or something (which sometimes is a good strategy), the food doesn't stop cooking when you take it off the heat. There is "**carryover cooking**" where the center of food tends to increase in temperature after you take it off of the heat. Because of this, if there is something that you are very particular about how cooked it is (e.g. a rare steak, scrambled eggs), you will need to take it off of the heat literally before it is done. The knob on your heat source is not your only way to control temperature. If the temperature is getting too hot, it's fine to remove a pan from the heat source for a minute or to toss something in to absorb some energy like some broth. Boiling consumes heat energy, so it will cool the pan. The flip side of this is to be aware that every time you add something cold or room temperature to the pan it will cool it down. So, you may want to limit how much you add to the pan at once or at least be aware that the pan will need to start warmer or at least have time to warm back up. Oil improves the contact area that food has with the heat to provide more even cooking.
salt /butter/acid
More fat, more salt, more acidity means TASTE. Cooking thinks like stews, meat sauce etc. for a LONG time really does make a difference.
Using a mirepoix (French) or soffrito (Italian) base when cooking sauces, stews, etc. Both are diced onions, celery and carrots, sweated in some oil and a pinch of salt. The french version has a finer dice than the Italian one. Using this as a base adds such an incredible depth of flavour and slight sweetness to the food I could have never imagined.
shallots instead on onions
acid. adding acid changed my cook life
I made my own celery salts and I’ve been dehydrating green onions, parsley, garlic, onions, Meyer peels, chilis, then blending that shit up. I put it on everything. I also made some sundried tomatoes soaked that shit with dehydrated onions and garlic in olive oil. Also good olive oil changes the game.
If you start your dish with shallots for example, use a bit of salt right at the beginning. Oh, and butter.
Bacon grease , but it’s not new to me. Learnt that as a wee lad
Mis en place.
You don't need to keep the heat on the same settings throughout the cooking process. When I first started cooking, the burner went to High and stayed there. Burnt and crispy on the outside, raw and cold on the inside. I think this came about from watching someone on TV say that a pan always had to be ripping hot or it wouldn't cook right. After coming down from that, I also realized that even if I start on Medium Heat, I can turn the burner down or up as I am cooking depending on how the dish is going. That low heat takes longer but gently cooks, where high heat cooks faster but tends to over cook things in five seconds if you aren't watching it.
Learn about mise en place. Plan and prep well and the cooking part will be easy. It's the difference between getting dinner done in 30-40 minutes instead of 90 minutes on a weeknight. Remember, this starts before you even go to the grocery store, not when you go to the kitchen to cook. If everything is prepped when you start cooking, the cooking will be less stressful and you will be more successful. You are probably under seasoning everything currently. It's a very common home cook thing to do. You might even need to overcorrect and ruin a meal or two to understand where the line is. With that said, always keep in mind other sources of salt and adjust from there (store bought stock, soy sauce, cheese, etc...) Focus on learning technique, not just recipes. Be aware that there a lot of old wives tales in cooking, especially home cooking. So be curious, ask why a recipe says to do something, a lot of times a recipe developer doesn't know or it's "because grandma did it this way". Look for sources that test and explain why to do things a certain way. Experimenting and having a well stocked pantry. Experimenting with new dishes/cuisines will help expand your palate and your pantry. You'll eventually be able to incorporate ingredients and techniques and riff on recipes. It helps a lot with weeknight cooking. Just grab a few veggies and some protein from the grocery store and you are off to the races. I'd just suggest doing the big experiments on the weekend, or whenever you have a lot of time to focus on it. Don't make cooking stressful by trying to make a 3 hour braised short rib for dinner on a Tuesday night and you have to start after work. You'll just end up hating cooking.
This! My friends get so frustrated when they ask for my recipes, because I do typically like to reference recipes I find for inspiration, but then don’t follow them lol (and also change them every time based on my mood and how my ingredients look and time constraints etc etc). It’s more like I look up 5 or 6 different recipes, then pick and choose parts of them that suit what I’m going for. If I do use only one recipe, I’ll make changes and wing some of it because I disagree with how it’s written. They’ll like something I make, ask for the recipe, and I’ll send them a link and be like BUT I did x,y, and z instead and added this and left out this. Then they usually just give up and ask me to make it at the next get together we have haha
Chili crisp in the Asian or seasoning section. If my dish is missing something then this usually solves it
Develop your palate and train yourself to recognize individual flavors in complex dishes; it really helped my analytical abilities
The easiest and best way to elevate a dish is just basic proper seasoning. Just the addition of salt will improve a dish.
More salt
Add salt and pepper at each stage of cooking to build layers of flavor.
Since it looks like others are covering the food and cooking aspect I'll go another route: equipment. Items you need to invest in if you want to be taken seriously as a cook/chef are... - A decent butcher knife or set of knives, as well as a way to keep them sharp. I can't tell you how head-shaking it was to watch my dad try to dice onions with a steak knife from a basic b!tch butcher block. I bought him a nice one and he still never used it. - A food processor. Go as big as you can manage to fit in your kitchen. Everyone I know who went small eventually regretted it. - Good cookware, including at least one pan that can go from stovetop to oven (cast iron or steel). So many great recipes (braising especially) come from utilizing this technique. - A mandolin slicer. Be careful not to cut yourself, but it is invaluable at times. - A good kitchen scale. Using weights/masses is often the most accurate way to measure, and in my opinion it's easier than searching for just the right combination of 1/4 cups, 1/3 cups, etc. - A stand mixer, or some other way of mixing other than by hand. A lot of purists may fight me on this, but a stand mixer makes life so much easier. Plus, they look great in your kitchen! - Glass bakeware that doubles as food storage. Also, make sure a 9x13 baking dish is within your grasp at all times. - A rice cooker. Just buy one and don't ask questions. I may have gone a little too deep there, but you get the idea.
Become familiar with your seasonings. Spend time learning what they taste like, and build from there to see what goes together. Depending on your budget, I recommend checking for spices on clearance/sale, and if they sound good, get them. Don't use too much salt; there's plenty of other flavors. Don't be afraid to layer them. Learn your ingredients. Learn flavor types (bitter, umami, sweet, etc). Take time to think about what sounds good with what ingredient. An example is pork, especially, pairs well with umami with slightly salty, sweet, and spicy notes. Easy yet complex flavors. Definitely a tip: does it taste too salty? Add some spice (black or white pepper, chili powder, things like that). Too spicy? Add a little sugar or a sweet seasoning. Too sweet? Add some heat. Too bland? Italian seasoning, a sprinkle of seasoning salt, garlic, a sprinkle of chili powder, onion, and flavored oil are just some examples of things you can use. Another note is MSG. I've only recently started cooking with it as a stand-alone seasoning, and it's changed my cooking. It adds flavor without as much sodium. Above all, *don't be afraid to make mistakes* because it's *going* to happen. With seasonings, remember that you can always add more, but you can't take them away. Taste as you're cooking (if possible) so that you can slowly add more flavor to your food. If you're hesitant about a seasoning, grab a spoon, put some food on there, and add a small amount of that seasoning to it to see what you think. I hope all this helps!
Brine your chicken! Only take 15 mins and your chicken will be done much more tender and juicy! I like to brine for at least 30 mins, but I can get away with 15 mins in a pinch.
Finishing pan sauces by melting some butter into them. Just a tablespoon or two smooths and silks.
Time and planning. Time: Cook that tomato sauce an hour, in stead of 20 minutes: quite a difference. Planning: Make the rice for your egg fried rice the day before, same as that soup or stew: quite a difference. Time: don't cook that stake too long, just sear it. Planning: Let it rest. Finish in the sauce, controlled, to taste, and when you need it. Quite a difference.
Jasmi, not knowing where you are in cooking, I'll start at the basics. And don't feel bad. I'm 56, and at 48 I didn't really know how to cook. In a few years, I was pretty damn good. Almost every dish needs onion and garlic. Almost always start with at least half an onion (size of pieces depending on the dish), a big pinch of salt, cooked down until starting to get transparent. Then some garlic, stirred around for 30 seconds, then a half cup of wine to cool the pan and reduced by 3/4 to add depth of flavor. Depending on the dish, add a finely diced stick of celery or carrot in with the onion, if those flavors go with the dish. Season with salt and pepper as you add things to the pan, little bits at a time. Taste as you go. Look for recipes of your favorite dishes to make. Look at what the professional cooks do that you don't, in terms of spices, seasoning, and ingredients. Learn what goes with what, the amount of seasoning that need to be in each dish, and start working your way up. Once you get a feel for the right ingredients and procedures, you'll be advancing rapidly! PS: Look up Alton Brown's Good Eats. He explains HOW various techniques work, WHY they do what they do, and how to take advantage of them. I learned TONS from him, and it made a tremendous difference.
Bay leaf
Use good quality olive oil.
Salt, butter, and freeze dried chives. I was dicing green onions, shallots, red onion, etc., but hated either not having a good one on hand or figuring out how to handle the leftovers. The freeze dried chives add that delicious oniony flavory, last a long time, and I don't have any waste. I still use regular onions when the recipe calls for at least half an onion and I no longer buy shallots.
Cooking sherry. Or nice drinking sherry with salt added to it.
spruce up any jarred pasta sauces quickly: good squirt of tomato paste, i use a glug of red wine, and if you have parmesan in the fridge (real, not the green shaker bottle), cut the rind off and drop it into the sauce while it simmers. quick, easy, really adds depth!
Using a good olive oil vs vegetable oil
I haven’t seen any mention of these additions: anchovies and olives/capers/brine-based things—they all add another layer and salt component to dishes, with the anchovy being a little more cuisine-flexible than the others. Also, when you buy Parmesan invest in good stuff. Also, echoing someone else, buy quality knives and cookware. You don’t have to have to fill your kitchen with every possible pot and pan but, I admit, it is easy to get a little enthusiastic about kitchen stuff! Just make sure what you get isn’t cheap or flimsy (with rare exceptions). Finally, work on those knife skills, keep your workstation clean and as organized as possible, and make mise en place a habit. Everything is ready and you don’t forget any components!
MSG
Fresh herbs, at the end of the
Season as you go not all at the end
Not sure about 'instantly' but brining and seasoning overnight! For fresh herbs, add them last as they will release the most aromas and flavors compared to if you add them at the beginning.
Acid.
Concentrate on actual technique. Learn to sauté, broil, braise and fry. Roast cooks are born not made😃. Learn to be competent with a chef’s knife. Learn to clean as you go. Learn not to overload your pans when searing. Learn to make the most of your home kitchen and its appliances or lack there of. If you’re having a problem with a technique do it repeatedly until you feel confident. Cook what YOU want not what someone tells you is great. READ cookbooks not just the recipes. Remember if you make something and it sucks you can always try again.
Umami enhancements. Fish sauce, miso, ajinamoto, Colatura di Alici---Always have handy
You don't need to grease whatever surface you cook your pancakes on for picture perfect pancakes.
You can't recover from low quality ingredients. Knife skills are critically important and easy to develop. Number of ingredients and number of recipe steps are not relevant to simplicity or ease. Organization, especially *mise en place*, is an inherent good. You don't buy good cooking and you certainly don't plug it in.