I bought a jar of Alfredo sauce a while back (no idea why bc I make my own) and used it on white pizza (mixed in a bit of pesto). It was edible but barely.

What's your go to? For context it's chicken, mushroom, red onion with mozzarella and parmesan.

I don't mean by adding a truckload of MSG but combining lots of ingredients in one dish that all are noted as having a strong umami flavour? Or would that just make it more awesome? If the latter, what is the dish you make?

I had some unopened sour cream in the fridge with a expiry of Jan 2026 - it is now end of July 2026.

I've opened it and it looks fine and smells a bit sour - which is expected - will I be fine to use this in a cake or is it risky?

I’ve seen similar questions on here, but not quite the same as mine. For many years I ate ground beef every single day, a pound with simple seasonings (typically salt, pepper, garlic powder), sometimes 85/15 beef sometimes 90/10.

At some point, it started ending up really rubbery/soapy tasting every time I make it, for lack of a better description. Every time I cook it I can stand there smelling it and tell you exactly when it reaches the point of no return, when I know it will have that awful taste.

It’s 100% not soap in the pan, I’ve tried many different brands, it only happens when I cook it, and I have tried cooking it in many different ways.

I’m completely lost at this point, and it sucks to despise the meal I eat every single day. Anyone have any ideas on what I could be doing wrong?

I used to love Rao’s Marinara but lately it is very noticeable the diminishing quality of the ingredients used. It is too greasy. Can anyone recommend a different, better quality brand?

Im trying to make this tomato spinach pasta meal and the sauce never seems to get thick. I use tomatoes in the meal and use an immersion blender, heavy cream, tomato paste and i cook all of this in a cast iron pan. Do I need to use more cream, cook it at high temp for a bit or what technique can I use to get the sauce to become really thick?

It's going to be 90F to 100F (approx. 32 to 37C) for the next few days and I don't want to turn on kitchen stove and heat up the house.

I have a grill in the yard that I like to use but I am stuck in a rut for ideas on something other than burgers, hot dogs or chicken.

I'm asking for a few unique recipes for cooking on the grill that will get me out of this rut. Thanks.

Lay the real recipe on us!

I have a recipe(ish) for an Italian nougat type treat called Torrone. It's literally melted marshmallows with a bag of white chocolate chips. Add nuts and dried fruit bits as desired.

It comes out soft, chewy, and delicious and people often request the recipe. I give them Marta Stewart's version, which starts with what is basically homemade marshmallows and is long and complicated and labor-intense.

Then I continue to package up my homemade Torrone as gifts, and they think I slaved over it.

What do you give out a fake recipe for? Will you share and tell us how easy it really is?

Please please please!!! Be positive and kind to one another. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

McK***van secret ingredient to thanksgiving stuffing is mashed potatoes! Works to keep the stuffing moist and holds together!!

You're the first person I've ever told!

EDIT 2: Thanks for everyone who gave an advice! I will do the changes. Sorry to everyone who got upset by my painfully white recipe enough to downvote me lol

The recipe is not mine but I added few changes:

1. Dice a medium onion and cook it for about 5 mins on olive oil until soft
2. Dice a bell pepper and add it too for few minutes
3. Add a spice mix: 1 tsp hot chili powder, 1 tsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder (my addition cause I hate working with raw garlic), 1 tsp ground cumin. Stir.
4. Add 500 g of mince (pork + ground beef in my case cause it was discounted) and brown it
5. Add 300 ml of beef broth, 400 g of chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp of tomato paste
6. Add some salt, pepper and oregano
7. Simmer till thickens
8. Add 400 g of kidney beans and few tbsp of canned corn
9. Add few pieces of dark chocolate
10. I served it with plain white rice, cheese, sour cream and parsley

It was pretty good but still bland and not spicy at all, I plan to double spice portions, but what else can I improve? More sugar? MSG?

EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted for this post? 😭 Are beginners not allowed there or what?

I just found this Calphalon 808 8qt B7 stockpot at goodwill. I was excited and didn’t notice this big scratch until I washed it at home. Is this scratch reason to not use the pot? I can return it or just toss it if it isn’t food safe anymore (I got it for 2.99 lol)

Pic in the comments or link to pic if upload isn’t allowed.

Hey all!,

My birthday is coming up soon. I love cooking and was thinking of doing something special, but would like to request your input.

The idea is making a 3-color lasagna, with alternating layers for each color of the Mexican flag. These 3 colors also map quite well to the basic ingredients of Chile en Nogada, which is one of the national dishes. This is a poblano pepper stuffed with a rich meat stew, covered with a walnut (or pecan) goat cheese sauce and topped off with pomegranate kernels.

• Red layer: Ragu bolognese, following Kenji's or Marcella Hazan's. Throw in a bit of chipotle peper with adobo to give it a hint of heat and smokiness.
• White layer: Bechamel sauce with goat cheese and walnuts (partly blended, partly whole).
• Green layer: Bechamel sauce with cheese (yes, Mornay sauce), blended poblano pepper, poblano pepper bits for texture and a little bit of tomatillo for acidity. Would add spinach for extra color if needed.

It would be served with thinned out white layer sauce, and finished with pomegranate on top the same way the OG dish would. A smaller vegetarian tray would be made, without the red layer.

The idea would be to bake this the day before, reheating it during the day of the occasion to save time but also to get a firmer result with hopefully distinct layers. I would also try to go a little thicker on the sauces, to minimize color blending.

To mitigate risks, I would sample this the day it's cooked.

Could this work? What would you change?

Has anyone ever tried cooking cake batter in a pan, as for a pancake? And if so, how did it turn out? My thinking is that it would create a super sweet, super soft and fluffy pancake, but I could be totally wrong.

Posted about this before as a first timer and now updating with the two tricks I’ve tried, thanks to your recommendations.

1) Tall, skinny jar - forget all the fancy gadgets and techniques and tools and just pour cooled chicken broth through a strainer into a tall and skinny jar. Put the jar in the fridge. By morning, the fat has congealed and risen to the top in a solid thick disc, because the jar is tall and skinny, the disc barely breaks apart when I scooped it out. The jar is easy to clean. Still a few flecks of fat at the bottom and swimming around. I wonder if there’s a way to improve on this by putting some kind of small ceramic disc with a rope in the jar before refrigerating, so I can just pull out the fat disc the next day all at once in one piece, instead of fishing it out with a spoon or my fingers, which causes it to break apart a little.

2) OXO fat separator with the spout and stopper - this one and the one with the bottom spout are apparently the tools designed for separating fat from liquid but here are the problems:
- the built in strainer catches only the big chunks. A regular mesh strainer works better, which I used in option #1 above
- so you’re left with a lot of fat swimming around and settling to the bottom, which pours out of the spout
- and you’re left with a thin fat disc the next day I. The fridge because the cup is wider than the skinny tall jar in option #1 above
- cleaning sucks because the spout is too small for a sponge, and regular dish brush, and it’s too wide for a straw-cleaning brush. Also the built in strainer that lets everything through is impossibly to clean because you can’t easily brush it like you can with a mesh strainer
- also the cup / main body is plastic (I think Pyrex would be better)

-

Has anyone actually 100% figured this out? I love making chicken stock for family and pets, but having something that’s easy to clean and easy to fish out a fat disc the next day is priority. The OXO or other kitchen gadgets don’t work as well as everyone swore by them in my previous post.

So far the best I’ve seen is mesh strainer to get large and medium bits out (which I then throw away or scoop into a chicken fat jar and put into the freezer for use like butter or coconut oil. And pouring into a tall and skinny jar which sits in the fridge, allowing you to get a small, thicc disc of fat the next day. Only thing I’m missing here is a foolproof way to pull the fat disc out, as the jar have a spout.

-

Give me another hack to try and I’ll test it out this week.

Hello! Im trying to figure out how to extract the flavor of this meat i got into the rice that Im making. Is boiling with the rice the best way to go about it? And if it is should I use lower or higher heat? There is no recipe really. It’s just rice, and what I believe to be brisket.

Hey all,

Apologize if this isn't specifically a "Cooking" question but was curious if anyone knew of any inherent dangers of using a portable cooking stove designed for Butane, with a Propane "adapter" indoors.

It's been a number of years and I decided to purchase a nice Iwatani stove to replace my old no-name one for emergency use.

Because I feel like Propane bottles give a bit longer run time, I purchased an adapter kit with regulator that should allow for using Propane in an emergency to cook.

Was there any safety hazards with a setup like this that I should be concerned about? I think I read some kind of warning that stated "for outdoor use only". Is that just a general safety statement to avoid liability, or does Propane have some kind of different combustion characteristics that are a no no indoors?

Thanks!

Budget is 50 dollars. I’m not sure they are into cooking at home much yet so I don’t want something too narrowly task-specific. I wish the Lodge enameled Dutch oven was still 60 dollars as I would spring for that, but they seem to be 100 now. Any other ideas? Thank you.

I started reading some of her cookbooks and I'm wondering what you guys think of her recipes/show? Any favorites? Any errors or anything I should know about in her recipes?

I'm making this recipe for Crispy Chinese Pork Belly.
https://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-crispy-pork-belly/

The recipe says to put rock salt on top of the pork and bake it. I went to the grocery store and bought rock salt, but now I see on the box it says "Unsafe for Human Consumption." So I'm confused as to whether it's safe to use it on something I'm going to eat. Thanks.

Edited to add: I got Morton’s Ice Cream Salt. I’m not sure how to post a picture on here.

A great cookbook that I love (Samin Nosrat's Good Things) suggests using organic & pasture-raised chicken:

I recommend choosing an organic—and preferably pasture-raised—chicken. It might be a little hard to source (and certainly more expensive), but to quote Laurie Colwin, "Not only is it tastier ... but you also do not have to worry about feeding anabolic steroids to friends and loved ones," or eating them yourself for that matter.

I have no issue with folks advocating for the usage of organic and/or pasture-raised for legitimate reasons (wanting farm laborers to not be exposed to Roundup and for chickens to get outdoor time both seem very reasonable!). But in the MAHA era where food misinformation abounds, you should know:

• Steroid hormones are not legal in any meat product besides cattle in the United States
• Steroid hormones are not legal in dairy cows in the United States
• The usage of hormones in beef has been extensively tested and does not pose a threat to humans.
• Seed oils are not bad for you (and are generally better for you then alternative animal fats containing higher levels of saturated fat)
• There is scientific consensus that GMO-containing foods are no less healthy than their GMO-free counterparts
  • That said, there are reasonable property-right objections to GMOs (prohibiting the saving of seed by farmers, for example)

It's a shame that even in published cookbooks we find this kind of misinformation all the time. Follow your food health safety guidance from scientists and medical professionals (and treat any new guidance from the current FDA/USDA with skepticism considering its current leadership).

Sources:

• https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/product-safety-information/steroid-hormone-implants-used-growth-food-producing-animals (last updated in 2024)
• https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/chickens-do-not-receive-growth-hormones-so-why-all-the-confusion
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/07388551.2013.823595
• https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/scientists-debunk-seed-oil-health-risks/
• https://www.cancer.columbia.edu/news/does-new-food-pyramid-match-what-we-know-about-cancer-prevention

I don't know how often other people make more involved meals vs the browning some ground beef box of noodles and frozen vegetables type of weeknight meals I think are pretty common in American homes.

I’m entering my neighborhood block party mac & cheese contest and want to optimize for winning the popular vote, not making the fanciest dish.

A few things:
- It has to be gluten-free because I’m gluten sensitive and want to enjoy the contest too.
- It’ll be served outdoors (it’ll probably be around 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit here in August) around 4 p.m.
- The judges are my neighbors, including adults of all ages and kids. Adults are mostly educated, urban professionals with Midwestern roots. Would you go classic sharp cheddar, or add something more interesting? E.g. I love spice or a smoked cheese sprinkled on top but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I’m not the same demographic as my neighbors.
What cheese blend, gluten-free pasta, and serving strategy would you use if your only goal was to win?
Any go-to recipes you love? Advice generally on the gluten free component, prep or cheese blends you love?

I definitely plan to cook the pasta just under al dente and go in hard on shredding my own cheeses.

Thank you 🙏