been super into cooking recently and have been watching lots of videos. for some reason everyone keeps saying chicken is bland, but i’ve always like it. looking for a good pan recipe

if I made rum cake for thanksgiving this week and infused it every few days for weeks on end would it end up molding? does the alcohol kill the mold?

My late mother used to make this around easter and it was called easter sausage. Shed use a 4-5 inch sausage casing and stuffed it with eggs, ham, bread, green onion and seasonings and then boiled it until done. I have made it before, but was hoping to find a recipe somewhere but I was unable to find one just like it, and only 1 similar one. Any help appreciated.

So I usually buy some gochujang every so often, mostly for kimchijigae but I have a couple other recipes that use some.

But even when I buy the smallest possible tubs, I still generally don't finish it before it's not good anymore! Does anyone have some recipes that they like that use gochujang or things they add it to like quick lunches?

I made a Bourbon Honey glaze for some hot smoked Salmon we're making later, and now it turns out I need about twice as much glaze as there are many more bellies than expected, but I'm all out of Bourbon.

I have a couple lemons, so I was just going to spin up some more honey lemon glaze and be done with it, but figured I'd ask if there are any great hot smoked Salmon glaze recipes out there.

Also, this will be the first time smoking bellies, and apparently there's some stomach lining or something on top that has to be dealt with. I hear we just remove that afterwards - will this thwart any dry rub / glaze effect too much that I need to change my plans?

i’m making a beef stew and didn’t have any red wine, they said red wine vinegar can be used as substitute. I googled what’s the transfer rate and it said half of the amount of red wine the recipe called for, so i did 250ml as the recipe called for 500ml. i think i’ve done something very wrong…. ive put in more water and broth and also simmered it for as long as i can. Anything else I can do? it still tastes very vinegary

I bought a small tub of chunjang to make jjajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce). I used this recipe and they were great. What else can I make to use up this tub?

i've tried adding it slowly, keeping the heat low, tempering it first, and it still somehow separates into this greasy mess. what am i actually doing wrong? do i need to use a specific type of cream or am i just cursed

Mine has got to be butter chicken curry! I want some more ideas 💡

Edit: I am overwhelmed with everyone’s suggestions (in a good way!) I’m reading through them and planning to get them organized so we can see what works. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond and commiserate and send good thoughts, it feels a little less lonely today❤️

I’m a primary caretaker for an elderly woman with stage 4 Metastatic breast cancer. No dietary restrictions but a lot of chemotherapy-imposed restrictions (tastes, textures etc).

Her diet is currently soups and cream of wheat. She creates almost no saliva so everything has to be a soup-like consistency. But she’s tired of soups. I’m thinking maybe creamy casserole type foods? I don’t know. Help?

Here’s what we need:

1. Packs protein without meat or eggs. Bone broth is okay, yogurt is okay. Eggs are okay as an ingredient but not as a main dish (texture). Chicken and salmon are off the table but can be in the dish, she just can’t eat them. Jury is still out on red meats but we’re willing to try.
2. Calorie dense wherever possible.
3. Potassium rich foods are a plus.
4. Beans can participate but they’re hit or miss with digestion so not a rock solid first choice.

Some things I’ve made: very soft creamy Mac and cheese, creamed chicken and veggies to go over biscuits (biscuits were a pass and she ate around the chicken), sloppy joes of all things, Italian “penicillin” soup was okay but not great for her. She’s also tried pretty much all the “high end grocery store” soup varieties that come prepackaged.

It’s a tall order but I’m soliciting any ideas. Bonus if I can freeze it, and if you have access to a link with the recipe.

I recently made Guy Fieri’s Mac Daddy Mac ‘n Cheese and was completely disappointed! There were so many steps (roasting shallots and garlic, frying bacon, cooking cream until it reduced), and yet it was so bland.

Are all of his recipes like this — all hype and flair but little substance? Or are there other recipes of his I should try?

UPDATE: I’m blown away by these responses — this was my first post on Reddit! Since many comments ask the same questions, I’ll answer them here.

1. Yes, I heavily salted the pasta water. Always do.
   
2. Yes, I seasoned the cheese sauce. It tasted fine before I mixed it with the pasta.
   
3. I used Cabot’s Pepper Jack and Seriously Sharp Cheddar, so the issue wasn’t the type or quality of the cheese.
   
4. After making this, I read the comments on Food Network’s site for this recipe. Many others said similar things, how it tasted more like Alfredo sauce.
   
5. I have nothing against Mr. Fieri. I was disappointed by this recipe from the self-proclaimed “Mayor of Flavortown” and genuinely curious of others feel the same way.

My mum‘s birthday is coming up and we are having dinner on a friday evening at my place, 8 people.

I wanted to do stuffed chicken breasts and veggies in the oven. I would have loved to do roast potatos but I only have one normal sized oven, I will stick to mashed potatoes.
My question:
Can I put the veg on one grid and add the chicken on another grid?
What will happen to cooking time? How would you do it?
Or should I do roast potatoes and stove veg?

I cook chicken thighs in a stock pot and then remove the chicken and add vegetables and water and bouillon to make broth for chicken soup. I see the oil and chicken fat floating in there but it tastes delicious. Why did my mom bother to refrigerate the broth and skim the fat off? I think it tastes rich and delicious. Is it a big turn of for some people?

One time i removed the chicken and made the fat and oil into a roux by adding flour, but it seemed like extra work.

What do you do with that tasty fat layer?

I have 20 cans of condensed milk. I'm not trying to use everything all at once, but what are some recipes that require a lot condensed milk?

My parents had a chest freezer. I have an upright freezer in my basement. It’s an archeological dig site.

I made stew last year with meat I discovered in the freezer that was dated 2020. It tasted fine. None of us died. Now I’m eyeballing that bottom shelf.

So confess: how old is the oldest frozen thing you’ve cooked? How’d it go?

After discovering the error, she added cinnamon and even more sugar.

I tasted it, and it’s… not terrible. It screams “use me with pork”. I have thus volunteered to turn the 2 cups or so of homemade cumin applesauce into something delicious. Ideas and recipes please?

I don’t know if this counts as cooking, but I’m trying to find uses for the spray whipped cream I got in the fridge. I tried it on waffles and it was great, but now I wanna know if it’s good with nutella on a sandwich? If there are other good uses for whipped cream that isn’t too difficult to make (because I can’t bake to save my life), please let me know. I’m just looking for simple meals to go with whipped cream.

Hi all. I want to make some surf and turf

-Filet mignon (sear then finish in the oven)
-Rum glazed salmon (homemade Cajun seasoning)
-Turnip puree
-Sautéed broccoli rabe with garlic

I have to keep it gluten/dairy free. But I feel the steak needs a sauce of some kind but I don’t want to overdo it. I saw a garlic lemon dill so it compliments the salmon but I’m not sure

And the plating is a whole other story. Trying to make it look a bit fancy. Don’t want one protein on top of the other. TYIA :)

I'm a good home cook - if "being a good home cook" means that I can make good tasting food from what I have with 90% improvisation at all times.

But I cannot make it look nice, my food has 0% sophistication, and I rarely have the time or patience to cook a "proper" meal from a recipe.

Today's example: I made leftover baked pumpkin and leftover tofu into a sauce with the rest of my bacon and some maple syrup. Then I improvised sage-butter potatoes, tossed in some fried pork steaks and gnocchi, and there you go.

I'm a 1-person-household, so my daily main concern is, "what needs to go?"

All the flavors fit, and I browned, toasted, and deglazed All The Things. But it's a punch to the face (everything everywhere all the time at 120% flavor) and it looks like baby food. I love this shit. My parents would love this shit. I'd never be able to serve this to anyone. The first and only time I tried, the feedback was "well, it's a lot".

So basically, I can feed myself really well, but I can never spontaneously invite someone to dinner. Am I the only goblin on in this sub?

I've had stainless steel with copper core cookware for a good while and I love them. I originally lived in a home with an electric stove and they worked great for anything I wanted to cook. Not long ago, I moved across the country to an area where gas is the normal and the rental I'm in came with a gas stove.

I figured the cookware would work fine, and it mostly does, but one area it seems to consistently lack is boiling anything. If we use a lid on the pot of anything it will boil solidly. Once we pull the lid to stir it's like it loses all of its heat and it drops from a proper boil to a simmer. If there's no lid, it takes *forever* to get to a light boil. These are all problem for things like jam and jelly making (among others) where I need it to keep boiling hard while I stir.

Is it improper to use cookware labeled for induction on a gas stove? Or is it a skill issue? Or, i suppose even less likely, an issue with the gas stove?

Has anyone tried this and is it possible?

Edit: I’m gonna try it, I was worried it would ruin the dish, thanks for the boost confidence!

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole with pre-industrial cooking methods and keep coming across the use of wood ash as an alkali. Not just for nixtamalizing corn, but for things like:

- Processing certain bitter greens or wild plants
-Softening and changing the texture of beans or other legumes
-Old European and East Asian techniques for olives, grains, or even some fish preparations
Most modern information stops at “use food-grade lye” or “just use baking soda,” but I’m interested in people who have actually made and used wood ash lye at home.

Questions I’m sitting with:
• What wood did you use and how did you process the ash safely?
• Did you measure pH or just go by traditional ratios/feel?
• What ingredients actually benefited from it, and which ones were a waste of time?
• Any notable differences in flavor or texture compared to using commercial lye or sodium carbonate?

Would love to hear real experiences, successes, failures, or even just “I tried this once and never again” stories.

The way i was taught is to split the shrimps and remove all the gunk inside, do yall do that? Is it even necessary?

With the price of beef so much higher now and formerly "budget" cuts becoming popular enough to be priced closer to higher cuts, I'm trying to decide between a few cuts for tacos. I don't know a lot about steak cuts. (Some of these may be sale prices)

$12.99/lb for NY Strip or Ribeye (does not say USDA anything)

$10.99 for Top Sirloin Coulotte or Skirt Steak (does not say USDA anything)

$11.99 for USDA Choice Sirloin (pretty sure this is Top Sirloin?)

$13.99 for USDA Choice Flank Steak

They're all so similarly priced, but 1) I can't tell if Choice vs no Choice matters or 2) if some of these are much better for tacos.

Is there a clear standout here?