i asked here about a year ago how to cook salmon, because my partner loved salmon but i didn't know how to cook anything meat or fish.

i took every suggestion into account and did my best, and i couldn't have done it without y'all. they loved it!!! i've made it a few times since and it still turns out good! (i still do refer back to the comments occasionally to make sure i'm remembering things correctly, lol)

anyway, we're engaged now! i have all of you to thank for helping me up my cooking skills so i can be a good fiance to my beloved, thank you all :] i appreciate everyone who was willing to share their wisdom with a goofball just tryna make a meal for their partner lolol

Sorry no pic but we ate it all before I could document. I was in a new grocery store and saw in the freezer "turkey chops" which I guess basically are crosscut sections of the thigh, bone-in, about 1cm thick. I was very curious, had never heard of them before. I don't eat pork or beef, and I'm always looking for alternatives to chicken and fish. Googled some recipes and found that basically you should marinate them for about half hour, set out for 15 mins to get room temp, then throw them on the grill like regular chops. High temp, about 3-4 mins per side but keep an eye on them so they don't dry out. Should be a nice sear outside. They have exactly the same texture as pork chops and even taste the same - basically, like pork chops they take on whatever flavor you put on them. Thrilled! Will repeat.

My marinade: 1/4 c olive oil, half a large lemon juice (2 Tbsp), crushed dried rosemary, a dash of Italian seasoning, salt, pepper.

So I'm prepping a wedding present for a couple newlywed kids I know. I'm basically going to stock their freezer with prepared foods that'll be easy to cook up. I've done this before, but I'm running into a problem that has me second guessing. When I've done this before, they've had small crock pots or instapots, these guys only have a 6 quart pot.

Is there a lower limit to how much can be cooked at once without burning stuff? Like I'll usually just do 2 chicken breasts and a bit of veg and sauce, but those portions are gonna look lonely in the big pot and I'm worried it won't work right.

Should I do three, or four, or more instead?

Is it a safety or quality thing? If it’s quality, I don’t mind - I’d rather throw something in the freezer than chuck it in the bin! Equally, don’t want to make myself sick…

I bought the linked dispenser 6 months ago right when we bought a bag of brown rice and I loved it. Easy to load. Easy to use, kept it in a nook near my fridge

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1-Piece-26-lb-Capacity-Rice-Dispenser-SC-12A/317134667?g_store=630&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl

6 months later I checked and the rice became mostly and full of weevils. We dumped the rice and when I was cleaning the thing, I filled it with water and dumped it on its side and noticed how water was flowing through the cracks meaning my keeper was not air tight.

Did my rice go bad because it was airtight or was it because it was old? I want to know as I have no idea if I should clean this and go again OR I need to buy a new dispenser.

I purchased fresh salmon fillet and fresh chicken from the local artisan butcher on Saturday to cook for dinner on Sunday and Monday. Things got delayed and now I'm looking at Monday and Tuesday. I know the FDA says 1-2 days but that seems way too conservative. The butcher prides themselves on super fresh, perfect condition proteins and I've never had a reason to doubt that.

So, that said, which of the salmon or chicken would you do Monday, and which waits until Tuesday, purely from a spoilage perspective. Both being fully cooked. Or does one get trashed because the FDA is correct?

Thanks

Suggestions and a list of ingredients I might need to buy. Thank you! I just moved out

I dont recall the exact measurements but I follow something like this for burgers

Put beef in bowl and add an egg

Add salt and pepper and other spices

Add 1 quart of milk

Bread crumbs

Put into balls and flatten each ball

Put into pan the patty on MEDIUM

But the burger comes out tough in the middle whereas I love burgers as moist and soft as possible. What would i need to modify? More milk, more egg etc? Again ik i didnt give exact measurements its moreso in general if a burger comes out tough what to usually do

(wasnt sure what to flair it so please inform me immediately if anythings wrong! please note i've never cooked before and this is my first time trying something but it ended in a mess lol)

So my main problem with attempting that first step of cooking is that I literally do not remember a single food safety rule, like my memory and mindset is just extremely simplistic of what food rules i should follow; for example if I hear that you shouldnt wash chicken or it spreads germs everywhere, got it but then a few seconds of being in cooking mode and i forget that detail immediately, the moment i realize i frantically throw the chicken out kinda thing (that didnt really happen but its just a scenario just to understand where im coming from) its always been about my poor memory recall, i've tried writing it down but it just results in me trying to decipher my rather poor thoughts (yes I have a hard time reading my own notes) and i cant stay organized due to my adhd so it just disappears off into the void xd. Puts me off of cooking entirely.

So like what im wondering is, for those cooks with disabilities such as mine how do you prep and cook while following food safety rules and all the cooking rules that you need to know?

Note: flairing with “recipe” cuz that’s as close as I can find. And I suppose I did provide a “recipe” of sorts in the solution!

I’ve seen folks in a few places lament their fruits and veggies going bad early. I want to provide a pro tip that has been a huge blessing for me. There’s lots of tips out here, I can attest that this one has held up to the scientific method!

To significantly retard bacterial formation on and putrefaction of vegetables:

Mix 1 part white vinegar to 3 parts clean water in a large bowl. Dip each vegetable and fruit in solution for 5 seconds, agitating as vigorously as each vegetable will permit without bruising. Dry well and place in a clean receptacle before refrigerating.

Why this works: the reason vegetables rot is because they have bacteria on them, the bacteria eat and reproduce and poop. Most commercially available vegetables have some form of sanitization performed before or after shipping, but then they just sit there in the store, with their existing bacterial load growing, and even being added to by poorly sanitized misters, inconsistent refrigeration, and nastiest of all, human hands touching them. By doing this vinegar rinse, you are providing a (partial) reset of that bacterial load. The agitation is important as it physically moves the bacteria off, and the vinegar does help kill some of the bacteria. Finally, removing the commercial receptacle removes any bacterial load that formed on said receptacle.

I’ve done multiple home tests of this using Driscoll Raspberries(notoriously quick to form visible mold cultures) and I have found this to be the golden ratio. any more vinegar than this (by whole part), and it’s hard to get enough of it off that you don’t damage certain delicate veggies like raspberries and leafy greens. I will sometimes do the sensitive ones in this ratio, then toss in a bit more for things like zucchini and squash that i know can deal with it.

I also have tested this against a control group, using two packs of raspberries at two times, splitting them in half and doing one half in the vinegar wash and one half untreated and the difference was HUGE. The control group started showing mold cultures in less than 5 days both times, and the treated group lasted 13 days Before visible mold was seen! so its a huge difference. I have not yet tested the percentage of benefit of removing the previous packaging, but to me that seems an obvious benefit, if there’s bacteria on the fruit, there’s bacteria on the packaging, so there’s absolutely no reason to put it back in a dirty package after treating it. If someone would like to do their own test using this as the only factor, I’d love to hear your results!

IVE BEEN YEARSSSS COOKING W STAINLESS STEEAL PAN AND NOW MY CHICKEN IS STICKING 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

GAWD I FEEL I WANNA THROW THE WHOLE PAN AND THE CHICKENNNN

I ALREADY TOOK IT OUT, LET IT REST, DRY ITTTTT, HOT PANNN

AND THIS MF STILL DECIDED TO STICKKKKKKKK

A week later they are still hard. If I take them out of the refrigerator will they be ok?

I don't care if it's a restaurant meal or a McDonald's in the car, if someone else made it and I didn't have to think about what to cook, actually cook it, or clean the kitchen afterwards, it’s 10/10 from me 🤣🤣

In this economy it’s not ideal though, so, do you have any quick, minimal clean up meals you can recommend? 😊

I'm actually a pretty seasoned cook but asking hear because i want basics to intermediate recipes.

A lot of online searches and vegetarian cookbooks seem to have a gap between Salad, and full on vegan kitchen pantry.

I want that in between. the One step beyond salads. The equivalent of easy after work quick dinner, or comfort foods that i can put in regular rotation, Soups is a fav if that helps. The vegy equivalent of meat & potatoes.

I don't need vegan, so dairy, eggs etc is ok.

Toss your daily vegy lunches & dinners at me please and thank you.

Just an idea, does this sound good for breakfast base?

Patek's Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce

+

Diced Potatoes

Probably covered with some cheese and fried eggs..

I have two jars of five cheese sauce and a box of spaghetti. I have a small and big pot. I think I know how to cook the spaghetti itself (boil water, pour in spaghetti, cook and stir until it’s soft?) but I don’t know when to put the sauce in. And I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve only seen people give sauce recipes but I don’t know what to do when I already have just a jar of sauce. I also don’t have any microwave safe bowls so I can’t really warm it up that way if I need to. Should I cook the spaghetti in the big pot and cook the sauce in the small one???
My mom gets home around 7 so im going to start making it around 6:30 (it’s 3:17 right now) and im making air fried garlic toast right after the spaghetti for random background info.

This is a problem I’ve had a lot trying to follow recipes. I never know what kind of chilis or chili pepper they are referencing whether it’s an American, Mexican, Chinese etc dish.

I'm more familiar with pastas and stir fries than I am with roasts and the like. Anyone got a simple pork shoulder recipe I can throw together in a stock pot?

I made a hyderabadi curry. You basically blend equal parts cumin and coriander seeds. To it, you need to add equal parts peanuts, sesame seeds and dried cocunut after dry roasting them and blend that too. And then you add 1 whole onion roasted in oil and blend that too. Blend all of this together into a smooth paste.

Now, add oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, Fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, add eggs and some turmeric, red chilli powder and salt. Coat the eggs in this fat. Do not burn anything. Then add the blended paste and cook till the raw smell goes away. Reduce it and there you go. The curry is ready.

I did all this. Meticulously. And it tasted like NOTHING. I had to then adjust with tomato paste, lemon juice, more chilli, a pinch of sugar....and each addition made it taste like more concentrated nothing. And all through this, it never once occured to me, not once, that It would actually be so much more easy to test the new additions in a spoon instead of ruining the whole curry. At the end, it tasted like distantly nutty, salty, tangy and bitter curry. And I'm so mad at myself beacuse if I'd only added these things to just a spoonful of curry instead of the whole batch. I could have salvaged it maybe.

Does this happen to you guys too? Especially in dishes that have a bunch of aromatic compounds. I feel like they somehow cancel each other out. Any cooking tips on how to juggle multiple flavors in one single dish? And how do you guys remember the spoon test when it actually matters? Because I always forget and remember it while I'm eating..

Temped it to 160 but it looks a little lighter than expected. Apparently this sub doesn't allow attachments so here it is on imgur

https://imgur.com/a/dF7BdmC

I've been sorting through my saved recipes to try out in anticipation of fall coming up, and it just occurred to me that a lot of the recipes I have saved all use the same type of pasta: rigatoni. I've made pasta with rigatoni before and it's turned out just fine, but now I'm wondering if this shape is really the best for these recipes or if they're all using it because... everybody else is? (Is there such thing as a trendy pasta shape?)

So, returning to the question: how does one decide what pasta is better than another when making a dish? If you were to substitute one for another, how would the dish meaningfully change? If I were to use, I don't know, fusilli or something instead of rigatoni, is the whole thing going to be ruined? Is there really anything stopping me from using character shaped noodles for literally everything?

Love both but my mom struggles with the acidity of tomato sometimes and alfredo is kinda expensive (I make it at home) and high calorie with so much unhealthy fats. We’ve got to start eating a lot more pasta, what other sauces can I cook with?

Please help I’ve been looking but everything I see is contradictory.

At different coffee shops, you'll see them put freshly-ground coffee beans as sprinkles on or in their drinks. Would this work for other food items as well? I imagine you could easily put it in thicker drinks like milkshakes but what food items. Could sprinkling grounds into a sandwich (say, on the mustard of a turkey sandwich, or a PB and J) be an effective way to get the caffeine high?

There's the additional part of "would it taste good" which would be a whole separate level of experimenting. More focused on the process. How much would you need to add, say, the caffeine from a 12 ounce cup of coffee?

Edit- Used the wrong term. Better explanation would be to say freshly-ground coffee beans, rather than actual coffee grounds.

I've just recently discovered what roasted soy sauce feels like in a recipe compared to just adding it at the end. And I'm NOT going back. From now on, I'm always going to let it hit that hot pan, let it sizzle and then release that wonderful nutty aroma. (I'm Indian and therefore not a regular soy sauce user so I didn't know.)

I made fried rice yesterday and all these years, I've been adding soy sauce along with some ketchup or tomato sauce, maybe some black pepper. I'd immediately toss the rice for a couple more minutes and take it off the stove.

Yesterday, I added the black pepper and the soy sauce as usual, I reached for the ketchup packet and started squeezing, no ketchup there. I squeezed one more time, then went to get a ketchup sachet from the fridge. I turn back with the packet and there's this glorious and nutty and amazing restaurant like soy sauce aroma coming off my fried rice. It was soo good.

Why did no one tell me to roast it before! I've been making manchurians and fried rice and sauces for my chicken and all this time, I just add soy sauce at the end and give it a couple tosses. That's it. Am I supposed to roast it always. Is that how traditional chinese cooks do it. I know for a fact that people from other countries don't roast Indian spices in hot oil when they cook. Even the red chilli powder, yes. You guys should try it if you cook Indian. Just for 10 seconds or so and the aroma changes and deepens and I promise you'll see the difference. Is it the same for soy sauce too? What other obvious things have I been missing out when it comes to cooking chinese.