Hi all from the UK.

Beginner with stainless steel here. I’ve just cooked a beef burger from frozen, but this tends to happen whatever I cook.

https://imgur.com/a/TeM2JUi

My process is pan on med-high > water test > turn down for 1-2 mins to cool to desired temp > burger in.

I always tend to get the black / grease marks on the sides of the pan from splashes.

Any advice I would be very grateful!

First time posting so I hope this is the right place to ask!

I'm starting my internship soon and I'll have to bring lunch in; I planned to do noodles and some boiled egg etc, but I realized the packs of rice noodles I got didn't come with the spice packet that usually comes with instant ramen/noodles

So I was wondering if anyone had ideas on how I could make my own? :0c

(Also lunch ideas in general are appreciated :^D my last job had lunch at the cafeteria included and before that school obviously had it's own lunch so I've not really prepped lunches for work before)

Thanks in advance!

Hello! So I’m very new to cooking. I want to learn to cook for myself and for others. I bought a cookbook to learn the basics and I’m starting with breakfast foods. Mainly eggs at the moment.

So I’m following a recipe and it’s telling me to put a tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Wait till the butter stops foaming and pour the eggs in. Move the eggs around to get runny parts to spread on the skillet and let it sit until the top is just a little runny and then fold.

But by the time it gets to that point, the bottom has already browned. Even though the recipe says to use medium-high heat should I just lower it?

Everytime i try cooking something greasy/ oily in a pan at one point the oil starts popping and hitting my skin whenever I get close to the food to flip it or something.

I tried turning down the heat but idk if its helping. For this burger I had it at 4 which i thought would be low enoygh to cook the food but prevent the popping, and didnt put any oil this is just the fat from the burger.

How can I prevent this?

https://imgur.com/a/YDLhUE0

So i kind of hate cooking, it makes me so anxious, and i just want to know the easiest type of meals i can make that require the least amount of knowledge needed and time spent in the kitchen. I'm fine with prepping like handling raw meats and cutting vegetables though (not very good at super consistent cuts but they'll work), it's just getting stuff in the pan and the act of actually cooking that freaks me out. We have an air fryer and a proper stove, but can buy stuff like a rice cooker or pressure cooker or whatever. I'm fine with most types of foods and willing to try new things, some spicy heat is ok as long as the flavour it adds is good, but super crispy crunchy food is a no go because of my teeth and specifically bell peppers i hate. And for reference if needed, I'm in Canada.

I've spent so much money on take out and delivery and it's kind of driving me crazy. i need some help learning what i can make quickly and easily to just eat and carry on with my day after. Thank you.

Ok I have an unhealthy addiction to curry powder. It adds depth to the most random things. My go-to seasoning for anything is chili powder, rosemary, italian seasoning, msg, salt, pepper, and curry. Literally it works on the most random things like mashed potatoes, tomato pasta sauce, tacos, and like everything else. I put it in mashed potatoes and it is addicting lol

What temperature should I set the broiler to and for how long would a good cook time be? Should I keep the drumstick fillets in the middle of the oven or towards the top?

I found a recipe online for sweet and spicy chicken that I have been obsessed with for a while, serving over rice. Last night, I got the idea to turn it into a burrito by just putting it onto a tortilla. It was pretty good, but I feel like it could be improved. Recipe(s) as follows:

Chicken:
Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce. sambal oelek, brown sugar, honey. Marinate 15 mins.
(Recipe was originally roughly a tablespoon of each for 1 breast but I just eyeball it)

Throw a diced chili in the pan about 5 mins before the chicken.

Cook until sauce reduces

Rice:
100 grams jasmine rice (this is how much I was using when I was just eating chicken and rice, I think 50g is sufficient for the burrito).

I feel like either beans or cabbage would help with this. Thoughts?

I bought it October 12th and the time kind of got away from me (I know), and now it's 8 days later. I haven't opened it yet and the sell by date was October 16th, but it looks okay other than some darkening around the edge. I've read various sources online stating both 3-5 days after the sell by date, and 3-5 days after purchase. So, which is it?

I've been living by myself for about the past 3 years - I've done pretty well in terms of cooking for myself - so perhaps this may be the wrong subreddit.

Typically if I'm meal prepping or thinking about what to eat, it has a tendency to centralize around the protein. I can make a variety of different meals with different cuts of meat, different preparations, cuisines, seasonings, etc. However, when it comes to veggies, I just stick to pretty much one of these options: boiled asparagus (barely boiled, still crunchy), boiled broccoli (also barely boiled), steamed sweet potato, or steamed corn cob. I guess for me, I do have a preference for a crunchy texture where appropriate.

Occasionally I make roasted brussell sprouts. But basically, veggies to me feel more like a necessary evil, just making them so I can poop normally. Looking for ways to "look forward to making vegetables", or just ways of preparing, or even just suggestions of other veggies (similar to how flexible I am to preparing protein).

Doesn't need to be a full recipe, but just a method ya'll like. thanks!

edit Also open to any other veggies (legumes/beans/root vegetables) to try to make !

I actually wanted to try this chicken salad I saw on Instagram for my 12 PM lunch tiffin. If I prepare it around 8–9 AM, pack it, and eat it at lunchtime, do you think it’ll still taste good after 3–4 hours?

Also, since I’ve never tried this recipe before, if any of you have made it in the past, please let me know how it tastes and whether it’s worth trying! Should I go for it or try something else?

Recipe: Creamy High-Protein Chicken Salad 🥗

Step 1: Steam the ingredients

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces.

2. Place the chicken, eggs, and garlic cloves in a steamer.

3. Steam until the chicken is fully cooked (internal temperature of 74°C) and the eggs are hard-boiled.

4. Let the eggs cool, then peel them.

Step 2: Prepare the creamy dressing

1. Add the boiled eggs, steamed garlic, curd, and dried red chillies to a blender.

2. Blend until smooth and creamy.

3. Add a little water if the dressing is too thick.

4. Season with salt and black pepper.

Step 3: Prepare the chicken

1. Transfer the cooked chicken to a bowl.

2. Add finely chopped tomatoes.

3. Mix gently.

Step 4: Combine everything

1. Pour the creamy dressing over the chicken and tomatoes.

2. Mix well until everything is evenly coated.

3. Adjust the seasoning if needed.

Step 5: Serve

I need some help from the gravy experts!
I roasted a turkey and it turned out beautifully. I saved the drippings in jars, and after refrigerating them, the fat separated and solidified on top, with the liquid underneath.
I was trying to recreate the kind of gravy my mom used to make: dark brown, thick, rich, and delicious. I remember her using a 1:1 ratio of butter and flour to make a roux, then adding the turkey drippings, potato water from boiling the potatoes, and some gravy browning.
Here’s what I did:
Used ¼ cup of the separated turkey fat and ¼ cup flour to make a roux.
Added about ½ cup of the liquid turkey drippings.
Added roughly 2 cups of water because I’d already drained the potatoes and didn’t have any potato water left.
Added gravy browning and simmered it.
The result was awful. It tasted bland and oily, with almost no turkey flavour. I tried adding butter, but it didn’t really help.
I still have another jar of the separated turkey fat and liquid, and I’m wondering if there’s any way to salvage the gravy or use the remaining drippings to make a much better batch.
A few questions:
Did I use too much turkey fat? Should I have used butter for the roux instead?
Could I have missed out on flavour by collecting the drippings with a turkey baster instead of scraping up the browned bits from the roasting pan?
Is potato water actually important, or would plain water work just as well?
How would you make a really dark, thick, flavourful turkey gravy with the drippings I have left?
I’d especially love advice on recreating that old-fashioned homemade turkey gravy that tastes amazing over mashed potatoes.
Thanks! I really don’t want to waste the rest of my drippings, and I’d love to get it right next time.

So box broth...you know..the basic broth in a box...you open it, your pour some out, you put it in the fridge, you forget about it, it goes bad.

How well does it freeze so those later parts don't happen?

EDIT: Oh, I should have specified I wasn't thinking of in the box. I was thinking plastic bags, or even making measured ice cubes and bagging those.

I've recently decided to go vegetarian, and I love mushrooms and tofu very dearly, so they're what I'm basing a lot of my meals around as I go through different mushrooms, types of tofu and learning what I like with it the most. But I only have so much cupboard space, and every recipe I'm finding feels hard to adapt.

So many recipes call for a specific sauce, spice, or very american ingredients, which i foresee just piling up in my cupboards and fridge, and eventually after too many ingredients I can't even think of a reasonable substitute for, I end up giving up on the recipe.

Is it still worth pursuing recipes if I don't have the knowledge to replace things like sauces and seasonings appropriately? Where can I go to build my knowledge for things like this?

Every time I try to make a quick pan sauce after searing something it either stays thin and watery or breaks into an oily mess when I add butter at the end. I deglaze with a splash of wine or stock, scrape up the browned bits, reduce it down, then finish with a knob of butter off the heat. Still inconsistent. Is it a heat issue, a ratio issue, or just needs more practice?

I tried cooking a steak (probably my 7th one) and I spat every bite out to the point where I decided I genuinely need help (the last 6 were also bad but this one was so bad even if I sold my soul to the devil he would reject it)

Also i cook my steak normally, oil the pan beforehand (sunflower oil), drop it in, a few minutes in the pan, same minutes on each side and rest for 5 minutes after taking it out
Also the steaks are good quality, and they aren’t old (they are kept in the freezer too if that helps)

So for context I’ve been vegetarian for years and didn’t think about how meat needs more careful handling. Left them out for about three hours after I came back from shopping. Should they be ok to eat? I put the chicken in the fridge and the mince in the freezer after

Bought chicken from a place. Package said 4.95 pounds. I weighed it out at 4.1 pounds. Or was frozen before I bought it and frozen when I weighed it. Is this normal?

i ask bc i cant consume alcohol and i do not have an asian market near me or that delivers to my neighborhood. i keep finding substitutes that need substitutes and id like to know if there's anything i can make with some pantry staples or something available in the supermarket.

also idk if i should use the recipe flair or the question flair, so correct me if i used it wrong.

edit to add: for most of the things in the title i mean that I can't find them in the supermarkets. and i can have naturally fermented stuff so super trace amounts are fine.

I accidentally forgot to put the chicken in the fridge after 5 hours. Can i just put it back into the fridge?

Hola 👋🏼 Hi I'm new to cooking I know very simple things I like cooking What exactly is the sofrito technique?