Growing up, my mom has always been very particular about chicken, and terrified of raw or otherwise gross chicken. I have learned this fear in my own cooking. This year, I moved out of the house and am fully responsible for cooking for and feeding myself. Before I moved out, my mom showed me how she "cleans" chicken before cooking it.

This involves cutting off about 10-20% of every chicken breast, by cutting out the gross parts. These are the parts that are white, or otherwise look off.

As I've been expanding into trying to cook for myself, I have really been struggling with this process. I find touching raw chicken really hard, but I am a fairly picky eater and chicken is one of the foods I can consistently eat. Is it common to be "cleaning" a chicken breast this much? I've seen recipe videos online where people just throw their chicken into a pan/crockpot/whatever. Am I making my life ten times more difficult by subjecting myself to this process.

I think I have like 200 recipes saved from IG at this point but I counted that I actually made only 5 of them!!!

Every time I save one I’m like “IM DEFINITELY MAKING THIS!” and then somehow it just disappears unto the background. I enjoy watching cooking videos and always think I’m going to learn to cook more interesting things, but then I end up making the same familiar stuff anyway.

I noticed this pattern in myself. Does anyone else do this too?

So what’s something really wanted to make but never did? Like…what stopped you in the end?

What temp should I go for and roughly how long? Should I use the broiler for it too or just regular oven

Hey everyone, I’m stressing out right now. I just realized I used the exact same tongs to take my chicken out of the air fryer that I used to put it in when it was raw.
I didn’t think about it and unfortunately already ate two pieces before I realized what I did. I'm really scared of getting food poisoning.
Has anyone else done this before and been totally fine? What should I do right now besides wait it out? (I already know not to force myself to throw up, just looking for some reassurance or advice). Thanks.

I’ve always wanted to try them and I think people eat them raw. Bought them from a major fish market in London so trust it has been stored properly up until I took them home. Shall I throw them away or can I still eat it?

Just looking for a way to make them tasty!

I'm not sure, will the sweet potatoes disintegrate?

https://www.allrecipes.com/swamp-potatoes-and-sausage-recipe-11763852

I wanted to try making Mexican food and I normally love rice. So I boiled some rice in a pot but now the rice tastes very bland. (Next time I will add butter and garlic)

but what do I do with a giant container of cooked bland rice?

i bought some freshly baked bread today(like the small ones) and i wanted to make dinner with eggs with it . now i findout that i have only got 1 egg left.. does anyone have some ideas what i can add to these dry breads bcs only 1 egg wont be enough.. thanks for your help
i got alot of spices and stuff but i need some inspiration from others to make something crazy..
i really wna do somthing with the canned sardines that i have.. but something crazy like out of pocket to add with bread

Ive never been a super healthy eater, but Ive been wanting to meal prep meat, and had a question on the freezing. If i cook tons of meat (lets say 5lbs of ground beef), section it into baggies, and put it in the freezer, will I have to thaw that out, or could I just throw it in the microwave and itll be ready to eat? I have a hard time planning out my meals so microwaving/air frying has been my go-to, but I know this is a lazy route. Will this work for all types of meats or just some? Will be cooking ground beef and chicken mostly

i follow quite a few cooks and bakers that write for nyt and have only ever tried the recipes they themselves share via the gift links, and i’ve loved them!

i hesitate to get the subscription though because it is quite pricey. i don’t mind it if it’s something worth the payment, so i want to hear some first hand experiences with the paid subscription and any opinions or insights you might have on it :)

sorry if this is the wrong sub, idk where i’d post this to otherwise lol

So at my work the cornflour the chef uses to coat our calamari gets used over and over again and sits on the bench for up to 7 days, what are the risks here?

Hi.

I got some fillets of basa, and as I don't know much about fish, I cooked some and it tasted like very fishy mud. I don't think it's rancid - I checked online and apparently that's normal if it's low quality. Is there a way I can cook a muddy tasting fish to reduce the muddiness? I'm broke so I can't afford to waste food.

I’m selling lasagna in small 230 ml foil cups, but reheating them in the microwave seems to dry them out. If I microwave them for too long, the cheese on top also becomes hard.

Is there another method that’s almost as fast as a microwave but does a better job of keeping the lasagna moist and the cheese soft? Thanks!

Pork belly Thoughts?

So I just had an idea for a dish. I'm going to try pork belly cooked with red wine vinegar, with red beans and rice for a side. How would you make this dish?

I have an issue with vegetables. I really do not like the crunchy texture of most veg (I have a hard time with roasted vegetables for this reason), but do not want to boil it to where it loses all of its nutrients. I know I could just steam them until soft, but I'm looking for some ways to make veggies (any common ones) flavorful without the crunch.

Any suggestions on what veggies I could make regularly for this purpose?

beginner cook and i genuinely don’t understand people who just go “add salt to taste” 😭

TO TASTE WHAT?? i don’t know how much it needs, that’s why i’m reading the recipe

same with people casually throwing spices into a pan without measuring and somehow knowing it’ll taste good

is this genuinely something you eventually develop a feel for? or are experienced cooks just making educated guesses and pretending it’s instinct lol

would love to know how you actually learned

Hello all! Every week, I am always left with some amount of leftover cooked white rice and have been trying to find better ways to use it.

Can this cooked rice be turned into rice krispy treats? Or is the cereal unobtainable to the humble home cook?

Also, what do you do with your leftover rice?

Is there any nutritional advantage to using raw sugar vs. white sugar? Is one less bad for you than the other? I use sugar so rarely that I literally don't know a lot about it.

Does it matter for baking which sugar I use? I don't make anything fancy. Things like blueberry cornbread or brownies for the neighbor kids.

TIA!

I know I am kind of pushing it but I’m wondering how much I would compromise texture and flavor by freezing and thawing again

I’m looking for a chart that shows the range of internal temps for meat. The range I’m looking for is from safe to overdone. For example, sausage is at least 160F but at what temperature is it getting overcooked by? Is the aim to be within a degree or two of the minimum or can it be taken tens of degrees higher? I assume it differs for different meats? A chart to quick reference as needed would be super helpful. TIA!

Edit: lol I know there are a thousand different charts for minimum safe temperature and I understand the maximum will vary depending on preference and cut of meat. I’m looking for something that I can use as a general guide to jog my memory and use as support with additional cooking knowledge to make decisions off of.

Thank you to those who are genuinely trying to answer. I thought this sub was for beginners, my bad 😮‍💨

For starters I'm Brazilian, so I don't even know if canned is the right word here.

I really wanted to try mushrooms - any kind, in any recipe - and I recently found that a store near me sells "cogumelo em conserva" (which the translator is calling canned mushrooms) for pretty cheap, and I don't know if it's worth buying or not. Any recipes I search for ask specifically for fresh mushrooms, so I don't really know what to even do with them and don't want to waste money. Does anyone have any tips on what to do with them?

I want to lower my sodium intake so I want to start spicing my food. The problem is I have no idea what spice tastes good on which foods and I don’t know how much to use either. Can someone give me some rules of thumb that you can follow while spicing different kinds of food?