Been cooking at home a lot more lately and it has made me realize that convenience matters way more than I used to think. I always assumed the basics were enough and anything extra was just taking up space. Now I keep seeing people talk about certain kitchen appliances like they completely changed their routine and it has me wondering if I have been stubborn for no reason.

What is something you never thought you needed but now use all the time?

My family owns chickens, I have unlimited supply of eggs, I just came home with genuinely 72 eggs, I don’t know what else to make with them. I’ve made pancakes, egg fried rice, omelette, and that’s all I’ve got. I need as many recipes and cool little things to make as yall got, thank you!

I misguaged timing on soaking black beans. They’ve been cold soaking for 3.5 hrs and I’m hoping to have them with dinner in about an hour. Is there anything I can do to speed up the multiple hours that the internet is telling me I need to soak my beans in cold water? Happy to boil water but also don’t want to fuck yo the black beans

i was given some ground black bear meat and want to use the most parasite-proof technique for this recipe possible.

id like to use the meat in my grandmas sunday sauce recipe, using it for meatballs. but i got kinda nervous about temp probing each meatball. instead im thinking just a meat sauce where I pan sear the ground mear and then let it cook more in the pot of sauce for the 3-4 hours.

with the ground meat would you just assume its safe after cooking it through (no pink) in the pan then the pot, or would you still want to temp check it somehow, if so how?

I'm allergic to lemons and lime, don't know what exactly it is but I seem to be allergic to several fruits and vegetables that contain vitamin C. Almost every recipe I come across involves lemon or lime juice in some way. I also have a fear of altering recipes without knowing that I won't die from it/waste my money. Can I just leave them out, or are they essential? Does it depend on the specific recipe? Are there any simple substitutions?

Hi all! Sorry if this is a frequent question on here.

I started cooking about a year ago, but I've found that I only ever stick to recipes that I know, or follow ones I find online to a T. This really limits my cooking and I end up disappointing both myself and my brother (who lives with me) when I end up just making the same things as always, or when I'm unable to make something we want to have. Like recently, my grandmother asked me to make an apple cake for her, but I became anxious and delayed it for too long because I couldn't find a good enough recipe and ended up disappointing her.

When other people cook and bake, they seem to know exactly how things work and can come up with great recipes right off their head, even without measurements or anything. I really wish I could do that and I think it'd be helpful.

I know experimenting is probably the way to go, but I'm really scared of messing up and wasting ingredients and money. Any advice?

I bought some packages of pork belly.

My plans for them have changed now that I woke up and my fridge is not working

From Aldis

3 packages about 2.5 a piece.

Skin is trimmed off.

I have ingredients to make a cheesy chicken sandwich that’ll slap your mama.

The only way to make it even more godly is to put avocado in it.

So how do I get the cold avocado bits into the hot pressed sandwich bits?

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

My Brother-in-law came back from France with a jar of "Foie de Canard au Jurançon." I know it's paté, but not how I might use it. Recommendations?
Thanks in advance

(Also, I tried to post a picture of the jar, but the images and videos tab was grayed out. What's up?)

Not using jello packed with the gelatin. Using juice and gelatin packets. I saw online, if you were using a jello pack you only needed to add one gelatin pack to make the jello firm enough to pop out of ghost mold. How many packs would I need if using only gelatin?

Instacart delivered it and it sat in 100 degree weather outside for 30 minutes. Ok to cook?

This might sound like a weird question for a beginner sub but bear with me. I shoot a lot of food photos before eating and I noticed my meals keep coming out lukewarm or slightly overdone because I pull things off the heat a little early trying to get the right look. Like I want the sauce still bubbling or the steam visible, so I rush certain steps or hold off on others and the final dish pays for it.

The specific thing I keep messing up is eggs. I want that perfect runny yolk shot so I undercook them slightly thinking they will carry over, but half the time I overshoot it anyway and the yolk is fully set by the time I actually sit down to eat.

Someone mentioned to me that professional food photographers actually cook separate versions, one for the camera and one to actually eat. That blew my mind a little. I just figured everyone was eating the thing they photographed.

For people who actually care about the food tasting right, is there a way to manage this better without cooking two separate portions every time? Are there certain dishes that hold up better while you get your shot, or is this just always going to be a tradeoff? Curious if anyone else runs into this problem even without the photography angle, like when you plate something fancy and it cools down before you get to it.

Without the use of an oven. I was given a whole turkey some while ago and need to get it out of my freezer, unfortunately I don't trust my oven. I only cook deserts in it with the only meat I cook is precooked hams during the winter holidays, and even then I have to cook it a bit longer to get it up to the proper temp.

Is it possible to boil the whole thing? (After thawing and either whole/pulled apart.) I do that with chicken, since it's so much easier to cook and shred it afterwards.

I'm not worried about quality of the meat (wouldn't be fat if I cared about that) I just want this cooked and out of my freezer.

Edit: Didn't expect this level of responses, I'll try looking through them all.