Pre-chopped garlic in a bottle.
I’m guilty. I’ve tried to use the real stuff, and I will if I’m being super picky, but day-to-day, I just go for the easy way. Open lid, spoon it into pan, you’re good to go! No peeling, dicing, and garlicky smelling hands.
But I don’t let the bottle sit in the fridge for more than a couple weeks. The bottle has to be at least sort-of fresh!
What’s your dirty little secret in the kitchen?
Hmm. I saw the thread title and came in to post this exact thing. My wife claims she hates the stuff and can taste the difference. Yet, whenever she doesn’t see me use it, she never mentions it…
Small jars of minced and crushed garlic.
Using the Braun hand mixer in the skillet when making gravy to avoid lumps from poor whisking skills.
My Caesar salad dressing is made in a blender from a Sunset recipe, and uses Worcestershire sauce instead of real anchovies.
I have one of those apple lathes – that peels and cores and spiral slices apples, for when I make apple pies, which is very rare – not even every Thanksgiving, only every other Thanaksgiving, or maybe 3 years apart sometimes.
It’s dumb, but I like the even cooking that you get from an even slicing of apples. There are even colonial examples, so I’m not actually using modern technology.
But why don’t I just peel and slice 3 apples to make one pie? I dunno, Mom, just … jus… get off my back, kay?
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=apple%20lathe&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
My aunt uses baby food carrots for carrot cake. She says it’s worth the extra money not to have to shred the carrots.
Anchovy paste.
The perfect condiment for sautéed vegetables and into soups and sauces. I never tell people I’m using it until they beg me for what the secret ingredient is in my vegetables. In lieu of salt, it is the perfect flavor component with a pat of butter and a small handful of pinenuts for pan-sautéed veggies!
I use Bisquick to make pancakes sometimes. I’m so ashamed.
Don’t be. I’m quite a good baker, and I use Bisquick all the time for day to day stuff. Count me in on the jarred garlic, too. Anchovy paste as well, for that matter.
I just used Patak’s Vindaloo paste for the first time, and it was awesome
I keep the jar of chopped garlic around in case there is no fresh or the fresh has dried to dust.
(Bolding mine)
That’s actually the more authentic way to do it.
Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Yep.
My mince meat pie recipe is fairly complex. It involves a jar of mince meat and frozen pie crusts. But other than that, I make almost everything from scratch, and the most labor intensive way. I don’t even own a microwave.
I buy canned gravy and pour some of the pan juices into it. I know it’s awful, but it works pretty well. I don’t make gravy very often. I started out just having the canned version available in case mine failed. (I know how to make gravy: cold water, cornstarch, shake, pour, stir etc)
Chopped garlic as well here. I wish regular supermarkets would carry (at an affordable price) the tubes of garlic puree and tomato puree I used to have in the fridge back in the UK at all times.
Thai curry pastes are another. It means I can have a good quality thai curry prepared in 30 minutes with only the wok and rice cooker to clean up.
We buy raw pizza dough. I’m sure it’s no trouble to make, I just haven’t gotten around to doing so yet…
Curry paste, mole paste, other spice-mixes-from-a-jar; I basically never mince up fresh ginger, using ginger paste instead; I also sometimes use garlic paste when I don’t feel link mincing up garlic.
Yeah, jarred chopped garlic. I mean, I use the real stuff too, but damn, I hate cleaning the press or getting it on my hands or it has to go in the pan right now, so when I don’t think it’s a big hairy deal in the flavor of the dish I go jarred.
I make chicken stock a lot, but still end up using canned stock (chicken and beef) pretty often. It’s not as good as the real stuff, but stock makes everything better, so I end up using way more than I make.
I also use pre-mixed spice/herb blends a lot as a shortcut (curry powder, Herbs de Provence, and Italian seasoning, mostly).
I dump copious amounts of onion powder on virtually everything. Saves the time and trouble of chopping up real ones, and it makes everything taste better.
“Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screw-top jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don’t deserve to eat garlic.”
—Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
I love Bourdain, but I use jarred garlic all the time.
He can get his celebrity ass over to my house and clean it, help the kids with their homework, fix whatever’s broken, then peel the garlic!
There’s cooking and there’s Cooking. Garlic in a jar (or Jarlic as I put on our grocery lists).