It’s not so much that I ignore some rules, It’s that I think they are just wrong.
Never flip your burger more than once!!. Um why? I flip at least 3 times, just to confuse gravity trying to drain all the juiciness out. Almost out the bottom huh? now go all the way back through. There is still enough drippy to make yummy smoke for the burgers though.
I never add anything to the water when cooking pasta. Bring the water to a boil, add the pasta, let it sit a minute, give it a good stir… no sticky pasta. I think I must be magic.
My best dishes are stuff I’ve thrown together from whatever is in the house at the time. Leftover cajun spiced pork loin? Bag of frozen prawns? Rice? wee! It’s fake etouffee night! Just like someone’s grandma used to make.
I’m 98% in agreement with you. I’ve heard parsley called the placebo of the herb world, but surely bay leaves have to share this title. I don’t think I could pick out the flavor of bay leaves in a blind taste test without guessing.
Except, recently I had to make a huge quantity of soup and halfway through I realized I’d have to split the ingredients between two pots. So I decided to experiment and add bay leaves to only one of the pots. All other ingredients were the same.
I could tell a difference between the soup with the bay leaves and the soup without – the soup with just tasted “better.” I couldn’t distinguish a particular added flavor, and I couldn’t explain why, but the soup with the bay leaves just tasted tastier, somehow.
My contribution: I wash my mushrooms under running water before eating instead of rubbing them with a damp paper towel like you’re allegedly supposed to. I don’t believe in the belief that it causes them to soak up water.
Using kosher salt for cooking. Kosher salt is regular salt that has a different grain or texture, used for “koshering” meat. Sprinkled on things it can make a difference. Mixed into the soup= no.
Same with “Sea Salt”. Now, there’s two kinds of Sea salt. One is plain old pure NaCl, often without iodine, but sometimes with. The other is “Gray Salt” which does look grey, has impurities, and is VERY expensive. The first is just salt. Tastes no different that table salt. The next can make a tiny difference, but again, not so much when cooked with. I like to use either kosher or grey salt on steak, but only after it’s been cooked.
Cook’s Illustrated tested this fable and discovered just what you think: washing mushrooms is just fine. In the amount of time they are soaking they absorb virtually zero liquid. So wash away!
Letting meat sit before cutting, or cutting into the meat to see if its done. I’ve never had a dried out steak; the juice is not going to magically disappear if you eat it right off the grill. My theory is that this rule was set up by chefs when someone came into the kitchen and demanded to know why the steaks were sitting around on plates. Instead of saying, “so we can server an entire table at once; the steaks were done before other things,” they came up with a silly story that this makes them more juicy.
I don’t think the room temperature thing for steak has any validity, either.
I never add salt to cook pasta. Tastes just fine without it.
Hot pan, cold oil vs cold pan, cold oil.
I watched a Two Fat Ladies where one of them mentioned you should never salt raw red meat. Dunno why and I continue to sprinkle some salt on meat before I cook it and it tastes delicious to me.
Lots of Food Network judges despise mixing seafood with dairy and will mark off points. Shrimp alfredo anyone? Parmesan crusted salmon?
This attitude will take you far, but don’t let it take you as far as buttercream frosting. There is no two ways about it - salted buttercream is disgusting, I just learned a couple weeks ago.
I can see your reasoning for when you’re adding fat back, but I don’t know about this. Anything I’ve ever made with browned meat (beef or sausage) benefited heavily from me draining it. Meat marinara sauce turns in to an awful soupy mess if you don’t drain the meat good.
Browning meat before making a stew. I’ve not noticed an appreciable difference in the stew when using browned vs non browned meat and not browning it saves 10 or 15 minutes of standing in front of the stove.
Yeah, the garlic-onion one-or-the-other notion is pretty common in Italian cooking. Not ALL Italian cooking, but most my “off the boat” Italian friends agree it’s one or the other, not both, but cooking is very regional and all that. If I’m trying to replicate arrabiata or amatraciana or some other local dish, I remain true to it. But if I’m doing a clear-the-freezer/cupboard out Sunday gravy, I don’t care.
I agree that there’s no difference in taste. But texture-wise, there is. I like kosher salt for cooking because it’s easier to grab a pinch of and throw in the pan.
Coarse-grain salt is also divine on a steak or my yummy crispy salted oatmeal cookies. Texture can make a huge difference at times.
But yeah, taste-wise, in the 99% of food where the salt simply dissolves? No difference.
Really? This one is the easiest thing to try. Grab a steak off the grill and cut into it. You’ll end up with a steak sitting in a pool of liquid. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then cut into it. No pool of liquid. I wouldn’t say that the steak tastes dried out without resting, but that pool of liquid is full of flavor and makes the steak much tastier.
Yeah, it might taste fine to you, but can you tell the difference, or is it so mild that you don’t even notice? You’re not adding enough salt to the water if you can’t tell the difference. Most people don’t. You should taste your pasta cooking water; if it doesn’t taste slightly salty, it’s not going to do a damn thing to your pasta. Pasta cooked in properly salted water will taste different even to people who don’t particularly care about stuff like this. Whether or not you like the difference is personal opinion, but you will be able to detect it if you put the right amount of salt in the water.
See, for me it makes a decent amount of difference, and there’s some stews I won’t brown the meat for because I don’t want that “browned” flavor in there (like, for example, veal paprikash.) If you brown meat properly (don’t crowd the pan, have it nice and hot, edges should properly “brown” and not just turn grey) there is a definite “meaty” and “rich” type of taste to it, for lack of better descriptor. When I say I don’t brown veal for paprikash, it’s because I want the dish to remain delicate and the browning adds a certain heavy meatiness to it that I don’t want.
As for draining fried ground beef, that depends. What I usually do is fry ground beef first, and then drain off any excess fat that’s not necessary for the frying up of the onions or vegetables that usually comes next. Not draining the fat makes for a very greasy sauce. I like fat a lot, but even I notice that greasy film on your tongue and lips from a sauce that has way too much fat in it.
Absolutely. Nothing has improved my roasts and steaks as much as discovering the concept of a “rest period” back when I was learning how to cook. And your empirical method is exactly how I figured out how much a difference it makes. I believe in testing out techniques and not just blindly following advice, as a lot of cooking advice is simply outdated or wrong. And some cooking advice isn’t a big deal to some people. For example, there is some idea out there that one should never cut basil with a blade, but always tear it with your fingers. I mean, I appreciate the romance of that. I really do. But I don’t give a shit nor notice any difference, so I just cut it with a knife.
The only thing I use unsalted butter for is when I make ghee. Properly made ghee will last for months on the kitchen counter in a tightly closed container.
As for draining fat from meat, you’re draining saturated fats and (usually) adding unsaturated or monosaturated fats, which are better for you. Also, there is a lot of added water in a lot of ground meats, as mentioned.
Serving the salad before a meal.
Pffffft… it should be served after. With a cheese plate.
Sure, for things where it’s going to dissolve, there’s no difference in taste/texture. But note that the big crystals make for a big difference in measuring, so either use a lot less volume of the table salt (about half) or measure by weight (not usually useful for salt unless you’re making 300+ servings of something).
Mine: Messing with the water temperature before dissolving yeast for bread. Makes absolutely no difference, at least with the rapid-rise and “bread” yeasts. Just dump cold water in there – 99% of the rise time is going to be room temperature anyway, those first 60 seconds don’t make a difference, and it’s a lot less risky than getting the water too hot, which can kill the yeast outright.
The prohibition is usually more specifically an Italian one ( again ) against mixing cheese and seafood. And yeah, I think it is kind of ridiculous as a blanket pronouncement.
Man, those Italians sure are uptight. Who knew?
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