# White Whale of cooking. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079 "2014-12-01T22:24:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/101 "2014-12-06T05:38:46Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Cook your rice as if it were pasta. Just fill a pot like you might make spaghetti in and heat it up. Throw in your cupfuls of rice and put the lid on. After about 15-20 minutes, try the rice. If it’s good, strain and move on. If it’s still starchy or tough, give it another 10 minutes. This is soooooooooo wrong on so many levels. Strain your rice??? WTF I mean, I’m cool if this is the way you like your rice, but a good way to make Mao roll over in his grave. A rice cooker is very forgiving. Bringing your rice to a boil and then covered on low is decent. Steaming your rice in a nice little clay pot is awesome. But boiling the rice and straining out the excess water is, well, blasphemous or some something wicked. Words just fail me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/102 "2014-12-06T14:44:03Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > This is soooooooooo wrong on so many levels. Strain your rice??? WTF I actually learned this method from a South Asian restaurant. It may seem weird to you, but it works a treat. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/103 "2014-12-06T14:46:38Z")
In fact, looking online, it seems the straining method is normal for Indian styles of rice like Basmati. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/104 "2014-12-06T16:15:43Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > Most of my attempts to make pancakes end in disaster. Use self-rising flour and don’t over mix. Let the mixture sit in the bowl for a few minutes to activate the baking powder. Fry in a nonstick pan at medium heat without fat, if you want that uniform brownness. I like to fry in a bit of butter. When bubbles appear on the surface, flip them over. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/105 "2014-12-07T03:52:06Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Two of 'em for me: > > One is a general one: > Real fried chicken (as in “on the bone”) and tempura. Either the outside comes out burned and the inside raw, or it all turns to leather–greasy leather–or (and yes, I’m pretty sure it’s thermodynamically impossible) the batter on the chicken was still undercooked and mostly liquid while the chicken was done but stringy/fiberous. I’ve adjusted the temp of the oil every direction, I’ve tried deep frying in a pot of oil\*, I’ve tried “shallow” frying in a cast iron skillet with melted crisco\* and I JUST! CAN’T! DO! IT! (PS-no fair telling me to either pound the meat flat–I want real, bone-in, fried chicken and no fair saying "Don’t batter it, just use bread-crumbs, corn-flake crumbs, cracker crumbs, etc. That’s good, but it doesn’t count for what I want) Follow [this](http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/copycat_mcdonald_s_chicken_mcnuggets.htm) copycat mcnugget recipe exactly. Always comes out perfectly. Is also wicked good with light or dark meat turkey. Then after you get the hang of judging frying chicken, work on [this](http://www.food.com/recipe/kfc-copycat-chicken-513593) recipe. One issue of going by KFC for friend chicken is that it is fried in a pressure fryer, not something you can do at home. As someone else posted, real southern fried chicken is shallow fried more often than not and is easy to fuck up. Personally, I prefer our homemade nuggets. I rarely bother with KFC or the ilk, and I do not like franchise made nuggets, I wait until we make them at home. > [@Fenris](#): > > But that just pushes the problem forward: you have a gallon of oil, you’ve used it for 6 months and now have 3/4ths of a gallon of semi-rancid oil left. Then what? Pour it down the drain? Toss the sealed container in the trash? Dump it on your neighbor’s lawn? Go to your local fast food place, the kind that has the huge container for used oil that a recycler comes and slurps out the used oil for recycle. Ask them if you can add your pitiful little gallon of oil to theirs - they normally do not pay anything, the recycler comes and gets it for free because they sell the recycled oil products. I have never had an issue with being able to dump a paltry gallon of oil in with theirs. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/106 "2014-12-07T04:08:11Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > As someone else posted, real southern fried chicken is shallow fried more often than not and is easy to fuck up. I really wish this were true, because it would mean that more people were actually frying chicken in their kitchens. Unfortunately, that’s really rare these days, and the vast majority of southern fried chicken is pulled from the deep fryers of neighborhood chicken restaurants (if one is lucky enough to have such a thing nearby). Personally, I think the alleged superiority of chicken fried in a skillet is overstated, but either way is fine with me. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/107 "2014-12-07T04:14:31Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I can never get chicken to taste good. Even when I brine or marinate it, it is not all that great compared to what I get in a restaurant. > > … If your’re talking roast chicken, I have had good luck with stuffing the cavity with a citrus fruit (lemon or orange) and an onion cut in half, some fresh herbs, too, if you have them. I also lift the skin a little and put some butter under it. Be sure to have a meat thermometer to check for proper doneness, before I got one I tended to overcook because I was paranoid about undercooking. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079/108 "2014-12-07T04:32:31Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I really wish this were true, because it would mean that more people were actually frying chicken in their kitchens. Unfortunately, that’s really rare these days, and the vast majority of southern fried chicken is pulled from the deep fryers of neighborhood chicken restaurants (if one is lucky enough to have such a thing nearby). Personally, I think the alleged superiority of chicken fried in a skillet is overstated, but either way is fine with me. I oven-fry mine (similar to [this](http://southernfood.about.com/od/ovenfriedchickenrecipes/r/bl30223o.htm)), which is pretty much foolproof. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-whale-of-cooking/706079.md?page=5)