# Your most shameful culinary practices **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [March 23, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498 "2021-03-23T15:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/121 "2021-03-24T15:51:22Z")
-White bread for everything - sandwiches, toast, etc. -Velveeta makes the best grilled cheese sandwich - It’s pretty pricey so I buy WalMart’s Great Value version. Tastes the same. -I don’t do a lot of baking, but if I do I usually just buy a mix and canned frosting. Except for cookies. -Oscar Meyer bologna, American cheese on white bread -We don’t eat a lot of bacon, but when I need it I buy the pre-cooked bacon. I hate bacon smell in my house. -I make a lot of hot dishes (casseroles), etc. that use soups like tuna hot dish. -I like my meat well-done. I’ve kind of moved on to medium-well but sometimes it’s still too rare. -I usually buy pre-made frozen hamburgers for the grill. -I don’t make pies very often but when I do, I use pre-made crust. -I like the cheap frozen pizzas - Tony’s, Red Baron, Roma. -I like butter on cinnamon rolls. -I don’t usually disinfect a cutting mat after using it for meat. I just wash it with hot water and dish soap. -Go ahead and pass out, but often I will let the dog clean up a plate or pan before I wash it! ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/122 "2021-03-24T16:00:39Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > -Go ahead and pass out, but often I will let the dog clean up a plate or pan before I wash it! Before I got to the end of that sentence, I was fully expecting a period after the word “plate”. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/123 "2021-03-24T16:08:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Of course. I love butter, but sometimes I use margarine or ‘vegetable based baking spread’ or ‘plant butter’ whatever nonsense-du-jour name it has. It’s not bad. It’s a perfectly serviceable product to substitute for butter, when a buttery taste is not required or would not be noticed (or for people who cannot eat dairy). I don’t use margarine, but I did buy a tub of palm-oil shortening. It works nicely in pie crusts. I use when I’m cooking for vegans, or when the filling is going to dominate the flavor anyway. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But if I’m making something like chowder or seafood lasagna, the differences between real and imitation get lost in the other flavors and it seems foolish to me to spend five times as much money for something I won’t even taste. Hmm, I notice the difference between fake crab and real crab in chowder and other dishes, but I really enjoy fake crab. I’ll buy the fake crab sushi roll because I like it. > [@teelabrown](#): > > I don’t use bleach to clean cutting boards after cutting up raw chicken. Piping hot water, dish detergent, and a stiff scrubbing brush is fine. I can’t stand the smell of bleach in the kitchen and on surfaces that touch foods. Are you supposed to do that? I usually run them through the dishwasher to sanitize. I don’t want bleach around my food. Yeechh. My food safety admission is that I’m pretty casual about putting stuff in the fridge after supper. And I like to let meat warm to nearly room-temp before I cook it, especially when I roast. It cooks much faster that way, and stays moister and better. > [@Shoeless](#): > > The episode took place at a fish farm. I forget what kind of fish they were raising, but to clean out the tanks they would take all the fish out and then dump in a bunch of tilapia, which would feast on the other fishes’ poo. See, I think of that as a virtue of tilapia. I can feel good about eating them, because it’s an environmentally sound way to turn waste into palatable food. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/124 "2021-03-24T16:27:48Z")
Where do you live where you come across uncut pans of brownies often enough that this is an established practice for you? I want to live there. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/125 "2021-03-24T16:39:08Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I don’t use margarine, but I did buy a tub of palm-oil shortening. It works nicely in pie crusts. I use when I’m cooking for vegans, or when the filling is going to dominate the flavor anyway. Interesting - ‘shortening’ doesn’t really exist as a thing here in the UK - or at least not by name - pretty sure we have the same sort of stuff, maybe with yellow colouring in it, and it tends to be called ‘baking spread’ - which name makes no real sense - it used to be called ‘baking margarine’, but the spreadable margarines (intended as a direct substitute for butter spread on bread etc) all changed to ‘spread’, so the baking product did too ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/126 "2021-03-24T16:47:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Where do you live where you come across uncut pans of brownies often enough that this is an established practice for you? I want to live there. Nice try, compadre. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/127 "2021-03-24T16:52:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Interesting - ‘shortening’ doesn’t really exist as a thing here in the UK - or at least not by name - pretty sure we have the same sort of stuff, maybe with yellow colouring in it, and it tends to be called ‘baking spread’ - which name makes no real sense - it used to be called ‘baking margarine’, but the spreadable margarines (intended as a direct substitute for butter spread on bread etc) all changed to ‘spread’, so the baking product did too Based upon a recent recipe for spotted dick I helped make, I think perhaps what we Americans call “shortening” might be called “vegetable suet” on the other side of the Atlantic. Or just “suet” if it’s made from animal fat. Actually, “shortening” can be defined as “a fat that is solid at room temperature”, which covers quite a few things. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/128 "2021-03-24T16:55:35Z")
Suet is usually granular in presentation - either because it’s chopped up directly from chunks of hard animal fat (presumably with some connective tissue) or because it’s formulated into pellets using rice flour etc (in the case of vegetable versions of suet). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/129 "2021-03-24T16:55:56Z")
**burpo\_the\_wonder\_shortening**? Could we not let this get around? ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/130 "2021-03-24T17:01:21Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Are you supposed to do that? I usually run them through the dishwasher to sanitize. I don’t want bleach around my food. Yeechh. It’s almost certain you know this, but most dishwasher detergents contain bleach. (There are some that don’t; they usually have names that include the word “Free”.) ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/131 "2021-03-24T17:09:05Z")
I use the same spoon to taste test everything. Saw someone have a dish disqualified on a cooking show when the chef reused a spoon for a taste. My wife did not brown Rice-A-Roni when she made it. I brown everything till dark brown, the flavor is much better with the toasted pasta pieces. Want to make your biscuits taste a lot better? Fresh out of the oven, I slice mine in two then pop it in the toaster till it’s got a nice crunch. This also makes day old biscuits taste much better. My brother was an A-1 steak sauce fanatic. He at it on lots of stuff besides steak. Then I told him to read the ingredients. It has anchovies just like Worstershire. He hasn’t eaten it since. My wife’s tuna noodle casserole has hard boiled eggs, no cheese and cream of chicken soup. I make mine with cream of mushroom soup, a fistful of sharp cheddar cheese and a very small dash of Spanish paprika. I don’t care for hers, she don’t like mine. We don’t have it very often. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/132 "2021-03-24T17:10:23Z")
Hmm, I just read the ingredients of the one in my kitchen. Out of about 30 ingredients, the only one I might call “bleach” is a little bit of peroxide. And while I suppose that’s a weak bleach, it’s not the chlorine-based product that I think of when you say “bleach” and that leaves a nasty flavor behind. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/133 "2021-03-24T17:13:32Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Interesting - ‘shortening’ doesn’t really exist as a thing here in the UK What does mama’s little baby love, then? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/134 "2021-03-24T17:15:28Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > I use the same spoon to taste test everything. Saw someone have a dish disqualified on a cooking show when the chef reused a spoon for a taste. Oooh, that’s one that people really don’t like ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/135 "2021-03-24T17:32:15Z")
I dislike boxed mac n’ cheese and canned vegetables. However. Blue box with canned peas (cooked in a lot of butter) is a serious comfort food. I still have a lot of dialysis get arounds that I still do: on a sandwich, instead of cheese I’ll sub mayo for a light schmear of flavored cream cheese. Making scrambled eggs? Again, cream cheese instead of regular cheese. Okay, so a lot revolves around using cream cheese. I’m also a cool then refrigerate leftovers. I also suck at mise en place. And cleaning as I go. I suck at being a Midwesterner- I do not have a single Cream of soup in my pantry. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/136 "2021-03-24T17:58:13Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > As chef Mangetout says: “That statement is nonsense bullshit” Easy, big fella. I’m pretty sure it’s a joke. As for shameful practices, I like my hot dogs grilled, then topped with peanut butter and Sriracha. The extra umami/sweet from the PB and that zip from the hot sauce is really good with the salty/smoky of the dog. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/137 "2021-03-24T18:14:03Z")
I like _shit on a shingle_. Shamefully, I don’t use slang for food. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/138 "2021-03-24T19:04:08Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > You are aware of what goes into Worcestershire sauce? If not, maybe you should be. It’s anchovies. I’m well aware. but it’s a small fraction of the total ingredients. Not concentrated rotted fish like fish sauce (which I use in cooking). ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/139 "2021-03-24T19:06:21Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > > > I have also worked out how to do cheese on toast in a microwave. For those days when grilling something is too much like hard work. > > Please share your secret, oh wise and lazy one? For I, too, have days when even making a friggin’ grilled cheese sandwich is just { _strikes pose of woe_ } I can’t even with that. Weeeell - you need a pop-up toaster too. Lets say it takes 3 minutes to make toast the usual way. So, instead, toast your bread for 30 seconds then pop it up _but leave it in the toaster for one minute_ so that the residual heat of the toaster dries out the toast. Then toast again for 30 seconds, pop up, leave for a minute and so on. Repeat until toast is perfectly dry. The timings are not precise - I’m much too lazy for that. You just keep doing this while you’re pottering in the kitchen, until the bread is perfectly dried out - no moisture left (and it will be reasonably toasted at this point as well). To make sure I could give _some_ guidance, I did this for lunch today and the elapsed time it took was 12 minutes - while I got plates out and prepped a salad. Once you have your dried toast - let’s say two slices - apply cheese and microwave for 25 seconds. Because the toast is dried out, you don’t get the soggy mess which would otherwise occur. Enjoy! (Timings may vary depending on the power rating of your appliance). j ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498/140 "2021-03-24T19:07:42Z")
I often do that with tea. Green tea, to be precise. I thought it was legit and was called second infusion. I am almost through and am starting to wonder: has nobody yet confessed to peeing in the sink? > [@Chefguy](#): > > As chef Jean-Pierre says, “margarine is only one molecule away from vinyl.” I do not eat margarine myself, but that is simply wrong. If at all, it would have to be a couple of _atoms_ away, that Jean-Pierre does not know his chemistry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-most-shameful-culinary-practices/938498.md?page=8)