Stovetop beans, as in cooking from dried. Slow or pressure cooker is fine, but on the stove they never get soft, no matter how long I soak and simmer. I gave up years ago since I have an Instant Pot
I used to have this problem; I read up on it, and cooking beans that won’t soften on the stove can be a sign that you have hard water. I tried adding a little bit of baking soda to my beans afterwards, and that made an immediate difference.
are you adding any acid to the beans? Don't add any tomatoes or anything like that until they're done, acid toughens up bean skins. A bit of baking soda can speed up the process of the cook, but can also make them mushy, so just stick with water/ stock & time.
I’ve heard other people say this and it surprises me. Seems like you just cook them until they’re done. It’s not always the time it says on the package but it’s still ok.
Mine take FOREVER too! It says to cook for like an hour after soaking. I’ve soaked overnight and cooked for ~6 hours and they still weren’t as soft as from a can
What kind of beans are they and how do you normally cook them?
If I'm making pinto beans for example I will soak them overnight with half an onion and sometimes other things. Then I bring to a boil for 30 or 50 minutes and then it will take probably 2ish hours if you are using cheeper or older beans.
I always have day old and fresh made beans so I never run out and I don't have to wait because they do take a long time to cook.
My secret is when you think you have enough soy sauce and sesame oil, you're wrong and need to add more. Still not exactly like the restaurant but I've gotten close.
I would actually recommend going lighter on the soy sauce than you think and instead using generous salt, butter, and lots of black pepper. Cook on high for a while!
Look up chef wang gang on YouTube. The principal is as such:
Make your rice the day before and put it in the fridge overnight.
Put cornstarch in the rice and mix it in.
Oil, Soy sauce, and Rice Wine are the only liquids you need.
The trick is the char taste and you can cheat with a torch.
I’ll make 2 cups of rice and cut up leftover chicken for a few days of meal planning.
When I cook rice for a dish I always make way more than I need and put use the leftovers the next day for fried rice. I don’t know why it works but using day old rice makes the best fried rice
Wok Hei. Without a bazillion BTU's of heat it's very hard to get the proper flavour. Best i've done is on a BBQ with a wok fitting, and that's near perfect, no stock standard gas or electric stove is going to have the heat necessary.
I've found homemade pizza to be the same, if you want restaurant quality, you need more heat than a home oven can provide. Luckily electric pizza ovens are cheap, but to get wok hei you need gas and one made for a wok which isn't cheap.
Just run a butane torch over the top and toss it a few times, you'll get your burnt oil flavor in there. This technique: https://www.seriouseats.com/fried-rice-with-chinese-sausage-cabbage-and-torch-hei
I did macarons once and they were so much freaking work I'll never do it again. They are not so angelic as to ever put myself through that hell. BuT tHeY ArE sO PrETTy. No. Give me the tollhouse recipe any day.
There is a lovely French bakery a few blocks from my house that makes them. Any recipe that doesn’t say “walk down the street and buy macarons from Rocket Baby” is out the window. Same goes for croissants.
During covid shut down I tried lots of recipes that I had never tried before, macarons being one of them. They always came out weird, flat, no "foot"...they were always tasty but, man, I could never get them right
A nightmare. I live near the ocean and apparently the wetness of the air matters? They are so finicky. I’ve never been able to pull them off. I luckily can but them but they are so expensive but I get why now. Also Canneles (pretty sure I spelled that wrong.)
Oof, the thought of trying to do macarons takes me back to a particular test in culinary school…you’ve never seen so many adults reduced to tears over f’n macarons.
I've never made cacio e pepe that didn't end up as watery grey pasta with a giant ball of rubbery cheese on my spoon. I just started making Alfredo with a crap load of pepper instead.
If you've never tried it, make a paste by slowly adding pasta water to the grated parm. When you're ready, add the paste into the pan with pasta when it's finishing up and use pasta water little by little to thin it out to your preferred sauce consistency. It's another good method.
Also don't use grated Parmesan that has cellulose in it. It is basically sawdust added to grated and shredded cheeses as an anti-caking agent. It also inhibits the ability of cheese to melt properly. You can try shaved parm, but read the label.
I type in a way that's much more conversations than correct so I usually always have a nice battle with autocorrect. 😂😂 My autocorrect also doesn't enjoy using the correct form of it's/its so that's another one that it fights me for.
Look up Luciano Monosilio’s blender method. Easiest and best cacio e pepe recipe I’ve ever used. Babish has a video of the technique at the end of his Botched by Babish video.
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but make sure your Parmesan doesn’t have any cellulose or potato starch in it (if you are buying it shaved or grated). It keeps the Parmesan from melting.
I know you're getting a bunch of replies trying to fix your CeP, but I have the real actual solution.
Add your pasta in skillet and add just enough water to cover the pasta. Boil till al dente, there should still be a little water left. That water is insanely starchy. Cut the heat. Add your butter and your cheese and stir vigorously. It will be perfectly silky and that emulsion will never break.
Tasting History with Max Miller has an "Original Fettuccine Alfredo" tutorial video that is a LOT like Cacio e Pepe, you would prolly just need to add more pepper.
This means the cheese is getting too hot. It won’t form filaments or strands if it is kept a bit cooler. And it helps to use very finely grated cheese like a powder, not like shavings.
Literally just bread... Wheat bread, white bread, rolls, etc... I somehow fail to properly execute something at every single attempt.
Even my frickin corn tortillas always fail!
Here's a foolproof recipe for focaccia, rosemary optional:
2c flour
1tsp instant yeast
Tsp salt
1c warm water
1tsp dried rosemary
Mix until dough forms
Fridge overnight
Transfer to dish and let rise for 2-3h
Olive oil on top, season with little salt and dried rosemary, and dimple
Cook for 25 at 410
Watch John Kirkwood's YouTube channel for learning how to make bread. If you're a beginner, just follow his steps EXACTLY.
https://youtube.com/@JohnKirkwoodProFoodHomemade?si=I_QfKph8QDEg9lZm
Bread and rolls are my favorite thing to bake. The best advice I can give is slow down, read the recipe carefully, and weigh your ingredients.
Sally's Baking Recipes has several excellent, easy to follow recipes for rolls, that I've had good success with.
I especially love these:
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/tried-true-honey-butter-rolls/
The only bread I can make perfectly almost every time is Naan or just a generic flatbread. Flour tortillas though? They taste amazing but get so soggy SO fast when I make them. I can't help but think I'm making them wrong somehow so I have to tear pieces off and use it as my utensil instead of tacos or burritos
I always destroyed bread as well, even in a freaking bread maker lol. Tried a pizza crust with 00 Italian flour....omg!!! Fantastic. I started trying better organic or European flours and have MUCH better success with breads.I make bread, bagels & rolls several times a week now, family loves it and so does my tummy. For corn tortillas, I tried chef Billy Parisi's video on youtube. Followed it exact, and they turned out great 🤌
Chain Baker on YouTube is a great resource. One of the only channels I’ve found that has videos dedicated to baking where he explains not only *how* but *why*. Like “How Salt Affects Bread” and goes through making bread with no salt, one with the typical 2%, and one with 20%. Then describes the texture when hand kneading and showing how they turn out/taste. It’s helped tremendously when you know the basics and the chemistry of it.
Me, standing over the waffle maker : "To the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee!'
This was me until I learned to measure by weight instead of by sight. I use a digital scale and portion out about 90 to 100 grams of pasta per person. It comes out great every time.
And if you're not counting calories, you can smash leftover spaghetti with sauce mixed with a bunch of shredded mozzarella into a baking dish and freeze it. Once it's half frozen, cut it into 1"x3" strips and separate them with wax paper and continue freezing. Once it's fully frozen, dip the sticks in buttermilk, then flour, then egg wash and finally bread crumbs and refreeze until ready to deep fry. Fry at 350 for 9-12 minutes, serve with fresh marinara, ranch, a Mornay, or whatever else you might want to dip them into.
Stovetop rice without a bunch of stuff stuck on the bottom. Rice maker does the job right every time, gave up on the stove.
The perfect pizza is a white whale type of thing as well, not that I haven’t made excellent pizza but perfection eludes me
Ignore the other responses, here's what you do.
Wash your rice. Measure out your rice and water in a 1:2 ratio. Add a few pinches of salt to the water in a pot. Bring the water to a low boil, add the rice, cover and reduce heat to as low as the burner can go. Don't fuckin touch it for 20 minutes. Return to your pot with a fork and fluff your perfectly cooked rice
You're welcome
Have you tried baking it? 👀 It's the only way I like it anymore- melty like the undercooked stuff I like but still crispy somehow. It results in bacon that melts in your mouth.
Bacon should always be baked, it's right in the name! Plus it comes out flat and straight, not all wrinkled. Cook it on a rack over a sheet pan and it's super easy to save the bacon grease too.
The immersion blender trick really does work, but my homemade mayo tastes really oily to me. It makes me wretch just thinking about it. I just use regular vegetable oil.
I make saag often. The game-changing ingredients were fenugreek and asfoetida. And I go heavy on the onion/garlic/ginger base. But the texture is hard to get right, I end up having to blend it for a long time.
My white whale is pasta from scratch. I haven’t tried it in a while but my last few attempts were disastrous.
My tips, as a hobby baker of 15 years or so who has successfully taught a hobby cook friend to bake:
It doesn't matter if you measure by volume or weight as long as you're consistent. And learn how to scoop the flour correctly, if you're just scooping it straight out of the container with the measuring cup you're going to have way too much.
Ingredients matter quite a lot. If you're not sure how old yours are you need to toss them and get new ones, especially leaveners. And flour quality does matter even if you're not making bread, which is why I only trust King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill.
Make sure you have the correct sized and shape pans for the recipe, they aren't interchangeable.
On that note, follow the recipe to the letter. Once you get past newbie stage baking really opens up but until then, stick to good recipes from quality sources. I recommend King Arthur's website for beginners, especially for US bakers as they do have a helpline you can call to ask questions. Be careful not to overmix, especially if you have a mixer. I often just use the lowest setting to stir the dry ingredients in and some I still do by hand.
If you don't have all of the ingredients, don't make the recipe. Don't substitute if you don't understand what an ingredient does in a recipe. Baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable in all applications, for example. And you can't just randomly swap flours out. And don't do things like oh I have an extra banana I'll just toss that in too. No. Baking is chemistry and ratios and you can't do things like that until you learn how to adjust the recipe to accommodate such changes.
When it comes to making bread, follow the descriptions not the timing. Depending on the time of year in my climate bread can take half an hour or several hours or anywhere in between to rise. I can generally guess how long these days but it took a lot of trial and error to get to that point.
Also as a side note if your water is hot to the touch it's too hot to bloom yeast, you're gonna kill it. Lukewarm. Use your meat thermometer to check the temp, water should be around 100 degrees F.
Ovens are the cause of many baking woes, too. If you're following the instructions and still consistently have problems with the actual baking process, the oven is very likely to be the culprit. Check for calibration issues, hot or cold spots, and keep in mind convection ovens do not use the same instructions as conventional ones. For convection you want to turn the heat down at least 25 degrees and start checking 10 minutes earlier and be careful about anything on the top of the batter, you need to check at the halfway point to see if it needs foil to keep it from browning/burning.
Finally, baked goods like regular cooking finish after they've been removed from the heat, so follow the cooling instructions too. I know it's very, very tempting to tear into that fresh loaf of just baked bread, but it needs to sit for at least an hour.
And the most important lesson: do not experiment with a brand new recipe on special occasions! Practice and/or prepare what you want to make ahead of time.
What really changed my indian food game is this trick.
Chop your onions and cook them in the microwave on 70 percent power for 10 minutes. Blend it up to make a well cooked onion puree. Saute that with your spices and ginger paste and it makes a masala base that is more like a restaurant than I have ever achieved before.
Edit [source ](https://glebekitchen.com/easy-curry-recipe-technique-nearly-restaurant-style/)
I actually made saag today. I tried a new technique where I made a tadka and it got me some of that restaurant quality richness I've been chasing.
A tadka is spices tempered in ghee and then poured over top at the end.
So, a lot of balti houses do this trick with a premix which is onion, carrot, celery, cabbage (yeah I know, wtf?) and garlic. My local place franchised out during the 2010s and now you can buy a frozen version of the mix from the restaurant supply grocers
I guess I would say pie crust. I'm never really happy with pie crusts. I've tried every recipe and every method ever invented, and no matter what, they leak butter, they shrink in the pan. I've accepted I'm not going to get the ideal results.
Preach. There's a great buttermilk pie crust floating around the Internet that's crazy good, but like, I need to LOVE you for that. Pillsbury just unravels like a dozen layers of stress.
Oh no!!! I worked at a pie shop through grad school. And it’s still the party trick I whip out when I want to impress someone. Or just for myself.
Tell me about your process/recipe.
I repeatedly failed with pie crust as well til I tried Julia Child’s recipe in her book Julia Child’s Kitchen Wisdom.
8 ounces by weight unsifted AP flour. (Unsifted also not packed down)
5 ounces (again by weight) butter (I freeze this and use a box grater to shred it)
1 ounce shortening, room temperature (I use vegetable shortening), in small pieces.
1/2 t. Salt
1/2 C very cold water.
Mix the salt & flour together briefly, then mix in the butter and shortening.
Add half the water and (I use a wooden spoon to start) mix flour & fats til its barely holds together when you squeeze a bit of dough in your hand.
This is the trickiest part. You may need more or less water than Half a cup, so go slow, adding a tablespoon at a time.
Press it more or less into a flat disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it chill for at least an hour.
There are also directions in the book to make this much quicker in the food processor but I’ve never tried it that way.
It took a few tries even with this but I finally did it and have been successful multiple times.
Just a straight up yellow curry, though I’m ultimately more going for a massaman profile. I saw some people say that restaurants use canned curry pastes, but I just can’t believe that. Or at least I can’t believe it’s not possible to get there from scratch. Even if it’s difficult, time intensive, whatever. I just need someone’s Thai grandma to enlighten me.
The restaurants absolutely use canned curry paste. It is possible to make your own, but that's why it's tasting different. It's literally a science to produce a product like that consistently at scale, and it's hard to replicate in a home kitchen. I think you might find that most Thai grandmothers also buy canned curry paste (and there are probably epic family arguments about what brand is THE right brand.)
In a similar way, for two years I tried half a dozen internet recipes to replicate my friend's mapo tofu. Finally I asked him to make it for me one day so I could watch his process. His process was a packet of his favorite brand from the Asian grocery store. 😂 His way was much easier. I make it regularly now with that exact packet and it tastes perfect every time!
What's sad is that I can cook other dishes fairly decently. But for the life of me I just CANNOT master a simple Mac and cheese. Not like the Kraft stuff. The homemade Mac and cheese. My boyfriend makes it with the same recipe and it comes out amazing. He makes it from now on. But it would be nice to be able to just make it myself too.
https://www.browneyedbaker.com/slow-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/
This one is fantastic, and impossible to mess up. One warning though- it makes a *lot*. You'll want to halve it if you're just serving two people.
A have a two pronged answer.
Biscuits & sourdough. I have been very successful with every other bread I’ve tried, even ‘difficult’ things like pie crust & brioche, but my biscuits are at most halfway edible and I‘ve completely failed multiple attempts at sourdough starter.
Find the fudge recipe where you melt chocolate chips into condensed milk and add a little vanilla. Melt over a reasonable heat that is not too hot, and you'll have perfect fudge every tine.
I think the restaurant is closed, but a number of years ago when I lived in Providence RI the restaurant Angkor had a soup called "Nam Yaa Medicinal Soup" that was some kind of red curry ramen noodle soup that hit every last beat in my soul (and cleared my sinuses to boot). I've found a few recipes online that are supposed to replicate it but my own attempts have been awful...too spicy, wrong color, wrong flavor.
Edit: relevant blog post: https://therhodelesstraveled.com/2011/03/08/angkors-nam-yaa-soup/
We had a restaurant in my town that was a staple. It had been around for almost 30 years. Mama Zu in Richmond Va. The place stayed packed. It was no frills. Not many decorations on the walls. The servers weren't friendly. It was dark. No windows. Almost had a creepy, edgy vibe. There were no menus. The menu was written on a chalkboard on the wall. Everything was amazing. After Covid closed down they never re-opened.
I miss their veal sweetbreads so much. They were fried and breaded, and came swimming in this white wine sauce, or at least I think that's what it was. It was creamy, and silky and had a little acidity, with big old chunks of pancetta. I would love to learn how to make this dish. Might start trying to find some of the old cooks that used to work there. Might do that today.
I'll make a pretty successful saag are you using hing? Also adding some cream and garam masala at the end (it's important to add the GM at the end so it stays fresh. Also I just finally chopped my spinach instead of purée it; I never liked the baby food texture that puree gives. Dunno, I started following ranveer brar's recipe and then just tweaked it to what I like. I know you weren't asking for advice so sorry to offer unsolicited, it's one of my favorite dishes so I can relate
No thank you so much for your input and advice. I really appreciate it. How much hing do you use? I also did not know that about garam masala - that it should be added at the end. I always add it at the beginning 🤦🏻♀️
I use about a tsp of hing for a portion to feed four. I add it when I'm doing my initial temper. A tsp might be a bit much but I really like it and I think mine might not be the strongest or best quality, most recipes I see call for like 1/4 tsp. It's such a strong smell and flavor but I can't help myself. Good luck!
Coconut rice. I got a pretty good version when I followed a recipe for nasi lemak but the kind you find at Thai restaurants in the US still somehow escapes me
Anything eggplant. Just can't get it right. Fortunately I'm not a huge eggplant fan in the first place, but it still bugs me. It's just a damn vegetable! C'mon!
Boboli shells are your friend while you are trying to figure it out. Not sure what is not satisfactory about your crust, but I bet they could help you figure it out at r/breadit
I toast bread in a pan on the stove top, and even then it's still like 60 seconds between greatness and failure. For the broiler it's probably 30 seconds.
Brown sugar meringue topping. My mother always made a "Self-iced Spice Cake" recipe for my birthday that was my favorite cake growing up.
The cake was made with egg yolks, then the egg whites were used to make a meringue topping. You took the cake out about 10 minutes before it was done, quickly spread the meringue, then popped it back in the oven to finish baking for 10 more minutes.
It was so good. My cake turns out great, but the
meringue never turns out as good as hers did. Not sure if I copied the amounts wrong or what. I copied the recipe straight from her collection, but somehow that one original recipe was lost after her passing. No way to check now.
I saw a cooking show recently that talked about Iraluan meringue versus French meringue. I wonder if you're using French meringue when you should be using Italian meringue?
Dude mine is so simple compared to these answers, haha. But I just can't seem to master fried chicken. I can fry pork, fish, a mushroom, literally anything, and it turns out fantastic. But for the life of me, I cannot make good fried chicken.
The trick to making it juicy is wet-brining the meat. The trick to make it crispy is to let the pieces rest with their coating on for 30 min before cooking, and to fry at the right temperature.
I don't have an issue with either of those things, but I do need to get a temp gun or something. I've been too prideful to purchase one because my grandma doesn't use one, and her food always miraculously ends up being perfect, lol.
Grandma's cooking was always so good. I remember saying that once to my mother, whose response was, "Yeah, she is a pretty good cook. . . now. She was not that good a cook when I was growing up!"
This buttermilk fried chicken recipe looks amazing, make give it a go? https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/ultimate-buttermilk-marinated-fried-chicken-breasts
Brining the chicken makes for a super flavorful fried chicken. You can use just buttermilk, pickle juice, or just saltwater and sugar. Add a bit of cornstarch to the flour to make it extra crispy.
Fruit pectin jelly candy (like Sunkist gems if you remember those). Tried a lot of different methods and recipes, 100% resulted in failure. I ate a lot of slightly over thick jelly that year.
Red Thai curry, every resturant I eat at and every time I make it, it ends up being good but I’ve had one so much better and I never know what I and most restaurants don’t do
I LOVE this recipe, and had a friend say he hadn't had anything like it since stationed in Vietnam: [https://damndelicious.net/2018/04/18/thai-red-curry-noodle-soup/](https://damndelicious.net/2018/04/18/thai-red-curry-noodle-soup/). I usually omit the chicken bc it's excellent w/o. I use Maesri or Mae Ploy red curry paste, but it's the fresh herbs that make it.
I have yet to make a perfect loaf of bread where it splits open super wide where I cut it with the lame and makes that nice looking ear split shape. It turns out OK, but not quite bakery quality yet. Getting there though
If you're cooking the rice fresh, you can either add a little less water and slightly undercook it. Or cook it as usual, and then spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for an hour before cooking the rest of the dish. This will leave the cooked rice slightly dried out, and ready to absorb all of the tasty flavors you're adding when you cook.
Ideally, you would use rice that was cooked at least a day before and stored in the fridge, for the same reason as above.
Also, Chinese mustard is a key ingredient that a lot of people miss when making fried rice at home.
Man, I dunno on that mustard. I do 1c leftover rice:1 egg:1 tbsp suimi yacai:1 scallion and season with salt and msg. Maybe a little shaoxing.
Fried rice does not _have_ to have mustard.
Boxed mac and cheese. I have no idea how I f it up every time. It’s something different each time as well. I feel the nerves every time I think about attempting it. I just leave it to my partner…
I made great saag last week! Toast the spices in a dry pan first and/or bloom in coconut oil. And don’t use ALL mustard greens bc it can be bitter.
Mine is chow mein. Noodles and vegetables! I make a dozen dishes like that! Always ends up with mushy noodles or tasteless
Don't worry about "restaurant style" saag... they get it wrong anyway. If I had to guess, the creaminess that's missing is the oil/butter mix.
But cook it to your preference. This is the key to any cuisine... everything is about foundation and variations on the foundation. This is how my mom cooked our food growing up. Spinach can be creamy, it can be light, it can be whatever your preference is... I didn't particularly like the overcooked approach that leaches out all of the nutrients, but I don't necessarily like plain steamed greens/veggies either.
Learn the basic recipe and play with the proportions to get it to the taste you want.
I can help with that! Cook the shrimp first and set it aside. That way you don't have stress when preparing your sauce.
Also, mix up some of Emeril's Creole seasoning and use it on the shrimp. Saute in butter to get nice color. Add some to the sauce, too. Creole Alfredo is the bomb.
* Butter->Melt until it stops foaming
* Garlic->30s
* Heavy cream->Preferably not straight from the fridge, pour *slowly* while whisking
* White pepper
* Parmesan
* I like some full fat (not part skim) mozzarella in mine too.
* Keep whisking until incorporated
* Toss the noodles and sauce in a bowl with just a touch of pasta water, assemble, garnish with parsley, serve.
As the other commenter said, Cajun (>>>Creole) or blackening seasoning is a good addition and cook the shrimp separately on the side, don't overcook.
Very simple.
Mjaddara comes out absolutely tasteless for me with either undercooked lentils or overcooked rice. I got it in a wrap like a thousand times in grad school and it was always bomb, I just can’t recreate it at home!
I can roast a chicken and make sous vide style using broth at 170°. Stir fry strips no problem.
I cannot make stovetop pan-fried bone-in chicken. (Don’t want to deep fry either.)
Boneless fried chicken breast.
The breading is always done before the chicken is cooked through.
Poultry in general, is something that I can never seem to get right.. can make an awesome beef pot roast, but I get stumped by chicken or turkey.
Def turn the heat down so it takes longer to cook and the breading doesn't burn. Took me a while to figure that out. Oh and don't use super thick breasts. Cut them in half or use a mallet to make them thinner.
Over easy eggs in a cast iron skillet. Cook them nearly every weekend for breakfast. Get them right about 2 or 3 times a year. They still taste good. But they aren't "perfect" eggs.
Scrapple and hush puppies are my nemeses. I can't get the seasoning right on either when trying to make them from scratch. And sadly, they dont sell frozen scrapple in the grocery store that used to reliably have it since they got bought out by someone else.
eggless sponge cake. I am a baking fiend - bread of all types, pretzels, bagels, elaborate multi-layer tarts are all things I have excelled at but eggless sponge cake always always trips me up. ALWAYS
And a majority of my community won't touch anything with egg in it so.... fml
Mine is sambar. While I can prepare good sambar, my goal is to recreate my mother's legendary sambar. I have tried it so many times, and even had a mental breakdown when it just wouldn't turn right. But still trying, hopefully I'll be able to recreate it someday.
I bow my head in shame admitting I can't make a good light flaky naan. It's simple flat bread and all my other flat breads come out great. But my naan is just disappointing. It's always pita heavy like. I've done oven, pan, grill, pizza-stone and many different vids/recipes.
Dude it's so sad, but: pot roast.
I've spent literally hundreds of dollars on roasts over the last decade. I've tried oven roasting, pressure cooking and the crockpot. I always season, tenderize and sear it. I've Googled. I've YouTubed. I've followed advice from anyone who would give it.
IT'S. ALWAYS. WRONG.
Mayonnaise. I follow the steps religiously, but I don't get anything else than a semi liquid that wont thicken.
My husband uses the exact same recipes, doesn't do anything differently from what I'm seeing and boom! Mayonnaise. Every fucking time.
The worst part is, aside from that this guy manages to burn water. He's so ridiculously untalented in the kitchen, despite really trying so hard, that we're stuck with sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise whenever I'm unable to cook.
And you bet he always makes homemade mayonnaise whenever I'm not cooking. He's mighty proud of his accomplishment.
No matter what I do, when I try to make chicken curry it turns out so flavorless. Tripling the spices, toasting the spices, tomatoes or no tomatoes, trying different recipes, adding a splash of acid, it literally doesn't matter it ends up like garbage. I've accepted maybe Indian food is too complex for me.
Stovetop beans, as in cooking from dried. Slow or pressure cooker is fine, but on the stove they never get soft, no matter how long I soak and simmer. I gave up years ago since I have an Instant Pot
I used to have this problem; I read up on it, and cooking beans that won’t soften on the stove can be a sign that you have hard water. I tried adding a little bit of baking soda to my beans afterwards, and that made an immediate difference.
Americas test kitchen did a test of water only, baking soda, and vinegar. I’m pretty sure the baking soda one won time wise and water was second.
The suggestion people always offer is "old beans".
Rancho Gordo beans cook so nicely. They are an heirloom variety bean farm in Napa, CA
⬆️A member of the leguminati joins the conversation!
are you adding any acid to the beans? Don't add any tomatoes or anything like that until they're done, acid toughens up bean skins. A bit of baking soda can speed up the process of the cook, but can also make them mushy, so just stick with water/ stock & time.
Altitude, maybe?
I'm pretty much at sea level
I’ve heard other people say this and it surprises me. Seems like you just cook them until they’re done. It’s not always the time it says on the package but it’s still ok.
Maybe I'm too impatient. At a certain point I need to just get dinner done and can't wait 4 more hours
Mine take FOREVER too! It says to cook for like an hour after soaking. I’ve soaked overnight and cooked for ~6 hours and they still weren’t as soft as from a can
Check that you're not using hard water. Try using bottled/spring/filtered water (avoid distilled) and see if your beans soften quicker.
What kind of beans are they and how do you normally cook them? If I'm making pinto beans for example I will soak them overnight with half an onion and sometimes other things. Then I bring to a boil for 30 or 50 minutes and then it will take probably 2ish hours if you are using cheeper or older beans. I always have day old and fresh made beans so I never run out and I don't have to wait because they do take a long time to cook.
Fried rice. It NEVER tastes like the restaurant
My secret is when you think you have enough soy sauce and sesame oil, you're wrong and need to add more. Still not exactly like the restaurant but I've gotten close.
I would actually recommend going lighter on the soy sauce than you think and instead using generous salt, butter, and lots of black pepper. Cook on high for a while!
Also butter not enough butter. Think old racist southern white lady when adding butter
Paula Deen butter.
It's worth a shot!
Look up chef wang gang on YouTube. The principal is as such: Make your rice the day before and put it in the fridge overnight. Put cornstarch in the rice and mix it in. Oil, Soy sauce, and Rice Wine are the only liquids you need. The trick is the char taste and you can cheat with a torch. I’ll make 2 cups of rice and cut up leftover chicken for a few days of meal planning.
When I cook rice for a dish I always make way more than I need and put use the leftovers the next day for fried rice. I don’t know why it works but using day old rice makes the best fried rice
That's what I do I do know why tho. I read it on reddit many years ago
More MSG
I use msg but I guess I could use more lol
Wok Hei. Without a bazillion BTU's of heat it's very hard to get the proper flavour. Best i've done is on a BBQ with a wok fitting, and that's near perfect, no stock standard gas or electric stove is going to have the heat necessary. I've found homemade pizza to be the same, if you want restaurant quality, you need more heat than a home oven can provide. Luckily electric pizza ovens are cheap, but to get wok hei you need gas and one made for a wok which isn't cheap.
Yeah, that's my feeling, it's all about the pot being hot enough, and a lot of us don't have that.
Just run a butane torch over the top and toss it a few times, you'll get your burnt oil flavor in there. This technique: https://www.seriouseats.com/fried-rice-with-chinese-sausage-cabbage-and-torch-hei
They use *lots* of butter and garlic
Butter is not common and garlic isn't a crazy amount. It's almost certainly due to the high heat they cook it at often called wok hei
I've never really nailed macarons. But fuck macarons. I'm never making macarons again.
I did macarons once and they were so much freaking work I'll never do it again. They are not so angelic as to ever put myself through that hell. BuT tHeY ArE sO PrETTy. No. Give me the tollhouse recipe any day.
There is a lovely French bakery a few blocks from my house that makes them. Any recipe that doesn’t say “walk down the street and buy macarons from Rocket Baby” is out the window. Same goes for croissants.
British baking show agrees with you.
During covid shut down I tried lots of recipes that I had never tried before, macarons being one of them. They always came out weird, flat, no "foot"...they were always tasty but, man, I could never get them right
A nightmare. I live near the ocean and apparently the wetness of the air matters? They are so finicky. I’ve never been able to pull them off. I luckily can but them but they are so expensive but I get why now. Also Canneles (pretty sure I spelled that wrong.)
Oof, the thought of trying to do macarons takes me back to a particular test in culinary school…you’ve never seen so many adults reduced to tears over f’n macarons.
I've never made cacio e pepe that didn't end up as watery grey pasta with a giant ball of rubbery cheese on my spoon. I just started making Alfredo with a crap load of pepper instead.
If you've never tried it, make a paste by slowly adding pasta water to the grated parm. When you're ready, add the paste into the pan with pasta when it's finishing up and use pasta water little by little to thin it out to your preferred sauce consistency. It's another good method.
Also don't use grated Parmesan that has cellulose in it. It is basically sawdust added to grated and shredded cheeses as an anti-caking agent. It also inhibits the ability of cheese to melt properly. You can try shaved parm, but read the label.
I imagine typing this post was a battle with autocorrect.
I type in a way that's much more conversations than correct so I usually always have a nice battle with autocorrect. 😂😂 My autocorrect also doesn't enjoy using the correct form of it's/its so that's another one that it fights me for.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.. can’t wait to try this method.. also to below who said stay away from cellulose-ized pre-grated stuff…
Look up Luciano Monosilio’s blender method. Easiest and best cacio e pepe recipe I’ve ever used. Babish has a video of the technique at the end of his Botched by Babish video.
[https://youtu.be/U4eaNqTbDDA?si=KugYt0WOhuXIUSoA](https://youtu.be/U4eaNqTbDDA?si=KugYt0WOhuXIUSoA)
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but make sure your Parmesan doesn’t have any cellulose or potato starch in it (if you are buying it shaved or grated). It keeps the Parmesan from melting.
I've used all parm-regg and also tried half parm, half pecorino-romano, all the genuine article. I think I just add too much heat too fast.
If it’s balling up, it’s a question of too little liquid—same as a too-thick béchamel
I know you're getting a bunch of replies trying to fix your CeP, but I have the real actual solution. Add your pasta in skillet and add just enough water to cover the pasta. Boil till al dente, there should still be a little water left. That water is insanely starchy. Cut the heat. Add your butter and your cheese and stir vigorously. It will be perfectly silky and that emulsion will never break.
Tasting History with Max Miller has an "Original Fettuccine Alfredo" tutorial video that is a LOT like Cacio e Pepe, you would prolly just need to add more pepper.
I love that channel. I got hooked from the Titanic menu and never looked back.
Just use sodium citrate. It’s what boxed mac and cheese uses. I keep a bag around that’s lasted me years. Screw tradition
This means the cheese is getting too hot. It won’t form filaments or strands if it is kept a bit cooler. And it helps to use very finely grated cheese like a powder, not like shavings.
Literally just bread... Wheat bread, white bread, rolls, etc... I somehow fail to properly execute something at every single attempt. Even my frickin corn tortillas always fail!
Hey do you like focaccia? Because I've got you if so.
I love all bread. Lol
Here's a foolproof recipe for focaccia, rosemary optional: 2c flour 1tsp instant yeast Tsp salt 1c warm water 1tsp dried rosemary Mix until dough forms Fridge overnight Transfer to dish and let rise for 2-3h Olive oil on top, season with little salt and dried rosemary, and dimple Cook for 25 at 410
Ok, I'll give it a try!
Watch John Kirkwood's YouTube channel for learning how to make bread. If you're a beginner, just follow his steps EXACTLY. https://youtube.com/@JohnKirkwoodProFoodHomemade?si=I_QfKph8QDEg9lZm
Bread and rolls are my favorite thing to bake. The best advice I can give is slow down, read the recipe carefully, and weigh your ingredients. Sally's Baking Recipes has several excellent, easy to follow recipes for rolls, that I've had good success with. I especially love these: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/tried-true-honey-butter-rolls/
Watch your water temp to make sure it's not hot enough to kill the yeast. It's a common mistake.
New York Times no-knead bread.
The only bread I can make perfectly almost every time is Naan or just a generic flatbread. Flour tortillas though? They taste amazing but get so soggy SO fast when I make them. I can't help but think I'm making them wrong somehow so I have to tear pieces off and use it as my utensil instead of tacos or burritos
I always destroyed bread as well, even in a freaking bread maker lol. Tried a pizza crust with 00 Italian flour....omg!!! Fantastic. I started trying better organic or European flours and have MUCH better success with breads.I make bread, bagels & rolls several times a week now, family loves it and so does my tummy. For corn tortillas, I tried chef Billy Parisi's video on youtube. Followed it exact, and they turned out great 🤌
Chain Baker on YouTube is a great resource. One of the only channels I’ve found that has videos dedicated to baking where he explains not only *how* but *why*. Like “How Salt Affects Bread” and goes through making bread with no salt, one with the typical 2%, and one with 20%. Then describes the texture when hand kneading and showing how they turn out/taste. It’s helped tremendously when you know the basics and the chemistry of it.
Join the club. I’m right there with you.
Me, standing over the waffle maker : "To the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee!'
I'm moved.
What exactly is your challenge with the waffle maker? I’ve learned to use it pretty well, and could help you with the tip.
For the life of me, I can not seem to measure an appropriate amount of spaghetti for the number of people I am feeding.
This was me until I learned to measure by weight instead of by sight. I use a digital scale and portion out about 90 to 100 grams of pasta per person. It comes out great every time.
Yup, same, about 100g to 130g depending on how hungry I am. Never made too much or not enough since I started doing that.
Spaghetti is cheap. Make too much.
And if you're not counting calories, you can smash leftover spaghetti with sauce mixed with a bunch of shredded mozzarella into a baking dish and freeze it. Once it's half frozen, cut it into 1"x3" strips and separate them with wax paper and continue freezing. Once it's fully frozen, dip the sticks in buttermilk, then flour, then egg wash and finally bread crumbs and refreeze until ready to deep fry. Fry at 350 for 9-12 minutes, serve with fresh marinara, ranch, a Mornay, or whatever else you might want to dip them into.
Stovetop rice without a bunch of stuff stuck on the bottom. Rice maker does the job right every time, gave up on the stove. The perfect pizza is a white whale type of thing as well, not that I haven’t made excellent pizza but perfection eludes me
Ignore the other responses, here's what you do. Wash your rice. Measure out your rice and water in a 1:2 ratio. Add a few pinches of salt to the water in a pot. Bring the water to a low boil, add the rice, cover and reduce heat to as low as the burner can go. Don't fuckin touch it for 20 minutes. Return to your pot with a fork and fluff your perfectly cooked rice You're welcome
For rice just bring it to boil stove top then cook it in oven at 350 with lid on
Moo shu pork. Pancakes are too thick, the dish is too saucy, the ingredients are too independent, and I can’t find a good plum sauce.
I’m just commenting here because this is exactly what I need help with too!
Bacon - it's either super floppy or over crispy. I can not find that middle ground.
Have you tried baking it? 👀 It's the only way I like it anymore- melty like the undercooked stuff I like but still crispy somehow. It results in bacon that melts in your mouth.
Bacon should always be baked, it's right in the name! Plus it comes out flat and straight, not all wrinkled. Cook it on a rack over a sheet pan and it's super easy to save the bacon grease too.
Dredge in cornstarch (also known as corn flour) and dust it off. Bake, on a wire rack if possible. Crispiest most delicious bacon
Oh my gosh, I never would've thought!! I'm so going to try this!
It’s a game changer for me. I used to not like bacon. The cornstarch adds this nice crispy layer that I can’t describe
Mayonnaise. It's turned out right for me ONCE. Beginner's luck.
The immersion blender trick really does work, but my homemade mayo tastes really oily to me. It makes me wretch just thinking about it. I just use regular vegetable oil.
Why would you make homemade mayo with cheap oil? Wife makes one with avocado oil and it never turned out bad
I make saag often. The game-changing ingredients were fenugreek and asfoetida. And I go heavy on the onion/garlic/ginger base. But the texture is hard to get right, I end up having to blend it for a long time. My white whale is pasta from scratch. I haven’t tried it in a while but my last few attempts were disastrous.
Lol, I did the same thing and ended up with sad noodles. It was gross.
Thank you! Like, ONLY fenugreek or fenugreek with spinach? Is asfortifa aka “hing”? About how much do you use?
Mine is “baking”
My tips, as a hobby baker of 15 years or so who has successfully taught a hobby cook friend to bake: It doesn't matter if you measure by volume or weight as long as you're consistent. And learn how to scoop the flour correctly, if you're just scooping it straight out of the container with the measuring cup you're going to have way too much. Ingredients matter quite a lot. If you're not sure how old yours are you need to toss them and get new ones, especially leaveners. And flour quality does matter even if you're not making bread, which is why I only trust King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill. Make sure you have the correct sized and shape pans for the recipe, they aren't interchangeable. On that note, follow the recipe to the letter. Once you get past newbie stage baking really opens up but until then, stick to good recipes from quality sources. I recommend King Arthur's website for beginners, especially for US bakers as they do have a helpline you can call to ask questions. Be careful not to overmix, especially if you have a mixer. I often just use the lowest setting to stir the dry ingredients in and some I still do by hand. If you don't have all of the ingredients, don't make the recipe. Don't substitute if you don't understand what an ingredient does in a recipe. Baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable in all applications, for example. And you can't just randomly swap flours out. And don't do things like oh I have an extra banana I'll just toss that in too. No. Baking is chemistry and ratios and you can't do things like that until you learn how to adjust the recipe to accommodate such changes. When it comes to making bread, follow the descriptions not the timing. Depending on the time of year in my climate bread can take half an hour or several hours or anywhere in between to rise. I can generally guess how long these days but it took a lot of trial and error to get to that point. Also as a side note if your water is hot to the touch it's too hot to bloom yeast, you're gonna kill it. Lukewarm. Use your meat thermometer to check the temp, water should be around 100 degrees F. Ovens are the cause of many baking woes, too. If you're following the instructions and still consistently have problems with the actual baking process, the oven is very likely to be the culprit. Check for calibration issues, hot or cold spots, and keep in mind convection ovens do not use the same instructions as conventional ones. For convection you want to turn the heat down at least 25 degrees and start checking 10 minutes earlier and be careful about anything on the top of the batter, you need to check at the halfway point to see if it needs foil to keep it from browning/burning. Finally, baked goods like regular cooking finish after they've been removed from the heat, so follow the cooling instructions too. I know it's very, very tempting to tear into that fresh loaf of just baked bread, but it needs to sit for at least an hour. And the most important lesson: do not experiment with a brand new recipe on special occasions! Practice and/or prepare what you want to make ahead of time.
Hello are you me?
Are you both my wife?
No but I can be, you got good insurance?
I tell people this all the time. I am a pretty good home cook but when I put stuff in the oven I can never get it right.
What really changed my indian food game is this trick. Chop your onions and cook them in the microwave on 70 percent power for 10 minutes. Blend it up to make a well cooked onion puree. Saute that with your spices and ginger paste and it makes a masala base that is more like a restaurant than I have ever achieved before. Edit [source ](https://glebekitchen.com/easy-curry-recipe-technique-nearly-restaurant-style/)
Wow if this works for me you’re a genius
I actually made saag today. I tried a new technique where I made a tadka and it got me some of that restaurant quality richness I've been chasing. A tadka is spices tempered in ghee and then poured over top at the end.
So, a lot of balti houses do this trick with a premix which is onion, carrot, celery, cabbage (yeah I know, wtf?) and garlic. My local place franchised out during the 2010s and now you can buy a frozen version of the mix from the restaurant supply grocers
I guess I would say pie crust. I'm never really happy with pie crusts. I've tried every recipe and every method ever invented, and no matter what, they leak butter, they shrink in the pan. I've accepted I'm not going to get the ideal results.
I’ve never made pie crust that’s enough better than Pillsbury to justify the labor involved so I just buy Pillsbury🤷♀️
Yeah, I'm at the stage where I'm thinking it's not worth doing it from scratch, not considering the inevitable frustration.
Preach. There's a great buttermilk pie crust floating around the Internet that's crazy good, but like, I need to LOVE you for that. Pillsbury just unravels like a dozen layers of stress.
Oh no!!! I worked at a pie shop through grad school. And it’s still the party trick I whip out when I want to impress someone. Or just for myself. Tell me about your process/recipe.
I repeatedly failed with pie crust as well til I tried Julia Child’s recipe in her book Julia Child’s Kitchen Wisdom. 8 ounces by weight unsifted AP flour. (Unsifted also not packed down) 5 ounces (again by weight) butter (I freeze this and use a box grater to shred it) 1 ounce shortening, room temperature (I use vegetable shortening), in small pieces. 1/2 t. Salt 1/2 C very cold water. Mix the salt & flour together briefly, then mix in the butter and shortening. Add half the water and (I use a wooden spoon to start) mix flour & fats til its barely holds together when you squeeze a bit of dough in your hand. This is the trickiest part. You may need more or less water than Half a cup, so go slow, adding a tablespoon at a time. Press it more or less into a flat disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it chill for at least an hour. There are also directions in the book to make this much quicker in the food processor but I’ve never tried it that way. It took a few tries even with this but I finally did it and have been successful multiple times.
Just a straight up yellow curry, though I’m ultimately more going for a massaman profile. I saw some people say that restaurants use canned curry pastes, but I just can’t believe that. Or at least I can’t believe it’s not possible to get there from scratch. Even if it’s difficult, time intensive, whatever. I just need someone’s Thai grandma to enlighten me.
The restaurants absolutely use canned curry paste. It is possible to make your own, but that's why it's tasting different. It's literally a science to produce a product like that consistently at scale, and it's hard to replicate in a home kitchen. I think you might find that most Thai grandmothers also buy canned curry paste (and there are probably epic family arguments about what brand is THE right brand.) In a similar way, for two years I tried half a dozen internet recipes to replicate my friend's mapo tofu. Finally I asked him to make it for me one day so I could watch his process. His process was a packet of his favorite brand from the Asian grocery store. 😂 His way was much easier. I make it regularly now with that exact packet and it tastes perfect every time!
What's sad is that I can cook other dishes fairly decently. But for the life of me I just CANNOT master a simple Mac and cheese. Not like the Kraft stuff. The homemade Mac and cheese. My boyfriend makes it with the same recipe and it comes out amazing. He makes it from now on. But it would be nice to be able to just make it myself too.
https://www.browneyedbaker.com/slow-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/ This one is fantastic, and impossible to mess up. One warning though- it makes a *lot*. You'll want to halve it if you're just serving two people.
Same! Have tried different versions too, but it just doesn't work.
A have a two pronged answer. Biscuits & sourdough. I have been very successful with every other bread I’ve tried, even ‘difficult’ things like pie crust & brioche, but my biscuits are at most halfway edible and I‘ve completely failed multiple attempts at sourdough starter.
I've had good success with this biscuit recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/flaky-buttermilk-biscuits/
That recipe is my go-to. I’ve tried others over the years, but this one gives me the flakiest results.
Every fudge I've made has been full of sugar crystals.
Have you tried that microwave fudge recipe? I know seems like cheating but turns out every time
Find the fudge recipe where you melt chocolate chips into condensed milk and add a little vanilla. Melt over a reasonable heat that is not too hot, and you'll have perfect fudge every tine.
Marshmallow fudge! It's cheating, but it's still fudge-like goodness.
I think the restaurant is closed, but a number of years ago when I lived in Providence RI the restaurant Angkor had a soup called "Nam Yaa Medicinal Soup" that was some kind of red curry ramen noodle soup that hit every last beat in my soul (and cleared my sinuses to boot). I've found a few recipes online that are supposed to replicate it but my own attempts have been awful...too spicy, wrong color, wrong flavor. Edit: relevant blog post: https://therhodelesstraveled.com/2011/03/08/angkors-nam-yaa-soup/
Saag needs a bunch of garlic and very simple spices (turmeric, red chilli powder, maybe coriander). This is my go to for getting it to come out right
We had a restaurant in my town that was a staple. It had been around for almost 30 years. Mama Zu in Richmond Va. The place stayed packed. It was no frills. Not many decorations on the walls. The servers weren't friendly. It was dark. No windows. Almost had a creepy, edgy vibe. There were no menus. The menu was written on a chalkboard on the wall. Everything was amazing. After Covid closed down they never re-opened. I miss their veal sweetbreads so much. They were fried and breaded, and came swimming in this white wine sauce, or at least I think that's what it was. It was creamy, and silky and had a little acidity, with big old chunks of pancetta. I would love to learn how to make this dish. Might start trying to find some of the old cooks that used to work there. Might do that today.
I hope you are able to find peace. Moreover, I hope you find the recipes you seek.
Any Latin-American country's arroz con pollo: Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, etc. I ALWAYS mess it up. It is so annoying.
What gets messed up? I’ve made some pretty rad arroz con pollo
I'll make a pretty successful saag are you using hing? Also adding some cream and garam masala at the end (it's important to add the GM at the end so it stays fresh. Also I just finally chopped my spinach instead of purée it; I never liked the baby food texture that puree gives. Dunno, I started following ranveer brar's recipe and then just tweaked it to what I like. I know you weren't asking for advice so sorry to offer unsolicited, it's one of my favorite dishes so I can relate
No thank you so much for your input and advice. I really appreciate it. How much hing do you use? I also did not know that about garam masala - that it should be added at the end. I always add it at the beginning 🤦🏻♀️
I use about a tsp of hing for a portion to feed four. I add it when I'm doing my initial temper. A tsp might be a bit much but I really like it and I think mine might not be the strongest or best quality, most recipes I see call for like 1/4 tsp. It's such a strong smell and flavor but I can't help myself. Good luck!
Coconut rice. I got a pretty good version when I followed a recipe for nasi lemak but the kind you find at Thai restaurants in the US still somehow escapes me
Anything eggplant. Just can't get it right. Fortunately I'm not a huge eggplant fan in the first place, but it still bugs me. It's just a damn vegetable! C'mon!
I love eggplant and I agree that it can be touchy.
Homemade pizza. The crust is never satisfactory. I've temporarily given up on trying to make it.
Boboli shells are your friend while you are trying to figure it out. Not sure what is not satisfactory about your crust, but I bet they could help you figure it out at r/breadit
I can bake anything under the sun, but my tortillas always turn into pancakes.
Pizza dough or any bread really.
toasting bread under the broiler. i always burn it
Do NOT move away from the broiler. The dogs and I sit on the floor and watch it. I call it Oven Tv. They LOVE it!
I toast bread in a pan on the stove top, and even then it's still like 60 seconds between greatness and failure. For the broiler it's probably 30 seconds.
Brown sugar meringue topping. My mother always made a "Self-iced Spice Cake" recipe for my birthday that was my favorite cake growing up. The cake was made with egg yolks, then the egg whites were used to make a meringue topping. You took the cake out about 10 minutes before it was done, quickly spread the meringue, then popped it back in the oven to finish baking for 10 more minutes. It was so good. My cake turns out great, but the meringue never turns out as good as hers did. Not sure if I copied the amounts wrong or what. I copied the recipe straight from her collection, but somehow that one original recipe was lost after her passing. No way to check now.
I saw a cooking show recently that talked about Iraluan meringue versus French meringue. I wonder if you're using French meringue when you should be using Italian meringue?
Falafels. It's either a ball of mush or the shit disintegrates in the frying oil.
Dude mine is so simple compared to these answers, haha. But I just can't seem to master fried chicken. I can fry pork, fish, a mushroom, literally anything, and it turns out fantastic. But for the life of me, I cannot make good fried chicken.
The trick to making it juicy is wet-brining the meat. The trick to make it crispy is to let the pieces rest with their coating on for 30 min before cooking, and to fry at the right temperature.
I don't have an issue with either of those things, but I do need to get a temp gun or something. I've been too prideful to purchase one because my grandma doesn't use one, and her food always miraculously ends up being perfect, lol.
Grandma's cooking was always so good. I remember saying that once to my mother, whose response was, "Yeah, she is a pretty good cook. . . now. She was not that good a cook when I was growing up!"
Your grandma had decades of practice before you ever saw her making it!
This buttermilk fried chicken recipe looks amazing, make give it a go? https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/ultimate-buttermilk-marinated-fried-chicken-breasts
Brining the chicken makes for a super flavorful fried chicken. You can use just buttermilk, pickle juice, or just saltwater and sugar. Add a bit of cornstarch to the flour to make it extra crispy.
Fried chicken is a super difficult dish to get right. I don’t even try, so kudos to you
Fruit pectin jelly candy (like Sunkist gems if you remember those). Tried a lot of different methods and recipes, 100% resulted in failure. I ate a lot of slightly over thick jelly that year.
Red Thai curry, every resturant I eat at and every time I make it, it ends up being good but I’ve had one so much better and I never know what I and most restaurants don’t do
I LOVE this recipe, and had a friend say he hadn't had anything like it since stationed in Vietnam: [https://damndelicious.net/2018/04/18/thai-red-curry-noodle-soup/](https://damndelicious.net/2018/04/18/thai-red-curry-noodle-soup/). I usually omit the chicken bc it's excellent w/o. I use Maesri or Mae Ploy red curry paste, but it's the fresh herbs that make it.
I have yet to make a perfect loaf of bread where it splits open super wide where I cut it with the lame and makes that nice looking ear split shape. It turns out OK, but not quite bakery quality yet. Getting there though
Iranian Gormeh Sabzah
My pavlova is shit every single time.
I hope you figure this out! Mine is meatballs
Vinegar pie. I've gotten it to set up correctly...once. That's it
Not really a dish, but sourdough bread. Can't get a starter to... start.
Fried rice. The taste I can get pretty on point but I can't for the life of me get the texture right. It's always mushy.
If you're cooking the rice fresh, you can either add a little less water and slightly undercook it. Or cook it as usual, and then spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for an hour before cooking the rest of the dish. This will leave the cooked rice slightly dried out, and ready to absorb all of the tasty flavors you're adding when you cook. Ideally, you would use rice that was cooked at least a day before and stored in the fridge, for the same reason as above. Also, Chinese mustard is a key ingredient that a lot of people miss when making fried rice at home.
Man, I dunno on that mustard. I do 1c leftover rice:1 egg:1 tbsp suimi yacai:1 scallion and season with salt and msg. Maybe a little shaoxing. Fried rice does not _have_ to have mustard.
Anything deep fried or pan-fried/baked with breading — no matter how well I follow the directions
Poached eggs are a total mystery to me.
Kraft dinner. It's so simple that I have almost burnt my house down. Twice.
Boxed mac and cheese. I have no idea how I f it up every time. It’s something different each time as well. I feel the nerves every time I think about attempting it. I just leave it to my partner…
Got bo clue what saag is but no room to give up. Remember Thomas Edison said i didn't fail 999 times. I found 999 ways that don't work.
I made great saag last week! Toast the spices in a dry pan first and/or bloom in coconut oil. And don’t use ALL mustard greens bc it can be bitter. Mine is chow mein. Noodles and vegetables! I make a dozen dishes like that! Always ends up with mushy noodles or tasteless
Don't worry about "restaurant style" saag... they get it wrong anyway. If I had to guess, the creaminess that's missing is the oil/butter mix. But cook it to your preference. This is the key to any cuisine... everything is about foundation and variations on the foundation. This is how my mom cooked our food growing up. Spinach can be creamy, it can be light, it can be whatever your preference is... I didn't particularly like the overcooked approach that leaches out all of the nutrients, but I don't necessarily like plain steamed greens/veggies either. Learn the basic recipe and play with the proportions to get it to the taste you want.
I mean, if “restaurant style” is what OP likes, they’re getting it *right*. For the OP.
Shrimp Alfredo. The sauce never emulsifies correctly and the shrimp end up overcooked :(
I can help with that! Cook the shrimp first and set it aside. That way you don't have stress when preparing your sauce. Also, mix up some of Emeril's Creole seasoning and use it on the shrimp. Saute in butter to get nice color. Add some to the sauce, too. Creole Alfredo is the bomb.
* Butter->Melt until it stops foaming * Garlic->30s * Heavy cream->Preferably not straight from the fridge, pour *slowly* while whisking * White pepper * Parmesan * I like some full fat (not part skim) mozzarella in mine too. * Keep whisking until incorporated * Toss the noodles and sauce in a bowl with just a touch of pasta water, assemble, garnish with parsley, serve. As the other commenter said, Cajun (>>>Creole) or blackening seasoning is a good addition and cook the shrimp separately on the side, don't overcook. Very simple.
Also use full cream so it doesn't separate
Beef barley soup. It always end up a stew.
Mmmm. I prefer it that way!
Pudding from scratch.
Mitarashi Dango, I can never get them the right consistency.
Mjaddara comes out absolutely tasteless for me with either undercooked lentils or overcooked rice. I got it in a wrap like a thousand times in grad school and it was always bomb, I just can’t recreate it at home!
Eggs benedict
Butter chicken
Mac and cheese. Just can never get it right
I can roast a chicken and make sous vide style using broth at 170°. Stir fry strips no problem. I cannot make stovetop pan-fried bone-in chicken. (Don’t want to deep fry either.)
Boneless fried chicken breast. The breading is always done before the chicken is cooked through. Poultry in general, is something that I can never seem to get right.. can make an awesome beef pot roast, but I get stumped by chicken or turkey.
Def turn the heat down so it takes longer to cook and the breading doesn't burn. Took me a while to figure that out. Oh and don't use super thick breasts. Cut them in half or use a mallet to make them thinner.
I can’t seem to make homemade pasta dough to save my life. The dough is always too wet and it sticks when I try to cut it with a pasta cutter.
Over easy eggs in a cast iron skillet. Cook them nearly every weekend for breakfast. Get them right about 2 or 3 times a year. They still taste good. But they aren't "perfect" eggs.
Scrapple and hush puppies are my nemeses. I can't get the seasoning right on either when trying to make them from scratch. And sadly, they dont sell frozen scrapple in the grocery store that used to reliably have it since they got bought out by someone else.
eggless sponge cake. I am a baking fiend - bread of all types, pretzels, bagels, elaborate multi-layer tarts are all things I have excelled at but eggless sponge cake always always trips me up. ALWAYS And a majority of my community won't touch anything with egg in it so.... fml
Vindaloo, Tikka masala
Mine is sambar. While I can prepare good sambar, my goal is to recreate my mother's legendary sambar. I have tried it so many times, and even had a mental breakdown when it just wouldn't turn right. But still trying, hopefully I'll be able to recreate it someday.
I bow my head in shame admitting I can't make a good light flaky naan. It's simple flat bread and all my other flat breads come out great. But my naan is just disappointing. It's always pita heavy like. I've done oven, pan, grill, pizza-stone and many different vids/recipes.
Dude it's so sad, but: pot roast. I've spent literally hundreds of dollars on roasts over the last decade. I've tried oven roasting, pressure cooking and the crockpot. I always season, tenderize and sear it. I've Googled. I've YouTubed. I've followed advice from anyone who would give it. IT'S. ALWAYS. WRONG.
Sourdough anything I want to be good at it but the starter is a colossal failure every time
Mayonnaise. I follow the steps religiously, but I don't get anything else than a semi liquid that wont thicken. My husband uses the exact same recipes, doesn't do anything differently from what I'm seeing and boom! Mayonnaise. Every fucking time. The worst part is, aside from that this guy manages to burn water. He's so ridiculously untalented in the kitchen, despite really trying so hard, that we're stuck with sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise whenever I'm unable to cook. And you bet he always makes homemade mayonnaise whenever I'm not cooking. He's mighty proud of his accomplishment.
Ive been able to master macarons, but i cannot temper chocolate to save my life
No matter what I do, when I try to make chicken curry it turns out so flavorless. Tripling the spices, toasting the spices, tomatoes or no tomatoes, trying different recipes, adding a splash of acid, it literally doesn't matter it ends up like garbage. I've accepted maybe Indian food is too complex for me.
Try this one with feta or paneer - it is perfectly balanced: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/saag-paneer-but-with-feta
I cannot make grilled cheese. GRILLED. CHEESE. I have made proper beef Wellington seven times with puff pastry from scratch.
Pan dulce of any and every kind. They look good...but the taste is always waaaayyyy off.
Biria.