A lot of good cooking is in technique. What’s something that you discovered or was told that really changed something meaningful for you? For me, I had struggled a lot to make omelettes. They always wound up becoming scrambled eggs because I sucked at flipping them over to cook on the other side (I like my eggs cooked pretty well so this was important to me.) Finally, watching someone else make an omelette, I noticed they didn’t flip it. They put a lid on the pan, turned the heat down, and let the top cook that way. I tried it myself and now I make almost perfect omelettes every time. Have you had anything like this happen to you? If so, what was it?
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The most recent one for me was learning how to backslice when cutting certain things, like green onions or herbs. You typically get a cleaner cut that way, even if your knife needs sharpening.
You don’t need to wash rice, you can just leave it to soak in water for 30 minutes and it works just as well without the assload of effort.
This one’s new to me; I love it!
Mise en place makes things soooo easy. When I meal prep I chop up all my veg on Saturday and stick it in the fridge, then cook on Sunday. Makes the whole process less overwhelming than doing everything in one sitting.
marinate your veggies before grilling. (onions, squash/zucchini.) 1-1 mix of oil and vinegar (or some other acid.) and salt. maybe garlic, herbs. whatever. brush on just a bit of a coating, it doesn’t take much.
also for grilled onions, get poultry skewers. before slicing the onion (so as to create rings,) run the skewers through, then just remove before serving. The skewer will keep them together. Perfect for burgers.
knife skills. This isn’t really a single technique, and it’s pretty freaking basic, but, work on your knife skills. Focus on being neat, the speed will come with practice.
Salt meats the night before you cook them. Especially tougher cuts, but salt is good for all cuts.
Browning ground beef really means getting a sear on part of it, not just making it not pink. And split it into batches so that you don’t have all the water coming out and boiling the meat instead of searing it.
When baking, weigh ingredients. Most of cooking is art; baking is science.
For ground beef, especially, too many people try to chop it all up and get it “gray”. I don’t eat beef often, but when I do make ground beef, I basically treat it like making a hamburger: salt it immediately prior to placing in a hot pan, and don’t touch it until there is browned crust, and then try to flip it and get a crust on the other side. Only then will I break it up into little pieces. If you have too much meat to do that, you are better off getting a good sear on half of the meat, and tossing in the other half later, than trying to do all of it and basically just boiling the meat in juices.
Learning how to properly sear food them let it cook the rest of the way over low heat. Potatoes, chicken, etc.
Kind of the opposite of that, sous vide steak then sear with a screaming hot cast iron pan.
The broiler in your oven is fantastic for toasting buns and melting cheese on top of stuff. Also good for putting some char on your food if you need that.
Not sure if this counts, but the way I chop my onions and garlic changed after watching a Joshua Weissman video on it. Leaving the end on to hold it all together while I chop was so genius I don’t even remember how I chopped them before. Especially easier to thinly slice onions. Also learning my spices so I can spice mostly by smell. Makes it easier when I’m experimenting to just smell the pan and know which spice I should add to make it taste better.
I find that also cuts down on how much your eyes water (for the onions)
That and a VERY sharp knife
Making a proper (?) French omelette. Watched Julia Child do it on TV. Changed my Sunday morning breakfast game big time. Beat two eggs. Heat a 10" non stick pan over medium heat. Throw in a tbsp of butter. When the butter bubbles up, the pan is hot enough. Dump in the eggs. Shake the pan over the flame to move the eggs around. I also use a set of chopsticks to help stir it up good. The eggs set in about a minute or so. Once set, I use a spatula to flip (roll) the egg from the edge of the pan, 2 times. Then plate. Watching a video of her doing it probably makes more sense than my description. Multiple new techniques for me. It’s fast. They are light. Everyone likes them.
Specifically for tactile techniques, I’d say wok movement and flipping. High heat and constant movement are key to good wok fried foods, and flipping in the wok is almost the only way to ensure multiple sides of ingredients will make contact with the pan. Wide spatulas generally only move things around.
Learning to flip things in any cookware is still a work in progress for me, but it always gives impressively better results when I can manage it, so it’s something I want to master!
Buy a proper instant read meat thermometer and learn about carryover heat. Seriously, just cooking meat to where it needs to be and no more makes such a difference when cooking.
Along with that, learning when things need to be cooked to higher temps for structural reasons.
Finally, learning how to get good browning or crust formation. Its all prep and heat control but damn a steak with a good crust is life changing.
I’ve taken up bringing an instant read with me when I expect I may have to cook at someone’s house. Nothing worse than trying to make a prime rib at someone’s house, a getting handed one of those analog dial thermometers that doesn’t even have numbers on it, just “rare, medium, well done”.
Same. Its so nice for consistency. I also keep a basic knife sharpener in my cooking bag.
Not a technique but changed my cooking. I tried whole grain pasta for reasons of both health benefits and curiosity. I love it so much I can’t go back. The regular one feels now disappointingly lacking in taste and texture to me. It takes slightly longer to cook, but it’s almost impossible to overcook - it’ just always al dente!
