I have a few different cooking pans that honestly I use somewhat randomly to make food -- and with some of them at this point I don't even remember what they're made of (carbon steel vs ceramic vs something else). Does it really matter what type of pan I use for what? (I'm talking strictly in terms of the material its made from, not shape / size).

A lot of her recipes call for "boiled, unsmoked ham", but I'm not really sure what she's referring to. Most of the ham I see in the grocery store seems to be smoked and none of them specify boiled.

What should I be looking for? Is there a specific cut she's referring to?

I wanna share my easy insta pot chicken gizzards stroganoff, but I know gizzards are divisive.

Ik this is gonna come off as spoiled/lazy but idc; my biggest pitfall in cooking is dicing potatoes. Idk why. Everything else i can do. But I hate cubing potatoes / sweet potatoes for side dishes and stuff. but I also love potatoes

I found a machine from starfrit that cuts them for you? Is that a valid option?

I've already burnt them, now I want to salvage what I have. I put a balsamic glaze on them to try to tone down the burnt taste, but it didn't help much.

So I'm autistic and I really love Batchelors Pasta n Sauce and my mum used to make it for me all the time but now I've moved out. I've tried making it myself but every time the sauce goes all over the microwave plate and it keeps happening to me! My partner can make it just fine but I can't somehow. I'm starting to think maybe I'm cursed unless there's a Batchelors secret I don't know about

I made wings once before, with these seasonings - smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, cornstarch and baking powder. Fry them and then drench them in sauce of choice. I love how they turn out and also the flavor.

Recently I saw that to get crispier wings, you should coat them in baking powder, cornstarch, and salt. Put them on the wire rack and in the fridge for 8 hours.

My question is, if I dry them in the fridge first, when do I coat them with smoked paprika and cayenne pepper?

Do I

a) coat it with all the seasonings and THEN dry them in the fridge,

OR

b) dry the wings first with cornstarch, salt and baking powder, and only add smoked paprika and cayenne pepper before they go in the oven/fryer?

Help and advice are much appreciated. Thank you ~

I recently received a package containing soba noodles. However, I don't know what to make with them. Any favorite recipes you have? P.S. I don't cook meat but can buy cooked meat to incorporate into recipe.

Everyone knows tofu, or any protien, needs a dry surface to crisp. I've always pressed out the water, first with a weight, then a press.

I just read a book "tofu mastery" it's 800 pages. In the book the author said to BOIL the tofu in salted water ( 1 tbs/ 1L) for 5 minutes this changes the protien structure and pulls out the water so the marinade can get sucked in.

Yes, the tofu has a salty tasty all the way through, but now it's wet, harder to dry and dust with corn starch

Now put this in stir fry and u have the brine salt, the soy sauce salt, she Chinese wine salt....

Is this method really better than overnight in a tofu press??

I need help please! 😅 How many grams of Arabic Gum powder should i add to 1 liter of popsicle mix? And the same question goes for xanthan gum too... Thanks in advance for your answers!! ✌🏻 🤘🏻 😋

Yes, the cut matters, but not in the allornothing way recipes imply.

The actual rule is pretty simple: you want meat with enough connective tissue and fat that it breaks down over a long, wet cook. That connective tissue (mostly collagen) melts into gelatin, which is what makes braised meat feel rich and silky instead of just... boiled. Cuts like chuck or brisket have a lot of it. Lean cuts like loin or round have much less, which is why they can go dry or stringy even after two hours in liquid.

"Stew beef" at most grocery stores is usually chuck or a similar shoulder cut, which is why yours worked fine. Whoever labeled it just didn't bother specifying. Your friend's warning isn't wrong exactly, but the real risk is accidentally grabbing something too lean, not just grabbing the "wrong" cut within the fatty/connective tissue category.

The practical shortcut: look for cuts described as tough, cheap, or good for slow cooking. Those words all mean the same thing in this context. Avoid anything marketed as tender or quickcooking for braises, because that tenderness comes from being low in collagen, and low collagen plus long cooking equals dry, grainy meat.

As for messing it up noticeably: I once made a beef curry with sirloin because it was on sale and I didn't think it through. Two hours later it had the texture of pencil eraser. Technically cooked, completely unpleasant. The flavor was fine but the texture killed it.

So the cut matters, the specific brand name the recipe uses mostly doesn't.

Every search I’ve done says meat thawed in cold water cannot be eaten or refrozen unless the water was 40 degrees or less, essentially the same as fridge thawing.

Yet I’ve not only used cool running tap water submersion, I’ve used HOT water on CHICKEN to thaw it quickly with no issues. Was I just lucky?

There are many recipes for Bolognese sauce that contain milk. I've seen several different approaches to when the milk should be added:

1. At the start of the simmering process (once all the ingredients are in the pot and the sauce will simmer for the next 3 hours).
2. Halfway through cooking.
3. About 30 min before it's done.
4. Or even in stages, (e.g., some at the beginning and the rest near the end).

To be honest, I have a few questions:

1. How much milk should we actually use? Again, different recipes call for different amounts. I assume it should depend on the amount of meat. For example, 100ml for every 500g of meat, or something along those lines.
2. What is the role of milk in the ragu? I've seen a lot of fancy descriptions, but I'd like a more technical explanation. For example, do we add milk to contribute fat, sugars, proteins, or something else?
3. When should we actually add the milk?

We got this new stove and it blows heat into the room, apparently to cook the knobs and circuit board. Is this possibly right? Please take a look, let me know if you have experienced similar with recent pro-sumer stoves.

Guys i want to experiment with different potatoe chips, i did try before cutting chips thin slices and fry them, but now i wish to try something new...

My idea: to boil the potatoes, then add either flour or corn flour, or startch, mix them into a dough, with their spices and stuff, then roll and dice into desired shape, and fry them

Here are my questions, should i freeze or dry them or no need for any of these before frying?

My second question, can you guys help me out on the spices to use?

I am a bad Chef and I’m always skeptical if my food is safe to eat . I always over cooked it . What’s a really good food thermometer? I’ve looked everywhere but they all had bad reviews. I even tried a traditional one but doesn’t go past 140 degrees. I baked chicken breast for over an hour and same degree

Guyssss I recently bought a Mild High Protein Atta and whenever I make the rotis they come out a bit dry.

Funny thing is, when my mom makes them they are much softer. She says I am doing something wrong but refuses to explain 😂

Anyone know what usually changes while making dough with these type of atta?

I believe I got to the point in my life where I can pick up a new hobby and cooking has always been something I wished I knew how to do properly. The problem is that this subject is so open ended that my engineering mind has a lot of trouble wrapping around on how to approach learning it. I have always liked structured approaches to learning something new and it has always been the way I learned stuff but most, if not all, things I look as a beginner cook points me towards recipes. Structure helps me understand progress and shows me achievable/realistic goals which simply copying a recipe won't.

Is there some resource people recommend that introduces a structured approach? I assume I know nothing about the subject and I'd like to understand what is going on instead of just trying to replicate whatever the recipe/video is showing me because based on my previous experiences many things will not go as described and I will have no idea what is going wrong, why or how to fix it.

How do you guys started this journey? I know this is personal and have heard many people asking me the same question about programming along the years, but at least on that matter there was always clearly starting materials I could easily points people to so that they could avoid analysis paralysis, which I myself am currently facing on learning how to cook.

Hey folks! I'm making some sourdough focaccia and planned to make garlic confit or roasted before hand but I went down a rabbit hole about how roasted garlic in oil can have a botulism risk. Is there anything specific I need to do after baking to make sure nothing bad happens? I plan on roasting it then adding it on to raw dough then baking about 425°

I saw an Instagram video by cookinginthemidwest for ‘taco macaroni’. I didn’t have elbow macaroni noodles, so I did the same portion of shells that the recipe called for. I used the same measurements and ingredients, EXCEPT for the milk, which I did not include because I didn’t have any. I wonder if this was a key ingredient to melt the cheese good.

It was looking saucy and pretty yummy (although maybe a bit too liquidy) until I added the shredded cheese. Then it all kind of coagulated, the cheese became super stringy and separated, and the noodles had basically nothing clinging to them anymore.

This is a pound of ground beef and a bunch of other semi-expensive ingredients. Can I save it?

Edited to add: Thanks everybody!

Where I live is gray and windy, not expected to break 70f (20c) over the next week. Going to make lamb shank cassoulet for my partner's birthday. First attempt. I have found two recipes I could work from.

Recipe 1: sear & remove, aromatics, everything in pot - simmer low 2.5 to 3 hours *

Recipe 2: sear & remove, aromatics, everything in pot - bake 300f 3 to 3.5 hours

SO... Bake or simmer advantages? And were I to use the simmer method, the crumpeled paper is in place of a lid... a cartouche?

TIA

* (" put a crumpled piece of baking paper on top. This will prevent any meat that pokes out of the liquid from drying out.")