/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Why do youtube videos always lie about temperature?
>"Get your pan really really really hot"
>do so
>food burns 2 seconds after hitting the pan
>turns out I should actually cook on medium to get the results in the video
is it because I have gas burners and they're catering to people with induction burners, which generally won't end up as hot?

How do I know if I'm using too much salt? I've read a lot about how to use salt, and you're supposed to keep adding it till you get that "zing" from the food, but it always feels like the amount I have to add to get the zing is way too high... what can I do to make sure the amount of salt I'm adding is actually reasonable and it's not just that I have a low sensitivity to salt?

I tried to make roasted garlic potatoes which I think is pretty straight forward, but the garlic chunks I put in the oven were completely burnt to a crisp. How can I avoid this?

>Cut potatoes
>Add minced garlic
>Toss with salt, pepper, bit of canola oil
>Put on aluminum sheet
>Preheat oven to 450F
>Put sheet in oven, wait for half an hour (garlic has been completely burnt by this point)
>Turn some of the taters over etc
>Back in for another 20 mins

They turned out good but the burnt garlic is fucked, I have to pick out all the chunks that stuck to the potatoes.

>>10492682
Salt levels are subjective man, if you like the taste after salting it, then thats fine. Obviously you can try to reduce a bit in general to avoid too much sodium. Maybe give us a reference in terms of how much salt you put in a dish?

>>10492697
I should probably start measuring my salt dish before / after cooking to get a better idea. It always feels like a lot, but might not be as much as I think... I've put in maybe 3-4 "handfuls" of salt into this bolognese (to cover about a kg of pasta) and I still feel like I could add more.
Not "handful", just not sure the exact word, it's like a pinch but I'm using my forefinger, middle, and ring against my thumb, not just forefinger.

how 2 cut fast and good? I can't seem to get that rotating motion AND get everything out in a rather uniform slice

>>10492760
worry about cutting accurately and fluidly, not speed. Speed will come as the fluidity comes.

>>10492695
Use more oil or par-cook the potatoes.

>>10492695
Add your garlic later in the cooking process. Taters in first. When the taters are partly done then add the garlic.

>>10492682
Taste the food while you're cooking. If you're seasoning raw sausage meat or something else you wouldn't want to taste raw the take a small sample, microwave it or pan-fry it real quick and taste that.

If you like a lot of salt then that's fine. Cook to your tastes, not what someone in a cookbook or video said.

>>10492674
Different stoves and pans heat up at different rates so there is always some guesswork involved. If your food is literally burning then your pan is too hot. If your oil or butter is smoking then your pan is too hot or you are using the wrog kind of oil.

If your food is sticking to the pan then note that sticking often happens if you try to flip your food too soon. Be patient and flip your food a little later.

>>10492773
>Cook to your tastes, not what someone in a cookbook or video said.
I think this is a good point, and I have attained a lot of pleasure from cooking for myself. But I also have a goal of being able to cook for others and have them enjoy it. I'm worried that I'll use too much salt and they will find it overly salty. Although, I hardly eat any processed foods, so it's possible that I actually have a low salt tolerance relative to the general population, which I guess is also a problem...

how do i deal with my fairly severe depression

butter or veg oil for sautee?

>>10492813
Depends what you're making. If you're sauteeing with butter it helps to add a bit of oil to help prevent the butter from scorching.

>>10492812
work in catering/back of house and you'll either off yourself quickly or be able to distract yourself enough you won't feel the pain. might even find a calling for the food industry

>>10492812
I have immense difficulty getting myself to do things, but cooking is one that I've been able to do, and I find that I'm always in a better mood after spending a couple hours cooking something. (Although I also find that overeating leads to sadness and lethargy, so take that into account as well.) Honestly, just doing /anything/ other than the default of laying there is productive, in my mind. Go walk around the block, make stock (almost no work, but requires some level of attentiveness for many hours), anything that you can use to get yourself moving. Good luck, man, you can do it.

>>10492812
See a therapist. Also cooking related: Jordan Memerson recommends having a hearty, healthy breakfast each morning to feel better. I forget the reason but its biological, not psychiatrist mumbo jumbo.

>>10492844
spitballing here, but probably has something to do with keeping your energy levels high throughout the day

>>10492833
my last job before joining the fake sea army was as a dishwasher and general kitchen aide; i miss the satisfied feeling of being tuckered out after a work day but it's hard work for very little money

>>10492839
>Honestly, just doing /anything/ other than the default of laying there is productive,
i've run out of hobbies 2bh, bullying and other bad experiences make me not want to do any of the things i used to enjoy very much

>>10492862
i bet it's a vitamin deficiency thing
I remember reading once that a symptom of vitamin b deficiency is literally "crying spells"

cool another thread that started about cooking devolves into /r9k/ bullshit

I just have one question... Am I supposed to do anything with anchovy bones? Seriously. When I eat anchovies without doing anything to the bones, I get the prickly feeling in my mouth and down my throat. When I cook them, the bones are only slightly less noticeable.

>>10492991
fry em. bones will just be crunchy and good

>>10492991
If that's an issue for you look for anchovy paste.

>>10492991
Yeah. Chewing.

>>10493012
I'll probably do that next time. They were an impulse buy because of the protein content, and I enjoy the saltiness so I grabbed the first thing I saw. Ended up being fillets.
>>10493014
I do chew, but that doesn't exactly help much.
>>10493009
I'll give that a fry.

I've got a big bone leftover.

Is it worth it to try to make stock with it ?

Additional question : recipes tell me to put onions, leeks, carrots, mushrooms, etc, in the stock. What can I do with them after I take them out ?

>>10493048
what animal bone and what part is it?

>>10493048
Some bones work better than others for stock, but mediocre stock is always better than no stock.

>>What can I do with the used stuff from stock
Nothing really. If you made the stock properly it will all be flavorless mush. Use it for compost or something.

>>10493048
>I've got a big bone leftover.
OwO
>Is it worth it to try to make stock with it ?
Depends on how big it is. If it's something like a hambone with a bunch of meat attached you can make a nice pot of stock. If it's not enough you can always freeze it and make the stock once you've collected enough.
>What can I do with them after I take them out
Compost. They're not really worth eating after they've been simmering for hours.

>>10493048
Once bones are cooked you aren't going to get nearly as much out of them.

>>10493056
Yes, what kind of bone and how large. And once you've cooked all the vegetables down they're trash. Literally flavorless pieces ready to denigrate. I wouldn't recommend mushrooms unless making mushroom stock, nor wasting leeks on prior-cooked bones. Stick with onions, carrots, celery.

>>10493056
Beef, shoulder I think.

I hear you all about the vegetables. Seems like a waste though.

>>10493100
that's good for stock. after you cook them, you can throw it at your dog or even try to split it to get at the marrow. that shit's delicious and nutritious apparently

Any good sourdough bread recipes?

>>10492635
So I set some raw ground turkey to thaw in my refridgerator almost exactly 48 hours ago, intending to cook it yesterday. To make a long story short, I was distracted and it never happened. Can I use it safely now, or should I just leave it be?

>>10493146
I've had good results from this one. Season it however you want.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basic-sourdough-bread-351236

>>10495047
It's fine.

Are there any recommended resources on learning cooking? I want to get started but I feel completely lost and understand fuck-all about what I'm doing when following a recipe.

>>10492796
One of the reasons that restaurant food tastes a lot different than home cooked food is they use a shitload of salt. I know that I am pretty heavy on the salt scale, so when I cook for others I use less than I might want, but I guarantee more than my guests would put in, and I've never had a complaint about saltiness. Trust your tastes. There isn't a hard and fast rule for x=perfect amount of salt.

That being said, you can always add salt, but you can't subtract, so it's generally good to tread lately when cooking for others. It's better to have a sauce come out a little on the underseasoned side than it is for it to be unedibly salty.

>>10492812
Make sure you get a full nights sleep, monitor your diet (it helps), and force yourself to get out of bed and do things, even if you don't want to. Even though it's easy, the worst thing you can do is settle into your depression and get in a rut. Find a stupid activity that you can do every day, and go do it.

>>10493146
I recommend flour water salt for a good tutorial on sourdough baking. If you live near a good bakery and don't want to deal with feeding a starter from scratch, they'll usually selll you some of theirs for cheap. Maintaining a starter is dead easy.

Also, get a decent flour and make sure your tap water tastes good and isn't overly chemical. If it is, gotta go with bottled, which is a pain. For flour, king Arthur is pretty damn decent.

>>10495201
scribd.com/document/323433942/Joy-of-Cooking-Rombauer-Becker-pdf

Various old school cookbooks will give you the absolute basics. Look for Mastering the art of french cooking too, after that it's just trial and error.

>>10492682
If you can taste salt that's too much salt, I believe salt is one of those departments where you get to add "Your touch" some people likes more salt, some people likes not having heart problems. Use your senses, add salt until you like how it tastes.

>>10492760
Do it as slow as it takes for you to be precise, get comftable with the movements until it becomes second nature, then speed will come in because you already have the muscle memory.

Not inept at cooking, but how do people just use “some” and “a few” and “a bit”, etc. in place of real measurements? Makes no sense to be vague about your ingredients and the amount that goes into the dish.

>>10495578
Cooking is really unprecise, I think Jacés Pepin talks about it but the jist of it is that ingredients are never the same, you might be at a different altitude with different air moisture, your water might be denser, etc etc. By saying "A bit" "A bunch" you get an idea of how much part of the dish that ingredient or spice should form rather than "1tsp" which could be too much or too little.
Also it leaves room for you to use your judgement which you should be doing anyways,

>>10495603
>cooking is imprecise
Why do we have recipes with precise measurements then? I don’t understand how people immediately know how much to use when they’re given a vague term. Can they not just stick with a concrete measurement or is that too hard?

>>10495641
It's practice, you start out with the precise measurements but when you see a tablespoon of something being used over and over again you get a feel for how much you need without using tools.

>>10495641
He just explained why you don't stick to a precise measurement. The recipes in cookbooks are there to give you a solid idea, but it's better all around to get comfortable enough to freestyle.

Read any book about actual professional cooking and they all pretty much say "yeah the recipe in our cookbook is a weird approximation." It's shit they come up with in a test kitchen. What you should be taking from cookbooks is techniques.

I have a pineapple that I need to cook soon, and a mango as well. I was going to cook pulled pork tomorrow. Would it taste good if I grilled the pineapple and added it to the pot before I start slow cooking it?

How do I make soy milk?

>>10495676
It'll taste great but don't do it the whole cooking time, last hour should be enough for the pineapple and the last 30 minutes for the mango, otherwise it'll turn into mush
>>10495682
Soybeans, water, soak overnight, puree in a blender, strain

>>10495682
You? Masturbate.

>>10495660
>>10495663
There’s so much room for error, though, when you just approximate. You’re bound to get it wrong and not enjoy the dish. Cooking isn’t about just doing whatever, it’s a regimented system that continually lets you produce quality food.

>>10495707
Again, that's what practice is for. You're bound to stop fucking up at some point, unless you're stupid.

>>10495735
You can’t fuck up when you always follow the recipe.

>>10495707
If you follow the recipe exactly there's much more room for error.

Simple spaghetti with marinara recipe written by a person living at sea level on the coast in Italy, high salinity content in water, high moisture.
When the person takes their farm fresh eggs which have a medium high sodium content and make fresh pasta with them they add 1/8 tsp salt which seems to be just right.
Someone reproducing the recipe in Mexico City, high above sea level with really dry air with low sodium content using days old processed pre-packaged eggs might encounter the amount of liquid is too little and the salt is also not enough if they use the exact measurements.

Also with time, going of the same example.

The dude in Italy might take 8 minutes to have Al dente pasta.
If the guy in Mexico City cooks his pasta, with the exact same measurements for the exact same time his pasta will not only be dry and crumbly and probably fall appart but it will also be underdone.

There are too many details to account for even in the simplest of recipes, even if in the same place at the same time of the year, you don't know if the farmer switched up the chicken's diet making their eggs more sodium rich or if your water supplier changed the water source thus making your water denser.

You always have to adapt even if it is the slightest, theres a huge difference between exactly following the recipe and getting the results you expect from the recipe.

Anyone here ever use SodaStream or a similar "do it yourself" type of cola machine? I drink the ever-loving shit of of sodas, and usually buy the off brands that are pretty cheap, but it seems like it might be better off just to make them at home. Thoughts on if its worth it, and the taste of the drinks?

>>10495838
Theyre much better for you, since you're making them on your own you won't use as much sugar and now the possibilities are literally endless.
Blood orange strawberry? Sure
Pickle juice and hot dog water? Erm.. go for it
Cat piss and ketchup

You get the idea.

do i add sugar after the yeast activates in the water or during

>>10495707
Remember that you can always add more but taking away is a bit harder. I find most recipes are a bit underseasoned for my tastes, but that's what practice is for like an anon said. It also helps to cross check recipes and kinda experiment based on what you find. For instance I've found that macaroni and cheese is improved by adding a bit of dijon mustard and a bit of hot sauce to the cheese sauce, that's what I like, but I never would have figured that out if I didn't deviate from a recipe a bit.

How the fuck do I get good at tossing stuff in a skillet or wok? Every time I try the food either doesn't move or it flies every-fuckin'-where.

>>10495941
Easiest way is to practice with a cold pan with something like peppercorns in it.

Mind you, if you are a spaz, you'll probably make a mess. But you'll get there without flinging hot fried eggs on your feet.

>>10495941
>doesn't move it flies everywhere

More oil, more practice

So I have some potato fritter. Made from mashed potatoes, a bit of meat and chives, salt pepper made into arancini sized balls. Tossed in egg white and fried.
It turns out fine but the potatoes have some metallic/sour aftertaste. Anything I did wrong, or is it because of the potatoes?
I remember once I had some fried frozen potato chips, and it has that taste as well. How do I avoid this?

>>10492812
I'm a doctor who is loathe to dispense psych advice, but literally this: >>10495222

I seriously doubt your depression is severe. You likely have dysthymia with an organic drive; sort your eating, sleeping and activity levels and then move on to your home and social life if you see no improvement.

Any other chemists trying to get into cooking? If I can handle organic synthesis surely I can cook? Right? But the few times I've tried it's been pretty autistic.

Has anyone else been in this position?

>>10495941
Have the pan at the right temperature don't use too much or too little oil and make sure you're gently going forward then rapidly pulling fast towards yourself, never go up and down.

Something that I've been curious about for a while:
If I'm cooking meat in a pan should I wash off the spatula when it's close to finished to avoid re-adding raw meat bits back into it? I always wondered if that counts as cross contamination or something.

>>10497202
Geat question:
Self cross contamination shouldn't really be an issue.
For one, steaks and other fabricated cuts of meat shouldn't have little pieces that fall off
Same goes for a ground beef Patty, unless you're beaking down the grounded meat while sauteeing it, it shouldn't fall apart.
In case that is the case, the raw bits should fall from the spatula as your stir.

>>10497242
Thanks for the answer.
I've mostly noticed that when cooking chicken that I've cut into smaller chunks there will be small bits stuck to the spatula. Where as, like you said, ground beef usually just falls off on it's own.
I've always washed it off just to be safe since I never knew if it was an issue or not.

>>10497153
Practise more. Pick a simple recipe and go for it. You aren't going to get good at something like cooking without actually doing it.

Best way to cook a London broil ? I usually cut it thin and cook it on cast iron like a sirloin. Any other ideas ?

whats a good way to reduce salt without sacrificing taste? my doctor told me i had to reduce sodium intake or my heart will explode

>>10492695
I always toss my roasted potatoes after cooking them. You dont really gain much by adding certain more delicate spices like garlic ahead of time.

>>10497788
Try adding other seasoning.

When using a pressure cooker, should you always use on highest pressure setting by default, or does every kind of food have it's own preferred setting?

>>10492812
Step 1 is to go to >>>/r9k/ and stay there.

>>10497788
You can buy potassium chloride in supermarkets. It's sold as a salt substitute and it contains zero sodium. It tastes a little different than salt but it's close enough.

You can also use other seasonings like herb blends. Many of them are sold as salt-free seasoning. They don't taste like salt but they do add flavor.

>>10498092
Your pressure cooker probably came with a manual that gave cooking times and settings for different foods. Read it.

Though the general rule is that most things are cooked at full pressure, normally 1 atmosphere or about 15 psi. I use a pressure cooker frequently and I always use the full pressure setting.

>>10495746
And you're never going to paint the Sistine Chapel when you're stuck on a paint by numbers book

>>10495746
Yes you can. A recipe is never perfect on the details as even the simplest recipes have at least some assumptions about your knowledge.

>A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

>>10498220
This. If you blindly follow a recipe to the letter you are nearly always fucking up.

Ingredients vary in flavor and potency. Trusting the recipe's measurements for seasonings is nearly always wrong because the chance that your herbs and spices taste the same as the recipe writer's is essentially zero. Taste the food, and your ingredients, and adjust accordingly.

Likewise cooking times and temperatures vary. Ovens are notoriously inaccurate with regard to their temperature. Different ranges/hobs heat at different levels. Different pans heat differently. Ingredients vary in size and shape (and therefore cooking time) so again, the recipe might be a guideline but you need to adjust based on the ingredients and equipment you have.

And, of course, there's always the chance of having a shitty recipe. Those are extremely common. So are shitty ingredients.

I forgot to add a few bayleaves to my now almost completed broth. Can it be saved?

>>10492674
Isn't a way to mitigate this using an instant read thermometer? You could always check and start making notes of what you personally feel it should be at. Certain frying should be done at like 350(?) or shit.
>>10492682
To add to what everyone else has said, make sure that when you're tasting something you haven't just had a big bite of some heavy flavour food or a sip of something other then water. Take a look at your diet and see how much salt you're really taking in. That can change how 'salty' you taste things as if you're eating 30 bags of salty chips a day.
>>10492741
I consider that a 'pinch'.
>>10492760
Practice.
>>10492977
Shocking. Lonely people have problems and tend to talk about it when given a semi-open platform.
>>10493048
Unless you're hyper-poor just compost those last mushy bits. I've also heard of people blending them in, or before salting turning them into baby food.
>>10495047
Sniff it, feel it. Safe tests for everything. Your nose will tell you if it's rotten, that's kinda what it's for. If it's super slimy in a bad way but doesn't smell bad, it's going out the door too. It's all in what you want to risk with your stomach.
>>10495201
People bash Chef John, but I feel he's personally really good for newer cooks. He explains things well and takes away a lot of the 'scary' parts of cooking. When you feel like he doesn't have much more to 'teach' move on to more advanced things or just start trying!
>>10495578
It's personal. You LOVE rosemary? Add a bit more. You don't like it but it's okay? Use some!
>>10495838
I'm just ganna say move away from soda. Start drinking tea and shit. If you need the fizzy party, get sparkling water. If you need caffeine drink coffee. It makes a world of difference and all your food will taste different. But to each his own.

>>10498425
Sure.
Just add them to whatever your finished dish will be instead of the broth.

IMHO it's better to keep your stocks/broths as simple as possible. The more you season them the fewer options you have for using them. Add seasoning to the finished dish instead of the stock.

>>10497776
Just did one in the slow cooker with what's been called a "Mississippi Roast" It's dirt cheap but made 5 2-person meals. Pack of Au Jus, pack of Ranch, jar of Pepperocini peppers and a stick of butter. Toss the meat in, add the packs on top of the meat, put the stick of butter on top of all of this. Put some of the peppers in. Cook for 4 hours on low. Add the juice in from the peppers and the rest of the peppers. Cook another 4 on low. Done. Some people say it's too salty but I can't tell. It gets better as it sits for a few days. It's been good to eat up to a week after cooking. Cheers
>>10497788
MSG

>>10498456
Thanks, will try. In case of bayleaves I always thought they required quite a long cooking time to give off their flavor.

>>10498447
>>Isn't a way to mitigate this using an instant read thermometer?
For deep frying, sure. For meats in general you can use the thermometer to check doneness, but that's only one of many factors. In a lot of cooking you aren't concerned only with doneness, you also want to achieve a certain texture or color. (Color = carmelization and/or malliard reactions, which creates flavor)

>>10498463
>>Pack
>>packet
Eat a bullet. Preferably large caliber.

>>10498490

>>10498490
>furious rage over nothing
I wonder if you'll be the next shooter in the news.

Can you make a french omelette if you've only got a large pan and don't want to use tons of eggs?

>>10498520
It's not over nothing, anon. It's about shitty cooking. Your cooking. Being so inept as to use some silly packet of mix. That's you. Shitcook. I bet you shop at wal-mart too. Shit ingredients for shitcook.

I'll bet you didn't even brown the meat before you tossed it into the slow cooker, did you shitcook?

>>10498537
>you
I'm not the anon you were raging at, faggot. I'm just a concerned bystander wondering if I'll be watching the news thinking that I could've prevented that.

>>10498541
Where do you see rage, anon?
I just calls it like I sees it.

Why is it I see tuna and egg salad sandwiches, tuna melts, egg salad melts but never tuna and egg melts?

>>10498553
You should check if chill pills come in packs too.

>>10498528
not really ,you'll get a really thin crepe-like pancake thing. a french omelette has to be thick enough so part of it is not cooked, but gets cooked when it's rolled up with leftover heat.

if the layer of egg is too thin it will be cooked all the way through too fast

>>10498092
use high unless it's seafod, fish, eggs or very fragile things.

How do i not sperg out when talking to my butcher?

>>10498643
Can you give more details? What kind of sperging out do you do?

are these copper triply pans good? i feel like stainless steel is the way to go but maybe non stick is okay?

>>10498643
Easy rule of thumb is if they say something wrong, let them keep it. I'm not certain your situation, but my local fish-fag is retarded. You just let him be wrong, and buy the fish you would like and move on. Don't ask advice if you know they tend to be wrong, just look it up yourself.

>>10498602
What I find is far more important for delicate foods is how careful you are whenyou depressurize the cooker. Even on "high" there is no appreciable mechanical agitation when pressure cooking.

What IS, however, a big deal is if you vent the cooker too quckly. That can mess up the texture of delicate foods. The best method is not to vent the cooker at all. Let it cool to 100C or below on its own, or by dribbling a little water on the outside of it. Then open it when it is at ambient pressure. Venting pressure is a great way to ruin the texture of delicate food.

>>10498675
Non stick is fine. The modern non stick can deal with a lot more than it used to. Those copper pans have a good heatspread too, if it's real copper that is. Go for stainless if you can handle the food sticking, it's versatile and will last forever, but not always easy to use.

>>10498596
Makes sense, I just thought I'd see if there was a clever trick I was missing.

>>10498695
That's the kind of information you never find anywhere. I figured leaving it to cool by itself would only cook it much longer, while it already is cooking much faster than normal.

>>10498675
Nope. The copper is just a decorative layer. It's not thick enough to do much of anything other than look nice.

Rule of thumb: if you see a "copper" pan and it costs less than $100 it's rubbish for sure.

>>10498723
It will cook longer if you leave it sit, but that's less damaging than venting it while the food inside is still above 100C.

If you want to halt the cooking ASAP then you cool it down under a trickle of running water. You often see this on cooking shows like Iron Chef.

BTW, that assumes you have a stovetop type pressure cooker. Obviously if you have an "instant pot" electric one you can't get that wet.

>>10498742
Is there really anything a pressure cooker can do that any other type of cooking cant? I've grown up with a 'fear' of them instilled by my families experiences. I've been told it's hyper risky to use them for fear of explosions. How based in reality is this? Are they safe to use if you're not fully retarded or can things just up and go wrong?

>>10498727
these are close to $100 at full price, but it is an expensive store.. they are discounted to like $40 now.

>>10498742
Yup. Got a stove top one. Those instant pots seem very nice and all, but I don't think they're worth it. I can do pretty much everything I need with mine as it is. Using an induction plate I even got a timer. Only thing I can't do is make yogurt.

>>10498759
Pressure cooking is moist cooking, so it does the same kinds of things as steaming or simmering. It just does it a lot faster. Standard rule of thumb is about 3x faster than a normal pot.

That said, they cannot brown or fry food. (Though you can, for example, brown meat for stew in the bottom of your pressure cooker with the lid off. Then add liquid, put the lid on, and cook your stew faster.

>>Safety
The old-fashioned ones were dangerous if you weren't careful, but that's many decades ago. Modern ones have many safety features. I have three different ones and they all have at least two redundant safety overpressure features, sometimes 3. You'd have to actively try to fuck up.

>>10498787
They're crap.
A genuine copper pan will be well over $100 for a very small one. A normal-size (say 10" or 12") will be a few hundred.

Another way to tell will be how it's advertised. The real deal will say "Solid copper" or will state the thickness, which should be at LEAST 2.5mm

>>10498794
O, the other thing is that pressure cookers do not have appreciable evaporation and therefore you cannot reduce things in them.

When you cook in a normal pot, especially with the lid off, the water evaporates from your food. sometimes that is desired because it concentrates the flavor of your sauce, stew, etc. It also thickens it. That doesn't happen with a pressure cooker so you have to adjust accordingly.

How do I into sticky rice? So far, I tried 1 part rice and 1.5 parts lightly salted water but it just gets mushy. I'm guessing it's because I'm using parboiled rice but I'm not sure. Do I need another kind of grain? What am I missing here, halp

Also, I'm thinking about buying a pizza stone for making proper pizza. However, my oven only goes up to 250 °C or 480 °F which seems a bit low. Can I still make a decent pizza with that thing and a stone or should I not even bother?

>>10498580
make one yourself and you'll find out bucko

>>10498855
Sticky rice?
first off you need actual 'sticky rice' aka 'glutinous rice'. I like the Thai ones the best. you won't make proper sticky rice using long-grain. you need to start with the correct type of rice. and you cook it by steaming it, not boiling it in a pot. you can get one of those Thai basket steamers (pic related), or use an ordinary steamer lined with cheesecloth so the rice doesn't fall through the holes.

>pizza
Yeah, you can make a passable one. Preheat your pizza stone on your oven's highest setting with the stone on a high rack. When your pizza is ready to go in, switch your oven to the broil setting on high. Then get your pizza in there.

>>10498855
There are a couple specific grains of rice that are used for sticky rice, I'm sure you can find examples of them in your grocer's asian section depending on where you live.

But yeah, what makes the rice "sticky" is the chemical composition of the grain's starch, not the cooking process.

>Piz'za
your oven is too cold for "tradizionale" pizza my dude, but you can still bake a good pie.

>>10498883
>>10498914
Seems reasonable, giving the rice a try this weekend. Guess I'll have to skip on the pizza since my oven does not have a broiler function but eh, whatever. Thanks for the advice guys!

>>10492695
Idk if you're still even checking this thread, but I'll offer my advice anyway.

1. Confit some garlic. It's easy as fuck, and you'll have soft, mellow, pre-cooked garlic to use in a million ways.
2. Par-boil your potatoes. Leave them whole, and par boil them until they are still firm, but you can poke a skewer or knife or meat fork through it without seriously forcing it. Let the potatoes cool enough to handle, then cut into your desired size or shape.
3. Make sure you've preheated your oven before putting the potatoes in. It will allow for even, reliable cooking time.
4. Make a loose seasoning paste from the confit garlic, the oil from the garlic confit, herbs as desired, s&p, and a little paprika or cayenne depending on whether you like heat or not.
5. Oil the baking sheet before adding the potatoes.
6. Place the potatoes on the baking sheet and evenly distribute the seasoning paste,then toss gently to coat all the potatoes.
7. Roast until golden brown, turning once or twice during roasting to ensure even browning.
8. Remove from oven and add a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley. Taste for seasoning and add any extra s&p that seems lacking.

>>10498463
FUCK OFF.
That fucking recipe has made the rounds through every shit tier middle aged mom I know, and it garbage. YOU TOOK A FINE CUT OF MEAT AND MADE WHITE TRASH GARBAGE. SHAME ON YOU. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME, YOU SHIT TIER SOCCER MOM BULLSHIT.

>>10495941
YouTube chef John. Best video explaining how to be a good tosser

>>10499077
Don't get so worked up by a plentiful and cheap cut of meat ya dip. No need for your panties to get this packed.

>>10499188
Nobody is upset about the meat.
We're upset about the shit tier preparation of it.

>>10499211
Here, the preparation you really need is right here.

>>10495297
Thanks, anon.

>>10499229
You might as well throw that in the crockpot too, scaggy fuck.

>>10492635
I'm making pan fried meatballs for a school function and I plan on keeping them in one of those big disposable foil pans, but I need a way to keep them warm and hopefully still crispy until it is time to serve them. Any way I should go about this? I plan on having them out of the pan and packaged by around 5:30 pm for a 7:00 pm serve time if that helps at all.

>>10500047
are there no ovens at your function? if not, 1:30 hours will kill pretty much anything that's not under a hot light.

>>10500104
>are there no ovens at your function?
No ovens, even though it's in an old home re-purposed as an office. Don't know why they wouldn't keep the whole kitchen.

>if not, 1:30 hours will kill pretty much anything that's not under a hot light.
Well that sucks. Are you sure there isn't any kind of thermal insulator I could use? Or do you think maybe those heat candle things that catering services use could work?

>>10500337
thermal insulators work to keep it warm, but it will be all mushy when chow time comes.
you could bring those small camping stoves and heat it there

>>10497254
Good thinking, I sometimes scrape the spatula against the edge of the pan but that usually results in food staying there and burning.