"Tried, True, Always Recommended" Cooking Procedures That Are Just Wrong!

[WhateverYouWant]

One of my favs is being told to start with onions before browning ground meat for chilis, meat sauces, and the like. If you truly want to brown ground meat, why in the heck would you start with ingredients that release water (you wind up with grey, not browned meat).

So I am dying to hear what "taken for granted", often recommended cooking techniques that you have clearly debunked through experience.

 

[Andy M.]

Good topic.


I'll start with:

Searing meat seals in the juices.

Adding a potato to salty soup will make it less salty.

 

[pepperhead212]

I often see similar things in recipes, especially online, and I think to myself "These people didn't even make this, because it wouldn't have worked!" The good recipes I have seen for chili start with browning the meat, and usually it's removed, then continued with the rest of the recipe.

 

[Just Cooking]

Good topic.


I'll start with:

Searing meat seals in the juices.

Adding a potato to salty soup will make it less salty.

I sear meat for the crust formed and for the fond. Perhaps not needed but, a lifelong habit.

Ross

 

[taxlady]

Good topic.


I'll start with:

Searing meat seals in the juices.

Adding a potato to salty soup will make it less salty.

The one about sealing the meat juices was what came to mind when I read the question.

If you add enough potato to the soup, it will make it taste less salty. But, that's just dilution. Add enough of just about anything else, that doesn't have salt, and the soup will taste less salty. (Sorry, my little smartarse devil made me type that.)

 

[GotGarlic]

I sear meat for the crust formed and for the fond. Perhaps not needed but, a lifelong habit.

Ross

I think it's definitely needed for the same reasons you do. It doesn't seal in juices, though, which many people believe.

 

[pepperhead212]

I just thought of something tonight that I see all the time, not only in some recipes, but many so called cooks on TV and YouTube. They warn us to never let garlic brown, or the dish will turn bitter. Some of the best tasting dishes have browned garlic! For instance, Thai crispy garlic is all browned garlic! Many cooking Chinese stir-fries tell us not to brown the garlic, some of them even adding the garlic late, yet, if you watch a Chinese cook in a commercial kitchen, it is often added early, with the ginger, at very high heat, and cooked briefly (ohhhh, how I love that aroma!), with other ingredients added quickly, to prevent burning. Browning garlic isn't something you want in all dishes, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be.

 

[FrankZ]

I just thought of something tonight that I see all the time, not only in some recipes, but many so called cooks on TV and YouTube. They warn us to never let garlic brown, or the dish will turn bitter. Some of the best tasting dishes have browned garlic! For instance, Thai crispy garlic is all browned garlic! Many cooking Chinese stir-fries tell us not to brown the garlic, some of them even adding the garlic late, yet, if you watch a Chinese cook in a commercial kitchen, it is often added early, with the ginger, at very high heat, and cooked briefly (ohhhh, how I love that aroma!), with other ingredients added quickly, to prevent burning. Browning garlic isn't something you want in all dishes, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be.

There are very few cooking smells that are as awesome as that instant garlic perfumes in butter in a hot pan.

 

[Andy M.]

I sear meat for the crust formed and for the fond. Perhaps not needed but, a lifelong habit.

Ross

Getting a good crust on meat and creating fond are both important. However, that has no connection to sealing in juices.

Re: potato in soup. The old saw is that you put in the potato, it magically sucks the salt out of the liquid, then you remove the salty potato and your soup is saved.

 

[taxlady]

Getting a good crust on meat and creating fond are both important. However, that has no connection to sealing in juices.

Re: potato in soup. The old saw is that you put in the potato, it magically sucks the salt out of the liquid, then you remove the salty potato and your soup is saved.

 

[Just Cooking]

Getting a good crust on meat and creating fond are both important. However, that has no connection to sealing in juices.

Re: potato in soup. The old saw is that you put in the potato, it magically sucks the salt out of the liquid, then you remove the salty potato and your soup is saved.

I agree with you and should have been more specific. I don't sear to retain juices.

Ross

 

[larry_stewart]

I just thought of something tonight that I see all the time, not only in some recipes, but many so called cooks on TV and YouTube. They warn us to never let garlic brown, or the dish will turn bitter. Some of the best tasting dishes have browned garlic! For instance, Thai crispy garlic is all browned garlic! Many cooking Chinese stir-fries tell us not to brown the garlic, some of them even adding the garlic late, yet, if you watch a Chinese cook in a commercial kitchen, it is often added early, with the ginger, at very high heat, and cooked briefly (ohhhh, how I love that aroma!), with other ingredients added quickly, to prevent burning. Browning garlic isn't something you want in all dishes, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be.

I agree, but then there are other recipes I've seen where they say to throw the garlic in first for like 3 -5 minutes before adding the other stuff.. To me that seems like a long time unless on lower hear. I always use my judgment when adding garlic.

 

[Roll_Bones]

That a good tomato sauce takes all day.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

That lard is less healthy than Crisco.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North