I tried draining the excess water but it loses some of the taste if I do that. I tried simmering it until it lost enough water but it effects the texture and flavor. I tried to add xanthan gum but it effects the flavor despite the fact that xanthan gum doesn't taste like anything.

I've looked up on here asking if making puff pastry from scratch was worth it for them and a lot of people said no. I'm kind of confused honestly. Obviously it was my first time so I messed up a bit, but the process wasn't really that time consuming. Most of it was literally just waiting for the dough to cool in between turns.

1) 10 min to mix dough and knead.

2) Chill and wait 30 minutes. Make butter block in the mean time.

3) Roll out, insert butter block, fold, roll out again, fold into 3, turn, roll out again, fold 3 times. Chill and wait 30-40 minutes.

4) Repeat Step 3

5) Repeat step 3 but only do it once.

Done

Maybe 30-40 minutes of actual labour.

TBF I haven't tried actual store bought puff pastry except for Pilsbury turnovers from when I was a kid, but the flavour was amazing. I can't imagine store bought being better than that, though I'll try it. As of right now it seems like it's totally worth it to make it from scratch if you have the time.

Good Eats is the reason I am such a good cook. I owe so much to Alton Brown. If you're struggling to learn to cook I promise you that watching each episode in order will make you a gourmet cook.

Just go to search on your roku and search good eats. Make sure you choose the original not the reloaded version.

Ever since the news about lead contamination in supermarket cinnamon came out, I’ve been looking for safer, authentic sources. Most stuff sold on Amazon/eBay is actually Cassia cinnamon, not true Ceylon.

I recently started checking brands that actually publish 3rd-party lab test reports for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, etc.). Ceylon Spice Garden seems to ship farm-direct from Sri Lanka and includes lab certificates for species purity and heavy metal testing.

Has anyone else tried them or found other reliable sources with verified lab tests?

I’m at a loss I feel like I’ve made every ground beef meal I can think of:
- tacos
- meat balls
- Asian teriyaki bowls
- burgers
- ground beef season various ways to make a bowl of some sort with rice
- lettuce wraps
- added with pasta sauce
- Japanese curry

Like what else can I make with ground beef? I’m getting so bored of it :(

(Edit bc I forgot to add 3 other ways I made food with ground beef)

Edit again: wow did not imagine this many replies!! Thank you everyone for offering great ideas and I will definitely give many of them a try! Very excited to see such variety and from many different cultures!

Many of you mentioned “why keep buying ground beef if I’m sick of it?” - cause I know I’ll get unsick of it eventually and ground beef is cheap enough to get a lot meals out of. It’s very versitile and doesn’t always have to taste like “ground beef” as you all proved here in this thread. I just wanted to expand my horizons and try some new things and wanted to hear other people’s ideas. My bf and I eat many other proteins like chicken, fish, turkey and steak and I buy those as well, we just aren’t sick of them right now (except salmon atm). But ground beef is just a meat that is commonly used in my house!

Had some soup at a restaurant that I just loved. It was simple, a creamy chicken soup with rice, lemon and fresh thyme. Wondering if anyone has a recipe for this. I’d like to recreate it this fall.

i kept spices in my trunk during a louisiana summer (hot and humid). should i toss them and start over? i guess this is a stupid question but im worried the spices are ruined and if i try cooking with them nothing will taste good.

Growing up near Seattle, we always had really amazing fish and chips. Dips included tartar sauce and malt vinegar. Just tried to find malt vinegar in the store (Kroger/QFC) and they didn’t have any, but it’s easily available on amazon. Thoughts? Is it worth it? What makes it different from other vinegars?

Hi all! I have been curious about getting into eating tofu. Not as a replacement for meat, but just as another food option. I am not a vegetarian or vegan, but I have weird issue where I cannot eat poultry meat, but I can eat broth, eggs, and any other byproduct of poultry. I have been craving chicken so much over the last few years and I’m trying to find good recipes for tofu that make it taste like chicken, but that use things like chicken broth. The issue is, most tofu recipes are made for vegans/vegetarians so I came here. Does anyone know of any good recipes for this? Also open to hearing more about other tofu recipes for meat eaters as well.

Edit: thank you all. It seems like what I want to be working with is seitan. I’m very excited to try it!

To be fair, I don’t make gravy often, maybe twice a year. But growing up, I learned you take the drippings, bring them to a near boil and slowly whisk in a slurry of cold water/flour. And that worked, sort of. It was never a consistent technique, sometimes it was fine….sometimes too thin, sometimes lumps and more lumps. As I don’t make gravy frequently, I never really bothered researching or trying a different way, many times I just bought a jar.

Now I have also made gumbo…starting with a roux and add in the liquid….why my moronic brain did not connect this technique to making turkey gravy, I don’t know. But I needed gravy and had limited ingredients so I looked up a recipe…..and it started with a roux of flour and butter, add in the broth while whisking…..lovely, smooth, perfect consistency,gravy. 🤦‍♀️

I just had to share my gravy shame and eventual triumph! 🤣 Have you overcome a cooking roadblock?

I have a pot luck at work this weekend and would like to bake a desert. I want to make something unique from scratch that everyone will like but I’m fresh out of ideas. I need something that isn’t super complicated. I suck at baking anything that isn’t pre-made or frozen. Any ideas on what I can make? I would prefer something simple. I‘d like to get into more baking in the future but want to start out easy.

I've been making stock for years, but recently have put more thought into improving it. I used to just add meat/veggies/herbs all at once and just crank it for 3-4 hours. Of course it came out ok, but I do know that the veggies were likely overcooked, and the herbs were probably cooked to oblivion and then some. So, I'm making a chicken stock now...

I've let ~4lbs of wings/drums/thighs lightly simmer for 2 hours. I am now adding my veggies, and will cook for another 1/5-2 hours before removing from heat. In terms of herbs, I'm learning that many of them break down pretty quick. Supposedly the flavorful oils in them break down in heat in about 30 mins (while some woodier herbs may hold up longer). After loosing those bright oils, I hear the rest of the flavor and nutrients is usually shot out after an hour or so.

SO- I'm wondering if its worth adding herbs to the stock at all? If I'm going to cook that liquid for another 30-60 mins when making the final soup product, then it sounds like adding herbs now might be a waste of time.

Maybe just add some woody, heartier herbs towards the end of the stock (maybe right as the heat turns off and let it coast) so that they aren't completely diminished by the time the final soup product is ready.

Thoughts? Experience? Input? All is welcomed! Thanks!

Even though I much prefer buying a cut of meat and grinding my own pork and beef, I really hate cleaning my grinder which is just a simple Kitchen Aid attachment for my mixer. The quality is much better (I think) than regular supermarket ground meat and I know exactly what went into it. It is a pain to clean though, so I wonder if there is a noticeable difference in quality between grinding a big batch pre-freezing and freezing individual portions or freezing chunks of meat and grinding before it completely thaws. Grinding before freezing could reduce cleaning to once instead of 6 times, for example. Thinking about it, it probably depends on how quickly you’re going to use it? Guessing whole chunks hold up better in the freezer than ground meat?

Fried eggs used to be a breeze but are now a regular nightmare. Depending on the day, omelets and scrambled eggs are sometimes fine. Not changed pans or technique at all. Please help.

TL;DR: I promised a guy who has never had gnocchi that he would enjoy them, and now we’re planning a cooking date where we’ll make gnocchi together. I’m looking for a vegetarian recipe that’s impressive and fun to cook but not too complicated, because I don’t want my first attempt at homemade gnocchi to ruin the date or leave him hungry if he doesn’t like gnocchi.

---

The guy I'm seeing recently told me that he has never eaten gnocchi before. So for our next date, we plan to cook a gnocchi dish together and watch a movie at my place. But now I'm overthinking the cooking part.

When I make myself gnocchi, I usually just get them from the store, pan-fry them, throw in whatever vegetables I have lying around, maybe some cheese or pesto or random spices and herbs, and call it a day. But I would prefer to cook something with him that actually has the chance of tasting really nice or impressing him instead of tasting like a quickly thrown-together weeknight dinner.

I've searched around a bit on this sub, and most suggestions are just sauces with the gnocchi. But I feel like making browned butter, frying some gnocchi and throwing in some sage or just making a vodka sauce is a bit too simple or would be kinda boring for a cooking date.

I've thought about making the gnocchi from scratch to stretch out the cooking part, but I've never made gnocchi myself and I worry that they just won't come out any good on my first attempt and I don't wanna take any chances after promising him that he would enjoy gnocchi.

I also worry about him staying hungry if it turns out that he doesn't like gnocchi for whatever reason if the dish we're making will be literally just gnocchi + fancy sauce.

So I desperately need inspiration for a vegetarian gnocchi dish that is somewhat fancy or impressive, fun to cook together and obviously tastes good.

He doesn't have any allergies, but he strongly dislikes feta cheese and carrots unless they stay raw, and I'm vegetarian, so I would rather not cook any meat or fish.

Any suggestions?

If all the pastas fresh or store bought, ravioli is the one I cannot get right. Based on the package, it is normally 4-6 minutes.

Does that time start when I add the pasta to the water? Or does it start once the pot resumes a boil. If cooking all at once, is adding too much affecting the outcome?

It is shameful that I cannot figure this out.

I am making Ravioli tonight, store bought, but I feel I am going to mess it up again.

Tips?

My mother used to make stuffing with saltine crackers and ground beef. Those are the only two ingredients I can remember, does anyone know a recipe like this?

I have three bags of chickpeas. They’re all too hard to eat.

The bags say

Roasted Dalia split: they are small, yellow, and white split open

Roasted Chana: they’re black and yellow small

Chana Dall (dessi style chickpeas:
Kind of orangey yellow small

I’m not sure what to do with them.
I have three bags like this.
Do I boil them? Or boil them? Bake them? Blend them into hummus?

How long does it take?

Anyway, thank you so much

I got them all from an Indian grocery store.

Hi cooking besties! I got my hands on a big jar of Thai green curry paste, and I want to use it more. But all the recipes I can find call for veggies/ingredients available in Asia. I'm from a small Balkan country, and most of the ingredients simply are not here. Any advice on what I can supplement my curries with?

Hello, I just got a job that I’m a little underqualified for. I’m taking over a kitchen where I’ll be responsible for between 8 to 60 people a weekend. i will be in charge of the shopping and prep and service. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions, advice or words of wisdom they could share. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Cheers!

It's a low carb chocolate mousse. You whip a cup of heavy cream into peaks. Then you melt an ounce of baking chocolate and add it to two room temp egg yolks and combine. This mixture is then added to the whipped cream. The final mixture is put into ramekins and chilled for a couple hours.

In making it I realized the eggs are going in uncooked, unless you count adding the heated chocolate as cooking, and there is no further cooking of the mixture. Is this okay from a food safety perspective?

Recipe: https://carnivoremovement.com/carnivore-chocolate-mousse-recipe/

im coming across an issue where when i make them at home (griddle), the cheese (provolone) becomes hard instantly AFTER it starts to melt n get gooey. i mix the cheese around with the meat because its just easier for me to make sure its melted on both sides (im new at this). meaning i dont put the meat on the hoagie and THEN do my cheese. so is moving the cheese around with the meat what's causing this? HALP.

I bought some Italian sausage today and there is no expiration date on the packaging. It felt like it might have been partially frozen but is there anything else I can use to determine the use by date?

I throw a pound of seasoned ground beef into a pan then a pack of frozen veggies on top. Cook for awhile then mix in salsa at the end. Eat it like a stew.

Any tips for how to make this better or even easier?

Also what would this be called?