What basic principles did you understand and your cooking skills greatly increased?

[celestialinter0]

Start with me:

1. The role of seasoning is to enhance the aroma, not to cover the aroma of the ingredients themselves. Eat the ingredients, not the seasonings.

2. When frying vegetables, it is recommended to stir fry to the maximum heat, and take it out of the pot when it is almost out of rawness.

[papermoon.lady]

There are very good (and cheap) frozen meals anyway... 🙂

[countessalmirena]

Meat and fish will continue to cook after removing the pan from the heat… so take that into account.

Don’t try to make caramel in a microwave dish. I learned this the hard way.

When making caramel sauce, it’s a bit like a police stakeout; most of the time is boring and you wonder why you have to watch very carefully, but then suddenly at the end it’s all go! go! go! The only major differences are that you don’t have to stir anything once it darkens in a stakeout, and you don’t end up with richly delicious caramel sauce either.

[ambercat16]

My best tip is....there is nothing wrong with packet mixes (savoury ones, I don't care for the cake mixes).  Some are excellent actually, particularly the curry pastes, and save a fortune in ingredients that you only use a small portion of.

The other thing is when using packets, follow the recipe/method the first time then adapt and adjust to suit you.

Oh, one more......unless you are making soup, don't add water when using a slow cooker. Usually the juices from the meat will be sufficient

[countessalmirena]

Don’t get your saffron from the supermarket.

Real Persian saffron is dark, a strong colour of purplish reddish depth, not a puny packet-orange. Buying good saffron works out cheaper if you buy a tin of it, too, in comparison with the few measly grains in a little packet.

Once you have tasted good saffron, your senses will be beguiled and you’ll start wanting it in lots of dishes. Vegetable dishes, meats, casseroles, fish (esp. trout), fruit pies, biscuits, ice creams… you’ll go saffron-mad because it is GLORIOUS.

[not_for_sale2024]

Not that long ago I had to replace my fan forced oven with a new one. The original one mainly  forced the heat from the top of the oven. It was great for cooking food that you wanted to be crispy, especially on the top. However, the newer fan forced technology circulates the heat more widely and evenly within the oven, rather than from above. It is much harder to achieve the crispiness. So I am trying to learn how to use the oven so it cooks food the way we prefer. The first thing I have worked out is to only regard the cooking instructions for each item of food as guidelines, and to experiment with timeframes. Now I have to learn the little tricks to try and achieve the outcomes I want, such as crispiness lol.

[countessalmirena]

Preheated trays and dishes?

A pan of water in bottom shelf? 

Slow cooling in oven afterwards? (For baking)

Maybe try high temp initially and then after 10 or so minutes, bring down the temperature?

Use of bakeware such as Emile Henry (made of Burgundian clay), often with lid to trap steam?

Yes, different oven makes huge difference.

[springyzone]

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@*sons_and_daughters* wrote:

Trying really hard to reply to an actual post, but keep getting a message flood error.......

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I get that a lot and found it more common if I tried to use a smiley face or whatever. For some reason, the system goes berserk.

[papermoon.lady]

It is the same for me, springy. It happens when I use a smiley from the menu. It did not happen in the past, so I don't know, it might be a glitch...

[countessalmirena]

When chopping or slicing vegetables or meat or whatever, the aim is to get everything cut to the same size. This will enable the cubes or slices or pieces to cook evenly.

[imastawka]

Everybody makes mistakes, what about fixing them?

Too salty?      Add lemon juice.

Soggy rice?     Put a slice of bread on top, cover and leave for 5 minutes before fluffing.

Tried and true