People Are Owning Up To Borderline "Toxic" Cooking Habits They Realize About Themselves But Simply Can't Quit
If you spend time in the kitchen, you've probably noticed some interesting things about your cooking style and habits, and chances are they're not all good. So Redditor u/Reddit-Sama asked, "What’s your toxic cooking trait?" Here's how people responded.
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1."I cook as though I have my own personal dishwasher to do the cleaning for me. I create a small mountain of dishes for myself to wash."
2."I never measure ingredients, time anything, or write down recipes for the things I make on the fly, which essentially means I never make the same thing twice. I am an agent of chaos and chance in the kitchen, but it somehow always works in my favor."
3."I often have a heavy hand with the spices, especially red pepper flakes and jalapeño pepper. When I'm cooking for my family, they always remind me to consider the spice level. I have a hard time controlling myself unless I really give it some conscious thought. I love a little heat."
4."I freeze too much food. I love to batch cook, and it works out absolutely great most of the time. Until someone wants ice cream or a bag of ice to fit into my freezer. I have a problem, I know."
5."I constantly over-crowd the pan. I don't have time to cook in batches. If I can't make the ingredients fit in the pan at once, I'm not making that recipe."
6."I put cheese on everything, including seafood. Cheesy seafood is the bomb, and I don't care who says otherwise."
7."I soften butter in the microwave. I know it’s wrong. I use the defrost setting, and it seems to work just fine. Come on, no one has time to wait for butter to soften."
8."I love to cook for people, but when the meal is ready, I struggle not to tell them everything I think is wrong with it, no matter how much they're enjoying it. I'm not fishing for compliments. I'm just hard on myself and always see how it could be better."
9."I find a recipe that looks great, think about it throughout the day, and when it finally comes to cooking, I throw the recipe out the window and end up making something different that's only vaguely inspired by the original recipe."
10."I need everyone to GTFO of the kitchen and leave me alone."
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11."I plan a bunch of dishes to make throughout the week and buy all the ingredients I'll need to make the recipes, but then I lose motivation throughout the week and order takeout instead."
12.“Not reading the entire recipe before I start cooking. Then I come to something like 'rest for four hours or overnight.' Well shit..."
13."I can destroy a perfectly clean kitchen during the span of my very last five minutes of cooking."
14."I chop meat on a cutting board board, then cut veggies on the same board without cleaning it first. It all gets cooked in the same darn pan anyway."
15."I buy shredded/grated cheese instead of grating it myself. I ain't got no time for that. 🤷🏻♀️"
16."90% of the time, I couldn't care less if my vegetables are cut evenly or uniformly."
17."I’m a backseat cook. If someone else is cooking something in a way that I perceive to be wrong, I'll correct them or even worse...step in myself."
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18."I love condiments so much to the extent that I buy new ones all the time, then completely forget what's in my pantry and never open many of them."
19."I'm really hard on myself when I 'fail' at cooking a dish or it doesn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. I grew up poor, so I hate more than anything to waste food."
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20."When a recipe calls for an onion, I'll pretty much disregard whatever color onion it 'needs.' I plan on using whatever onion I have available, and I honestly don't think it changes a dish all that much."
21."I start cooking too late. I'll realize it's already 8 p.m. before I even begin the process. Then, by the time the food is ready to eat, my husband and I are ravenous, and it's already 9 p.m. Dinnertime always sneaks up on me."
22."I always use salted butter in place of unsalted. I find that it just makes everything taste so much better, especially when used in sweet baked goods."
23."I don’t prep before cooking. Instead, I prep ingredients while I start with other things. As a result, I end up rushing to juggle three or four steps all at once, and I'm not thorough with the tasks I postponed."
—u/Reddit-Sama
24."When I'm too lazy to cook, which is often, I just pile whatever is in my fridge into a bowl until nothing else fits and call it dinner."
25."Using dried herbs instead of fresh ones. I fully recognize that fresh rosemary, thyme, or basil tastes way better, but buying fresh herbs is pretty much a guarantee that I'll use them in one dish and then forget about them until they go bad in the fridge."
26."I do the dishes the morning after cooking dinner."
27."I take two hours to make something that, according to the recipe, is supposed to be done in 30 minutes."
28."If I'm cooking with someone, I micromanage the shit out of them. I didn't notice this trait until my significant other pointed it out, but, oh boy, I'm the worst."
29."I have 19 spice jars of paprika, 15 cinnamon, 12 red pepper flakes."
30."I can’t stand to just watch someone else cook. It drives me crazy the way they slice the onions, turn the flame up too high, or start on the steaks before everything else is prepped. I feel the need to jump in and help."
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What's your "toxic" cooking habit? Tell us in the comments below.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
