17 Foods People Consistently Make Wrong, And How To Fix Them
Redditor u/drippyhip365 asked, "What is something that a lot of people typically make wrong or badly?" and the thread is not only filled with many opinions, but a lot of people also chimed in with helpful cooking hacks, tips, and tricks for specific foods. Read on and take some notes!
1."Apparently, a lot of people struggle to make rice."
"People tend to use way too much heat. Once the water reaches a boil, you can completely turn the heat off and just let it cook in the remaining heat. Works every time for me."
"I burned rice a few times because I made it in a pot while cooking something which needed a lot of attention, always forgot to check the rice. Buy a rice cooker and never looked back. Start it before cooking and when you’re done, the rice is perfectly waiting in the rice cooker for you."
2."Pot roast. It’s not supposed to be dry, stringy, and minimally seasoned."
"If cooked down properly it should be silkier in texture. It’ll still pull apart because that’s how the fibers work, but it won’t be those tough sturdy strands."
3."Meatloaf has an incredible upper ceiling but I feel like it's primarily associated with people who are bad at cooking. It can be so rich, tender, silky, and complex. To most people though it's just Depression-era food, or a weeknight staple akin to mom's famous boiled Brussels sprouts. You can make it so juicy and packed with flavor but the world is sadly filled with dry, drab, bland meatloaf."
"I make my grandmother's braised meatloaf with mushroom gravy! Take your meatloaf mix — I normally do two pounds of mixed pork and beef or two pounds of just beef. You'll also need a few eggs, plenty of Italian-style bread crumbs, one large finely minced onion, two tablespoons of mustard of your choice, some parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, a few handfuls of minced parsley, and chicken bouillon — nothing's really measured. Then form two loaf-shaped meat wads. Pack them together fairly tightly with your hands so that they won't fall apart. Brown them on all four sides in a large pot with a bit of oil.
Remove them from the pot, and brown a few cups of mushrooms in the pot. Add the two meatloafs back to the pot, and fill with about an inch or two of stock or water — check occasionally to make sure the liquid doesn't get low. Simmer gently with the lid on for about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove the meatloaf, add a tablespoon or two of mustard and a half cup of sour cream to the remaining liquid and mushrooms, then thicken to desired gravy consistency with a corn starch slurry. Everyone who tries it is skeptical at first, but it's delicious. Completely different from any other meatloaf I've ever had, and one of only two things my grandmother cooked well, so I have a lot of fond memories of it."
4."Mashed potatoes. Every time I’ve ever been served mashed potatoes at a friend or family member's house it’s been unseasoned and paste-like."
"Russet potatoes are great to use but I’ve made amazing mash from Yukon golds. I think the bigger issue is people using a machine or mixer instead of a manual ricing masher. It’s too easy to over-mix the potatoes and create that glue-like texture."
5."Browning meat. Most people overcrowd the pan and gray the meat by boiling it in the meat water. The pink disappears and they think it’s done. It’s cooked, but you get much more flavor from browning it. You can add less meat to the pan or wait for the water to boil off and the leftover fat will brown it."
6."A lot of people don't know how to properly measure or mix their ingredients for baking, especially flour and brown sugars. It's not that it necessarily turns out bad, but it's not as good as it could be."
"Thoroughly mix when you want a bready/chewy texture. Barely mix when you want a flaky/looser texture. The more you mix, the more gluten forms and crosslinks. Alternatively, you have shortbreads where you add fat to the mix and it helps to prevent gluten crosslinking and you get a crumbly texture."
7."Carbonara sauce."
"The key to carbonara is to have the sauce mixture in a separate bowl and to add the hot pasta with tongs. This helps heat up the eggs. You should add about half the pasta to the egg mixture bowl then stir and add the second half. Sometimes if I make too much sauce I return it to the empty pasta pot and heat it some more until it comes together.
You shouldn’t be adding salt to anything when you make carbonara. The salt in the guanciale meat and its fat that you pour into the mixture should salt the entire mixture. If it’s still too salty, use a good bit of water in the guanciale pan and heat it. Then dump half of the after when the guanciale starts to render. You’ll lose some fat but it should pull a good bit of salt out."
8."Pork. I discovered last Christmas that the minimum cooking temperature that has been advised for a long time is actually wrong and results in dry, leathery meat. Someone mentioned that wasn't needed, so I looked it up online and followed the recipe as intended. Who knew I actually did like pork tenderloin? Apparently, 145°F is the goal, not 180°F.
9."I think chicken breast is almost always overcooked by someone who doesn't take food seriously. It's easy to understand why. Unlike other proteins, chicken really cannot be eaten undercooked so overcooking is preferred, except overcooked chicken breast has no fat and can be dry."
"The best grilled chicken breast I've had was at a restaurant where I worked as a server. They would butterfly and pound flat the breast so that the inside is cooked as soon as the outside is done. Nice color on the outside and is still juicy inside. Chicken breasts have gotten so thick it's almost impossible to cook them evenly without overcooking."
10."South Louisiana gal here. The vast majority of jambalaya recipes floating around out there — or served in 'cajun restaurants, not in Louisiana — are not the way anyone here eats jambalaya."
"Checking in from The Jambalaya Capital of the Word. You are spot-on. Jambalaya is brown.”
11."Cookies. I have to restrain myself on cookie forums. The mistakes people make give me a twitchy eye and angry typing fingers. I often see people using butter substitutes and not understanding instructions like 'creamed and softened.' 'Mixing until incorporated' does not mean beating the life out of it, then coming to a forum to ask what went wrong. What went wrong is you didn't follow the instructions! Baking cookies is simple but also technical. You have to know the terms and why you're doing them."
12."Fried plantains. For green ones, first of all, you have the people who don’t cook them enough on the first fry. It’s the same concept as French fries. You are cooking through on the first fry and crisping on the second. If you do not let them cook enough, they will break when smashed and come out greasy. The second thing is people smash them too much and they’re too thin. You want them thick enough that you have a fluffy interior to contrast the crisp exterior."
"Also, sweet plantains, which are almost more egregious. Plantains are often not ripe enough. They need to be streaked with black rather than bright yellow. They’re cut into these huge hunks that give you tons of mushy innards that don’t get any exposure. The best-fried plantains are made with thinly sliced planks about 1/4 inch thick. These have tons of surface area which caramelizes and you get these really crispy caramelized sugar edges.
"They also need to be cooked at moderate heat so that the sugar really caramelizes. Too high and they brown without that happening. You also need to go fairly dark to really take advantage of caramelization. Not burnt, but a slight bitterness gives complexity. You don’t need a lot of oil to do this. Shallow fry is best! You could deep fry them, but they’re fragile and would likely stick to each other tossed in oil. Restaurants deep fry in a fryer where other items are fried. The heat is too high, they brown quickly, and often they’re not cooked on the inside since they’re thick hunks."
13."Scrambled eggs. Most people and breakfast places in my experience cook them quickly in a hot pan, leaving you with big chunks of overcooked eggs that taste nasty. You have to do it low and slow while stirring constantly, with lots of butter and no milk."
14."Grilling and serving a steak. Do not constantly flip it or rotate it. Make sure you have a solid heat source and place on the grill. Only rotate it once for diamond marks and flip only once. Every time I see someone noodle around with a steak on a grill I die inside. Also, you have to let it rest unless you want a juice soup on the plate."
15."Mushrooms. Just plain old, white-button mushrooms. A few years ago someone posted a video, maybe here, maybe in another sub, that opened my eyes. Cook them until all the liquid is boiled away — takes about 10 minutes if they're sliced — then add seasoning. Even people who say they hate mushrooms love them cooked this way because they taste like whatever you season them with and have a firm, chewy consistency."
16."Pancakes. Your batter is most likely too thin."
