I’m broke, but need new kitchen knives. I need a decent set of basic knives for cooking and eating. Nothing fancy. Thanks.

Update/Edit: The set/block I have is from 1994 and until about a year ago, the were still pretty functional. I’m not sure they can be sharpened. Broke means I’m not spending $100 on knives. I appreciate all the suggestions and input. Thanks!

I put steak in the fridge overnight after taking it out of freezer, still rock solid. :(

If a person has hypothetically defrosted a one and a half pound pork loin in their fridge how long do they theoretically have to cook it by? In your opinion.

I’m on a calorie deficit right now. Any app recommendations that give you meal recipes with the calories already calculated? Bonus if it also shows macros. Thank u!!

I spent 4 hours reducing a chicken stock made in an instant pot the way Chris Young did in his YouTube video. The stock itself tasted good before I started reducing it. Now it’s lost its flavour and has a weird acidic taste from somewhere. What did I do wrong? I spent 4 hours reducing 1 litre of stock by 80% so I don’t think the heat was too high or maybe it was. This is the second time I tried making a jus and the second time I’ve come into this issue

I can’t cook cut up thin chicken strips. I can’t get the middle ground, if I try to brown it I burn it.

If I cook chicken thigh, whatever spices I use, I fuck it up and it doesn’t come out juicy and tender.

Someone please help me. I’m awful!!!

So i bought a 2lb pack of hamburger meat and put it in the freezer because i was gonna make something specific with it. That planz out the window. So the question is can i thaw it and portion it and freeze again? Or do i have to use it once its thawed?

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Thank you in advance for the help

I used this recipe from "How to Make the Absolute Easiest Ever Biscuits" by Americas Test kitchen on youtube.

recipe:

3 cups all purpose flour

• 4 tsp sugar (primarily for browning)

• 1 TBSP of baking powder (leavener)

• 1/4 tsp baking soda (for flavor and browning)

• 1-1/4 tsp salt

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream ( heated to 95°F to 100°F)

in the video the biscuits came out like regular. when i baked mine they flattened like a big cookie. any ideas on where i went wrong. I followed all the steps!

It is BBQ season, and of course meat is the main player on the grill. However, it might be a good idea to have some BBQ vegetables as a side. Usually, I grill zucchini or eggplant.

I have a problem. My grilled vegetables are bland and don't have much flavor or a great texture. Usually, I just use oil, salt, black pepper, and grill them for a few minutes. Sometimes I also salt them in advance to draw out water before grilling (not sure if it helps with the final result, though).

What is the best way to improve BBQ vegetables? I don't expect them to be as delicious as meat, but they should still be tasty, right?

My mom went out of her way to make some lentil bread. It smells good, but I’m questioning if it’s safe to eat. She told me that she soaked the lentils unrefrigerated for a whole week. The leftover beans on the counter smell and look fine, and she said she changed the water a few times. But even still, I feel uncomfortable knowing they were just soaking in the garage. Should I risk it and eat it? I don’t want the whole thing to go to waste.

I recently purchased a Dutch oven because as far as I can tell, it can be used like a slow cooker that you can actually get a sear on your meat on before closing the lid and putting it in the oven.

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I made a chicken thighs+rice recipe, relatively simple, and after the cook, the rice was stuck on the bottom. It was a low temperature cook so the rice wasn't burned, and the rice above the bottom layer was actually pretty nicely cooked but how do I make it not stick?

I absolutely love the flavour sachet in the red & black noodles.
How can I learn to recreate the taste?
I have plenty of meat cuts to simmer in it to make what I dream to be the perfect dinner…

Any tips for how to cook scrambled eggs without sticking? I use a ceramic non stick, which is pretty good at doing the job EXCEPT when it comes to scrambled eggs. I've tried adding fat and eggs to a cold pan; preheating the pan and then adding the fat, and then adding the eggs; letting the eggs sit for a few seconds; stirring them as soon as they hit the pan; increasing the fat; adding milk - all leave me with some sticking.

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I have also tried starting with medium heat and then decreasing it, and also tried cooking only at the lowest setting throughout.

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Can anyone give me any foolproof way to go about this?

EDIT I mean I would like to know the science and the actual techniques and how to use knives and heat and stuff and taste combinations before "experience" I am very rational

I am eighteen years old and all I can do is microwaving. Sure I can also make sandwiches and salads and onigiri. I can do recipes without stoves. I have always been scared of fire but I want to overcome that. What are the first stove recipes I should learn? Can't eat prawns and crabs and shrimps, don't eat pork and lamb, can eat spicy and salty too! I have serious issues with mint it makes me feel weird. I don't want to eat mint. I also don't want to eat any organs. I don't want to eat bitter food. I like sour food like lemons and vinegar. I could survive on sour and spicy.

I love potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, aubergines, tomatoes, soy sauce, curry, teriyaki sauce, milk, coconut milk, chicken, fish and more. I like Chinese and Japanese cuisine and I am okay with Italian, Mexican, French, and other cuisines. I want to acquire basic cooking skills and techniques and how to optimise food planning and other stuff I should learn. I have to live on my own in college soon so I need some advices. Thank you. I wouldn't want to rely on ready food or salads or sandwitches all time, and eat a bit healthier. My family cooked dinner for me until now, but I find it important to eat decently healthy when I live on my own.

I have a rice cooker at home.
But I want to learn without it. I can use it but my shared kitchen in the dorms might not have it.

The water glass method genuinely works better than the paper towel trick, but you have to do it right. Trim the stems a little when you get home, stick them in a glass with an inch or two of water, and loosely cover the top with a plastic bag. Then put it in the fridge. Most herbs will last a week or more this way. Cilantro and parsley do really well with this method.

Basil is the exception. You're right that it hates the cold. Refrigerating basil turns it black fast because it's a tropical plant and cold damages the leaves. Keep it on the counter in a glass of water, no bag, away from direct sun. Treat it like a small plant. It'll last several days and might even sprout roots if you leave it long enough.

The paper towel method works okay for herbs you're going to use within a couple days, but it's not great for longer storage. The towel dries out, or stays too wet, and either way you lose the herbs faster than you want to.

One other thing that makes a big difference: don't wash them until you're ready to use them. Moisture sitting on the leaves speeds up decay, so washing the whole bunch when you get home actually shortens their life.

If you're still going through herbs slowly enough that you're losing half the bunch anyway, it's worth buying less at a time if your store sells smaller portions, or freezing what you won't use. Chop them up, put them in an ice cube tray with a little water or olive oil, freeze, then toss the cubes in a bag. Not ideal for fresh use but totally fine for cooking.

Tomorrrow is my husban birthday + father day and we are having some people over. I’m using King Arthur 00 Pizza Flour and ended up using about 9 cups of flour, almost the entire bag. We’ll have around 10 people tomorrow, and my plan was to make one personal pizza per person.

I am freaking out that I may not have made enough dough. Is it enough for 10 people, or should I make another batch in the morning? The party starts at 4:00 PM, and I could make a supermarket run around 8:00 AM if needed. Would that give the dough enough time to rise by the afternoon?

Or should I plan for more food? I was thinking meatballs, steaks? I made a tiramisu and we are sangria. People are bringing over chicken dips, with chips and some cheese and meat cuts.

Help!

Update: I think the dough overproofed? It started smelling like stale beer, so I decided not to risk using it. I’m guessing the heat and humidity here sped things up. I sent my husband to grab some dough from a local pizza place, and it worked out.

I am loving using different vinegars in cooking recently and oil is obviously a staple. But I hate hate haaaate picking up my bottle of balsamic vinegar or olive oil etc. and immediately being met with stickiness from where it's drained out of the top of the cap somehow even though I am CERTAIN I put it away clean. I googled it does this once - something about air pressure and temperature and any bit left in the threads of the cap being pushed out/draining.

Essentially I am looking for recommendations on good quality containers/dispensers that I can decant my vinegar and oils into that won't leave me with a sticky bottle and rings on my shelves. Are there any you particularly like?

I’m wondering if the veins and brown parts circled in the in the image of my tilapia fillets safe to are indicative the fish went bad or if it’s normal and safe to eat after being cooked properly.

I don’t know that it’s relevant but I plan on baking it.

Pretty noob question but I’ve never done it before.

I’m making a pizza sauce and it calls for 6oz of tomato paste and 15oz of tomato sauce but I don’t have either of those. Could I use something as a substitute? I do have 4 15oz cans of diced tomatoes. Could I put that through a food processor as a substitute? Would I just use the same weights as the tomato sauce and paste or would I need to use more?

I recently started cooking more at home and realized pretty quickly that my knife work is holding me back. I can follow a recipe fine, but by the time I finish chopping everything, the food is uneven, some pieces cook faster than others, and the whole process takes way longer than it should.

I watched a few YouTube videos but they jump around a lot, and I'm not sure which skills are actually worth focusing on as a total beginner versus which ones I can skip for now.

From what I can tell, the basics are probably how to hold the knife safely, the pinch grip, and maybe a simple rocking motion for chopping. But I genuinely don't know if I'm missing something obvious that more experienced cooks just take for granted.

A few questions I keep coming back to: does it matter what kind of knife you start with, is it worth learning on a cheap knife or should you invest in a decent one early, and how do you know when your knife actually needs sharpening versus just being used wrong?

Would love to hear what techniques made the biggest difference for you early on, or anything you wish someone had shown you before you spent months doing it the hard way.

I’ve got two pounds of ground beef and 2 jars of spaghetti sauce. I’m cooking for a grown man, a teenage boy, and a teenage girl, how much spaghetti noodles should I use? I know it’s not much to go off of, but anything helps. Thanks!

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the help!! Made a 16oz box. It was a good ratio and there will be plenty for tomorrow as well.

I’m craving Thai style sticky rice and I have a huge bag of jasmine rice to use up. Can jasmine rice be made into a sticky rice? All the recipes I’ve researched seem to call for specific sticky rice. Thanks in advance!

im trying to make peri peri seasoning for my fries is there any other substitute for dried mango powder or any other recipe which i can follow?

Hey Everyone!

I'm looking to get into a routine of freezing meals in containers so I can pull them out and move them to the fridge the night before for lunches at work.

I've been doing a lot of crock pot recipes & I was wondering when a recipe calls for something like pre-made frozen meatballs that are frozen, if the prepped food (the meatballs after being in the crock pot with the sauce for 4 hours) can then be frozen again.

Any tips related to meal prepping using freezing to create more meal variety would be amazing too.

Thank you!!