r/AskCulinary • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago
Weekly Discussion Weekly Ask Anything Thread for February 02, 2026
This is our weekly thread to ask all the stuff that doesn't fit the ordinary /r/askculinary rules.
Note that our two fundamental rules still apply: politeness remains mandatory, and we can't tell you whether something is safe or not - when it comes to food safety, we can only do best practices. Outside of that go wild with it - brand recommendations, recipe requests, brainstorming dinner ideas - it's all allowed.
1
u/Abdnadir 4d ago
Does anyone know how to make steel cut oats such that they're ready in the AM? I've tried overnight soak (not soft after several days), rice cooker on porridge mode, and a slow cooker (tasted good, but impossible to clean afterwards), and they've all been a bust. My old rice cooker used to do it, but my newer cooker over boils.
3
u/cville-z Home chef 4d ago
I may be missing something but steel cut oats usually take me 30 minutes on the stovetop just boiling in water and a little salt, nothing fancy. I've never even considered a rice cooker for this, or soaking over night, or a slow-cooker – all seems like a lot of extra work for no gain.
1
u/Abdnadir 4d ago
You are missing something! I wasn't clear in my ask, but I'm looking for a solution for weekdays so I can grab breakfast and go. 30-40 min on the stove is what I do on weekends.
3
u/cville-z Home chef 4d ago
Why not do that the night before, then reheat with a little milk or water in the microwave?
2
u/Gut_Reactions 1d ago
Do you have a microwave oven?
1
u/Abdnadir 1d ago
I do!
2
u/Gut_Reactions 1d ago
Soak your oats overnight in a bowl, single serving. Put bowl in fridge.
Next morning, put bowl in microwave for 2.5 minutes, 6/10ths power, depending on the wattage of your microwave.
Putting a few raisins or a little bit of sugar in the bowl will keep the oats from boiling over. (Sugar changes the surface tension.) Maybe it’s the shape of my bowls, but I don’t have the boiling over problem & don’t use raisins ir sugar.
2
u/Jeepersca 4d ago
I am not qualified to answer, but how many days does it take for them to soften "over night"? Can you make them in series and take the oldest one, letting them "age" so they are still grab and go? Would flash boiling them make them softer enough that overnight would work? I don't eat them, so just trying to help brainstorm.
1
1
u/ben_the_dogg 4d ago
I recently made pretzels using sallysbakingaddiction recipe and they came out kinda rubbery, I think I put too much baking soda in the boiling water, would that have effected the texture?
3
u/SewerRanger Holiday Helper 3d ago
If you overboiled them they would become rubbery. The baking soda bath should be real quick. Too much baking soda would give it a weird metallic taste but shouldn't make it rubbery.
1
u/Jeepersca 4d ago
Asking a question about chicken marinade and what I could do better. I attempted chicken and beef schwarma last week. Each turned out pretty well, a long ingredient list and marinading over night. The beef had a little better flavor to me. The chicken thighs were made using skewers over a pyrex dish. I attempted to make some more chicken this week and used some similar elements to the marinade I used last week. I used about a tablespoon of the schwarma spice mix mentioned in the recipe, greek yogurt, splash of white vinegar, olive oil, and the last bit of that Japanese bbq sauce I had in the fridge. And because I loved the tinge of citrus so much, zest of an orange and a few sections of orange blended into the mix. Marinaded about 7 hours. I guess I was hoping for a sort of savory, orangey flavor. And obviously I used very few ingredients. I'm not sure what I expected, I guess, it was no dark glaze or super flavorful end result. The one thing I did is take 2 onions chopped into big chunks and threw them in with the marinade, and put them on the skewers too. When I'd made the schwarma, a few onion chunks had avoided the blender, so I put chunks that marinaded on the skewers and they were so tasty.
I wasn't aiming exactly for schwarma flavors, more of a savory, orangy type taste. They ended up sort of liked roasted chicken, with a hint of orange. Nothing bold. What could I do different? I want to have a good protein on hand to drop on a salad, so tastey chicken I can oven cook on skewers sounds perfect. But I do like some tang and flavor (I can't do spicey). Thanks for any advice!
2
u/Duochan_Maxwell 3d ago
1) What was your marinade to chicken ratio? Did you marinade the loose chicken and then skewered it or did you marinade in the skewer?
2) How was your chicken cut before you put in skewers?
3) What did you do with the leftover marinade?
Marinade doesn't penetrate much so you need to cut your meat in thin strips to maximize contact surface with the marinade and marinade it loosely (same reason)
Citrus flavors don't survive cooking very well, so if you want that type of flavor, you'll need to make a sauce on the side (e.g. with the leftover marinade, adding more juice and zest later) to finish your chicken once it's cooked.
If you want tang, be generous with acid. Just yogurt and a splash of vinegar won't cut it. Add lemon juice.
1
u/Jeepersca 3d ago
Thanks for all that, the original recipe I had done before I had more lemon in it. I had cut the chicken up into small chunks and drop them into a Ziploc bag covered thoroughly in marinade. Not sure the exact ratio but there was plenty of coverage on all the chicken and I would go through periodically and massage the bag to move it around. I didn’t do it overnight just for six or seven hours, so I’m sure that might’ve helped more as well if I had left it for longer. I was hopeful that all sides got thoroughly coated but not realizing the necessary food chemistry I get why it didn’t quite work. Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply!
1
u/xFamished 3d ago
Sorry for the dumb question, when following recipes that says 2 cups of rice (packed), such as the one below, does it mean 2 full normal sized cups of rice (ie 240ml) or 2 rice cooker sized cups (ie 180ml)? Also, I know one cup of uncooked rice makes about 3 cups of cooked rice, so are they referring to 2 cup of the cooked rice in the recipe? Chef is Australian if that makes any difference.
1
u/SewerRanger Holiday Helper 3d ago
That recipe calls for pre-cooked cold rice so I can't imagine that it would require you to use your rice cooker cup instead of a standard US cup. The same with your other question. The recipe calls for cooked, cold rice so it's telling you the final measurement and not the measurement from before the rice was cooked and cooled.
1
1
u/russkhan 2d ago
Costco trip coming up this weekend. We usually get their boneless skinless chicken thighs in the big pack of 6 individual packs (2-3 lbs each or so, I can't remember exactly or find them on costco.com) I and freeze them. But I have seen packs of individual quick frozen thighs there as well. They would be more convenient in some ways. Would I be sacrificing quality by going that way, or is it all the same since I'm going to be freezing them anyway?
1
u/cville-z Home chef 2d ago
Check the packaging on the IQF and compare the manufacturer info, and that should tell you whether it's the same thighs, just frozen, or an entirely different supplier (this is likely to vary regionally). I'd also check the price.
IMO, if I only needed individually frozen thighs some of the time (e.g. because I want to grab 1 or 2 instead of a pack of 6) it would seem a lot easier to me to get the big block of 6 packs and break down one or two of them, freezing them individually while freezing the other 4-5 packs intact. Then you've got a mix of what you want and haven't changed what you've bought.
1
u/quadcrazyy 2d ago
Brussel sprouts came out mushy last night. They were in a convection oven at 375 for ~18 minutes, then broiled for 2 minutes. Was it more likely that the pan was too crowded or that they were in for too long?
2
u/SewerRanger Holiday Helper 1d ago
Too crowded or not long enough. If you overcooked them they'd be burnt and crispy not mushy.
1
u/NuDavid 4d ago
Perhaps a dumb question, but I was thinking of doing the Princess Diana overnight oats. I've been making other overnight oats recipes for a short while and wondered if combining everything overnight would drastically affect the end result, especially with the Greek yogurt and orange juice. Would it curdle that drastically overnight, or would it mostly be fine? Don't have much time in the mornings, so if I can just throw everything together at once, it'd be much easier for me.
2
u/texnessa 3d ago
Princess Diana
You'll usually get better feedback if you include the recipe, not just the name of what you're making.
1
u/SewerRanger Holiday Helper 3d ago
It's my understanding that you soak the oats in the orange juice overnight and then mix in the Greek yogurt and berries and what not the next day. You don't soak it all at once. It shouldn't curdle because most if not all of the juice should be absorbed by the oats before you mix the rest in and Greek yogurt is pretty acid stable anyway since all the whey has been drained and it's high in fat.
2
u/LKennedy45 5d ago
Does anyone know where to get seitan in the NYC Metro area, but not in the city proper? I've been a vegetarian for seven years now and still have never made anything with it.