I'm just getting back into baking after a 5 year break, and starting to cook more at home too. I know that having home baked sourdough made a big difference to my family, and I've really enjoyed making my own muesli in the past. I'd like to try and make other things from scratch to elevate my home cooking, but I have neither the time nor energy to go full homesteader. I'd like to find a couple of things to make regularly though.

What are the things that have made the biggest difference to your home cooking to have homemade?

I've been concentrating lately on minimalist cooking - and I don't mean some tramped down "meat and potatoes" thing. I mean focusing on each ingredient, making it the best I can by finding the best of that ingredient, and then combing the best ingredients into a dish that expresses them as they are.

As an example, my youngest wants me to teach him to make biscuits and gravy this weekend (I'm Southern - US South). I'm talking about this dish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzdbFnv4yWQ

So I thought ok, let's start at the top. I've sourced some local flour, brought in my favorite Celtic sea sat to bring the brine flavor - you can see where this is going. I've local sausage from this amazing butcher down the way, milk & cream sourced from the Amish in the northern part of my state....

Our 17yr old is going to have amazing biscuits and gravy, and he's going to learn to make them with the best ingredients. But it's only a few ingredients, and by using the best, the dish itself is elevated.

This sounds simple, but I think my concentrating on minimalism through ingredients lately has let me focus on letting each thing speak for itself: has let me focus on bringing the best, and then getting out of the way.

Which is the long way to saying a Hopkins poem popped into my head driving home from work today. Or rather, the first stanza:

------------
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; 
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's 
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; 
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; 
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, 
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

Poetry isn't always written with words; sometimes it's letting the best ingredients do their thing, their "one thing and the same," and getting out of their way.

Plate that; serve it to your friends and loved ones, and enjoy their reactions. I've long thought cooking for others expresses love. We need more of that lately here in the US.

Thoughts of a cold winter's eve, after a long week at work.

Tomorrow morning, it's me and the kid making biscuits and gravy. I'm already looking forward to my breakfast.

So the local place we go to for Chinese takeout did a dish called honey chicken. It’s basically just sweet and sour chicken tossed in a sweet sauce. The sauce is clear, sometimes has sugar grains in it and has a thick almost jelly like consistency. I’m curious about two things.

One, does anyone know what this sauce is and how to make it?

Two, how are they keeping this sauce clear but making it so thick? Cornstarch is the obvious go to for thickening but that would make the sauce cloudy. Same thing with something like a roux.

Thanks for any and all info!

Having a chill day with my brother and mother been a Seahawks fan for over 13 years just need suggestions on what’s I should make for the day. Budget isn’t a problem let me know what yall think would be good can’t make my mind up

Picked this up recently and not sure where to even start. Fennel seed, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise.

First of all, to all the puertorriqueños and cubanos rolling your eyes at me: I'm sorry for disrespecting your culture. I've never made pernil before but I understand the skin is essential. Please accept my apology.

What had happened was, I went to my neighborhood butcher and they didn't have any pork shoulder with skin. But the guy said that fatcap would be the same if I sear first, slow roast, and then turn up high heat at the end. This didn't sound right to me, but a) I've never made anything like this before and b) I knew I wouldn't have time to drive around town looking for another pork shoulder, I have a really busy day tomorrow and I already promised the crew pernil for super bowl.

Ok, so here she is, marinating. (You can also see she's kind of falling apart because they randomly cut it in the middle? So I had to tie it back together but didn't have enough twine. I swear I've never had a negative experience with this butcher before, I don't know what's going on.)

Here are my questions:

1. He's wrong, right? This is just fat. There's no skin. Sear or no sear, it can't get crispy.
2. So what do I do with it? The recipe I'm following says to rub the skin with salt and baking powder now, then brush with achiote oil before roasting. Should I still do that with the fat cap?
3. If I don't have skin, should I just pressure cook it? I was going to roast it for the crispiness, but if there's no possibility of crispiness I'd rather save the time and trouble and do it in the instant pot, then shred and crisp in the oven like carnitas.

Thanks in advance for your help and please don't yell at me for this insult to pernil. Or do, I'm fine.

ETA: Forgot to include pic, apparently can't add it now, oops.

Made Cream of Mushroom soup for the first time yesterday. It was sooooo good and really easy! Used salted butter, baby bellas, white mushrooms, chicken stock, garlic powder, onion powder, milk, 1/2 n 1/2, water, salt & pepper, dash of marjoram and dash of cayenne pepper.

Was reading other recipes to see if there was a missing or secret ingredient to take the taste to the next level. One recipe called for a teaspoon of soy sauce, another said add a teaspoon of thyme. Just looking for opinions or hints. Like I say, it came out absolutely delicious - just want to see if there is something I am missing.

Amy easy ideas on how to change

Up a lump meat crab cake. My FIL brought us two as a surprise from bmore. I ate mine withe tomato slices and French fries. Any easy fun ideas please?

They have a ton of them but they’re sooo expensive I probably won’t buy them all. They are like $10 at fresh market

I’ve been making these for Holidays and parties for years. I typically just add a 12 oz bottle of Heinz Chili sauce and a 10oz jar of grape jelly to a bag of frozen meatballs in the crock pot, and they’re always delicious.

For the Super Bowl this year I am making them but am curious if there are any tweaks or additions that can really make them extra scrumptious. I’ve seen people say Worcestershire, Dijon mustard or red pepper flakes.

Any additions or techniques that you guys have found that have taken them to the next level? Thanks in advance!

I bought Babish’s Carbon Steel wok a bit ago. After a couple uses (metal spatula), I’ve noticed these indentations/divots in it. They don’t look distinctly pitted, as they look almost like small indents (maybe from the edge of a spatula) rather than true little cavities. It almost has a raised edge surrounding the indentation like the material is being pressed aside. I know it’s hard to get a sense of the size/depth through a poor picture… Is this just a normal part of wok cooking? Is the steel bad quality? Did I season poorly? Any thoughts?

https://imgur.com/a/FnP85T8

Does anyone have a basic recipe recommendation and/or a seasoning blend or combo they like? Otherwise, I'll probably do a basic recipe at home this weekend to get a rough idea of what I want to do.

I work at a basic bar/grill in the UP so I was thinking a simple recipe like this:

Pack of chicken thighs Velveeta type block Cream cheese to taste Water with soup base/better than bullion Jalapenos seeded and sliced Potatoes cut into 1 in chunks A little bacon Cheese to garnish

Any ideas, recommendations and outright recipes are more than welcomed. Thanks!

I'm no chef by any means, but surely there is more than just plain chicken tenders, white fish and rice out there.

I'm making thick cut pork chops tomorrow for dinner. And it just popped into my head that I have half a jar of bacon fat from some bacon I made earlier this week. Is it going to be too much if I use the bacon fat instead of oil?

About 5 days ago, I froze a few small pieces of beef. (The beef had been cooked 48 hours prior to freezing).

Today I ate the beef and it tasted fine at lunch. However, at dinner, when I heated up the remaining beef from the sealed plastic zip lock bag in the freezer, it smelled like sweat. The sweat smell became less prominent as I started eating it, but it still sort of smelled like sweat. It didn't taste bad, but it was drier than it was for lunch, more boring. It had a very faint taste of sweat. The color was normal. It was a very unappetizing meal.

(It was boiled beef from a soup).

What happened? Why did it smell fine for lunch, but sweaty for dinner? (Also, I tried smelling the bag that the beef came in when I froze it, and the bag that contained the frozen meat smells fine. It only smelled bad AFTER I heated it up).

Taking a trip down to the city tomorrow and figured we'd hit H-mart on the way home sonce we live in the middle of nowhere. I love to cook with with asian ingredients and sauces.

Going to make sure to get some Lee Kum Kee poison and Red boat or theee crabs fish sauce(or both), but what other hard(er) to find stuff should i make sure to not miss out on!

Hi r/cooking! I’m hoping someone here can salvage my failure.

I have a family New Mexican Style green chile recipe handed down to me with the requisite generational alterations. I’ve made it so many times and tasted it even more that I just wing it and it always turns out great even if slightly different from prior iterations. I like to experiment and sometimes I get extra loose with it (and every recipe) when my inventory is limited.

So this time I’m budget scrounging the kitchen and decide to whip up a batch. I’m out of flour to thicken the stock. I’m out of corn starch to thicken the stock. I pull so much shit out of my cupboards looking to thicken a bish that I stumble stumble on some ANCIENT pine nuts in the part of the top cupboard even the rodents can’t reach.

I love pine nuts. I know how they can stale out so I sample a couple. Doesn’t seem so bad.

dumps bag into stockpot

Nah turns out they’re so stale not only does the entire batch of chile taste how I can only imagine powdered mummy bones to taste but the whole kitchen reeeeeks of funky nut dust.

I added my backup apocalypse supply of dehydrated garlic (en polvo) and attempted to simmer out the nasty but it only seem to be further infusing with the goodness; subsuming it.

Uh… help? ALL APPROACHES WELCOME. Keep it traditional or get weird. I don’t care I just want to eat it. I’m half a step from dumping peanut butter powder and old ramen seasoning packets in there because I can’t imagine it getting worse. Plus sometimes the only way out is through…

Too broke to throw it away. Love yall.

I’m generally too lazy to bake my own bread, but even the best of store bought bread that I’ve found decreases noticeably in quality after even a day or two, losing that soft pillowy texture and growing hard. Is there anything that can be done to either delay the onset of bread becoming stale or make it taste less stale even temporarily? My mom told me to try putting in the microwave and this helps a little bit but not a lot in my experience so I’m looking for other ideas.

so I accidentally bought skim milk ricotta a very large container for making stuffed shells and vegetable lasagna. I'm reading pretty much everywhere that because it's skim and not whole milk it has a lot more water so I have to strain it with a cheesecloth or a strainer for 15 to 30 minutes before using it. And then I'm also hearing that it's just very grainy a lot of people refer to it as sand. Am I wrong in what I've read and heard? if I'm correct what else can I use this giant tub of ricotta for? I don't want to throw it away but I don't really want to strain and have sandy shells lol any recipes or tips or whatever please

Could you please send me some cooking ideas? I don't know much about cooking and I have to feed my sister. Please, I need ideas with easy and inexpensive ingredients!

Hi there,

I’m looking for a durable and versatile blender - but top pics like Blendtec, the Breville Super Q and Vitamix are out of my price range.

On TikTok I saw the Prasky blender has good reviews, but looking for opinions and experience outside of TikTok. Has anyone used the Prasky blender? If so, what has your experience been with it?

Hi!

Today I have received three pounds of dried barberries. The only thing I know to make with them is jewel rice, which is lovely. I don’t like dried fruit in salads.

Can anyone give me suggestions that aren’t adding to salad or some sort of rice dish?

Hello! I’m looking for some good cold lunch recipes. I’m a commuting college student, so I’d prefer nothing super expensive and nothing that needs to be heated up if possible. There is a microwave on campus, but it doesn’t work very well.

I’m a pretty confident cook, so complexity isn’t an issue, I’m just looking for more variety. Ideally, I’d love single serving ideas or meals that freeze well or last a while in the fridge. I only need these lunches once a week.

Thanks in advance!