9 Cooking Steps You Should Feel Free to Skip

I have had a potato explode in the oven. Most rough potatoes will be fine but once in a while there are some that are perfectly sealed by the skin and with combust – not the end of the world you just have an oven you have to clean.

I have never done that water to grain ratio. Maybe because I had no idea about it.

For the carrots, I use a metal sponge, I can’t stress my life peeling it. I don’t even know how the people that do it cope.

I will have to disagree with you on the beans. As you can already tell, I love things to be quick and easy. So yeah, soaking it makes life easier.

“like that time I dutifully poured some hot basting liquid down the drain after reading a step that said ‘reduce sauce by a third.'” Does this remind anyone else of my beloved Amelia Bedelia!? lol!!

Exploding potatoes = terrifying and potato literally everywhere! I mean everywhere! Better safe than sorry with the poking.

Jenny, you definitely know how to start a conversation! I can picture you sipping a glass of wine, nodding and laughing as you’re reading the comments! (I’ll definitely cook potatoes today, and will think twice).

I skip preheating the oven for things like roasting sweet potatoes, but if you’re hearing frozen things they get soggy if they slowly defrost in a preheating oven. Straight from the freezer to a hot oven for crispy tater tots, please!!

Ahh…with every “go ahead, you’re not scared are you scaredy-cat?” you provide at least one caveat. Lol. And here’s to your momma for protecting her family with good old Elbow Grease Chicken Scrub. Thank her for all of us momma who did the same.
Oh, and that cranky old sifter…I still use mine. Why? Because it belonged to my grandmother Queenie and the sound of that metal on metal sound takes me back 40 years. I would wake, come home from school or fall asleep to the sound of that metal bar scraping on the screen knowing that the kitchen would soon be filled with a scent no expensive perfume could beat.
My sons bought me a pretty new sifter with a squeeze handle mechanism. It’s around here somewhere. Probably in Queenie’s old Hoosier cabinet. It creaks a little too. Just like the old sifter…and me.
Keep cooking & baking! It’s God’s work.
Viki

Hmmm… I don’t eat chicken but otherwise I think these things make for better dishes and aren’t skippable.

I’m a bit cautious re ensuring frozen vegetables are cooked thoroughly, as here in Europe we’ve had some small outbreaks of listeriosis linked to frozen veg (with even some fatalities, though this is rare). The other tips are excellent though!

Thank you for sharing these shortcuts.

I have exploded unpricked potatoes!!!

I have had a dramatic, Jackson Pollack like tater explosion…only once…it was enough. Pricking pots is easy, scraping cemented potatoes…no.
Prick em ladies.

I remember my mom making dinner one night and hearing bangs coming from the kitchen – she had forgotten to put holes in her baked potatoes and two of the four in the oven had exploded. Might be a rare occurrence but it does happen and I’d rather take the ten seconds to put some holes in my potatoes than the time it took her to clean the oven.

My mind is blown that everyone is painstakingly measuring their rice to liquid ratio! Rice + boiling water = keep boiling until rice is read and then strain, done!

Carrot peel is bitter so I’m going to peel them, although I don’t peel potatoes, even if I’m mashing them.
If you’re roasting vegies, then sure, you don’t need to preheat the oven I guess but for baking which is basically science, yes preheating is required.
Also, I always cook my rice by absorption which does require the correct ratio.
I’m going to continue to wash raw whole chicken before I roast it; a lot of things done in the past are still good to do.

Each to their own though! We all have our own way of doing things.

It has definitely been done before? Lol. Cooking rice by covering with water, as opposed to using ratios, is what lots of people do in India every day :). This is how I learned how to cook rice and how all of the cooks in my family have always prepared rice. Just use a fine mesh sieve to drain the rice. Keep the rice water for congee.

Er…skipping the ratio is NOT an option for rice. Sorry not sorry! At least not for Asian rice. Although I never use a measuring cup, I just measure from the bottom of the pot to the top of the rice with my thumb against my hand, which should be roughly the same distance as from the top of the rice to the top of water. Otherwise it will either be too dry or way too wet. If it’s too wet, leave the rice cooker on warm uncovered and it will dry up a bit.

Carrots just need a good scrubbing. Most of the nutrition is found in the skin and outer layers of the carrot, meaning those baby carrots you find in bags have very little nutrition to speak of.

Never ever peel potatoes and carrots. Seems wasteful to me.

Adobo, tomato paste leftovers I dumpin a press n seal and seal it up then pop it in the freezer, break off a chunk when I need it. Any extra herbs, I chop up and throw extra in the freezer, you can store it with lime juice

I’ve exploded unpricked potatoes. It’s a bummer when you’re cooking the exact number you need. Plus it works out some angst to stab things.

But what about jacket potatoes?! which I learned about here btw. Besides the fact that the potatoes can explode, letting steam escape makes them fluffier. There are many good tips, shortcuts, etc out there but these ones are bologna!