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30 Of The Worst Beliefs About Cooking People Have Been Taught By Their Parents, As Shared On This Online Thread
One of the best ways to learn how to cook is to help out your parents and relatives as a kid while they’re busy in the kitchen. That way, you quickly pick up some great techniques, sharpen your veggie chopping skills, and get used to being around all the clanking and clattering pots and pans. It’s great! On the flip side, you also pick up some of your parents’ cooking misconceptions, too.
Their mistakes become part of your knowledge base. And it sometimes takes years and years for you to realize that your parents might not have had everything figured out when it comes to food. Redditors opened up about some of the weirdest and funniest things their parents taught them about cooking that ended up being completely the wrong way to go about making food.
From completely overcooking pork and salmon into dry inedible meals to undercooking mushrooms and not using any salt and beyond, here are the biggest misconceptions that they shared. Scroll down, upvote the posts that you think everyone should read, and if you have any food lessons to share with the rest of our dear Pandas, you can tell us all about them in the comments.
Bored Panda got in touch with Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, a talented pie artist, food expert, and the author of ‘Pies Are Awesome,’ for a chat about where misconceptions about food come from and about food fads (like the dastardly sugar lobby vilifying fat in the 1960s).
“Culinary knowledge is usually passed down generationally. If that’s how your mum/dad/gran did it, that’s how you do it. There’s a lot of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality around the dinner tables of the world,” she told us. Read on for our interview with Jessica!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Their method for hard boiled eggs: start them in cold water, boil for 15 minutes, then wait til the water cools to remove them. Gross grey yolks every time
ETA: whoever downvoted me obviously makes eggs this insane way so I just wanna tell that guy specifically that you can boil a perfect egg in 12 minutes, less time if you prefer a jammier yolk. you do not need to waste an hour to make hardboiled eggs buddy
Mr Halloumi 3 years ago
You lot are mad. Cold water, eggs in, bring to boil, 3 mins runny, 6 mins hard, cold water after both. End of.
Fat Harry 3 years ago
End of? Rubbish. For a dippy egg stick it straight in boiling water. 4 minutes. Done
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Plenty Pineapples 3 years ago
I know it's probably not the tastiest way, but back in the day you'd have to boil a few extras for your computer mouse, so might as well do them all in one go 😉
Julie Arsmtrong 3 years ago
What?? What do you mean, boil a few extras for your computer mouse?
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Rebekah 3 years ago
Cold water, bring to boil, then remove from heat and lid. Drench in cold water after 15 minutes. Bright yellow for me.
Meredith Adams 3 years ago (edited)
Lmao I had no idea that hard boiled egg techniques were so controversial.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Who the heck boils 'em that long? 8-10 min never fails me. Bring to boil. Let sit in hot water ... off heat!
Anta Babb 3 years ago
To those people saying you add baking soda for easier peel, just lightly tap the bottm (more rounded) portion of the egg onto a hard surface until it cracks slightly. There's a little air pocket there between the shell and the membrane of the egg that makes them easier to peel everytime I soft or hard boil eggs
You kidding me 3 years ago (edited)
Plus I think the ice cold bath helps to make them easier to peel.
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Pie artist and baking grandmaster Jessica told Bored Panda that if people haven’t tried the ‘correct’ versions of the dishes or ingredients, then they’ve got nothing to compare the versions they’ve always been served with.
“And even then, due to warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings the foods of our youth often invoke, some people may prefer the ‘incorrect’ version. Overcooked pasta just like mother used to make!” she noted that people’s nostalgia goggles might make an appearance.
“Of course, there is a line between ‘sub-optimal’ and ‘inedible’ when it comes to food. But if no one is puking up a lung or dying of obvious malnutrition, most busy parents don’t see much of an impetus to change,” she explained why most food mistakes don’t end up being fixed.
RELATED:
#2
My dad always told me that mushrooms should be added to the dish at the very last minute and barely cooked. I always thought I didn’t really like mushrooms. When I finally ate mushrooms which had been sautéed golden brown I was blown away. Turns out they are way better fully cooked!
1Zs Girl 3 years ago
I cook mine in coconut oil and add a bit of garlic powder... delicious!
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Matheus Oliveira 3 years ago
Exactly! They’re so weird when raw, but magically tasty and with a great texture when cooked (though I remain powerfully allergic to them).
Amy 3 years ago
I'm allergic to them as well, I've never met anyone else who is!
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Hedgeh og 3 years ago
Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen has an unorthodox method of cooking mushrooms that really works - you add a little water. That encourages water to come out of the mushrooms - which will happen anyway - and you cook just long enough for most of it to evaporate. THEN you add your oil - butter tastes best but you can use all kinds - and it won't just get absorbed by the mushrooms like it does if you add it first. Been using this method for a few years now and it really works.
Nightshade1972 3 years ago
I love raw mushrooms. I love cooked mushrooms. However, I always add fresh mushrooms to a recipe--the taste/texture of canned/jarred mushrooms is just "off" to me.
Kona Pake 3 years ago
As a young man visiting Madrid, I ate a lunch in the hotel restaurant. Because it looked interesting I ordered a wine and vinegar(?), ham and mushroom salad, an entrée and a small craft of sangria. It was the very best salad I have ever eaten and ever since I’ve eaten and enjoyed mushrooms.
#3
When I lived with my parents, I didn't get the hype around steak. This was all around the context we lived in - My mum was feeding eight of us and brought cheap tenderized cuts that she could afford, would cook it to the consistency of cardboard, and tell us how lucky we were having steak for dinner. I was totally indifferent to it as a meal, but you eat what's in front of you and you don't complain.
It wasn't till I moved out on my own and had a really good steak at a restaurant that I realized I had misunderstood beef for 18 years. Now I love to cook and eat steak.
Stephanie Wittenberg 3 years ago
I'm cracking up! My mother was totally the same! No meat was considered "cooked" until it was deep brown and dry through the middle. Finally, in college no less, a date asked me to dinner and took me to a steakhouse. I was thinking "bleah" when he ordered a steak for two but was determined to be positive. This juicy, delicious, perfectly medium grilled
Stephanie Wittenberg 3 years ago
steak arrived and I discovered that beef is good!
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Ray Carrillo 3 years ago
Cheap cuts of beef cooked right are excellent. Just takes longer and slower, I love a really well cooked chuck steak or mock tender if is done right.
Kelzbelz79 3 years ago
Until I tried a medium rare steak I was a "well done" all the way, now I can only eat it medium rare.
Leesa DeAndrea 3 years ago
I couldn't stand the gristle in what my mom called minute steaks. I still can't eat gristly or fatty bits, spit them out every time.
Kate Jones 3 years ago
The same happened to me. My parents did the best they could, but I grew up thinking I hated certain foods when it was really just the way we had them growing up that was the problem. Especially vegetables. We ate precanned vegetables all the time which made me think I hated so many. The first time I had baby spinach in a salad I was in shock. All I knew of spinach was canned, nasty spinach boiled in a pan. Same with green beans. I had fresh green beans a few years ago and it was a totally different thing. And I like frozen veggies, too! Frozen peas are so good. I never used to eat meat (I've had a cheeseburger or hot dog, but dinner meats like steak and chicken) because I thought it was so gross and it's only been recently I had mongolian beef from a really good asian restuarant and I was in love. I didn't know meat could taste like that. I've recently found a lot of recipes that I enjoy meat in and it's like a whole new world.
Jessica explained to us that society tends to go through fads and phases when it comes to its relationship with food. Some ingredients can end up being lauded or demonized, only for the tables to turn years later.
“When I was a kid, butter was the enemy, and muffins were the epitome of healthy diet food for the weight-conscious. A 1,000-calorie bran muffin slathered in margarine with a black coffee. That was where it was at,” the cooking expert explained how something that was taken very seriously in the past might sound silly from a more modern perspective.
According to Jessica, people tend to have very strong feelings about their favorite foods. It’s only later that we might learn that the ‘healthy’ items we were eating might not have been all that great for us.
#4
Vegetables must be boiled. Particularly broccoli.
Maybe if we had roasted a few, I would have eaten more.
broken_guy 3 years ago
same with brussel sprouts. people hate them because they are never cooked well
Henrik 3 years ago
There is a genetic component to this - about 50% of all people have a genetic trait (the gene TAS2R38 to be super specific) that makes brussel sprouts taste insanely bitter. No amount of cooking by even the greatests of chefs can make brussel sprouts tasty to those people.
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Jyri Hakola 3 years ago
For broccoli problem with boiling it way too long. Just try a short 4 to 5 minutes quick boil, then grind a bit seasalt on the top an little butter.
g90814 3 years ago
Yes. its quick and easy. Add some salt/pepper, and a little butter. YUM.
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Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
THIS. Don't boil them to mush! Even steaming many veg is way better than boiled, IMO. BTW, toss anything in balsamic vinegar, and roast it, and everyone eats it. Even the fussy godsons.
Fenel F. 3 years ago
Not boiled, blanched... That means, you put your vegetables in salty boiling water for 1-3 minutes(it depends on the vegetable the time), and than take you out them in an iced water. Now they are prepared for consuming with adding some more seasoning of your taste. Or frying , baking them...
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
I boil or steam broccoli or broccolini for 4 minutes and then eat it. Just the right amount of crunch. I am normally a big condiment person, but I don't even put salt on broccoli! Love the stuff and eat at least two heads of it a week.
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Jo Johannsen 3 years ago
Canned spinach (aka green slime) and canned peas (son of green slime)
Kelzbelz79 3 years ago
I detested veg as a child cos my mother (still does) would literally boil them to death, it wasn't until I started cooking myself and didn't end up with boiled slop that I realised I love all veg.
Stoopham McFernybabes 3 years ago
My children do not eat cooked veggies…until I started roasting broccoli and now they eat it as a “treat” 😂
#5
Putting oil in your pasta water keeps the pasta from sticking to itself.
This does nothing but waste oil. If you want to keep your pasta from sticking together stir it periodically and when it’s done drain it and put it right into your sauce.
Matheus Oliveira 3 years ago
Besides wasting oil, the only other thing it does is to keep sauce from sticking to the noodles and pooling in the bottom of the plate after they slid off the sad uncoated pasta
Nat 3 years ago
That’s where I THOUGHT the post was going at first. True.
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Sinead Kenny 3 years ago
NO NO NO there IS a reason... Not trying to be a smart a*s or correct anyone, just passing on experience and advice that has served me well... There is a reason.... By dropping olive oil in the boiling water it stops the the pan and pasta bubbles to boil over. It creates a layer on the top but also make the pasta roll underneath the oil and cook quicker with no mess. It has nothing to do with taste, practical.... just saying...
Earl Grey 3 years ago (edited)
Disagree about that method, professional chefs would blanch in horror. You salt the water to eliminate the foam, but people do not know what that means. You want to bring the pasta water to a level of salinity that is similar to sea water. Not merely a pinch of salt, but a tablespoon full. And no, that salt doesn’t invade the pasta and pickle it. Try it next time and you’ll see. Oily pasta will cause your sauce to just run right off. And do stir the pasta right away until it gets limp, otherwise it will tend to clump.
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Andy C 3 years ago
I see this one debunked all the time, and they are right that oil isn’t the way to prevent sticky pasta. What I never see posted is that sticky pasta is caused by not enough water! The water in your pot should be twice as deep as the pasta itself takes up. Cook pasta where the noodles barely fit in the water? You’re gonna have a bad time.
Theoretical Empiricist 3 years ago
It's also important to let the water get to a full boil before adding the pasta.
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Weronika Kasperska 3 years ago
Oil is not for preventing pasta from sticking, it’s for breaking water surface tension and preventing from boil over. You need just a little bit.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
Which still can coat your pasta and make the sauce slide off. Use a bigger pot and more water, same result without mucking up your food.
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Cathrine Simone 3 years ago
This only matters if you making something that has no oil in the sauce or gravy. Nearly all Italian dishes of sauce and gravy will have Olive Oil in it anyway. Also Many Asian noodles will use a sauce with a peanut oil base. Hence... rendering this advice null and void. Personally I like my pasta to be pasta, and not soak up my sauce. That is part of the pleasing duality of the meal.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Just. Stir. The. Pot. OMG. are people this lazy they can't stir a pot?
Francisco Manuel Teruel Gutiérrez 3 years ago (edited)
Pasta doesn't stick if you 1) water is already boiling, 2) you put enough water and 3) you stir the pasta (not continously, only 2-3 times is OK). Oil is irrelevant.
Lili Octopus 3 years ago
Italian viewpoint here: no no no oil. Just cook pasta in salted boiling water
#6
Love my mom, but she was an awful cook. As a teen I started to cook for my family once or twice a week. My father grilled on the weekend nights. The other 3 nights of the week were hers. She tried, she really did, but she was just not good. She would see a recipe she was interested in, but instead of trying it out as is, she would make adjustments to it the first time out. And her adjustments were not necessarily sensible. For example, she would see a recipe that calls for 2 cups of shredded cheese which she saw as too much cheese, so she would replace one cup of cheese with a cup of shredded carrot because it looked like shredded cheese. Stuff like that. When I grew older and was at Girlfriend's house for dinner one night, she decided to make enchiladas, which I absolutely detested growing up. Of course, there are times in life when you just swallow what's offered to you and smile. They ended up being the best enchiladas I had ever tasted. Amazing. And of course I huge kuddos from her, A for eating them, B for asking for seconds, and C for the smile on my face. Turns out, most enchiladas don't have 2 cans of diced olives mixed in. Yet another adjustment my mother made without thinking it through. You know diced olives bare a resemblance to ground meat when you cook it. And so, at the age of 22 I learned that I don't hate enchiladas. Lesson learned.
Nightshade1972 3 years ago
I once read about a woman who knew that her sister was a terrible cook. Terrible Cook invited Sister over for dinner. Sister warily asked what TC was serving. "Beef stroganoff!" Sister thought, "Well, that's kinda hard to screw up, why not?" and accepted TC's dinner invitation. She takes a bite--and it tastes nothing like beef stroganoff. "Sis, what did you do to the recipe?!" "Well, I realized I was out of beef, so I used ham. I realized I was out of beef broth, so I used chicken broth. I realized I was out of sour cream, so I used vanilla yogurt." And on and on, with ridiculous substitutions for almost the entire recipe. "Sis, why didn't you just make something else, or go to the store to get the right stuff?!" "I didn't have time, and I'd already invited you!"
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pink_panda 3 years ago
Imagine having the confidence of a woman who substitutes a cup of shredded carrot for shredded cheese.
Gwyn 3 years ago (edited)
I wonder if some people who do these terrible cooking substitutions have taste deficiencies and that makes the look/texture alone a deciding factor instead of how the rest of us would decide based on flavor in combination with those two things.
FlamingoPanda 3 years ago
Did she grow up in wartime/post war time UK by any chance? I know mock meals were a big thing then where they substituted things that looked like other things because they could not get the real thing.
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
My nanna used to make mock chicken all the time - I loved it as a kid! Must have a look for a good recipe.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Wittenberg 3 years ago
Sympathy to all. I gave a co-worker my recipe for toffee bar cookies. Next week she told me the cookies came out awful and I must have written the recipe wrong. So I sat down with her to go through it step by step. Turns out she didn't have brown sugar, so she used white. She didn't have butter, so she used margarine, and not the stick kind, the whipped on a tub kind. Also, adding a pinch of salt to a sweet recipe seemed silly, and that little amount couldn't make a difference in a whole batch of dough, so she left it out. The only other ingredient is vanilla, and that she used. She still blames the recipe.
Dr. Carlos Dangercat 3 years ago
Sounds like my mom. I love the woman, but she is an extremely picky eater and she always seemed mad when making dinner for the kids (which, to be fair, we were probably being hellions). We had the same thing every night, pasta, frozen vegetables and some kind of frozen protein (fish sticks etc.) which she herself did not eat. If you don't taste the food you cook, it is not going to turn out well! Anyway, now we are all grown and I don't think she has touched the stove in about 15 years! Love you mom!
Nadya Raymond 3 years ago
I'm the opposite of this my mother can cook, in fact the neighborhood we lived in knew she could and would turn up at our door every time...yep my mom can cook in fact her nick name is 'The Cookist'
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
When you're broke, you do what you have to do, and we never even did that. Ever. Seeing as my fam would eat squirrel, that says a lot about our limits.
Hedgeh og 3 years ago (edited)
For MANY years I thought I didn't like any Mexican food. I'd grown up with hard-shell tacos, served up with diced tomato, iceberg lettuce, ground beef with a packet of "Mexican" flavoring, grated cheddar. It was... OK... but I didn't like it much. Then visited Texas. OMG. Soft tacos in all flavors; the most amazing salsa verde; just fabulous food, cheap, fresh, squeeze of lime on this or that... incredible. I'd put Mexican and Tex-Mex as favorites now.
“There are certainly some historical food misconceptions that have done a lot of harm. The vilification of fat by the sugar lobby in the 1960s is a big one that springs to mind, as well as the whole ‘eating a giant bowl of glorified marshmallows is a-ok for breakfast’ phase,” she told us.
“Outside of broad societal attitudes towards certain foods and diets, there are a number of common everyday cooking mistakes that people make in the preparation of their food—our handling of rice and pasta are high on the list here—but outside of food safety violations, I tend to be pretty sanguine about these things,” the expert noted that not cooking something ideally isn’t always the same as making the food item dangerous for consumption.
“No one ever died from over-cooked pasta, or vegetables boiled within an inch of their life. Sure, they’re missing out on a heightened culinary experience, but do you really want to be ‘that guy?’ I know I’m not going to tell my grandma how to perfect her pasta boiling technique (and if you knew my grandma, you wouldn’t either!),” Jessica said that, at times, it’s best to be diplomatic and dig into the meal without comment.
#7
That meat has to be cooked to a point of total shoe-leather dryness in order to be "safe" to eat. Neither of my parents would touch a piece of chicken that wasn't dessicated through and through nor a piece of beef with a touch of pink.
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
Mine too. I was pretty much a vegetarian until someone introduced me to a bleu steak!
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Brenda 3 years ago
Grandmom, bless her heart, cooked meat until it was inedible. When I first met her, I had been told about this. Asked why I wasn't eating the leather pork chop. Said I loved veggies (I do) and her pasta was delicious (Italian).
Norman Woelk 3 years ago
A friend wanted a pot roast like his grandma made. His sister told me they were terrible. I was told that 'you better not put any wine in it", so I had another guest pour in the wine. He thought it was the best he ever had, just like grandma's. Memories can play tricks on you.
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Beck 3 years ago
I like all my meat a little crispy. I had some SLIMY ON THE INSIDE chicken at huddle house many years ago (I can still feel it in my mouth) and I have not looked at chicken the same way. I check every piece thoroughly and if I see any shine to it i will not eat it. Its made me sick for days.
Tom Lippert 3 years ago
It's why till an adult I hated pork chops you could use my mom's for flipflops. Man were they dey and tough.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
If you eat game, however, raw is a riskier venture. You may want it charred a bit!
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
Yes, you do have to be very careful where your meat comes from. Particularly supermarket meat!
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Paul Beebe 3 years ago
Same for pork… no trichinosis reported in the US. In over 80 years- no need to turn it into shoe leather
Bunzilla 3 years ago
Depends. If you're eating store-bought pork, your chances are far lower (in the US, there are around 10 cases a year, but mostly not from commercial pork). If you're eating pork from boars you've hunted yourself or your own pigs, err on the side of caution. There have been cases of people getting trichinosis from non-commercial pork, as well as other wild game (like walrus).
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Ms.GB 3 years ago (edited)
Oh god, my dad burnt everything to hell. It wasn't until I first met my husband and he convinced me to try a med rare steak that I realized I had literally been eating charcoal my entire life. Don't even get me started on the chicken...i had no idea it could be juicy.
John Otruba 3 years ago
My Dad with steak until one night a waitress refused to ask her chef to cook a NY Strip "very well done" Dad tried it and was 'medium rare" rest of his life!
#8
My entire childhood we had margarine. I thought restraunts had some special technique to make their butter taste good. Turns out it was just regular salted butter.
Hannah Hudson-Lee 3 years ago
After the Chernobyl disaster in the 80s we had to eat margarine for a couple of years because the milk from our dairy herds was contaminated by the fall out. That first bit of butter when it was safe to eat again was like heaven melting on toast. (Incidentally, we lived a very, very long way from Chernobyl. Fallout can travel scary distances on the weather.)
Fat Harry 3 years ago
There were places in Scotland that had restrictions on meat for about 20 years because of Chernobyl.
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Cari Owens 3 years ago
They know now that butter is better for the heart than margarine. Ironic, since margarine was introduced as a "healthier" alternative.
Kusotare 3 years ago
Actually, margarine was originally introduced as a cheaper alternative, not for health advantages. Margarine producers pivoted to the health angle later.
Load More Replies... Gwyn 3 years ago (edited)
I remember the margarine days, I hated it, my parents always got it and never butter unless it was Thanksgiving or something. When I moved out it was butter for me and haven't bought a single margarine! Then it turned out they discovered how bad margarine is for you!!! It took me years to get my parents to switch.
James Pasquini 3 years ago
The same here while growing up. Butter for holidays. Mom used to leave a pound of butter sitting on the kitchen table to soften a little - until the collie helped himself. lol.
Load More Replies... MarieTDr 3 years ago
I always preferred the butter I had in the UK. Turns out that it was because it was unsalted butter, when I'd been having salted while back home.
leefi1 3 years ago
We never buy salted butter. If I want a hit of salt on buttered Como Bread, I use a pinch of flake salt. The crunch of salt flakes is a wonderful counterpoint to the sweetness of butter.
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David Woollands 3 years ago (edited)
Still places in Wales where the hillsides are contaminated after it rained - most restrictions were lifted in 2012
Shane S 3 years ago
Our family was a Country Crock family. I still prefer the manufactured, fake, processed taste over real butter. I think it ruined my taste buds.
Earl Grey 3 years ago
Try Irish butter, Kerry☘️Gold. You may change your mind.
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Valerie G. 3 years ago
There were four us, two sets of twins a year apart. Mom would get a sitter and go either to Woodwards or Woolworths just to have someone cater to her for half an hour. She would have tea and a scone. Woodwards used butter and Woolworths used margarine. It all depended if she had enough for a tip as to which place she went.
David Brier 3 years ago
Best butter I've ever had was from Normandy. They claim it has to do with the grass the cows graze on.
#9
My parents boil any meat that they’re going to “cook” on the grill because it won’t cook all the way through on a grill. And this is why I thought I hated BBQed chicken. Few years ago I threw a BBQ for them, my Dad insisted I was going to kill them by just grilling the chicken and pork. Then they said, best grilled chicken and pork they ever had. I also grilled the corn on the cob which they thought was some kind of miracle.
over it already 3 years ago
You should wow them with grilled pineapple &/or asparagus next - yum!
Suutashi 3 years ago
I think their parents got confused and thought sous vide, which is a technique restaurants actually use, was the same thing as boiling. Sous vide ensures a steak is tender, moist and flavourful after being grilled. Boiling, in the other hand... well. I have seen meat that has remained very flavorful after being boiled in some videos online. However this was in a series of videos about traditional and modern Mongolian cuisine and it involves using something like a broth or a lot of seasoning instead of plain water.
Francisco Manuel Teruel Gutiérrez 3 years ago
Grilled corn cobs is my childhood. I didn't eat boiled corn until 18 yo.
Patti Vance 3 years ago
my mom was the same way, especially with pork baby back ribs. yes, they are cooked and you can throw them on the grill to get a nice glaze but the flavor is just watered down. finally had her over and bbq'd them low and slow. she loved them
Randy Klefbeck 3 years ago
Growing up, I used to take travel trips with my grandparents. Sometimes we would stop at roadside diner restaurants (a chain) that made a big deal of their "broasted" chicken. The chicken was quite good, but the mystery of how it was cooked ("what the heck is broasting?") was not apparent until I grew up and realized that the chicken was first boiled and then slowly rotisserie roasted....hence 'broasted.'
Rob Normand 3 years ago
I boil chicken thighs if cooking them on the grill because if I don't, we basically have a bonfire of chicken fat, plus I don't like how wet dark meat is and the boiling then grilling dries it out a bit.
A lot of these misconceptions probably come from a place of love. For instance, some parents might not cook with salt because they know that an excess of it might be harmful to health. Others might overcook food because they’re overly worried about killing off any germs.
Sure, that might kill the flavor, but these aren’t misconceptions that harm you much apart from leaving your taste buds unsatisfied. It’s the mistakes related to hygiene in the kitchen that you should be worried about.
Some kitchen mistakes are worse than others. Food expert, pie artist, and author Jessica recently told Bored Panda all about food hygiene.
#10
No more than three eggs per week, or you'd die of heat failure from the cholesterol.
Matheus Oliveira 3 years ago
If you want an omelette one day, you’re out of luck for the rest of the week, then
Firearms Sanctuary 3 years ago
lol my typical omelet is like 5-6 duck eggs which are typically larger, but more flavor ;). also fill it with mushrooms, diced habanero, and cubed ham ;)
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Lizzy Crit 3 years ago
Yep. When fat free was healthy and the only way to stay slim, and we started packing everything full of corn syrup to make up for the lack of flavor. Also when portion sizes began to go off the rails. Yeah our food tastes like c**p, but you get so much of it! What a value!
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V Martinez 3 years ago
First, eggs were good for you. Then, it was decided, not as good for you, and they even sent the egg to prison. Then, they learned the egg was actually innocent, and it was released from prison. The egg has been through so much over its lifetime. Poached, scrambled, fried, etc, but I'm just glad it's free!
Judith Isles 3 years ago
Eggs are wonderful & full of nutrients. Also, eggs give me energy & I don't get hungry till my next meal.
Bunzilla 3 years ago
Eggs are high on the satiation scale, along with potatoes.
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Karen Bouldin 3 years ago
Granddad ate 2 eggs for breakfast every day. He was 98 when he passed away. Was completely healthy until cancer at 97.
Shane S 3 years ago (edited)
Every time I had Angel Food cake, my mom told me it was the only cake my grandfather was allowed to eat because it didn’t have egg yolks which were bad for his heart condition.
Kimberly Lorton 3 years ago
The yolks were the part with all the nutrition! The whites were protein.
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It took me an entire summer of owning my own barbecue to learn that barbecued does not mean charred past recognition.
Nancy Jeckells 3 years ago
That reminds me that at a friend's barbecue years ago, I said to my husband, honey, can you make sure I get a well done sausage? He said, no problem, they're ALL burnt !!
Richy Rich 3 years ago
If you get flames from the juices that happens. Using a charcoal grill, after your briquettes are going good, spread them all to one side two maybe three layers ok? Keep your food on the opposite side, put the cover on. I wait for steam to come out the vent on top and then check, flip everything over to cold side. Cover repeat. Next time flip everything over to the side with the coals and this will crisp it it up nice, a couple minutes each side.
Shelby Jackson 3 years ago
My ex husband needs to learn this and he's been grilling for 20+ years. I just started grilling when I bought my house a few years ago and both my kids prefer my grilling to their dads lol.
Rob Normand 3 years ago
My Dad had a fondness for char. EVERYTHING he cooked on the grill when I was a kid was served blackened and over cooked. We laugh about it now
Leesa DeAndrea 3 years ago
My granny liked to cook hamburger patties for supper. She didn't consider them done until they were black.
Ozzie Ogawa 3 years ago
Remember, only the heat that touches the food. We usually use a manual fan to keep the charcoal "alive" but keeping the flame down.
#12
In this vein - spinach! Boxed fish sticks, rice, and canned spinach was in the regular rotation when I was a kid. I didn't realize spinach was tasty until I had a tasty fresh spinach salad at my in-laws' place.
Reading the Harry Potter books, I always just straight imagined gillyweed as canned spinach. Slimy and revolting.
Freelove 3 years ago
Amazing what happens when you eat food prepared the way it's supposed to be! My husband is an amazing cook and I've been realizing as an adult that I'm not really a picky eater... my mom was just not a great cook!
Sian Clifford 3 years ago
Canned spinach?? I thought that was just in Popeye 😂 America is wild haha
V Michael Lazar 3 years ago
Canning was originally developed for the military under Napoleon. They were the original MREs.
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Mozzarella 3 years ago
If anyone doesn’t like spinach, boil it still its mush and you can’t feel the stems, then cut puff pastry into squares, chuck the spinach in it with a lot of cheese, fold it and chuck it in the oven until crisp. My kids won’t eat spinach any other way
Rosie Hamilton 3 years ago
Only downside is that it does spoil the healthiness of the veg by smothering it in cheese and pastry but, yes, yum!
Load More Replies... Beck 3 years ago
I hate fish. Will not touch it. Period. When I was a kid in the '80's my mom would give me fish sticks. For some reason I thought they were fish in name only. Like they were actually chicken maybe? Maybe she told me they were chicken so I would eat them. Not sure. When I found out at around age 9 that I had been eating fish the whole time I was horrified.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
My sister loved 'white ham' as a kid- it was chicken loaf, but she didn't like chicken so had to call it ham. Funny thing is, now she won't eat ham, but loves all things chicken!
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Thomas Hunt, Jr. 3 years ago
Nononononono to canned spinach. It's why I refuse to eat cooked spinach to this day. Love it raw though!
"The worst thing that can be done in the kitchen in terms of hygiene is treating the 'dangerous' ingredients in the same fashion as all the other ingredients in your food prep. Pathogens (the little things in food that can make us sick like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and microorganisms) thrive in certain foods more than others," Jessica explained to us in an exclusive interview.
"Raw chicken, raw egg, unpasteurized milk, seafood, and raw flour (people often forget that one!) in particular are fertile breeding ground for nasties and need to be treated differently than other foods,” the food expert warned.
According to Jessica, everyone should keep in mind the food safety acronym ‘FATTOM’ to remember which foods spoil quicker than others. The acronym stands for “Food supply (protein), low acidity, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture."
#13
If you don’t have a potato then it is not an actual meal. It wasn’t exactly true then but that was what they knew.
Matheus Oliveira 3 years ago (edited)
In Brazil, it’s rice and beans (arroz e feijão, in good Portuguese). And there’s no way of explaining there is indeed nutritional value in other cuisines. At least in my place, it eventually subsided after the popularity of cooking shows on tv.
AK to LV 3 years ago
A couple of family members, in-laws, don't think their meal is complete without rice and beans.
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Stevie D 3 years ago
Absolutely. A plate divided into 3 parts. Meat. Potato. Veg....Dinner. I married an Italian chef and he doesn't keep potatoes on hand. 30 years later its still strange not to have a 5 pound bag of potatoes around.
leefi1 3 years ago
I've been cooking for 55 years or so. I have never bought 5 pound bag of potatoes.
Load More Replies... Shane S 3 years ago
Moms meals consisted of a meat, a veggie (usually canned); and a starch. Every single meal. I still think that like that sometimes when planning meals.
Kaj Boelsen 3 years ago (edited)
My great grandfather didn’t consider a full pasta meal a full meal unless there were actual boiled potatoes on the table… he did proper carb loads 🙃
Jasam Nitko 3 years ago
Potatoes were the main food we had when growing up. Most often boiled and on special occasions with a bit of butter.
James Pasquini 3 years ago (edited)
We were rotated between boiled potatoes, mashed, baked, roasted, and once in a while fried. Loved them any way they were made. Funny how I couldn't eat potato salad until long after I got married. Just didn't like them cold.
Load More Replies... #14
Not exactly my parents, but my grandmother had some... Unique views on food. For example:
Enjoying foreign food makes you almost traitor of your country
Never washed her vegetables because dirt toughens you up
Only she knows the correct recipes and experimenting in kitchen in unforgivable (direct insult to my mom)
If something had gone bad, she didn't throw it out, but boiled till it literally dissolved and then got upset that noone ate it
Nightshade1972 3 years ago
My wife's aunt owned a restaurant. When my wife and I were dating, I had her over for dinner, and told her I was planning on doing something in the crockpot. She seemed very reluctant to accept the invitation. Turned out that her aunt's idea of crockpot cooking was to take all the odds and ends from the restaurant, stick them in the crockpot for 12-16 hrs, then serve the porridgelike mess as a meal. Until she met me, it honestly never occurred to my wife that you can actually make tasty, recognizable meals in a crockpot.
Lola 3 years ago
Yup, nothing toughens you up like dirt at the bottom of your bowl. Disgusting on so many levels.
Just a ray of f'ing sunshine 3 years ago
At least the dirt was clean(?) :D
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#15
My mom just told me to completely omit salt when cooking.
I’m A Black Cat 3 years ago (edited)
There is a fairytale from Middle East, goes smth like this: A padishah had three daughters. When they grew to full age he asked them to tell him how much they loved him and the one who loved him most would get his kingdom. So the first daughter told him she loved her father like a caravan of gold. He gave her a caravan of gold but not his crown. The second one compared her love to a caravan of damonds. He gave her a caravan of diamonds but not his throne. The third one, his favourite daughter, came and said: I love you like salt. He was furious and sent her away without giving her anything, forbidding to ever return. The shah was broken since he felt betrayed by his favourite daughter. Then a wise wizard came to him and said: you have done injustice. Try and eat your food wothout salt for three weeks and you will see how much your daughter loves you. He did. By the end of the first week he had lost all appetite. By the end of the second week he was ready to lose his riches for one meal salted bite. By the end of the third week he was so exhausted by the tasteless food that he was ready to give up his kingdom for a pinch of salt. This is when he understood. He asked his daughter to return, gave her his kingdom and knew she would be a worthy queen. The end
Lambchop 3 years ago
If you omit salt when baking bread (unless the recipe is specifically labelled low sodium, your bread will not rise properly and the taste will be flat, like chewing cardboard.
Dynein 3 years ago
Are you sure? Yeast doesn't require added salt to function, in fact, too much salt can *inhibit* its activity. I once forgot to add salt when baking bread and it turned out just fine, only very bland. And that was easily solved by sprinkling salt onto your slice.
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Inclusion2020 3 years ago
I really hate salty food. Like the normal level of salt for most people I just can’t do. I have no idea why. Now I’m wondering if it has something to do with my moms cooking 😂😂😂
Julia Larsson 3 years ago
Same. I never use salt when I cook, it somehow ruins the food for me🤪
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Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago
My aunt claims she does not use any salt for cooking (doctor's orders, she has hypertension). One day she invited me for lunch and the food was amazing. Turns out she was using powdered bullion cubes insteads...
Al Padilla 3 years ago
Yow! Be sure to read the label. The usual boullion cubes are mostly made of salt! Low sodium ones exist, but taste different. In the US, there's a "nutrition facts" table on the jar.
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leefi1 3 years ago
Most chefs tell us to add salt at every part of the cooking process. I think that most of us are trained to expect a lot of salt in our foods. We eat very little salt, I add a bit to certain foods while cooking, to get specific effects that salt is necessary for, otherwise we add it ourselves at the table. We all get lots of hidden salt in everything from soft drinks to ketchup and fast food. We've replaced salt with flavor, herbs, salt-free mixes (like Mrs Dash) and we still have relatively high sodium levels in our blood tests. Hidden salt is everywhere.
A dragon within 3 years ago
You're not wrong. Cooking from scratch can eliminate a lot of that. Premade foods tend to have a lot of salt.
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Heather Wood 3 years ago
Salt was the only seasoning my mother used. No pepper, no onions, no garlic, no basil , you get the point. In the 70s, spice racks, complete with spices, were the rage so I bought her one. She died in 2015. Spice rack and spices intact like the day they were made.
Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
Actually, the place where you need to omit salt is at the table. If you cook properly with salt, you don't need to add any.
Björn Krämer 3 years ago
That one can make sense. Our western salt consumption is totally through the roof due to added salt litary everywhere and because of its relation to blood pressure increase is responsible for many health problems (and eventually deaths). So reducing salt intake is not a bad idea although, as said, most is consumed with bread, cheese, processed meat and generally processed food.
The expert said that you can use ‘FATTOM’ as a quick rule of thumb to determine how dangerous the ingredients you’re working with actually are.
“For example, if you are working with something with a very high acid content like lemons, jam, or pickles, or something with a very low moisture content like crackers or rice cakes, you really don’t have to worry about them sitting out on the counter for hours or touching other food. They just don’t have enough of what the pathogens need to grow,” she said.
"On the other hand, something like raw shrimp which has a high moisture content and lots of protein for pathogens to eat really needs to be carefully monitored for how long it is left out in the open air in 'danger zone' temperatures and kept far away from other food and utensils,” she told Bored Panda that temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees F (4 to 60 degrees C) are the danger zone for pathogen growth.
#16
My dad, whose mother is from Sicily, he was really offended when my future SIL sweetened her Bolognese sauce with carrots. I did a little research on a standard Italian sofrito, and it includes carrots. I've since modified my recipe, swapping sugar for carrots, and I think it improves the flavor.
Fenel F. 3 years ago
Soffritto is the base for every tomato-based italian sauce. It's a mixture of onions, carrots and celery (the green stalk with leaves), chopped very fine. In french they call it mirepoix.
E Menendez 3 years ago
The term sofrito is Spanish and is actually onion, celery, and green peppers. Onion, carrot, and celery are mirepoix. And yes, mirepoix is the traditional base.
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Eagle Girl 3 years ago
The 1st chef I worked with was Puerto Rican & made the best sauce ever by adding carrots. Always took them out. His secret ingredient. Another trick, only simmer for 45 min & let sit til next day. Stops acidity from tomatoes kicking up yet marries flavor
humdrum 3 years ago
This sounds like something I can actually accomplish :)
Load More Replies... Adrienne Mcginley 3 years ago
Classic mirepoix has onions, celery & bell peppers. When you sub carrots for the bell peppers, it becomes a sofrito.
Ella Blackwood 3 years ago
Actually, Mirepoix is 1 part celery, 1 part carrot to 2 parts onion. I think you had it backwards. Sofrito, in Hispanic cuisines often contain bell peppers and garlic, it varies. Italian Soffrito is like French Mirepoix, but they tend to cook it a bit longer before using it as a base.
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Deep One 3 years ago
I never tried carrots but I know a tiny bit of sugar will knock the acidity of a cheap sauce way down.
Dynein 3 years ago
Actually, the key is mostly to boil the sauce for longer! It's simple kitchen chemistry: Heat degrades the carbohydrates in the food - which chemically are just long chains of sugars - to sugar molecules. And while tomato has less carbohydrates than carrot, thus won't turn out quite as sweet, it'll still acceptably sweetens itself if you let it simmer for an hour or longer. Especially if there's onions in it.
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Carlotta Müller 3 years ago
I dislike any sweeteners in bolognese sauce. no carrots and no sugar. Perhaps it is no bolognese sauce but I like it hot and spicy.
A dragon within 3 years ago
I used to hide vegetables in my tomato sauces when my kids were young. They never knew. lol
#17
Most of these differences are simply preferences, rather than strictly advantageous, incorrect or correct. Two cooks can use vastly different techniques for the same dish and make an end result that is equally delicious. That is why it is best to regard all recipes as advice and suggestion, not gospel.
Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
This needs to be higher. Even with the science of baking, you can still turn it into art, like adding a bit of cinnamon and sugar on top of chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven. Maybe those same cookies have a touch of nutmeg baked in?
Lambchop 3 years ago
You can fool with cookies without a worry, but if you’re baking bread or rolls, you can’t substitute or add ingredients without a thorough understanding of the original recipe. It’s all chemistry and it’s easy to ruin the results.
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Celtic Pirate Queen 3 years ago
Cooking and baking are two entirely different things. In baking, you should always follow the recipe exactly. The first time I cook with a new recipe, I follow it as written and then make adjustments as I see fit (more salt & pepper, for instance).
Nightshade1972 3 years ago
I have a recipe for burgundy meatballs. At one point, I realized I didn't have any burgundy on hand, but I did have sherry, so I used that instead. Turned out great! Later on, when I did have burgundy, I made the recipe as originally written. I realized I didn't like the burgundy in the recipe at all, so from that point forward I always made the meatballs with sherry.
A dragon within 3 years ago
Absolutely! When I want to try some new recipe, I read 3-4 recipes then make my own thing. It hasn't failed me yet! One note though- when baking, I keep the leavening ingredients just as they are in the recipe.
Uber Mensch 3 years ago (edited)
Just make it as specified the first time to make sure you're getting it right, before trying experiments.
#18
For my entire childhood I thought mashed potatoes came in a box.
DannX68 3 years ago
I make a mix of mashed potatoes/broccoli. It's sooooo good!
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Torsten 3 years ago (edited)
I created something I call "the adult version of mashed potatoes": Boil the potatoes in a medium strength broth instead of water (it's the potato equivalent of "tortellini in brodo"). After boiling you don't have to pour the whole broth away - leave some liquid to make mashing easier. (Here is where the broth comes into place: with salted water only you would be left with a kind of blandness and you have to season it more - this saves time.) Mash the potatoes until they have still some small chunks in it. Add (when you're in the mood: a lot of) cream and - apart from the usual salt (which you might not need much because of the broth) and pepper - of course some grinded nutmeg! Way much better as my usual childhood mashed potatoes.
Dr. Carlos Dangercat 3 years ago
I bough mashed potatoes recently when recovering from having a tooth extracted and they've improved a lot since my childhood!! I've been using them as a substitute for breadcrumbs in meatballs, fish cakes etc. But I agree, mashed potatoes should be made from the vegetable.
Amy Taylor 3 years ago
Same!!! They are so easy to make from scratch, I just don't see the point. The real thing is so cheap too!! I lived on potatoes when I was first on my own for that reason, lol
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Adrienne Mcginley 3 years ago
Potato flakes are a great shortcut for thickening things. Never underestimate freeze-dried foods.
Ruth Hempsey 3 years ago
I only discovered potato flakes a few years ago after doing potatoes from scratch my whole life, and I'm 77. They were an amazingly convenient and useful thing during chemo. Now that my husband and myself are both in compromised health, he's 80 this year, potato flakes can be very helpful on days when prepping a pot of spuds is too much of a chore. Best way to deal with fresh taties is, boil a big pot, eat them that way first then either roast or mash or both, the left-overs. Other days... rice or pasta, and a meal always has at least one veggie. Childhood - grew up with the meat and two veg mantra in effect.
Randolph Croft 3 years ago
When I was in the Navy (Canadian) and we tied up with American destroyers, all the guys on the US ships that didn't want to go to McDs or whatever would come over and consume most of our taters and milk because we used scratch ingredients and theirs were powdered. That was nearly 40 years ago, so things are probably different.
#19
Everyone loves their Moms cooking but don't they all have this one dish that you learned later does not taste like it is supposed to? Mine for example will leave pasta in the water until it's time to serve it, even if it's practically starting to dissolve by that time. Then she will drown it in butter so it won't stick.
Mozzarella 3 years ago
Mine was eggplant. Wouldn’t touch it. Then I went to a resturant, ordered it without knowing, and ate the whole thing. You should’ve seen my face when I was told it was eggplant!
Benita Valdez 3 years ago
Yes! ! ! My mom annihilated eggplant and I hated it for over 30 years until I accidentally tried it. I'm still particular about it but definitely more open to it and you cannot leave me alone with pickled eggplant
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UpupaEpops 3 years ago
I don't really like her food. She always over-cooks things. I thought I hated vegetables until I went to a Thai restaurant and it turned out that veggies don't have to be mushy.
Shelby Jackson 3 years ago
My mom is an excellent cook. And she loves to bake. I got very very lucky.
Alexis Draskinis 3 years ago
Meatloaf & asparagus. Always thought i hated both. Apparently i just hated how my mom cooked them
Lewis Fisher Wells 3 years ago
tu mama e molto stupido è a sinful costume di carne su il brutto soul
Rob Normand 3 years ago
Mine was spinach and peas(not together). never had either growing up and now I can get enough. I put spinach in everything I possibly can
Leesa DeAndrea 3 years ago
My mom thought she was a progressive cook because she served us broccoli. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out there was a world of delicious vegetables that she never served.
#20
Salmon. My mom was a decent cook but I thought I detested that nasty dry stuff until I had salmon at a restaurant once and was like holy sh*t, THIS is salmon??
Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
I LOVE searing tuna and salmon on a cast iron skillet. For the longest time, I thought I hated seafood, turns out I just never had it prepared properly until a few years ago.. Now I'm pescatarian, go figure.
Nightshade1972 3 years ago
I've had salmon prepared at least six different ways, and I still don't like it. To each their own. :-)
Amy Taylor 3 years ago
Same. I love fish, but just can't do salmon. The taste is very off putting to me, and I've had it prepared by some really amazing chefs.
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Everything is fascinating. 3 years ago
Freshly cooked salmon is so delicious. My daughter, at age 10 could eat a whole side of salmon. As long as it had some brocolli to wash it down with.... (Seriously) Her metabolism has slowed down a bit now, so only half a side these days.
Inclusion2020 3 years ago
I am so bad at baking salmon. I’ve only not overcooked it once or twice haha. But don’t worry, I will not be making that dish for others. I don’t want to end up on this thread when I have kids!
Everything is fascinating. 3 years ago
Meat thermometer, about £5, and a temp guide for different meats and fish taped to the side of the fridge. Sorted
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Carol Emory 3 years ago
My mother had to learn how to cook fish right. My father would go to Alaska sometimes to do engine repairs on Fish Packing Ships and would have to stay around for a few days in case there were any follow up issues. Result? He's spend his spare time fishing and would come home with boxes of halibut and salmon...flash frozen by the company that he did the repairs for. We ate good as kids.
Spittnimage 3 years ago
I don't know, if I don't like it at home I won't order it at a restaurant.
Rob Normand 3 years ago
I thought I hated salmon, then my SIL would make it several different ways and I would try it every time. Yup, I HATE salmon
Thomas Hunt, Jr. 3 years ago
Well done for me please! Add a touch of garlic butter at the end and mmmm, good!!!
#21
I was allowed to eat eggs, sunny side up, omelette, whatever, only once or twice a week.
Supposedly unhealthy.
E Menendez 3 years ago
Not 60s - it was the 80s with the low fat fad. 60s was all about eggs and bacon (at least in the US)
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Milan 3 years ago (edited)
Last time in US i ordered in restaurant for breakfast “bull’s eye eggs”. I just didnt remember quickly how it is called in english. Then the waiter, after describing, told me that “Sunny side up” 😀 In Slovak it is Bull’s eye and in Hungarian “Mirror egg” ☺️😀
Anne Kanters-Eerden 3 years ago
In Dutch it's also called spiegelei (mirroregg) and in Flemish it's called paardenoog (horse-eye)
Load More Replies... Jude Herron 3 years ago
My mother believed that when I was 8yr old it was time for me to learn to cook hot meals which she always said was never good enough even as an adult and trying to invite her for Sunday dinner was a nightmare I’m now 33 and took me a few years to understand why my friends LOVED my cooking turns out my mother was abusive to me who let’s an 8yr old child near a hot cooker? When I have my kids they can be more near 15 when I teach them to cook and prepare them for the adult world
Natalie 3 years ago (edited)
Sorry you had to go through that, she sounds awful! I do let my almost 8 year old near a stove. She's very interested in food and I always let her help in the kitchen. I taught her how to make scrambled eggs and she gets to make those herself sometimes, but of course I'm there with her the whole time! Still great to see her face light up because she cooked something:)
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Sandy Kavanaugh 3 years ago
And they can be prepared in so many ways! Any time of day, for any meal or snack. And so very nutritious, especially fresh from the hens!
Jake B 3 years ago
Yeah, when you hit about 50 you realize the nutrition information changes like the wind. Eggs, bad, now good. Bacon will kill you. No it’s ok! Some of it is they have new information but usually someone has an agenda and our parents and grandparents didn’t have access to the information we do.
Tash Wen 3 years ago
when i did my health check a few years ago my cholesterol was a bit high, the nurse asked if I ate a lot of eggs. I did, almost every day, 2 scrambled with tomato and spinach on rye. I don't eat eggs every day anymore and my cholesterol is within range, so maybe there is something to this.
#22
My mom used to overcook pork chops all the time because she didn't believe it was safe to have any pinkness inside. I thought I didn't like pork chops very much because I thought it wasn't juicy enough until I finally had one that was cooked to medium doneness.
Robin Roper 3 years ago
In the not too distant past, there was a real danger in eating undercooked pork - Trichinosis, the food-borne disease caused by a microscopic parasite Trichinella. Most pork was raised in conditions where the parasite thrived and was common in fresh pork. To kill it, the meat had to be cooked to 145°F/63°C. Now, pork sold in grocery stores is not raised in these conditions and because there is no parasite, the meat so doesn't have to be cooked to death.
Winter 3 years ago
I still have a hard time deconditioning my mind to this fact.
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Annette V 3 years ago
I remember a family friend died in the early 90s from undercooked pork. Worms were literally in her brain and organs.
Ovata Acronicta 3 years ago
This is what I've been thinking about this whole listicle so far! my mom overcooked pork too, and it wasn't until I had porkchops at an ex's house that I realized how *amazing* they can be. Of course pork is clean enough to eat it a little pink nowadays, but wasn't always that way.
Henry Shane 3 years ago
Growing up your mom was likely right, pork was dangerous to eat in that fashion...we all lived this, as it was true.
Deep One 3 years ago
Even if cured, the dead worms leave tiny, painful cysts all through your body.
Load More Replies... Thomas Hunt, Jr. 3 years ago
They can be juicy and have no pink in em! I cook em that way all the time!
Al Padilla 3 years ago
My wife is a vet (DVM) and tells me that in vet school, they had some lectures on meat inspection. The main test for whether a pig is infected with trichinosis (nasty disease) is to hold the diaphragm (very thin muscle used in breathing). Trichina leaves little red dots. You can sell that in the US pre-cooked, or just feed back to the livestock! Our understanding is that in Europe that's not allowed. So in the US, you can drink the water, but not eat medium-rare pork.
Sandy Kavanaugh 3 years ago
Being raised in factory farms, they never come in contact with soil. Or sunshine. So, no trich.
#23
Bacon. I assumed it was the solid food equivalent of coffee when I was a kid - smells amazing, tastes like bitter, burnt ashes. My parents err on the side of burnt, and sometimes they err hard. When I was 12 my buddy made us some for breakfast after a sleepover and pulled it off the heat almost still pink and my mind was blown.
Connie Marciniak 3 years ago
True but my mom cranked the heat to lava hot and burning was inevitable. I cook it at medium and watch it closely.
Load More Replies... Mat O'Dowd 3 years ago
Working in a restaurant younger, I learned to place it on baking paper in the oven, much easier to have it done deliciously than in a pan, and less risk of charring.
Adrienne Mcginley 3 years ago
Bacon preferences are subjective & should never be judged. Just be glad that they EAT bacon, in whatever form they choose.
V Martinez 3 years ago
Bacon is the best thing ever! It's hard to be friends with bacon haters. /s
Norman Woelk 3 years ago
At our hunting camp the cook likes his bacon barely done ie: limp and flabby. It has become standard that when he takes the bacon off, someone else puts it back on the griddle leaving him a few under done pieces.
#24
You can't drink milk while eating anything with lemon or it will *curdle in your stomach* and make you *severely* sick!
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 3 years ago
There's a really nasty prank you can play on a friend. Order a drink called a Cement Mixer. It's a shot with Bailey's Irish Cream with lemon or lime juice floated on top. It curdles instantly in your mouth and makes the shot almost impossible to swallow.
Jill Hojnacki 3 years ago
President Zachary Taylor died suddenly after eating cherries and milk. There was a belief that the combination of the acid in the cherries mixed with the fresh milk caused his death. This had become “common knowledge” by the time my dad was born and he grew up with it. By the time I came along it had been debunked, but he still shuddered and had to leave the room any time I happily tucked into a piece of cherry pie with a glass of cold milk to drink. He knew better, but he just couldn’t shake the revulsion and thought that his precious daughter was going to keel over and die at any moment.
Just a ray of f'ing sunshine 3 years ago
When my son was young we lived on an Air Force base. You meet people from all over the country on base so I heard a lot of interesting "Old Wives Tales." This was one of them--never feed your child orange juice and milk during breakfast or the milk will curdle in his stomach. I thought it was interesting that people believed that.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
For some reason, at one point in my childhood my brother and I decided we loved milk and orange juice mixed together! I'm glad that idea didn't last long lol.
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digitalin 3 years ago
I found out the other day that you can't put milk in hibiscus tea or it will curdle instantly. Milk is great in so many teas, even ones with a bit of lemon. But hibiscus? Nope, too acidic.
EpicWolfandSparrow 3 years ago
Figured that out the hard way😅 Made homemade boba and decided a hibiscus boba would be nice.......let's just say it didn't end well😅😅😅
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the Kat who says ni 3 years ago
My husband is from India and would never drink milk while having meat... says it's very bad for you.
#25
My mom is a great cook. People offer to buy her stuff all the time. And when my friends come over, they leave at least 5lbs heavier. HOWEVER, there is one thing that she does that hella bothers me- she leaves soups and stews on the stove top for a couple days. She boils it every day and claims it removes the bacteria. Luckily, no one has gotten food poisoning yet. It still freaks me out. And I’ll only eat it when it’s freshly made or from the fridge.
Dave Van Beurden 3 years ago
The 'no one has gotten food poisoning yet' part kinda proves she's right....
CV Vir 3 years ago
Or they don’t realize it’s not normal to have diarrhea. Husband said he had diarrhea weekly when living with his parents.
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Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost 3 years ago
It's called perpetual stew. It's very very common and very very traditional to many many cultures. In fact there is a perpetual stew in existence that has been going for like 100 years. Somthing like that
Kira Okah 3 years ago
With perpetual stew, the heat is always on the pot and the temperature remained consistent. It would never be removed from the heat or allowed to cool, that is dangerous.
Load More Replies... Michael Jean 3 years ago (edited)
I'm not gonna lie, I'm a man who's past his prime and I do the same thing. Pork, chicken, or beef based soups/stews all hang out in the crock pot for days on warm till I get it all ate up.
phil blanque 3 years ago
My dad was a bacteriologist, and meat broth was used with gelatin as the medium for most of their testing of bacteria growth in food, including e coli. Leaving soup on the stove for days is a bad practice. Boiling may help, but only if it is long enough.
Lillukka79 3 years ago
And things like e. Coli form toxins so even when you boil them to death, the vomitotoxins will be released in the food. You can't boil those away.
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aimee-mastro 3 years ago
My mom does this with her sauce and I do with mine. We leave it on the very lowest simmer so it goes down to luke warm/room temp. Every so often we will raise the heat, serve, then lower again until the next day. Never had an issue in my 38 years of living. Sauce is better the longer it cooks because it breaks the tomatoes down. Folks ask to buy it all the time and eat it like soup. Same(ish) with making stock. I'll boil then simmer that sucker for days. Goal is to break down everything till it essentially disappears. Those two are the exception. I never do this with anything else.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
If the heat is still on and it is still simmering, the it isn't going lukewarm or room temperature at all, it's remaining at a consistent safe temperature . That is not what this person is describing.
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#26
When baking, stir everything clock wise or it will be bad.
Darth Bob 3 years ago
Agreed. You need to add a counterclockwise stir after every seventh clockwise stir. Or is that Harry Potter?
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Sabrina Bowen 3 years ago
This is about energy not taste. Stirring desoil (counter clockwise) was considered bad luck in the same way that having a left handed person cook for you was. It didn't "make the food bad" in so far as taste or anything, but it meant you were taking in bad energy.
Ana Ferreira 3 years ago
My grandmother believed something similar: it didn't matter if you stirred clockcwise or counterclockwise, but once you'd started stirring, you couldn't change the direction of the stirring, or the food would spoil. So if you started clockwise, you had to stir clockwise everytime you stirred, until the dish was done.
Michael Jean 3 years ago
My wife says that too! Also think positive/loving thoughts so you don't put negative energy into the food. Because I'm not the nicest guy around I stir stuff counter clockwise and think bad thoughts most of the time. LOL
GW 3 years ago
Baking is a hobby of mine. Do you have any tips for cakes?
Load More Replies... BabyYodaIsMe 3 years ago
I dunno... I've found that in order to make the best pasta, you need to stir clockwise while making up a little dance with some random song in your head. Then, the timer will go off for something unrelated, and you forget which way you were stirring, so then you stir counterclockwise and make up another little dance. Best pasta ever, trust me.
Drea Benoit 3 years ago
This sounds like a superstition though. Stuff like that is really common in some cultures, and also harmless.
#27
My parents always had their big meal in the evening. Only as an adult living in Germany did I learn that a big lunch and a light supper are much healthier (for me at least). Much better sleep for one thing.
Mosheh Wolf 3 years ago
Sorry people, but there is no specific tame of day for the big meal. Having a big meal soon before going to sleep can cause heartburn in some people, but having dinner at 7 and going to sleep at 11 is fine. Also, the whole "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was invented by breakfast food companies.
Seabeast 3 years ago
Well, I find I run out of steam by 11:00 a.m. and am ravenously hungry for the rest of the day if I don't eat at least a small breakfast. So for some of us it's true.
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Seabeast 3 years ago
For most people, it's about when they have time to cook. If you're working, you have to eat in a rush to get a big lunch in.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
Exactly. I now have my main meal at lunchtime, because I work from 3-6 and don't want to cook after that.
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Kate Jones 3 years ago
It's funny how we've convinced ourselves of certain things being right and wrong when it comes to food. Like, I enjoy a light breakfast for dinner, like a couple of scrambled eggs with an english muffin, and sometimes I'd rather have a heavier breakfast like a big sandwich or even steak or chicken when I wake up. But we've been brainwashed into thinking, 'oh no I can't have that yet it's not 11am. I have to wait.' Who decided certain foods could only be eaten at certain times? I know Kellogg convinced the world to eat cereal in the mornings as part of a marketing campaign but there's this weird idea of things you can't eat or drink at certain times. I've even gone so far as to not eat certain foods except on holidays. I love shrimp cocktail but we only ever have it on Christmas so I look forward to it every year and finally one day I was like, 'I can have this whenever I want why am I waiting?'
Jade Gleeson 3 years ago
I have my main meal in the middle of the day. I cook dinner for my husband and kids but don't eat it, I'd never be able to sleep if I ate so much in the evening. I work from home so this is doable
Tina Harnish 3 years ago
I have trouble eating when I first get up, most days. It's rare for me to have any appetite then. My doctor put me onto Ensure. Because it's liquid I don't have trouble getting it down. Does give me a greater start to the day. I'd rather solid food, but too often, my stomach just wants to barf until I've been up for a few hours.
James Pasquini 3 years ago
I knew a doctor that used to tell his patients if they wanted to lose weight to eat like a king for breakfast, a queen for lunch and a pauper for dinner. His patients seemed to lose about 8 to 10 pounds(3.6 to 4.5 kg) a week.
H M 3 years ago
My mum cooked beef roast to dry and tough. But she married an englishman and she was from eastern europe, never ate stuff like that. Her own cuisine was awesome. However we all 3 generations don't eat pink chicken....campylobacter is rife here. But you can cook it juicy and cooked through, change the technique. Ditto pork.
Kelzbelz79 3 years ago
I know it's not good for you but I just can't do breakfast , I tend to have just one good meal a day with a few little snacks in-between
#28
Eggs are bad for you.... That was before we heard about cholesterol. Then butter, here use this congealed artery spackle instead
Later they got into the whole low fat thing
Nimues Child 3 years ago
Ah, the '60s and '70s - sugar and trans fats good; eggs and butter bad.
Lola 3 years ago
Stay away from anything labeled low-fat. That means they added sugar to make up for the fat, which is way, way worse than fat. I’m glad I’m noticing a change in this lately and low-fat is not the hype anymore.
Sue User 3 years ago
During the height of the " fat will kill you" scare, i remember seeing a bag of marshmallows advertised as fat free.
Load More Replies... April 3 years ago
When I was pregnant with my first baby, my mom was aghast when I told her I had four scrambled eggs for breakfast every morning. She got me worried enough to ask my doctor who told me there were a lot worse things I could be eating and to go ahead and keep eating my eggs.
Ruth Hempsey 3 years ago
We used to wonder how our parent and grandparents lived to hearty ripe old ages living off whole milk, cheese, butter and eggs while baking and cooking with lard, if those things were as bad as advertised. It isn't fat that's bad, it's sugar. And finally that is acknowledged. Hallelujah.
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Philly Bob Squires 3 years ago
I accidentally mixed some "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" with real butter and now I don't know what to believe...
#29
Spinach is desgusting. Its NOT. I eat it every day as an adult. But they ALWAYS bought Canned Spinach which is... not good. Really bad. Green, slightly grass tasting slime. Fresh Spinach? Crunchy! No Slime! Good. They came up poor and lived on an island so I don't think they quite understood that, one we had moved west, they now lived with 500 km of 1000 farms and didn't need to buy it in a can anymore...
Brenda 3 years ago
Cooked right with some bacon grease, top with just a little vinegar on plate. Delicious
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
My grandmother would always make that with fresh lettuce and spinach from the garden and called them killed greens. 😋
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Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
Most canned vegetables (in my experience) are gross. I love frozen peas, but canned peas are nasty. I totally get it if it's a financial thing as canned veggies are way cheaper than fresh or frozen (unfortunately), but it doesn't change the fact that canned veggies are gross.
Chris Jones 3 years ago
Most i agree but I'm okay with sweetcorn personally. Keep a few tins for emergencies at least. Fresh is always preferable.
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Amy Taylor 3 years ago
LOL I didn't even know that vegetables came in cans until I was in school and ate dinner at a friend"s house. My mom gardened and all of our veggies and fruit were fresh.
Kim Shannon 3 years ago
I agree completely. Can't stand canned but fresh either in a salad or steamed with a bit of salt and butter-yum!
Tiny Dancer 3 years ago
Fascinating to see canned spinach on the list twice now. I've never even SEEN spinach in a can before! Strictly frozen for us, yes siree Bob. Just as bland as your can, I'm sure.
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
Yuck. I hate spinach. Even fresh English spinach, it squeaks on your teeth when you chew it!
#30
A pinch of salt = only a few grains
Fenel F. 3 years ago
That's depends, being a matter of taste. The goal is for you to enjoy your own dish, not to win Hell's Kitchen.
Eagle Girl 3 years ago
Think your confusing flavor with salty. Salt is layered in pinches at varying stages of food prep/cook. If you learn to use salt properly, it's an Unami as it's intended, to Enhance.
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John Montgomery 3 years ago
I remember learning a pinch was how much salt would be in between your thumb and forefinger.
Earl Grey 3 years ago
Kosher style salt. The grains are large. Trying to pinch table salt is pointless.
Load More Replies... Thomas Hunt, Jr. 3 years ago
In the event and rate occasion I do use salt (literally, I might use it once a year), I can literally count the grains in my hand.
#31
Salt is bad. MSG is bad. Fat is bad. Ended up eating extremely bland food and thinking I hated vegetables because of it.
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 years ago
My mother boiled all the vegetables and grilled (boiled - we cook stuff UNDER the grill - Americans call that broiling AFAIK) all the meat. I couldn't chew the meat it was so tough, and boiled vegetables literally made me gag. So I mostly ate potatoes (we had to have rice and potatoes with every meal) and rice with disgusting 'gravy' on it. Then I became severely anaemic. My mother 'solved' this problem by forcing me to eat boiled chicken livers. Eventually I got iron tablets from the doctor because I was still unable to function due to the severe anaemia.
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
I feel so horrible for you. That's incredibly frustrating. I stay moderately or a little worse anemic and have a lot of difficulty maintaining an acceptable level in any of my vitamins or minerals due to malabsorbtion problems with my stomach. Especially D,B-12,Calcium, Iron, and Magnesium. I love fried chicken liver but I could never eat it boiled. I hope you're doing so much better now.
Load More Replies... #32
Pretty much everything. My parents don’t use spices, so everything is extremely bland. Once I went to college and started experimenting with different food, I realized how bland their cooking was. Well done steak with ketchup was a regular meal. I once made them shakshuka, which hardly has anything fancy in it, and it was too overwhelming for them to eat.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
My dad is a very picky eater and grew up in the country, so dinner was usually meat and three veg. They rarely used spices. Dad would even complain if there was garlic in the food. Once he and mum separated, we were finally able to eat more varied food, including adding spice!
Jiminy 3 years ago (edited)
Not really, no. You're forgetting cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, garlic. Or harissa, conserved lemons, coriander, careaway...
Load More Replies... #33
Add oil and salt to your pasta water before it boils.
Peel mushroom caps before cooking.
Always put your leftovers in the fridge while still hot.
Stuff your turkey and sew it shut before roasting.
You can't freeze cheese.
Brenda 3 years ago
Never add oil to pasta - sauce won't stick. Do add salt. Brush mushrooms with damp towel to remove dirt. Cool food before putting in fridge - enough that it won't Crack glass. Pros say don't stuff your turkey, but we always have. I grate cheese that's older, then freeze. It crumbles if you don't
Bobby 3 years ago
Letting it cool doesn't just protect the glass but the other food. If you put something hot in the fridge there is a chance it could heat up near by food to a dangerous temperature and allow bacteria to grow
Load More Replies... Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
Always salt your pasta water. Pasta absorbs water; salting the water the paste boils in flavors the pasta.
Lakota Wolf 3 years ago
Oh my god, I thought my mother was the only person insane enough on this planet to PEEL the “skin” off of white mushrooms.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
There surely wouldn't be much left after that!
Load More Replies... Carol Emory 3 years ago
I was told to never stuff your turkey when baking because of the length of time it takes, the turkey will either be bone dry one the outside by the time the middle is cooked or the inside will be underdone and risk giving someone food poisoning from stuffing that contains raw turkey blood. I do agree with adding salt to your boiled water because it adds another layer of flavor to your pasta dish. And, as a former Whirlpool rep, don't put your food in the fridge hot as your fridge works overtime to bring the temp of your food down and you will shorten the life of the fridge's compressor unit..the most expensive part to replace....
Nimues Child 3 years ago
Oh, and take the strings out of the celery before eating because they are "poison".
#34
I'm not sure if this necessarily counts, but my grandmother had this thing where you had to have bread with every meal. On top of that, she felt that certain foods would make you sick if not eaten with bread. She would get apoplectic if I ever ate a slice of cold cuts out of the fridge without bread. She claimed cold cuts and eggs would make me sick if I ate them without bread.
Another one is that soup is part of every meal.
Bella10 3 years ago
It has been proven that having a cup of soup before a meal lowers your need for a large main meal portion, which is a great way to lose weight and get a serving of vegetables in. Sounds like the grandmother grew up frugally and knew soup and bread are great things to be filled up cheaply.
BakedKahuna 3 years ago
Sounds like a past war thing to me. Bread and soups are filling. And meat and eggs were borderline luxury back then.
Dolevaal 3 years ago
Not on a daily basis but my Mom wanted to have a salad with mooost meals. Mostly always the same salad.
Pharmtechgurl 3 years ago
and in our house, salad was just torn iceberg lettuce. When I got out into the world, I was amazed at what you could put into a salad. Still amazing myself to this day, and there is no iceberg lettuce in my house, ever!
Load More Replies... Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
Sounds pretty old school, can't totally blame her for that. Also, bread can be a good filler with meals so your tummy feels fuller. She's mostly wrong, but not completely.
Teresa Lewis 3 years ago
My mom made us eat a roll or bread if we had anything greasy. It was to sop up the grease lol!
#35
Hard boiled eggs. The yolks were also dark grey by the time they were done in the 20 minute bath.
Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
That's how my mom does it. She's a decent cook, but hard boiled eggs are where she gets lazy. I asked her, once, when does she takes the eggs out of the hot water. She said "when I'm damn good and ready." Okay, Mom 😆
#36
Salads were iceberg lettuce, tasteless tomatoes, and a couple of unhappy croutons all covered in ranch dressing. Just awful.
Jo Johannsen 3 years ago
I love salad. Every single one is different, because there's a world of potential out there and you can't put it all in one bowl.
Carol Emory 3 years ago
Ours would be the equivalent of a salad bar spread. Sliced radishes, green onion, olives, tomato, cukes and iceberg lettuce. Then we had a choice of ranch, italian or french dressing.
Nimues Child 3 years ago
Mass produced Green Goddess dressing was a thing on salad for a while and it turned me off to salads until adulthood.
Michael Jean 3 years ago
I know I don't have a terribly refined palette, but that sounds really good!
Elwood Schwartz 3 years ago
Ranch dressing is a vile substance, not worthy of being called "food."
Load More Replies... #37
Asparagus - had no idea you could get it fresh and crisp. We always had boiled, canned asparagus when I was a kid. Blech.
Torsten 3 years ago
Put green aspargus on a sheet of tinfoil, pour some sprinkles of olive oil on it and season it with salt, pepper, and whatever mediterranean spices you have laying around in the kitchen. Wrap it up and put it in the oven. After 30 mins at [I don't remember the temperature setting]° take it out and serve it with very thin slices of parmesan cheese (NOT the ugly bland "powder" kind of parmesan!).
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Freelove 3 years ago
I realized the same thing about green beans. We always had them canned or frozen and they were revolting so I assumed I didn't like green beans. Nope, fresh is the way to go!
Fenel F. 3 years ago
Frozen are also okay. The trick is to make them still they are frozen. A bit of chopped onions starting to saute, the still frozen green beans added, salt and pepper, one more minute and chopped garlic, then lemon-juice.... 3-4 minutes...ready!
Load More Replies... Carol Emory 3 years ago
My husband hated asparagus for the same reason. Then I took him to a restaurant. He tried their asparagus and loved it.
Dolevaal 3 years ago
When fresh Asparagus was in the stores my mom would aaaalways buy it. Always served with potatoes and a nasty white sauce from a box. I eat Asparagus from time to time know, but my Mom going hyper about it (again, no variations and always the white ones) kinda ruined it for me for a long time.
Jiminy 3 years ago
I made sauce Hollandaise by scratch once and was absolutely blown away. Didn't touch the boxed stuff ever since.
Load More Replies... #38
That "all fat is bad." Don't ask.
Bobby 3 years ago
Was this just in the states though? I was under the impression the sugar industry did a pretty good job of making the world think fat was bad
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#39
You can use any random ingredient substitute that you're trying to get rid of as long as it vaguely resembles what the recipe calls for.
Jo Johannsen 3 years ago
Based on very disappointing personal experience, no, you cannot sub baking soda for baking powder when making donuts (it was an accident at 11yo).
Carol Emory 3 years ago
My mother was the queen of taking 5-6 random ingredients and making a meal out of it. I learned a lot of good cooking techniques from her growing up while learning her parenting techniques sucked...
Just A Banana. 3 years ago
My mom once accidentally put an entire unripe green honey mango instead of an avacado lol
#40
Rice can't be reheated or it will make you severely sick
Jyri Hakola 3 years ago
There is a bit wisdom behind this. Uncooked rice could contain spores of Bacillus cereus and if not cooled fast enough but left to be warm for a while the bacteria growth could cause food poisoning.
Carol Emory 3 years ago (edited)
I'm not sure this is true in all situations. In Japan, it's common for the rice that was used the night before to be left in the rice pot, unheated, for morning breakfast. We've left rice in our instant pot overnight and usually refrigerate it the next day.
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Mermaid Elle-Jaye 3 years ago (edited)
Explains a lot when growing up the Asian relatives wouldn’t eat old rice, and would request fresh rice at places that served it. I do it too but mainly cos fresh plain rice is the best
Little Wonder 3 years ago
When my friend did her food handling course, the instructor told her "Everyone knows raw chicken can make you sick, people forget rice can.". If it's left out to cool to room temp? Toss it. Gotta go into the fridge still hot.
#41
I had no idea that hard boiled eggs could be soft boiled or any other degree of doneness… I just assumed they always had grey ring around the yolk, later in life realized this is due to over boiling.
JP Doyle 3 years ago
I'm spoiled, I use my Instant Pot. 6-7 mins setting with 1 cup of water in bottom of pot with my eggs in the egg rack above makes perfect hard boiled eggs. And the shells slide off like a dream. Beautiful golden yolks every time.
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#42
That liver and onions taste good.
Jo Johannsen 3 years ago
Hey! I like liver and onions. Only have them every year or two, but tum.
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
I love them as well. Nobody in my family does, so I only get them out to eat,sadly.
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Lisa Hewes 3 years ago
Sounds like my grandpa. He loved that stuff, and would also eat the heart and other organs. I thought it was gross, but to each their own.
Carol Emory 3 years ago
Liver and onions can be good if it's not cooked to death as some people make it.
Michael Jean 3 years ago
Every ones palette is different, and I've had liver cooked in various ways, and it's never good! Nope, this is one adult who aint gonna eat it.
Thundercuss 3 years ago
Most people destroy liver and onions by overcooking both. Sadly this is the way most people are introduced (and reintroduced) to it. Done well it can be delicious.
#43
Putting eggshells down the garbage disposal. Disproven by a very unhappy landlord of mine when he had to fix my drainage backup.
Darla Taylor 3 years ago
Better use for eggshells are to put them in a mason jar with a screwable lid, fill with water and water your plants with the water after it sits for a day. Plants love it and perk up.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
Or grind them up and put them in the worm farm, or if you have chicken, add them to their feed.
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Lakota Wolf 3 years ago
Same! I was always told, as a kid, to put the eggshells down the garbage disposal XD
Load More Replies... #44
My MIL puts a packet of Lipton’s dry onion soup mix in everything she makes. Every dish! Rice, mashed potatoes, taco meat. It’s the only thing consistent about her cooking.
Eagle Girl 3 years ago
Read my mind Brenda! Was just thinkin "What about sour cream for dip?" lol
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#45
Wash your chicken before cooking.
ebonyruffles 3 years ago
I am floored that our cook at work washes all the meat before she cooks it. And she has her food handlers certificate.
Eagle Girl 3 years ago
If you knew what was in the pink slime that preserves most meat, you'd do a rinse & pat dry too (shudder)
Load More Replies... Carol Emory 3 years ago
Actually, the reason for this is the butchers don't always make the cuts at the right spot. Washing the chicken help you to feel for fragments of bone that may be there and remove them before cooking. It also helps you to find feathers that might have been missed.
#46
Margarine was healthy.
Kathryn Baylis 3 years ago
Being raised by parents who sung the praises of margarine my whole life, I didn’t know better when I left home to live on my own. I bought margarine and used it as usual. Then one day I put a nice pat of margarine on top of some very hot (temperature not spiciness) vegetables. It. Did. Not. Melt! Even when I mixed it into the veggies, it still did melt. WTF? After that, margarine started tasting more like plastic to me, so I switched to butter. Back then that meant buying one of those butter trays with the cover, since real butter only came in sticks. I also had to learn to leave it out to soften, because cold stick butter can totally break a piece of toast. Regardless, I never bought margarine again (since the mid-1980s).
Elwood Schwartz 3 years ago
My uncle hauled the substances used to produce margarine. He never ate the stuff and still doesn't. Only real butter.
#47
That you must "clean" any kind of meat before cooking it because it "kills any bacteria" on it. Turns out not only is this false, but it also does the complete opposite of said effect. Doing so spreads the bacteria all over your sink/kitchen and does nothing to "clean" the meat. Cooking your meat properly is how you get rid of any bacteria full stop. This was something that was taught to my mother by her mother when she was young (which was 50+ years ago) and she has been doing it ever since. After randomly getting sick when she cooked sometimes I went on and did some research of my own and found out that the main reason I would get sick was because she was "cleaning" the meat every time before cooking it. I confronted her about it, and of course she refuted it. I mean... I get it, she has been doing that since she was basically a child, but that was then and this is now. We have science and data that back these things up. Shortly after I started cooking anytime meat was involved and never got sick again (surprise, surprise!). She still doesn't really believe it, but at this point it's a lost cause trying to convince her. Also, I know that in Latino culture it is tradition to "clean" the meat using mixes of vinegar/lime juice and water. When the study came out about this a few years back the Latino community was up in arms about it because they felt attacked. I do know that in certain places around the world the meat folks have access too isn't the most... safe... or prepared correctly before being sold off to the masses; thus "cleaning" said meat became somewhat of a tradition in some places. I've seen some of the videos where the chicken that was being cleaned did have copious amounts of scum like skin on it, so of course in that case it makes sense, but it still has to be done properly to avoid contaminating the surrounding area.
Justme 3 years ago
I don’t rinse meat before cooking - But - If one insists on rinsing meat before cooking - a safer way (still not safe, but just a little safer) is to place a large bowl in the sink and fill with water/vinegar mix, and then dip the meat into it. No running water, no splashing.
Nubmaeme 3 years ago
There's been a lot about not washing meats on here. When I open a pack of chicken, beef or pork, I will rinse it with cold water to remove any residue - bone filings, etc - left from the cutting table. I don't like my meats having a gritty texture. Maybe that's the difference between having meat cut by hand vs being cut and packaged by machine. After the meat is rinsed and dried, I set it aside on a plate ready for cooking or packaging for the freezer. Then I thoroughly wash my hands and clean the sink and counter. If I package for freezing, my hands once again get thoroughly washed and the counter once again gets cleaned with straight vinegar after the packaging is finished. In nearly 50 years of cooking for my family, I've never had anyone get sick.
Tamara Sinèad 3 years ago
People are so up in arms about washing meat! If you clean your kitchen as you cook, and you don’t splash water all over the place (ie - wash it in a large bowl), and maintain good hand hygiene then it isn’t an issue. As someone of Caribbean heritage we have ALWAYS washed our chicken. I have only ever gotten food poisoning once in my life, and it was from pulled pork at a food festival.
#48
My parents thought any cut of beef could become steak (like the ones they would eat at expensive steakhouses) and that it had to be cooked a certain way to achieve it. Cue to my parents buying chuck roasts and getting super frustrated when they were super tough. I would point out that there were actual rib eyes and porterhouses in the super market that would be similar to the steakhouse in quality, they refused to shell out money for them. Years later I’m still mad they would buy s**t meat and get mad at me when it didn’t end up like a dry aged porterhouse.
BakedKahuna 3 years ago
It still would have been cheaper to buy a proper steak from the grocery store than going to the steak house... Reminds me of my mother. After years of living in my own place she really wanted to prepare something special for my birthday dinner. So I pointed out that there was a sale on rib eye steaks which are my favorite cut. She was grossed out by the lump of fat in the middle of the steak. So she went through every single one until she found one without the fat. Turned out she got something which is meant to be for soup on Germany (cooking it for a loooooong time until it's soft enough to eat) for the price of a steak. She prepared it and it was way to tough to eat. After three bites I was extremely frustrated, my dog was super happy and I left still hungry. Never let her prepare birthday dinner since then because it's supposed to be a happy day.
#49
My mother saying leftover vegetables cause cancer.
#50
You can only warm up leftovers once. If you don't eat it all after it's been reheated, then that's the end of it for those leftovers.
#51
They didn’t expressly teach me every meal needs meat but that was certainly the default. Only i went vegetarian as a kid, and since then there’s plenty of information that a meatless meal can be as nutrient dense and filling if not more so than a meat based meal.
Firefoxy3121 3 years ago
Only problem with fully vegetarian or vegan is that you need to take supplements for stuff like b vitamins, which you either have or die
Yoga Kitty 3 years ago
That is not a "problem", though. It is a fact, yes, and very easy to do. If you have a look at this whole list you will find that people seem to have much more difficulties with boiling eggs, roasting beef and preparing raw meat without catching salmonella...
Load More Replies... Brenda 3 years ago
25% carbs, 25% protein, 50% fruit & veggies. This is what they tell diabetics as a general guideline. Easy to eyeball amts on your plate.
Diane Aguilar 3 years ago
There are ways of getting protein from non-animal sources, though.
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#52
Using soapy water to wash cast iron was a sin....
Máté Jancsek 3 years ago
actually it is. Harmless for you sure, but why on earth would you kill all the flavoury goodness that's been there
Lambchop 3 years ago (edited)
It’s not a sin. It’s just a great way to remove all the careful seasoning you spend time and trouble baking into the pan. Wipe it out with a paper towel, use coarse salt to scrub off anything sticking to the pan, briefly rinse in hot water, dry immediately using paper towelling. Spread a thin skimming of cast iron pan oil over inside and outside both. Place upside down in a 175 degree oven for two hours, allow to cool on counter, and store in a dry place without stacking other pans into it. My cast iron pan is 45 years old and is more nonstick than any post-Teflon pan I can think of.
Emily M 3 years ago
Now, I get what you're saying, but I can't imagine ever doing this many steps every time I used my pan
Load More Replies... #53
I just made meatballs after not eating them for 15+ years and they were delicious. As much as I love my mom for cooking for us kids and inspiring me, I guess meatballs just weren't her specialty. They'd come out dry and burnt on the outside, plain wet on the inside.
Sylvia Schmitz 3 years ago
Why fry them at all? Cook them in broth, once they rise to the top they are ready to be taken out. It makes them light and airy .
Brenda 3 years ago
I brown mine with a little bacon grease (if I have it), then finish off in the oven. Most people overcook them. If they're going in sauce, drain after frying and finish cooking in the sauce
humdrum 3 years ago (edited)
Any ground pork (not too lean, or lard) will do. Grease from he inside :) And garlic. And parsley.
Load More Replies... #54
Always salt the water when boiling eggs.
Stoopham McFernybabes 3 years ago
I had to do a bit of research on “how to boil an egg” when my child started asking for them (and I’ve never had one in my life) and apparently a little salt and vinegar in the water will prevent the egg cracking and minimise egg from seeping out of the shell if it does crack. From my own experimentation, this seems to hold true BUT I don’t like keeping the eggs for next day, then, because the vinegar degrades the outside of the shell.
Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
To keep the eggs from cracking, start with refrigerated eggs and ice cold water. Letting the water and eggs increase in temperature simultaneously will prevent cracking. (Also, you don't even need to boil them. Bring eggs and water to the boil, cover pot tightly, shut off heat, and walk away. 15 minutes later, the eggs are perfectly hard boiled.)
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Anjali Shekhawat 3 years ago
Adding salt increases the boiling time..Giving egg more time to cook...Before water starts spattering out of the vessel..
#55
You can’t leave leftover canned food like tomato sauce in the can and cover it and stick it in the fridge or you’ll get sick when you eat it. You have to put it in a Tupperware. Since moving out I don’t bother transferring it to a Tupperware and I haven’t had any problems
Was also told you need to drain and rinse beans before cooking with them or you’ll get a stomachache
Fenel F. 3 years ago
You don't have to drain and raise beans, but that "juice" is not really yummie, and way too salty. But if you make a bean-cream, I suppose, it's okay
humdrum 3 years ago
The "juice" (unsalted kind) can be whipped into a great vegan substitute for egg whites. Maybe reduce it a bit first (by heating it) if it's very watery. Google "aquafaba".
Load More Replies... over it already 3 years ago
I could be wrong, but I think there was an old school issue with the opened cans thing. We almost exclusively use lined cans, and more are aluminum instead of the old tin cans. Not sure on the science of this, though.
Dave C 3 years ago
The inside of all cans are coated with a lacquer to prevent the contents from becoming tainted by the metal. You shouldn’t buy severely dented cans because the lacquer can be damaged and in extreme cases air can get into the can causing the contents to spoil.
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Trevor Nicholson 3 years ago
It's not that you'll get sick, it's that the aluminum will get in to the food. You're not supposed to keep food in an open can.
Carol Emory 3 years ago
Draining the beans and rinsing them removes excess sugar that is a type your body cannot easily digest making you more gassy. Tomatoes are very acidic, but most cans that contain tomatoes are now lined with a material that slows the corrosiveness of the tomatoes. But if it's been in your fridge for more than a week open, I'd throw it out even if it is in tupperware because tomatoes are more likely to breed bacteria that will make you sick. Not sure why that is....
Remi 3 years ago
Especially acidic foods in the original can are a bad idea. Even a small break in the lining means you're getting some aluminum with your tomato soup. Which in turn can cause Alzheimer's...
John Baker 3 years ago
I've been eating food cooked in aluminum pots and pans my entire life and haven't forgotten who I am yet. Alzheimer's is a terrible thing, but it has a genetic component and tends to run in families. It doesn't run in mine.
Load More Replies... #56
That if your melting butter and it turns brown, it’s ruined
Michael Jean 3 years ago
My wife browns the butter for almost all the cooked vegetables we eat and it is AWESOME! And so is my wife, for the record.
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago
If that's you in your profile picture, you look a lot like my Great Uncle Mike XD. Do you, by any chance, have a nephew who has 11 kids?
Load More Replies... #57
My dad would always scrub mushrooms lightly with a brush instead of washing them. It turns out because mushrooms are already mostly water, rinsing then doesn't affect their taste and texture, and is a much faster way of cleaning them
James Montgomerie 3 years ago
Your dad is right, you brush to clean to avoid them absorbing the water which affects the taste
Auntriarch 3 years ago
How much water could they absorb that you couldn't cook back out anyway
#58
Stiring direction when mixing a batter. Had to be clockwise from memory. You could get away with anticlockwise but once you started you couldn't change. And my mum used to put bicarb in veggies when I was younger. Thankfully that died off after a bid.
Jo Johannsen 3 years ago (edited)
Bicarbonate of soda, aka baking soda. Supposed to keep the color bright.
Load More Replies... #59
Salting too early in grilling can make a steak tough. It was great being able to cite this as something Martha Stewart said on TV (she specifically called it a myth) to my mom's friend who both idolized Martha and believed that salting made steaks tough.
#60
Cold tap water boils faster than warm/hot tap water. - yeah, i know. 😐
Trevor Nicholson 3 years ago
Ok, this one is a misunderstanding for a specific reason. It's actually the opposite. Hot water freezes faster than cold water. It's people getting something real completely backwards, or just assuming that if one thing is true then the opposite must also be true.
#61
Every meal must have a complex carbohydrate
#62
Disproven: Safe pork temperatures and some other excessive anxiety around food safety. Not that I am lax, but my mom is concerned to the point of wasteful. The main thing that annoys me about my parents' cooking v. mine is their adherence to the meat, starch, veg model of a typical dinner. It creates so much extra dishes. Make 1-2 pot meals; you don't need three separate preps.
Sofie 3 years ago
1-2 pot meals are fine as long as you get the three groups (proteins, carbs & veggies) in. The easuliest take on the diabetic diet is 1/2 plate veggies, 1/4 each of proteins and carbs. From what I've seen, 1-pot meals are too easily skewed towards one of the groups, or even skip an entire group.
#63
To cook with water when broth is much more flavorful.
#64
Butter flavored crisco is healthier than all alternatives, because that s**t is made from vegetables and not animals
august is mentally unstable 3 years ago
....eating animals is healthy too?? wdym its better and healthier bc its not made from animals?
#65
Dumping a can of vegetables directly into a pot and heating it up is good
#66
I don’t bake my meatloaf in a loaf pan anymore.
Auntriarch 3 years ago
My mother decided to put the stuffing for the turkey into a separate dish to bake by itself one year. Everyone yummed it up and she hasn't stuffed anything with stuffing since
Freelove 3 years ago
How does this relate to your parents and what they taught you...? More info would probably result in not being the last item on this list :)
NsG 3 years ago
Follow up comments suggest they just free-form it, resulting in either a meatpile or a meatcob if you're trying to be fancy! I'm not sure the additional context helps to be fair
Load More Replies... #67
Take your chicken out of the freezer before work/school and leave it on the counter to ‘thaw’ until you get home that evening. WTF, Mom.
Jyri Hakola 3 years ago
If the whole chicken have been stored in the freezer at -20C it'll takes for hours in the room temperature until that lump of meat warms down even into a fridge temperature so either take it from freezer to fridge at least day before or do just like that
Cactus 1549 3 years ago
My mom puts it on a plate in the fridge to thaw. That way is waaay less likely to get you sick.
Rebecca Olds 3 years ago
My family semi did this. We'd leave it iin the counter till most of the ice was gone or when you pressed it it crunched from the thin ice sheet cracking after that wrap in a towel and into the fridge. With our miracle thaw it doesnt take very long and when we pull it out for dinner its still cold but completely thawed and ready for cooking. That main thing is never letting it feel close to ambient temperature. Ive started applying that logic to other frozen items. If the box feels even close to warm i know to not eat it. There are people at my job who dont seem to care and it sickens me because i see food poisoning lawsuit in our future.
What do you think ?
Patti Vance 3 years ago
i had a single mom raising 3 kids with a father that didn't pay child support. so, she was creative in her cooking. some of the things she did would sound weird but they worked. best thing that happened was there was a little corner market owned by an asian couple. while they didn't allow credit for 99% of their customers they did for mom, probably because they saw her struggling to feed three kids. one day they showed up at our apt w/veggies and meat and things i had never seen as it was all asian. mr. lou explained in broken english that his wife was going to teach how to stir fry & make meat go far & lots of veg. this was early 60s so way before stir fry was common. such kind people.
John Baker 3 years ago
Some of these sound more like superstition than "cooking errors." Most of the rest are just personal preference, neither right nor wrong.
nini 3 years ago
Preparation. There are so many veggies I hated (asparagus, spinach, eggplant, cauliflower just to name a few) because of the way my parents wanted them cooked. Generally really uninspired, bland cooking, no spices, not even herbs were to be used. Now, that I live with my bf, who really loves cooking and experimenting with flavors, a whole new world of tastes opened up to me 🤩
Karolína T. 3 years ago
Until I knew my mother-in-law, I was convinced I hate Christmas sweets. My mum was the same sort of some people above - six eggs in recipe, no only twoo, 250 g of butter, hell its too much, give 100 g - and the result was dry, crumbly, no savor. Everything was prepared "healthy" - no fat, no cream, no milk, meat was boiled slowly until fragmented to sarcomers for better chewing and digestion. When I was 12, my parents applied for school cantine cause they were oversaturated with my "anorexia" and exhausted from forcing me to eat. Then, I almost doubled my weight during one year.
Patti Vance 3 years ago
oh, one thing i wanted to add here is kind of an homage to my mom's creativity. since my dad didn't pay child support he would occasionally drop off things like a case of tuna or a case of chicken noodle soup. at one point i was having tuna for lunch so often that i was getting teased at school. we had a field trip & i told my mom i didn't want a lunch because i would stink up the bus and get teased. the next morning there was my lunch & she told me it was chicken salad. it was damn good chicken salad! was it really? nope. mom had drained and rinsed the tuna, seasoned w/chicken bouillon & spices. that's what moms do!! i sure miss her.
OkieDonut 3 years ago
I used to think I hated lasagna but it turns out my mom would always buy the cheapest frozen lasagna and cook it too long (and burning it). The first time I had home made lasagna I was mind blown. Also now my husband and I frequently have frozen lasagna but we choose the best brand and don't overcook it lol and it's my favourite meal
DC 3 years ago
Hm, there are some rules that appear to be silly at first sight, but might be worth a try. If you're cooking tomato sauce, listen to Black Sabbath while doing so. The original line up. The sauce will be a lot better than compared to any other music that was being listened to during cooking. Just try it out ... works!
Patti Vance 3 years ago
i had a single mom raising 3 kids with a father that didn't pay child support. so, she was creative in her cooking. some of the things she did would sound weird but they worked. best thing that happened was there was a little corner market owned by an asian couple. while they didn't allow credit for 99% of their customers they did for mom, probably because they saw her struggling to feed three kids. one day they showed up at our apt w/veggies and meat and things i had never seen as it was all asian. mr. lou explained in broken english that his wife was going to teach how to stir fry & make meat go far & lots of veg. this was early 60s so way before stir fry was common. such kind people.
John Baker 3 years ago
Some of these sound more like superstition than "cooking errors." Most of the rest are just personal preference, neither right nor wrong.
nini 3 years ago
Preparation. There are so many veggies I hated (asparagus, spinach, eggplant, cauliflower just to name a few) because of the way my parents wanted them cooked. Generally really uninspired, bland cooking, no spices, not even herbs were to be used. Now, that I live with my bf, who really loves cooking and experimenting with flavors, a whole new world of tastes opened up to me 🤩
Karolína T. 3 years ago
Until I knew my mother-in-law, I was convinced I hate Christmas sweets. My mum was the same sort of some people above - six eggs in recipe, no only twoo, 250 g of butter, hell its too much, give 100 g - and the result was dry, crumbly, no savor. Everything was prepared "healthy" - no fat, no cream, no milk, meat was boiled slowly until fragmented to sarcomers for better chewing and digestion. When I was 12, my parents applied for school cantine cause they were oversaturated with my "anorexia" and exhausted from forcing me to eat. Then, I almost doubled my weight during one year.
Patti Vance 3 years ago
oh, one thing i wanted to add here is kind of an homage to my mom's creativity. since my dad didn't pay child support he would occasionally drop off things like a case of tuna or a case of chicken noodle soup. at one point i was having tuna for lunch so often that i was getting teased at school. we had a field trip & i told my mom i didn't want a lunch because i would stink up the bus and get teased. the next morning there was my lunch & she told me it was chicken salad. it was damn good chicken salad! was it really? nope. mom had drained and rinsed the tuna, seasoned w/chicken bouillon & spices. that's what moms do!! i sure miss her.
OkieDonut 3 years ago
I used to think I hated lasagna but it turns out my mom would always buy the cheapest frozen lasagna and cook it too long (and burning it). The first time I had home made lasagna I was mind blown. Also now my husband and I frequently have frozen lasagna but we choose the best brand and don't overcook it lol and it's my favourite meal
DC 3 years ago
Hm, there are some rules that appear to be silly at first sight, but might be worth a try. If you're cooking tomato sauce, listen to Black Sabbath while doing so. The original line up. The sauce will be a lot better than compared to any other music that was being listened to during cooking. Just try it out ... works!
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