Comment on How does someone with no experience learn to make food?
Nioxic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Youtube.
Start with the suoer basics. Such as: how to boil rice, how to boil pasta, or something like that.
Boiling is the simplest. With pasta you can grab a bit and just taste it. If its still solid on the inside, its not done yet.
But read the instructions on the package. Its usually pretty accurate.
When youve nailed one you move on to make something else. Like… frying an egg etc
Remember when cooking… you almost NEVER turn the heat all the way up.
My stove only goes up to 3. So i keep it around 1.5 or 2. If i set it to 3, the food will get burnt on the outside but still raw on the inside. (This is ok for steaks but not much else)
Practice! Dont give up. Just because you screwed up cooking some chicken once, soesnt mean you cant learn it. Consider what went wrong, try to prevent that from happening again.
When things are just boiling or slowly frying, instead of staring into the wall or your phone, clean up stuff. This makes it more managable. A dirty kitchen is not a good idea.
Also when it comes to salt… too much salt means you cant eat it. Too little salt? Just add more. So, when in doubt, add little to no salt. You can always taste it, then add more.
TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 year ago
/Just over the hill many Italian people flail their arms wildly after hearing this.
Pasta should have just a little bite, just a little hardness on the inside, to be the perfect al dente. And if you’re cooking it again (eg a pasta bake) then you should boil it even less or not at all (I don’t know of anyone who boils lasagne sheets).
But at the end of the day most of what you do with food won’t ruin it completely, and much of it comes down to personal preference. The secret is to taste everything (except raw meat, of course) - if you’re adding something, taste or smell the dish then taste/smell the thing you’re adding to help guess how much you should add, then taste again after adding and stirring. If you cook food to your own taste then you’ll pretty much always enjoy it.