The #1 most important secret to becoming a good cook is to taste EVERYTHING
>taste ingredients before/while cooking if unfamiliar with them >taste whatever you're making often >taste every time you add a new ingredient/spice >under season/flavor something if you're going to reduce it
these are my rules for making food that tastes good. there is LITERALLY no room for anybody who disagrees because this is the literal basal procedure when it comes to cooking.
>mfw somebody tries to cook but never tastes anything
Juan Davis
Actually as a cook? Yeah, sure, okay. Otherwise nah. Maybe if cooking to impress, or as said something unfamiliar.
Otherwise at home, in my own kitchen, for food specifically for only my mouth-hole? I've had maybe two fuck ups in the past few years, one with garlic and one with salt. Track record here is pretty strong.
Brayden Nelson
>taste EVERYTHING
Yeah, no. Raw flour, eggs, salt, pepper etc don't do it for me you fucking stupid nigger.
Leo Lewis
even if cooking something familiar, you've usually already tasted all ingredients. but regardless of that, you need to taste your food as you cook it to determine how much salt/pepper/acid/fat you need to use to balance the flavors.
but you know what they taste like.
obviously you don't need to taste salt every time you cook, because you know what salt tastes like.
if you add it to your dish, do you need to taste it? fuck yeah you do. it's what separates the rookies from the amateurs as far as cooking goes.
Ryan Gonzalez
You can tell me I need to taste it anyway when I'm even cooking for myself at home, but you just sound like a PSA from Hell's Kitchen or Top Chef honestly.
Jace Hughes
I cook with a cast iron skillet, but I'm not going to taste it, you dumb nigger.
Camden Hernandez
do you enjoy eating shitty tasting food? why wouldn't you just taste food as you're making it?
it's the easiest thing you can do to improve the quality of food you cook. if you don't do it, you are an unequivocally bad cook.
Jacob Roberts
>implying if you use the same recipes in your mind, same ingredients, same brands, etc it doesn't at some point become second nature
ok there buddy, you're uninvited from dinner friday
Cooper Collins
>Maybe if cooking to impress
i.e: if you're trying to cook good food, you mean?
what is the point of saying that? it's fucking redundant, obviously OP is talking about making good food.
Xavier Rogers
>he thinks he's above tasting his food because he has autistically prepared it the same way a million times before
what if you need to make a larger/smaller batch? what if the vegetables youre using taste different?
how are you even arguing that you don't need to taste everything you cook?
Grayson Russell
impress other people. other people. read the second line there
Because I can argue that you don't always need to be OCD over tasting every time you add something to a dish when you're cooking, unless you have exactly 0 confidence
Wyatt Price
there are enough variables in almost any recipe to make it come out differently with the exact or approximately same quantities. not to mention you are clearly a fallible part of the process - you can forget certain small aspects of your recipe or your ability to taste the food fully can vary.
OP's approach is clearly the best attitude to have if you want to make good food every time
Anthony Lopez
if you've done it a million times, then maybe.. even still, why would you not want to make sure your food tastes good? it takes zero effort
Carter Bailey
>impress other people. other people.
what fucking difference does it make, you're impressing other people by making better food, so clearly it produces better food.
Gabriel Bennett
Didn't say I never taste it at any point in the cooking process, just I don't go completely anal over tasting EVERYTHING at absolutely EVERY point EVER in the process like OP suggests to
Nathan Phillips
>i am retarded enough that i can't make the same thing twice What is constant, unrelenting amnesia like?
Alexander Walker
i'm the OP.
once you know what things taste like, you can compose flavor profiles in your head. but you still need to taste the food you're cooking periodically, regardless of how good a cook you are.
Parker Jackson
...If a person cooks for themselves how the fuck does whatever they do impress anyone else in the first place?
Elijah Gomez
OP here.
are you really such a shitty cook that you need exact measurements to make food that isn't a baking/confection project? youre telling me you measure your ingredienst exactly all the time?
why not just taste it, you autist?
Liam Wood
you dumb nigga. i can remember how i made something the first time. that doesn't mean it's gonna taste the same. if you taste it, you know how it tastes. if you don't, you don't. anyone who thinks food is exactly reproducible based on some approximate set of procedures doesn't understand how variable the ingredients and the kitchen and the cook can be.
Charles Bailey
i think your brain is melting, user.
if you're 'cooking to impress' you are trying to make good food, right? if tasting your food makes it more likely to 'impress', does that not imply it makes better food? is OP not simply advising you on how to make the best food? does that not make a post suggesting it only applies to the best food kind of redundant?
Jaxon Nguyen
Yo that's it. I essentially did agree with that but pointed out when I'm cooking professionally vs home alone, standards change man. If working professionally as an actual cook yeah, if that shit isn't tasted you're playing with fire.
Home cooking however, I give less fucks. for something not really complicated once or twice (if pushing it) before the final product is usually good enough unless it's a new thing/recipe.
Eli Stewart
Wow that went over your head, the point was if someone cooks for themselves something they have made a good amount before, who exactly is being impressed?
Gavin Roberts
right.. literally the point i was trying to make.
amateur cooks look up recipes online, follow em to the T, and the bitch about it not tasting right. well, if the amateur cook tasted shit as they were preparing it, they would probably end up with a better product.
i mean i don't taste my scrambled eggs when i cook them, but i taste my spaghetti sauce or gravies many times throughout their cooking process
Ayden Ramirez
i made the OP about how to be an objectively better cook. just because you are a loser who never cooks for anyone doesn't mean you can't work on your cooking skill.
Camden Bennett
>the point was if someone cooks for themselves something they have made a good amount before, who exactly is being impressed?
no user, that was not the point. you are really fucking stupid.
if you're saying that tasting the food makes it more likely to 'impress' people, does that not directly imply that it makes better food?
Colton Evans
lel I've only seen amateur cooks do shit like completely change the recipe (random example, like omit ½ cup of orange juice for orange chicken, complain the sauce is too thick since they still used the same starch ratio and just everything went to absolute shit taste profile wise) and it's hilarious to read the bad reviews based on it.
If I remember right some Jamie Oliver recipe once had some shit in it like the juice of 12 full lemons though, and people trusted it when it was some 4-person pasta dish and holy FUCK LOL
Justin Wilson
i bet if they would have just tasted what they were cooking they would have realized something was wrong.
that's my point, dingus.
Owen Johnson
#2 - follow the fucking recipe, especially when batch cooking something you're unfamiliar with or something easy to fuck up
>morning prep >other chef offers to finish pâté as I have to leave kitchen for a bit >not familiar with my station/prep so I ask him to please follow recipe exactly >gets shitty with me (thinks he's my boss as he is more experienced)
>service >showing new guy how to plate pâté >looks weird >cut a second piece and notice it seems too coarse >taste it, bland as fuck, literally just liver and cream >call cdp and head over to check it's not just me >forty portions straight into the bin
Turns out the chef that made it didn't bother including the reduction I had already made, used cream instead of melted butter and fuck knows whatever else he did. But at least he had gone home long before anyone knew the easiest starter was fucked.
Alexander Green
If he would have just tasted it he wiuld have known it was fucked.