Amateur Hour: Home cooks’ mistaeks that you never make

[Anonymous]

1) Over-boiling vegetables: I hate it when people boil ever ounce of flavor, texture and nutrients out of simple vegetables. A quick boil or steam or sauté is all you need.

2) Serving food boiling hot: Not just meat needs to rest, people. So do lasagnas, casseroles, side dishes and anything that comes out piping hot. This is not just about temperature, it’s about flavors and allowing textures to settle in the case of melted cheese, etc.

[Anonymous]

hygiene stuff: handling raw chicken and then not cleaning; same plate for raw/cooked.

not balancing acid/salt/sweet.

undersalting as much as oversalting.

Why do so many otherwise reasonably sophisticated people serve dinners at dinner parties and NEVER serve water. Does no one else drink water? It's like every single friend we have who have had us over we practically have to beg for water.

Overcooked meat.

Not having enough food for the number of people you are serving.

Inviting people over for dinner and not having snacks or starters and then having dinner 2-3 hours later and then underserving.

As many hospitality issues as cooking issues!

[Anonymous]

Yes the water thing! Idk does everyone else just produce a ton of saliva or something? Because I need a full glass of water with my meals. More if they are serving chicken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hygiene stuff: handling raw chicken and then not cleaning; same plate for raw/cooked.

not balancing acid/salt/sweet.

undersalting as much as oversalting.

Why do so many otherwise reasonably sophisticated people serve dinners at dinner parties and NEVER serve water. Does no one else drink water? It's like every single friend we have who have had us over we practically have to beg for water.

Overcooked meat.

Not having enough food for the number of people you are serving.

Inviting people over for dinner and not having snacks or starters and then having dinner 2-3 hours later and then underserving.

As many hospitality issues as cooking issues!

That is so funny: I’ve never not been served water, but that sounds awful, honestly!

I agree with not having enough food. My MIL routinely underestimates and then frantically flies around the kitchen and I’m like dude…you could have just remembered this from last time and bought more than one chicken leg for each person.

Here’s one another one—season. Your. Meat. Season it! There is nothing worse than an unseasoned drumstick or sad piece of fish.

[Anonymous]

I was teaching a friend some very basic recipes. We made chocolate chip cookies together and she didn't believe me that you need to combine ingredients in a certain order and though I was being super fussy to not just dump everything in and mix.

[Anonymous]

Ask your guests about allergies. Showed up to a friend’s house with the whole family for dinner, she had made amazing looking pad Thai and sprinkled it liberally with crushed peanuts. My oldest has an anaphylactic allergy and carries an epipen. We ended up going out to eat. My friend did know about the allergy, but forgot.

[Anonymous]

Last Thanksgiving was hosted by my SIL, who is an excellent cook and I was looking forward to her food. Except she let her younger sister (mid 30's) make a few dishes and nothing was ready at the same time. Everything was all different temperatures. Awful!

[Anonymous]

Not changing with the times. My MIL stubbornly sticks to the Betty Crocker cookbook from the 1970s and literally will not try other recipes. She asks me for recipes and I give them to her, and she says they are “too complicated.” We’re talking basic Rachael Ray or Giada-level recipes.

[Anonymous]

When you’re not a good cook and refuse to follow the recipe. This happens all the time with a family member. They just don’t have the skill to put things together and have it taste good. But they refuse to follow a recipe all the way.

[Anonymous]

Underseasoning my food

Now, baking- I’m gonna f@ck that up every time

[Anonymous]

Ha, I do a lot of these. Not the unsanitary stuff - I use different plates for raw and cooked chicken. But I definitely dump all of the cookie stuff in and mix. And I tend to sort of rush around and make a lot of errors because I just want to get it over with and get the food on the table.

When we have dinner guests, I order food. I’m nowhere near confident enough to serve something I cooked myself!

[Anonymous]

Lol, “mistaeks”

[Anonymous]

I sure as hell hope you aren’t one of my friends who I invite over for dinner.

[Anonymous]

I have a dear friend who does this: she “experiments” on guests. As in she tries making some random combination of food, without a recipe, while you watch her (God forbid she prepare ahead of time), and oh dear she can’t use salt because of her high blood pressure (ANY SALT good lord woman I have good blood pressure why are you punishing me) and more often than not it tastes SO BAD.

I gingerly redirect when she offers to cook and suggest we split takeout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you’re not a good cook and refuse to follow the recipe. This happens all the time with a family member. They just don’t have the skill to put things together and have it taste good. But they refuse to follow a recipe all the way.

Yes, this! An ex-boyfriend used to try out his concoctions on me. Things like baked chicken coated in chopped bay leaves, marinara sauce with a handful of raw onions thrown in just before serving, and raw garlic randomly thrown in other foods. He was Italian and seemed to assume he had some innate cooking talents and didn't need recipes and never watched anyone else cook to learn the right way.