Favorite secrets, tips & tricks in the kitchen? (beehaw.org)

submitted 10 months ago by cwagner@beehaw.org to c/food@beehaw.org

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I love cooking, and I cook every day for me and my wife (home office since 2008 helps there), and I love hearing about new things. I have the book "The Science of Cooking" which was fascinating.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] lemillionsocks@beehaw.org 7 points 10 months ago

A good flat metal spatula will do you so much good. It gets under the food and if a little piece does stick to the pan you can just scrape it off and retain the brown goodness. Plastic spatulas that became prevalent thanks to teflon are the worst.

Regular stainless steel and etc pans can become fairly nonstick by letting them heat up first, then adding fat or oil and swirling it around to let it polymerize

[-] cwagner@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

I recently got a carbon steel pan. While I have a metal spatula, I prefer using wooden utensils, they do double duty with my ceramic pan.

I have been phasing out almost all the plastic I have at home :)

[-] lemillionsocks@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

Huh I use wooden spoons but Ive never used a wooden spatula but I could see how a well made one could get better than a plastic one, but peeling power of a metal baby cant be beaten.

[-] Lowbird@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

Do they not burn? Ever time I've thought of trying wooden utensils with a pan I've worried I'd burn them, so I've always thought they were just for serving or mixing.

[-] cwagner@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

No, and unlike plastic it won't even slowly kill you ;)

I've been using a wooden spoon for over a decade.

[-] villasv@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

Very true. Love my plastic spatula but they don't have scraping power, so when using one you get the impression everything is sticking.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

I have a metal spatula from ... maybe the 80s? that is now falling apart, but every replacement I've tried is too stiff compared to my battered old friend. I like how it bends under pancakes to allow a good, high flip. I love how I can scrape all the crusty bits off my cast iron pan and get them all frying into whatever the dish is. It wasn't a special purchase at the time, but the modern ones are all too thick or stiff. Do not like.

On wooden spatulas, I have a dead-flat bamboo one I use to stir soups and roux-based sauces. It was dead cheap from my local asian market and I ended up buying 10 of them to give as christmas stocking stuffers. Not sure it if this example is as flat as mine, but it is similar.