I wish I’d known how much good cookware could be found in thrift stores and how to identify it. Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have bought any non-electronics in stores. At this point, most of the things I bought new have been upgraded to things I’ve found in thrift stores.
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I like using both, but am mindful in every case to use sparingly.
Carbon steel is not stainless, or they’d call it stainless. Just dry it after washing , oil it, and you’re good. No dry means rust. No bueno. Wish I knew that back in the day.
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Remember when I wanted to make fried rice, but didn’t have day old rice in the house? A member of one of my local cooking groups had the same issue recently and did this:
" I made rice, spread it out on a sheet pan, and placed a fan blowing on it. About an hour later I had a tray of day old rice."
Brill. Might hafta try this next time I am unprepared!
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no one ever regretted reaching for the larger mixing bowl.
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I spread it on the sheet pan then stick it in the fridge for an hour, stirring at 30 minutes. I almost never have day-old, so this is how I’ve been making fried rice for decades.
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Well hopefully you’ve learned in the last three years (I’d say about a minute after it stops looking any lighter and fluffier, just to be on the safe side), but just to add to this: I learned a similar thing about eggs from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar book; she recommended mixing/whipping them on high with the butter for a solid 8 minutes, to help the proteins build a bit of additional structure. I’ve been doing that ever since and I believe it definitely makes a very favorable difference in the end product, vs just mixing the eggs enough to combine.
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Besides mise en place, anything you can prep before hand, even days, makes life easier. Also agree clean work area to start, and clean as you go,…less craziness and confusion. Of course if you have a huge kitchen and assistants to move stuff you can be a slob or the screaming chef…haha.
The tips my mom repeated were but didn’t comprehend for a time: a) keep an eye on the food, and, b) don’t over cook the food (duh)…which really translate to timing. They’re related.
Watch the food so you don’t make a mistake in process and don’t over cook it, but also over time you’ll understand how it should look and the timing. Timing is a big deal imo. Notice a really good cook innately understands timing from experience but also how it should look at each stage. These are of course are about practice, practice, practice and turns into knowledge that translates.
I remember calling my mom if I was making something and asking how it should look, and then there was some Q&A about what, how, etc. Now I suppose texting a photo would help. The “don’t over-cook it” was big rule because you can’t go back and over cooked food might mean a toss or a bad meal. You can always continue to cook if under-cooked. This relates to timing and process.
The other thing is know your equipment. This take experience but it’s about control and knowledge.
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^ This.
I had to relearn what I thought I knew about cooking and baking when we moved into a house with an electric smoothtop range (non-induction) and convection oven. I had cooked on a gas stove most of my adult life, which accustomed me to the immediate control of being able to adjust the flame beneath my pans. Our glass cooktop is extremely slow to respond. I had to figure out how to compensate for that lack of control: I learned that I’d need to move the pan on and off the burner when browning/searing. Also my two enameled cast iron pans are in much more frequent rotation because they retain heat, which is valuable when one of my burners decides it can back off after coming to temperature and then cools too much. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to adjust to such bedevilment yet I have.
OTOH, I believe my arm strength has improved from shuttling pans full of food on and off burner.
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Learn and relearn. I grew up using gas and had gas in both apartments in the Army. In college I had an old ring-heat electric. When we got married, we moved in together into a newly completed apartment with a gas stove(*).
After that, first house, cheapo builder-special gas stove. Second house, flat-top electric. I hated it, but learned to cook on it again. Took quite a while to unlearn old habits, similar to what you mention. I hated it but lived with it for 11 years (because I’m a tightwad), before we finally remodeled. I’ve been cooking on this current gas stove for 12 years and 4 oven igniters now. I noticed when the remo was complete that there wasn’t a relearning curve for me going back to gas.
Now I’m babysitting my grandson weekdays about 5 hours a day, and several days a week I’m cooking something for him on their flat-top electric. And I am definitely making old mistakes, and having to relearn again.
(*) We lived in relatively near-by cities while dating and engaged. Her then-landlord was the sweetest guy in the world. He was building 3-units of 2-storey apartments and, knowing we were engaged, promised her a unit and also accelerated construction of our unit, so we could do the walk-through at least a week before the wedding. He also asked us about appliance preferences, etc. Accelerating ours came at a bit of a personal cost to him, because the 3rd apartment was actually a full-sized house (except being connected to the 2nd apartment) that his wife had designed as her dream home. She was on-board with the delay. I’ve got a few other stories about this couple and their generosity.
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This is me with our smoothtop electric stove. I’ll keep on keeping on with it because there’s no legit need to replace. Feels great to know I’m not alone!
P.S. I also cooked on ring-heat electric stoves for several years. They’re a bear to clean but surprisingly most have been more responsive than the slick-looking smoothtop electric that came with our kitchen.
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