What's your worst cooking/baking habit?
Posted by Allychristine on Apr 15, 2010 · Member since Dec 2007 · 15438 posts
Mine (at least recently) is making things too salty! I think it's just because I know we like salt, so I've been going a bit overboard. I am also pretty confident about seasoning things without tasting a whole lot. I had some homemade refried beans that were inedible on their own, and some other salty things. I need to remember to just add salt later!
What about you?
oh, and I never mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. I just mix the dry stuff and them dump in the wet ingredients one by one.
I usually do that, too. Sometimes I do them separately if I'm trying something for the first time, or I want to be extra sure about it.
I love salt. Fuck the haters!
I'm kind of bossy in the kitchen. I try to control myself, but I've cooked alone for a really long time and when I'm with someone else, I tend to take over. I'm also a snob about chopping vegetables. I can chop pretty quickly, and sometimes, in the moment, I don't understand why other people don't/can't.
I'm sure I have other bad habits.
I need to learn how to chop different things quicker! It's definitely a habit for me to cut something the same way I always have, and I know there are better ways.
I'm kind of bossy in the kitchen. I try to control myself, but I've cooked alone for a really long time and when I'm with someone else, I tend to take over. I'm also a snob about chopping vegetables. I can chop pretty quickly, and sometimes, in the moment, I don't understand why other people don't/can't.
I'm sure I have other bad habits.
I do that too. I also don't like people stirring/touching my shit. I DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD TOUCH THAT, ASSHOLE
I'm kind of bossy in the kitchen. I try to control myself, but I've cooked alone for a really long time and when I'm with someone else, I tend to take over. I'm also a snob about chopping vegetables. I can chop pretty quickly, and sometimes, in the moment, I don't understand why other people don't/can't.
I'm sure I have other bad habits.
haaaa I'm glad I'm not alone there. I am definitely bossy and when I'm cooking with someone else I always feel like that person is my sous chef and they'd better do a good job, dammit! I can't stand trying to cook something when someone else is cooking something else, which always seems to happen when I'm at my parents' house. that drives me nuts-o.
I'm kind of bossy in the kitchen. I try to control myself, but I've cooked alone for a really long time and when I'm with someone else, I tend to take over. I'm also a snob about chopping vegetables. I can chop pretty quickly, and sometimes, in the moment, I don't understand why other people don't/can't.
I'm sure I have other bad habits.
This is me! I am trying to teach my newly vegan friend how to cook and I feel like sometimes I'm so bossy and impatient with her that I always end up telling her "BTW sorry if I was mean" LOL
I don't check to see if I have all the ingredients first, lay them all out on the counter like some people do. I'll get excited about a new recipe, say a cookie recipe, start mixing the sugar with the oil and wet ingredients. Then realize halfway through the recipe that I don't have enough flour or baking soda.
I don't check to see if I have all the ingredients first, lay them all out on the counter like some people do. I'll get excited about a new recipe, say a cookie recipe, start mixing the sugar with the oil and wet ingredients. Then realize halfway through the recipe that I don't have enough flour or baking soda.
Everything you do is cute.
I dont reallyhave to many bad kitchen/cooking habits. I wanted to be a chef when i was a teenager so i tend to always cook like im cooking for a stranger. One bad habit that is associated witht he kitchen though is swearing, i cant seem tocontrol my mouth when i get fustrated with food. When i made prailines the other day all my edges sheets were occupied so i poure dit onto a flat one and it didnt harden as fast as the no vegan ones ive made int he pas so it ran all over! It dripped on the floor, my pants, all over the counter, and sine i had t keep scraping it back to the middle they came out very uneven :(. Upside they were still amazingly yummy!
I need to learn how to chop different things quicker! It's definitely a habit for me to cut something the same way I always have, and I know there are better ways.
I always used to cut things slowly, methodically, until I worked at the salad bar at school. I got faster, which lasted for a while after school... but not too long. Every now and then I'll be cutting something into slices, like a carrot, and realize I can be chopping way faster. I think when I started cooking the thing that took the most time was getting the onion into cubes!
I'm afraid that when I learn surgical skills I'll start cutting everything verrrry slow... because the alternative is risky!
Also, i tend to just throw dry ingredients on top of the wet ones, maybe not if it's something fluffy like cake. But usually even then I'll pile the dry ingredients on top, maybe whisk the top layer a little bit, and then mix everything. I usually follow the rules if there's cocoa though, just because I've messed that one up before.
I also don't let yeast foam before making bread. It increases the amount of work... instead, I mix yeast/sugar/salt/flour all together, *then* add water. So recipes with less kneading get even yeast. I think the foaming thing is just to check if the yeast is alive... but it's there in almost every recipe.
My food is usually underseasoned, I don't add salt to anything just herbs or spices....I grew up in a salt restricted home, and I learned to like food without salt, I keep a shaker on the table for those that want to add it.
The salt issue is a hot one for me--my overweight sedentary coworkers tell me all the time that I eat too much salt. But if you're an athlete or you're sweating a lot, you're going to need it! When I get done with a run I can scratch dried salt off of my skin from sweating so much. This has to be replaced somehow!
Oh good. That makes me feel better. I love me some salty foods. Not only do I add salt to just about EVERYTHING, I get crazy cravings for pickled foods every few months or so and will go through at least a jar a week! I guess to someone else it might look like I have a "bad habit" of oversalting my recipes, but to me the food tastes best extra-salty!
I think my worst cooking habit is marking a recipe and never getting around to cooking it. I have far too many recipes I've been meaning to try forever sitting in my recipe box right now. I guess I'm just a creature of habit. It's tough for me to break out of those familiar foods I love, even when a new recipe sounds absolutely delish!
I don't check to see if I have all the ingredients first, lay them all out on the counter like some people do. I'll get excited about a new recipe, say a cookie recipe, start mixing the sugar with the oil and wet ingredients. Then realize halfway through the recipe that I don't have enough flour or baking soda.
Everything you do is cute.
Not cute when I can't have my chocolate chip cookie. :'(
I've done the too much salt thing many times too. I have ruined a cashew cheese, (the drain out of the cheesecloth and take a day and a half to make kind..ugh) and kale chips this way. In one of my cookbooks it says to add potatoes to soup that is too salty, and the potatoes will soak up some of the excess salt. I don't really follow recipes exactly, I don't measure often, substitute anything I want, and many times just scan them then try to make them from memory. I do measure when baking, but I always use ww flour, (or ww pastry instead of white,) and I'm sure this affects my results a little.
I don't check to see if I have all the ingredients first, lay them all out on the counter like some people do. I'll get excited about a new recipe, say a cookie recipe, start mixing the sugar with the oil and wet ingredients. Then realize halfway through the recipe that I don't have enough flour or baking soda.
Everything you do is cute.
Not cute when I can't have my chocolate chip cookie. :'(
Nope, still cute.
Wow, I'm realizing I have a lot of bad habits! I, too, am a lone wolf in the kitchen and Z knows better than to come in and get in the way. Sometimes I will ask him for a little help, but usually it just frustrates me. I call our doggy my sous chef, because he swoops in when I have dropped something. Instant vacuum.
I also replace all flours with WW or white WW, although I don't think this has every been a problem. Sometimes the batter/dough is too dry, so I'll just add some water.
I mix all the wet, then put the dry on top too! I thought I was SUCH a rebel! I put the flour down first, then the baking soda/powder and salt and whatever else, mix those a little, then mix it all it. I don't do this with muffins, though, because I don't want to overmix and get the conehead.
NS: I also crave pickled things, and I swear it's when I've been running a lot or sweating a lot more. My uncle is an old school marathoner (like, before Gatorade and Gu existed), and he said people used to eat pickles (or drink pickle juice) and drink flat cola (or even flat beer) when running marathons. I thought that was funny. I prefer Gu.
NS: I also crave pickled things, and I swear it's when I've been running a lot or sweating a lot more. My uncle is an old school marathoner (like, before Gatorade and Gu existed), and he said people used to eat pickles (or drink pickle juice) and drink flat cola (or even flat beer) when running marathons. I thought that was funny. I prefer Gu.
Huh... interesting. I do practice yoga (just about every day) in a heated room, so I sweat quite a bit. I've never noticed whether the cravings align with increases or decreases in my sweating, but I'm going to pay attention now. I do have low blood pressure, so I've always thought that might have something to do with it. It never ceases to amaze me how efficient the body is at regulating itself!
oh and as opposed to everyone halving recipes, I always double them...which usually is good because I'm busy, and then I have leftovers, but sometimes those quick mathmatical skills fail me or I double everything and realize too late that I just don't have enough baking soda to double it too. Like I said I have a horrible time following baking directions but....
Foods I don't F-around with....
*seitan
*chocolate baked things from Isa's books, if I follow her recipes her treats are the best, but I have tried to f-around with her choc. ganauche cake, (from VWAV-I think,) and her choc. cupcakes, (from VCTOTW) and they have collapsed on me...totally my own fault though
*the "uncheese molds" from The Uncheese Cookbook
*Anything containing agar for that matter.
i try to get away with all margarine in those 1/2 margarine 1/2 shortening recipes for frosting. it never works out (unless it stays refrigerated... while you're eating it).
i'm always suspicious of the measurements given for slicing/dicing/etc. Like "1/2 inch cubes" always seems to be 3/4-1 inch, "1/4 inch" is 1/2 inch, etc (based off recipes w/ photos of the final product). I have decided for when I never write a cookbook, that I will give accurate dimensions (& weight/volume! i hate it when the weight doesn't match the volume for a particular ingredient*). It'll be like "cut the onion into 3/16" cubes." Every one will love that, I'm sure.
* relatedly, some recipes give both a size and weight, e.g., 1 medium onion (4 oz). I have decided, based on this, that all my onions are abnormally large. 4 oz is a small onion to me, and they're difficult to find in the store. It makes me wonder if those recipes that call for "1 onion" that wound up having too much onion for me was actually the gigantic onion's fault.
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