“People tend to use way too much heat. Once the water reaches a boil, you can completely turn the heat off and just let it cook in the remaining heat. Works every time for me.” —u/jasperis145 “I burned rice a few times because I made it in a pot while cooking something which needed a lot of attention, always forgot to check the rice. Buy a rice cooker and never looked back. Start it before cooking and when you’re done, the rice is perfectly waiting in the rice cooker for you.” —u/Osgor “If cooked down properly it should be silkier in texture. It’ll still pull apart because that’s how the fibers work, but it won’t be those tough sturdy strands.” —u/Rough_Elk_3952 “I make my grandmother’s braised meatloaf with mushroom gravy! Take your meatloaf mix — I normally do two pounds of mixed pork and beef or two pounds of just beef. You’ll also need a few eggs, plenty of Italian-style bread crumbs, one large finely minced onion, two tablespoons of mustard of your choice, some parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, a few handfuls of minced parsley, and chicken bouillon — nothing’s really measured. Then form two loaf-shaped meat wads. Pack them together fairly tightly with your hands so that they won’t fall apart. Brown them on all four sides in a large pot with a bit of oil. Remove them from the pot, and brown a few cups of mushrooms in the pot. Add the two meatloafs back to the pot, and fill with about an inch or two of stock or water — check occasionally to make sure the liquid doesn’t get low. Simmer gently with the lid on for about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove the meatloaf, add a tablespoon or two of mustard and a half cup of sour cream to the remaining liquid and mushrooms, then thicken to desired gravy consistency with a corn starch slurry. Everyone who tries it is skeptical at first, but it’s delicious. Completely different from any other meatloaf I’ve ever had, and one of only two things my grandmother cooked well, so I have a lot of fond memories of it.” —u/waitingforgandalf “Russet potatoes are great to use but I’ve made amazing mash from Yukon golds. I think the bigger issue is people using a machine or mixer instead of a manual ricing masher. It’s too easy to over-mix the potatoes and create that glue-like texture.” —u/Scrumptious_Skillet “Thoroughly mix when you want a bready/chewy texture. Barely mix when you want a flaky/looser texture. The more you mix, the more gluten forms and crosslinks. Alternatively, you have shortbreads where you add fat to the mix and it helps to prevent gluten crosslinking and you get a crumbly texture.” —u/alohadave “The key to carbonara is to have the sauce mixture in a separate bowl and to add the hot pasta with tongs. This helps heat up the eggs. You should add about half the pasta to the egg mixture bowl then stir and add the second half. Sometimes if I make too much sauce I return it to the empty pasta pot and heat it some more until it comes together. You shouldn’t be adding salt to anything when you make carbonara. The salt in the guanciale meat and its fat that you pour into the mixture should salt the entire mixture. If it’s still too salty, use a good bit of water in the guanciale pan and heat it. Then dump half of the after when the guanciale starts to render. You’ll lose some fat but it should pull a good bit of salt out.” —u/DocAtDuq “The best grilled chicken breast I’ve had was at a restaurant where I worked as a server. They would butterfly and pound flat the breast so that the inside is cooked as soon as the outside is done. Nice color on the outside and is still juicy inside. Chicken breasts have gotten so thick it’s almost impossible to cook them evenly without overcooking.” —u/bigfondue “Checking in from The Jambalaya Capital of the Word. You are spot-on. Jambalaya is brown.” —u/smurfe “They also need to be cooked at moderate heat so that the sugar really caramelizes. Too high and they brown without that happening. You also need to go fairly dark to really take advantage of caramelization. Not burnt, but a slight bitterness gives complexity. You don’t need a lot of oil to do this. Shallow fry is best! You could deep fry them, but they’re fragile and would likely stick to each other tossed in oil. Restaurants deep fry in a fryer where other items are fried. The heat is too high, they brown quickly, and often they’re not cooked on the inside since they’re thick hunks.” —u/SMN27
