Gravy's Cooking Thread

I feel like one of the biggest areas that most cooks can improve is salting/seasoning food properly during the cooking process. My mom cooks in a way in which she doesn't salt ANYTHING, she thinks "salt is bad for you" and "people can add their own salt and pepper". Well, that doesn't work near as well after the fact, food needs seasoning while it's being prepared to bring the proper flavors out.

On the flip side, my dad salts the holy hell out of everything, and most normal people can barely eat the food he makes because its like taking a bite out of a salt lick.

I think just using a knife in general is a basic, but not well known skill. My wife never learned, and it takes her forever to take apart veg or meat or whatever. My kids are learning, but I think basic knife skills, and which knife to use when are a basic starting place.

Crone_sl said:

I wanted a huge 20+ cubic foot one, but I couldn't pass up the 7.5 cubic foot one that Costco had for $200? maybe $249. It was a great deal. I'm glad I got the smaller one, because we don't have too much to freeze. Never went in on a whole cow or nothing. Brand name I hadn't heard of before, but it has worked really well for the last 2 years.

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$200 is doable. I will have to check it out. Costco is so good with returns that I could probably use it for 3 years then just return it for a full refund.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

I think just using a knife in general is a basic, but not well known skill. My wife never learned, and it takes her forever to take apart veg or meat or whatever. My kids are learning, but I think basic knife skills, and which knife to use when are a basic starting place.

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I still don't know the "proper" way to chop/dice an onion.

Step 1, never take the tip of your knife off of the cutting board

I have had the ~$250 Costco chest freezer for about 4 years and it has worked perfectly. My parents have 2 of them, and one has been going something like 7+ years with no problem.

Having a decent knife and knowing how to use it is probably the most important basic. Watching someone take 5 minutes to chop up a bell pepper makes me understand why they hate cooking and think they don't have time to cook during the week.

Onion chopping skill level 10

Eyashusa_sl said:

$200 is doable. I will have to check it out. Costco is so good with returns that I could probably use it for 3 years then just return it for a full refund.

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I've seen the same model as low as $175-$180 I believe. Just gotta check. I don't know if it's something they always have in the stores or not. I'm pretty sure this is the model...

Costco - Haier 7.1 CuFt Chest Freezer customer reviews - product reviews - read top consumer ratings

I think I have an old model. Mine has no controls on the front bottom corner. But same company. Never heard of Haier before seeing it at Costco.

Meh, I do it. If I were in a restaurant situation with time pressure, I probably wouldn't. But, at home, where I can take my time, sure.

Deathwing_sl said:

wut

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I slice onions and most vegetables like the first example here:
Knife Skills: The 4 Knife Cuts Every Cook Should Know | Serious Eats

With the tip of the blade in constant contact with the cutting board, pull the knife backwards slightly until the blade slices into the food.
Continue by pressing downwards and forwards, using the full length of the blade to slice through your food.
Repeat, using a circular motion and keeping the blade tip against the board at all times.

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That is an old fashioned way of doing onions anyway. Radial cuts then slice is the standard technique taught today, but Gordon isn't likely to change when he has been doing it that way for... what? 40 years?

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And from what I understand, it also makes julienne fries.

I use our apple corer/slicer to make french fries, just like this(I generally throw away the core/center part, then the rest of the fries are pretty uniform and cook evenly)