Yahoo Lifestyle 21 Unforgiveable Cooking Crimes That Way Too Many People Are Guilty Of
Cooking is as much an art as it is a science, so home cooks have their own techniques and preferences. But some culinary habits might as well be illegal. Redditor 1000andonenites asked, "What are your most egregious, Straight to Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, cooking and/or food sins?" Here are some of the cooking crimes that no one should be committing.
1."Plating naked pasta with a pool of sauce on it, rather than finishing the pasta in sauce."
2."The act of reaching for the salt, pepper or any other condiment and pouring it over your food before even tasting it as cooked."
3."For me, it has to be skinless chicken breasts in the slow cooker. Why anyone would want to take this leanest, driest of meats and cook it for hours and hours and HOURS is beyond me. I don't care what the sauce is; the flavor and texture of the chicken itself at the end is…cough."
4."Ketchup on kebabs and steak. My reaction to this culinary crime is similar to that of Italians who see people putting ketchup on pasta and pizza."
5."People who put raisins where raisins don’t belong. My grandma would put them in a chicken filling for chiles rellenos, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was gross."
6."Backseat cooking, aka people who watch you cook and constantly make suggestions but rarely cook themselves or help with prep. It's straight to jail if you keep waxing on about how your mom or granny did something when you haven't attempted to do that yourself. And it's double jail time if you feel watching Master Chef makes you an expert when you never cook."
7."Not cooking with salt. All of my relatives are guilty of this. I had one aunt tell me she doesn't use any because you could just put it on top at the end."
8."Touching spice jars or opening the fridge or drawers with unwashed hands after handling raw meat. I've seen friends do it more than once, and it really, really gets my skin crawling."
9."Throwing out cosmetically imperfect foods even though they're perfectly fine to eat. I say this since my sister does it. She'll throw the whole thing out if she finds a single wilted green in her tub of lettuce."
10."Not testing out a recipe before serving it to guests. Some low-effort sites crank out weak recipes, and people put in a lot of effort at get-togethers that are important to them and are highly disappointed. Never serve a first attempt at a recipe to friends or an important event. Test your recipes before you serve them! And if you will serve your first attempts to friends, let them know they are crash test dummies."
11."Using dull knives. I have so many friends who don’t upkeep their knives and mash their onions under the weight of a dull knife. The look on their face when I sharpen and hone their dull kitchen knife is the best."
12."When people use the highest flame setting to cook everything. It is wasteful, overcooks food, overboils everything, and it really does ruin pans."
13."Adding garlic too early so it burns. Almost every recipe I've ever read calls to add garlic as the FIRST ingredient. Surely this can't be true because it takes about a minute to burn garlic if you aren't extremely diligent."
14."Cutting everything with steak knives: An apple? Steak knife. An onion? Steak knife. How about watermelon? Steak knife. Any kind of meat? Steak knife, of course. My mom was guilty of this, and I am still in the process of unlearning how she taught me to cook."
15."People who refuse to use fat while cooking because 'fat is unhealthy.' OK, well, good luck getting a good sear on literally anything."
16."Not seasoning. My mother-in-law only uses salt for seasoning. No black pepper, no oregano, no garlic, no nothing. Just salt. Her food is so boring I always find a way not to eat at her place. Whenever we cook for her, she loves how tasty our food is, and I go out of my way to season it like a champ and explain to her what we did and used. She's just set in her ways at this point."
17."Parents who only steam veggies and barely use salt or pepper on them act shocked when their kids don't like it. Of course they won't like that, most adults would be peeved getting something like that. Something as simple as roasting veggies with basic herbs and a good olive oil can make a huge difference."
18."People who 'don't like leftovers.' My theory is that people who 'don't like leftovers' might not be heating them properly aandadding proper sauces, condiments, an extra side of veg, etc at home. While a microwave will do if you're tired, heating them nicely in a skillet or oven makes leftovers pretty darn tasty, depending on the dish."
19.When people press down hard on everything they're cooking. Making pancakes? She flips them and then mashes them down with the spatula! Fried eggs? Smash 'em!"
20."My husband 'seasons the pan' instead of seasoning the food. As in, he sprinkles salt, pepper, or Italian seasoning into a hot pan and then adds plain, unseasoned protein on top. He seems to think this accomplishes the same thing as seasoning the meat directly. It does not."
21."Overdone eggs that are verging on the point of burnt. My sister LIKED them a little burnt. It made the whole house smell like burnt eggs and made me gag. Just sinful."
Do you have something to add? What is a culinary sin you've seen people commit in the kitchen that might as well be worthy of jail time (or, at the very least, a significant fine)? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
