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Starting this thread for kitchen/food science hacks for inexperienced/beginner cooks to document verified, tacit wisdom from experienced folks. Will update it once or twice a week.
When using a blender/mixie for dry or hard ingredients, always start at the highest speed & then slow down. The idea is to break the large pieces quickly first & then slow down to avoid cooking the ingredients. Also improves motor life.
Source: Preeti Service Center engineers
Source: Preeti Service Center engineers
Induction stoves will completely throw your pressure cooking game off if you measure by whistles because they heat water ~50% faster than gas stoves so the mean duration between whistles will be much smaller. Reduce heat after first whistle & measure time after that instead
This
. Measuring rice to water ratio in cups starts failing for larger amounts of rice and also for wider cooking vessels. https://twitter.com/maith_i/status/1300299504953036801
. Measuring rice to water ratio in cups starts failing for larger amounts of rice and also for wider cooking vessels. https://twitter.com/maith_i/status/1300299504953036801
Use the low power setting on your microwave to melt butter into perfect spreadable consistency without breaking the emulsion. The default setting will boil all the water in your butter &practically turn it into ghee.
PS: In Chennai, taking the butter out of the fridge is enough
PS: In Chennai, taking the butter out of the fridge is enough
This 
. You can use the fridge to dehumidify stuff like ladies finger, boiled potatoes, or anything you are going to deep fry, like vegetables for pakodas. https://twitter.com/dr_gigster/status/1300447383482970112?s=20
. You can use the fridge to dehumidify stuff like ladies finger, boiled potatoes, or anything you are going to deep fry, like vegetables for pakodas. https://twitter.com/dr_gigster/status/1300447383482970112?s=20
These . Also, if you are using a small number of garlic cloves in a blender/mixie as part of a chutney/sauce, you can use it with the peel. And yes, peeling ginger with a spoon is way easier than struggling with a peeler. https://twitter.com/sabcatsilver/status/1300503746342842368?s=20
. Also, if you are using a small number of garlic cloves in a blender/mixie as part of a chutney/sauce, you can use it with the peel. And yes, peeling ginger with a spoon is way easier than struggling with a peeler. https://twitter.com/sabcatsilver/status/1300503746342842368?s=20
When shopping for vegetables, pick the ugly, misshapen ones. The science is that misshapen fruit & vegetables are likely to have scars/scabs from having fought off pests, & flavour = defensive chemicals produced by plants https://twitter.com/atJenny/status/1300509132420775942?s=20
Incidentally, this is why organic produce tastes better because plants that encounter pests produce nasty chemicals (anti-oxidants, polyphenols, anthocyanins and other flavonoids) that pests hate and we happen to love
When you store chillies in the fridge, remove the stalks (both the pedicel, which is the long thing & the calyx, which is the cap that sits on top of the chilli). The stalk is the only part of the chilli that catches mold. Doing this will increase shelf life by weeks!
Also, it's the placenta (the white bit to which the seeds are attached) that has most of the capsaicin/heat in a chilli. Not the seeds. The seeds are removed to reduce bitterness, not heat.
Cooking ladles made from Silicone rubber can withstand temperatures up to 300C. They are not like regular polystyrene based plastic and are perfectly safe for any kind of cooking that happens outside a Tandoor
Your tastebuds work at peak efficiency at room temperature (25-30C). This is why room temp coffee is too bitter & melted ice cream tastes cloyingly sweet. Always taste your dishes at room temp to get an accurate reading. Hot dishes will taste less salty than lukewarm ones.
This In general, acids mute the pungency of alliums (garlic, onions etc) https://twitter.com/KitchenChemProf/status/1303026383384465414
In general, acids mute the pungency of alliums (garlic, onions etc) https://twitter.com/KitchenChemProf/status/1303026383384465414
Steam eggs instead of boiling them. They end up with much better texture because steam is gentler on the eggs than boiling water, the shell is less likely to crack and the egg is also easier to peel at the end of it. 6 mins for soft, 11-12 for hard-boiled (h/t @dharmeshG)
You can make your own processed cheese slices at home from good quality hard cheeses by gently heating some milk and butter, and then adding grated cheese and sodium citrate till it thickens, and then pouring it on a tray and refrigerating it for 15 mins. Slice into squares
Green leafy vegetables tend to lose their bright green colour once they are chopped. One way to get them to retain their bright green colour is to blanch them for 20-30 seconds in boiling water. This will deactivate the enzyme (Polyphenol oxidase) that causes this
You can make pesto or coriander/green chutney by first blanching the leaves briefly in boiling water and then plunging them in an ice bath to stop further cooking. The pesto or chutney you make with these leaves will stay bright green for a long time.
Caveat: Green herbs lose a bit of flavour when blanched. In my experience, coriander loses a bit more than basil does, so keep that in mind. If you plan to finish the chutney right away, you can skip doing this. Do it if you are making a large batch
Yes, Vodka is just pure ethanol diluted with distilled water. There is *no* difference between a cheap and expensive vodka (do a blind taste test yourself and see) https://twitter.com/brunowong/status/1307790420529750018?s=21
a small amount of coffee decoction/espresso adds a tremendous amount of flavour to many dishes, particularly in combination with something like rum. Coffee’s flavour comes from the Maillard reaction and adds several layers of great flavour https://twitter.com/NadjaNadika/status/1309741987684261892
This is true for dark chocolate as well, again, a product of the Maillard reaction. Mexican cuisine, particularly the one from Yucatán uses chocolate 
in gravies to spectacular effect
in gravies to spectacular effect
