Kitchen optimizations | Hacker News Reader

Kitchen optimizations

natemeyvis.com

96 pointsTheaetetus236 comments

A few things:

* Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

* Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave. Things like onions, mushrooms, etc. are mostly water, and you can avoid having to wait for them to reduce in a pan by nuking them for 2 minutes in the microwave first.

* When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid! It will trap the heat inside the pot and boil/cook faster. So many people don’t use the lid just to save themselves from having to wash it. The only time not to use the lid is if you need to reduce the liquid or allow volatiles to escape.

* Cooking bigger batches of food takes essentially the same amount of time as smaller batches. Make portions big enough that you can get at least two or three more meals from it.

* Learn to use your oven! Too many people get enamored with single use gadgets when the oven already does so many things. People complain that it takes too long to heat up but it really doesn’t.

* Keep your knives sharp: Do NOT use an electric sharpener, just a simple drag over a stone every few months is probably all you need. A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.

* Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic (dump the plastic too if you’re concerned about it). Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal, or any other hard material is destroying your knives.

> Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal

I've never understood this. Those things are/were just used to prevent counter-top damage here in the UK (hot pans, things that would stain etc).

We never considered them chopping boards.

Did the USA not get the memo?

We never considered them chopping boards.

Demonstrably false:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114968917182

Perhaps do a basic internet search before speaking for an entire nation.

When I read the above comment I couldn't figure out what material they were using other than wood or plastic. I don't think using glass is common, at least I've never seen it in the US.

I was given one by a landlord once because a lot of renters here don't have the money to buy cutting boards so they will just cut directly on the kitchen counters.

I sharpen my own knives so that would be a no from me! I know a lot of people just throw their knives in a drawer or run them through the dishwasher so I guess glass would be fine for those.

The thing about giving advice is that some people will think it’s obvious, but those aren’t the people who need the advice, it’s the people to whom it wasn’t obvious.

And I don’t see what country/location has to do with this, as I imagine plenty of places use bad materials.

> Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave

There's actually a lot of stuff you can halfway-heat in the microwave.

Air frying frozen <anything>? Nuke it for 2 min and air-fry for 3 min, instead of air-frying for 12 min.

Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.

Cold ketchup in a dipping bowl? Nuke for 5 seconds to bring it to room temperature, so you're not putting cold ketchup on warm food.

But the best? You know how tomatoes get a mealy texture when kept in the fridge, which is why everybody says not to keep in them in the fridge, even though they last so much longer that way? That's only as long as they're chilled. Nuke for 10 seconds to bring back to room temperature. The texture returns 100% to normal.

> Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.

Use 50% power and check in 10 second increments:

* ATK: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FZCgQp8D2Xw

If you think ahead, put it in the refrigerator 30 minutes before you need it.

Unless you have an inverter microwave (most don't) there's no such thing as 50% power. It's 100% power for 50% of the time. The first 10 seconds might be power on, the second 10 you might just be watching it spin around for nothing.

This is correct -- it's usually a cycle of several seconds on, several seconds off, so 50% power for 10 seconds is somewhat nonsensical. Just do 100% power for something like 7 seconds at a time, maybe, if you want to be really careful.

When I was a kid, I had some ice cream that was too goddamn cold, and I asked my mom to put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Everyone laughed at me.

I'm still pissed off about it.

Don’t be pissed. You the one sentient being in a family of NPCs (no offence).

I always microwave my ice-cream.

People freak out when I tell them I do this.

Another thing people freak out about is when I tell them I sprinkle instant coffee on supermarket bought vanilla ice cream. The (too) sweet ice cream balances with the bitter coffee and it adds a textural element.

Instant coffee is clever.

Another great thing to sprinkle is a thin layer of cocoa powder on chocolate ice cream -- it's similarly bitter, but it's a blast of extra chocolate rather than coffee. Learned that one in Italy.

I've tried that before but I found that the texture was a bit chalky and if I somehow inhaled it then it would cause a coughing fit.

Thinking back I probably just put too much of it on the ice cream.

Thinking more it would be interesting to maybe add a little chili powder to the cocoa powder.

Yup it's incredibly easy to overdo it. Think more like a dusting, not a layer. Chili sounds awesome I should try that.

Cold ketchup on hot french fries is one of life's great joys, though.

Room temperature ketchup is always suboptimal in my opinion. It's fine if I have to open a fresh bottle, but room temperature ketchup is like room temperature milk to me: consumable, but a bit unsettling.

> Cooking bigger batches

This is also one of the central ideas around making computers go really fast.

> Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic

https://www.johnboos.com/collections/cutting-boards

> Garbage bowl

I have one of those rubbermaid tall/thin trash cans where my kitchen island used to be. Sometimes I will pull my fridge into the middle a little bit so it's easier to get at. That's the kitchen optimization advice that I would offer - The kitchen island is often a productivity & convenience scam. It took me a long time to learn this. From a simple geometric & topological perspective, being able to walk directly between everything without having to always pick a direction around some obstruction will reduce your cortisol levels by a scientifically-quantifiable amount.

Same thing with giant peninsulas and breakfast bars. They're there to look nice for real estate photos, not to be a useful thing that gets used often. If you want a table in the middle of your kitchen rip out the island and put a kitchen table there. It's more comfortable and you can actually look at the people you're eating with.

I like the kitchen island as a massive prep space. Large enough for 2 large cutting boards, plenty of bowls, and other ingredients.

Not using it for anything else though.

They are good to socialize while cooking. Friends csn have a glass of wine next to you while you cook. Also to put the trash under without blocking other peoples flow.

Throw away any cutting board thats not wood. (Bamboo being the exception although I dont know if bamboo is wood?)

Plastic cutting boards will contaminate whatever you are cutting on it with a load of micro and, in many cases macroplastics.

Seriously, give your plastic board some action without food on it and then carefully collect the shavings.

I went to Chef's Tools and got a large (20"x15"x1.5") cutting board for ~$60. Vs those boards you linked which were up to $600

> being able to walk directly between everything

This is the classic kitchen work triangle, popularized in the 1950s. It's still true today!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle

> A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.

I do a lot of cooking and own quite a few kitchen knives, most of which have bitten me at some point. I understand the idea around sharp knives being safer...but I don't agree.

If a razor sharp 210mm Japanese carbon steel knife touches your finger, it's split open and might need stitches or glue. A less-sharp knife would need more weight behind it to cut effectively which can lead to you completely severing a finger, but simple slices are a much more likely scenario than your finger being completely under the knife to the point where it's effectively a digit-guillotine.

There's no reason your fingers should be under the blade while it's in motion. That's just poor technique.

Not everyone is a chef. I guess 80% of people in the world have poor technique for cutting stuff but they mostly get away not cutting themselves because they have dull knives.

I recently had to glue my thumb back on after I lopped it off with a Japanese knife while I was dicing vegetables. At my age, I have probably moved that knife millions of times and only cut myself once. Nobody can have a perfect record.

Had a friend do that recently. Knife freshly sharpened, took a dime sized hunk of his thumb right off. They stitched it back on, mostly to protect what was left underneath while it healed.

If your blade is dull enough you’ll be using excess force to cut. People cut themselves regularly because they are using too much force and the thing they are trying to cut shifts and suddenly they have a finger under the blade. Or they are working with a dull paring knife and having to use too much force and it suddenly cuts and keeps going into their thumb.

I agree.

There was a long thread here where people were arguing about this topic.

My take is that people saying sharp knives are safer don’t understand how average people are using knives.

Totally different than in restaurant setting or ‘self proclaimed chef’ setting where you are going to chop loads of stuff fast or you get angry customers or you take pride in your chopping and slicing skills.

Worst offenders were sharpening knives for other people and then they were surprised that those people would cut themselves with sharp knives… none of the story included a person who was perfectly happy with their dull knife cutting themselves with that dull knife.

I get where you are coming from but at the same time if you use a potentially dangerous tool you should learn how to properly use it.

Just using a claw grip will significantly reduce your chance of injury.

I have seen more injuries from dull knives slipping on vegtable skin than too sharp knives.

That said, the mirror shine finish some enthusiasts go for is indeed over the top.

> My take is that people saying sharp knives are safer don’t understand how average people are using knives.

Sharp knives are safer.

Bad knife technique is unsafe, regardless of sharpness, but with a dull knife you lack control even with good technique.

> none of the story included a person who was perfectly happy with their dull knife cutting themselves with that dull knife.

People that are perfectly happy with dull knives cut themselves with those dull knives all the time. Sometimes, that's the spur for people learning how to use a knife and becoming unhappy with dull knives.

Knife sharpness safety is a bell curve.

If your knife is sharp enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it slices so easily. You’re essentially waving around an 8 inch razor blade.

If your knife is dull enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it takes so much effort to cut that a slip becomes a stab. The amount of effort you have to put in to do basic stuff like cut carrots can be high enough that give up some control of the blade.

A knife at a good level of sharpness will cut with reasonable effort but not be a giant razor blade. I think for most people this is likely the safest level of sharpness.

> If your knife is dull enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it takes so much effort to cut that a slip becomes a stab.

Also, a dull knife will, 100%, slip more in use than a sharper knife.

Absolutely.

Oh man! This brings memories. I had a new set in a new place and dealing with sub 20 degree Celsius for the first time. The cold would numb my hand the blade would cut and I would know only after a few minutes. I spent those first couple of months constantly putting band aid on. I blamed it fully on the winter.

It’s been almost 1.5 years since the last cut and I now realize what was going on

Edit: Now that I realize this thread is going sort of sharp-vs-dull. I still use the slide sharpener and regularly sharpen the knives. The factory sharpness was just too much for me. I think a knife sharpened to appropriate level is the way to go. And a dull one is probably as dangerous as a overly sharp one

I'm skeptical of the claim too. All the arguments are logical but there doesn't seem to be any evidence. Have there been any studies?

I googled around and the best I could find was https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/23661/are-sharp... (11 years ago) which could only speculate that sharp knives reduce RSI.

> Do NOT use an electric sharpener

Why?

The argument for not using electric sharpeners is that they (1) cut down the lifetime of your knife substantially and (2) they do a mediocre job of sharpening.

Mechanically, it's just high-abrasive motorized spinning discs at preset angles. So rather than getting a good edge by taking a few microns of material off by doing it manually, you get an OK edge by taking 0.2mm off at a time. (If 0.2mm doesn't sound like a lot, think about how many mm wide your knife is.)

---

I'm personally 50-50 on this advice: most people don't sharpen their knives at all, and I think people are better off getting 10 OK years out of a knife than 50 terrible years out of it.

I'm also not willing to learn how to use a whetstone, so I landed in the middle on this: https://worksharptools.com/products/precision-adjust-knife-s...

I still sharpen my knives on a whetstone, but given the general cost trajectory of most manufactured items, I've decided that I'm okay if I wear out my knives. Buying a new chef's knife in 10 years is basically free on a per-day-of-use basis.

(I say that, but I'm still using knives that mostly range from 25-50 years old, but some didn't get sharpened enough when they belonged to our parents and grandparents.)

I landed on using a diamond stone with 300 grit and 1000 grit. Unlike whetstones they never need to be flattened. I just use one of those cheap plastic angle guides. After a bit of practice you will learn to hold the angle well enough. Finish with a leather strop and some polishing compound and I can keep my knives shaving-sharp with only a few minutes effort before I cook.

> When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid!

Blows my mind when I see people boiling water (huge pots of water!) with no lid on. In many cases, they were waiting around 30 minutes for the water to boil. It surprises them to learn that a lid will speed it up.

I never see anyone trying to bake with the oven door open, but somehow boiling water without a lid is okay?

When you have a good stove, the difference between lid or no lid is very small. You have to cook on gas or induction, and throw away electric stoves.

Indction maybe, it's very efficient, but not gas. It's heating the room as much as the pot, especially if the pot is mismatched to the ring size, so a lid is essential in my experience.

California has been trying to make gas stoves illegal for new construction for a while now. I don't know what the current situation is.

> California has been trying to make gas stoves illegal for new construction for a while now.

No, if “California” was trying, it simply would have done it.

Some California localities have done something like that, though (some of which have subsequently faced adverse rulings in court.)

I stand corrected. Thanks.

SF has done it.

> When you have a good stove, the difference between lid or no lid is very small.

That's...not true at all.

At most a couple of minutes, when you have the flame on full blast.

Depends on the size of the pot (and how full said pot is).

Energy in - energy out == energy needed to boil.

If energy in per second is really high, and energy needed to boil is relatively small, you'll get there quickly, without energy out having time to have much effect. If the energy needed is very high, reducing the rate at which energy goes out can make a big difference.

Good sir, have you ever used an electric stove? Every gas stove I've ever used excels only at precise and immediate control of heat and totally sucks at actually delivering heat. making bagels on a gas stove is such a pain in the neck because even the "power" burner can barely keep a large dutch oven of soda water boiling. The small burner on the electric stove? I have to keep at half power otherwise the starchy water boils over.

I've never used an industrial gas stove, only residential. But comparing apples to apples, residential electric ranges obliterate gas when it comes to power delivery.

Cannot speak for induction as I've never used one, but I'd expect it to be the best of both worlds based on the physics.

You owe it to yourself to try induction. Ikea sells an affordable single knob induction device and they're all over the world.

Unfortunately, I live in the US, and so a plug in induction range can deliver at most 1800 Watts. Though maybe it would be worth it for unlocking new techniques that require its fine grained control.

But I agree, if I am ever in a position to choose my cooktop technology, it will definitely be induction.

Here's one article that claims the time difference between covered and uncovered isn't significant: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/how_tos/6646-covered-vs-...

I learned this lesson when camping on an alcohol stove, a covered pot will boil a lot faster in the wild than an open one.

I suspect if you're turning things on "high" on an average kitchen stove-top it won't have such a stark difference, but it should still be measurable.

I have a very large hard rubber cutting board that I adore, to add to the list of reasonable materials.

If you compost, your in-kitchen compost tote works really well to move near where you're trimming veggies.

> Keep your knives sharp

Or throw away blunt knives and purchase new ones every once in a while. Many people can't be bothered with sharpening their knives, so it's better for them to just get new ones. Or send them to professional sharpeners.

For people like this, the best path is probably to buy cheap knives and a one of those cheap knife sharpeners that destroys the blade over time. One of those angled carbide sharpeners believe a terrible edge, but better than a dull knife.

I guess if you prefer nicer knives, you could always buy new ones periodically and give the old ones away on buy nothing to someone who will take care of them.

In practice people will never use their knife sharpeners, and instead use horribly blunt knifes for years on end. They're better off buying new cheap knifes every year.

Those cheap carbide sharpeners take literally seconds to sharpen with, but you’re probably right.

Pay someone to sharpen them for petes sake. I can't fathom why you would suggest that seemingly off hand, secondary to throwing away and buying new knives.

Because people refuse to sharpen their knifes, no matter what you do. So it's better for them to throw away old blunt knifes and buy new ones. That they will do. And buy a real cutting board at the same time.

> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

How about just put the garbage near your workspace while you're working so you can more easily dump stuff into it? I just generally put a bag on the floor near the sink

I bought a really powerful disposal so I cut next to the sink and slide any organic matter right into it. Cannot recommend upgrading your disposal highly enough. Mine says in the manual to clean it by tossing a lemon in.

Use a produce bag for what little is left.

This is a terrible practice. If you have a septic system, you’re screwing yourself. If you’re municipal, you’re screwing your city. Compost your compost, don’t dump it down the drain.

Curious where you draw the line. What is even the point of having a garage disposer if you're not supposed to use it? I'm not disagreeing with your overall point. I'm geninely curious since I think every apartment I've ever lived in in the USA had a disposer so I'd expect them to be used and to a degree, if the disposer can chop up the stuff small enough to be safe, why not put things in it?

Note that disposers are not common in some countries so I've lived for half my adult live without one. Typically those countries have a basket in the center of the sink to catch stuff and then you empty that basket into a bag. People also find various sink attachments to hold a larger bag for bigger waste while they cook.

The older I've gotten, the more I've learned to scrape my plate clean into the trash. Then I rinse it, then I put it into the dishwasher. I'll run the garbage disposal as I rinse plates and pots and pans. This way I don't have to clean carrot peels and disgustingness out of a clogged drain catch, and don't need to clean my dishwasher filter frequently.

When you have to do your own maintenance, your habits change. The disposal isn't for making things go away magically, it's to help keep your drain from clogging.

I do my own maintenance, throw everything in the disposal, and have never had an issue. You just need a better disposal.

How is using a disposal screwing the city? Why isn’t there something in my water bill telling me not to? They’ve got lots of little inserts telling me not to do other stuff.

I don’t see how it’s that different than flushing the toilet.

> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

My wife has got the ultimate solution. She cooks (I really suck at it) but I clean the kitchen. And, well, while she cooks she hardly puts anything in the bin: mostly everything stays on the countertop, which becomes a gigantic mess.

She empties the cutting board on the countertop. Rinse and repeat. Easy. Well, for her at least ; )

This is great keep going.

I find mis-en-place is a great optimization, especially if you have kids.

For hot water, I have a 2L thermos which I keep filled with boiling water to make hot drinks, with a quick reboil if necessary, and also to use as cooking water. I think there are plumbed in versions of this which would be even better.

Bread-making - I just use a bread machine to make day-to-day bread (specials hand baked etc on weekends sometimes.) For the daily, I pre-measure ingredients (both wet and dry) for 10+ loaves, individually packaged (kids are a great production line again). The to make the bread, just throw in the packets and press the buttons...

No doubt most people already do this, but for some reason my wife can't get it .. keep everything in the same place all the time. It really wastes time and 'stressergy' to have to hunt for the measuring spoons or the molasses or whatever because they were put back in a different place.

I'm sure commercial chefs could add a huge list of tricks that are still applicable at home to this.

It's _mise en place_, with an e since it's feminine and without dashes.

Signed: A pedantic French guy (pleonasm)

Thanks. Should I include the underscores?

Clean as you go is a big one for me. I hate having a big cleanup at the end of a meal prep.

Mise en place is ok sometimes but it also generates a lot unnecessary cleaning.

One thing we do is to load a new dishwasher tablet immediately upon emptying the dishes.

Result:

If there’s a tablet: it’s dirty.

If there’s no tablet: it’s clean.

That's a good one. One I tend to do is, once I know i will run the dishwasher overnight, I will set it to run with a delay. That way, even if I forget to put in the last few items, it's going to run and I will not run out of clean stuff. (My dishwasher is fairly slow, as it's a built-in one and can't pop open to dry).

[flagged]

I understand your confusion. If you clean off and rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, it can sometimes get confusing

I don't get the logic of cleaning dishes BEFORE putting them in the dishwasher.

I think people don't want to clog their dishwasher with pieces of food. If I have a couple pieces of spaghetti, a part of a leaf and half a chickpea stuck on the plate, I would remove them with a paper towel. Not sure why anyone would rinse it afterwards, though.

That reminds me of people who clean before the maid comes. I've never had a maid, but I've read that people do the easiest things themselves so the maid, who is paid by the hour, has to do the harder things only.

I do it and recognize that the logic is flawed, but it's a habit and just looks and feels correct at this point.

You will after you have to pull the dishwasher out, turn it upside down and partially disassemble it to clean the filter which is blocking the flow of water intended to rinse your dishes.

Not actually cleaning, just rinsing.

The logic is to prevent:

  - Chunks of fibrous vegetables (e.g.) from clogging the dishwasher filter
  - Wet sauces (or egg) from drying and hardening over the hours/days before the next dishwasher cycle, and becoming more difficult to remove

A lot of people don't know that dishwashers have filters that need to be cleaned regularly!

And many of us grew up with older dishwashers that didn't work as well as newer ones.

All of that said, modern dishwashers actually monitor the water (clarity, turbidity?) to determine whether the dishes are sufficiently clean. If you rinse your dishes too well, the dishwasher will prematurely think it has accomplished its goal, and reduce time/temperature to end the cycle early. This is why manufacturers recommend against rinsing or pre-cleaning.

In my household, we have a pair of zealous canine precleaners, who do an excellent first-pass job. The dishwasher's only responsibility is to rinse and sterilize. :)

I might quickly rinse my dishes to remove large food particles.

If you are cleaning your dishes so much before loading that you literally can't tell the difference between dishes that have been through the dishwasher and dishes that haven't, then just skip the dishwasher step. You're already done.

The issue comes when there are multiple people using the kitchen. Sometimes my wife runs the dishwasher when I'm not around, or vice versa. We usually rinse our dishes, so there is not always a lot of visible evidence.

The problem is when you have a dirty dish and assume that the dishwasher contents are dirty too (because usually we unload the dishwasher soon after it finishes). Then you put a dirty dish in, possibly making other dishes dirty. So you have to either hand-wash several dishes or re-wash the entire load.

Our dishwasher keeps its little screen on and blinking until you actually hit the on/off button, and we effectively use that as a cleanness indicator. We only turn it off after having cleaned out the dishwasher. So the off state always means dirty. On and full = clean, on and mostly empty = someone probably forgot to turn it off, easy to spot check.

> Wtf? I never once in my life have any issues [...] What a weird problem to have. I'll give you a pro tip [...]

Can you please make your substantive points thoughtfully? There's no need to snark or get personal.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

That's a nice trick. What we do is use a reversible magnet that says "dirty" on one side and "clean" on the other

Or if you have an already incomplete set of scrabble tiles: attach magnets to the backs of the ones that spell "dirty" and "clean". Whichever isn't scrambled on the door is the state of the dishwasher.

Or simply don't rinse the dishes before you put them in[0]. I've never had trouble telling.

[0] Exceptions: uncooked eggs, yogurt, and for some reason, salsa? None of which ever come off for me if they sit for long before you run the dishwasher.

The stable state of our dishwasher is dirty: clean only lasts the fleeting instant a person spots it and immediately empties it.

One word, teenagers.

I'm fully convinced that dishwashers are a hoax. Doing the dishes manually is far more efficient, both in water used, energy and time spent. Things to consider: time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof, time spent playing dishwasher tetris, time spent filling and emptying, time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher, time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box.

I can do the dishes after a family meal just as fast, and with better and more consistent results en less water, than when using the dishwasher.

> time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof

It's done once per item. In my case I have just a few things I know are not dishwasher proof.

> time spent playing dishwasher tetris

Get a bigger dishwasher.

> time spent filling and emptying

The same time you'd spend putting things in the sink and taking them out after you've washed them.

> time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher

No need to that, unless you leave actual chunks of uneaten food on your plates.

> time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box

Try powdered detergent. There are a few Technology Connections videos discussing dishwashers, including how capsules are inefficient - basically they're used up on the "pre-wash" cycle. There are a few other tricks to improve the efficiency of the dishwasher, too.

So you have a few things to do once and a few things to do always, which you'd do with hand washing anyway. Having a dishwasher is a game changer. If you're not happy with the results, don't give up just yet. Think of how to improve the process, because it's possible. At first I was also skeptical and disappointed in my (first) dishwasher.

When our old dishwasher gave up, I got a mid-range Bosch dishwasher. I never thought I’d catch feelings for an appliance, but this thing is awesome. Dishes come out squeaky clean and nearly dry just from the temps. Glasses are spotless. Third rack is very convenient as well.

I’m sure other modern dishwashers are also very good, but I’d buy the same again in a heartbeat.

I was honestly a little disappointed with my Bosch.

I had an old low end dishwasher that I had kept going up to a point, but the rack was after rusting to the point it broke.

Bought a mid range Bosch after reading so many glowing reviews and I find it does a terrible job at drying the dishes. They're clean, and the third rack is so much better than I had imagined it would be, but there's always still water on everything!

The old dishwasher had a vent on the front, when it was doing its drying you could see the steam coming out. The Bosch doesn't seem to have any vent... it heats up for a dry cycle, but if you don't catch it and open the door at the end the water vapor just recondenses.

I'm curious, is most of your dishware plastic? We have a Bosch and it does a great job drying everything except for the plastic stuff. I'm assuming the plastics cool faster and condense water on to them, but not 100% sure. Glass and ceramic/pottery always come out dry unless something got flipped over and pooled a bunch of water.

We use very little plastic, but I'm also admittedly incredibly picky over stuff being dry. It could be water dripping from the plastic racks above; nothing is truly wet, just enough that I'm not willing to put the dishes away without further drying.

I think plastic has a lower thermal conductivity/mass. Heat moves into the plastic more slowly and it just doesn't hold as much energy thus doesn't get hot enough to make the water evaporate.

Just to be clear, this is nonsense. Every dishwasher made for the past few decades at least will use less water than washing by hand.

Someone should make a small pressure washing contraption like those for XXL restaurants.

Any modern dishwasher is very efficient on water (and on heating). That said, I don't have one myself. Dish washing time is thinking time or podcast time for me.

I've often wondered why the dishwasher vendors didn't put a label on the little flip open door so that it actually said, "dirty" on the outside, and "clean" on the inside.

Less known optimisation: have a slide rule handy[1]. They are amazing for working with proportions which happens all the time in the kitchen.

Just today I needed 200 g of chocolate for a dessert. The bars were 160 g each and made into 21 rectangles. Set the slide rule to 200:160 and read out the value of x:21, which turns out to be 26.25 -- the number of rectangles needed. So convenient to be able to do that quickly and with messy hands.

[1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/kitchen-slide-rule

My method for that is:

  - I need 200g
  - Bars are 160g
  - So I need 1 bar + 40g
  - 40g is 25% of 160g (this one's easy, but precision is rarely critical -- and if you think it is, ask Siri)
  - So I need 1 bar + 1/4 bar

A foot pedal faucet is the biggest optimization I need to make. It's like giving yourself a third arm in many situations.

I use a touch-sensitive faucet. Either way, this is a big upgrade given how often one uses a faucet.

I so desperately want this, I think about it about 5 times a week and probably mention it to my wife as often. But in my old small house I doubt I could ever get one set up. Much better than a touch less one.

It's just a standard plumbing fitting, and it engages with the plumbing below your actual faucet. Space shouldn't be an issue?

I bought an one that attaches to the source line to the faucet, but I'm nervous to install it for risk of leaks.

Teflon tape is your friend when plumbing things together.

Definitely. I'm more worried about the valve in the pedal being faulty and leaking.

Not always. It only works with FIP/MIP connections. If it's a compression fitting you're just wasting money.

Compression fittings first question is "can you use a shark bite push fit instead?"

Second thing is, get a small amount of food safe grease and put it on the copper ferrule to make the connection: took me far too long to learn that.

Can't recommend a foot pedal faucet enough. They're not expensive!

Kohler makes a touchless faucet. You wave your hand under the faucet and it turns on and off. I've had one for years, and it's great in the kitchen. Most commercial lavatories have the same technology.

I’ve got a friend with one of these. He has not been super happy with it. He mentioned installing the foot pedal next time instead.

I got it and absolutely love it. Takes a bit of getting used to of course, but after being in my kitchen I expect all taps to work like this.

The biggest downside is that visitors will be confused why the water doesn’t run (the physical tap is always left open but there is a “virtual” tap controlled by the sensor is not.

Oh wow, I've never even heard of these. Now I want one, though my daughter is within months of being able to crawl, so maybe I'd better skip it for now.

Also vastly superior for sanitation. Commercial hand washing sinks use them for that reason.

Load stuff directly into dishwasher and as soon as you decide you don't need it.

In general small cleaning tasks are great filler for any wait in dish-making

I got a bunch of time-saving (or at least time-sync-effort-having) from just air-fryer option to run 2 programs at time (basically set different times and it will take care of starting them in such way they both finish at once).

Put carbs like potatoes in one chamber, meat in other, set and start it, make some salad/tea/whatever else in mean time, 15 minutes and done.

> Especially because getting the water boiling is so often a limiting factor, it's worth considering this sort of optimization. I probably spent extra hours per year cooking before I changed how I boil water. There are many common tasks like this in the kitchen; it's worth thinking carefully about them.

Prepare stuff while it boils, like, you either boil stuff into stew in the water or boil some kind of pasta or other carb there, surely there is plenty of other parts of the dish to make in meantime?

I've found that cooking extra food with the intent of freezing it in individual portions is a game changer for when I'm alone at home - my fiancée can also pack them for lunch. Rice, curries, ragoûts are really nice to get out of the freezer, put on a plate in the microwave and eat a few minutes later.

Look at Souper Cubes (or any silicon knockoff) for the molds.

Batch cooking is the only way to have two working adults. I love to cook though, so at home, one cooks the batch part and the other does a different meal for the weekend.

We think our cooking is much better than almost all restaurants we go (and we heard from others that our guests usually thinks the same).

Living with a shared kitchen I had a neighbor (+gf) once who hated cooking. His solution was to cook only once per month. It was quite hilarious, he made about 40-60 meals in one day. Giant pots everywhere.

He would print a menu card for the month with all the 3-4 course meals. He would set the table, light candles, poor the wine and argued what to microwave.

I forgot to add that he bagged the food, freezes it in containers then pulls the brick out of the container. That way they are all the same width and height and he can fit 150 in his freezer.

And last but not least, he also printed a checklist and a map to navigate the freezer.

Embrace asynchronous cooking with a rice cooker. Maybe you can cook rice in a pot, maybe you can't, but you definitely can't do it while you're busy working or when you're out of the house. It cooks the rice and waits for when you're ready.

Seriously. Add a pressure cooker in here too: you can put the rice cooker on, then chop and prepare your pressure cooker items, put that on for 20 minutes and then it basically all finishes at the same time.

One of my lazy recipes is

Sweet potato in rice cooker pot

Filet of Tuna/Salmon/Chicken breast in steam basket

Also some veg like cauliflower/brocolli Kale/Spinach in steam basket

Add 1 cup water, press quick cook/steam.

Season stuff after.

Easy cleanup - nonstick pot.

In my opinion this is one of the under-rated advantages of sous vide. Most proteins have a very wide range of time in which they are appropriately cooked; often between 1 and 4 hours. Having the meat be ready to go, with at most a few minutes of searing time, at any point in a couple of hour window is really convenient.

Our go-to "we didn't plan a meal tonight" is to pull an already-seasoned-in-the-sous-vide bag chicken breast out of the freezer, throw some rice in the rice cooker (I agree with the original point about rice cookers), and microwave some frozen vegetables.

It's a pretty well balanced (if somewhat unexciting) meal that takes ~10-15 minutes of active work, is extremely flexible on timing, and has pretty minimal cleanup.

It does take a few different levels of prep though:

Packaging the chicken breasts (and having the freezer space to store them), and then realizing you are going to make this meal at least 2 hours, preferably 3, beforehand to start the sous vide

I think B. F. Skinner liked that sort of things. (In "Walden Two" he gives a rather detailed description of a contraption to conveniently carry around a glass full of a hot beverage without risk of spilling; I'm positive it was one of his inventions.)

Nice to see a B. F. Skinner reference here. The forgotten king of “making do”.

Walden Two is one hidden gem! I love this book.

Since the phrase "home ec" does not seem to appear in the comments yet I will just point out that at least for my generation, doing the dishes efficiently was taught in high schools. Minimizing movements in the kitchen was a subject of instruction.

I cook every day and I did not relate to this.

Make frequently-used items accessible close to where they will be needed. Install drawers throughout the kitchen -- especially below the counter. Prep before you cook (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place).

And just keep practicing; you will naturally get better and faster.

I'm a mise en place hater personally, since I make a lot of things that are essentially stir fries or stews where some ingredients need significantly more time. Sure, go for it on more complicated recipes, but it's really overkill for lots of daily cooking.

I hear ya there, it’s not necessarily time-optimal when you’re not multi tasking and one step takes much longer than others. I’ll often start my onions and then go get my mise on.

But there’s something zen and satisfying about good mise.

Right now I have a large and stylish open kitchen but there are times where I miss having a galley kitchen, where I could stand in one place and reach everything I needed - pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, knives and accessories on magnetic racks on the walls, fridge contents reachable while standing at the stove... somehow it even had enough prep space.

If you cook with a partner, a kitchen with a wide enough aisle so that one can open a dishwasher and also open a cabinet on the opposite side makes life so much easier, since it means it is also wide enough for 2 people to move past each other easily.

Big tub sink on one side, range on the opposite side of aisle, and at least 3ft/1m of countertop space on both sides of each those is my ideal. One side of the sink will have a dish rack, leaving 3 sides. That means 3 available spaces for prep, eventually turning into 2 as dirty kitchenware piles up next to the sink.

I have a large open plan kitchen with one counter surrounded by hanging pots and pans, knives on a magnetic wall mount, all chopping boards stored vertically in racks and most of the condiments on a wall rack or in the drawers

A smaller oven. Ovens in the US are sized for 1 meal a year, Thanksgiving. If you instead use the smallest oven you can, it will be more efficient to operate and cook more precisely. Also easier to clean.

Unfortunately small ovens are frequently just geared at the cheaper market. So can cut corners on reliability. But these days that’s not uncommon.

I use my gas oven about twice a year, and everything else I do, I do in a convection toaster oven, which is the single most useful cooking appliance in my house; it's not even close.

I’m a weirdo I know, but when I designed our kitchen remodel I didn’t even put a traditional oven in (there’s the hook ups for it for property value purposes). We use a mix of a countertop convection and induction hot plates.

More flexible for our small place, more control, more efficient and more capable other than for oven roasting a large whole turkey. Which no one should do.

We have a pretty nice BlueStar range/gas oven and it's striking how much better the temperature control is in the electic convection oven than in the gas oven; like, if you can get away with cooking something in a convection oven, it's going to yield a better product. I'd rather have a stack of two convection toaster ovens than a gas oven.

I'm grateful for all the notes here. I seem to have been insufficiently clear on the subject of boiling water, so I've written a follow-up post:

https://www.natemeyvis.com/on-boiling-water/

Boiling water in the electric kettle (in a country with 240kV, at least) just makes sense, and I've always done it ... until I moved to a place with an induction stovetop cooker. Now I boil on the stovetop (with the lid on the pan, of course).

No discussion of kitchen optimization is complete without mentioning the Finnish Dish Drying Cabinet invented by Maiju Gebhard while working as the head of the Household Department of the Finnish Work Efficiency Institute (1944-1945)

Working on your knife skills will pay off more than any small organizational optimizations and it's fun.

The top oven of a 30" double oven heats up almost as fast as a toaster oven, you don't have to bend over far to use it, and it takes up no counter space. I thought these were just for people who frequently cook huge meals for large gatherings but we moved into a house with one, used the top oven constantly, and it became a must-have when it was time to replace the range.

I got a gigantic weston vacuum sealer for Christmas one year. Fortunately we have the counter space for it, and drawer space beneath it for the bags, in our pantry. In the amounts we cook it's taken a long time to break even on any cost savings but it's a quality of life game changer. Plus sous vide. In a world where less-than-super-premium American butchery has gone from mediocre to downright sloppy in my lifetime, it's very, very nice being able to break down big roasts and subprimals into chops and steaks and smaller roasts etc and trim them up nicely and freeze whatever we're not going to use immediately. I tie roasts before freezing them.

Just buy the big box of sharpies for the kitchen. They walk off and dry out and get that weird thing that happens when they touch something oily. I mark things like super-duper-pasteurized dairy products with the date opened. I'm not michelin-star disciplined about using painter's tape for other containers. If I have a subprimal's worth of meat to go in the freezer, I use a label maker.

> heats up almost as fast as a toaster oven

OK now I am curious. How powerful is this drawer and how large? I just set my toaster oven to 450ºF and the thermostat clicked off in 18 seconds, at which point an infrared thermometer indicated the walls of the toaster were 355º. My full height oven would take at least 20 minutes to get there. I can see how cutting the volume in half would help but it feels like you'd need more insulation and/or more power to close that gap.

I have a newer Bosch oven which comes with an optionally engable rapid heat function. It can usually reach 200C (400ish F) within 5ish minutes.

I don't know how powerful. It will fit a half sheet. The door is a little less than a foot high and the interior obviously is smaller. I wasn't being "I made timing measurements" exact by saying "almost as fast" - think "almost as fast for my purposes". It takes about five-ten minutes to preheat and my old toaster oven took minutes, not tens of seconds. I don't remember how many. It's just a big enough improvement over a full height oven that we use it a lot more, and don't bother with a toaster oven.

You also can toast just about anything in it under the broiler.

Sounds useful. I agree a few minutes is not bad at all. I had just been wondering if you have one of those models that uses a battery to dump energy into the oven.

Note that kitchen infrared thermometer may lie to you with things like the temperature of stainless steel (see emissivity).

You need surface thermometer or pro infrared thermometer

Gee thanks for the pro tip. I used a Fluke.

I find kitchenwork provides good case studies for computational thinking. Thinking about stacking dishes by their sizes leads to a tour of sorting algorithms and datastructures. Thinking about predicting the prices of different preparations that use the same ingredients leads to principal component analysis.

There's also the application of computational methods to cooking.

The boiling water thing reduces waiting time but doubles active work time. It would be much more efficient to just work on other tasks while the water boils if there are any.

This is also one thing I love about sous vide cooking. It’s slow in terms of total time elapsed but usually very efficient in terms of time spent actively cooking.

"Instant Hot" is a tap you can install that's like a mini-thermos/water heater to give you some amount of "instant hot" water.

There's a decent caled a "pot watcher" (aka: boiling-rattler) that is a mechanical "hey, it's boiling" indicator.

Anytime I'm cooking or thinking of cooking, I'll always throw water into the tea kettle (countertop boiler) and start it off, for exactly the reasons stated.

I'm very thumbs up (and already follow) almost all of his advice, including the "use two boiling elements to get water boiling faster".

Why 2? Why not 8?

How much time when cooking do you spend waiting for water to boil when not doing something else? For me it’s zero. And if for some reason it wasn’t zero that means I’m cooking leisurely and don’t much care about time.

Are you the poker Matt Maroon? If so, I've been enjoying your writing for a very long time.

I definitely don't sit around doing nothing when I'm waiting for water to boil, but very often the water is still on the critical path (e.g., because I want the pasta to be done ASAP even if other things aren't done yet, or because it's on the critical path even if I can use all that time efficiently).

* Deli cups.

* Quarter hotel pans (the stackable kind).

* Painter's tape and Sharpies.

* Zojirushi water boiler.

* Foot pedal sink.

Whether you think that using plastic (deli) cups are a cause of all humanities health problems or not, you might want to use glass containers. They're reusable, microwavable (I believe that's a no-no for plastic, but who knows nowadays) and dishwasher safe.

There's a reason you're more likely to see a line cook drinking out of a deli than a glass container.

Well I don't think residential kitchens are as chaotic as a commercial kitchen, so sure drinking out of a non breaking container is probably a good idea (glass breakage is a pita there).

However most people (I assume on HN) are not line cooks and do not work in commercial kitchens. I drink out of glass (don't want plasticy taste) and use glass to store leftover food.

Here's one: "There's a reason most line cooks drink out a deli rather than read NIH" [0] :)

As previously mentioned, whether one thinks using glass is worth it is a personal preference.

[0]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11193405/

[0] TLDR: Guidance

Avoid plastic containers as much as possible. My ranking (and only if food-grade) of probability of leaching chemicals into the foods they contain...

I store leftovers in deli cups. I usually wash them afterwards. A rigid plastic deli has about as much plastic as a freezer bag, but by the time you've reused a deli once, you've crushed the freezer bag in efficiency, and the median reuse count of one of my delis is probably double-digits. Meanwhile, if I need to clean my fridge out fast, I can just check the entire deli in 2 seconds. Do that with a glass container.

You do you, but if you buy prepared food, be aware that no part of the supply chain for that food is fastidious about plastic the way you are.

Breakability, among others, I suspect. I've never cooked commercially, but I did work at Cinnabon long enough ago that we made the rolls out of things that were identifiably ingredients. All the staff cups were plastic because things get moving pretty quick on a busy day.

The one Christmas Eve I worked in college was bananas. We had both ovens running (doesn't happen outside the holiday season) and were putting pans in and taking them out about as fast as we could make rolls and proof them.

I think it's that, but just as much that glass glasses are unitaskers, and delis are some of the most multifunctional things you can stock in your kitchen.

I actually use wet erase markers instead of tape and sharpies. You can write whatever you want on whatever container and then just put it in the dishwasher when you're done. It's like writing on studs when you're framing.

Rice cooker

Cooktop timer included in the induction stove

> Zojirushi water boiler

Purchased this last month and really regret not buying it years earlier (we got the 5L CV-DCC50 model).

It's amazing how we never worry about boiling water anymore (apart from large pots of water for cooking pasta or something).

Our electric water kettle sees very little use now.

> If you are time-constrained and do a lot of kitchen work, though, it's worth paying attention to these optimizations.

Absolutely. However, lately I've been going at humdrum daily stuff at a pace so slowly it's just a tad shy of ridiculous. Things like making coffee, walking the dogs, vacuuming, driving (not obstructing anyone, just a relaxed pace) and also cooking. I've found very little downside; if you relax while you're doing your dailies you don't need to rush through so you can plop down on the couch.

I don't have children though, not sure how that factors in.

I've found the blue tape and a sharpie to be a game changer. It helps me keep my fridge tidy without having to go through everything and guess if it's still ok. I find I actually waste less food when I throw things out regularly because I know that if it's in there it's good to eat and it doesn't get lost among old leftovers that aren't any good anymore anyway.

That wouldn't make me happy. If the sharpie on the tape said it was bad, I'd still look at it, sniff it and probably eat it. Certain foods scare me though. eg there's a common claim that boiled rice shouldn't be kept for more than a day and then re-heated. I follow this received wisdom even though it never seems bad and I don't know anyone who got ill from eating re-heated boiled rice. On the other hand, raw chicken does not scare me because I have an uncontrollable revulsion to it when it has actually gone bad. And of course, Camembert isn't worth eating until at least a fortnight after the expiry date.

Fried rice is traditionally made with cold leftover rice from the previous day.

Yet, making just the right quantity each time is invaluable to avoid any waste!

It does't tell you if it's bad, it only tells you how old it is. You get to decide if you want to eat it. It makes the decision process easier and helps to select the older leftovers that are still good but pushing it on the age.

My own kitchen problems are all related to my ADHD.

1. I never even think about food till I'm already hungry, so any meal which takes a long time to cook is out. (I'm meal prepping a bit more often these days, which helps.)

2. I just _cannot_ cook two things and have them ready at the same time. So at least one of the things needs to be something that can hold once cooked. Pasta tends to work well.

Start putting it in your calendar -- meal times as well as "start cooking". I make enough for the family for have at least two meals. One-pot meals means less fussing with trying to get multiple dishes to be ready at the same time.

I keep a Google doc of our dinner recipes. These are things that we know everyone likes, and usually I make tweaks to Internet recipes to either make them more to my taste, or easier to make. It also means I can split the effort -- my wife picks what we're having from our list and shops for the ingredients. Then I cook. If you have around 20 recipes you can just keep rotating and not get tired of them, and I like that I get to practice making the same recipes and make little changes to improve how I cook them each time.

Basically dinner takes very little thought or effort right now. Which is great for the stage of my life I am in right now. It doesn't always have to be this structured but it's nice to have an easy fallback.

This sort of reminds me of those single powder or whatever meals they were awhile back - for those that need to eat but take no pleasure or dedicate no time.

For me, cooking (prep and cleanup included) is about enjoying the process, understanding what I am making and taking time doing it.

If I want quick, sure there are options around.

Cooking for me is relaxation and time away not thinking about tech and the like.

Soylent?

Strangely based on the movie Soylent green

Think of it like getting AI to write your boilerplate and that annoying-to-use API, so you can focus on the architecture and the difficult bits.

If you've got a gas stove and need to boil water to cook with, boil it first in an electric kettle. It'll boil much faster.

Speaking of kitchen optimizations - I’m building a voice assistant specifically for cooking that lets you ask contextual questions hands-free while cooking. ‘How much butter?’ ‘What’s next?’ etc. - instead of constantly needing to look at your phone/tablet with messy hands. In beta now if anyone wants to try it.

A dishwasher micro optimization: put the small forks/spoons face down in the basket, and the large ones face up. Helpful when unloading because these items are time consuming to visually distinguish, but we sort them.

Works best if you can somehow convince your spouse to do it, too. :)

Chinese cooking is really optimized, the recipes (well, for home cooked food) are fairly direct and involve simple prep steps that can be performed quickly. Even if I wasn’t married to a Chinese, I wouldn’t think of cooking anything else just due to the time savings alone.

The issue I find with Chinese cooking is that it often requires very high heat and so (probably due to bad technique on my part) I get a house full of smoke or at least very high VOCs. Any tips to avoid that?

Close the kitchen door, open the window and high ventilation!

Use a gas wok burner out on the kitchen porch. These will get you closer to restaurant power levels anyway. They use what amounts to a broken off gas main with a foot pedal.

An appropriate oil (canola/peanut) and having everything that's going to go in the pan prepped before you even get the heat going are the main things to minimize smoke, but if you're cooking something that really calls for max heat you'll get smoke periodically as the oil returns to that temp unless your burner can't get the pan up to the smoke point of the oil. Prep is very important since adding ingredients absorbs a lot of heat so if you're cooking something that needs smoking hot oil you can immediately add ingredients in when the oil hits temp and that will absorb energy to bring the temp back down. It also helps you get it done asap. If you have to fumble around for stuff or prep ingredient 4 on the side while the pan is already in use for ingredient 1/2/3 it's very easy to loose track of things and end up with a pan that just sits there smoking. Also add the oil just before you start cooking, don't let it heat up with the pan.

Practically speaking in a home kitchen you also don't have to cook with heat that high, even if you're using a wok. There are plenty of recipes that call for lower temps, and you can often even make things that do call for high temps on a lower one instead. If you're dedicating to cooking that way you could also look into improving your vent hood if that's an option in your housing setup.

Get a real ventilation for the stove, not just a microwave that recirculates air. Most Chinese in China have separate kitchens with doors and window ventilation, it’s harder in the way Americans design open kitchens with the living room.

You can do lots of Chinese cooking on lower heat using non stick pans, fried rice isn’t that healthy for you anyways. We might trigger the smoke detector once or twice a month, some food (like fish) has a higher chance of triggering than others even if we don’t go full boast on temp.

I have a few things that I can add. If you just want an adequate meal with the least amount of work, invest in:

* multicooker, one with a pressure cooking setting. You just have to press a few buttons and forget about it. If you know how much time it takes to cook something (for example - chickpeas, 26 minutes), you just set it for 26 minutes and go do something else. The multicooker will keep it warm for a few hours after it's done. No need to turn off the stove or anything like that. There's hardly any vapor released. You can make lots of dishes under pressure - pasta, lentils, chickpeas, beans... You can steam (almost?) any vegetable, as well. For beans and chickpeas the total prep time is hours, but the actual human time is minutes. Just put them under water for a few hours (takes ~30 seconds), then drain and put into the multicooker (takes ~1 minute). It takes a few minutes of actual work, but it also lets you forget about it, as it won't over-boil or anything like that. I can put something and go out, come back after a few hours and have a hot meal ready. I only use my regular stove top to make popcorn once in a while. The only downside is not being able to add different ingredients after the cooking has begun, as it's under pressure. And the "26" minutes above don't include the time it takes to reach the required pressure and the time it takes to release it. You can speed both steps by boiling water in a kettle before putting in the multicooker and by using the release valve after the cooking is done.

* bread maker - literally put water, oil, salt, sugar, flour and yeast one after the other, press a few buttons, wait a few hours and you get a perfect bread. Beats any recipe, including the "no-knead" ones, in terms of convenience. I can make better bread with lots of kneading and resting and whatnot, but the bread that comes out is good enough for me, so I don't see myself ever making bread by hand again.

If I lose all my possessions and have to rebuild from scratch, I would buy a cheap multicooker first, then a bread maker. Then, I'd think about a regular stove, a microwave and so on.

Another "optimization" is keeping everything in jars. Flour, coffee, sugar, cocoa, condiments, beans, oats - everything. It's much easier to see what and how much you have of everything, it's transparent, you can put labels on the jars (cheap price tags/stickers), you can pour from the jars easily, you can scoop with them with a spoon. No messy paper or plastic wraps. I don't get why people keep things in their original packaging - a bulky, wrinkled plastic or paper wrap that obscures the view behind it, obscures the view inside and makes it harder to scoop with a spoon.

For jars you use frequently, keep a spoon inside. I have a spoon in my coffee jar. I still have to get another spoon to swirl my coffee when it's done, so the sugar dissolves, but it's nice to not care about that when you're transferring the coffee from the jar to the moka pot or coffee maker.

And finally, keep similar ingredients near each other. The condiments, the teas, the legumes, the flours, the sauces. Just designate a place for each type of food. You can always adjust it later. In my cupboard the sugary condiments (sugar, molasses, xylitol, honey, etc.) are on the left, the salty ones are on the right (various types of salt, as well as salty mixes) and the other ones are in the middle (herbs and whatnot). Above that the most protein-y things are on the left, the cereal-y things are in the middle (oats, various seeds) and misc. things are on the right. The idea is that whenever I buy something, when I come home I immediately pour it into a jar and put it where it belongs. That way everything is pretty and organized. Queries like "how much lentils do I have left" are answered in seconds. The overhead of keeping the jars clean is minimal, as you don't have to clean the jars all the time - if you had a jar of lentils that's now empty, just leave it "dirty". It's not unhygienic, especially if you'll put lentils or other food that you'll boil in it later, anyway. I clean them once they get visible dirty - if I've touched them with greasy fingers, for example.

I agree with all. We use Tupperware clones instead of jars, and a microwave+gril+convection oven for 75% cooking. Reposting an old comment:

We are very happy with our Samsung Hotblast https://www.samsung.com/in/microwave-ovens/convection/28-lit... (or a similar version). You setup the temperature to 200°C (392°F), the time to 20 or 30 minutes and you can go to another room while it cooks. It takes some time to find the perfect time, and sometime you must use the microwave or grill instead, but it's perfect for cooking in a short time.

Agreed on jars. We use Weck and Ball for different purposes, and truly love them. It's odd to be so attached to trivial chunks of silicon, and we're not attached to them as individuals but I appreciate them every single day.

I struggle with discarding the original packaging. Sometimes I want to know what the nutritional content of product X is. I have a guilt drawer of collapsed packaging. This has the added benefits of confirming formulation changes, shrinkflation evidence, and remembering brands of certain commodities that were better or worse than others. It also satisfies my "preserve all available data" instincts, which I imagine many other geeks share -- although it is only tolerated with amusement by other members of my household.

I take a photo of almost any package. I have a folder with labels from years ago. I admit that if the manufacturers of X change the ingredients without changing the design/layout, I wouldn't notice. So I might have to set up a system where I remind myself to check everything once every few months to compare it to the photos I have. But at least the photos don't take up any space. I used to have a drawer with packaging and receipts, too, but it was unmanagable.

For jars I use regular jars for most things. Regular jars of food you'd buy in the supermarket. They're basically free. I just have to soak them and remove the original label. For some things I like tall jars, the kind tomato sauce comes in. Doesn't really matter, except they fill certain shelves of a specific height better.

Photos are an interesting idea. I'm one of the freaks who does not carry their phone on their person at all times, so it would be less convenient for me (until I join the 20th C at least), although more convenient for the rest of the household... So we'll see. :)

One of the things that I really appreciate about the Weck and Ball jars are their uniformity. You can get different lids for different purposes (air-tight, water-tight, with straw-hole, flexible, etc). The lids are cross-compatible for most jar shapes/sizes within the brand, but not cross-brand of course. This is OK because we use them for very different purposes, usually. They also stack well, the lids can be reused indefinitely and put through the dishwasher without worrying about rust or deformation, can be easily replaced if lost or damaged, etc etc. They're also more durable than the single-use-intended retail packaging jars. I'm sure this sounds a bit silly, but it does honestly make a difference, for my brain at least!

Of course they are not free, and I never would have made the change if it wasn't required for canning foods from the garden. But after making the switch, I've always been happier for it. YMMV!

Optimize why? So that we can spend the extra seconds on our social media apps? People need to learn to slow down and not try to save twenty seconds when boiling water.

No, boiling water in the kettle literally saves you 10 minutes of hanging around every single time you cook, it's a no brainier.

The time it takes for water to boil is your time to prep all the ingredients or clean the kitchen. In cooking there is no waiting.

Boiling the kettle means I can make pasta and a sauce in about 12 minutes, boiling on the stove just adds tons of time. Given that the kettle is next to the stove it's simply self sabotaging not to use it, one button press.

This will vary depending on the type of cooktop you have, and whether you have a 240V kettle.

Electric coil cooktops, and 120V kettles are the slowest.

Gas/induction cooktops, and 240V kettles are the quickest.

Yeah huge difference if you have 240V mains. A 120V electric kettle is not much of a timesaver (though perhaps still worth something if it frees up a place on the cooktop that you need for something else).

Anecdotally, with two young children (5, 1), the savings add up and mean twenty more seconds with them or not being overwhelmed after they're asleep with the state of the house.

Indeed.

Why should I optimize my code? To save 420ms for what?

I dunno. I try to optimize everything in life, maybe it's the engineer in me (I find it fun and interesting how people do things inefficiently). I also try and measure ingredients exactly (e.g. 420g of flour, not 419g or 421g), however that might be some low form of OCD. /shrug

Whether I use that extra time or not doesn't really matter for me.

The water boiling one doesn't make any sense. One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.

An induction range would remove the need for transferring boiling water around. At least in the US, that's the fastest device, since countertop kettles are limited to 1.8kW or so. Induction 'burners' usually are 2.5-4kW, and assuming the right cookware, much better at transferring that energy into the water (and not the air like a gas burner)

Come to Europe, we have the 3+ kw kettles!

Even 10 second kettle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDLw1Rx_cAI

(In 2014 they were still in the EU)

No fair because you also have the 240V outlets :(

You can have 240V outlets too... at least, a lot of woodworkers seem to install them in their garages. Are they legal in the kitchen?

Yes, but it's hard to find the 240V appliances here except for clothes dryers, ovens, or built-in ranges/cooktops. Since a full induction cooktop is very expensive, most people who have induction will have a single portable hob.

The 220-240v alone is already a huge time saver. 110-120v is just not kettle friendly.

> One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.

But.. Applying heat from two sources is better than applying heat from only one?

Fastest way to do it: induction hob and a hot water tap with one of those under sink boilers. It takes longer to fill the pan than to get the water to a rolling boil.

Related Technology Connections video, where he uses electric kettle at 6 kW, to boil 1L of water in 55 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZybkX8tLI

I've been wishing we could do an electric kettle with two heating units, on the off-chance that I have two nearby outlets on different circuits.

> One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.

I think you're missing the part where you dump one into the other once one boils.

Obviously, heating in parallel is going to be faster.

Heating a cup of water each in two different kettles is faster than heating two cups of water in only one kettle.

I had similar thoughts to the author, but I opted to just optimize those actions out of my life. If you only eat Huel(or any other powdered food thing) at home then pretty much everything described in the article is no longer an issue.

No more dealing with dishes, dishwashers, stray items on the table, boiling water etc. The only thing you need to worry about is cleaning your one huel cup which you can do right before you prepare your next shake.

I did it for a few years, eating breakfast + lunch at the office and then Huel for dinner or eating out at restaurant.

After seeing a little child drink his Huel™ from his cupped hands, I threw away my Huel™ cup. It was my only possession.

Buy a modern pressure-cooker (e.g. Instant Pot). It cooks many items with zero loss in quality--often in less than 1/2 the time.

I've really enjoyed using my newer instant pot as a sous vide lately. The fact that the lid closes on it is nice for saving energy, though it does take longer to get to temperature than my anova. But the anova is less convenient.

there are indications that cooking and doing other house related chores are actually beneficial for the mind. Cooking is specially important.

I don't know the reasons as I only read parts of papers and posts about it, but it seems something related to human brain evolution, but I am no expert. If someone knows more I would be happy to know

I’ve been working an a meal planning application that so far can order all your groceries after planning a meal. There is a basic task graph now to estimate time to finish and takes into account different euqipment like a food processor or pressure cooker.

It’s at https://mezi.fyi would love any feedback there is a demo on the landing page

You only need to remove as many dishes from the dishwasher as you intend to put in.

So you mean you don't completely empty it and then put dirty dishes back inside among the clean ones?

I'm not sure I understand the thing about boiling water:

1. Put a modest amount of water in the pot and turn the stove element on.

2. Put a modest amount of water in the electric kettle and turn it on.

3. If one boils before the other, either combine them (if the other is nearly boiling) or add a little more water to the already-boiling one.

What happens if they boil at the same time? Don't combine them? What happens if pot boils before kettle? Add water to the pot and forget about the kettle?

And overall boiling water seems to be the worst example to pick to show how to optimize cooking. You can't over-boil water, so depending on your appliance, if you don't start using your boiling water as soon as it boils, it will either stop heating and start loosing temperature, or it will keep boiling, water will be lost through evaporation and energy consumed needlessly. But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating. Furthermore, with electric kettle and induction stove, you'll hardly have time to chop a few onions or clean a few carrots before water is ready.

I've seen people needing half to a full hour to make pasta with a store-bought sauce, and thought that was crazy, but that's because they weren't doing things in parallel and/or not in the right order.

Like, if you plan to make pasta, first you put water to boil, then you get your pasta and everything else while its heating. And don't wait for your pasta to be ready to get your strainer. Same for the sauce. Get it and open it while the pasta are cooking.

Here’s how you optimize the time it takes for things to boil:

You spend that time prepping ingredients, cooking another dish, or cleaning the kitchen. In cooking there’s no such thing as waiting.

> In cooking there’s no such thing as waiting.

I tend to go hyper mis en place when I cook. So by the time "active" cooking is taking place, it's a pretty chill affair and I often end up reading my book in the bits of down time.

> So by the time "active" cooking is taking place, it's a pretty chill affair

Nice! As my mom used to say: A good cook leaves the kitchen cleaner than they found it.

I do a mix of mise-en-place and frantic chopping in between things. Depends on what I'm making and how the different activities gantt chart together.

Agreed, working in the kitchen is all about figuring out how to do things in parallel without messing them up. You can chop and dice while the pot or pan is heating up, you can do the dishes while the sauce reduces, you can make a salad while meat rests, etc.

> What happens if they boil at the same time?

Then they're boiled and you don't have to do anything. But the point is that they boiled in exactly half the time it would have taken using only one of the devices with the full amount of water.

> But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating.

If you're making a full meal, sure. If all you want to do is hard-boil a couple of eggs, then yeah you want to hurry it up.

If you really want speed, use your microwave as a third!

There's also those "always on" hot water dispensers. And your home hot water can also be put on a pumped loop for instant access.

Vacuum-sealable containers are pretty great.

By far the biggest boost to my efficiency is using the same stackable containers for prep and storage instead of just random bowls. Even if they don't have measurement marks, just using the same containers all the time lets me measure by sight for ingredients that don't need to be precise. It also allows saving space on counters and in sinks.

Commercial cooks from fast food line cooks to Gordon Ramsay may be rolling their eyes at this basic fact right now, but most cooking shows and videos don't seem to show this strategy.

I'd really like to vectorize-- prep once for, say, 8 or 16 contiguous shots at pan searing the salmon the correct way.

There should be an app that matches home vectorization needs with busy restaurant schedules. So I would pay, say, $50 bucks to jump in the kitchen and get yelled at to properly produce either 16 acceptable salmon entrees or ruin 2, whichever comes first.

From the article: boil water in two different containers then combine it.

Also from the article: "please prioritize safety considerations, such as minimizing the chances of spilling boiling water [...] That stuff matters a lot more than small time savings."

uhm...

If pouring boiling water from a kettle--a thing designed specifically for pouring water--into a pot significantly increases the risk of spilling boiling water, seems like your only option is to limit yourself to cold liquids.

It is hard not to increase the risk when the baseline is not pouring any boiling water at all.

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