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> 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.

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.

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.

> 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.

> 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.

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.

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

> 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

> 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.

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.

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.

> 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.

> 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

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

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.

> * 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 ; )

> 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.

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.

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.

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.

> 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.

> 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?

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.

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.

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.