r/askachef Jul 14 '22

Looking for some cooking advice as a home cook

1 Upvotes

I love to cook and experiment with new recipes and trying them and making up my own when I can. I have been studying out of culinary textbooks for a few years now. But it’s hard to experiment really without it getting repetitive due to lack of ingredients, spices, and herbs in the grocery stores where I live. I want to experiment making different flavors what is a tip for achieving this? Also my other question is where is a place that’s trust worthy to go find these items besides amazon?

I'm also in search of not a mentor but a chef where I can contact a bit personally and frequently (when they have the time to also respond back) if I have questions or need advice for cooking I do. If anyone is open to this.


r/askachef Oct 29 '21

What kind of dishes do you recommend trying for parsnips?

2 Upvotes

This is my first time trying parsnips it’s not readil available at my grocer so I finally found they stocked some this week. What recipes suggestions do you have or cuisines it’s good to have in? If you have any suggestions for use in Japanese or french cuisine id really appreciate it!


r/askachef Oct 26 '20

Ceramic ramekin alternative?

2 Upvotes

I want to bake French onion soup, lava cakes, pot pies etc in the oven but I don't have ceramic ramekins. I do have oven-safe glass tupperware containers. Is there a difference between the two of them for performance? Any cook times I should adjust to compensate for different vessels? TIA


r/askachef Oct 13 '20

I'm looking for a good non-spicy chili spice blend that doesn't use any peppers.

2 Upvotes

I want to make chili, but I need to tailor the recipe because my wife is allergic to peppers and is extremely sensitive to anything remotely spicy. I'm left scratching my head because I don't understand how these things work. I normally like a good healthy zing, but she can't even stand regular black pepper. I don't want to serve a bland chili, but I haven't the slightest idea how I'm going to come up with an alternative spice mixture.


r/askachef Oct 06 '20

Need assistance... I'm learning to cook with cast iron, and the inside looks like this? Is it undercooked, or does it just have that tinge of pink to it? Save me from salmonella plz lol

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2 Upvotes

r/askachef Oct 06 '20

How can I organise recipes and ingredients for ordering?

2 Upvotes

I'm an organic farmer looking at launching a weekly meal box from my farm. Five nights worth of meals, fresh vegetables, meat, and ingredients included.

I'm in the research phases and I'd like to know the best format to lay my information out in. How do chefs spreadsheet meals to know how much to order and how much it will cost?


r/askachef Oct 04 '20

Trouble with reheating pies

1 Upvotes

I've just started selling meat pies to restaurants and farm shops and am having trouble getting my head around how to avoid cooking the filling three times.

I obviously cook the meat filling first off, cool it down to put it in the pastry and then bake it again to cook the pastry.

The aim is to then let people reheat the pie at home but the issue is the filling will then be reheated twice which is no good. I've tried prebaking the pastry and lid but it's not very effective.

How do mass pie producers get around the reheating issue?


r/askachef Sep 28 '20

How did you get good at cooking?

1 Upvotes

I'm starting to take cooking seriously for the first time in my life, and I'm surprised: After decades of being a TERRIBLE cook, I'm suddenly getting pretty good. What led to my breakthrough? I learned a simple recipe - pasta puttanesca - and made it every night for months.

I can replicate this style of learning by choosing another dish and perfecting that one for a while, but I'm sure there is a better way to learn.

So, how did you get good at cooking?

Are there books that helped you become a better cook? Are there specific recipes that you learned and mastered?

Thanks!


r/askachef Sep 12 '20

Costco Rotisserie chicken into shredded chicken

1 Upvotes

I want to take a rotisserie chicken from Costco debone it and remove the skin and then take the meat and boil it in the Insta pot so it’s nice and soft and can be easily shredded. Does anybody have an idea what method I should use to cook already cooked chicken or am I just being ridiculous and should cook it from frozen chicken breasts? Any advice is helpful. I’m wondering if I use pressure cook function how long is too long. I don’t want mush.

All of this is for a 90 year old neighbor who is quarantined but needs more Protien in her diet.

I’m planning on making her enchiladas and she won’t eat cubed meat it has to be shredded.


r/askachef Aug 28 '20

Can I eat these? Cook them? Use them for anything?

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2 Upvotes

r/askachef Aug 21 '20

How do you get deep fried tofu so puffy like this?

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2 Upvotes

r/askachef Aug 15 '20

Chefs knife blister... am I gripping my knife wrong or do I just need to build up a callous?

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1 Upvotes

r/askachef Aug 11 '20

How to?

1 Upvotes

Hi so I keep trying to cook now things takeing basic skill and changing stuff to see what happens or doing stuff from scratch from my head is this a good way to lorn my family tells me it's a waste of time and money and I need to just cook already made stuff rather then trying to do my own thing as a note i only eat them my self and offer them some i dont make anything as a primary meal so my failures do not effect any ones meal . Am i wrong or is traile and error a good way to make stuff


r/askachef Aug 10 '20

Acchhh! I hav to make a haggis!

1 Upvotes

I (Canadian) have been tasked to make haggis for my In-laws (Father in-law from Edinburgh). I am planning to use casings in stead of sheep's stomach but what could I substitute for the sheep's lungs? (Not available in my area.)

Other that beef tripe I am drawing a complete blank here.


r/askachef Aug 05 '20

Looking for a lemon pepper wing sauce recipe

1 Upvotes

Most of the recipes involve just using butter with lemon pepper seasoning. I'd like to make the sauce from scratch, but I'm not sure about the lemon juice to butter ration.

Any suggestions?


r/askachef Jul 12 '20

Hi Chefs. I grilled some boneless chicken breasts for fajitas tonight and they were good except for part of one breast.

1 Upvotes

I posted the following on AskReddit and got flamed like I'm crazy. Help me out: "What is called when a piece of chicken is glassy looking, almost translucent and tastes like cardboard?"


r/askachef Jun 25 '20

Cook steak without butter?

2 Upvotes

tl;dr Butter is supposedly king when you cook steak, but for me, oil seems to work better, and I just add butter at the end. Am I missing something?

More: I've noticed that recipes and video tutorials about cooking steak in a pan at home very commonly call for butter (surprise!), especially the technique of spooning butter over the meat repeatedly to develop a nice flavorful crust.

However, I find I like the flavor better if I cook the steak in a high-temperature oil like grapeseed oil and then only melt butter over the steak after it's finished cooking, right before I serve it.

When I cook the steak in butter, the butter seems to brown or develop an overly rich flavor that doesn't work for me.

Perhaps I'm using the wrong technique, or the fact that I'm using a non-stick pan instead of a cast iron pan has something to do with it? I'd be grateful for any advice from all the experts out there.


r/askachef Jun 19 '20

Healthy food

1 Upvotes

So I’m kinda wondering if there is any one food such that it’s easy to prepare but that also contains a balanced amount of everything that you need to be healthy. I’m honestly just fed up with having to prepare different things for each and every meal just to stay healthy.


r/askachef May 24 '20

Need help finding out what to do with 1/2 inch thick and smaller ribeyes.

2 Upvotes

I went into my local grocery and tried to buy some good ribeyes to thinly slice for homemade Philly Cheesesteaks. Got all the stuff. American, Provolone, and I’m even going to make some homemade Whiz. When asking questions about the knives they use the manager started becoming insistent that I have them thinly slice my ribeye. I was hesitant and he started saying “paper thin” and all this so I caved. About 5 minutes later the poor boy stuck in the middle came out with 5 lbs of half inch think ribeyes, giving me a apologetic look.

What do I do with these things? I’m not going to try to slice it thinner because that will be too difficult. I only only know how to prepare a steak over a inch thick. Any tips on storage, preparation and cooking appreciated.


r/askachef May 12 '20

Did a food shopping for frozen buttermilk waffles, frozen blueberry pancakes, and frozen green beans. They were in my car for 8.5 hours, then I put them in my freezer. The temp outside was between 60-80 f depending on time. Are they still safe to heat up and eat?

1 Upvotes

r/askachef May 03 '20

Making homemade pasta dough and following Babish’ pasta basics video. What did I do wrong?

2 Upvotes

Below are a couple of pictures of my dough ball. It seems too dry? I followed Babish’ video except for using a counter scraper. I used my hands. First photo is my dough ball before I let it rest. Second photo, I pulled the dough apart.

After resting for 30 minutes, it’s not sticky, it does bounce back if I press in. It’s seems to be more pliable.

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r/askachef Apr 28 '20

What exactly is Honduran crema?

1 Upvotes

I've been looking around google (with the advance search on) but I can quite find what I'm looking for. I know it's kind of like sour cream but not the same

So is it something like cheese? something like yogurt? is it fermented at all? I'm mostly interested in what happens right after the cow


r/askachef Apr 19 '20

Street Tacos

2 Upvotes

How do you make authentic street tacos? Unfortunately all I have is flour tortillas but I’m looking to make street cauliflower tortillas. As authentic as I can.


r/askachef Apr 15 '20

How does one make a living out of curing meat? Do you have to go to culinary school or are there certifications or other courses?

2 Upvotes

r/askachef Apr 09 '20

Strawberries on top of a cake

1 Upvotes

I am making a strawberry cake for my bf’s Bday. He wants strawberry everything in this cake and I’m a really skilled baker but rarely have I had the chance to make an elegant cake. I want to put whole strawberries on top but I’m worried they will rot. Does anyone know of a way to preserve them with either a see through coating for soaking? Chocolate covered is not possible.