Asklemmy

I used to work for a production company that made food related video programming so “food hacks” is something that is burned into my brain at this point.

If you don’t bake bread in a Dutch oven, toss a few ice cubes in the bottom of your oven to make steam while the bread is cooking so it makes a crispy crust.

Pressure cook a whole rotisserie chicken (bones, meat, and all) for 20ish minutes for amazing chicken stock.

Not really a hack, but Beef bullion and sun dried tomatoes in a cream sauce is a lovely combo.

Add MSG to food when you cook.

Toast spices before grinding them in a mortar and pestle to really make the flavors punchy.

When making ramen, I typically make ahead of schedule some spicy compound butter I can add to the top for extra flavor. It includes butter, salt, garlic, Thai chili peppers (possibly even Szechuan peppers) blended and then refrigerated back into a butter shape.

Boil water while you are searing steak so your smoke alarm is less likely to go off (assuming you have an oven vent that blows air rather than vents outside)

You eat with your eyes first, so presentation is actually important when preparing food. It can’t turn around nasty tasting food, but doing a little bit of extra work at the end like adding chopped chives or parsley to a dish without anything else green on it adds a lot.