People Are Sharing The Cooking "Myths" We've All Believed For Wayyyy Too Long, And My Mind Is Blown

Yahoo

15 hours ago

Kitchen 'facts' have a way of sticking around — one viral TikTok or a chatty aunt at Thanksgiving, and suddenly everyone's sure that olive oil can't handle heat or that washing mushrooms turns them to mush.
So when redditor Henroriro_XIV asked r/Cooking, 'What misinformation about cooking, that a lot of people seem to believe, bothers you the most?' the cooks didn't hold back. I sifted through the flood of replies and pulled the myths that kept popping up, along with the clear, no-nonsense fixes redditors offered to set things straight.
1."People think raw chicken must be washed. NO! It is quite risky. It can spread bacteria all over your countertop and stove, making contamination much more likely. Ew."
—stevenbellomy
"Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that this only exacerbates the risk of infections like Salmonella due to the splashing of the organisms onto and around your kitchen area.
Wipe it down with a paper towel for physical yuckies and/or a lemon, IF YOU MUST (sometimes this helps with tenderizing and flavor if done in advance, then again, you could also just do a brine). Cooking will kill all the germs you're concerned about. Stop washing your meat."
—Chaosfall27
2."Marinating chicken — it's a waste of time. It's the science of chicken muscle. It doesn't absorb anything. It coats but doesn't penetrate in any meaningful way. The only way to get flavour penetration into chicken or other poultry is by brining, particularly by injecting a brine. Acid marinades can alter the texture of the surface of a chicken, but again, don't penetrate. It can make the surface mushy or stringy. But it does not tenderize the meat. Marinating chicken is, at best, providing a coating and then exposing uncooked chicken to the air for longer than necessary. That coating could be applied more safely before cooking to the same effect. At worst, it can make the surface of the chicken mushy."
—lordrothermere
3."It's not a common myth, but I've heard it at least twice, and it flabbergasts and irritates me in equal measure: Fruits and vegetables from a home garden are gross and dirty because of how they were grown, compared to those found in grocery stores. While farms use enough pesticides and herbicides to keep the produce looking darn near perfect, unless it's some high-tech hydroponic stuff, it's grown in dirt and needs to be washed, too."
—Cinsay01
4."Not washing your cast iron pans with soap irritates me so much. Wash your pans and don't be gross. I wash mine with soap, water, and chainmail, then I throw it on the stove top with a dab of oil and heat it up until it smokes. Never had a problem with rust or my seasoning failing."
—Thel_Odan
"It's because you're legitimately not supposed to use 'strong soap' meaning lye, but dish soap (that is, weak soap) makers never bothered to distinguish what 'strong soap' actually means in their marketing, so people think Dawn is 'strong soap' when it's not even close (even if it is a strong dish soap compared to other brands). Don't use lye on cast iron, but any weak soap (meaning dish soap) is fine."
—Johnny_B_GOODBOI
5."Fresh fish over frozen is so wrong because most frozen fish is flash frozen on the boat and is closer to fresh than a cold storage one that's been on the road for the same time. Same argument, different reason for canned tomatoes over fresh tomatoes; canned are picked fresh while fresh are under-ripened, picked for transportation, and gassed for color."
—InquisitiveNerd
6."That it takes like 15 minutes to caramelize onions when it takes AT LEAST an hour, closer to two."
—Ok_Explanation4813
7."'Only cook with a wine you'd drink.' This works as a rule if you drink bargain wine, but it's ridiculous if applied to people who drink and enjoy mid or high-priced wines. I would never drink a glass of Charles Shaw/Two-Buck-Chuck (from Trader Joe's), but that's the wine I cook with. It's cheap and tastes great when cooked in food. Yes, in a pinch, I've used pricey wine to cook with and didn't notice a difference."
—mintbrownie
8."That cooking at home costs more. No. If you went to the store and bought every ingredient new, of course, that would cost a lot. People don't cook like that every meal. You need to use the leftover ingredients you bought for the cost-saving to kick in."
—MyNameIsSkittles
9."'Olive oil shouldn't be used for high-heat cooking.' In reality, good-quality extra virgin olive oil has a higher smoke point than many think (around 400°F), and it's completely fine for sautéing or roasting. The myth comes from confusion between refined and unrefined oils and a bit of marketing."
—jds_94
10."'Be suuuuuuper careful not to get any egg yolk in your egg whites, otherwise they can't be whipped! And wipe down your bowl/beater with vinegar to make sure there's no fat there, too!' You can whip an entire egg to medium peaks. Before chemical leavening agents (like baking soda), that was how you made cakes nice and light. You don't want any fat in your egg whites because if you're whipping egg whites, you're usually making something meringue-based, and you want meringues to be nice and dry. Fat is a moisturizer/tenderizer, so it's not welcome at the party. Still, a tiny bit won't kill a dish. Wiping down your bowl/beater with vinegar is a good idea because acid stabilizes egg whites and helps them whip up faster. If fat stopped you from being able to beat air into eggs, then mayonnaise would be impossible."
—Ok_Surprise_4090
11."'Test if spaghetti is done by throwing it at a wall to see if it sticks.' Or you could like…taste it or something."
—perthuz
12."While I agree that recipes often underestimate the time required, I dislike the idea that 'cooking a meal' requires a huge amount of time and effort. Even worse if the person saying it makes it into some 'I'm just sooooo busy' competition. Yes, some meals would require a lot of time and effort, but you can still make serviceable meals with a small amount of time and effort. Over time, you'll get better at cooking, and those meals will get better too."
—MAMark1
13."Fancy, single-purpose gadgets will save time. The part of cooking I've learned that takes the most time is cleaning up after. More often than not, I see the fancy cutters and stirrers as an extra complicated thing to wash, dry, and store compared to the knife or spoon I would otherwise use. With a little practice, you can get the onion minced small, nearly as quickly as the swing top veggie chopper, with a lot fewer pieces with nooks and crannies to clean afterwards. I'm all for simplifying and speeding up the process, and if you have a lot of cheese to grate or veggies to chop or slice, then a gadget can be beneficial. Otherwise, for most home chefs, busy parents, or novice cooks, I say save yourself a few hundred dollars and forget about the gadgets. Any amount of time they save in prep, they'll cost double in clean up."
—whydid7eat9
14."That cooking is an art that can't be taught. It's not an art. It can be explained. Good Eats taught me how to cook. Thank you, Alton Brown. My wife thanks you too."
—Dragonswim
"There are very few things in the world that are impossible to learn. There are tons of free resources to learn from. Look up a recipe, give it a shot, Google things you don't understand."
—VividBeautiful3782
15."That the spiciest part of peppers is the seeds. This leads to people leaving the bitter seeds. The real spicy part is the pith (white part inside that holds the seeds)."
—Dakkadence
16."Cook tops and burners have settings other than 'surface of the sun.' Medium is the new high, people. AND you can change the setting WHILE COOKING! Gasp."
—Sixtyhurts
17."'You should only flip a steak or hamburger once.' I found this to be false. I have more control over a hamburger when I flip it multiple times. It's more important to pay close attention and check the temperature. Also, a technique for cooking steak called butter basting requires multiple flips."
—rudiseeker
That's the shortlist of kitchen myths Reddit is tired of hearing. If there's another one that drives you up the wall, let me know in the comments or fill out the anonymous form below!
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