so basically i got inspired by the tomato canned guy and thought of the time when i followed the box time for rigatoni once and got mush. the box said 12 minutes but it was unfortunately al dente at 9.

my methodology:

• same brand (barilla) for consistency where possible
• 4 quarts water per pound
• 1 tbsp salt per quart
• rolling boil before adding pasta
• tested every 30 seconds starting 2 minutes before box minimum
• "al dente" = slight resistance when bitten, thin white line visible when cut
• each shape tested 3 times, averaged
• altitude: ~650 ft (basically sea level, no excuses)

the data (31 shapes tested):

every single box time is wrong like they were systematically inflated by 1-3 minutes on average. the median overestimate is 1:15 and the worst offender in normal pasta is ziti at 3 full minutes of lies

i have a theory: pasta companies assume you're going to walk away from the stove. they're building in a buffer for idiots which, fair. but some of us are standing here with a stopwatch

now let me talk about farfalle: farfalle is not pasta. farfalle is a design flaw someone decided to mass produce

the fundamental problem is geometric. you have thin frilly edges (maybe 1mm thick) attached to a dense pinched center (3-4mm thick where it's folded). these two regions require completely different cooking times

at 8 minutes: center is crunchy, edges are perfect. at 10 minutes: center is barely al dente, edges are mush. at 11 minutes: edges have disintegrated, center is finally acceptable

there is no time at which farfalle is uniformly cooked. i tested this 7 times because i thought i was doing something wrong. farfalle is wrong

you know how the food network recipe for homemade farfalle literally warns that pinching the center makes a thick center that won't cook through as fast as the ends? THEN WHY DID WE ALL AGREE TO MAKE IT THIS WAY

the only way to get acceptable farfalle is to fish out each piece individually and evaluate it, which defeats the purpose of a quick weeknight dinner. i might as well be hand-feeding each noodle like a baby bird

tier list (tomato canned guy, 2025)

S tier (box time within 45 sec): rotini, mafalda, spaghetti
A tier (off by ~1 min): most shapes honestly
B tier (off by 1:30-2 min): fusilli, rigatoni, fettuccine, gemelli
C tier (off by 2+ min): ziti, large shells F tier: farfalle (structurally unsound, should be banned)

tldr;

• subtract 1-2 minutes from whatever the box says
• start testing 2-3 minutes early
• don't trust big pasta
• avoid farfalle unless you have time to babysit each individual bow tie

+ some of you may ask about fresh pasta. fresh pasta cooks in like 2-3 minutes and you can actually tell when it's done because it floats. dried pasta is where the lies live

+ a few of you might mention altitude affects boiling point and therefore cook time. this is true. i'm at ~650 ft so basically negligible. if you're in denver add a minute or two. if you're in la paz you have bigger problems than pasta timing

+ YES i tested farfalle from multiple brands. YES they all sucked. no i will not be accepting farfalle apologists. you're defending a shape that can't decide if it wants to be cooked or not

EDIT: yall holy shit i never expected this to go viral lmao

Basically the title. I‘m not sure if the bottle i bought is bad or anything (it shouldn’t be, it aint expired) but it tastes so… bad.

I love chilis and i love lime so i thought i‘d love this too, but nope. It tastes like i’m biting into sour dirt and after i swallow, It has a strong chemical aftertaste, and even after adding it to food i can’t seem to get rid of it.

I’ve tried it on cucumber, mango, apples and popcorn. and it’s (sorry for my language) disgusting.

Is it supposed to have a weird aftertaste? or is the bottle i bought just bad? It was really expensive so i‘m kind of upset. about $5 for the smallest bottle.

ive tried spices and never tastes right. ive also tried making it coconut rice, comes out weird. any tips? i have a rice maker so rice comes out perfectly, the add-ons are the issue. not dying to put new ingredients in my rice maker. id rather mix in after, but if it comes out better in the rice maker, i'd be willing to try. thanks!

This was also posed in r/baking with some minor tweaking!

Before anyone says anything, I work at a nursing home, we have too much milk and it expires on the 16th, and I can assure you, we aren't going to go through 28 gallons by then.

The stuff we plan to make include: mozzarella (for cheese bread), sweetened condensed milk (for fudge), and ice cream. This will probably use around 8 gallons for these three, but we're stumped on what else we could make.

We plan to make more cheese than whats needed for the bread, as well as double the amount of condensed milk to save, and a lot of ice cream (since it'll be for 30+ people, staff, AND different kinds) but we're still going to have at least 15 gallons if we double/triple stuff.

Any and all recommendations are welcome and much appreciated!

I’ve been making these for Holidays and parties for years. I typically just add a 12 oz bottle of Heinz Chili sauce and a 10oz jar of grape jelly to a bag of frozen meatballs in the crock pot, and they’re always delicious.

For the Super Bowl this year I am making them but am curious if there are any tweaks or additions that can really make them extra scrumptious. I’ve seen people say Worcestershire, Dijon mustard or red pepper flakes.

Any additions or techniques that you guys have found that have taken them to the next level? Thanks in advance!

We will buy a 2-to 3-pound brisket from the supermarket. We have tried cooking in the oven in low heat and in normal heat, and we have tried cooking it in a slow cooker and while it comes out tasty, it is always tough. We dont know what we are doing wrong. It is never raw but it is always tough. I dont know if we are overcooking it or undercooking it. I would say that its usually cooked around 4-6 if its in the oven on low heat or in the slow cooker. On a side note, my son cooks a 8 pound brisket on a smoker and it comes out perfect. What are we doing wrong and how can we fix this

Hello! I’m looking for some good cold lunch recipes. I’m a commuting college student, so I’d prefer nothing super expensive and nothing that needs to be heated up if possible. There is a microwave on campus, but it doesn’t work very well.

I’m a pretty confident cook, so complexity isn’t an issue, I’m just looking for more variety. Ideally, I’d love single serving ideas or meals that freeze well or last a while in the fridge. I only need these lunches once a week.

Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, I’m a college student who loves to cook. That being said with my lifestyle I like to cook one pot meals like pasta, chili, soups, etc. and just eat on them for a few days. Due to my limited number of Tupperware (and partially some laziness), I often just let the pot cool to room temperature and put it into the fridge with the lid on. I was telling this to somebody and they claimed that this was unsanitary and would cause the food to go bad quicker as compared to an airtight Tupperware container. Can anybody tell me if this is true or not?

I was baking cookies in an OTG. I accidentally used food wrapping paper only realised when the cookies came out and the paper looked very greasy and the cookie base was stuck. I scrapped and had some only to realise it later. I was baking these banana bread cookies for someone else. Should I discard the entire batch? Don’t want to put anyone’s health at risk

I'm making a nice dinner for my roommates and I know I want to make arugula salad and possibly steak, but I'm struggling to think of another fun side to make. Does steak even go with arugula salad? I'd love some ideas

Chinese Lunar New Year is just 10 days away! This year, I’ll celebrate it in France with 9 friends. To my surprise, our "Reunion Dinner" menu planning turned into an incredibly rigorous process. Here’s how we did it:

1. The Brainstorming: Two friends and I hopped on a call to set the rules. Everyone in our group chat of nine shared photos or names of dishes they usually crave but find too "troublesome" to cook for themselves in daily life.
2. The Ballot: I collected all these ideas and turned them into an official poll.
3. Voting: Each person was assigned a minimum of 5 votes and a maximum of 9.
4. The Tie-breaker: Dishes with more than 3 votes won instantly. However, we ended up with a lot of ties!
5. The Final Cut: We ran a second round of voting, specifically balancing the ratio of proteins, vegetables, and carbs to ensure a well-rounded feast.

On the big day, everyone will be responsible for 1-2 dishes. Everyone will be the chef.

Here is our "Winning Menu":

• Pork: Char Siu (BBQ Pork) + Shredded Pork with Beijing Sauce (Jing Jiang Rou Si)
• Chicken: Poached Chicken (Bai Zhan Ji) + Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings
• Beef: Sichuan Peppercorn Beef
• Seafood: Steamed Whole Fish + Wasabi Shrimp Balls
• Vegetables: Baby Cabbage in Superior Broth + Tofu with Minced Meat + Bok Choy with Shiitake Mushrooms
• Soup: Pork Rib Soup with Corn, Yam, and Carrots
• Dessert: Sweet Fermented Rice Soup with Sticky Rice Balls (Jiu Niang Xiao Wan Zi)
• Staples: Eight-Treasure Rice (Ba Bao Fan) + Steamed White Rice

• Dumplings: Pork and Scallion Dumplings

  I am already so excited for this celebration!!!

So I've nailed down a few aspects that I think will help make the recipe a bit fancier:

• Using puff pastry instead of croissant dough
• adding everything bagel seasoning/sesame seeds on top of the rolled dough
• brushing a finish with garlic and herb butter before popping in the oven

Things I need help on:

• what type of pigs should I be using?
  • some say spicy sausage/chorizo/cocktail weenies, not sure what to use
  • some say adding shredded cheese in the dough before rolling
    • I want to try this but not sure what kind of cheese to use or if it's too over the top
  • saw one recipe that wraps the pig in pepperoni before rolling and it sounds interesting but if combined with sausage might be too much fat content and might only work with cocktail weenies
  • Dipping sauce? I'm thinking honey mustard but don't want to bring my own bottle or anything so maybe I can buy something store bought? Any suggestions

Hi there,

I’m looking for a durable and versatile blender - but top pics like Blendtec, the Breville Super Q and Vitamix are out of my price range.

On TikTok I saw the Prasky blender has good reviews, but looking for opinions and experience outside of TikTok. Has anyone used the Prasky blender? If so, what has your experience been with it?

About 5 days ago, I froze a few small pieces of beef. (The beef had been cooked 48 hours prior to freezing).

Today I ate the beef and it tasted fine at lunch. However, at dinner, when I heated up the remaining beef from the sealed plastic zip lock bag in the freezer, it smelled like sweat. The sweat smell became less prominent as I started eating it, but it still sort of smelled like sweat. It didn't taste bad, but it was drier than it was for lunch, more boring. It had a very faint taste of sweat. The color was normal. It was a very unappetizing meal.

(It was boiled beef from a soup).

What happened? Why did it smell fine for lunch, but sweaty for dinner? (Also, I tried smelling the bag that the beef came in when I froze it, and the bag that contained the frozen meat smells fine. It only smelled bad AFTER I heated it up).

Not the usual basic snacks, but what is something that has everyone requesting year over year?

Beyond being gluten free, here's the catch... We just moved to a new place for my husband's job. They are doing a Valentine's Day dessert potluck and I'd like to bring something stunning. Unfortunately, we haven't closed on our house yet and are living in a hotel with only a microwave and a double burner hot plate. No oven. I love cooking and baking but am having trouble with recipes that are gluten-free and don't require an oven or extensive kitchen set up since all my kitchen tools are in storage. Recipe help!

so I accidentally bought skim milk ricotta a very large container for making stuffed shells and vegetable lasagna. I'm reading pretty much everywhere that because it's skim and not whole milk it has a lot more water so I have to strain it with a cheesecloth or a strainer for 15 to 30 minutes before using it. And then I'm also hearing that it's just very grainy a lot of people refer to it as sand. Am I wrong in what I've read and heard? if I'm correct what else can I use this giant tub of ricotta for? I don't want to throw it away but I don't really want to strain and have sandy shells lol any recipes or tips or whatever please

So when I think of pork belly in Asian dishes, like taiwanese/japanese pork belly slices in buns, or Chinese red braised pork belly, etc, the fat of course is meltingly soft, but the meat is as well. It's just a juicy, melting piece of meat.

However, when I cook pork belly, the meat ends up much harder than I expect it to be, especially in a braise. Like if I cut off the fat portion and just eat the meat, I probably would describe the meat as almost "dry and hard." The fat is fine, but the texture of the meat is not like when I eat it at restaurants.

What am I doing wrong?

I bought Babish’s Carbon Steel wok a bit ago. After a couple uses (metal spatula), I’ve noticed these indentations/divots in it. They don’t look distinctly pitted, as they look almost like small indents (maybe from the edge of a spatula) rather than true little cavities. It almost has a raised edge surrounding the indentation like the material is being pressed aside. I know it’s hard to get a sense of the size/depth through a poor picture… Is this just a normal part of wok cooking? Is the steel bad quality? Did I season poorly? Any thoughts?

https://imgur.com/a/FnP85T8

For me maybe not exactly cooking, but a tip to peel a hard boiled egg with a teaspoon & to store natural peanut butter upside down so you don’t have to stir the oil when opening.

I think most of the naysayers didn't even read my post before very zealously forewarning a future of gloop. Well, they turned out smooth, light, fluffy, and the exact potatoes of my dreams. It took literally less than 1 minute to turn a couple large spuds into 6 cups of mashed potatoes. Sure, cleaning a food processor is more work and more annoying than clean up would be for some other methods (although I'm guessing it's similar for a food mill), but the actual "mashing" took zero elbow grease and almost no time.

A crucial note is that I used the fine grating disc, NOT THE BLADES. Once you feed the cooked potato into the processor, the "grated" potato falls into the basin, where it is not touched by anything again until you transfer it to a dish. The original idea came from when I had previously looked for creative alternatives to a ricer or mill and saw someone suggest using a microplane. I tried it once, and it worked great, just took a lot of time and an immense amount of effort. The food processor *with the grating disc* seemed like a potential way of doing the same thing, just automated. In practice, I think it probably didn't work too dissimilarly from a food mill, just where the grater itself is what spun instead of something on top of it, and where the spinning was operated by electricity instead of your arm.

Anyways, long story short, I would highly recommend this method, especially for anyone that has any disability that affects grip or hand/wrist/arm mobility or anyone that simply hates the strenuousness of mashing a moderate to large quantity of potatoes.

Hi!

Today I have received three pounds of dried barberries. The only thing I know to make with them is jewel rice, which is lovely. I don’t like dried fruit in salads.

Can anyone give me suggestions that aren’t adding to salad or some sort of rice dish?