25 Cooking Myths That Are A Waste Of Your Time And Ingredients

The point of learning new information is to gain new knowledge. This, in turn, helps refine ideas and concepts that we need to apply to existing processes in order to make them more efficient. However, when it comes to some practices, like cooking, for example, people still opt for the traditional route. Despite the advances made in science to prove otherwise, most amateur and even some professional cooks may be prone to practicing kitchen habits that are no longer relevant. 

#1

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People in general have very skewed ideas about food safety. No, leaving a freshly cooked dish on the counter for two hours will not poison you. .

#2

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People freaking out about expiration dates. Use your senses. Food can’t read a calendar. 99% of the time you will KNOW that something has gone bad. Mold, slime, stinks, etc. It seems like half the posts in all the food subs are someone asking how to use something because “it expires tomorrow”. No. It doesn’t.

#3

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People who still hang onto the idea that fat is bad. Fat is a vital nutrient necessary for cellular function. Its terrible we have given this nutrient the same name as bodyfat. Which I might add is ALSO important to have.

#4

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Not to store bread in the fridge. Sure if you’re eating it fresh the fridge does change the flavor and texture some, but if you’re toasting the bread like I do 99% it makes absolutely no difference. I’d rather have my fresh baked bread last over a week by putting it in the fridge than have it go bad in 3 days.

#5

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Gatekeeping food.

Why get mad when someone uses bacon in their cabonara? I don’t like prosciutto and I’m not going to go searching the city for guanciale to make one pasta dish. Bite me.

#6

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Using gloves for everyday cooking/food prep. What are we doing, people? Just wash your hands.

#7

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My pet peeves are all ingredient related.

– Low fat is NOT necessarily healthier, especially not low fat high sugar
– GMO does not mean its bad for you
– Frozen does not necessarily mean its low quality.
– Many “organic” products are in fact terrible quality. Use your common sense when selecting produce.

#8

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The prep time in any recipe is generally severely understated.

#9

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That you only salt/season at then end of cooking. I’ve seen this hundreds of times, but seasoning throughout completely changes the end result as opposed to only seasoning at the end of cooking.

#10

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That msg is bad for you. Point blank.

Oh. And that it’s added solely to make you hungry again so you order more? (That was the tale in my parts of canada, anyways).

#11

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The sanctity of recipes. For baking, yes you should follow it very closely because changes could ruin the meal. But for cooking you can riff, double certain spices, omit others. Trust me you cannot ruin a chili by doubling the suggested paprika.

#12

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The belief that salt is inherently unhealthy.

#13

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My family calls margarine butter and uses it in recipes that call for butter exclusively. They absolutely will not use real butter and it WILD to me. Mashed potatoes? Margarine. Brownies? Margarine. Baked potatoes? Margarine. Biscuits? Cornbread? BUTTERCREAM ICING????

#14

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That cooking at home costs more

No. You went to the store and bought every ingredient new, of course that costs 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.

#15

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You cant fry in Olive Oil, you absolutely can and anything potato related tastes godly.

(Talking about panfrying not deepfrying).

#16

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Adding a single bay leaf to a gallon of stew isn’t gonna do anything.

A single clove of garlic isn’t enough. Whatever the recipe says, double it.

#17

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Washing chicken… unless you’re in a country with very low safety standards for butchers, most meat is perfectly safe to cook without being cleaned, you’re just wasting time and potentially contaminating your kitchen sink and counters with pathogens.

#18

As a cajun, my pet peeve is people making random recipes and just slapping “cajun” on the front of it as if using any sort of seasoning beyond salt and pepper makes a dish cajun.

Cajun cooking includes a huge swathe of recipes that have been passed down through our culture for hundreds of years and is more than just cayenne pepper.

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#19

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Cooking to time instead of doneness or temp.

#20

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“Sauté the minced garlic for a minute or two” PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT. Burnt garlic smells gross and lasts forever. 🥲 saute it until it smells good. Like 15 seconds. Tops.

#21

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My current pet peeve is “red velvet” cake that’s nothing but regular cake with food coloring added. That’s not red velvet cake at all 😤😤.

#22

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The 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 problem with rust or my seasoning failing.

#23

“Bone broth”. You are not a culinary genius. We have had a perfectly serviceable term for “bone broth” for many years now. We call it “stock”.

And the distinction isn’t really that important for home cooking – I don’t care that you made your hamburger helper with *beef broth* instead of *beef stock*. Yes, if you’re making something that’s stock-forward, like, say, pho, you absolutely need to crack a few cowbones. But generally speaking, boxed broth or boxed stock are both (a) fine for home cooking, and, (b) fairly interchangeable if you don’t need the collagen.

Calling stock “bone broth” tells me a lot about your tick tock habits.

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#24

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That tomato sauce needs sugar or else it’s too acidic. No it doesn’t. Traditional sauces don’t use it. Add a carrot or something if you’re that worried.

#25

Ingredient gate keeping in general, with my biggest pet peeve being “You should only use salt and pepper to season your steak.”

Sorry, but rubs and seasonings are absolutely delicious (looking at you Spade L). So don’t be afraid to branch out from the norm and try some stuff even though that’s not the “right way” to do it.

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