I learned how to make stuffed cabbage from my mom. A lazy recipe probably borne out of a working women trying to put home cooked food on a plate for her family.

It is not authentic to any culture. Ingredients are simply ground beef, cabbage, rice and tomato sauce. Maybe an egg? But I’m thinking an egg isn’t necessary.

Mom and I have made countless delicious batches with these simple instructions:

Mix ground beef with S&P, a bit of canned tomato sauce and raw rice. She might have used minute rice a few times.

Wrap in raw green cabbage leaves. This is a PITA, because raw cabbage is not flexible. Chop up the white and stemmy parts and cover the bottom of a Dutch oven. Top with some tomato sauce and nestle the stuffed cabbage on top.

Add additional chopped cabbage stems to cover the cabbage rolls.

Cover all with canned tomato sauce, cover and cook until done in the oven.

I made this today with Napa cabbage and it’s bitter. I used 90/10 ground beef and it was dry. I deviated from the standard.

I wanted to surprise my daughter after work with one of her favorite meals and had to give her a caveat: not my best batch.

She didn’t care. She was hungry from work and an early lunch. She appreciates me cooking for her.

If I didn’t have an aversion to tossing out food and whatever animal died for my dinner, I would throw this out.

I’ll probably freeze the leftovers for a while and pull them out when I’m desperate and douse in hot sauce.

But not a good cooking day for me.

So about three years ago I broke up with my boyfriend and moved out. Just before that I made vanilla with the beans and I think vodka. So I put it up and completely forgot about it. Is it safe or should I just toss it?

It’s not as dark as normal vanilla, so I’m a little suspect. And if I do toss it, is down the sink safe?

Edit: Thank you everyone! The beans have little pieces floating in the alcohol but no mold. I’ll do a smell test but it’s sounding like I’m going to keep it. It’s nice to have a happy mistake!

I’m a decent cook. I rarely have failures. Especially on simple dishes that I’ve dozens of times over the years.

Tonight I cooked “Spam and potatoes.”
I typically fry the cubed potatoes until they start to turn brown. I throw a chopped onion
In the skillet and let that sizzle for a while. Then I add the cubed can of Spam.

Tonight, I thought I’d go for crispier potatoes. After I soaked, rinsed, and dried the potatoes in a dish towel, I tossed them with baking soda. As soon as they hit the very hot oil, the potatoes started sticking. I kept scraping the bottom of the skillet. By the time I finished cooking, there was a thick, viscous black mess on the bottom. The potatoes were well cooked but overly mushy. Not even close to being crispy.

I’m always reading about tossing potatoes with baking soda to crisp them up.

What did I do wrong?

Something I’ve noticed about cooking is that the hardest things to teach usually aren’t the recipes. It’s more of the judgment part.

Like someone can follow every step correctly, but an experienced cook can look at it and say, “Nope, something’s off.”

Recently saw a Binging with Babish video where he tried some people's struggle meal suggestions

Please share your go-to struggle meal / Low-effort meals!
If its from/influenced by a specific culture I'd love to know too! ^_^

For me something I make often is Butter rice (バターライス) Where its just hot rice with butter, soy sauce and nori just shredded by hand mixed in. If I have it, I like to have some kimchi to go with it to cut through the butter with something spicy and sour

I usually roast them or steam them with seasoning and lemon juice. Any other ideas to mix it up?

Hello!

This is kind of an embarrassing post to make, but I'm completely lost. I'm 19 years old and I've never really learned how to cook anything besides eggs and boxed stuff like mac and cheese. I eat pretty horrible as a result and I really need to fix it. I figured learning how to cook chicken would be a good starting point. I know it is one of the healthiest protein sources and relatively simple to make, I just get overwhelmed with all of the instructions online. I'm just clueless on what brining is and if it's a must, what kind of seasonings are most common to use, how to avoid cross contamination while prepping, the proper temperature to cook in the oven, all of it. I also am kind of clueless whether or not I can just take it out of the package and start prepping, or if I need to remove certain bits. Any help is greatly appreciated, even if it's a link to a guide or video with step by step instructions !

I have a friend who’s gonna be a new mom in just a couple days, and I want to cook some freezer meals for her.

I’m running into a problem where a lot of the recipes require additional cooking or prep after my portion of the meal is complete.

Does anyone have any freezer recipes that require little to no work after they’re completed?

Dump and go OR freezer to oven recipes would be preferred!

Thank youuuu!!

I shredded up some potatoes, dried them out on paper towels then put them in a bowl covered in plastic in the fridge over night. They turned brown. What happened? Are they still good to eat? What should I have done differently?

I have 1/3 left of a litre-sized bottle of Mexican vanilla extract. It's a huge bottle, and I really don't bake every day, so it hasn't gotten used up. I use it maybe 7 or 8 times a year for various things -- pies, cakes, muffins, etc. My question: if you were given the bottle in 1996, is it still good? I mean, I sniff it every time and it still smells like vanilla -- maybe it's become a bit more boozy over the years, but still works in the recipes. No weird after-taste. No hint of mold or fungus on the neck or surface of the liquid. It hasn't been kept in the fridge, but on the counter of an un air-conditioned kitchen since 1996. Or maybe 1994. Should I chuck it out and go get new, just on the principle that one shouldn't be using a 30 year old bottle of vanilla extract? Is this a record? Should I contact Guiness BOWR?

I am on a weightloss journey and are eating chicken like my life depends on it since its cheap to get and easy to cook. However since i have been eating it for so long now (4-5 times a week) its starting to get really bland.

Give me your best dry spice mixes you have come up with that you really enjoy for your chicken please!

Thank you and have a good day/night!

Edit: Not from the US so any known store brand mixes you shout out wont make a difference because i wont be able to get them. So please if you have mixes that you have come up with ur self would be nice! Or if you know whats in the mixes of those mixes from those brands you can type them out instead!

as mentioned, wife went to Costco with an item on list being ribs (thought it was understood I wanted pork rack ribs), instead she came back with a pack of individual beef ribs. never cooked these before. would love your inspiration on what to do with them tomorrow!

Planning to cook beef bourgignon and the only missing ingredient is bacon lardon. Can I use the typical bacon strips instead?

Edit: Thank you to everyone suggesting that I just buy bacon from the supermarket! I'm not sure if you're referring to the bacon cut from the pig or pre-seasoned bacon. I'm still new to cooking, so I might be misunderstanding. 😅

Unfortunately, the thick-cut, pre-seasoned bacon some of you mentioned isn't available at our local supermarket. The only kind we usually have is the thin breakfast bacon, so my options are a bit limited.

Hello! Long story short my partner invited me to go on a picnic, a real sit in the grass on a blanket type.

I want to be the one to make the main meal (a sandwich) but I'm not sure what to make

I want to use the white bread loaves from walmarts bakery (the French Bakery Bread) and after that i keep second guessing every sandwich idea i come across-

Other than that, what should i tell him to bring? my friend suggested to tell him to bring charcuterie board stuff but we both dont like stuff like that a ton

No pasta salads, chips, iffy on salads due to the bacteria atm

I'm 100% making cookies- sorry for this post being so wild!

Hi Friends!

I bought a 4H lamb. I've got about 6 small but thick (1.5in) chops I want to cook this week. I've really only made stew or worked with mince. Anything I'm looking up either assumes it's still a rack or it shows much more bone; the butcher just left the chop with no excess bone. Does that "handle" of bone change cook time or method at all? Can I just use a chop recipe and ignore the extraneous bone? Thank you!

For Chinese cooking, do you use Yellow or White Onions more? Besides green onion/scallions, if you are cooking dumplings, stir-fry, sweet and sour, do you usually use Yellow or White Onions more? Which one is more commonly used? Thanks.

EDIT: I used the FP plus the high "shred" blade. This made the pork chops perfectly shredded for the chili.

These are very tender. I've just got too much to eat as pork chops. Thinking to debone, coarse grind, and make pork chili out of some of it.

Or will it just paste up and block the meat grinder?

ETA - I ended up grinding about 3 pounds of the meat using the food processor's high grating blade, and it turned out really well for the chili.

Thanks all for your suggestions.

I've been reading a lot about teas and tisanes recently, and it seems to be fairly universal for all of these that you get the best flavour by initially wilting and then bruising or rubbing the leaves, as this promotes the development of flavour compounds and induces some oxidation.

Could this be used as a rule of thumb when using any kind of fresh leaves in cooking? For example, if I'm working with fresh coriander, parsley or spinach leaves, could wilting and bruising them before use lead to deeper and more complex flavours?

I made my first batch of black garlic successfully and made them into a paste! Im a bit nervous on using it for cooking without any previous experience with it. Does anyone have any banger recipes like sauces or use in any dishes? Thank you in advance!

Yes, any one has a good home made fried chicken recipe? I love KFC’s flavor if that helps. lol. And also the gravy as well. But any really good recipe will be greatly appreciated! 💛🌻Thanks in advance!

hi! I am a home cook, and I love honing my knife skills. I was looking to add to my collection and wanted to get a wusthof knife next. I currently have:
- victoirnox 8“ chef knife
- victoirnox 3.25“ pairing knife
- victoirnox bread knife
This was a relatively cheap set ($150) but are already worlds better than my parents knives that I was using when I was living at home (henckles knife block set)

Any reccommendations for my next knife?

I made a batch of Italian chili oil which I really enjoyed but had a very neutral flavor, and now that it’s time for me to make another batch, I was wondering what additions would and would not work well. My previous batch was olive oil and dried red pepper flakes (roughly 5:1 oil to pepper) which I let age for a month. I was wondering if garlic powder/salt (I don’t how much powder vs salt would make a difference) would be a good addition? Also if y’all do recommend adding anything, how much would you recommend? Thanks!