Cooking is one of those last few things that sometimes gets passed down, word of mouth, from generation to generation. People, without the slightest idea if it works or not, insist that their way must be the right way. But the fact is that for every great, hand-me-down recipe, there are whole casserole dishes of misinformation.
A netizen asked “What misinformation about cooking, that a lot of people seem to believe, bothers you the most?” and people detailed the examples they keep encountering. So get comfortable, take some notes if you need to, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
#1
The prep time in any recipe is generally severely understated.
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#2
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.
Image credits: ellasaurusrex
#3
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.
Image credits: 101bees
#4
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.
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#5
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.
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#6
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.
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#7
The belief that salt is inherently unhealthy.
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#8
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),.
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#9
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.
Image credits: WillowandWisk
#10
Using gloves for everyday cooking/food prep. What are we doing, people? Just wash your hands.
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#11
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.
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#12
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. .
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#13
That it takes like 15 minutes to caramelize onions when it takes AT LEAST an hour, closer to two.
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#14
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.
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#15
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.
Image credits: Joe1972
#16
That a “well seasoned cast iron/ carbon steel pan is just as non stick as non-stick”. It’s not. It never will be. It’s a bit more forgiving than stainless but unless you have it heated nearly as hot as you’d need for stainless it won’t be stick resistant. What makes non stick useful is that it’s nonstick at ANY temperature which makes it useful for various things that should not be cooked at super high heat.
#17
Cooking to time instead of doneness or temp.
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#18
My mother always tells me microwaving "k**ls 100% of the nutriments and gives cancer".
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#19
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.
Image credits: MyNameIsSkittles
#20
Not sure about the most, but it annoys me that people buy large air fryers when they already have a perfectly fine convection function on their oven.
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#21
You cant fry in Olive Oil, you absolutely can and anything potato related tastes godly.
(Talking about panfrying not deepfrying).
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#22
You shouldnt wash mushrooms because it will absorb water. No it won’t!
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#23
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.
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#24
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????
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#25
That cooking at home is always healthier than eating out. Let me tell you, when I have control over my own food, I am definitely not skimping out on the parts I like.
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#26
That vegetable and seed oils are unhealthy. No, they're not.
#27
Oh man the natural sugar people. Sugar is sugar is sugar, avoiding sucrose (table sugar) to then eat maple syrup or agave nectar is a rather negligible difference and as far as your blood glucose is concerned, identical.
Also the juice/smoothie crowd. Eating an orange and having a glass of water is infinitely healthier than a glass of OJ.
Lastly, protein deniers, is what I like to call them. No, two eggs isn't enough protein for the day, it's actually about half as much needed for one meal. It's important to prioritize in your meals, it's what actually satiates you,.
Image credits: OpossomMyPossom
#28
I often wonder with so many recipes if the writers have ever cooked anything in their life.
And AI recipe bots are probably training off this, so the future will be even worse for new cooks.
#29
I think how hard it is to cook chicken breast and it to not be dry is severely overblown. At best I'm "adequate" at cooking and I haven't cooked a dry chicken breast since college.
If you prefer dark meat, cool, but if the reason you don't like chicken breast is because it's dry, that just means you can't cook a very simple thing.
#30
“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.
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#31
Here's a controversial one: there is empirical evidence that the mussels that do not open after cooking are not necessarily bad to eat, contrary to received wisdom.
Image credits: echocharlieone
#32
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.
#33
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 😤😤.
Image credits: heart_blossom
#34
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.
Image credits: Thel_Odan
#35
That if the pan sizzles a lot, it means it's turned up too high! Honestly IDK how many people believe this but my mom always gets on my case about it when I visit. No mom, that's called a sauté, and it's fine!
#36
Searing meat to “seal” in the juices. Saying “bone broth” at all. Believing a potato is a magical salt sponge. Any and all superfood health claims (I think it’s beets now maybe? It was acai and coconut oil for awhile). Oil in the pasta water. MSG - but the “Yeah I know the science, but it’s true for meeeee!” Mail-order food allergy test believers. .
#37
I worked as a server and a cook for many years. SOOOOO many people would say they were lactose intolerant and needed things to be "dairy free" .... but then would complain that there was mayo on their sandwich ???
I guess they thought this is white and creamy so it MUST be dairy! ?
#38
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.
#39
"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.
#40
I’m surprised I’m not seeing that most people think you have to wrap potatoes in foil to bake them when in fact that makes them taste terrible comparatively.
#41
That we don't have access to fresh bread or "real" cheese here in America. Even in my parents town of ~40k people there are bakeries, the grocery store also has its own bakery producing fresh bread and their cheese section has a ton of domestic & international cheese.
Image credits: cartermatic
#42
When my ex-gf told me food needs to be a little burnt to be cooked... yeah OK!
#43
"Pasta water should taste like the sea." No, it should not. The salinity of ocean water is a measurable quantity and if you cook pasta at the same concentration, it will be inedible. I know, I tried it.
What these people mean to say is the pasta water should taste more salty than you expect. Of course this is horribly imprecise. Imprecision is my biggest pet peeve in cooking and cooking instructions. Good instructions and good tools make for reliable results. Not "cook over medium heat, not too hot, until it looks right.".
