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I didn't learn to measure anything until I was 30. I just cooked by vibes. My girlfriend started getting really irritated that I would make something and she would never have it again. Something like it? Sure. But it? No. So I started actually learning how to cook and know how much was going in .
That's the way I cook, just have made enough mistakes and so many different dishes I can put things together and make magic. On baking, my family doesn't like fancy cakes, more like snacking cakes, those are pretty forgiving. I don't measure rice & water, just know how it should look, and yes my husband sometimes gets annoyed that it's not more standardized but I'm not a commercial chef I am a cook.
The exceptions - My sourdough bread, and the sourdough chocolate chip cookies - carefully measured by weight and if I am winging the bread (never the cookies) I try to still write down the measurements in case it's the best bread I have ever made. The bread I could almost certainly make it without measuring at this point, I can tell by how it feels, what it will do, but have the scale and use it.
My mom cooked from recipes. Only from recipes . She asked her mom once how to make good biscuits, and her mom said "the water has to be very cold". Which, honestly, would have helped me a lot. But my mom wanted a recipe!
oh dude entire family agrees that i make the best rice in the family and i've tried to teach them how i make the rice but like it's a big fucking argument how to make rice properly. at this point i think it's just become a joke.
I’m curious, do you use the first line on your middle finger to measure water?
That’s how my grandmother taught us (pot and rice cooker).
The problem with that is that the size of the pot changes the volume of water with a linear finger measure.
Like for extremes if you had a test tube shaped pot with a foot of rice deep and only a finger depth of water is way different than a giant wide pot where grains area single layer and then a finger depth over top.
That's why you use a rice cooker.
I don't have one, I do a 2 to 1 ratio of water to rice. (For basmatti) Simmer on low, covered for 13 minutes, turn off heat ( leave covered ) for 30 minutes. Then fluff with fork. Perfect every time regardless of pot size.
i used to use my index finger, now i'm all about different ratios of water to rice depending on the grain because i'm fancy. we've got a 25 lb bag of jasmine we're working through that i do 3water:2rice + 1T butter + 1/2 t salt.
Current project is good garlic rice, so i've been sauteing up some garlic butter (for 1 cup of rice, 10 cloves in 4T butter, then adding all the cloves and 1T of the garlic butter), but it's not quite garlicky enough. I'm not sure whether i need more cloves or to make the butter more garlicky somehow.
You and my dad would get along great. He uses a whole bulb; his fried rice version has this toasted garlic flavor that’s just tasty.
My SIL adds Better Than Bouillon Roasted Garlic with her garlic rice (I dont remember if it’s a teaspoon or tablespoon).
Another version we learned was adding a combo of grated garlic and baked garlic; they both have different yet distinct flavors. That’s my aunt’s version and she uses chicken broth (Alton Brown’s recipe).
Lol on the fancy… good for you. You’re right though, different kinds of rice require different amounts of water. We already got that lecture from our grandparents a looooong time ago.
we went to the greek festival a couple weekends ago and came home with a whole quart of fresh toum. i'm about halfway through and the cats are about used to my new smell
One scoop of rice. Rinsed a few times until the water is mostly clear. Throw it in the pot I always use for rice. Add water to the lower line that has developed over the years of making rice in the same pot. The upper line is from making mac and cheese so don't use that one. Some salt. Maybe some oil or butter depending on the final dish. Place the lid on.
Bring to a boil, reduce to low. Wait until the lid harmonics change to tell you there isn't any liquid water in there anymore. Use a fork to check the bottom of the pot for water. Done.
No one else here knows how to make rice. Everyone thinks a rice cooker would make my life easier. I had one. I tossed it because it kept scorching the rice.
The crispy rice at the bottom of your pot is tahdig in Persian, tutong in Tagalog. In some cultures and families, they fight over the crispy rice, lol.
i can never get tahdig right, pressure cooker or stovetop. we used to have a kebab place around the corner that included it in their rice and i did everything i could to keep them in business. they closed march 2020 and left the country. good for them.
Yeah but it kinda messes up fried rice
You don't use that part for the fried rice. You just eat it.
But then I don't have all the rice I should for fried rice
There's a pretty easy fix to that.
Maybe you need to scrub your pots more thoroughly. If they're stainless steel or something similar there shouldn't be any permanent stains forming unless you don't use enough elbow grease.
once we got an electric pressure cooker it got a lot easier, but now i miss my rice pot that's in a box somewhere in the garage.
I have five pressure canners/coolers. None electric. I don't trust electronic devices designed to turn electricity into heat and be sold as cheap as possible to be a buy it for life item.
zojirushi Would probably be the only buy it for life rice cooker brand
i mean, neither did i. someone bought it for us. i feel like such a luddite sometimes. we mostly use it for rice and making budder, which it does a fantastic job at. we've had ours for 8 years which i had to look up and shocks me that it's been working that well that long.
i keep wanting to make hummus, i just never do. it makes the smoothest hummus (we put the beans in for 45 minutes, no pre-soak), but you don't exactly need it to be electric. you got the pressure canner already.
also the lemon curd is so easy. godsdammit i gotta make lemon curd with my budder i am so lazy
Cooking freehanded can work. Cooking is art. Baking, on the other hand, is science. Every ingredient must be measured precisely, or you'll get seriously funny results. And often on the bad side of funny.
You can also science cooking. Meat thermometers are absolutely fantastic.
Or, like I do, Sous Vide.
Once you figure out the science you can even freehand baking. Salt, flour, water yeast. Got a flour with more protein? Up the water and decrease the salt a little. Trying to make bread out of cake flour? Decrease the water a touch. Know what your target hydration level is for a bread type and you can pretty much wing the rest. Can't do a double rise today? Do a slow rise in the fridge overnight. Want a slightly thicker crust? Add more salt. Baking has a lot of potential for freeform once you figure out the mechanics behind what goes into a recipe.
Yes, but you need to be quite advanced for that. This is bakers knowledge, not housewives/homecook knowledge.
I’ve seen recipes that are based around the water content (I.e. put X ml of water and add flour until shaggy) so your comment makes a lot of sense.
Hydration level comes first. Everything is built around that