[orev]

A few things:

* Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

* Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave. Things like onions, mushrooms, etc. are mostly water, and you can avoid having to wait for them to reduce in a pan by nuking them for 2 minutes in the microwave first.

* When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid! It will trap the heat inside the pot and boil/cook faster. So many people don’t use the lid just to save themselves from having to wash it. The only time not to use the lid is if you need to reduce the liquid or allow volatiles to escape.

* Cooking bigger batches of food takes essentially the same amount of time as smaller batches. Make portions big enough that you can get at least two or three more meals from it.

* Learn to use your oven! Too many people get enamored with single use gadgets when the oven already does so many things. People complain that it takes too long to heat up but it really doesn’t.

* Keep your knives sharp: Do NOT use an electric sharpener, just a simple drag over a stone every few months is probably all you need. A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.

* Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic (dump the plastic too if you’re concerned about it). Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal, or any other hard material is destroying your knives.

[crazygringo]

> Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave

There's actually a lot of stuff you can halfway-heat in the microwave.

Air frying frozen <anything>? Nuke it for 2 min and air-fry for 3 min, instead of air-frying for 12 min.

Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.

Cold ketchup in a dipping bowl? Nuke for 5 seconds to bring it to room temperature, so you're not putting cold ketchup on warm food.

But the best? You know how tomatoes get a mealy texture when kept in the fridge, which is why everybody says not to keep in them in the fridge, even though they last so much longer that way? That's only as long as they're chilled. Nuke for 10 seconds to bring back to room temperature. The texture returns 100% to normal.

[mmcclimon]

Cold ketchup on hot french fries is one of life's great joys, though.

[arcanemachiner]

When I was a kid, I had some ice cream that was too goddamn cold, and I asked my mom to put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Everyone laughed at me.

I'm still pissed off about it.

[throw0101c]

> Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.

Use 50% power and check in 10 second increments:

* ATK: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FZCgQp8D2Xw

If you think ahead, put it in the refrigerator 30 minutes before you need it.

[jpdb]

> A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.

I do a lot of cooking and own quite a few kitchen knives, most of which have bitten me at some point. I understand the idea around sharp knives being safer...but I don't agree.

If a razor sharp 210mm Japanese carbon steel knife touches your finger, it's split open and might need stitches or glue. A less-sharp knife would need more weight behind it to cut effectively which can lead to you completely severing a finger, but simple slices are a much more likely scenario than your finger being completely under the knife to the point where it's effectively a digit-guillotine.

[dpark]

Knife sharpness safety is a bell curve.

If your knife is sharp enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it slices so easily. You’re essentially waving around an 8 inch razor blade.

If your knife is dull enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it takes so much effort to cut that a slip becomes a stab. The amount of effort you have to put in to do basic stuff like cut carrots can be high enough that give up some control of the blade.

A knife at a good level of sharpness will cut with reasonable effort but not be a giant razor blade. I think for most people this is likely the safest level of sharpness.

[evilduck]

There's no reason your fingers should be under the blade while it's in motion. That's just poor technique.

[ozim]

I agree.

There was a long thread here where people were arguing about this topic.

My take is that people saying sharp knives are safer don’t understand how average people are using knives.

Totally different than in restaurant setting or ‘self proclaimed chef’ setting where you are going to chop loads of stuff fast or you get angry customers or you take pride in your chopping and slicing skills.

Worst offenders were sharpening knives for other people and then they were surprised that those people would cut themselves with sharp knives… none of the story included a person who was perfectly happy with their dull knife cutting themselves with that dull knife.

[rendaw]

I'm skeptical of the claim too. All the arguments are logical but there doesn't seem to be any evidence. Have there been any studies?

I googled around and the best I could find was https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/23661/are-sharp... (11 years ago) which could only speculate that sharp knives reduce RSI.

[bob1029]

> Cooking bigger batches

This is also one of the central ideas around making computers go really fast.

> Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic

https://www.johnboos.com/collections/cutting-boards

> Garbage bowl

I have one of those rubbermaid tall/thin trash cans where my kitchen island used to be. Sometimes I will pull my fridge into the middle a little bit so it's easier to get at. That's the kitchen optimization advice that I would offer - The kitchen island is often a productivity & convenience scam. It took me a long time to learn this. From a simple geometric & topological perspective, being able to walk directly between everything without having to always pick a direction around some obstruction will reduce your cortisol levels by a scientifically-quantifiable amount.

[quesera]

> being able to walk directly between everything

This is the classic kitchen work triangle, popularized in the 1950s. It's still true today!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle

[socalgal2]

I went to Chef's Tools and got a large (20"x15"x1.5") cutting board for ~$60. Vs those boards you linked which were up to $600

[throwway120385]

Same thing with giant peninsulas and breakfast bars. They're there to look nice for real estate photos, not to be a useful thing that gets used often. If you want a table in the middle of your kitchen rip out the island and put a kitchen table there. It's more comfortable and you can actually look at the people you're eating with.

[mschild]

Throw away any cutting board thats not wood. (Bamboo being the exception although I dont know if bamboo is wood?)

Plastic cutting boards will contaminate whatever you are cutting on it with a load of micro and, in many cases macroplastics.

Seriously, give your plastic board some action without food on it and then carefully collect the shavings.

[socalgal2]

> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

How about just put the garbage near your workspace while you're working so you can more easily dump stuff into it? I just generally put a bag on the floor near the sink

[mattmaroon]

I bought a really powerful disposal so I cut next to the sink and slide any organic matter right into it. Cannot recommend upgrading your disposal highly enough. Mine says in the manual to clean it by tossing a lemon in.

Use a produce bag for what little is left.

[TacticalCoder]

> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.

My wife has got the ultimate solution. She cooks (I really suck at it) but I clean the kitchen. And, well, while she cooks she hardly puts anything in the bin: mostly everything stays on the countertop, which becomes a gigantic mess.

She empties the cutting board on the countertop. Rinse and repeat. Easy. Well, for her at least ; )

[lkbm]

> When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid!

Blows my mind when I see people boiling water (huge pots of water!) with no lid on. In many cases, they were waiting around 30 minutes for the water to boil. It surprises them to learn that a lid will speed it up.

I never see anyone trying to bake with the oven door open, but somehow boiling water without a lid is okay?

[carlosjobim]

When you have a good stove, the difference between lid or no lid is very small. You have to cook on gas or induction, and throw away electric stoves.

[rendaw]

Here's one article that claims the time difference between covered and uncovered isn't significant: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/how_tos/6646-covered-vs-...

[dgacmu]

I have a very large hard rubber cutting board that I adore, to add to the list of reasonable materials.

If you compost, your in-kitchen compost tote works really well to move near where you're trimming veggies.

[carlosjobim]

> Keep your knives sharp

Or throw away blunt knives and purchase new ones every once in a while. Many people can't be bothered with sharpening their knives, so it's better for them to just get new ones. Or send them to professional sharpeners.

[dpark]

For people like this, the best path is probably to buy cheap knives and a one of those cheap knife sharpeners that destroys the blade over time. One of those angled carbide sharpeners believe a terrible edge, but better than a dull knife.

I guess if you prefer nicer knives, you could always buy new ones periodically and give the old ones away on buy nothing to someone who will take care of them.

[muti]

Pay someone to sharpen them for petes sake. I can't fathom why you would suggest that seemingly off hand, secondary to throwing away and buying new knives.

[glial]

> Do NOT use an electric sharpener

Why?

[joatmon-snoo]

The argument for not using electric sharpeners is that they (1) cut down the lifetime of your knife substantially and (2) they do a mediocre job of sharpening.

Mechanically, it's just high-abrasive motorized spinning discs at preset angles. So rather than getting a good edge by taking a few microns of material off by doing it manually, you get an OK edge by taking 0.2mm off at a time. (If 0.2mm doesn't sound like a lot, think about how many mm wide your knife is.)

---

I'm personally 50-50 on this advice: most people don't sharpen their knives at all, and I think people are better off getting 10 OK years out of a knife than 50 terrible years out of it.

I'm also not willing to learn how to use a whetstone, so I landed in the middle on this: https://worksharptools.com/products/precision-adjust-knife-s...

[hexbin010]

> Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal

I've never understood this. Those things are/were just used to prevent counter-top damage here in the UK (hot pans, things that would stain etc).

We never considered them chopping boards.

Did the USA not get the memo?

[orev]

The thing about giving advice is that some people will think it’s obvious, but those aren’t the people who need the advice, it’s the people to whom it wasn’t obvious.

And I don’t see what country/location has to do with this, as I imagine plenty of places use bad materials.

[operatingthetan]

When I read the above comment I couldn't figure out what material they were using other than wood or plastic. I don't think using glass is common, at least I've never seen it in the US.

[reaperducer]

We never considered them chopping boards.

Demonstrably false:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114968917182

Perhaps do a basic internet search before speaking for an entire nation.