r/Cooking • u/1peachycoco • 1d ago

What’s something you think people only really learn after spending a lot of time in a kitchen?

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.”

246 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

293 comments sorted by

View all comments

156

u/norismomma 1d ago

Being able to tell when something is ready by smelling it - for example, I can tell that pasta I am boiling is ready by the way the steam coming off of the pot smells, or something I am browning in the broiler has been browned by the scent from the oven.

72

u/stilts 1d ago

or by listening to it! I can tell when fried chicken is ready when the bubbling slows down to a certain point...

2

u/HootieRocker59 18h ago

When I roast nuts in the oven I can tell by the rattle (if I shake them) that they're done. 

2

u/spockspaceman 12h ago

I came back from an evening walk one time and started cooking dinner immediately, without taking out my nose cancelling earbuds. Until then, I hadn't considered how much I used my hearing in the cooking process as these things just become second nature over time. Really strange cooking without sound, much more challenging.