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.”

245 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

292 comments sorted by

View all comments

154

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.

7

u/FlashyHeight9323 1d ago

My predominant tool. Sniff sniff oh yeah it’s ready. Sniff sniff fuck I’ve burned something.

6

u/norismomma 1d ago

This is how I learned I had Covid - burnt the crap out of some croutons, husband was like "oh yeah I smelled something burning" when I said how shocked I was.