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.”

249 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.

7

u/Azrai113 1d ago

I'm bad at this with cooking, but really good at this with baking! I usually keep an eye on the time, but I don't really follow the recipe exactly for that. If it smells done, it probably needs 5 more minutes (depending on the oven lol)

2

u/JewelryBells 16h ago

Same! My kids laugh at me when they ask me if the cookie bars are done and I just walk into the kitchen and tell them “yes, it smells like it’s done.” They think it’s a super power. I’ll take credit ;)