Working on your knife skills will pay off more than any small organizational optimizations and it's fun.
The top oven of a 30" double oven heats up almost as fast as a toaster oven, you don't have to bend over far to use it, and it takes up no counter space. I thought these were just for people who frequently cook huge meals for large gatherings but we moved into a house with one, used the top oven constantly, and it became a must-have when it was time to replace the range.
I got a gigantic weston vacuum sealer for Christmas one year. Fortunately we have the counter space for it, and drawer space beneath it for the bags, in our pantry. In the amounts we cook it's taken a long time to break even on any cost savings but it's a quality of life game changer. Plus sous vide. In a world where less-than-super-premium American butchery has gone from mediocre to downright sloppy in my lifetime, it's very, very nice being able to break down big roasts and subprimals into chops and steaks and smaller roasts etc and trim them up nicely and freeze whatever we're not going to use immediately. I tie roasts before freezing them.
Just buy the big box of sharpies for the kitchen. They walk off and dry out and get that weird thing that happens when they touch something oily. I mark things like super-duper-pasteurized dairy products with the date opened. I'm not michelin-star disciplined about using painter's tape for other containers. If I have a subprimal's worth of meat to go in the freezer, I use a label maker.
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.
> 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.
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.
Don’t be pissed. You the one sentient being in a family of NPCs (no offence).
I always microwave my ice-cream.
People freak out when I tell them I do this.
Another thing people freak out about is when I tell them I sprinkle instant coffee on supermarket bought vanilla ice cream. The (too) sweet ice cream balances with the bitter coffee and it adds a textural element.
> 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.
Cold ketchup on hot french fries is one of life's great joys, though.
> 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.
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.
There's no reason your fingers should be under the blade while it's in motion. That's just poor technique.
Not everyone is a chef. I guess 80% of people in the world have poor technique for cutting stuff but they mostly get away not cutting themselves because they have dull knives.
> 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.
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.
> Do NOT use an electric sharpener
Why?
> 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?
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.
I was given one by a landlord once because a lot of renters here don't have the money to buy cutting boards so they will just cut directly on the kitchen counters.
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.
Load stuff directly into dishwasher and as soon as you decide you don't need it.
In general small cleaning tasks are great filler for any wait in dish-making
I got a bunch of time-saving (or at least time-sync-effort-having) from just air-fryer option to run 2 programs at time (basically set different times and it will take care of starting them in such way they both finish at once).
Put carbs like potatoes in one chamber, meat in other, set and start it, make some salad/tea/whatever else in mean time, 15 minutes and done.
> Especially because getting the water boiling is so often a limiting factor, it's worth considering this sort of optimization. I probably spent extra hours per year cooking before I changed how I boil water. There are many common tasks like this in the kitchen; it's worth thinking carefully about them.
Prepare stuff while it boils, like, you either boil stuff into stew in the water or boil some kind of pasta or other carb there, surely there is plenty of other parts of the dish to make in meantime?
One thing we do is to load a new dishwasher tablet immediately upon emptying the dishes.
Result:
If there’s a tablet: it’s dirty.
If there’s no tablet: it’s clean.
The stable state of our dishwasher is dirty: clean only lasts the fleeting instant a person spots it and immediately empties it.
One word, teenagers.
That's a nice trick. What we do is use a reversible magnet that says "dirty" on one side and "clean" on the other
Or if you have an already incomplete set of scrabble tiles: attach magnets to the backs of the ones that spell "dirty" and "clean". Whichever isn't scrambled on the door is the state of the dishwasher.
Or simply don't rinse the dishes before you put them in[0]. I've never had trouble telling.
[0] Exceptions: uncooked eggs, yogurt, and for some reason, salsa? None of which ever come off for me if they sit for long before you run the dishwasher.
I've often wondered why the dishwasher vendors didn't put a label on the little flip open door so that it actually said, "dirty" on the outside, and "clean" on the inside.
That's a good one. One I tend to do is, once I know i will run the dishwasher overnight, I will set it to run with a delay. That way, even if I forget to put in the last few items, it's going to run and I will not run out of clean stuff. (My dishwasher is fairly slow, as it's a built-in one and can't pop open to dry).
I'm fully convinced that dishwashers are a hoax. Doing the dishes manually is far more efficient, both in water used, energy and time spent. Things to consider: time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof, time spent playing dishwasher tetris, time spent filling and emptying, time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher, time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box.
I can do the dishes after a family meal just as fast, and with better and more consistent results en less water, than when using the dishwasher.
> time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof
It's done once per item. In my case I have just a few things I know are not dishwasher proof.
> time spent playing dishwasher tetris
Get a bigger dishwasher.
> time spent filling and emptying
The same time you'd spend putting things in the sink and taking them out after you've washed them.
> time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher
No need to that, unless you leave actual chunks of uneaten food on your plates.
> time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box
Try powdered detergent. There are a few Technology Connections videos discussing dishwashers, including how capsules are inefficient - basically they're used up on the "pre-wash" cycle. There are a few other tricks to improve the efficiency of the dishwasher, too.
So you have a few things to do once and a few things to do always, which you'd do with hand washing anyway. Having a dishwasher is a game changer. If you're not happy with the results, don't give up just yet. Think of how to improve the process, because it's possible. At first I was also skeptical and disappointed in my (first) dishwasher.
When our old dishwasher gave up, I got a mid-range Bosch dishwasher. I never thought I’d catch feelings for an appliance, but this thing is awesome. Dishes come out squeaky clean and nearly dry just from the temps. Glasses are spotless. Third rack is very convenient as well.
I’m sure other modern dishwashers are also very good, but I’d buy the same again in a heartbeat.
I was honestly a little disappointed with my Bosch.
I had an old low end dishwasher that I had kept going up to a point, but the rack was after rusting to the point it broke.
Bought a mid range Bosch after reading so many glowing reviews and I find it does a terrible job at drying the dishes. They're clean, and the third rack is so much better than I had imagined it would be, but there's always still water on everything!
The old dishwasher had a vent on the front, when it was doing its drying you could see the steam coming out. The Bosch doesn't seem to have any vent... it heats up for a dry cycle, but if you don't catch it and open the door at the end the water vapor just recondenses.
Someone should make a small pressure washing contraption like those for XXL restaurants.
Just to be clear, this is nonsense. Every dishwasher made for the past few decades at least will use less water than washing by hand.
[flagged]
> Wtf? I never once in my life have any issues [...] What a weird problem to have. I'll give you a pro tip [...]
Can you please make your substantive points thoughtfully? There's no need to snark or get personal.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
The issue comes when there are multiple people using the kitchen. Sometimes my wife runs the dishwasher when I'm not around, or vice versa. We usually rinse our dishes, so there is not always a lot of visible evidence.
The problem is when you have a dirty dish and assume that the dishwasher contents are dirty too (because usually we unload the dishwasher soon after it finishes). Then you put a dirty dish in, possibly making other dishes dirty. So you have to either hand-wash several dishes or re-wash the entire load.
I understand your confusion. If you clean off and rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, it can sometimes get confusing
I don't get the logic of cleaning dishes BEFORE putting them in the dishwasher.
Not actually cleaning, just rinsing.
The logic is to prevent:
- Chunks of fibrous vegetables (e.g.) from clogging the dishwasher filter
- Wet sauces (or egg) from drying and hardening over the hours/days before the next dishwasher cycle, and becoming more difficult to remove
And many of us grew up with older dishwashers that didn't work as well as newer ones.
All of that said, modern dishwashers actually monitor the water (clarity, turbidity?) to determine whether the dishes are sufficiently clean. If you rinse your dishes too well, the dishwasher will prematurely think it has accomplished its goal, and reduce time/temperature to end the cycle early. This is why manufacturers recommend against rinsing or pre-cleaning.
In my household, we have a pair of zealous canine precleaners, who do an excellent first-pass job. The dishwasher's only responsibility is to rinse and sterilize. :)
You will after you have to pull the dishwasher out, turn it upside down and partially disassemble it to clean the filter which is blocking the flow of water intended to rinse your dishes.
I think people don't want to clog their dishwasher with pieces of food. If I have a couple pieces of spaghetti, a part of a leaf and half a chickpea stuck on the plate, I would remove them with a paper towel. Not sure why anyone would rinse it afterwards, though.
That reminds me of people who clean before the maid comes. I've never had a maid, but I've read that people do the easiest things themselves so the maid, who is paid by the hour, has to do the harder things only.
I do it and recognize that the logic is flawed, but it's a habit and just looks and feels correct at this point.
I might quickly rinse my dishes to remove large food particles.
If you are cleaning your dishes so much before loading that you literally can't tell the difference between dishes that have been through the dishwasher and dishes that haven't, then just skip the dishwasher step. You're already done.
A foot pedal faucet is the biggest optimization I need to make. It's like giving yourself a third arm in many situations.
I so desperately want this, I think about it about 5 times a week and probably mention it to my wife as often. But in my old small house I doubt I could ever get one set up. Much better than a touch less one.
It's just a standard plumbing fitting, and it engages with the plumbing below your actual faucet. Space shouldn't be an issue?
I bought an one that attaches to the source line to the faucet, but I'm nervous to install it for risk of leaks.
Teflon tape is your friend when plumbing things together.
Not always. It only works with FIP/MIP connections. If it's a compression fitting you're just wasting money.
Definitely. I'm more worried about the valve in the pedal being faulty and leaking.
Can't recommend a foot pedal faucet enough. They're not expensive!
I use a touch-sensitive faucet. Either way, this is a big upgrade given how often one uses a faucet.
I'm grateful for all the notes here. I seem to have been insufficiently clear on the subject of boiling water, so I've written a follow-up post:
I cook every day and I did not relate to this.
Make frequently-used items accessible close to where they will be needed. Install drawers throughout the kitchen -- especially below the counter. Prep before you cook (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place).
And just keep practicing; you will naturally get better and faster.
I'm a mise en place hater personally, since I make a lot of things that are essentially stir fries or stews where some ingredients need significantly more time. Sure, go for it on more complicated recipes, but it's really overkill for lots of daily cooking.
Right now I have a large and stylish open kitchen but there are times where I miss having a galley kitchen, where I could stand in one place and reach everything I needed - pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, knives and accessories on magnetic racks on the walls, fridge contents reachable while standing at the stove... somehow it even had enough prep space.
I have a large open plan kitchen with one counter surrounded by hanging pots and pans, knives on a magnetic wall mount, all chopping boards stored vertically in racks and most of the condiments on a wall rack or in the drawers
If you cook with a partner, a kitchen with a wide enough aisle so that one can open a dishwasher and also open a cabinet on the opposite side makes life so much easier, since it means it is also wide enough for 2 people to move past each other easily.
Big tub sink on one side, range on the opposite side of aisle, and at least 3ft/1m of countertop space on both sides of each those is my ideal. One side of the sink will have a dish rack, leaving 3 sides. That means 3 available spaces for prep, eventually turning into 2 as dirty kitchenware piles up next to the sink.
I've found that cooking extra food with the intent of freezing it in individual portions is a game changer for when I'm alone at home - my fiancée can also pack them for lunch. Rice, curries, ragoûts are really nice to get out of the freezer, put on a plate in the microwave and eat a few minutes later.
Look at Souper Cubes (or any silicon knockoff) for the molds.
Living with a shared kitchen I had a neighbor (+gf) once who hated cooking. His solution was to cook only once per month. It was quite hilarious, he made about 40-60 meals in one day. Giant pots everywhere.
He would print a menu card for the month with all the 3-4 course meals. He would set the table, light candles, poor the wine and argued what to microwave.
Batch cooking is the only way to have two working adults. I love to cook though, so at home, one cooks the batch part and the other does a different meal for the weekend.
We think our cooking is much better than almost all restaurants we go (and we heard from others that our guests usually thinks the same).
I think B. F. Skinner liked that sort of things. (In "Walden Two" he gives a rather detailed description of a contraption to conveniently carry around a glass full of a hot beverage without risk of spilling; I'm positive it was one of his inventions.)
This sort of reminds me of those single powder or whatever meals they were awhile back - for those that need to eat but take no pleasure or dedicate no time.
For me, cooking (prep and cleanup included) is about enjoying the process, understanding what I am making and taking time doing it.
If I want quick, sure there are options around.
Cooking for me is relaxation and time away not thinking about tech and the like.
Chinese cooking is really optimized, the recipes (well, for home cooked food) are fairly direct and involve simple prep steps that can be performed quickly. Even if I wasn’t married to a Chinese, I wouldn’t think of cooking anything else just due to the time savings alone.
The issue I find with Chinese cooking is that it often requires very high heat and so (probably due to bad technique on my part) I get a house full of smoke or at least very high VOCs. Any tips to avoid that?
I find kitchenwork provides good case studies for computational thinking. Thinking about stacking dishes by their sizes leads to a tour of sorting algorithms and datastructures. Thinking about predicting the prices of different preparations that use the same ingredients leads to principal component analysis.
There's also the application of computational methods to cooking.
Vacuum-sealable containers are pretty great.
I've found the blue tape and a sharpie to be a game changer. It helps me keep my fridge tidy without having to go through everything and guess if it's still ok. I find I actually waste less food when I throw things out regularly because I know that if it's in there it's good to eat and it doesn't get lost among old leftovers that aren't any good anymore anyway.
That wouldn't make me happy. If the sharpie on the tape said it was bad, I'd still look at it, sniff it and probably eat it. Certain foods scare me though. eg there's a common claim that boiled rice shouldn't be kept for more than a day and then re-heated. I follow this received wisdom even though it never seems bad and I don't know anyone who got ill from eating re-heated boiled rice. On the other hand, raw chicken does not scare me because I have an uncontrollable revulsion to it when it has actually gone bad. And of course, Camembert isn't worth eating until at least a fortnight after the expiry date.
Since the phrase "home ec" does not seem to appear in the comments yet I will just point out that at least for my generation, doing the dishes efficiently was taught in high schools. Minimizing movements in the kitchen was a subject of instruction.
This is great keep going.
I find mis-en-place is a great optimization, especially if you have kids.
For hot water, I have a 2L thermos which I keep filled with boiling water to make hot drinks, with a quick reboil if necessary, and also to use as cooking water. I think there are plumbed in versions of this which would be even better.
Bread-making - I just use a bread machine to make day-to-day bread (specials hand baked etc on weekends sometimes.) For the daily, I pre-measure ingredients (both wet and dry) for 10+ loaves, individually packaged (kids are a great production line again). The to make the bread, just throw in the packets and press the buttons...
No doubt most people already do this, but for some reason my wife can't get it .. keep everything in the same place all the time. It really wastes time and 'stressergy' to have to hunt for the measuring spoons or the molasses or whatever because they were put back in a different place.
I'm sure commercial chefs could add a huge list of tricks that are still applicable at home to this.
It's _mise en place_, with an e since it's feminine and without dashes.
Signed: A pedantic French guy (pleonasm)
Thanks. Should I include the underscores?
Mise en place is ok sometimes but it also generates a lot unnecessary cleaning.
Clean as you go is a big one for me. I hate having a big cleanup at the end of a meal prep.
* Deli cups.
* Quarter hotel pans (the stackable kind).
* Painter's tape and Sharpies.
* Zojirushi water boiler.
* Foot pedal sink.
I actually use wet erase markers instead of tape and sharpies. You can write whatever you want on whatever container and then just put it in the dishwasher when you're done. It's like writing on studs when you're framing.
Whether you think that using plastic (deli) cups are a cause of all humanities health problems or not, you might want to use glass containers. They're reusable, microwavable (I believe that's a no-no for plastic, but who knows nowadays) and dishwasher safe.
There's a reason you're more likely to see a line cook drinking out of a deli than a glass container.
Breakability, among others, I suspect. I've never cooked commercially, but I did work at Cinnabon long enough ago that we made the rolls out of things that were identifiably ingredients. All the staff cups were plastic because things get moving pretty quick on a busy day.
The one Christmas Eve I worked in college was bananas. We had both ovens running (doesn't happen outside the holiday season) and were putting pans in and taking them out about as fast as we could make rolls and proof them.
Well I don't think residential kitchens are as chaotic as a commercial kitchen, so sure drinking out of a non breaking container is probably a good idea (glass breakage is a pita there).
However most people (I assume on HN) are not line cooks and do not work in commercial kitchens. I drink out of glass (don't want plasticy taste) and use glass to store leftover food.
Here's one: "There's a reason most line cooks drink out a deli rather than read NIH" [0] :)
As previously mentioned, whether one thinks using glass is worth it is a personal preference.
[0]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11193405/
[0] TLDR: Guidance
Avoid plastic containers as much as possible. My ranking (and only if food-grade) of probability of leaching chemicals into the foods they contain...
The water boiling one doesn't make any sense. One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.
An induction range would remove the need for transferring boiling water around. At least in the US, that's the fastest device, since countertop kettles are limited to 1.8kW or so. Induction 'burners' usually are 2.5-4kW, and assuming the right cookware, much better at transferring that energy into the water (and not the air like a gas burner)
> One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.
I think you're missing the part where you dump one into the other once one boils.
Obviously, heating in parallel is going to be faster.
> One of those devices (stove or kettle) transfers more heat per unit of time into the water. Just use that device for the full amount of water.
But.. Applying heat from two sources is better than applying heat from only one?
Related Technology Connections video, where he uses electric kettle at 6 kW, to boil 1L of water in 55 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZybkX8tLI
Fastest way to do it: induction hob and a hot water tap with one of those under sink boilers. It takes longer to fill the pan than to get the water to a rolling boil.
Come to Europe, we have the 3+ kw kettles!
Even 10 second kettle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDLw1Rx_cAI
(In 2014 they were still in the EU)
The 220-240v alone is already a huge time saver. 110-120v is just not kettle friendly.
No fair because you also have the 240V outlets :(
You can have 240V outlets too... at least, a lot of woodworkers seem to install them in their garages. Are they legal in the kitchen?
I had similar thoughts to the author, but I opted to just optimize those actions out of my life. If you only eat Huel(or any other powdered food thing) at home then pretty much everything described in the article is no longer an issue.
No more dealing with dishes, dishwashers, stray items on the table, boiling water etc. The only thing you need to worry about is cleaning your one huel cup which you can do right before you prepare your next shake.
I did it for a few years, eating breakfast + lunch at the office and then Huel for dinner or eating out at restaurant.
I have a few things that I can add. If you just want an adequate meal with the least amount of work, invest in:
* multicooker, one with a pressure cooking setting. You just have to press a few buttons and forget about it. If you know how much time it takes to cook something (for example - chickpeas, 26 minutes), you just set it for 26 minutes and go do something else. The multicooker will keep it warm for a few hours after it's done. No need to turn off the stove or anything like that. There's hardly any vapor released. You can make lots of dishes under pressure - pasta, lentils, chickpeas, beans... You can steam (almost?) any vegetable, as well. For beans and chickpeas the total prep time is hours, but the actual human time is minutes. Just put them under water for a few hours (takes ~30 seconds), then drain and put into the multicooker (takes ~1 minute). It takes a few minutes of actual work, but it also lets you forget about it, as it won't over-boil or anything like that. I can put something and go out, come back after a few hours and have a hot meal ready. I only use my regular stove top to make popcorn once in a while. The only downside is not being able to add different ingredients after the cooking has begun, as it's under pressure. And the "26" minutes above don't include the time it takes to reach the required pressure and the time it takes to release it. You can speed both steps by boiling water in a kettle before putting in the multicooker and by using the release valve after the cooking is done.
* bread maker - literally put water, oil, salt, sugar, flour and yeast one after the other, press a few buttons, wait a few hours and you get a perfect bread. Beats any recipe, including the "no-knead" ones, in terms of convenience. I can make better bread with lots of kneading and resting and whatnot, but the bread that comes out is good enough for me, so I don't see myself ever making bread by hand again.
If I lose all my possessions and have to rebuild from scratch, I would buy a cheap multicooker first, then a bread maker. Then, I'd think about a regular stove, a microwave and so on.
Another "optimization" is keeping everything in jars. Flour, coffee, sugar, cocoa, condiments, beans, oats - everything. It's much easier to see what and how much you have of everything, it's transparent, you can put labels on the jars (cheap price tags/stickers), you can pour from the jars easily, you can scoop with them with a spoon. No messy paper or plastic wraps. I don't get why people keep things in their original packaging - a bulky, wrinkled plastic or paper wrap that obscures the view behind it, obscures the view inside and makes it harder to scoop with a spoon.
For jars you use frequently, keep a spoon inside. I have a spoon in my coffee jar. I still have to get another spoon to swirl my coffee when it's done, so the sugar dissolves, but it's nice to not care about that when you're transferring the coffee from the jar to the moka pot or coffee maker.
And finally, keep similar ingredients near each other. The condiments, the teas, the legumes, the flours, the sauces. Just designate a place for each type of food. You can always adjust it later. In my cupboard the sugary condiments (sugar, molasses, xylitol, honey, etc.) are on the left, the salty ones are on the right (various types of salt, as well as salty mixes) and the other ones are in the middle (herbs and whatnot). Above that the most protein-y things are on the left, the cereal-y things are in the middle (oats, various seeds) and misc. things are on the right. The idea is that whenever I buy something, when I come home I immediately pour it into a jar and put it where it belongs. That way everything is pretty and organized. Queries like "how much lentils do I have left" are answered in seconds. The overhead of keeping the jars clean is minimal, as you don't have to clean the jars all the time - if you had a jar of lentils that's now empty, just leave it "dirty". It's not unhygienic, especially if you'll put lentils or other food that you'll boil in it later, anyway. I clean them once they get visible dirty - if I've touched them with greasy fingers, for example.
Agreed on jars. We use Weck and Ball for different purposes, and truly love them. It's odd to be so attached to trivial chunks of silicon, and we're not attached to them as individuals but I appreciate them every single day.
I struggle with discarding the original packaging. Sometimes I want to know what the nutritional content of product X is. I have a guilt drawer of collapsed packaging. This has the added benefits of confirming formulation changes, shrinkflation evidence, and remembering brands of certain commodities that were better or worse than others. It also satisfies my "preserve all available data" instincts, which I imagine many other geeks share -- although it is only tolerated with amusement by other members of my household.
I take a photo of almost any package. I have a folder with labels from years ago. I admit that if the manufacturers of X change the ingredients without changing the design/layout, I wouldn't notice. So I might have to set up a system where I remind myself to check everything once every few months to compare it to the photos I have. But at least the photos don't take up any space. I used to have a drawer with packaging and receipts, too, but it was unmanagable.
For jars I use regular jars for most things. Regular jars of food you'd buy in the supermarket. They're basically free. I just have to soak them and remove the original label. For some things I like tall jars, the kind tomato sauce comes in. Doesn't really matter, except they fill certain shelves of a specific height better.
Photos are an interesting idea. I'm one of the freaks who does not carry their phone on their person at all times, so it would be less convenient for me (until I join the 20th C at least), although more convenient for the rest of the household... So we'll see. :)
One of the things that I really appreciate about the Weck and Ball jars are their uniformity. You can get different lids for different purposes (air-tight, water-tight, with straw-hole, flexible, etc). The lids are cross-compatible for most jar shapes/sizes within the brand, but not cross-brand of course. This is OK because we use them for very different purposes, usually. They also stack well, the lids can be reused indefinitely and put through the dishwasher without worrying about rust or deformation, can be easily replaced if lost or damaged, etc etc. They're also more durable than the single-use-intended retail packaging jars. I'm sure this sounds a bit silly, but it does honestly make a difference, for my brain at least!
Of course they are not free, and I never would have made the change if it wasn't required for canning foods from the garden. But after making the switch, I've always been happier for it. YMMV!
I agree with all. We use Tupperware clones instead of jars, and a microwave+gril+convection oven for 75% cooking. Reposting an old comment:
We are very happy with our Samsung Hotblast https://www.samsung.com/in/microwave-ovens/convection/28-lit... (or a similar version). You setup the temperature to 200°C (392°F), the time to 20 or 30 minutes and you can go to another room while it cooks. It takes some time to find the perfect time, and sometime you must use the microwave or grill instead, but it's perfect for cooking in a short time.
there are indications that cooking and doing other house related chores are actually beneficial for the mind. Cooking is specially important.
I don't know the reasons as I only read parts of papers and posts about it, but it seems something related to human brain evolution, but I am no expert. If someone knows more I would be happy to know
From the article: boil water in two different containers then combine it.
Also from the article: "please prioritize safety considerations, such as minimizing the chances of spilling boiling water [...] That stuff matters a lot more than small time savings."
uhm...
I'm not sure I understand the thing about boiling water:
1. Put a modest amount of water in the pot and turn the stove element on.
2. Put a modest amount of water in the electric kettle and turn it on.
3. If one boils before the other, either combine them (if the other is nearly boiling) or add a little more water to the already-boiling one.
What happens if they boil at the same time? Don't combine them? What happens if pot boils before kettle? Add water to the pot and forget about the kettle?
And overall boiling water seems to be the worst example to pick to show how to optimize cooking. You can't over-boil water, so depending on your appliance, if you don't start using your boiling water as soon as it boils, it will either stop heating and start loosing temperature, or it will keep boiling, water will be lost through evaporation and energy consumed needlessly. But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating. Furthermore, with electric kettle and induction stove, you'll hardly have time to chop a few onions or clean a few carrots before water is ready.
I've seen people needing half to a full hour to make pasta with a store-bought sauce, and thought that was crazy, but that's because they weren't doing things in parallel and/or not in the right order.
Like, if you plan to make pasta, first you put water to boil, then you get your pasta and everything else while its heating. And don't wait for your pasta to be ready to get your strainer. Same for the sauce. Get it and open it while the pasta are cooking.
Here’s how you optimize the time it takes for things to boil:
You spend that time prepping ingredients, cooking another dish, or cleaning the kitchen. In cooking there’s no such thing as waiting.
Agreed, working in the kitchen is all about figuring out how to do things in parallel without messing them up. You can chop and dice while the pot or pan is heating up, you can do the dishes while the sauce reduces, you can make a salad while meat rests, etc.
> In cooking there’s no such thing as waiting.
I tend to go hyper mis en place when I cook. So by the time "active" cooking is taking place, it's a pretty chill affair and I often end up reading my book in the bits of down time.
> So by the time "active" cooking is taking place, it's a pretty chill affair
Nice! As my mom used to say: A good cook leaves the kitchen cleaner than they found it.
I do a mix of mise-en-place and frantic chopping in between things. Depends on what I'm making and how the different activities gantt chart together.
> What happens if they boil at the same time?
Then they're boiled and you don't have to do anything. But the point is that they boiled in exactly half the time it would have taken using only one of the devices with the full amount of water.
> But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating.
If you're making a full meal, sure. If all you want to do is hard-boil a couple of eggs, then yeah you want to hurry it up.
If you really want speed, use your microwave as a third!
There's also those "always on" hot water dispensers. And your home hot water can also be put on a pumped loop for instant access.
I'd really like to vectorize-- prep once for, say, 8 or 16 contiguous shots at pan searing the salmon the correct way.
There should be an app that matches home vectorization needs with busy restaurant schedules. So I would pay, say, $50 bucks to jump in the kitchen and get yelled at to properly produce either 16 acceptable salmon entrees or ruin 2, whichever comes first.
Optimize why? So that we can spend the extra seconds on our social media apps? People need to learn to slow down and not try to save twenty seconds when boiling water.
Why should I optimize my code? To save 420ms for what?
I dunno. I try to optimize everything in life, maybe it's the engineer in me (I find it fun and interesting how people do things inefficiently). I also try and measure ingredients exactly (e.g. 420g of flour, not 419g or 421g), however that might be some low form of OCD. /shrug
Whether I use that extra time or not doesn't really matter for me.
Anecdotally, with two young children (5, 1), the savings add up and mean twenty more seconds with them or not being overwhelmed after they're asleep with the state of the house.
Indeed.
No, boiling water in the kettle literally saves you 10 minutes of hanging around every single time you cook, it's a no brainier.
The time it takes for water to boil is your time to prep all the ingredients or clean the kitchen. In cooking there is no waiting.
Boiling the kettle means I can make pasta and a sauce in about 12 minutes, boiling on the stove just adds tons of time. Given that the kettle is next to the stove it's simply self sabotaging not to use it, one button press.
This will vary depending on the type of cooktop you have, and whether you have a 240V kettle.
Electric coil cooktops, and 120V kettles are the slowest.
Gas/induction cooktops, and 240V kettles are the quickest.
Yeah huge difference if you have 240V mains. A 120V electric kettle is not much of a timesaver (though perhaps still worth something if it frees up a place on the cooktop that you need for something else).