What's your secret ingredient that makes your version of a common dish better than anyone else's?
Mine probably isn't that secret these days, but almost every sauce I add nutritional yeast to. Curry, chilli, bolognese, it just makes them all better.
Acid. Lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, and/or wine. Salt and acid make the existing flavors fucking pop.
For anything cheesy, add a touch of nutmeg. Not enough to identify it, but enough to know that something changed.
Taste as you go.
Funny story. My partner was making mince meat a little while back and instead of adding nutmeg they accidentally added cinnamon. Actually turned out really good!
Moroccans (and probably others) use cinnamon in savoury dishes like tagines and stuff, so not a terrible mistake to make!
Cinnamon is awesome on pepperoni pizza; throw it on before baking.
Nutmeg is great in creamed spinach as well
I have a different secret ingredient in my creamed spinach.
MSG. It’s amazing.
Along those same lines: Chicken bullion powder with MSG.
what's MSG?
Metal Sear Golid
Monosodium glutamate. Makes things taste more savory. Also causes furries to make in-jokes about family unfriendly topics.
Mobile Suit Gundam
My sugary gonads
Make Shit Good
Basically a salt that triggers pure umami flavor. It's an easy add for dishes where you don't want to use another umami booster like worcestershire or fish sauce.
MSG is the king of flavor!
I really need to grab a pack next time I hit the local Asian supermarket.
Couldn't tell you. Every time I make something really good that's worth repeating, the recipe is immediately wiped from my mind forever. It's like some monkey's paw curse that I can only make the thing the most delicious way once.
Also, butter.
I have the same issue with seasonings. I can never remember how much of what i used to make a perfect dish. With all the smart things being made, what we need are smart seasoning containers, just think after a long cooking you sit down to eat and can pull up an app to see you used 2 grams of this 5 grams of that. You mark the dish then next time you're cooking you pull up the app and it reminds you on how much to use.
I still pine for that ham bone soup I drunk-made after Christmas that one times.
The other secret ingredient is .... time
Often I'll make something and it doesn't quite taste that great immediately after making it ... especially tomato based recipes
Then when you let it sit for a day ... it tastes a whole lot better the next day.
True. A lot of sauces are the best in leftovers, but every time, I'm like, "no, this doesn't taste right, it's not good, mom taste it and help me," and then she's like, "yeah dummy, it's been on the stove for 5 minutes, give it some time." I'm not patient.
I get the same. I make something that everyone says is delicious and I genuinely have no idea how much of what went in. I guess it just comes with knowing the basics well enough.
the recipe is immediately wiped from my mind forever
You guys are getting recipes? Jk.
Smell, taste, and timing are the keys to great food. Take a whiff and add what's missing.
Methodical testing is for sharing results after you have a solid grasp of what tastes good.
That's why I'm designing a recipe app where I can keep notes etc for everything I make.
either that, or it only tastes so good the first time, even if your recreate it exactly.
MSG
A few years ago I got a big shaker of just straight MSG crystals in the "ethnic foods" aisle of the grocery store, and I put it in so much stuff. It just makes everything taste better. Particularly anything umami
In Switerland you can get it by the kilogram and in some supermarkets there is an entire aisle just for MSG.
King of Flavour
The magic spice
The MSG must flow!
Monosodium glutamate
Uncle Roger approved
Fuiyoh!
Citric acid. It's like adding lemon juice, except without any added moisture, so it works where too much moisture could pose a problem, like when you are making a pizza, nachos, or frying something in oil. It also never goes bad and is incredibly cheap, I use it all the time and am not even halfway through the $15 bag I bought like 8 years ago.
You can also add citric (and malic and tartaric) acid in the right proportions to turn a sweet juice like orange or pineapple into the equivalent of lime or lemon, and then use that juice like you'd use lime or lemon in cocktails or other recipes
Generally, salt or MSG. I find people tend to under-season their dishes, and not layer flavors as they cook.
MSG comes in many forms: cheese, tomato, mushroom, fish sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce... MSG powder.
I'm not taling Uncle Roger portions here. Just a teaspoon of the naturally occurring stuff, a couple splashes of the sauces, or just or a pinch of straight MSG is all it takes to add a bit of savory depth to a dish. I get good feedback about my cooking. Occasionally I overdo the salt, but no so much as to render it inedible. It helps to move the table wine along.
Back incollege, I was a waitress at an Italian restaurant. A lady came in ordered a dish with lots of tomato in it, then demanded I tell the chef she was allergic to MSG, in an accusatory way. What she didn't know is that I was going to school for a medical based degree, and recently had a professor go off about how MSG is in tons of foods naturally and not to believe the craze about it being bad for you.
"Oh my gosh! You're allergic to MSG!?! I'm sorry, but all tomatoes contain MSG. Please choose another dish" ... "I'm sorry, ma'am but mushrooms have MSG in them too. I'll talk to my chef and see what suggestions he might have."
She changed her tone "I'm not allergic, I just don't want it added... it's bad for you... blah blah"
I didn't get tipped, but it was hella satisfying to passive- aggressively educate her.
MSG in everything except eggs. Doesn’t go well with eggs for some reason.
In my experience it goes well with eggs too!
Bahaha someone else on here recommended MSG and I was like, “Oh yeah, I should go make some eggs and sprinkle some MSG on there.”
Dry yellow mustard powder in mac and cheese. Not the fiery English or Chinese stuff, just boring American yellow mustard.
I just add a bit of bottled mustard, about half a teaspoon to a box of mac I find to be good, too much more and you start to taste the mustard distinctly.
Adding a bunch of black pepper to it also does good things in my opinion
Nah man, Coleman's is the one and only.
I use about 2 teaspoons of dijon, and then also something spicy, like Cayanne Pepper.
MSG.
🥰
Well as a Hispanic, I'm obligated to say adobo, sazon and or sofrito...
But cumin is fire in a lot of things too... Like wanna add flavor but no salt? Sprinkle in a lil cumin. Mac n cheese with cumin is a vibe.
Doesn't taste Mexican without some Goya or at least some Knorr.
Not an ingredient necessarily, but I toast rice with spices before cooking it. I throw some oil and garlic in the pot I'm going to cook the rice in, then put in the rice and (for mexican-like dishes) garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, a little oregano, a little cayenne pepper, and salt. I mix that all up continuously over medium heat for a couple minutes, then I add the water and cook the rice. It makes an incredible difference in taste
Not to discount your rice idea, but isn't this essentially the directions for Rice-A-Roni?
It completely is and it completely works wonders.
You do similar with risotto too.
Your "secret recipe" is risotto.
Just like adding a pinch of salt can improve any dish, adding a dash of Worcestershire sauce can improve them for the same reasons but different taste group.
And more generally, if you taste something and feel like it's missing something, go through each of the taste groups and consider if that is what it's missing. Sweet, salty, acidic, umami are the main ones (I've never felt like a dish is missing bitterness, but maybe that's a weakness in my cooking). Spicy isn't a flavour group but can add to a dish and/or mask a lack of balance.
Also, do this balancing act after you've added all the ingredients because they can bring their own biases to the dish.
In my experience, when a dish tastes like it's missing something, most of the time it's acid. My go-to is a healthy squirt of yellow mustard.
Salt :D
Lots of home cooks are shy with seasoning in general (but especially salt). While not impossible, it's fairly hard to over season stuff.
That's why if you ever look at "miracle season alls" the first ingredients are usually something like "Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder".
If you want to be amused, look at these ingredients lists. Often the only difference is what food coloring is used.
For example.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/tony-chachere-s-original-creole-seasoning/172479
I've also found that coarser salt works WAY better for certain stuff.
If it is too fine, for some stuff you have to use a ton or it just disappears, and I don't really like the result. But if you get the stuff that comes in giant crystals, that's fantastic for steaks/chicken, stuff where you lay it onto the surface of something to season it. It's like uneven salt lets you have spots that are way saltier than what would be enjoyable if you salted the whole thing that much, and it ends up tasting better than the same amount of salt applied more evenly.
Sauces, or anything where I want it dissolved, is the only time I use the fine stuff anymore.
I'm pretty much the same way, though I do throw in a bit of fine salt on occasion for the iodine content. I don't eat a ton of seafood which makes getting the rda of iodine difficult.
While not impossible, it's fairly hard to over season stuff.
I disagree here. Unless you're used to overseasoned food already, it's pretty easy to be heavy handed on the salt.
Yes and no.
Some salts are easier to work with than others. Kosher salt, in particular, is fairly hard to over season with because you can visually see just how much you've thrown onto a steak or such. Fine salt, on the other hand, is a lot easier to over season with.
But then it also depends a lot on the dish. Sauces are really hard to over season. The sea of fluid can absorb a fair amount of salt before it's noticeable. Meats are similar. A steak can have a snow covering of kosher salt and it won't really taste super salty.
Bread, on the other hand, will be noticeably worse if you throw in a tbs of salt instead a tsp.
But salt wasn't specifically what I was thinking when I wrote that. Herbal seasoning garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, etc, generally won't overpower a dish if you have too much of them. Especially if you aren't working with the powdered form. (Definitely possible to over season something with garlic salt/powder).
Smoked paprika. It throw it in a lot of stuff you wouldn't guess it was in, as it adds a little bit of a smokey flavour.
Been on a huge S. Paprika kick lately. Not sure why I never thought to use it before. It’s basically works wonders on anything (where appropriate)
Vanilla pudding mix in the dough for cinnamon rolls.
For the brown sugar cinnamon filling, sub some of the sugar out for honey. If you pick a honey with a unique taste, anyone who has them will be unable to pinpoint what makes yours so good.
That sounds interesting!
How does the vanilla pudding mix work? What is it replacing?
I'm pretty sure boxed pudding mix is mostly cornstarch, sugar, maybe some powdered milk or powdered eggs, flavoring, and then dyes and preservatives. If you just dumped a box of pudding mix into a basic lean dough (just flour, water, salt, and yeast), you'd end up with something close to a typical enriched dough (lean dough plus stuff to make it sweeter, more tender, etc). Obviously the sugar and flavorings are gonna sweeten things, and the cornstarch might have a tangzhong-like effect where it traps water, leading to a softer, moister, more tender finished product. It'll also probably interfere with gluten formation, which will also lead to a softer, more tender dough.
To figure out what it could replace, let's consider what's in a "normal" cinnamon roll dough first. Commonly a typical cinnamon roll dough is basically brioche dough, so a lean dough enriched with eggs, a touch of sugar, and a healthy amount of butter. Egg yolks, sugar, and butter all interfere with gluten formation and lead to a softer dough, while egg white might lend a bit of structure, but realistically is mostly just contributing water.
So the most obvious thing that's being replaced is the sugar. If the pudding mix contains some sort of powdered dairy product, that might lend some dairy flavor, but you'd still need some sort of fat. If the pudding mix contains powdered egg, that might lend some egg flavor, but powdered egg has less fat than fresh, so again you may need to supplement there as well. If the pudding mix contains cornstarch, I'd consider lessening the amount of flour in the dough to make sure it's still at the right hydration level.
Note: I've never done any of this myself, so this whole thing is basically just an educated guess 😅
Coffee: just put like a 16th or 32nd of a teaspoon of cayenne in the grounds, gives a depth of flavour people love. Just a miniscule amount, they should never spot it for what it is.
Use a real fucking measurement Jesus christ
It is a “real fucking measurement,” just not one you use. 1 US teaspoon is approximately 5 ml.
I recognize that US measurements are stupid and don’t make any sense to those who don’t use them, i.e. the entire rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real measurements.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally wish I didn’t have to have a chart giving me conversions between teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups on my fridge, but recipes in the US are all in our dumb measurements so it’s what we’re used to. I also wish everything would be measured by weight instead of volume, but here we are.
About a quarter of a millilitre.
"...and then just add .03 pounds of coffee per .0005 tons of cayenne and you'll be the toast of the town!"
found the chemical technician
My ex used to go insane following her mother's recipes for things, which she had to "feel". Write an SOP or GTFO was usually her motto
learn to cook
Specifically cayenne?
Yes, for a specific effect. It gives a smoky depth of flavour and much improves some shitty coffees. The dude here saying a pinch salt, that works too but a different effect.
I've used a dash of salt in french press when I have very few options over how its made, it takes off the bitterness and adds no saltiness.
Not sure if secret, but most people express surprise when I tell them I add unsweetened cocoa powder and brown sugar to my chilli con carne.
Cocoa goes great in all kinds of stews and braises, but unfortunately a lot of times people hear "cocoa" and immediately jump to "ew, chocolate in my chili? Gross!"
Yep - unsweetened cocoa adds a lot of richness to many sauces. And the brown sugar I add to my chilli con carne takes away some of the tartness of all the tomatoes I put into it.
I remember adding cocoa to a curry once then spending an hour trying to correct for it. Now I realise I should have just added sugar?
That sounds like you pretty much made an ersatz molé, which I for one absofuckinlutely support.
Heat, salt, fat, acid. Technique matters more than secret ingredients.
Using low and slow or high and fast where appropriate depending on the goal. Plenty of fat and salt on everything, and a little acid to brighten up the dish.
Yeah, most shit cooking is from people not understanding what heat does to food. Or... a lot. It's hard to teach, as well.
If the recipe calls for ground beef I'll usually swap it for ground sausage.
Adding half a bag of butterscotch chips sprinkled on the top of box brownie mix. I get tons of compliments like it's the best thing in the world (and it is arguably much better than without the butterscotch).
Nutmeg is a criminally underutilized spice, and a little goes a long way. Damn-near everything I cook gets a little bit of nutmeg.
If what you're cooking tastes like it's missing something but you can't quite put your finger on what it is, in my experience most of the time it's acid. My go-to way to add that is with a good squirt of yellow mustard.
A little bit of cocoa powder finds its way into a lot of darker colored savory dishes like stews and such
Nutmeg... Can't stand the stuff personally, especially when people put it in white sauces for Italian dishes. It's OK in sweet desserts.
Always, ALWAYS, opt for the nutmeg nut. It keeps surprisingly long and you can make them last up to 2 years with regular use.
Last mile seasoning! Shortly before your dish is ready to serve check for salt acid and heat, and adjust accordingly. This is critical!!!!
MSG
Aka Make Shit Good
Can't beat the good old super salt
or fish sauce ... which is where MSG was originally derived from when MSG was isolated scientifically
never thought fish sauce did much before ... but after using it a bunch of times ... all a 2 liter pot of soup, stew, sauce needs is a few drops and it makes a world of difference.
This thread is fucking awesome and I'm gonna try lots of these.
My Ukranian mate showed me the ways of vegeta. No, not the anime character, the seasoning. Put that shit on fried eggs and never look back.
Actually you can add it to lots of stuff. But eggs were the first thing I experienced it with.
I had no idea that was a real thing! I saw Vegeta mentioned in another comment and thought it was a typo lol
I spread pesto inside my grilled cheese sandwiches
What cheese though?
56 cheeses tested: https://youtu.be/ZPQMbbsjXiQ?si=1c-KiISnzNdGtzif
LSD My cookies are wild man
Note that LSD is heat sensitive so it should be added after they cool.
Last year I picked a huge amount of mushrooms in the forest, dehydrated them (you can buy a dehydrator or use an oven) and ground them to a powder.
I put mushroom powder in damn near everything I cook, gives it a nice hit of umami.
I never pick any mushrooms which could potentially be confused with anything toxic. Even if I'm 99% sure, that's not enough.
Dried shiitake mushroom powder slaps hard
Hell yeah. Unfortunately they don't grow where I live, but we have plenty of Porcinis and Chanterelles which taste amazing
This is an American problem, but I discovered Amish butter a while back and haven’t looked back.
It has a slightly higher fat content closer to European butter (85% vs 80% for the regular store stuff), so everything you make tastes better. Eggs, cookies, steak, potatoes- it improves them all. I can get it fairly easy from a local co-op and it’s the same price as regular butter, but that depends on where you are in the country.
For chicken or beef pot-roasted with vegetables, apple juice. I started doing it when recipes called for wine but I had little kids and no money.
Seems like a red grape juice would be closer.
For some reason that Concord Grape flavor is just overwhelming for me. Apple is a more neutral flavor. I started with apple because it was what I had on hand, but tried grape and went back to apple. It doesn't add the purple color, but as with wine, the fruit sugars caramelize to aid browning.
everything about my life changed when I realized that if something tastes like it needs salt but adding salt doesn't help, it needs acid.
This book helped me out significantly:
Half a teaspoon of mustard to any creme-based sauce. People dont think it will taste good but once you try it... Doesnt matter if you dont like mustard on its own. But it just adds that different flavor, similar to how salt changes it, without wanting the dish to taste like salt.
And it helps the emulsion! Keeps everything thick and creamy.
I do a similar thing but with horseradish. Just a hint of it is enough to improve the sauce
I recently started grinding spices by hand with a mortar/pestle and salt/pepper mills, and it really made a difference. Now everything smells very nice, which really made all of the food I prepare much better. Less of a secret ingredient, but it's usually better to always have fresh spices / ingredients on hand (if possible)
I grow and dry my own herbs, jar the whole leaves, and grind them as needed. It does help.
Love.
Ever since I dropped a hot tray of food on the floor, fresh out of the oven, my wife has said that I season my food with hate, and it still tastes pretty good.
Roasted garlic and/or roasted bone marrow. Soups, meat rubs, compound butters, whatever. The depth of flavours those two things add by themselves is amazing.
Sugar.
People are far too afraid of it. Add a tablespoon to bolognaise: Instant improvement.
Also, balsamic vinegar. There’s very few savory dishes that aren’t improved by a table spoon.
Also, Worcestershire Sauce. Can’t deny the umami.
And yes, nutritional yeast.
I just add dill and Vegeta to everything.
Even chocolate mousse????
Okey, almost everything.
Mirin! And other stuff you'd find at Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc stores. Like the different types of sauces and ingredients you can get from them can often mix very well with traditional American foods.
I just tried making sugar cookies, adding black sesame powder and replacing a portion of the butter with sesame oil. These cookies slap.
Oh! I like that idea!
Cinnamon. Goes well with more savory things than I ever expected.
What's the most left field dish you add it to? Funnily enough, cinnamon in chilli was what I had in mind when I made this post!
Taco/nacho meat is the one that comes to mind. I use it in other things as well but my mind has very helpfully gone blank...
A lot of these are adding umami to dishes. For an umami bomb that doesn't taste like any particular ingredient you can blend together soy sauce, fish sauce, and tomato paste in smaller amounts and add the to your dish.
Butter - I use it in pizza dough, taco meat, stir fry...
I know what brands of garlic powder to use. Nothing beats fresh garlic, but a pinch of the good stuff is worth 10 shakes of supermarket brand crap.
I had a phase where I was really into making rice "the authentic way". Wash it, soak it, boil it in exactly proportioned amount of water, etc. Then I realized that I can instead just add a shit ton of butter and turn the side dish into the main dish
Parmesan in mashed potato. Not enough to be cheesy, just for some unami. Also using grainy mustard.
I like Sour cream in mashed potatoes, but this sounds heavenly. Do you use grated or flaked?
Little bit grated in is all you need. That's the beauty of cooking with flavour enhancers, you can use more or less depending on how you like it.
My husband sometimes uses mayonnaise. If he told me in advance, I'd have turned up my nose at it, but it worked quite well and I only found out after tasting.
Instead of salt I use Tony Chachere's seasoning. This is a staple in EVERY Louisiana household, so you know it's the real deal.
I do love me some Tony Cachere’s, but have you ever tried Slap Ya Mama? I actually prefer it over Cachere’s as Cajun seasoning goes. Both are great though!
I try to remember that book "salt fat acid heat" when i am making up a dish from the food in the fridge/pantry when trying to decide what might work.
If it’s tomato heavy, add sugar, neutralizes the acids a bit and makes it easier if you suffer heartburn.
When I grill burgers I mix in an egg and breadcrumbs. The egg seals in the juices and the breadcrumbs stabilize it. Garlic salt and Lowry’s seasoned salt mixed in as well.
In fact garlic salt and Lowry’s finds their way into most meals in the house. Great combo for almost any meat and most veggies.
Throwing a little bit of baking soda into tomato based sauces can tame the acidity as well, and is actually a pretty great trick for neutralizing the canned taste if you're using canned tomatoes. Just make sure to add it slowly and mix slowly, otherwise you'll be creating a science fair volcano on your stovetop.
I opt for baking soda, not sugar to help with the acid in tomato sauces. A little goes a long way.
On the subject of burgers, I make sliders using ground beef with chopped garlic and onions, Worcestershire sauce, and peanut butter. Pretty sure I got the recipe from somewhere. I use King's Hawaiian bread rolls for the buns and it's absolutely delicious.
If you're looking to reduce heartburn, add baking soda, not sugar.
Sugar improves the flavor as well in my opinion. Baking soda not so much.
I've found that thats good advice if you dont cook the tomatoes for that long, less than 30 min, like Shakshuka. If you are going to to cook them for hours, then you don't really need it, like for red sauce.
Honey and anchovy paste was the one I learned for tomato sauces. It works!
A small splash of amaretto in macaroni and cheese. Only about a cap full, or one teaspoon, gives it an amazing sweet and salty flavour.
I discovered this incredible recipe one night when I was preparing some mac-n-cheese only to discover I was completely out of milk, and had to substitute the next best liquid I had on hand.
Okay, that is definitely out there! I'll try to remember that next time we have amaretto and are making mac n cheese!
Worcestershire Sauce. It adds umami (anchovy drippings), smokiness (tamarind and molasses), acidity (vinegar), and salinity (anchovy drippings).
One of my favorite lazy-ass, basic meals is a pork chop with garlic mashed potatoes and a bowl of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce to dip a fork of both in.
Old Bay in home made hamburger mix. Only do it if you're using an 80/20 mix because the flavor stands out too much if you use lean hamburger.
Old Bay in home made hamburger mix. Only do it if you're using an 80/20 mix because the flavor stands out too much if you use lean hamburger.
Hungarian paprika and MSG