What's your cooking pet peeves?

[LoftyTurtle]

As the title says - what are your pet peeves when it comes to other people's cooking? Meant to be a lighthearted thread, not a bashing one 😉

Personally, amongst my extended family, I witness the following and it makes me die a little inside:

• Slathering absolutely everything in chilli. I like chilli, but not EVERYTHING needs chilli in it!
• Refusal to use any salt whatsoever so all their cooking just tastes a bit sad and bland. By all means have a low salt diet if you need it for personal or health reasons, fine, but a little salt really isn't the end of the world!
• Refusing to cook anything above 150 degrees because it might burn it. Listen, some things are fabulous slow cooked, but some things just need to be bloody cooked at a high temperature. Don't keep your oven permanently set to 150 and then wonder why your roast potatoes are always a bit soggy and crap
• Careless substitution of ingredients when the person cooking doesn't have the skill/knowledge to substitute well. Had a family member very excited to use a new recipe for beetroot brownies once. The recipe called for fresh beetroot, which you grated and incorporated into the brownie mix bit like a carrot cake. She used jarred pickled beetroot because she figured it was "close enough" 🤢 likewise, same person substituted frozen salmon for fresh salmon but didn't thaw it first (or even change the cooking time) and was quite perplexed the fish wasn't entirely cooked through!
• Cremating all their meat just to make sure they don't accidentally get food poisoning. One family member has been known to be so paranoid about food poisoning that she will cook meat well past being done, and then also microwave it just to be "on the safe side"
• Weird toxic hatred of jarred sauces or similar. My preference is going to be cooking from scratch but sometimes I can't be arsed & serving my family spag bol with a jarred sauce occasionally really isn't the culinary crime a "friend" makes it out to be 🤣

Ooh, I missed all the comments except the one I replied too. haha. So that's my preferred green salad option, adapted according to what you have on hand. Soft, crunchy, at least one stronger flavour, some creaminess if you can work it in.

Tomatoes make great salads by themselves. I like to chop mine into small bite sized pieces (mix of tomatoes and colours is nice too), then some finely chopped red onion, and a very generous portion of finely chopped flatlet parsley. Salt, sherry vinegar, olive oil.

Watermelon, chopped cucumber, and feta cheese. Dressing is lime juice and chopped chilli.

You really can't go wrong with a good tricolour salad - mozzarella, avocado, tomato. Basil leaves. Olive oil, salt, pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

A chunkier salad involves roasted veg - flavourings and types to be decided by you. Served on couscous and then with a dressing to match (if necessary - I tend to roast the veggies with generous amounts of olive oil and whatever flavouring I'm using then just drizzle that over). Or do chargrilled aubergine/courgettes/onions/leeks and serve on couscous with a tahini/yoghurt/lemon dressing.

Coarsely ground peppercorns are one of mine. I find they make me cough and choke. I am not a huge pepper on food but finely ground pepper suits me better (from mill).

I'd love some tips from you for salads please.
Mine are so boring!

I add loads of stuff to salads
Crispy oven baked kale
Chips
Roasted sweet potato
Merchant gourmet packets of grains
Mini mozzarella pearls
Shavings of Parmesan
Pickled stuff - gherkins, onions, beetroot, capers
Crispy fried onions

The salad lab on Instagram is good for ideas

People who don't open the window or at least turn on the extractor when cooking. I have no wish to smell like food, it clings to my hair and clothes

Watching TV cooking shows where the chefs are pushing their hair back and scratching their faces .
I don't want to imagine what goes on in kitchens but I don't see it on TV

Yes , I do this too , it's delicious !

Well if you know someone is cooking unsalted or low salted food it is perfectly reasonable to add salt without tasting it.

I cook normal amount of salt and no heat food bcs I have small children and cannot imagine taking offence if someone who knows that puts chilly on their food without tasting. Some of my family and friend do that, and I am happy they know my cooking and adjust it to their taste.
There is no reason to pretend with regular hosts and play the "oh maybe this time it is salty/spicy enough".

Thought this was meant to be a light hearted thread, but you seem to be very incensed about a stranger's comment about auto salting. You have your views and I have mine, so let's leave it at that.

Anyway, apart from not putting enough salt in your food, do you have any other cooking pet peeves?

I'm pescetarian, and most of the time I'm happy to be served whatever alternative the host provides, but in restaurants I cannot stand it when the vegetarian "option" contains goats cheese.

Where do I enlist?

Formula for a (reasonably healthy) salad

100g leafy greens: spinach, kale, Swiss chard, rocket, baby gem, romaine lettuce, green cabbage etc. The more hardy the leaf, the more inclined I am to shred it (eg kale)
85g soft vegetables or fruit: tomato, peas, artichokes, avocado, berries, onions (inc. spring onions), pickled or roasted vegetables
85g crunchy vegetables: carrots, celery, bell pepper, red cabbage, radishes, mange tout, cucumber, cauliflower, sprouts, broccoli
Add up to two proteins: steak, chicken, tuna, prawns, salmon, hard boiled eggs, nuts, seeds (I especially like dry pan fried pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds - again dry pan fried with a squirt of lemon juice and a teaspoon of soy sauce added at the end), chickpeas, cheese (feta, mozzarella balls, parmesan shavings) marinated tofu
85g complex carbohydrates: quinoa, barley, farro, brown rice, lentils, whole grain croutons.

Making different salad dressings is another way to add interest. Try using tahini, flavoured oils , different mustards and vinegars, add some honey or maple syrup or fresh herbs. Most salad dressings keep in a screw top jar in the fridge for a week or two.

I getyou,goat cheese does not go with everything.
Mine would be people cooking everything on olive oil.
I love it, I can eat it daily but...
Chinese food on olive oil?
Fried eggs on olive oil?
Pancakes on olive oil?
It's just vile imo

I hate people who make a cake or pie and tell you "it's very low in sugar"... so it's tastes of flour and not much else! If you don't want to eat sweet things eat fruit!

How do you hull? I tend to use a drinking straw pushed through, from bottom up towards the top.

Sorry, thought I’d replied to @FaintlyMacabre

Undercooked onions

Undercooked whites of eggs

Runny omelette

Salmon left pink inside

I agree with the olive oil one @LondonFox . I've use it most things, but certainly not in Asian cooking and definitely not pancakes!

@Whatwaswrongwiththatusername I usually just use the tip of a small knife and cut a circle around the stalk before pulling it off. It also works with the sharp end of a vegetable peeler.

Stingyness with ingredients.

MIL was probably a good cook once but she's so fat phobic that she eats like a bird and imig she's cooking for a group she will try but...blagh. she made lasagne last time. Fab, love lasagne but honestly it's was the dryest blandest pile of flabby pasta sheets ever. No tomatoes just a bisto gravy type thing in the meat, no white sauce at all just a tablespoon of grated cheese scattered over the top. What was the point. Would have been happy with a salad but don't get my hopes up!

Well this needs to be a whole thread in its own right!

Here's what I had for lunch.

Vaguely Spanish Chickpea Salad (I added two tins of tuna on top and it was enough for 4)

50g sultanas soaked in a tablespoon of sherry whilst you prep everything else
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
4 tbsp olive oil (divided)
500g spinach
Salt and pepper
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 250g cooked chickpeas)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
50g flaked almonds, toasted if you can be bothered
Mix the chopped red onion with the vinegar, sugar and garlic in a large bowl and set aside.
Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pan, tip in the spinach, season and stir to coat. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes, until the spinach wilts, then tip into a colander and leave to drain and cool. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess liquid and roughly chop. Add to onion mix.
Put half the chickpeas in a food processor and pulse briefly, just so they’re roughly chopped (or you can mash by hand). Add the sultanas and sherry and tip the lot into the bowl with onions and spinach along with the remaining whole chickpeas. Add the almonds. Season generously with salt, pepper and cayenne, then gently mix everything together. Drizzle over the remaining olive oil and serve.

Coking Beef or Lamb so that's it grey and chewy.

Serving up each plate in the kitchen to be brought out to each person like a restaurant. Fine it's kids fish fingers and chips, but not adult meals such a roast.

Hot food on cold plates... horrible, horrible, horrible... you have to gobble your food down and give yourself indigestion before it goes cold
Underseasoned food and no sign of any on the table.
Too much food on the plate.. as a host I never overface people, but make it clear there's more should anyone want it.
Gravy on plates.. as many posters have said, it's either swimming or too sparse... for the love of God, put your gravy in a (WARM!!) Gravy boat and let people help themselves.

I do love a good salad, but I wish people would provide the dressing separately. Not only does it stop the green leaves from going slimy if salads are left out (like in a buffet/ BBQ) but I have a sulphite intolerance and can barely eat any form of vinegar without my tongue swelling/ my skin coming out in hives! So if salads are all slathered in dressing in advance I can't eat any of them!
Sulphite intolerance is a surprisingly common thing - especially in post-menopausal women apparently, which is why so many people begin to find it harder to tolerate wine as they get older.

Please put your dressing in a separate jug!

I missed this earlier so just coming on to sa that I do tend to dress salads, but only minutes before they are served (I'm the ponce who takes the dressing in a jar and then zips into the kitchen to dress it when the host says we're ready to eat if I've been asked to bring a salad).

But the sulphite thing is interesting. I didn't know it was in vinegars. We suspect DD has a very low level sulphite intolerance. She does not eat a lot of vinegar, but this will be interesting to now keep track of. We have noticed she reacts on SOME days when she has gravy at school. I assumed they were using different gravy granules at different times but I wonder if it's something even more simple like someone splashing in some vinegar. <scurries off to do some more research>.

Pasta with chips, particularly lasagne or spag bol.

Why o why? Noble foods that do not belong together