∟⊔⊤∦∣≶ProTip: If you're cooking something, set a timer.
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆Even without ADHD, this is good advice.
ABCDEEspecially for pasta. I only really eat Barilla, and do it a minute less than they say on the packet for al dente. Rolling boil first, salt, chuck pasta in, stir it so they get a good coating, cover, stir every other minute, drain immediately then mix into whatever sauce I’m cooking (or sauce into the pot with the pasta) to cook it in for a minute.
Guess what, it’s exactly the same as the store brand stuff.
It is not.
It sure is.
My £4 a week pasta habit for something I enjoy is not throwing money away. If this was truly the case then restaurants wouldn’t be using better brands than supermarket own brand stuff. Nor would I choose the £1 box over the 40p pack when I could be saving money. Di Cecco is another brand which is good but not so easy to find.
If a restaurant isn’t making it fresh, they’re buying it in bulk from a wholesaler. Maybe they’ve got a deal with Barilla, or maybe they shop at the same restaurant supply store I do and get the sacks of brandless dried pasta. You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
You’re clearly a nasty person who should have stopped responding after your initial, pointless comment.
So I'm not a Barilla diehard, not even close, but there are definitely worse cheap pastas, not necessarily all of them but some are. If someone's in doubt just check the ingredient list on the packages.
Indeed that, and just try them to see which you like. Eating the cheap stuff is fine, you do you, but there’s a reason we have more expensive stuff.
Bruh what
no bananaIt’s not. But here Barilla is considered a cheap pasta.
Pro tip: if you’re cooking rice, use a rice cooker. A really cheap one does a much better job than the stove.
hmm… Yeah maybe I should get another one of those.
If you’re feeling fancy, get one with a timer in it. Other than that it just needs a power switch and a cook/warm switch.
I want one, but don’t have room for yet another kitchen gadget
Kitchen island time!
My house has a solid ban on any product with “maker” in its name.
That’s rough self-homelessing on cardiac peacemakers, but house rules are rules I guess.
I keep a lid on the rice and kill the heat once the water is boiling. Twenty minutes later it’s perfect, and it literally can’t burn.
What kind of rice are you cooking?
Typically sushi, jasmine, and basmati. I add water at about a 1.25:1 ratio for each (and presoak and parcook the basmati).
StarayoI find using a timer on a smart watch or yelling at a voice assistant works for keeping me on task.
If I dont… Well, the other day I i found some cold cinnamon donuts I had been heating up in the air fryer.
I don’t have ADHD (afaik) but recently while I was making coffee, my brother told me something while the coffee was pouring from the machine, and after a while I turn and find it overflowing and leaking watered down coffee everywhere. It wasn’t a fun start to my morning and it left me concerned for my short term memory lol
I was about to write that only idiots and amateurs need a timer for cooking, but then I saw that this is an ADHD group. Knowing people with those issues, I can only support your idea. Yes, for people who do have problems focusing, a timer is a good idea.
Ummm yeah cooking complex dishes it makes things pretty easy when you set a timer for things that don't need your attention constantly.
Also helps me not to burn a pizza in the oven.
I am definitely an idiot and an amateur sometimes so you’re not wrong
Norah (pup/it/she)What an odd thing to say. I worked in kitchens for 3 years and most professionals I met would use timers often.
Amazing. I always considered a sense for timing to be among the most important skills of a cook.
“I forgot” was never a good enough excuse to waste product.
Pro tip: get a rice cooker. No more burnt rice. Also: much better rice.
This, so much. Especially if you cook short grained rice like sushi, makes it almost impossible to fuck up.
I resisted getting one for so long because I didn’t want a single purpose appliance when I could make it in a pot.
So I finally allowed myself to get a little one, and I love it so much. 1 part rice, 2 parts water, push button, walk away… perfect rice.
I didn’t like rice. A food I had to eat to please my wife that she can have rice. Like once a month
Then she got a rice cooker. A cheap one. Good rice, I started accepting it better. Like, okay, every two weeks is okay. Maybe one and a half.
Then she got a good one. I mean, medium price range, like between 100 and 150€. I demand! rice one a week! Okay, I did some research and got good rice as well. But oh my gosh. This is such a difference.
And it helps so much with adhd as well - you can put in the rice and forget it an hour longer as planned and it is still great, warm and delicious. Just a game changer when it comes to rice.
because I didn’t want a single purpose appliance when I could make it in a pot.
In case anyone else has the same issue, you can make rice just as easily in an electric pressure cooker (e.g. Instapot) which has a much wider use case.
Although, I’ve never used an actual rice cooker, so I can’t testify to the difference in quality
I’d read that too. I hadn’t let myself buy an Instapot either because I have a stovetop pressure cooker that I’m comfortable with using. I have crockpots, and a sous vide circulator (which I love dearly, omg, wanna talk about set it and forget it) . I already had accumulated all the things separately that an Instapot can do. But when COVID started, I let myself buy an Instapot, because I expected to be cooking so much more and thought maybe this miracle appliance everyone raved about would save me effort in the kitchen. And what I found is that for my recipes and cooking style, the Instapot may do all those things, air fry, sous vide, slow cook, pressure cook, but it can’t do them as well as my existing equipment. It might hold the water temp ok for sous vide, but it’s not circulating the water (an important factor in the cooking style). It ran too hot on the low slow cooker mode. It took fricking forever to come up to pressure. I could only air fry one portion at a time. I finally conceded that I’m just not the target user for those things. I never did try making rice in it though. We’ve since moved and it’s packed up somewhere. When I find it again, I might try it one more time, but otherwise it is destined for my MIL’s annual yard sale.
MinnesotaGoddamI’m not the target user for the instant pot either, but it does rice pretty well. That’s about all I use mine for, actually.
Default_DefectWhy is it that when I see post about things people with ADHD find helpful like this, its a hard lesson I learned on my own? I often wonder if I have ADHD.
This is pretty much how I went undiagnosed into middle age.
AdaOh, I try, but I use “ok google” and my girlfriend’s phone, my mum’s phone, my kiddo’s phone and my own all then set timers. And then they won’t stop going off from my voice command, even though they started from my voice command.
It’s crazy when I’m in the kitchen :P
I learned young that I have to use timers for all cooking tasks. I have zero ability to identify how much time passes. I’ve always been jealous of people who just throw food in the oven or on the stove, do a bunch of stuff, and instinctively retrieve all the food, properly cooked.
Wierdly, when I do put a timer on, I can. I suddenly realise it’s been about 17 minutes and I’ll check and the timer is 20 seconds off ringing. Only happens when I actually put a timer on though, and I can’t intentionally do it.
My partner (also ADHD) can sometimes count down a timer to the second, it’s incredibly eery. Though, to be fair, she is a drummer.
I learned to do that after burning soup.
Yeah, let's be glad I didn't take the whole house with me that time.
Yeah, this is a good idea.
Wish the twat that fell asleep after starting to cook some food had done that at my previous place. Almost burnt the entire building down and because of her stupidity, it displaced at least 2 families and a couple of pets were lost.
Holy shit!
shinoby@luthis No thx. Music, a glass of whiskey and dancing in the kitchen is my solution.
ginaAs someone who once put some tortillas on the griddle, turned to the fridge to get cheese, and…walked right out of the room and back to my desk, I 100% agree. I sometimes feel dumb that I am literally setting 1 or 2 minute timers, but it’s better than burning stuff. I don’t always need them, but they are really helpful during times of stress when I’m especially preoccupied with other things.
When I worked in kitchens, I had five seperate timers on my station so I could keep from constantly burning things. I’m so glad I realised it was burning me out before I finished my apprenticeship.
Do y’all’s stoves/ovens not have built in, repetitive, annoying timers?
I can’t imagine putting something in the oven without hitting that
BloodwoodsrisenMine plays a little tune, both my dad and I use the timers on our phones instead
Yes but when you walk out of the room and get distracted, you can’t hear the oven timer.
Mine will shut off after the timer finishes
I have a gas cooker that will continue to cook long after your house has burned down around it.
Sometimes timers aren’t enough. I set a frozen pizza in the oven, put a 7 minute timer on my Google home, but I was in the middle of a game and absent minded my turned off the alarm when it went off without realizing that the pizza was done and I need to grab it. 45 minutes later I’m wondering how long 7 minutes can truly be and why it smells like burnt pizza.
I got a little old fashioned wind up kitchen timer since the sound is different than the timer I use for anything else. Idk if it helps.
LazaroFilmGood timers are only on the oven/microwave timer. You have to physically be there to turn it off.
They’re too far away and I won’t hear them if I have my headphones on which I do almost always
But then
CoderKatI think for cooking, it’s important to have habits. I don’t turn off the alarm until I’m physically getting up. I try to avoid cooking when gaming, too. Or at least try to avoid any gaming situation where I couldn’t quickly leave to cook. It’s actually something I wish PC games could copy from consoles. Every modern console can pause anywhere, which isn’t possible in some PC games and makes it easier for me to take breaks.
I play mostly online competitive games which you can’t pause on console either haha. Yeah I’ve gotta built better habits for sure but I do slip up here and there.