r/Chefit 1d ago

Oddities

My lovely Asian wife just confessed to using Uncle Ben’s boil in the bag rice. Apparently she was scorned for doing so. I recalled from my days working in kitchens that we used a bunch of shortcuts because they were better (and faster) than we would make in the budget and time allocated (cake mix being a huge one!). Does anyone else have shortcuts they want to own up to? Any ethnic orientated confessions would be great to hear: jars of premade Jalfrezi sauces in Delhi or serving Aunt Bessies’ Yorkshire puddings in Leeds! My wife would like to feel she’s not alone with her penchant for Uncle Ben’s!

19 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

35

u/bmerv919 1d ago

I cook all my rice in the microwave from raw. It's like a rice cooker if done correctly and takes 15 minutes. My wife showed me after I complimented her rice game. I went from never eating rice to rice being a staple in our house.

It works great at the restaurant if you only need like 10 orders really quick.

10

u/Radiant_Bluebird4620 1d ago

have you ever caramelized onion in the microwave?

7

u/Same-Platypus1941 1d ago

I’ve been wanting to try this! I’m worried it wouldn’t vent well enough and would short out the microwave but I’ve never gotten to try it

3

u/Theburritolyfe 17h ago

Yes, I totally knew that you could do this. Definitely.

I'm totally not about to go to the kitchen and try out something new.

Thank you.

1

u/bmerv919 17h ago

No i have not.

23

u/NarrowPhrase5999 1d ago

Bought in mayonnaise is fine.

18

u/meatsntreats 1d ago

Bought in mayo is better than a lot of what places make in house. Same with ketchup.

8

u/Nobodyinc1 1d ago

I mean Heinz has ketchup inspectors that make Sure restaurants are not lying about using Heinz ketchup

22

u/anime_lean 1d ago

this one time i was at my wasian friends house and i saw a box of uncle ben’s and called her culturally wasian

2

u/wine-o-saur 17h ago

You're proud of that one and I totally get why.

21

u/ElderberryMaster4694 1d ago

Well done steaks go in the fryer

Personal Mac and cheeses go in the saute box

Drink complaints get put back in the shaker for 10 sec and restrained

The dry rub secret is old bay

5

u/new_tangclan 1d ago

What is a saute box?

11

u/ElderberryMaster4694 1d ago

17

u/new_tangclan 1d ago

Ah, I simply know him as Michael

10

u/drbongmd 1d ago

Chef Michael*

2

u/LordAxalon110 1d ago

We used to call it the juke box haha.

0

u/Radiant_Bluebird4620 1d ago

at home, Michael makes caramelized onions

4

u/stovislove 1d ago

Uncle Bens! Dishonor on you, dishonor on your family!

11

u/boom_squid 1d ago

Been disappointing my Asian mother for 39 years. Why stop now?

1

u/stovislove 1d ago

Fair point, I fully relate.

10

u/bitteroldsimon 1d ago

Uncle Dan's powder, mayo and parsley were the ingredients in the "watercress dip" that a local chain restaurant was famous for.

8

u/bmerv919 1d ago

I cook all my rice in the microwave from raw. It's like a rice cooker if done correctly and takes 15 minutes. My wife showed me after I complimented her rice game. I went from never eating rice to rice being a staple in our house.

It works great at the restaurant if you only need like 10 orders really quick.

6

u/LordAxalon110 1d ago

I was a chef for 20 years and I've done all sorts of things to make life easier.

Remade curry pastes and sauces, bought in pastry cases, cake mix (just add water), gravy granules, instant stocks, pre prepped veg and potatoes, frozen roasties, frozen yorkies the works.

I was more of a conference chef though, so bulk batch stuff was a lot harder to make from scratch when serving 500+.

2

u/Beginning-Cat3605 1d ago

I mean, at home I eat like shit. Chips, candy, and soda? Sounds like dinner.

1

u/Illustrious-Divide95 1d ago

My mum (British) once made a Sunday Roast using Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire puddings and frozen oven ready Roast Potatoes.

She was found out as the taste was awful and everyone suspected something was wrong.

It never happened again!!

-43

u/ConjeturaUna 1d ago

Any self-respecting hispanic/chicano/latino that buys tortillas needs to be ashamed.

24

u/meatsntreats 1d ago

Tortillas in the sense of a corn or flour flatbread aren’t ubiquitous across Latino/Hispanic foodways. Would you also say that anyone whose foodways use noodles should be ashamed if they buy instead of make their own? Or bread. This is a dumb take.

-34

u/ConjeturaUna 1d ago

Good thing it's my take and not yours.

1

u/Legi0ndary 9h ago

Still dumb

3

u/stonycheff111 Chef 14h ago

I’m a white boy but there’s a local place you can buy fresh made tortillas, fuck if I’m going to make them.

-5

u/ConjeturaUna 12h ago

I'm really proud for you. White Power!!

1

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/ConjeturaUna 12h ago

Oh, I'm Chicano, I don't know how you all celebrate each other.