You can be a novice home cook or a veteran chef. You can abhor cooking or you can love it with a passion. Whatever the case, everyone has a weak spot in the kitchen. So redditor u/IvyLgeDropOut asked, "What is your [cooking] kryptonite?" Here's how people responded.
1."Rice is definitely my kryptonite. I’ve tried all the tricks, but I just can't make rice properly. Even rice I make in my rice cooker comes out inconsistent, which makes no sense to me."
2."The hardest thing for me is grilling fish. Mess it up a little and it falls apart. Move it too late and it's overcooked. If the heat is too low or the grill isn't seasoned enough, you'll ruin it too. This is the leading cause of cooking frustration for me."
3."Following recipes. I've been making spicy peanut noodles with no recipe for many, many years. It's always fantastic. Last week I decided to actually follow a recipe to the letter. When I served the noodles my girlfriend was like 'So um...what's up with the noodles? kinda bland this time around...' Back to winging it!"
4."Baking bread. My bread always comes out too dense for my liking, and it's always because I don't wait long enough for it to proof. It always takes longer than I expect, and then I run out of patience and put it into the oven. It always comes out dense and gummy."
5."Making croissants from scratch. What is the point? It never comes out right and it takes forever!"
6."Using the broiler. It's the reason I know the smoke detector works."
7."Pancakes! I can successfully make a single pancake when I try to make a batch. The first pancake is perfect. The second is crispy on the outside but gummy on the inside. The third is burnt, the fourth is borderline raw, and the fifth pancake is scraped directly into the trash."
8."Making a roux. I have tried all the methods, but mine has lumps every time. I’m pretty good with the flavor though, I just need to get the texture down."
9."Pie crust. Sadly, mine never comes out crispy or flaky."
10."Making the right amount of food. I either make way less than I intended, or make so much I will have enough to last me until I start to hate the recipe."
11."Gravy. Sometimes I can make it so delicious that I want to drink it. But other times I also make it so tasteless that it's not worth eating. I don't even attempt it if we have guests. Too risky."
12."Mine is cracking eggs. I’ve been cooking most of my adult life, and still can’t manage to cleanly crack an egg that leaves the shell intact. I always find at least one piece of eggshell in the end product."
13."I always end up getting a thousand dishes, bowls, pots, pans, and silverware dirty. Some people are so clean when they cook, washing and re-using the same mixing bowls, etc. I go through half of the kitchenware I own every time I make dinner."
14."If I handle flour, it's going to end up absolutely everywhere."
15."Poached eggs. I just can't get them right. However, the silver lining is that in my never-ending quest to make poached eggs (and the accompanying hollandaise), I’ve mastered the cracking — one firm rap on a flat kitchen surface and the egg will crack open cleanly with one hand (almost) every time."
16."I am incapable of choosing the correct size dish for my food. Many times, I've had to pour into a bigger vessel mid cook. It's so messy."
17."Shaping pizza dough. I am a competent cook, and I'm decent enough at baking pastry and bread, but for some reason handling and shaping pizza dough has never clicked for me. Every single one comes out uneven. They still taste delicious, but the inconsistency is so frustrating."
18."Frying chicken. It’s one of my favorite foods, but I just can’t do it like the restaurants do. I’ve gotten a little bit better (through a ton of wasted oil), but my fried chicken never comes out close to perfect."
19."For me it's timing. I rarely make one thing at a time when I am preparing a meal, and getting all the components to finish at the same time is practically impossible for me."
20."Cleaning as I go. I try to keep my cooking space tidy, but it inevitably looks like a pack of mischievous gnomes ran through the kitchen when I'm done."
21."Plating. Perhaps if I don't have the finesse or the patience, but whenever I plate food it never looks beautiful."
22."It's the meal planning for me. I don't have the ability to buy a bunch of ingredients and cook everything without wasting food. It's so difficult."
23."Apparently I have a genetic disorder where I burn garlic bread. I always look in the oven just before it is ready and then forget about it just long enough for it to be burnt. Funny enough, my father is guilty of the same thing."
24."Once I make something, I can never replicate it. I once made the best potato salad I'd ever had by winging it with ingredients and quantities. I took it to a potluck and dozens of people asked me for the recipe, which I couldn't give them because I didn't have one. That was several years ago and I have never been able to replicate it. I will go to my grave cursing the amazing potato salad that I have loved and lost."
25."Cooking fish. I simply cannot achieve consistency. I bought the same kind of fish three weeks in a row just to try and perfect a dish. Week one came out under cooked, week two was overcooked, week three tasted fine...but my house smelled fishy for five whole days afterwards."
26."Cooking anything in stainless steel. My food always sticks to the pan no matter the temperature and whether I use butter or oil. It’s always a massive pain to clean."
27."Cacio e pepe. I'm going to nail it one of these days, but I haven't been able to get it right yet. I think I'm not using enough pasta water. The cheese just melts and sticks to the pan."
28."Any recipe that requires cornstarch for thickening. I know this isn't supposed to be difficult, but every time I make a recipe that calls for it (specifically when I'm attempting to make Chinese food at home), I just can't get it right. My food never turns out to be quite the right consistency, and usually the sauce is still too loose."
So, what's your cooking kryptonite — a technique, an aspect of cooking, a specific recipe you just can't get right? Tell us in the comments.
