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There are certain foods that you can not reasonably make at home or are just extremely fussy and a huge waste of time to make at home. You won't achieve wok he

There are certain foods that you can not reasonably make at home or are just extremely fussy and a huge waste of time to make at home. You won't achieve wok hei on your stove, your oven will not be ablr to achieve the high temperatures required for the best versions of certain foods, restaurants in your area will get priority from suppliers over what you find in the grocery store and even most farmers markets, and that's just talking about average restaurants. You start getting into fine dining or a Michelin experience with teams of people preparing the food and it's an entirely different level of impossibility to make at home. Sure eating a fast food burger and fries everyday will be heavy, but even something that simple can be difficult to match compared to the restaurant. Grinding your own meat, double frying the fries, finding/making decent buns, etc. Food is one of the few activities that can be very enjoyable daily. It's usually cost saving to cook yourself and there's a lot of good stuff you can make at home. But you're missing out on some enjoyable experiences by completely avoiding professionals using professional equipment with access to better ingredients.

bsder 2y ago
> You won't achieve wok hei on your stove Not true. Pull out that blowtorch. > your oven will not be ablr to achieve the high temperatures required for the best versions of certain foods Get a steel or aluminum plate for your oven. The conductivity can make up for a lot of the heat differential. Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach, but almost everything else is just fine. > restaurants in your area will get priority from suppliers over what you find in the grocery store This might be true, but from what I have seen most of the restaurants are barely even reaching SysCo/USFoods level of quality ingredients. Your local grocery store is probably just fine until you are a very good cook. At that point, you might have to start looking at more niche grocery stores. And, if you get better than that, well, you're likely sufficiently obsessive that you will find a way. > You start getting into fine dining or a Michelin experience with teams of people preparing the food and it's an entirely different level of impossibility to make at home. It's more sheer technique and attention to fussy detail than teams of people. A patissier is simply WAY better than you are at making desserts, for example. They know all the tricks; they will also have all the necessary equipment. However, yeah, Michelin restaurants are definitely next level.
- joezydeco 2y ago
  Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach... Go look for the folks that hack off the safety latch on their self-cleaning ovens. It's kind of nuts.
  - UIUC_06 2y ago
    I've heard of them. I'd hate to have to explain that to my insurance inspector after a house fire, though.
    - joezydeco 2y ago
      Thankfully these miniature outdoor pizza ovens are taking some of the thrill away from the firestarters.
- UIUC_06 2y ago
  > Get a steel or aluminum plate for your oven. The conductivity can make up for a lot of the heat differential. Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach, but almost everything else is just fine. I have a steel plate. An hour at 500F only gets it to around 400F. Which is fine for pizza, actually, so you're right about that. If you ask big US pizzerias (I don't know about the famous Naples ones) what temp they use, it's usually 650-750. At 900F you have zero margin for error.
- awithrow 2y ago
  You can get a standalone pizza over for a couple hundred. I've got an Ooni and it gets up to 900 in about 15 minutes. Its obviously not for indoor use but its great nonetheless. It still takes a good bit of technique to get the dough and timing right but its great to be able to cook a pizza in little more than a minute.
  - AlbertCory 2y ago
    Have you actually pointed an IR thermometer at it? On mine (which I sold), it was 900 at the back and 600 at the front. It was just too much trouble. A pizza steel in a kitchen oven, preheated, works very well; maybe not as good as a 700F oven but WAY easier. And 5 minutes instead of 1 minute is not a big sacrifice.
carlosjobim 2y ago
Paradoxically, it's the fast food staples that are most difficult to do at home – because you need a fryer. Haute cuisine is no problem making at home, because fine dining is not based on using fryers. It can't be made with restaurant speed nor quantity, but you can get the same quality at home.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  > because you need a fryer What? There are many, many YouTube videos explaining how to make "fast food" style french fries (double fried, and all that) at home, without a fryer.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    And it's probably not reasonable that the average person who gets McDonalds fries (which are indeed good and better than most, if not all, of the "fast casual" joints) will do those things. Not that frozen supermarket fries in a deep fryer are an especially heavy lift and they're mostly good enough (with reasonably fresh oil) for hamburger and fries.
    - Klonoar 2y ago
      McDonalds fries can be somewhat achieved by adding beef flavor (authentic or vegetarian sub) to the fries. It’s like the easiest hack to better homemade fries, IMO.
  - UIUC_06 2y ago
    My air fryer makes decent fries, using only olive oil as a fat. It did take some practice to get it right. Are they as good as deep-fat fried? No, but they're crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. OK, you all want to hear this, you know you do: =============== Start preheating the air fryer to 400F. Slice the potatoes. Drop them in a bowl of water, swish them around and drain off the water, and fill the bowl again. By now, the water should be clear. If not, do it again. Take the fries out and dry on paper towels, as dry as you can get them. *These steps are important; you need to wash off the surface starch, and get them dry so you're not steaming them* Dry the bowl, and put in some olive oil, with seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic salt, etc.) Put the fries back in the bowl and get them all oily. Put them in the fryer. The basket should be hot enough that they make a sizzling sound. Every 5 minutes, toss the fries. You can either get compulsive and turn each one individually, or just pour them in a bowl and shake it, or shake the fryer basket (if that doesn't cause it to separate, as it does mine). Put them back in the fryer. Check periodically that they're as brown as you want them. ============== Good variations? I want to hear them
throwaway2037 2y ago
> You won't achieve wok hei on your stove This is simple untrue. There is many, many YouTube videos explaining how to achieve wok hei (鑊氣) at home with a non-commercial gas-fired stove and a cheap wok. For any readers unfamiliar with the stir frying technique called wok hei, read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Cooking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Cooking
- swores 2y ago
  I know very little about Asian cooking of any kind, but I seem to remember being told that wok hei produces enough smoke to be extremely unpleasant to have inside a residential building - to the point that even when people do want to use wok hei at home they would choose to have a setup in the garden rather than the kitchen. If my memory/understanding is not wrong, then that adds to the idea that people won't achieve wok hei on their stove even if the reason is not wanting its side effects rather than being technically impossible.
  - throwaway2037 2y ago
    > wok hei produces enough smoke to be extremely unpleasant to have inside a residential building Not true. Find some videos on YouTube about wok hei. Yes, you need to choose an oil with a high smoke point (not olive oil). With a bit of practice, you can do it in your sleep and enjoy delicious stir fry.
Klonoar 2y ago
Re: oven temps, I seem to recall seeing a link here maybe a decade ago about a guy who figured out how to get his oven hot enough for certain pizza routines by basically breaking the handle on the cleaning cycle or something. Does anybody else remember this? Or am I crazy?

bsder 2y ago

> You won't achieve wok hei on your stove Not true. Pull out that blowtorch. > your oven will not be ablr to achieve the high temperatures required for the best versions of certain foods Get a steel or aluminum plate for your oven. The conductivity can make up for a lot of the heat differential. Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach, but almost everything else is just fine. > restaurants in your area will get priority from suppliers over what you find in the grocery store This might be true, but from what I have seen most of the restaurants are barely even reaching SysCo/USFoods level of quality ingredients. Your local grocery store is probably just fine until you are a very good cook. At that point, you might have to start looking at more niche grocery stores. And, if you get better than that, well, you're likely sufficiently obsessive that you will find a way. > You start getting into fine dining or a Michelin experience with teams of people preparing the food and it's an entirely different level of impossibility to make at home. It's more sheer technique and attention to fussy detail than teams of people. A patissier is simply WAY better than you are at making desserts, for example. They know all the tricks; they will also have all the necessary equipment. However, yeah, Michelin restaurants are definitely next level.

joezydeco 2y ago
Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach... Go look for the folks that hack off the safety latch on their self-cleaning ovens. It's kind of nuts.
- UIUC_06 2y ago
  I've heard of them. I'd hate to have to explain that to my insurance inspector after a house fire, though.
  - joezydeco 2y ago
    Thankfully these miniature outdoor pizza ovens are taking some of the thrill away from the firestarters.
UIUC_06 2y ago
> Get a steel or aluminum plate for your oven. The conductivity can make up for a lot of the heat differential. Yeah, a true Neapolitan at 900F is out of reach, but almost everything else is just fine. I have a steel plate. An hour at 500F only gets it to around 400F. Which is fine for pizza, actually, so you're right about that. If you ask big US pizzerias (I don't know about the famous Naples ones) what temp they use, it's usually 650-750. At 900F you have zero margin for error.
awithrow 2y ago
You can get a standalone pizza over for a couple hundred. I've got an Ooni and it gets up to 900 in about 15 minutes. Its obviously not for indoor use but its great nonetheless. It still takes a good bit of technique to get the dough and timing right but its great to be able to cook a pizza in little more than a minute.
- AlbertCory 2y ago
  Have you actually pointed an IR thermometer at it? On mine (which I sold), it was 900 at the back and 600 at the front. It was just too much trouble. A pizza steel in a kitchen oven, preheated, works very well; maybe not as good as a 700F oven but WAY easier. And 5 minutes instead of 1 minute is not a big sacrifice.

carlosjobim 2y ago

Paradoxically, it's the fast food staples that are most difficult to do at home – because you need a fryer. Haute cuisine is no problem making at home, because fine dining is not based on using fryers. It can't be made with restaurant speed nor quantity, but you can get the same quality at home.

throwaway2037 2y ago
> because you need a fryer What? There are many, many YouTube videos explaining how to make "fast food" style french fries (double fried, and all that) at home, without a fryer.
- ghaff 2y ago
  And it's probably not reasonable that the average person who gets McDonalds fries (which are indeed good and better than most, if not all, of the "fast casual" joints) will do those things. Not that frozen supermarket fries in a deep fryer are an especially heavy lift and they're mostly good enough (with reasonably fresh oil) for hamburger and fries.
  - Klonoar 2y ago
    McDonalds fries can be somewhat achieved by adding beef flavor (authentic or vegetarian sub) to the fries. It’s like the easiest hack to better homemade fries, IMO.
- UIUC_06 2y ago
  My air fryer makes decent fries, using only olive oil as a fat. It did take some practice to get it right. Are they as good as deep-fat fried? No, but they're crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. OK, you all want to hear this, you know you do: =============== Start preheating the air fryer to 400F. Slice the potatoes. Drop them in a bowl of water, swish them around and drain off the water, and fill the bowl again. By now, the water should be clear. If not, do it again. Take the fries out and dry on paper towels, as dry as you can get them. *These steps are important; you need to wash off the surface starch, and get them dry so you're not steaming them* Dry the bowl, and put in some olive oil, with seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic salt, etc.) Put the fries back in the bowl and get them all oily. Put them in the fryer. The basket should be hot enough that they make a sizzling sound. Every 5 minutes, toss the fries. You can either get compulsive and turn each one individually, or just pour them in a bowl and shake it, or shake the fryer basket (if that doesn't cause it to separate, as it does mine). Put them back in the fryer. Check periodically that they're as brown as you want them. ============== Good variations? I want to hear them

throwaway2037 2y ago

> You won't achieve wok hei on your stove This is simple untrue. There is many, many YouTube videos explaining how to achieve wok hei (鑊氣) at home with a non-commercial gas-fired stove and a cheap wok. For any readers unfamiliar with the stir frying technique called wok hei, read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Cooking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Cooking

swores 2y ago
I know very little about Asian cooking of any kind, but I seem to remember being told that wok hei produces enough smoke to be extremely unpleasant to have inside a residential building - to the point that even when people do want to use wok hei at home they would choose to have a setup in the garden rather than the kitchen. If my memory/understanding is not wrong, then that adds to the idea that people won't achieve wok hei on their stove even if the reason is not wanting its side effects rather than being technically impossible.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  > wok hei produces enough smoke to be extremely unpleasant to have inside a residential building Not true. Find some videos on YouTube about wok hei. Yes, you need to choose an oil with a high smoke point (not olive oil). With a bit of practice, you can do it in your sleep and enjoy delicious stir fry.

Klonoar 2y ago

Re: oven temps, I seem to recall seeing a link here maybe a decade ago about a guy who figured out how to get his oven hot enough for certain pizza routines by basically breaking the handle on the cleaning cycle or something. Does anybody else remember this? Or am I crazy?