5 Dumb Ingredients That Make Home-Cooked Meals 87% Better
by Audie Metcalf
Wouldn’t it be ruthless if one of those 5 things was like, “wild-caught bluefin tuna” or some other insanely unrelatable ingredient?
Fortunately, one of those things is NOT wild-caught Bluefin tuna.
They’re just five ingredients we don’t always think about when we cook. And not dissimilar to how once you discovered freshly-squeezed orange juice as a mind-altering revelation compared to not freshly-squeezed orange juice, once you incorporate these ingredients into your everyday life, you’ll wonder how you even lived before.
1. Flaky Salt
We are rhapsodic about this brand, but the point overall is that you need a flaky finishing salt.
Unlike, your “table salt” or ideally your kosher salt that you toss into a big pot of boiling water for pasta, finishing salt offers a bright, saline crunch, with an almost subtle wetness (actively not using the word moist so you don’t hate me) that brings every bite burstingly to life. Can you imagine me using all these dumb adjectives and adverbs if this wasn’t literally life changing?
Try it. ON EGGS?? Jesus.
2. Shallots
Fine. Shallots are a little bit (light gag) cheffy. Btw, that word is now officially in the dictionary. So.
But, listen.
A shallot is a revelation in a way that an onion just…isn’t. A shallot can be hacked into little pieces, thrown into whatever jar is nearest, drowned in olive oil, white balsamic and some of that aforementioned salt, and become better than any salad dressing you’ve ever had from a jar. Keep that dressing in the fridge and drizzle on just some “mix” of bagged lettuces, or on roasted asparagus that you’ve flung into the oven at 425 for 15, or use as the moistening (does that count as moist?) binder for a light, summery, easy potato salad with whatever other veg you have half-wilting in your drawer.
And don’t get me going on browning shallots in butter as an added depth of flavor for nearly any pasta dish, because we could be here all goddamn day.
3. Lemon Zest
It’s so easy to forget that the OUTSIDE of the lemon contains multitudes. Is the act of zesting annoying verging on risky? Yes. Are microplanes highly effective but also mildly terrifying? Also yes. But we must trudge on.
Just make yourself a little zest-pile before you slice your lemon, with a microplane, secured over a bowl, horizontally. Your fear will be slightly eased with this method. Just do a light swipe all over the lemon so you don’t get down to the pith, which is bitter. Admittedly “pith” is a very cheffy thing to know and I’m sorry for that.
But God help us if lemon zest doesn’t help to exponentially brighten up EVERY marinade you make, almost any pasta, baked good, homemade aioli (which let’s be honest is just mayonnaise with a fancy name to make us feel less bad for eating it), or a quick pan sauce with butter over steak, which, a surprise to no one, would probably also benefit from shallots.
4. Olive Oil
I’ve lost you. I knew it. I toiled over this one. Because you’re like duh olive oil. Welcome to life. But. Friends.
Not just any olive oil.
Like flaky salt, a finishing olive oil will make all the difference as the final anointing on your dish. Our favorite, by far, is Frankies, procured easily on Amazon. And one of the best cooking olive oils is this one found gloriously at Target. Of course, there’s the whole “oops, we’ve all been eating rancid olive oil this whole time because people who market food apparently have no regulation and whoops, everything is a scam!” but that’s an article for another day. Oh, wait. We wrote that article.
5. Chives
Often plated atop Benedicts and shellfish, often lengthwise and uncut, chives have the staggering ability to plummet the best of us into days-long culinary self-esteem spirals, when in fact they are just a tender, mild herb, waiting for us to haphazardly CUT THEM WITH SCISSORS and toss them into literally everything we make.
Chives belong on a plate of sun-warmed heirloom tomatoes along with flaky salt (!) and good olive oil (!!). Chives belong on basically any egg you ever make again. Ditto potatoes. They also belong in every salad you toss, nearly every homemade dressing you whisk, and my god every dip.
If all 5 of these humble offerings are ingredients you already know and love, I’m truly sorry. Perhaps I can interest you in something more obscure like this?
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
