Biggest Single Ingredient Improvement Ever?

[STEbbq]

What is the single ingredient that you added to a favorite recipe that took it to a whole new level?

Mine is stupidly simple. Sprinkle a good amount of brown sugar on bacon and cook as normal. Where has candied bacon been all of my life man?

[RonB]

Smoke!

[STEbbq]

Smoked tater tots for the win!

[WillTravelForFood]

Salt!

[STEbbq]

To what? What did you cook without salt before?

[WillTravelForFood]

Chocolate chip cookies. A bit of flake salt as a finish makes a big difference

[Jerod Broussard]

Tony Chachere's.

[Jerod Broussard]

Not ice cream or cereal.

[CaptainMike]

It's amazing what a little Tony C's will do for Smoked Spaniard.

[Troutman]

I literally threw away my separate salt and pepper shakers. When cooking I simply use Tony C's in place of. It's mostly salt anyway and I like the zing of the peppers. Try it, it's the best !!!

[scottranda]

Salt. Or MSG.

I’ma bout to find out!!!!!

[STEbbq]

What did you cook without salt before?

[WillTravelForFood]

Salt!

But seriously, probably something along the lines of sambal or gochujang or similarly unexpected zing.

No....

DUCK FAT

Definitely duck fat.

[STEbbq]

Where did the duck fat make the biggest impact?

[WillTravelForFood]

Potatoes. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Anyplace you’d use oil

[Troutman]

I gotta admit I tried some duck fat over the holidays and man was it good. Almost as good, but not quite bacon fat. But oh the flavor.

[Mr. Bones]

Lose th water...

Dihydrogen Monoxide...

Use any kinda liquid, asides water, in a receipt.

IMO, water can be used fer cookin yer food in, then discarded.

Life's too short to use it as an ingredient, when virtually every other liquid on God's Green Earth has more flavour...why insist on 'meh', or less?

Broth, stock, bouillon, beer, wine, whisky, juices,Co-Cola, (etc) cookin juices, anything liquid on God's Green Earth adds more flavour to any dish ya bother to prepare. Try it.

Mr. Bones Sez...

Water (Dihydrogen Monxide) is a 'cookin medium' but, decidedly NOT an ingredient, in my foods...

[Andrrr]

"Boiled water. I found it bland an tasteless".

To damn funny

[pkadare]

He's not advocating leaving water out of recipes, but rather replacing it with a liquid that has some flavour.

[Richard Chrz]

Now that sounds like a motto I can get behind. Well except my baking.

[das85]

Mushroom powder. Added to any beef rub but especially Mrs O'Leary's Cow Crust.

Awesome question btw, looking forward to reading everyone's responses!

[smokin fool]

Add a coupla tablespoons of honey to frying bacon, mmmm....
Cleaning the pan sucks large but the bacon, mmmm

[Bumby]

I use honey frequently in my BBQ. On ribs and chicken where I heavily rub the meat, I'll use honey in place of BBQ sauce so that the sauce doesn't clash with my rub. On a mechoui style lamb, I'll coat the lamb in honey about twenty minutes before I cook it. And thanks to smokin fool (above), I now have another use of honey.

[Mr. Bones]

While we're on th Honey Trail, anybody else use Mike's?


I use th reg, an hot, also have quite some bit of local...

Jus askin...

[texastweeter]

Msg

[STEbbq]

To what? Everything?

[texastweeter]

Pretty much, except like my mushroom hunter pasta. Plenty there already. STEbbq

[CaptainMike]

Acorn squash in Texas Chili.

[CaptainMike]

I swear texastweeter I saw it in a recipe for texas chili. I couldn't believe it myself, but the author claimed it's used as a thickener and has no taste. Riiiiiggght..... The funny part was the rest of the recipe was as legit as anyone's. I still deleted it.

[texastweeter]

Glad you took em behind the barn and put em down. Abomination

[CaptainMike]

Hahahahaha!

[AdequateEatin]

Hot Honey. Throw it on as a topping, it totally changes pizza and vanilla ice-cream!

[Mr. Bones]

Do ya use Mike's?
I was jus askin bout his, up above...

[AdequateEatin]

I do have some Mike's. I like to rotate through different ones I still haven't found my favorite go to yet. I think right now I got Mike's Hot Honey, Hot Ones | Nugget Honey, The Spicy Shark Hot Honey, and Bees Knees Spicy Honey in my cabinet right now.

[Bkhuna]

Shio Koji. Started using it in Japanese recipes but now find it indispensable for many other.

[STEbbq]

What is a good example of where you use it?

[Bkhuna]

STEbbq - I use it when cooking fish/shrimp. A few tablespoon rubbed onto a filet and marinade for an hour or a a couple of Tsp in a zip lock full of shrimp do wonders for the texture and taste. Wipe of and cook. To chicken or pork, rub with one tsp shio koji per bound of meat and allow to set anywhere from one hour to overnight. Wipe it off and grill, saute, or whatever.Kenji has a primer on shio koji where he rubs down a prime rib. https://www.seriouseats.com/shio-koji-marinade