Today, Let’s Talk About Some Little Cooking Tips
These 15 cooking tips cover meat tenderizing, vegetable color retention, fish‑soup whitening, flavor balancing, ingredient selection, and cookware choices, while advocating an open‑minded attitude of not dismissing others' methods lightly.
Many people have been leaving messages asking if I could write about some simple dishes, because the recipes I usually share are mostly elaborate, heavy-duty meals that aren’t really home‑kitchen friendly.
It’s not that I don’t want to—it’s just that those simpler dishes have so few steps that devoting an entire post to them feels like there’s almost nothing to say.
So today, I’ve put together a few little tips that might be useful for beginners just getting into cooking. If you find them helpful, I’ll try to update this kind of list from time to time.
1. To make meat more tender, marinate it in advance.
This assumes you’re cooking it well done (so, not steak). Whether you’re stir‑frying slices or roasting chicken wings, if you want a more tender, juicy texture, marinate beforehand—with salt and water (not a dry rub!).
The basic principle: at a salt concentration of around 3%, the proteins that support muscle contraction partially dissolve; at 5.5%, the myofilaments themselves start to dissolve, making the meat less tough to bite. At the same time, salt interacts with proteins to increase the water‑holding capacity of muscle cells, so they absorb water from the brine. Meat that has been brined can gain about 10% in weight. Since cooking causes a moisture loss of over 20%, pre‑brining helps offset that loss, resulting in a final product with higher moisture content—and therefore more tenderness. Also, the brine usually contains various seasonings, and as the meat absorbs water, it also takes in the aromatic molecules from the spices, so brining infuses flavor much more effectively than adding seasonings only during cooking.
For meat slices, a few tens of minutes are usually enough; for larger, thicker items like whole chicken wings or a whole chicken, 8 to 24 hours are needed.
2. Green vegetables should not be heated for too long, or they will turn yellow.
All green leafy vegetables containing chlorophyll should not be cooked for a long time, because prolonged heating turns chlorophyll into pheophytin, which makes the greens look yellow.
But you might say, “If I don’t cook them long enough, they’ll be underdone!” True. In restaurants, the stovetop flames are powerful enough to stir‑fry raw vegetables directly until done, but at home, the heat is usually weaker, so you risk ending up with crunchy, undercooked greens.
What to do? Refer to Cantonese techniques: use “blanching” (fei shui) or “soft stir‑frying” to control the heating time. Blanching means passing the vegetables through boiling water—sometimes just a few seconds, depending on the size—then drizzling with hot oil and seasonings. Soft stir‑frying means blanching first, then giving them a quick toss back in the wok before serving.
3. Chicken is at its most tender when cooked just to the right doneness.
Unless you’re making braised or stewed chicken, the key to tender, juicy chicken is to control the temperature strictly.
Take Cantonese white‑cut chicken (bak cham gai), for example: it is cooked by submerging the whole bird in hot liquid, allowing even heating, and removed precisely when it is just cooked. Then it is immediately plunged into cold water (or iced water) to stop the cooking process and prevent the meat from tightening further. That’s why white‑cut chicken has firm, slippery skin and tender meat that is just cooked, with the bones still slightly pink.
The same applies to roasted chicken, especially sensitive parts like the breast—once overcooked, even the best techniques can’t save it.
4. Pan‑fry first, then simmer, to get a rich white fish soup.
Many people think the milky white color of fish soup comes from adding milk, but that’s not necessary.
The main reason fish soup turns opaque white is that during cooking, fat continuously leaches out from the fish, while water‑soluble proteins, lecithin, and gelatin—all of which have emulsifying properties—also dissolve. The fat is enveloped by these emulsifiers and, under vigorous boiling, breaks into smaller droplets suspended in the liquid, creating a scattering effect that makes the soup look white and creamy.
So fat, protein, and high‑temperature extraction are all essential. Pan‑frying the fish skin and then simmering is the most common method. By the same principle, if you fry an egg and then simmer it in water, you can achieve a similar creamy white broth—great for noodle soups and such.
5. Salt eggplants first, then pass them through oil—this helps them become tender and absorb flavor.
Eggplants have a spongy, thin‑walled structure, but they are filled with water. Salting draws out that water, and further heating during cooking removes even more moisture, making them soft.
Why is passing through oil said to make them tastier? The key is that high‑oil‑temperature frying causes the eggplant to lose water while its sponge‑like tissue absorbs oil. Most seasonings we add afterward are fat‑soluble aromatics, so they can more easily penetrate the eggplant through the absorbed oil, resulting in a deeper, more infused flavor.
6. Ingredients with lots of connective tissue are best for slow braising.
Whether from pork, beef, or lamb, cuts with abundant sinew and connective tissue are perfect for slow cooking. Although we know that heating causes protein contraction and moisture loss, with long, gentle simmering, the muscle fiber structure breaks down extensively and becomes looser, restoring some tenderness. Meanwhile, the tough connective tissues convert into gelatin and slowly release it. The lubricating sensation provided by gelatin improves the mouthfeel of the otherwise dried‑out meat. That’s why braised meat, despite losing moisture, is still easy to bite into and doesn’t feel overly dry.
Cuts with more sinew release more gelatin and yield an even better texture. Common examples include braised beef shank (especially the beautifully marbled “money” tendon), beef brisket, oxtail, pig trotters, and so on—all excellent for this cooking method.
7. Fried garlic can act like a natural umami booster and pairs wonderfully with seafood.
Raw garlic has a sharp, pungent spiciness, but when stir‑fried at high heat, that pungency greatly diminishes and gives way to a rich savory flavor. It can be used as a seasoning to enhance umami. Cantonese cuisine uses it extensively—for example, in the classic steamed seafood with garlic and vermicelli, the garlic used is mostly “gold and silver garlic,” i.e., fried garlic plus raw garlic, with fried garlic accounting for over 70%.
In Chaozhou‑style braised master stocks, fried garlic is also added as one of the spice ingredients. Moreover, in the Teochew rice noodle soup (kway teow), fried garlic granules are sprinkled on top.
8. Use animal fat for cooking vegetables.
Although many consider lard or other animal fats less healthy than vegetable oils (though recent studies have begun to challenge that view), vegetables cooked with animal fat taste significantly better than those cooked with plant oils. Why?
Because when animal fats are heated at high temperatures, they release volatile aromatic compounds such as small‑molecule aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids, as well as characteristic meaty aromas (e.g., the flavor of stir‑frying with lard is quite different from that with beef tallow). The flavor profile is much richer than that of vegetable oils.
A classic example from Teochew cuisine is stir‑fried kale (kailan). The veteran masters summed up the essentials as “thick animal fat, fierce heat, and fragrant oyster sauce.” Among these, “thick animal fat” means using plenty of lard.
9. Flavor is mostly about aroma, not taste.
The human tongue can perceive only five basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami. Everything else—the vast majority of what we call “flavor”—is sensed through our nose. In other words, most flavor is actually aroma, not taste.
How does this relate to cooking? A lot! For example, when buying pepper, choose whole peppercorns with a grinder and grind them fresh as you use them, rather than buying pre‑ground pepper that has already lost much of its aromatic potency. So, for spices, try to buy whole ones and grind them fresh, or at least choose sealed packaging. If that’s not possible, use them up as soon as possible after opening.
10. Accidentally added too much salt? Add a little sugar.
As mentioned above, the tongue senses sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami. If you over‑salt, adding some sugar will make your taste buds devote some attention to “sweetness,” thereby raising your tolerance for “saltiness”—it balances it out.
Similarly, you could use acidity (tomatoes, vinegar, etc.) to achieve a similar balancing effect. Of course, the best approach is, when you’re unsure, to add salt gradually and stop at the right amount.
11. Add a spoonful of oil when cooking rice—great for making fried rice with distinct grains.
For fried rice, if you can use day‑old rice, after sufficient moisture evaporation, the grains will separate nicely.
But what if you want to cook the rice fresh and use it right away? Use about two‑thirds of your usual water amount, and add a spoonful of oil while cooking. The resulting rice won’t be too wet or sticky, and each grain will remain separate.
12. Expensive cookware is not a shortcut to improving your skills.
Don’t obsess over collecting fancy cookware, and don’t become a gear‑head—especially when it comes to woks. As long as you choose the right material, any wok can be good. Buying a 2000‑yuan pan won’t necessarily improve your cooking much; on the contrary, because it’s so pricey, you might end up handling it with too much care, afraid to toss and stir vigorously, which defeats the purpose.
For a stir‑fry wok, a cheap, basic carbon‑steel wok (like the famous Chan Kee brand) can actually skyrocket your skills—the key is choosing the right material.
However, a good chef’s knife is worth investing in. A high‑quality knife with good hardness stays sharp longer and saves you a lot of time on sharpening.
13. Ingredients determine the upper limit of your final dish.
In cooking, ingredients are the most fundamental element. Their quality sets the ceiling for what you can achieve. No matter how skilled you are, the room for redemption is not infinite.
That’s why Yuan Mei, in his classic Suiyuan Shidan (The Menu of Suiyuan), wrote: “The cook’s work counts for six‑tenths, while the buyer’s work counts for four‑tenths.” So learning how to select good ingredients takes no less effort than learning how to handle them.
14. Do not repeatedly freeze and thaw fresh or raw foods.
Most home refrigerators are not blast freezers. Repeated freeze‑thaw cycles enlarge the gaps between cells due to ice crystal formation, causing severe moisture loss and a significant drop in quality.
If you buy fresh produce online, pay attention to delivery time—if it thaws too much during transit and then gets refrozen, the ingredients are ruined.
What if they are already badly thawed? It’s best to cook and eat them the same day. Also, frozen foods should be thawed slowly (e.g., in the refrigerator); do not thaw them directly at room temperature, as that also causes excessive moisture loss.
15. Don’t dismiss other people’s methods too easily.
This is the most valuable principle I’ve learned over the years, because the world of cooking is far larger than we can imagine.
Take something as simple as roasting chicken wings: some people wrap them in foil, some use low‑and‑slow roasting, and others place a water pan underneath. All these approaches have their own reasoning, so don’t rigidly cling to just one “authoritative” method you read somewhere—that only limits yourself.
On a broader scale, I once wrote about steak, and someone commented that Chinese braised beef is the best, and eating steak is just following foreign trends—a sign of cultural insecurity. That kind of attitude is unhelpful. Chinese cuisine has its strengths, but it is not the sole ruler. Every culinary tradition around the world has its own logic and valuable lessons. For example, spice selection and application is an area where Chinese cuisine can learn from others.
Take Cantonese cuisine, which is often described as “northern dishes moving south, ancient techniques used in new ways, and foreign methods adapted for Chinese use.” It has absorbed northern Chinese styles, traditional classic dishes, and overseas influences from the West and Southeast Asia to become what it is today. Even in braised dishes, the Chaozhou master stock uses various spices, including lemongrass—a Southeast Asian ingredient—showing that it has borrowed from other cuisines.
Another example: many people claim that adding soy sauce to a braised dish is a low‑grade practice. That might be true for northern Chinese master stocks, but for Cantonese‑style stocks—whether general, refined, or white—soy sauce is always used. The famous rose‑flavored soy‑sauce chicken is even made with only soy sauce and no water (a refined‑stock method). The well‑known Chaozhou braised stock also must include soy sauce, and some masters even make their apprentices taste and distinguish different soy sauces as their very first lesson.
So, without in‑depth understanding, don’t casually dismiss others’ methods or entire culinary traditions. Don’t narrow your own horizons. Before you speak, it’s always worth trying things out with your own hands.
That’s all for now—I hope these tips are useful to you.
Derrt
Contributing writer at FlavorVerse. Passionate about food, cooking, and sharing culinary knowledge with the world.
