the picture correctly includes double dose of garlic, but i’m missing the paprika and lard/bacon. source: i’m originally from hungary.
Also use some wine for even more smells! Even when cooking Western food, I’ve grown fond of using a little bit of Shaoxing wine, and replacing a bit of salt with a dash of soy + fish sauce for more complex umami
Butter is missing from this
Maybe in America, not in Spain
And in Dinamarca!
Should be clarified butter or a a more neutral oil.
Using olive oil for sauteeing isnt the worst but it’s kind of mid. Heat will bring out bitterness and the smoke point is low. Save your olive oil for finishing dishes or using in cool/cooled preparations, where its aroma and fruitiness can actually shine instead of getting dulled by heat.
If you let olive oil get hot enough to hit the smoke point for a sofritto you’re doing it wrong…
You’re still going to get off flavors and waste money in the process.
If the whole Mediterranean region cooks with oil that way they’re not “off flavours”, are they? Then they’re just the flavours of the regional cuisine.
I didn’t say you can’t, I said it’s a bit mid. Most traditional Mediterranean cooks keep two kinds of olive oil- cheap, refined olive oil for everyday frying and roasting, and more flavorful extra-virgin olive oil for salads and drizzling over finished dishes. Regular olive oil is milder and better suited to higher heat, so you’re not burning off expensive aromas. extra-virgin is basically olive “juice” with all the peppery, fruity notes you actually want to taste, so it is best used raw or at low heat. Outside that region, though, most people (at least here in Canada and I would guess the US as well) just have one bottle of extra-virgin and use it for pan frying too, which works okay but is a bit of a waste of its flavor and price.
Right, thanks for clarifying 🙂 I agree, don’t use extra virgin for frying. Still, I don’t think it gives off bitter flavours whatever you do unless you treat it really bad.
In Denmark, we traditionally cook using butter, but I like to use whatever fits the dish I am doing.
I’ve long meant to publish a cookbook but since it’s probably not going to happen I’ll share my concept here. It was going to be called “it starts with an onion” About 90% of the dishes I make start this way. Even if a recipe doesn’t call for it, I’ll often just start with some diced onion in oil and then began the recipe. If you have some ingredients around and you are trying to think of what to do with them, envision a Dutch oven or frying pan with some softened salted chopped onions in it and start planning what you will add too it. It’s a solid start to many a meal. Also, don’t underestimate shallots. They are like if garlic and onion had a baby.
It starts with onions, nice, small and diced, set the pan temperature not too high then add some olive oil, you’ll see why, and then let them sauté until! They’re! Fine!
I wanted a sautéed onion candle so I can get my roommate’s hopes up for a good dinner.
As an aside, why do I feel like this is an alt account with a not-so-similar, yet-still-similar, name?
That’s SatansMaggotyCumfart (or something like that)
😉
Just commented on it in the previous post. It’s alarmingly not-so-similar, yet-still-similar …
Don’t let your dreams be dreams! Infusing scents should be as easy as soaking the aromatic you want in a carrier oil for a while and then mixing it with a wax!
Just… Don’t yell at me if you don’t get your apartment’s deposit back.
We’ve seen SMCF’s dreams.
They need to stay dreams.Should I blend the oil and onion together so there aren’t big chunks in it?
I assume it would be the opposite. Use full slices so you can get them out of the oil with a sieve.
Exactly, always strain out. Chunks mean rot and mold.
Chunks mean rot and mold.

I wonder if asafoetida would work instead of onion?
It is a bit different but people unfamiliar likely wouldnt really be able to tell the difference. You’d still want to strain it out probably.
…username checks out 😄
Edit: nevermind! I misread Santa as Satan lol
Is this SatansMaggotyCumFart’s alt, or their nemesis?
Both? 🤷
You could do what my old roommate did and microwave an onion on high for 8 minutes. Everything in the apartment smelled like onions for a while.
Throw a fish in there too.
And turmeric… oniony Fish curry. It would remind me of my countless months living in various extended stay hotels.
I remember reading a comment on here one time that said anytime you’ve got people coming over for dinner, cook some onions and garlic in oil, even if you don’t need them for the meal. The smell alone will both make your guests hungry and also get excited for a good meal (assuming they’re into food).
What meal/cuisine wouldn’t benefit from onion and garlic though? Genuinely asking.
I add at least the powders to probably everything I cook, sometimes even white rice. But I’ve always wondered if I’m adding “wrong” seasoning to a dish when I use them!
(Eta: I also regularly cook with them but usually that’s when the recipe calls for it. I add the powders to browning meat or enhancing sauce etc regardless of recipe I just add them. )
Powders, yes, basically every meal. But I don’t always sautée them. Powered doesn’t have the same smell, and you can’t always use sautéed onion and garlic in every meal.
I like the idea.
Also, who’s not into food, people who don’t eat?
Compared to most of my friends I’m not into food tbh. But not in the way that I don’t care about it. I’ll generally eat whatever and like it. I can enjoy a microwave meal or a frozen pizza. And I get very impatient with people who insist that the rice needs to dry to the air for god knows how long because it makes the taste better. Cooking is something I used to hate, so I’d always go the easy route. Either a microwave meal or something like pasta with pre-cut vegetables and premade sauce from the supermarket.
Nowadays I have changed to a diet with more vegetables and less overprocessed stuff, so I tend to just grab some veggies and throw them in a pan with some meat (or replacement), some random herbs and spices and a little bit of pasta or rice. Sometimes it’s nice, sometimes it sucks, but I don’t really care because I’ll eat almost anything and I hate throwing away food. Most important to me is that it’s healthy most of the time. But I don’t really care for recipes or spending time to prepare something nice, I have better ways to spend my time. I also really like my rice to be sticky, so I don’t really waste time on washing the rice either.
Lots of people don’t care about food, it’s just something to make them go from hungry to not hungry. “It fills a hole” is something I’ve heard many times, referring to food. Plenty of people just don’t care. I honestly was like that until I moved out and had to do the cooking myself. Now I can appreciate a home cooked meal or fancy restaurant meal more, but I’m still not a foodie. As long as it isn’t disgusting and it fills me up, I don’t really care. I’ll enjoy a nice meal more than a bland one, but I don’t have a strong feeling about it either way.
Cooking for my dad can be a little annoying sometimes because he’s definitely not a foodie. Many times my mom will make him a nice meal, ask him how it is, and his response is always “yeah it’s good” no matter what. Nowadays she cooks for herself and makes enough for him, because she knows he just doesn’t care, as long as it’s enough to fill him up. And I know a lot of people that are like that too.
I have ADHD and rarely remember the details of a meal. Maybe never.
But I do remember if I enjoyed it, so while I end up sounding like your dad it it is coming from a place of honesty when I say I enjoy something without being able to articulate exactly why or what flavors were in it. I’m also fine eating meh food for sustenance because the experience of eating it won’t even be remembered 30 minutes later, but won’t praise it.
I wish I could think of food as just fuel.
Silly human brain over here that loves food! Thinks about it all the time. All the time…
Stupid human brains.
Missing salt, rookie mistake.
Salt doesn’t change the smell, or at least not that I have ever noticed.
Makes alluims smell better faster?
You’re missing carrots and celery to round out the Holy Trinity. Otherwise, it looks good.
The Holy Trinity normally refers to onion, celery, and green bell pepper, at least in Cajun cuisine.
Carrots, sure, but celery is an abomination unto Nuggan!
Hate to break it to you but Borogravia is not known for its cuisine.
Speaking as someone who’s a big fan of cabbage, I’m skeptical of your dismissal of it 😁
What is wrong with you?
A lot. You?
Lately I feel like I should just make a Mexican spice mix and put it in everything. Less cumin, more types of chili powder, a couple small vidalia onions, a few peppers and I really couldn’t care what you put in it and I’ll be happy. Chicken, pork, beef, goat, I’m sure tofu would by fine by me. In rice, a burrito, taco, enchiladas, anywhere really, fuck out it on a pizza or in a calzone, or a puff pastry, it’ll work out.
4 garlic bulbs, 3 onions and 2 bottles of olive oil, that will entice your neighbor 2 blocks down
















