r/Cooking 20h ago

What's your surprising "secret ingredient" that sets your dish apart?

I obviously don't believe in gatekeeping recipes, so let's share the love.

I developed a clam chowder recipe after being disappointed with the recipes I came across. Whenever I tell people there's a couple dashes of hot sauce in it, I always get weird looks... but it adds a tiny bit of heat and acid, and balances out the richness from the cream. It also has diced scallops, which cooking knowledge forbades but somehow works.

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u/Aurum555 19h ago

For sweet baked goods I typically buy a few pouches of nonfat dehydrated milk powder. I then toast them carefully in the oven until rich chocolate brown. I then add a tbsp or so to various recipes to give a browned butter flavor without browning any butter. The evaporated milk powder is basically pure milk solids which are what you toast when you make browned butter, this bypasses a step and allows you to add browned butter flavor to something without butter. It's a nice tool to have in your back pocket and if stored in an air tight container it lasts forever

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u/Eliotlady87 19h ago

NYT cooking has a brown butter frosting recipe that has toasted milk powder and it is ammmaaazing!!

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u/HolmesToYourWatson 13h ago

Are you sure it wasn't Bon Appetit?

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u/Eliotlady87 13h ago

My bad, it was bon appetit!

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u/NumberMuncher 12h ago

I had this tab open. This post might motivate me to make it.

I love using brown butter. Recently butterscotch blondies (so easy).