Best message board for Cooking Questions?

November 17, 2008 12:55 PM

Best message board for an aspiring cook?

I'm looking for a message board that's a good place to ask newbie questions about cooking.

These would be food science type questions. A few examples:

Why does Alton Brown always use kosher salt?

Should you salt before or after sauteing? Whats the difference?

Why does Julia Child use wax paper when poaching?

If you leave meat in a brine too long, what happens?

Any suggestions?

posted by TigerCrane to food & drink (9 comments total)

Egullet is great for this sort of thing.
So is Chowhound.
posted by peacheater at 1:11 PM on November 17, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Books! I know they're no messageboards, but Kitchen Science and any of the Alton Brown books would really serve you well if you're interested in the science part of food. They'll cover 80% of your questions and answer a lot more you didn't know you had.
posted by soma lkzx at 1:12 PM on November 17, 2008

Chances are your questions have been asked and answered before:

Why does Alton Brown always use kosher salt?
Kosher salt vs. sea salt at Chowhound

Should you salt before or after sauteing? Whats the difference?
When to add salt to promote browning at Chowhound

If you leave meat in a brine too long, what happens?
Brining course at eGullet

posted by peacheater at 1:26 PM on November 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Books! I know they're no messageboards, but Kitchen Science and any of the Alton Brown books would really serve you well if you're interested in the science part of food. They'll cover 80% of your questions and answer a lot more you didn't know you had.
posted by soma lkzx at 1:12 PM on November 17 [mark as best answer] [+] [!]

Actually, those two books are the source of most of my questions. Its the remaining 20 percent that I'm looking for.
posted by TigerCrane at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2008

eGullet has gone massively down hill the past year or two.
posted by foodgeek at 2:29 PM on November 17, 2008

Yeah I don't know exactly what did it (overagressive moderators? failure to recruit new users?) but eG seems like it's going at about 25% of the activity it was at a couple years ago. I never liked the CH moderation style or the constant stream of noobs/reposts but the volume is there for sure, and you'll definitely get a couple semi-competent answers to your question.
posted by rxrfrx at 2:32 PM on November 17, 2008

CH has unfortunately been populated by the very people they proposed to hate in the past -- pretentious foodies who won't eat things on principle and are all obsessed about finding the "hot new places to eat" rather than GOOD FOOD.

I recommend the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated message boards for these kinds of questions. That website has loads of video and text about these kinds of questions as well. You can be a member for $3.95 a month or you can subscribe to the magazine (which I have always considered the Good Eats of magazines).
posted by proj at 3:01 PM on November 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Serious Eats.
posted by orangemiles at 4:19 PM on November 17, 2008

eGullet has gone massively down hill the past year or two.

I agree. You might want to take a look at Mouthfulsfood.com. A bunch of folks came over there after dissatisfaction with admin policies at eGullet.

Disclosure: I am currently a member-admin at Mouthfuls. (The site is 'self-administered' by members on a rotating basis.) We have very few restrictions on what is discussed on the forum (no politics or religion), so a lot of it is chatty, but there is still quite a lot of good cooking information to be found, and we have many knowledgeable posters.
posted by trip and a half at 6:47 PM on November 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]