r/AskReddit • u/PressureCalm7971 • 9h ago
What is something many people do while cooking that you think serves no purpose?
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u/NewWokeUser 6h ago
Reading the whole recipe before starting. I prefer to find out at step 6 that the dough needed to rest overnight.
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u/99thLuftballon 3h ago
That is the fault of recipe writers, rather than the person doing the reading, in my opinion.
There is no reason to reach step 5 and find "add the butter which has been softened at room temperature for 20 minutes" - that should be step 1: "leave the butter at room temperature for 20 minutes to soften".
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u/luluhouse7 1h ago
Personally I prefer to have it in the ingredient list so it’s immediately visible when gathering ingredients.
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u/99thLuftballon 1h ago
To be honest, I'd rather have it in the instructions.
The ingredients list should be a shopping list. You don't buy "room temperature softened butter", you buy "butter".
Softening the butter is an action you take, so it should be under instructions, not ingredients. Butter is the ingredient, softening is the action. However, it should be in the appropriate place in the instructions - at the start - because that's when the action needs to take place.
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u/Joeyd9t3 9h ago
You do not need to wash chicken
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u/ConflagWex 9h ago
People wash chicken?
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u/raspberryharbour 9h ago
Helps pass the time in the bath
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u/Relevant_Struggle 6h ago
My mom washes her turkey every Thanksgiving. No idea why. But at least she sanitizes the sink both before and afterwards
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u/cathbadh 8h ago
They do, but I find it's both a cultural and age thing. You really shouldn't wash chicken.
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u/fougraituby 6h ago
say this in certain households and they look at you like you just committed a felony
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u/illegal_deagle 8h ago edited 5h ago
I’m 100% with you. It’s unnecessary and even dangerous/counterproductive.
But the thing is, we pretty much all cook like our parents, grandparents, etc and lots of folks come from places where washing meat really was a necessary step. Blood, slime, feathers, flies, all could have appeared on meat in a different time and place.
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u/tenderjuicy1294 5h ago
It’s totally a cultural thing but it’s also not that hard to do. You can do it in a bowl and whatever water that you use to wash it goes down the sink. Clean after that and it’s fine. I understand it’s not really necessary but people also comment on it as if it’s the worst thing ever when it’s fairly harmless.
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u/flockyboi 3h ago
the problem is that, in following typical safe food standards, everything that raw chicken touches is contaminated until properly cleaned/sanitized due to things like salmonella. That includes hands, knives, it's even recommended to have a separate cutting board for raw chicken if you can't properly sanitize it especially if you're prepping anything after the chicken. People are rarely careful enough to not contaminate more stuff in the process of washing chicken so if it isn't needed, it could indeed end up being more dangerous to do it
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u/alicatchrist 8h ago
Yeah…. As someone who’s had to handle, prepare, and cook raw chicken as part of a job…. Raw chicken juice is absolutely one of the last things I want going into my sink unless I’m purposely pouring it down the drain and immediately bleaching everything that may have come into contact with said raw chicken juice.
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u/h_amphibius 5h ago
I knew someone who washed all of their meat, unless it was ground
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u/Impressive-Yellow-67 4h ago
When I was in college and lived in a dorm (we each had a kitcheette), my neighbor had a girl over for dinner. He cooked something with ground chicken. He got very very sick after. Being my neighbor and the walls being extremely thin it was a shared experience. When he recoved I asked him about the girl; did she get sick too? No no, he got sick because he tasted the ground chicken raw. Turns out, his family always tasted meat raw. He also moved dorm, because we were boring and did not party hard enough for him...
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u/FuckGiblets 3h ago
As an ex chef I will taste raw beef or lamb. Sometimes it’s more rich and might need seasoning very slightly differently (but to be honest not in a way anyone, including myself would probably notice), it’s just habit. Tasting raw chicken for this reason is insane.
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u/Impressive-Yellow-67 2h ago
I think he might have had a butcher grandfather. Anyways he never did it again. But "family culture" in the kitchen can be wild, you don't question it, because you don't realized there is anything to question.
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u/iamyouarehesheis 2h ago
I knew someone who washed the ground beef 🥴 pretty sure someone went viral on TikTok couple years back for this reason as well
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u/idiot206 1h ago
The fact that they don’t wash the ground meat is proof enough that it isn’t necessary to wash any of it.
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 3h ago
Last time I saw this mentioned I discovered there’s a bit of a translation issue between “wash” and “clean”. Washing can mean applying something evenly. Washed ashore, a feeling of dread washes over you, lime-wash a brick wall. The process of adding spices or lime juice or whatever to the outside of chicken is known as “washing” (in their language) the chicken in some cultures, which has been translated to the English “wash”.
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u/PickleMortyCoDm 9h ago
Oil in boiling water for your pasta. It doesn't stop your pasta sticking, stirring does. It only floats on the top and then gets poured away when you drain
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u/Capable_Delivery1006 9h ago
Man someone told me that a sprinkle of salt was worthless and they dumped a fuck ton in the water it made the pasta taste so much better lol
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u/Itchy-Phase 9h ago
Correct, it’s more than most people think.
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u/kbotc 8h ago
Yea, I found a place selling premeasured "Italian sea salt" for salting the water. I didn't buy the insane thing, but I did take the amounts they premeasured to heart.
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u/ashcan_not_trashcan 6h ago
Well... how much?
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u/kbotc 6h ago
It's ~1:10 by weight.
I usually add a heaping tablespoon of kosher salt for 4 US quarts. It should remind you of a broth if you taste it (Not salty like the sea)
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u/StitchinThroughTime 6h ago
I add a scoop or 2 of chicken bullion to my water, adds flavor, salt and MSG.
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u/kimmy_kimika 8h ago
You should always "over salt" the pasta! It adds so much flavor to the finished dish.
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u/1600cc 7h ago
Just seasoning the water in general. I'll add herbs to the water that I know will mostly get poured out, but it really adds another dimension to the flavor.
Also I really enjoy boiling noodles in salty tabasco water for peppery and/or vodka sauces.
The spice doesn't really linger but you get a wonderfully light smoky pepper flavor penetrating the dish.46
u/pmalleable 7h ago
If you want to take this a step further, I simmer my old Parmesan rinds, some garlic, onions, and peppercorns to make Parmesan stock and freeze it. Then I boil my pasta in the stock rather than water.
Try it, you're welcome in advance.
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u/Major-Grape-7690 6h ago
I have a buddy who smokes meat. He takes the fat drippings and add some to the pasta water for his smoked mac and cheese.
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u/AstronomerIcy9695 6h ago
Boiling potatos in a shit ton of salt makes them really good too. Like more than you would for pasta, way more, like a concerning amount. Salt is cheap and you dump most of it out, but the high concentration seasons the potato all the way through.
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u/thegloper 5h ago
Yup I worked with a girl from Syracuse and she simply referred to them as "salt potatoes". They come out super creamy too
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u/DD163WALKER 4h ago
yep, salt potatoes are a NYer thing, specifically from Syracuse but they have spread West towards Buffalo. One of my favorite ways to cook potatoes, and then you get to dump a bunch of butter on them, very tastey.
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u/Rubyhamster 4h ago
Just FYI, some potato types can dissolve in salted water! We have bred so many different types of potatoes so be sure to research or test before as is CAN become a very watery, salty potato mash
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u/Practical_Tap_9592 9h ago
It should be as salty as the ocean.
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u/noggin-scratcher 8h ago
That's the idiom, but it underestimates just how ridiculously salty actual seawater is.
Putting several tablespoons of salt into a small pan of water, to bring the salinity up to 3 or 4 percent, would genuinely be too much.
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u/brickmaster32000 7h ago
Still an experiment I would advise people to try once. It really drives home how much of a difference it can make and you can dial down to reasonable amount after.
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u/Welpe 5h ago
I was about to complain about this commonly repeated phrase because it’s so nonsense. And untrue. Properly salted boil water should be 0.5-1% salt. Thats 10g of salt per liter, or for fellow Americans it’s about a tablespoon per 2 quarts if using Diamond Crystal and a teaspoon per quart if you use Morton.
The ocean is way saltier than people realize. At 3.5% salinity you need to dump in 7 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal salt for a gallon of water, and that’s completely inedible and will ruin pasta.
Do not make it as salty as the ocean. But you may need to use more salt than you think, people putting a single pinch of salt into a massive amount of water are being stupid. Unless you have high blood pressure or other heart issues and need a low sodium diet, most people should be using more salt in their home kitchen if they want food to actually taste good.
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u/Strikerjroar1 9h ago
Well, thats not actually why you do it though. Oil in the water floats to the top and helps resists the protein foam boilover. There's other methods for that too though, laying a wooden spoon along the top of the pot can do the trick. Or I guess you can always watch the water boil.
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u/knoxblox 8h ago
Or just dont overheat your pasta water. Boil over comes from a rolling boil making bubbles. Once the pasta is in just drop the heat to medium and it wont foam at all. Pasta doesn't cook better in water that is at a full boil, and it could be argued it cooks worse
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u/Gr8fulFox 8h ago edited 4h ago
I actually learned this from a textbook written in the 1920s; water at a rolling boil is no hotter than at a gentle boil; it's 212 degrees at atmospheric pressure, regardless, so you're just using more fuel and wasting water by keeping it at a rolling boil the whole time.
ETA: It was this book, The Science of Common Things.
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u/Strikerjroar1 7h ago
Thats correct... the temperature is what does the cooking. gentle vs rolling boil just refers to the amount of heat or cooking pressure applied that accelerates the conversion of water of the steam which doesnt do anything to cooktime other than steaming up your kitchen. Has 0% to do with cooking quality though.
You cannot overheat a boil, well, until you run out of water.7
u/StaticVoidMain2018 3h ago
It sounds like people just the oil for boil over prevention. But to me this isn’t worth the end result of slippy pasta that doesn’t stick to my pasta’s sauce
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u/GoofyGills 7h ago
My ex refused to turn the heat all the way to high when boiling water lol.
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u/smokemankiller 6h ago edited 6h ago
Some types of saucepans/cookware actually state not to do this due to the type of ply/material/thickness. I don’t think it’s necessary especially if you’ve experienced rapid boil-overs before and want a bit more warning before everything starts coming out of the pot lol
I just hope he at least kept the lid on if he was trying to reach a boil.59
u/Ok_Pirate_2714 5h ago
As long as you are boiling water, it is fine to set it to max. The pan will never get hotter than the boiling point of water.
When you are doing other things, like browning beef or frying things in the pan, that is when you need to be concerned with overheating the non-stick coating.
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u/smokemankiller 5h ago edited 5h ago
Tri-ply cookware, for example, heats quickly, so you don’t want to set it on high (at least initially) because it can damage the pan. I never set mine to high because it heats up quickly enough not to need to. Just put the lid on.
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u/DigNitty 7h ago
How weird.
I mean, sometimes I don’t if it’s a small pot on a large burner and the flames just go round it.
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u/Mr_BillyB 5h ago
Our kettle's instructions(!) said to use on medium-high heat specifically, not high heat.
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u/SparkleAuntie 5h ago
I usually set mine just under high because as soon as I add anything to it and bring it back to a boil, it boils over on high and I have to turn it down. So sometimes I just start it where I know it will wind up anyway.
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u/MattDubh 9h ago
Leaving the wine undrunk.
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u/Vodka_For_Breakfast 5h ago
I've found over the years that drinking while I make candy greatly improves the result.
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u/cold_tap_hot_brew 9h ago
Decant into pretty bowls then weigh the amount you need from there and put that into a separate bowl. It’s like tv cooking with nobody watching.
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u/AstronomerIcy9695 6h ago
I don’t necessarily do it aesthetically, or when cooking a staple recipe but I find when trying out new recipes that mise en place makes the whole process so much easier
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u/rock_crockpot 8h ago
I agree it feels like extra work, but I love it. Even without guests, I treat myself with cooking like this.
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u/Seiche 2h ago
My wife will put the pot on high heat and then start frantically chopping vegetables insisting it saves time but I don't care it's sooo stressful.
In the middle of it she will ask me to take over because she has to do something else and then come back and complain I did something wrong or forgot an ingredient that was in her head (but i also asked too many questions about wth we are cooking) and then take over again to finish the dish once the stressful part is over.
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u/LuNaTIcFrEAk 9h ago
I do this when I am preparing in advance. Have all the ingredients ready then when guests arrive it’s ready to go
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u/culb77 6h ago
It depends on what you’re making. Asian foods that call for 10 ingredients, it’s crucial to measure everything out in advance.
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u/CloudBuilder44 1h ago
No… they do not measure. Ever. Maybe for gen z noobs but OG asians never measures anything .
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u/SaintCharmed 55m ago
Washing your chicken. All that water and vinegar does nothing. The heat is what kills bacteria.
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u/saphalata 9h ago
Washing meat
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u/Ilovereefer 9h ago
You really only need to wash your meat if it’s properly beaten and you’ve already harvested the gravy…
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u/PopDukesBruh 9h ago
I squeeze my wife’s butt every time she walks by
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u/sparklyjesus 8h ago
I love squeezing her butt!
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u/flippindiscs 8h ago
This is the first valid response I’ve seen, and I’d argue it provides better focus and time management. It’s like a bump of coke.
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u/Jimehhhhhhh 8h ago
Searing a steak at volcanic temperatures, refusing to flip it more than once and setting off the smoke alarms.
I admittedly used to do this but after changing to just using a sort of medium / medium high heat and flipping as much as needed, I realised that 'crust' was just burning the shit out of the outside and you could have a nice brown (with no black char) crust at a lower temperature and a more evenly cooked result by just flipping it as much as needed
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u/Griffoloveman 6h ago
I think people get confused and think you need to use outdoor grilling techniques every time. You need a good hot grill if you're grilling steak, but if you have it in a pan you are getting a good sear from the steak directly touching the metal and like you say, you don't have to have it too hot. Metal conducts heat way better than air. And if you want consistent grill marks you don't flip it a lot so you don't end up with random lines all over the place, but in a pan there's no reason not to flip it as often as need be.
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u/potatohats 4h ago
The directions always say "a screaming hot pan", which is very misleading.
For my stovetop, steak needs about a 6 out of 10 on the burner. The pan doesn't need to be glowing red like the instructions insinuate.
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u/bluepepper 49m ago
The revelation for me was when the butter I would put in the pan would evaporate. Like, I would put a slab of butter, wait for it to melt, then be left with a lot of smoke and nothing in the pan. That's when I learned that the hyperbolic temperature prescriptions were probably based on old, less potent hobs.
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u/StaticVoidMain2018 3h ago
Something that always confused me was all the online videos always say that the pan should be as hot as possible, but really that’s not always true.
If you’ve already had the steak in an oven/sous-vide then yes the pan needs to be super super hot to make sure it only adds crust without cooking any of the inside.
But if you’re just cooking the steak normally, you just need the pan to be medium high, with the difference being that you use the heaviest pan you have and let it heat up for a long time so that every piece of mass is saturated with heat, so when you put the steak on, the pan continues at the same heat and you can sear it slowly as you cook it through as desired
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u/SDV2023 9h ago
Peeling potatoes.
A lot of times they taste much more interesting with the skins on (but cleaned).
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u/PoliteIndecency 9h ago
Completely depends on what you're cooking. Texture and composition matter.
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u/illegal_deagle 8h ago
Pommes puree? Peeled. Mashed taters? Half assed peeled, tons of skins mixed in.
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u/KriegerHLS 8h ago
Indeed -- one example is, if you want to get the smooth texture of mash potatoes achieved by using a ricer, you have to peel them as the skins get stuck in the ricer. Less important with a hand masher.
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u/PoliteIndecency 8h ago
I'll dice roasted potatoes and hand mash them if I want the skin, but you have to use a really waxy potato for that to work.
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u/shizzstirer 7h ago
Agreed. A family member tried to “correct” me that I didn’t need to bother peeling the potatoes before ricing them and I had to explain that it took less time than constantly taking apart the ricer to remove the peels.
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u/ConflagWex 9h ago
I imagine this was necessary in times of yore. I've seen some potatoes that have very thick skin, which probably makes them more resilient when growing. But modern varieties have a thin skin that is less bitter and easier to chew.
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u/luluhouse7 2h ago
Yukon skins are fine but IMO russet skins are pretty unpleasant unless fried to a crisp
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u/WRose287 6h ago
I HATE the taste of potatoe skin's, but yes, it's completely safe, my grandparents did it a lot and a popular dish in my country uses them with skin
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u/Flimsy-Smell1094 9h ago
It depends baked cubed potatoes have skin. I detest lumpy mashed potatoes. The only good thing about leaving skin in mashed potatoes is it saves me disappointment from eating lumpy mashed potatoes
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u/Admirable_Listen7548 9h ago
peeling is just extra work for no reason, the skin got all the flavor and i'm too lazy for that anyway
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u/nipslippinjizzsippin 8h ago
the texture of skins in the mash is gnarly though. mmmm creamy with lumps
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u/Wibbles20 6h ago
Cooking things traditionally.
Like sure if that's how you like it go for it, but don't think that that's how it has to be cooked. The main reason an ingredient wasn't included is because that region might not have access to that spice/herb or one thing or another was too expensive, not because it doesn't go in it. Like put Chinese 5 spice in your bolognese sauce, or red wine in your fried rice if you that's what you enjoy the taste of.
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u/asuddenpie 3h ago
Also soy sauce and fish sauce go great in stews and tomato sauces.
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u/freakytapir 1h ago
Rinsing pasta after cooking it.
My mom does it, and it drives me mad.
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u/Active_Definition_57 25m ago
Does she cook it in water, drain off that water and then rinse it? That's bonkers!
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u/KingZaidu17 4h ago
Drizzling standard oil on a steak after it's done grilling. I'm talking about vegetable oils (canola, corn, soybean, etc). They add no flavor profile and just kind of ruin the texture of the steak imo
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u/Unlucky-Praline6865 2h ago
A nice compound butter is lovely! Also, surprisingly, a squeeze of lemon can really elevate a steak! Especially a fatty one.
(edit for punctuation)
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u/Canadient95 9h ago
Does cutting perfectly good fat off of meats like a good steak count? Or throwing away chicken skin, that stuff is delicious! Wastefulness serves no purpose
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u/Statman12 9h ago
Does cutting perfectly good fat off of meats like a good steak count?
That serves a purpose for me. I don't like the solid fat parts.
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u/2PlasticLobsters 8h ago
Same here, I find it revolting. Chicken skin too. I can't stand the texture of either one.
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u/Statman12 8h ago
Personally I don't mind chicken skin if it has gotten crispy. Though sometimes even then it all comes off in one piece, and I don't care for that.
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u/Blazedxx13 5h ago
At least cook with the fat still there, the flavor is so good. I also don't do the solid fat
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u/Legionof1 8h ago
Some you trim, some you remove, some you leave alone. You don’t want too big of fat caps and you definitely don’t want some of the connective tissue that hides underneath it. This is why your steaks curl up.
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u/nipslippinjizzsippin 8h ago
it does serve a purpose though, like a huge fat cap on a steak, while also unpleasant to eat will affect the way the steak is cooked.
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u/thetasteofink00 2h ago
Click the tongs a few times to make sure they're working.
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u/JascaDucato 20m ago
You've just explained the purpose - it makes sure that the tongs are working. It's a vital step.
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u/spag4spag 9h ago
Clicking the tongs
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u/fakeprofile21 6h ago
Once is useless. Gotta click them together at least twice.
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u/718hutfission 6h ago
Tongs need 3 clicks, a drill needs 2 revs.
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u/disturbedrailroader 4h ago
a drill needs 2 revs.
Per direction change. Otherwise you'll let the magic smoke out.
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u/718hutfission 4h ago
Yes. The direction change resets the state so each time that happens, the drill needs 2 revs.
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u/cathbadh 8h ago
If you don't text them, how can you possibly know they work? Pretty sure they don't let you be a dad if you don't click the tongs.
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u/4LostSoulsinaBowl 4h ago
If you don't click your tongs twice, you can't be sure if they'll properly tong when you need them to. And there's nothing worse than a pair of tongs that won't tong.
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u/ChicagFro 2h ago
You’ve clearly never heard the story of Tony. Tony was 15 years old and it was a beautiful summer day. His father fired up the grill and tossed a pack of hot dogs on when most of the coals were about 3/4s gray, as ya do. Tony had always loved grilled dogs and wanted to help his father. “Hey dad, is it cool if I watch the grill and flip the dogs for you?” He said.
Tony’s father was excited to see his son take an interest in grilling and said, “Sure son, don’t forget to click the tongs twice! Gotta make sure they work!”
Tony didn’t click the tongs. Later that same year Tony would try heroin for the first time. Snorting it at first. When that wasn’t enough, he started shooting up multiple times a day. Stealing from his family, prostituting himself out for cash, and scamming strangers.
His father received the news that Tony overdosed on a hot shot laced with fentanyl in a dirty alley after pawning a bunch of tongs he had stolen from Home Depot. When his father asked if Tony clicked the tongs twice the police officer sadly informed the father that preliminary reports indicated that Tony had not.
And that’s why you always click the tongs twice.
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u/Eaudebeau 9h ago edited 9h ago
Dance.
You have to do the dance, or it doesn’t work.
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u/MapledMoose 9h ago
Waiting for water to boil in the pot lol just boil it in the kettle first save time
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u/Itchy-Phase 8h ago
I agree that’s faster. At least here in the states most people don’t have electric kettles. Especially large enough ones to make the effort worth it.
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u/Raygunn13 9h ago
I try to ratio it out between the pot and the kettle so they boil at the same time.
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u/boowhitie 5h ago
I use both also. The kettle is full and the pot gets a small layer. The pot goes on the stove to heat up. If you get the amounts right they both boil at the same time, but the main reason for the water is for keeping the pot from getting too hot.
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u/Raygunn13 5h ago
yep and that way even if the pot water has been boiling a bit longer, you've eliminated the lag of waiting for the pot to heat up after pouring the boiling kettle water in
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u/Delcasa 5h ago
Get a better stove top:) my induction is definitely faster than a kettle
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u/Raygunn13 9h ago
salting the water makes it boil faster, but the effect is extremely negligible. You'd have to have levels beyond ocean saltiness for it to make an appreciable difference in time to boil.
It can, however, make your food taste better and I think that's a valid reason to salt your water.
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u/TheTipJar 7h ago
It doesn't make the water boil faster. It increases the boiling point, but not by much.
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u/Raygunn13 5h ago
ah, you're right. So if anything it's negligibly slower.
Apparently it also increases the rate at which water heats up, but this doesn't win out over the increased boiling point until cooking levels are far surpassed.
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u/xgeska 7h ago
You're right about time being negligible in the end and taste being a better reason for salt.
Adding salt raises the boiling temperature of the water though, meaning it needs to be hotter before it boils, higher cooking temperature before boiling, and could mean more time to boil.
It's the same reason salt can be added to ice water to cool things faster. It also lowers the freezing point, allowing the liquid water to be colder than normal water before freezing.
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u/Standard-Elk-2943 9h ago
Throwing away onion skin, it makes for the best stock ingredient in terms of flavour and nutrients.
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u/rabbitluckj 9h ago
Wherever i buy onions a good about will have mildew or mold on and under the skin so I'm very wary of putting onion skin in my cooking
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u/IrrelevantPuppy 8h ago
Like the papery part? There’s flavor in that?
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u/Scavgraphics 1h ago
Some, but it also is what turns chicken stock into deep gold rather than pale.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mediocre-Proposal686 9h ago
Oh my gosh it was drilled into me as a kid to clean as I go. I don’t want to return to a mess after I’ve eaten. I just can’t do it lol
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u/owenbowen04 5h ago
Controversial: bay leaves
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u/Spirit_Halalween 3h ago
Oh man. Okay, so for years I dated a man who was totally blind (I'm sighted). When we moved in together, I was helping him redo the Braille labels on his spice jars, and we were talking about which ones to keep vs repurpose and relabel.
Bay leaves entered the conversation. I was of the opinion that we should keep them because a lot of recipes use them, he was adamant that they made literally no difference to any recipe he'd ever tried.
...well, his spice jars were all the kind with a little removable plastic shaker lid with holes in it between the spice and the metal lid. Come to find out, this gentleman had for years been dutifully shaking the jar of WHOLE BAY LEAVES over various boiling pots, then wondering why it didn't make a difference to the flavor -- he (understandably) thought it was a crushed/powdered leaf like most spices. We definitely got a good laugh out of that one, and he was like, "I always wondered how on earth I was supposed to remove a spice I'd added at the end of cooking..."
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u/Seiche 2h ago
So when he started cooking with them correctly did he notice a difference?
Coming from a blind person I imagine would settle this argument for good
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u/HigherominousBosh 3h ago
I used to feel this way, but in specific examples I think they work really well. Namely, cooking lentils.
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u/ZorroMeansFox 6h ago
I like the story that Forrest Valkai has told:
A woman thinks her mom makes the world's greatest pot roast, and learns from her exactly how to recreate this dish. But one aspect of the preparation always baffled her: Why did her mom always cut two inches off the right side of the pot roast before cooking it?
So she asked her mom who told her: "I always did that because my mom always cut off those two inches before cooking it. I don't really know why."
So the young woman asked her grandmother why she did this, and her grandma said "When I learned the recipe from my sister, this is something that she always did. But she never explained her reason."
So the next time the young woman saw her Great-Aunt she asked for an explanation and finally learned it: "We didn't have a big enough pot."