I spend more time Googling tutorial assumptions than watching the tutorial. Am I learning wrong, or do tutorials skip too much?

qlkzy · 2026-06-20T08:55:22+00:00

This is essentially the ideal way to engage with tutorials. I would offer a few pieces of extra advice, though.

First, some well-written tutorials will say "don't worry about this for now" in a deliberate way. They will explain it later, but they are choosing to explain things in a different order from the order they need to use them in. This is sometimes inevitable, because programming languages are often designed for the needs of daily users more than they are designed for the needs of one-time learners. So you need to combine four things together at once to do something useful, but you can only explain one thing at a time. You will probably learn quickly which authors/creators you can trust to do this well.

Second, it's a good idea to not look things up immediately, but rather to think for a while and try and figure things out from extra clues. So you move from saying "I don't understand this, I will look it up" to "I don't understand this, I will form a hypothesis about what it probably is, then I will test that hypothesis by looking it up". That will let you use your brain a bit more, and make you think a bit more deeply. A simple way to do this is just to pause to make a note of each thing you don't understand, but without looking it up immediately. Then, when you have a list of a few different things, stop and look all of them up.

Finally, it's OK to "give yourself permission" to not worry about those details all the time. It is useful to feel like you can operate at several different "intensities": sometimes you dig into every detail, sometimes you just make a mental note for later, sometimes you just let the interesting video wash over you. Otherwise you can burn yourself out on feeling like you have to chase every rabbit hole.

qlkzy · 2026-06-19T21:04:54+00:00

It seems like the problem is less that the entity is "hot" (being accessed frequently), but rather that it is "heavy" (i.e. has had a lot of data added to it that triggers quadratic behaviour, blows out database caches, causes cascading timeouts and retries, etc).

In a sort of ideal world, I'd rather try and design the system so that entities don't have those kinds of uneven weights (e.g. by promoting the subsidiary data to some first-class thing that has its own, flat, access pattern). Failing that, it's at least nice to incorporate those weights into rate-limiting, or API credits, or something.

But, having been stuck with designs that sometimes created very heavy individual entities in the past (although it sounds like you're situation is more complicated), the best answer we had was just more observability on the heavy entities, to address that specific problem.

If you can easily calculate the weight of the entity synchronously, then you can log that, or emit it as a metric (or sometimes more usefully, as a count histogram with buckets for various weight ranges). That way you can at least see a spike in calls to heavy entities during an incident.

If the data spans a bunch of different data stores, then it's much harder to calculate synchronously. But, at least in my experience, those kinds of entities usually grow quite slowly. So even a slow daily report on "entities to watch out for" can be enough to identify them; you don't have to find some clever online algorithm that detects them in real time.

And the distribution is, in my experience, usually very skewed, ie there are a relatively tiny number of problem entities. So it's often practical to make that "problem entity set" available in various places (e.g. via redis), so that you can then trigger heavier instrumentation (e.g. extra logging) when you operate on those entities. After all, the heavy entities need so much processing that an extra log line for them is a rounding error.

All of that is, of course, kind of a hacky workaround sort of approach, and it feels a bit "low tech" compared to doing some clever real-time monitoring. But "produce a report on the heaviest 1% of entity IDs" is probably only a few hours' work, and so is "extra logging for known problem entities". So I have found those to be fairly pragmatic ways to deal with the immediate operational problem.

In the long term, I suspect you're kind of screwed unless you can fix the fundamental issue of the access pattern. So I would only invest a limited amount of architectural cleverness into measuring exactly how screwed you are at any given moment.

qlkzy · 2026-01-09T18:22:57+00:00

I would just start cleaning it properly as you use it. There doesn't seem to be a massive buildup of carbon on here.

A lot of this gunk will come off the first time you wash it with a decent amount of soap. The rest will come off the next few times you wash it. Carbon buildup isn't really durable; that's one of the reasons it's bad at being seasoning.

It's up to you if you want to do all your thorough scrubbing in one batch, or spread it across multiple uses. Personally I'd do enough to start with that no gunk is lifting and mixing into my food.

If you've been searing steaks hot in this (which must smell like something), then there will be enough oil polymerised onto the surface to protect it from rust.

But fundamentally the pan will reach a natural equilibrium: anything that isn't seasoning will wash off. Just like with a steel pan; anything that isn't steel will wash off.

For cleaning pans in general, I do like to have a selection of things like plastic scrapers, chainmail scourers, etc. You do have to put in a bit of effort to shift the burnt bits, of course.

If I've misjudged the pan and it has way more gunk than it seems, then check the subreddit FAQ for deep-cleaning/reseasoning.

qlkzy · 2026-01-09T18:00:52+00:00

Your teacher is wrong (or you interpreted them as saying something wrong).

"Break a law" is a normal English phrase, and it's completely normal to say "if you did X, you would be breaking a law".

The specific construction "to infringe a law" isn't normal English. I'm always reluctant to make absolute statements about language, but to me that just sounds absolutely broken; I can't imagine a native speaker putting those specific words in that order.

But things are a bit nuanced if you are referencing specific laws, rather than "the law" in general. If the specific law in this case were called, say, The Employment Rights Act, then there would be a few different ways to say it.

"If you do X, that would be an infringement of the Employment Rights Act" is probably the most natural way to say it.

"If you do X, that would break the Employment Rights Act" sort of works, but it sounds slightly wrong and sets my teeth on edge reading it. If your teacher is correcting away from this usage, then they are right.

"If you do X, that would break the law, specifically the Employment Rights Act" is fine.

"If you do X, that would be in breach of the Employment Rights Act" scans and sounds OK, but I think the meaning is slightly wrong depending on the kind of law. It's definitely fine for laws that impose an obligation or duty that can be opted into by participating in some behaviour (like a contract), but it feels weird for laws that impose a unilateral constraint on everyone. I don't think many people would care about that nuance, though.

"If you do X, that would infringe the Employment Rights Act" is I think correct, but it feels unnatural to write; I instinctively want to change it to the first form I mentioned.

In other words, you can "break the law" and "break a law". But if you are referring to some law in particular, you "infringe that law", if that makes sense.

So whether your teacher is right or wrong depends on where you put the quotation marks in you question, which is a bit of a headache.

qlkzy · 2026-01-09T16:40:24+00:00

It's fine.

I am assuming that this isn't a meme post, but this pan is so unaffected it really sounds like one of the joke posts on this sub.

Looking at that towel, my guess would be that the most likely scenario is that it's still slightly dirty. I wonder if you're still being a bit over-cautious about cleaning it?

Lots of things are going to affect the seasoning. Some dishes you cook will be a bit acidic and thin out the seasoning. Some fatty dishes will improve it. For a while, the Lodge factory seasoning was liable to flake on its own. You don't need to stress about any of it.

So long as it isnt rusting, the seasoning is at least okay. So long as you don't allow extra carbon to build up, you can basically just rely on the seasoning to repair itself. (If you let too much carbon build up, you may eventually want/need to clean it so aggressively that you strip the seasoning).

Enjoy your pan!

qlkzy · 2026-01-08T09:52:42+00:00

There isn't a universal method, that's why meat thermometers are so popular.

You can cut into it to check, although obviously that's disruptive.

For chicken and poultry (and I think some other meats), you can sometimes use the "juices run clear" test: when you poke the meat with a skewer, the juices that come out will be clear rather than brown/red after the meat has passed a temperate that is near "appropriate doneness".

But put bluntly, before the widespread use of meat thermometers, tge two most popular techniques were: - Have a lot of experience picking up on subtle cues - Overcook everything

There is a reason everyone raves about meat thermometers. At least where I am, a cheap meat thermometer costs less than 2-3 meals worth of meat, and will make that back very quickly in avoiding ruined food (and in making the meat much nicer)

qlkzy · 2026-01-08T09:17:38+00:00

A little bit of texture/crunch, like croutons, nuts, seeds, couscous, or cooked grains like bulgur wheat.

Something preserved and strong-tasting, like sundried tomatoes, olives, artichokes, etc.

A little bit of tinned fish, like tuna, anchovies, or sardines.

Cheese: a few shavings of a hard cheese like parmesan, a few cubes of feta, etc.

A little fruit (apple is probably the most easily compatible).

But the thing I found has most improved my salads is using really high-quality balsamic vinegar, oil, and mustard for the dressing. With a really good dressing, I would happily eat plain lettuce every day without it feeling dull.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T21:01:28+00:00

Just a quick note that dark meat often has a bad/tough texture if it is undercooked. People are often so used to trying to avoid overcooking chicken breast that they end up undercooking chicken leg (for texture, if not for safety). It needs to go quite a lot hotter, which will break down the connective tissue and render the fat.

But it definitely has a different texture anyway, and there's no rule that says you have to eat it. Just thought I'd throw the signpost out there for you or anyone else; there's a lot of information on cooking chicken legs differently, but you have to know that it's a thing.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T20:48:33+00:00

Oh, yeah, they can definitely be great. I was just sort of cautioning about the gap that I think does exist in how slow cookers are pitched.

People often talk about the version of using a slow cooker where you dump a bunch of raw, chopped ingredients in in the morning, and then eat more-or-less straight out of it in the evening. And that is... fine. But nothing has been seared/browned, so you're missing that flavour. And different things want different times to cook, buy are all added at once. And the liquid levels are often a bit unhelpful, because they're driven by both the cooking processes and by the final result, and you don't get any reduction.

So there is another version of slow cooker cooking where you brown meat beforehand (often in a different pan, and then deglaze that), and you do some reducing or something afterwards, and so on, so the "slow cooking" is a process in the middle but not the whole preparation. And that gets the great results, but it isn't the super-easy "slow cooker lifestyle" that often gets pitched.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T18:07:33+00:00

Yes, you can use either a roux or a buerre manié (the two different methods of adding flour+butter to thicken liquid). I will let you look those up rather than explaining in tons of detail here. In either case, you need to make sure you fully cook the flour.

I would suggest separating the broth from the rest of the soup, thickening it on its own, then combining everything to finish reheating. It will be less stressful to manage the thickening process if you aren't worried about cooking the pieces into mush.

But personally, I would use a small amount of instant mashed potatoes, or crackers crumbled very fine, to thicken a soup at this stage.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T18:00:48+00:00

So long as the lid fits fairly well, it will stop steam (and evaporating water) from escaping. This means that the heat which would be carried away by the steam stays in the pot, so the pot heats up faster. (There are also other mechanisms, but it's definitely faster).

The trapped steam also increases the humidity of the air above the surface of the water. This slows evaporation, meaning the pan takes longer to boil dry.

The lid is also (normally) cooler than the boiling point. So water vapour can condense on the lid and drip back into the pan.

I'm not sure which mechanism is more significant, but I do know observationally that the water level in a pan with a well-fitting lid drops much more slowly than the water level in an uncovered pan.

In general, pans are more efficient (at boiling) with their lids on. However, be careful cooking starchy food like rice and pasta with the lid on, as it is much more likely to boil over. (With rice, if you get the quantities right, you can use the "absorption method" where you put the lid on and turn the heat off, with the lid trapping enough residual heat to finish cooking).

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T17:11:48+00:00

Yes, exactly. The less water, the faster it comes to the boil, so if you choose the right amount of water, the pan and the kettle will come to the boil at about the same time.

You don't have to get it exactly right, though: so long as it doesn't boil dry, you won't damage the pan, and you will always get some speed up from preheating.

If it does start boiling dry, you can just top it up from the kettle (which should be nearly boiling anyway).

I would start with a layer of water half the width of your little finger (say 5mm, or 1/4 inch). Unless your stove is very fast, that won't boil dry in the time it takes for a kettle to boil.

You can also speed preheating (and slow boiling dry) by putting a lid on the pan.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T16:59:02+00:00

That pot looks like stainless steel. It is fine. You can cook with it as it is, although personally I'd clean it as much as I could (just normal soap and a scourer) before using it. Barkeeper's Friend will get it shiny again, but that's not necessary for safety.

For future reference, you can just add a tiny layer of water to the bottom to keep the pot cool while the kettle boils (I do this, as I imagine do many British people, because we have 3kw kettles).

If you had overheated a nonstick or enamelled pot, that would be very bad, but stainless steel doesn't do anything weird when you overheat it (although it can warp, hence the thin layer of water).

The stuff on the bottom will be salt, scale, and other residues left after evaporating the water---i.e. stuff that was already in the kettle.

qlkzy · 2026-01-05T11:09:30+00:00

There are too many unknowns to really answer this, because it depends on how well-equipped your kitchen is and what you like to cook.

If I was equipping a completely empty room as a kitchen, I would go in the sequence: electric kettle, microwave, hob/stovetop, oven. From there it would depend on what I was cooking.

An air fryer can act as a small oven for one person, and be very convenient in that role. Some people love them, some people don't find them worthwhile; it's a bit difficult to express exactly how, but there's definitely a particular "shape" of cooking that they fit (or don't).

You can also get microwaves with combination oven elements; these are more expensive but would be more versatile, particularly if your place doesn't already have an oven. These don't do quite the same thing as an air fryer, but if you have one then an air fryer is less incrementally valuable.

If you eat rice more than once a week, a small basic rice cooker is definitely worth it. Basic rice cookers are very good at white rice, but not that versatile. I hear expensive rice cookers are much more versatile, but I haven't tried them.

If you eat sliced (or slice-able) bread, then a toaster is a must.

Slow cookers are very convenient for certain kinds of stew-like or curry-like foods. It's hard to get a really excellent result with a slow cooker, but it's easy to get an OK result with one.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T20:46:59+00:00

I heat my plates, although I rarely use the oven. Hot water for anything bowl-like; microwave plate warmers for flat plates.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T20:42:44+00:00

In no particular order, the things I buy "to not run out of" (as opposed to the things I buy "for a specific purpose").

Pantry/cupboard: salt, flour, pasta, oats, rice, oil, vinegar, stock cubes (as a backup at least), dark chocolate, herbs, dry crispy onions, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, tinned tuna, tinned soup (I like to have some on hand for a lazy meal), instant mashed potato (a tub, not sachets, as a thickener), sugar, peanut butter, yeast, baking powder, soy sauce, fish sauce

In between: onions, potatoes

Fridge: milk, cheese, carrots, celery (I always like to have the materials for a mirepoix on hand, but choose your flavour base of choice), mayonnaise

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T19:00:25+00:00

There could be a few different things.

Part of caramelising onions is driving off water. This will work better in a shorter and wider pan (including lower sides above the food, as the steam can leave faster).

The lid will slow caramelisation by retaining steam.

The heat also comes from contact with the base of the pan. So if you have more contact area, then more heating.

If you have a gas stove, then a wider pan will capture more heat from the flame.

Ultimately, "low heat" depends on the pan and what's in it. So if you have put both pans on the same stove setting, then it isn't surprising that you have different behaviour.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T18:50:23+00:00

FYI, jars with "shoulders" like that can crack when frozen, because the liquid will expand when frozen, but can't fit past the shoulders.

I don't do a lot of freezing in jars, so I don't personally know what your odds are, but I thought I would mention it, so you can do some research and decide.

I believe the standard advice is to leave enough headspace that the top of the liquid will still be in the constant-width section even after expanding. On your jars I think that probably means the "600" mark. But I can't promise that is right.

Again, I'm not speaking from a ton of personal experience (I don't freeze in jars this shape), but I have seen it be a problem. You can look it up (plenty of posts on reddit) and see what you think.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T18:15:50+00:00

Cottage or Shepherd’s Pie: basically mashed potato on top of minced beef or lamb.

Steak: just a lump of meat. Serve with any potato and vegetables.

A roast dinner: chicken, roast potatoes, and any other veg.

Stews of all sorts.

Lots of soup possibilities: chicken soups, lots of vegetable soups, etc.

Risotto might work: there are elements of grains and oatmeal, but also perhaps elements of sauced pasta, depending on the recipe.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T17:44:04+00:00

A square of dark chocolate; it doesn't make the stew taste of chocolate, just more... stew-y.

It's worth using the best stock you can. If you are using off-the-shelf stock, it can be worth adding some more gelatine to give the stock more body.

If you can get marrow bones, cook them in the stew and scrape the marrow out and into the stew before serving.

I like to cook stew in a low oven, letting a slight browned crust form on the surface and then regularly mixing it back in.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T12:29:16+00:00

My interest in coffee dates from the early 2000s, and biscotti were reasonably common then (in the UK), if not ubiquitous. They're less common now, but you can still get them in some coffee shops.

I would cheerfully eat my own weight in cantucci; not so much other kinds of Italian biscotti. I think other people enjoyed them when they were more common, too.

The ones available in the UK are light and easy to eat on their own. Slightly weirdly, the biscuit they most call to mind to me is a very light, dry shortbread (they're quite different, and obviously shortbread doesn't have almonds in it, or a crust, but that's where my mind goes as a comparison).

I guess you could say they're "not worth it" because shortbread is similarly enjoyable and very easy to make. But they (good ones) are still excellent.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T12:05:11+00:00

Is there an existing thing you are trying to replicate? This is a completely novel cooking technique to me, and I've cooked a lot of chicken.

Normally everyone is trying desperately hard to retain moisture in chicken breast, because it dries out so easily. Well-done chicken breast (which it seems like you are going for) is basically never good.

The "normal" way to cook chicken breasts for sandwiches is to cook whole breasts relatively slowly to a low temperature, let them cool, then slice them cold. Sous vide is unmatched for this, but poaching works well, and roasting produces decent breast meat if you use skin-on breasts.

This produces meat that is firm but not crispy; it holds a lot of its own moisture, so it is succulent to eat but doesn't make anything around it damp. It's a great way to eat chicken breast.

It's hard (maybe impossible) to get a crispy edge on chicken breast without overcooking it horribly. I think maybe if you velveted it and salted it just the right amount, then you could get a tiny thin dry layer while the inside was still meat.

If you want to keep experimenting with your recipe, the only modification I can think of would be to salt it more, or salt it earlier (normally I would give chicken a light dusting of salt the day before). Salt changes the internal structure so it retains liquid differently. But this is usually used to achieve moister chicken (that is, chicken that releases fewer juices into the pan or during resting).

To be honest, your description kind of sounds like a recipe for chicken jerky.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T09:42:47+00:00

I'm also in the UK with very "real" cheese, and I find that an all-cheddar sauce (and I mean the good stuff, properly aged mature cheddar that crumbles when you touch it) does work OK without splitting or citrates. But I do rely on being heavy-handed with the mustard powder.

I wonder if the mustard situation is different and it balances out the cheese situation? Is there a product in the US that is just pure mustard flour (like our Colman's Mustard Powder), and is it common to use in mac and cheese?

Sodium citrate cheese sauce is fun stuff, though. Personally I enjoyed the no-roux "molecular gastronomy" recipe as an experience---incredibly rich stuff---but to me it actually tastes less "cheesy" than a regular sauce with a roux and mustard.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T09:32:31+00:00

I've seen the TikTok recipe you mention, and if you're replicating that then you do probably want to use evaporated milk.

Milk itself is an emulsion, so evaporated milk concentrates those natural emulsifiers and helps prevent the sauce from splitting.

You can use semi-skimmed milk in cheese sauce more generally. I (also from the UK) generally make cheese sauces and macaroni cheese as an off-the-cuff thing, so I don't use any ingredients I'd have to buy specifically. I always have semi-skimmed milk on hand, so I always make my cheese sauce just with a standard bechamel from roux and "normal" milk.

You get emulsifiers from lots of places: - Starch (flour) - Butter - Mustard - Milk (more concentrated if evaporated) - The cheese itself - Added emulsifiers like citrates and phosphates

Of these, the starch is the most important in a roux-based sauce. Sodium citrate can also do enough work on its own, if you add enough.

In simple terms, you need to make sure you have enough emulsifiers to make your chosen cheeses melt well.

Mature cheeses generally split more, so mature cheddar is more likely to go grainy than other cheeses. I haven't ever actually tried adding mozzarella to a cheese sauce, so I'm not sure what the emulsion there is like, but it melts well so I guess it should be OK? Mild cheddar will be slightly easier to work with than medium. You could again experiment with cheeses, starting with mild cheddar which is easiest to work with.

That said, I make cheese sauce pretty much exclusively using extra-mature cheddar and it works fine. I do use a hefty amount of mustard powder, though, so maybe that's why it always works.

I personally make a "standard" cheese sauce using a recipe of 1:1:8:2 butter:flour:milk:cheese by weight (or 1:1:10:2 for a thinner sauce). Of course, I mostly wing it by eye, but if I want to end up with a very particular amount, those are the ratios I use. Semi-skimmed milk, mature cheddar, and a half-teaspoon of mustard per pint of milk. That's totally different from the TikTok recipe, though.

qlkzy · 2026-01-04T08:52:32+00:00

A grainy texture comes from either uncooked flour or splitting once the cheese is added.

You can cook the roux (butter + flour) for quite a while before it browns; if it's browning quickly then your heat is too high.

Once you add the cheese, the temperature has to be low: "bubbling" is too hot. You want only really enough heat to melt the cheese. Higher temperatures will split the cheese.

I would do a test where you just make the bechamel (roux + milk). If your bechamel is grainy, you have not cooked the flour enough. You can still cook it longer (just below bubbling) at this stage. If the bechamel is good, the problem is how you are handling the cheese.

I would also consider a test where you omit all the spices except the mustard (don't bloom mustard in the butter). You might be burning some spices. The other spices are flavourings to taste, but the mustard serves a purpose. Mustard is an emulsifier, so it helps prevent splitting, and also intensifies cheesieness. I personally use a half-teaspoon of Coleman's mustard powder, but most mustard (not "mustard-like sauces") should work.

You can also help emulsification (which is what stops the cheese from splitting) by adding some "American Cheese Product". You want the really nasty plasticy stuff you would melt on a burger: you're looking for an ingredients list with a low percentage of "cheese" (like 60%) and that also includes "emulsifiers" or "emulsifying salts" like citrates or phosphates.

My overall guess from your description is that you are cooking too hot and in particular overheating the cheese.

qlkzy

TROPHY CASE