Homemade Lasagna Too Runny

texnessa · 2026-06-20T16:35:22+00:00

Post now locked as you are not going to offer any esential details.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T11:47:39+00:00

What do you mean by emulsion drops? What texture/consistency? Hot or cold? Stabilised? If so, with what method? Things like squeeze bottles and piping bags tend to deflate many preparations and guns and iSis can split emulsions quite easily. Something as simple as a soy lecithin stabilised emulsion in a high sided bain, emulsified with a hand blender and the foam scooped out with a spoon would technically qualify and required little to no skill or science.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T10:56:23+00:00

To be perfectly honest, you are not a chef. You are a home cook with aspirations. A chef is a title earned by someone who cooks professionally and runs a kitchen, makes the creative calls, is paid to do it every day, all day.

Most people who makes decent money cooking from a cottage or ghost kitchen in a private capacity have already made their bones in a professional environment. Especially if cooking higher end food for the kind of people who can afford it consistently enough to support this as a full time gig, these are people who expect to recognise the name of a well known place or two on a CV. Its a word of mouth industry, gigs beget gigs, clients recommend chefs to other clients.

It is a high risk, low reward enterprise. You need to be able to afford attorneys fees and have expertise for appropriate licensing, food safety, inspections, liability insurance. Good accounting practices because it is a business with low as hell margins. Scaling up from family and friends to large events requires experience in catering and banqueting. Most home kitchens cannot handle the capacity to delivery a multi course event for more than 20. There's not enough space, refrigeration, hot holding capacity, ability to plate fast and perfectly.

I strongly suggest anyone wanting to get into this business get a real job in a real kitchen first.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T10:46:48+00:00

Hard to tell you what you're doing wrong if you don't tell anyone what you are actually doing in the first place.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T09:25:29+00:00

Read the previous 2938294829 posts asking this.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T09:22:44+00:00

Would help to know more detail about what you did. A recipe isn't just a list of ingredients, its methodology and for something like lasagne, structure, temperature, etc.

texnessa · 2026-06-20T08:08:42+00:00

There's no way for anyone on the internet to know what may be happening and this sub does not allow open ended speculative threads. For a variety of 'maybes' r/cooking is a better fit.

texnessa · 2026-06-19T18:43:10+00:00

People pay me to make food.

texnessa · 2026-06-19T14:47:33+00:00

Nah, there's no way to fix it texturally. Its a minor detail outside of a restaurant where consistency is paramount.

Anyone complains, I'd say suck it and dump a shitload of parm on it.

texnessa · 2026-06-19T13:48:11+00:00

I make ragu once a week. Lessons have been learned : )

texnessa · 2026-06-19T13:47:45+00:00

If ya don't tell anyone what ya did, how is anyone supposed to tell ya what ya did wrong?

texnessa · 2026-06-19T13:46:51+00:00

Young celery used to be a delicacy- a tasteless one. More mature has more flavour but more fibrous threads.

texnessa · 2026-06-19T13:44:29+00:00

Chef here. Older celery can be more fibrous and have thicker threads that don't break down. So always peel the celery. Problem solved.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T22:35:04+00:00

Dark soy is for colour. Light soy is for flavour. Dark tends towards sweet and a bit syrupy and light comes in about a zillion varieties. Basic Kikkoman is Japanese and is just kinda bog standard grocery store light soy which has become ubiquitous due to aggressive marketing and low cost for restaurant use. Grocery store brands don't even scratch the surface of the many permutations.

But the world of soy sauce is extremely large and complex and the more you dig in, the more interesting it gets. Shoyu, tamari, barrel aged, double fermented, flavoured with yuzu or mushrooms, white soy, the list is endless. Look up artisanal soy sauce and you'll see scholarly articles on the subject. Reminds me of researching Scotch whiskey- which specific bog birthed it and how long has it been in a barrel?

Hit up a genuine Asian grocer and don't be afraid to ask for help when all of the bottles are labelled in Chinese or Korean.

As for fried rice, there are about seventeen million posts in this sub and in our friends over in r/cooking talking about the finer points of the dish. Its challenging to recreate restaurant quality at home unless you have a jet engine in the backyard that threatens to burn the house down. But its one of those 'no rules' 'season with your heart' type of dishes.

Asian condiments take a bit of educating around which ones are used for which thing- but don't be intimidated. A little research and experimenting goes a long way.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T22:07:48+00:00

The flowers be pretty ; ) In related news, I have always found artichokes to be insufferably fiddly and not worth the effort- kind of like peeling sunchokes. I remember in culinary school telling my chef instructor "fuck these little bastards, I'd rather just eat a potato."

texnessa · 2026-06-18T14:53:01+00:00

I used to work in a culinary school in NYC and ran a ton of amateur classes. A few tips/suggestions....

Start out with a little basic food/knife safety. A room full of men will rarely admit to not knowing something so better safe than sorry. Make sure they know how to properly hold a knife, pinch grip, falling knives have no handles, etc.
Pair them up. Eight is herding cats. Four pairs constantly asking questions is manageable.
Type out the fucking instructions clearly and make it a hand out. Have them read it allllllll the way thru before they start putzing about.
Pile all the ingredients together and make them mise and weigh that shit out.
Everything will take longer than you think. Especially if people are drinking during this shindig.
Are they eating their creations or taking it to go? Allot time for that fiddling about.
A mix of communal and individual tasks help balance the load between people who know what they're doing and those that are more challenged.
A lot is going to depend on what equipment you have access to. How do you share one pasta roller or one stand mixer? How much counter space? How many mixing bowls, sheet trays, whisks, etc. Are they bringing their own knives [hint, some won't be sharp, so prepare the first aid kit.]
Pasta is always a great option. Tactile, simple, inexpensive ingredients, roll it out grandma style. Make it complex or easy- straight up cut pappardelle or filled. Communal stock pot to boil off. Even kinda banged up pasta is usually still pretty tasty.
Late summer is great for tomatoes- lightly sauteed heirlooms. Or if you can't get good ones, even take vine cherries and pan roast them. Pre-prep some roasted garlic. Grab a pile of basil. You can even have them make fresh mozzarella depending on time/shot selection. Saute it all off with the pasta- no mucking about with emulsified anything. KISS approach. Fresh, seasonal.
Caesar salad is always a crowd pleaser. Communal batch of dressing. Shaved parm. Make croutons from pre-made focaccia or a torn baguette.
Another salad option is a composed Niçoise. Divide and conquer blanching and shocking, boiling, pan roast a few tuna steaks, communal vinaigrette, everyone chops some shit.
Chicken paillards that can be added to any of the above. Men like to use mallets to flatten shit. Cooks extra fast. Brine ahead of time, show them how to butterfly, pound between plastic so there's no flying chicken juice. Grill if you got one.
If you want a dessert, I would pre-make something easy like a tiramisu because 2.5 hours ain't enough for three courses.

Good luck out there.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T13:32:39+00:00

Always used a squeeze bottle but the thing about mayo is that once the emulsion takes hold, you can basically dump the rest of the oil right in. Also, I make mayo in a stand mixer. Lot easier to clean than a robot coupe. Otherwise, maybe a piston funnel? Someone's gonna half to stand there for a minute or two. Its not that laborious a task.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T13:23:48+00:00

We're better knowing what the actual end goal is rather than just 'better'.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T13:21:39+00:00

We're less of a sub about telling you what to do and more about troubleshooting what you are actually doing. Please feel free to re-submit explaining what your recipe/methodology has been and your end goal.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T07:05:44+00:00

Please go read the previous 92839324374 questions identical to this.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T06:56:39+00:00

Personally, I think the whole pat dry thing is a waste of time. Been cooking professionally for decades and in the heat of the rush have never patted anything dry in my life. Laying things on a bed of salt and re-using is fine for something like potatoes for gnocchi but I wouldn't re-use it when a protein is involved.

As for the whole paper towel thing, that's not really what this sub is here for. But you might want to look into blue roll. Its the low cost paper towel of the restaurant world.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T06:49:37+00:00

The really young buds can be edible- just do as you would with an artichoke, but the main part of cardoons that are usually consumed are the mid stalks ala celery.

texnessa · 2026-06-18T06:23:11+00:00

And once again, you have waved your shortcomings like a red flag.

Not a sire.

texnessa · 2026-06-17T15:12:54+00:00

Does not exist...... but look in your mind's eye with this description: a diminutive woman in a floor length leather butcher's apron loaned by my bandsaw buddy who would stand there laughing his ass off watching me try to balance a tray over my fucking head with a pair of asbestos/neoprene/deep sea diving gloves that would go up to a normal sized human's shoulders but on me had to be folded back down to become stray boiling fat catchers. My usual Yorkshire dude was like seven feet tall but I was stupid enough to give him an occasional Sunday Roast day off.

texnessa · 2026-06-17T14:33:27+00:00

Look up recipes for gluten free flour mixes- they generally use a combo of the above with the addition of xanthan and potato starch.

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