Throughout kitchens worldwide, countless cooking “truths” get passed down like family heirlooms. Your grandmother swore by them, your mother repeated them, and you probably believed them too. Yet modern food science has exposed many of these cherished kitchen commandments as complete fiction.
From professional chefs to home cooking enthusiasts, we’ve all been guilty of perpetuating these culinary legends. Some seem so logical they must be true. Others feel so ingrained in cooking culture that questioning them feels almost blasphemous. The time has come to separate fact from fiction once and for all.
Searing Meat Seals in Juices
This myth sounds incredibly convincing. When you watch a steak sear in a hot pan, it seems obvious that the browning surface would lock those precious juices inside. Food science research shows that no such thing occurs. When you sear steak over high heat, the meat undergoes the Maillard reaction – browning the protein. The heat causes surface moisture to evaporate and results in a chemical change which creates intense aromas and flavors.
According to Harold McGee, food scientist extraordinaire and author of On Food and Cooking, searing meat actually forces it to lose moisture, making the meat less juicy. Searing does produce a delicious crust and creates texture, but the best way to seal in the juices is to rest your meat for five minutes before slicing. Sadly, no, nothing can stop those precious juices from being squeezed out when meat is cooking. Don’t get me wrong, searing meat is almost always a great idea, if not for a beautiful and appetizing appearance, then definitely for the flavors and aromas that come with the process, but some research shows a greater moisture loss after a high-heat sear.
The truth is that searing creates incredible flavor through the Maillard reaction, which produces hundreds of new aromatic compounds. This makes it absolutely worth doing for taste alone. Just don’t expect it to keep your steak juicy.
Wooden Cutting Boards Harbor More Bacteria Than Plastic
Health departments and food safety authorities have long pushed plastic cutting boards as the more sanitary option. This recommendation seemed logical since plastic appears non-porous and easier to sanitize. However, decades of research tell a dramatically different story.
Fewer bacteria were generally recovered from wooden blocks than from plastic blocks. Clean wood blocks rapidly absorbed all of the inoculum, after which the bacteria could not be recovered within 3 to 10 min. Studies have shown that bacteria like salmonella and listeria can live longer and multiple easier on plastic chopping boards, whereas the same bacteria get stuck in the small wood fibers of wooden chopping boards within minutes and die.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told us they had no scientific evidence to support their recommendation that plastic, rather than wooden cutting boards be used in home kitchens. Then and since, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Manual (official regulations) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 1999 Food Code (recommended regulations for restaurants and retail food sales in the various states of the U.S.) permit use of cutting boards made of maple or similar close-grained hardwood. This keeps the surface of the wood clean, and the bacteria remain trapped inside the board, where they eventually die.
Adding Oil to Pasta Water Prevents Sticking
Almost every home cook has heard this advice at some point. The logic seems sound: oil is slippery, so it should keep pasta from clumping together. Unfortunately, this popular kitchen wisdom completely ignores basic chemistry.
This theory, however, ignores a rather important lesson of chemistry which we have all certainly experimented at one time or another: oil and water do not mix. The reason for this is somewhat refined and basically has to do with the fact that oil molecules are non-polar, that is to say, they are not electrically charged, whilst water is polar. From a practical viewpoint, wherever there is water, oil will “escape”.
Even though oil does interrupt water’s surface tension, it can prevent the sauce from properly sticking to and coating pasta. While oil does coat the water’s surface, that means that when the pasta’s drained, it passes through the oily top layer. As Italian American chef Lidia Bastianich advised, never add oil to your pasta water. While some people believe it keeps pasta from sticking together, oil can clog the pasta’s starchy pores and make it slick, preventing sauce from sticking. And since oil is less dense than water, it doesn’t absorb. Instead, it rests as a slick layer atop the water, waiting to freshly coat the pasta as it’s poured out and drained.
Salt Makes Water Boil Faster
This myth has probably caused more kitchen impatience than any other cooking misconception. People add salt to their pasta water believing it will save precious minutes during dinner prep. The scientific reality is far more mundane.
It’s technically true that saltwater has a slightly higher boiling point than pure water, but the effect wouldn’t be noticeable until it was many times saltier than seawater. A second or maybe two worth of saved boiling time would come at the cost of too much salt for any sane recipe. As far as a human cook can discern, water with a little cooking salt added boils no faster than it would fresh out of the tap.
An old wives’ tale claims adding salt makes water boil faster. Technically, it’s true, but the effect is minimal. To lower the boiling point of one quart of water by one degree Fahrenheit, you would need to add three tablespoons of salt. And that’s way too much for the taste buds. The real reason to salt pasta water is flavor enhancement, not speed. Salt allows the pasta to absorb seasoning throughout its entire structure, not just on the surface.
Washing Cast Iron with Soap Ruins the Seasoning
Cast iron enthusiasts often treat their pans like sacred artifacts, refusing to let soap anywhere near them. This fear stems from historical context that no longer applies to modern dish soap formulations.
Two other myths debunked are using soap to clean a cast iron pan and how first browning your meat will seal in the juices. Cast iron skillets are more porous than those made with other metals. Over time, the oil used helps form a non-stick patina. The rule is from the days when nearly every kitchen had a cast iron pan and soap contained lye which would destroy the hard-earned patina. After cooking most foods, hot water and a gentle scrub will clean your cast iron. When cooking a steak or bacon, you might need a little bit of soap with your hot water and elbow grease – but never a metal scour pad.
As long as you’re not using scouring powder or drain cleaner, a little bit of soap won’t harm your cast-iron pan. Modern dish soaps are much gentler than their lye-based predecessors. A properly seasoned cast iron pan can handle mild soap without damage. The key is avoiding harsh abrasives and thoroughly drying the pan afterward.
Marinades Tenderize Meat Throughout
Countless recipes promise that acidic marinades will transform tough cuts into tender, flavorful masterpieces. The reality of how marinades actually work might surprise you.
Marinades are really common, especially for tough cuts of meat. But do the acidic components of the marinade really make the meat more tender? It’s true that acidic ingredients denature proteins (change their structure), but most marinades don’t actually penetrate deeper than the meat’s surface. The real reason to use a marinade is to flavor your food and help it retain moisture.
Marinades excel at surface flavoring and moisture retention. They create delicious crusts when grilled or seared. However, expecting them to tenderize a thick steak throughout is wishful thinking. For true tenderizing, mechanical methods like pounding or enzymatic marinades work better than acidic ones.
You Should Never Eat Oysters in Months Without an R
This old rule warned against eating oysters during summer months (May through August). The reasoning made perfect sense in pre-refrigeration days, but modern oyster farming has changed everything.
As for oysters, typically the colder months with the letter “r” (September through April) were the months when wild oysters were the best. During the summer months they are spawning and it is when they turn a bit “milky” and are not at their best. Now, with most oysters coming from cold water oyster farms in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, they are good nearly any time of the year.
Modern aquaculture allows oyster farmers to control breeding cycles and harvest conditions. Farm-raised oysters from cold waters maintain their quality year-round. While wild oysters still follow seasonal patterns, the vast majority of commercially available oysters come from farms where this ancient rule no longer applies.
Rinsing Pasta After Cooking Helps Sauce Stick Better
Many home cooks rinse their freshly cooked pasta in cold water, believing this helps prepare it for sauce. This practice actually works against achieving the perfect pasta-sauce marriage.
This popular belief is actually a misconception! Many people rinse their pasta in cold water post-cooking, thinking it helps the sauce adhere better. However, if you’re aiming for your pasta and sauce to blend seamlessly, skipping the cold-water rinse is key. Rinsing pasta removes some of the surface starch, which is crucial for helping the sauce cling to the pasta. Without this starchy layer, the pasta’s surface becomes too smooth, and the sauce may not adhere as well.
Don’t rinse pasta after draining it; that will also rinse away the surface starches that help other substances coat and stick to it. Those surface starches act like tiny hooks that grab onto sauce. Pasta should go directly from the pot to the sauce while still hot and slightly wet. The reserved pasta cooking water, rich in dissolved starch, can help bind everything together beautifully.
Green Potatoes Are Only Dangerous in the Green Parts
When potatoes turn green, many people simply peel away the affected areas and cook the rest. This seemingly logical approach misunderstands how potato toxins actually distribute themselves.
Green potatoes can be dangerous. If any part of one is green, peeling that part away can help, according to Healthline. But green only indicates the presence of a toxin called solanine. That toxin could be anywhere in the potato, so it’s always best to throw it out.
The green color results from chlorophyll production when potatoes are exposed to light. However, this same light exposure triggers solanine production throughout the entire potato, not just the green areas. Solanine causes digestive upset and, in large quantities, more serious symptoms. When you see green, the entire potato should go in the compost bin, not your cooking pot.
These cooking myths reveal how easily misinformation spreads through kitchens worldwide. Science continues debunking these cherished beliefs, yet they persist because they sound so reasonable. The next time someone shares kitchen wisdom that seems too convenient to be true, it probably is. What kitchen myth surprised you the most? Tell us in the comments.
