Can I Eat Mouldy Bread? And More Of Your Culinary Questions Answered

Why are you so obsessed with orzo?

Is Ben single?

How can I get a job as an official MOB taste tester?

Those are just a few of the questions we get asked on a daily basis here at MOB Kitchen. Although the answers to those questions (because it’s delicious; no; and sorry you can’t, that’s not a job) are rather straightforward, there’s a lot of frequently asked queries we get which we thought we’d take the time to provide you with more thorough answers to. The most common culinary questions that you want to be answered.

Do make sure to take a lot of these answers with a pinch of salt as, when it boils down to it, there’s rarely a single right or wrong answer when it comes to cooking. These are just the most sensible responses we can think of to help you out with some of your most sensible questions.

We hope that these will help solve any culinary questions you might have and – if you’ve still got any questions you want to be answered – make sure to get in touch so we can work on answering those in the future.

Without further ado, here are the answers to some of your most frequently asked cooking questions.

Cut off any visible mould and you should be fine. Unless, of course, your sourdough is looking as blue and fuzzy as the Cookie Monster in which case you’re probably best just chucking it out altogether and buying a new loaf.

I mean, technically you can. But should you? Probably not. Pre-minced garlic that you get in a jar can be lovely when used correctly but it’s got a totally different flavour profile to freshly minced garlic due to all the different ingredients that go into the jar. If you’re really pushed for time, just grate your garlic cloves using a microplane instead. It’s a quick and easy way of getting your garlic to a nice, fine consistency. No jars necessary.

Yep! Fresh vegetables are obviously brilliant but a lot of frozen vegetables are just as good as fresh and can help you reduce your food waste. I’d even be willing to die on the hill that frozen peas are miles better than fresh peas. Frozen broccoli, though, can be a bit hit or miss.

Why not? Your eggs will stay fresher for much longer in the fridge so we’d recommend storing them there unless you’re really pushed for space. Don’t sweat it if you haven’t got enough room, however, as it’s not like they’ll instantly go off in a cupboard. Store them in a cool, dry place and you should be hunky-dory.

Aside from wearing goggles which, let’s face it, isn’t practical or chic, there’s not a huge amount you can do to stop yourself from getting a little teary-eyed when chopping up your alliums. There’s a lot of different myths about preventative measures you can take but, from personal experience, the best thing to do is to make sure you’re always cutting your onions with a really, really sharp knife. Even then, you might still get a tad emotional.

I was a little thrown off by this at first because this question seems to suggest that there is such a thing as too much salt. Which there most certainly is not. Okay, I’m just pulling your leg. There definitely is such a thing as too much salt – we’re just really big fans of the stuff here at MOB Kitchen. The bad news is that it’s pretty hard to remove salt from a dish once you’ve done the damage. One way you can, nonetheless, try to minimise the overly salty flavour of your food is by adding an acid to your dish. Vinegar or lemon juice tend to work quite well at balancing against salt so, depending on what dish you're making, it might be worth adding those in to counteract it slightly. If you’ve over-salted a cake, however, you’re probably pretty screwed.

I’d honestly just get a rice cooker. They’re worth the investment if you eat a lot of rice and they’ll give you perfect rice each and every time. If you’re not interested in making that purchase, though, there are a few things you can do to ensure you nail your stovetop rice. Firstly, always rinse your rice before you cook it. This will remove all the excess starch and prevent it from getting gummy later on down the line; just keep rinsing it until it’s no longer making your pot all cloudy. In terms of how much water to use when cooking rice on the stovetop, one pretty foolproof method is to put your fingertip on top of your layer of dry rice in your saucepan and fill it with water up until your first knuckle. Just boil your rice as normal after that and you should be left with a lovely, fluffy consistency.

Yes, and no. While both red and white onions share a similar flavour profile, the most obvious difference between the two is that they’re not the same colour. Like, duh. That’s important because, whether we like it or not, we all tend to eat with our eyes. If you’re making a fresh salad or salsa for your tacos, for example, you’ll probably want to opt with a red onion to give it more of a pop. When it comes to something like a curry, however, either red or white will do the job. Basically, don’t stress if a recipe calls for red onions and you’ve only got white onions or vice versa. As long as it’s still an onion you’ll be grand.