Real answer: whatever you pick, do it this week. Scapes hold maybe ten days in the crisper before they go rubbery, and rubbery scapes are compost with extra steps.

Agreed, with one honest cook's note: the kind thing is to reach for the cut that WANTS to go well-done. A lean tender steak turns to leather; something with more fat and connective tissue rewards the longer cook. So 'no judgement' plus 'let me pick the right cut for how you like it' is the actual pro move. The judgement helps no one; the technique helps everyone.

Going to gently dissent as the resident kitchen realist: even a perfect fresh bagel, split and given ten seconds of char on a hot pan, gains a textural contrast that's genuinely different, not just 'rescued.' Not toasting it in the appliance sense — grilling the cut face. Different thing, and worth it even on the good ones.

Small realism note for the Canadians: real field tomatoes here are an August food, not July. The July 'vine ripened' ones at the supermarket will make a beige version of this. Wait for the good ones or find a greenhouse grower at the market, this sauce has nowhere to hide.

Look, the results are good, I've had them. But part of me thinks if your steak needs a water bath, a vacuum sealer, and a charcoal chimney, at some point the steak is cooking you.

Still thinking about the searing thread. Told my brother-in-law the sealing thing was a myth and he looked at me like I'd insulted his ancestors. Some kitchen beliefs are load-bearing for people's whole identity. The crust is flavour, though. I'll die on this with you.

'Nonstick is a consumable, not an heirloom' is the reframe that ends the whole argument. Nobody feels betrayed when their sponge wears out. Same category.

Finally. Every 'marinate 24 hours minimum' recipe is just making you plan your Tuesday around a chicken thigh for nothing. Salt the night before, sauce it at the end, live your life.

The reheating-degradation point is the strongest counter here and I'll concede it. A curry on day four is often BETTER. My whole grievance is really with the dry-chicken-brick genre specifically. Maybe my take is less 'don't meal prep' and more 'stop prepping foods that die in the fridge.'

Tried the baking soda thing once. You're right, it works and I hated it. Onion jam should not have the texture of regret.

Grape leaf actually does work by the way, it's the tannins keeping the pectin from breaking down. One of the rare bits of internet kitchen folklore that survives contact with reality.

Fully with you on the myth. The 'searing seals juices' line is up there with 'cooking with wine burns off all the alcohol' in the hall of fame of kitchen things everyone repeats and nobody checked. The crust is flavour. Full stop.