Fred Decker
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Articles by Fred Decker
Baking and cooking measurements every home chef should know, according to a trained chef
Baking And Cooking Measurements Every Home Chef Should Know, According To A Trained Chef Cooking and baking involve a lot of measuring. Baking borders on being an exact science, where an error in measurements can mean the difference between success and failure. Cooking is more forgiving, on the whole, though a recipe may not turn out as intended if you've played too fast and loose with your measurements.
13 best substitutes for dill, according to a chef
13 Best Substitutes For Dill, According To A Chef It's really hard to put flavors into words. That's why professional wine tasters have such a specialized vocabulary; it helps them communicate the taste of the wine in a way that others can understand. You don't need that kind of vocabulary to make substitutions with foods, but being able to put a finger on a few of the main flavors in a given ingredient certainly helps.
10 Cleaning Mistakes That Contaminate Cookware (and How To Correct Them)
10 Cleaning Mistakes That Contaminate Cookware (and How To Correct Them) Fred Decker Health | Updated: October 6, 2026 × Fred Decker is a trained chef and former restaurateur. Since closing his restaurants over a decade ago he has been a prolific freelance writer, publishing several thousand articles on dozens of high-volume websites including Taste Of Home, Hunker, Tasting Table, Week&, eHow, and GOBankingRates.
12 tips and tricks you need when shopping for quality salmon
12 Tips And Tricks You Need When Shopping For Quality Salmon When I was running my restaurants, I enjoyed a privilege that few other chefs could boast even here on Canada's seafood-centric East Coast. I was situated just a few miles from a highly-regarded aquaculture facility and could purchase from them directly. Twice a week, shortly after lunch, I would receive salmon that had been pulled from the water just a few hours earlier.
19 Foods a Chef Says You Should Always Freeze
19 Foods a Chef Says You Should Always Freeze Fred Decker Home | Updated: October 5, 2026 × Fred Decker is a trained chef and former restaurateur. Since closing his restaurants over a decade ago he has been a prolific freelance writer, publishing several thousand articles on dozens of high-volume websites including Taste Of Home, Hunker, Tasting Table, Week&, eHow, and GOBankingRates. He lives on a rural acreage shared with a big garden, chickens, rabbits, and grandkids.
12 Tips And Tricks You Need When Shopping For Quality Salmon
When I was running my restaurants, I enjoyed a privilege that few other chefs could boast even here on Canada's seafood-centric East Coast. I was situated just a few miles from a highly-regarded aquaculture facility and could purchase from them directly. Twice a week, shortly after lunch, I would receive salmon that had been pulled from the water just a few hours earlier.
9 Frequent Complaints About HexClad To Know Before Splurging
9 Frequent Complaints About HexClad To Know Before Splurging Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images Cooks have two broadly different strategies with non-stick cookware. One is to consider it disposable and pay accordingly. The other argues that if you avoid common non-stick mistakes, it's okay to pay a premium for higher-quality pans, and baby them to get your money's worth. One brand that fits the second strategy is HexClad.
9 Frequent Complaints About HexClad To Know Before Splurging
3 hours ago Cheap bottles have mostly meant bad, processed wines. The hope is that good wine from well-farmed grapes at a slightly higher price will fill a need. Kenny Likitprakong grew up around the wine business in Sonoma County. He started his own label, Hobo Wine Company, in 2004, just about when “Sideways” …
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are a great side dish, but garlic mashed potatoes are even better. Why? Because garlic's aromatic, pungent flavor enhances almost any savory food (I've had it in sweets too, but that's a stretch). The charm of mashed potatoes is their ability to play a supporting role with your favorite entrees and sauces, and adding garlic to the picture helps them do that even better. This garlic mashed potatoes recipe is rich and decadent and makes some of the best mashed potatoes you'll ever eat.
13 Myths About Baking, Debunked By An Expert
Human memory is funny — once a piece of information makes its way in there, it often sticks around way past its best-before date. That's the case with a lot of myths about baking. Over the last couple of decades, science-minded bakers have put a lot of traditional advice to the test, and very often it doesn't hold up. I've had a front-row seat to this process.
8 forgotten coffee brands of the '70s
"The past is a foreign country," as English novelist L.P. Hartley famously observed. That's true even in your own country; if you're over 30, you can probably name a few cultural touchstones of your childhood. Over time, even the highest-profile brands (been to a Blockbuster lately?) can fade away. If you were a coffee drinker in the '70s, for example, several brands you knew aren't around anymore.
8 Forgotten Coffee Brands Of The '70s
8 Forgotten Coffee Brands Of The '70s Archive Photos/Getty Images "The past is a foreign country," as English novelist L.P. Hartley famously observed. That's true even in your own country; if you're over 30, you can probably name a few cultural touchstones of your childhood. Over time, even the highest-profile brands (been to a Blockbuster lately?) can fade away. If you were a coffee drinker in the '70s, for example, several brands you knew aren't around anymore.
8 Forgotten Coffee Brands Of The '70s
"The past is a foreign country," as English novelist L.P. Hartley famously observed. That's true even in your own country; if you're over 30, you can probably name a few cultural touchstones of your childhood. Over time, even the highest-profile brands (been to a Blockbuster lately?) can fade away. If you were a coffee drinker in the '70s, for example, several brands you knew aren't around anymore.
8 Forgotten Coffee Brands Of The '70s
Fred Decker Mon, September 28, 2026 at 9:20 AM EDT 9 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Add Yahoo on Google Archive Photos/Getty Images Gold Shield coffee was a major player in the West Coast coffee market until the 1970s, when it was eventually phased out by Crescent Manufacturing and later acquired by McCormick's.
A Trained Chef Offers 11 Signs Your Frozen Steak Should Be Thrown Out
Fridges and freezers are commonplace now, so it's easy to forget that they were life-changing inventions. They made it possible for us to keep food safe for extended periods without smoking, drying, or salting it, and they've made fresh food a viable option all year round. Of course, just because food is in your fridge or freezer doesn't mean it will last forever. We've all had things go missing in the fridge or freezer and had to decide what to do with them afterward.
5 best ways to cook steak and 5 you should avoid
5 Best Ways To Cook Steak And 5 You Should Avoid Achieving an absolutely perfect steak requires a combination of knowledge and good technique. You'll need to know the different cuts of steak to buy, for example, and when to season your meat . Mostly, though, it comes down to how you cook your favorite cut.
5 Best Ways To Cook Steak And 5 You Should Avoid
Achieving an absolutely perfect steak requires a combination of knowledge and good technique. You'll need to know the different cuts of steak to buy, for example, and when to season your meat. Mostly, though, it comes down to how you cook your favorite cut. That's where things get confusing, because you'll find conflicting advice from chefs, online influencers, TV personalities, food-science writers, and just about every friend who gathers around your grill.
14 other foods you can cut with an egg slicer
14 Other Foods You Can Cut With An Egg Slicer If you watch chefs on television, you'll see that they talk a lot about how they source and use their ingredients. That's the fun part of the job, and it certainly helps sell the product. But as a trained chef and former restaurateur, I can tell you that running a kitchen is about more than the ingredients. Thinking about the equipment at your disposal, and how to get the most productivity from it, is also hugely important.
Everything You Need To Know About Strong Flour (And How To Use It)
I could make a real case that there's never been a better time to be an enthusiastic home cook or baker. Ingredients from all over the world are available to us in season and out, bookstore shelves are thick with cookbooks, and our web browsers and TV networks can provide us with an endless stream of food-related content, instruction, and inspirational programming.
14 Other Foods You Can Cut With An Egg Slicer
If you watch chefs on television, you'll see that they talk a lot about how they source and use their ingredients. That's the fun part of the job, and it certainly helps sell the product. But as a trained chef and former restaurateur, I can tell you that running a kitchen is about more than the ingredients. Thinking about the equipment at your disposal, and how to get the most productivity from it, is also hugely important.
15 Mistakes Everyone Makes That Are Damaging Vintage Kitchen Items
Collecting vintage kitchen stuff is fun. Depending on your interests, it can enhance your decor, become a really functional addition to your cooking or baking, or even be a profitable investment for future resale. Some cooks swear by antique knives and cookware, or a specific brand of toaster or waffle iron that outperforms their modern equivalent. If you have a period-specific home, or one with a still-intact vintage kitchen, filling it with well-selected pieces can really help it shine.
9 myths about pork that need to go away
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9 Myths About Pork That Need To Go Away
Pork doesn't really need to be talked up. It's already one of the most-loved and most-consumed foods, going toe-to-toe with chicken in worldwide popularity despite chickens being cheaper to raise (and the billions of people who don't eat pork for religious or personal reasons). That being said, pork often takes a back seat to beef in North America thanks to beef's flavor, personal taste, and cultural heritage. The image of cowboys driving massive herds is a tough one to shake, after all.
Restaurants' Secret Tricks: 30 Ways They Make You Spend More
The first one is likelier to sell and to command a higher price, despite it being essentially the same dish. The difference is largely in the language used to sell it, and that's what makes menu writing such an art form. As a rule, the more words a menu lavishes on a specific item, the more the restaurant wants you to buy it.
7 Things a Chef Never Orders at a Restaurant
Health 7 Things a Chef Never Orders at a Restaurant One question I get asked a lot, as a trained chef and former food safety instructor, is how to know which things to order at a restaurant and which to avoid. But a lot of the time, the honest answer is “it depends,” based on whether I think the restaurant can do it right.
10 Tips For Building A Countertop Garden In Your Kitchen
There's something about having green things growing in your home that feels nice and pleasant. This goes double for the kitchen, where houseplants can often take a back seat to a small but high-impact countertop garden. Of course, this is a really appealing idea to any frustrated gardeners without an outdoor space. Yet even for those who have a full-sized garden (like me), there's a lot to like about having edible plants right in your kitchen.
12 Tips You Need When Making Quiche
Quiche is one of those deceptively simple dishes that should be easy to get right, but somehow isn't quite. Far too often the crust is sodden, or the eggy filling is leathery and dry, or the add-ins overwhelm the texture of the quiche itself. I'm no stranger to quiche-making. It's one of my favorite light meals in summertime, and as a trained chef and restaurateur I've made plenty of them at home and in the line of work.
12 Cream-Based Sauces You Should Know, According To A Trained Chef
Culinary schools spend a lot of time teaching aspiring chefs about sauces, and with good reason. A sauce can be the detail that salvages a mediocre meal, makes a good one great, or a great one truly transcendent. Cream sauces hold an interesting position within the sprawling sauce category. They don't fit neatly into the old-school framework of "mother" sauces and their derivatives, because you'll find them in several branches of that structure.
BLT Pasta Salad
If there's one thing better than a classic BLT sandwich, it might be a BLT pasta salad. Take a bowl of this to your next potluck or backyard barbecue, and it'll be the most popular side dish on the table. Our BLT pasta salad recipe combines the key ingredients of bacon, lettuce and tomato with elbow macaroni and a zesty mayonnaise-based sauce. It couldn't be easier, and it's a sure-fire winner.
What Are Pineapple Tomatoes And How Do You Best Use Them?
Fruits and vegetables are available year-round now, thanks to modern supply chains, but summer still brings a few exceptional offerings with it. There's just no substitute for a juicy peach fresh from the tree, or a tomato ripe from the vine. Sadly, peaches won't grow where I live, but as a longtime gardener I really love growing heirloom tomato varieties. They aren't always pretty, but the best of them pack flavors and colors that you just can't get from a commercial supermarket tomato.
Boomers Can't Stand These Modern Kitchen Design Trends
Boomers Can't Stand These Modern Kitchen Design Trends Ergin Yalcin/Getty Images My sweetheart and I watch a lot of renovation shows: They're fun, they give us ideas for our own space, and some of the hosts are especially engaging (who could not love Erin and Ben?). But as a boomer and a retired chef, I'm super judgmental about kitchen design. It would be fair to argue that the generation who went big on sideburns, shag carpet, and harvest-gold appliances shouldn't cast stones, and fair enough.
Boomers Can't Stand These Modern Kitchen Design Trends
My sweetheart and I watch a lot of renovation shows: They're fun, they give us ideas for our own space, and some of the hosts are especially engaging (who could not love Erin and Ben?). But as a boomer and a retired chef, I'm super judgmental about kitchen design. It would be fair to argue that the generation who went big on sideburns, shag carpet, and harvest-gold appliances shouldn't cast stones, and fair enough.
You No Longer Need These 12 Kitchen Appliances In 2026 Original
You No Longer Need These 12 Kitchen Appliances In 2026 Starush/Getty Images We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Unless you're among the lucky few with a showcase kitchen (and perhaps even then!) you probably don't have enough space in your kitchen, especially on your counter, for everything you want or need. Adding space is the difficult fix to this problem. Working on your Pokémon attitude toward kitchen gadgets ("gotta catch 'em all!"), is more practical.
11 Hacks That Will Make Separating Eggs So Much Easier
For most of us, cooking and baking means that, sooner or later, we'll need to separate eggs. Maybe you want fluffier pancakes or restaurant-quality waffles. Maybe, you need yolks for a creme brûlée, or whites for a berry Pavlova. You can even delight your kids by separating the whites from the yolks, adding a bit of food coloring to the whites, and then recombining them in the pan once the whites are set (and for grownups, it's a way to nail perfect fried eggs).
Could Your Kitchen Cleaning Habits Be Making You Sick?
Health Could Your Kitchen Cleaning Habits Be Making You Sick? When it comes to avoiding foodborne illnesses, food safety is important, but it’s only part of the picture — you also need a safe place to prepare your food. The unfortunate truth is that even if you pride yourself on keeping a clean kitchen, you still may be inadvertently letting bacteria thrive. Here are the issues I see most often as a former chef and food safety trainer.
9 Cheap Fish You Should Avoid Buying At All Costs
There's a lot to like about fish. It's tasty and versatile, many varieties offer high-quality lean protein, and even fatty fish provide healthy omega-3 fatty acids instead of the saturated fats found in red meats. That's why the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest having fish (or seafood) twice a week. Of course, that simple description of "fish" covers a lot of territory. Some are cheap, while some command a hefty price.
15 Ways To Make Canned Sauerkraut Taste Better
Fermented foods are having a moment with enthusiasts plunging into the intricacies of fermented versus pickled foods and exchanging dinner table chit-chat about probiotics and the microbiome. Sauerkraut has benefited from that renewed interest, and in fact, you should start eating more sauerkraut for its potential nutritional benefits. Fermenting sauerkraut at home is the ideal way to do that, but many of us aren't keen on having crocks of fermenting cabbage taking up realty space.
10 Common Mistakes Everyone Makes Using Electric Cooktops
10 Common Mistakes Everyone Makes Using Electric Cooktops Khosro/Shutterstock If you love renovation shows or home design magazines, you know that almost every showpiece kitchen revolves around an oversized, professional-looking gas stove. There's lots to like about gas stoves (even the ordinary, everyday kind), but for a lot of us, electric cooktops are our daily reality. There are a lot of reasons for this.
12 Creative Uses For Canned Corned Beef
Corned beef is a wonderful thing, and it's deservedly appreciated and loved. Canned corned beef? Not so much. There's something about a molded block of pink meat leaving its can with a squelch and a plop that can dent even the heartiest appetite. Even here on Tasting Table, it's been called one of the worst canned foods to buy. While it does come in for its share of abuse, there are also plenty of us who appreciate canned corned beef for its virtues.
[10 Minimum] Creative Ways To Use Canned Corn
Some ingredients are hotly sought prestige items (looking at you, truffles!), while others are plain old pantry staples we keep on hand because they're convenient. Consider canned corn, for example. We all know that perfectly fresh sweet corn is definitely tastier, but its season is limited and even in season it's sometimes hard to find. Frozen corn is closer to fresh, but it takes up freezer space and lasts just months or less if it isn't properly closed each time, per Eat By Date.
10 Discontinued Fast Food Hot Dogs You Probably Forgot Existed
10 Discontinued Fast Food Hot Dogs You Probably Forgot Existed arazu/Shutterstock Hot dogs are a quintessential American treat. Born from old-country European sausage-making traditions, the origin story of the hot dog can be traced back to both Germany and Austria, where its predecessors were called frankfurters and wieners, respectively. So why are hot dogs called hot dogs?
10 BBQ Mistakes That Can Lead To Food Poisoning
10 BBQ Mistakes That Can Lead To Food Poisoning Zamrznutitonovi/Getty Images We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Nothing says summer like a backyard barbecue. Take one grill, add a bunch of friends or family and their favorite foods, and you've got a recipe for a long afternoon well spent. But when you shift cooking and serving from your kitchen and dining room to an outdoor setting, you instantly make practicing proper food safety more complicated.
10 Clear Signs KFC's Struggles Aren't Over Original
10 Clear Signs KFC's Struggles Aren't Over Rapideye/Getty Images KFC is considered to be one of the most iconic American fast food brands, with its distinctive red and white buckets of chicken and familiar "It's finger lickin' good" slogan. The company has been around in one way or another since Colonel Harland Sanders opened Sanders Court and Café in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930.
The Best Picnic Food To Pack In Order To Prevent Food Poisoning, According To An Expert
Going on a picnic is one of the great summertime traditions. Spending an afternoon out in the open air, lounging on a blanket as the kids roister around, basking in the sunshine or cooling in the shade: It's the stuff that dreams and memories are made of. Of course, food figures largely into the whole experience, as well. And that raises some issues, because while most of us enjoy sitting out in the sun, our foods don't.
14 Common Garlic Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Dishes
Garlic is as near a universally popular flavoring as you could imagine. There are relatively few of the world's major cuisines where it isn't used, partly because it grows almost anywhere humans choose to live. But primarily, it's because it brings a richly aromatic flavor that complements most savory dishes. Only onions, its cousins in the allium family, really rival it in versatility.
10 Foods You Should Buy Frozen Instead of Fresh
Health 10 Foods You Should Buy Frozen Instead of Fresh All featured products and deals are selected independently and objectively by the author. Better Report may receive a share of sales via affiliate links in content. Frozen food sometimes gets a bad rap (“Ours is fresh, never frozen!”), as if it’s a compromise or of lower quality. But make no mistake: It’s more than just a convenience.
10 Common Issues With Le Creuset Cookware
10 Common Issues With Le Creuset Cookware Robert Alexander/Getty Images We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Le Creuset has been around since 1925, and the company has a longstanding and well-deserved reputation for making exceptional cookware.
10 Common Issues With Le Creuset Cookware
Le Creuset has been around since 1925, and the company has a longstanding and well-deserved reputation for making exceptional cookware. While it now makes modern, non-stick, metal and silicone bakeware as well, its flagship line of enameled cast iron is still the first thing most people think of when they hear the name (the name "Le Creuset," itself, means "the crucible," a reference to the vessel used when melting the iron for casting).
30 Restaurant Tricks That Can Make You Spend More Without Realizing It
There are a lot of ways you could describe dining out, but "psychological warfare" probably isn't the phrase that springs to mind. In truth, it's not a bad metaphor for the barrage of techniques restaurants use to coax some extra money out of you. Restaurants have several ways that will have you leave with a wallet that is more empty than your stomach is full.
15 Essential Fruits, Vegetables, And Herbs A Complete Survival Garden Needs Original
15 Essential Fruits, Vegetables, And Herbs A Complete Survival Garden Needs Olivier Tabary/Shutterstock We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
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