There are many tips or techniques that are strongly recommended for cooking, but it's hard to know which are evidence based and which are just passed along because that's what people always do.

Which are the tips that need more evidence?

Here are two that I struggle with, about stainless steel pans:

1. Water drop test / leidenfrost

People say that if you get your pan hot enough to get the leidenfrost effect and then add the oil you'll have less problems with sticking. My problem with this is that it means the pan gets very very hot - much hotter than it needs to be for most uses. My other problem is they all say "Look, I'll cook eggs and they won't stick" and those videos either have a ton of cuts, or the eggs stick and you can see the person pushing with a spatula to get rid of the stick, or their "scrambled eggs" is really a chopped omelette.

2. Heat the pan before adding oil. I don't understand this. Again, people say it helps prevent sticking, but they use some argument about "pores" which just feels hokey. I add cold oil to a cold pan and bring it up to temperature before adding food so the pan and oil are both at the right temperature, and food sticks and then releases, because that's how stainless pans work.

I'm aware I could be completely wrong here and that there may be a good evidence base for these, but they don't seem to work based on how I cook.

I was inspired by another post to think about this question. I am far from the only person who values good tasting good quality meals but is also pressed for time. What do you do? What do you make? How do you prep?

Thanks for any insight.

A few questions for those who have tried homebrewing (and general thread on homebrewing in general)

• Have you ever tried homebrewing?
• What were lessons learned?
• Did you regret the up-front investment?
• Do you bottle or keg?
• What are your favorite recipes?
• What is your setup like?

Feel free to answer only one question, all of them, or none of them and share an anecdote!

TL;DR - I'm trying to find a way to purchase Chilean Cerveza Cristal in the US for a joke that is very important to a friend of mine.

So, some of you may be aware of the current memes surrounding a series of advertisements from a Chilean beer company that interrupted airings of the Star Wars films in an... unconventional way.

Well, my friend is both a huge beer aficionado and a huge Star Wars fan, and he occasionally works with the Star Wars folks at conventions. He's planning some interesting stuff for an upcoming event but can't for the life of him find the stuff here in the US. I haven't been able to turn up a retailer for it either. Does anybody know of a good way to get foreign beer into the US?