20 The Most Common Cooking Mistakes

Learn how to avoid these common mistakes for successful cooking every time.

[divider]

1. You don’t taste as you go.

Result: The flavors or textures of an otherwise excellent dish are out of balance or unappealing.

[divider]

2. You don’t read the entire recipe before you start cooking.

Result: Flavors are dull, entire steps or ingredients get left out.

[divider]

3. You make unwise substitutions in baking.

Result: You wreck the underlying chemistry of the dish.

[divider]

4. You boil when you should simmer.

Result: A hurried-up dish that’s cloudy, tough, or dry.

[divider]

5. You overheat chocolate.

Result: Instead of having a smooth, creamy, luxurious consistency, your chocolate is grainy, separated, or scorched.

[divider]

6. You over-soften butter.

Result: Cookies spread too much or cakes are too dense.

[divider]

7. You overheat low-fat milk products.

Result: The milk curdles or “breaks,” yielding grainy mac and cheese, ice cream, or pudding.

[divider]

8. You don’t know your oven’s quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Result: Food cooks too fast, too slow, or unevenly.

[divider]

9. You’re too casual about measuring ingredients.

Result: Dry, tough cakes, rubbery brownies, and a host of other textural mishaps.

[divider]

10. You overcrowd the pan.

Result: Soggy food that doesn’t brown.

[divider]

11. You mishandle egg whites.

Result: The whites won’t whip up. Or, over beaten or roughly handled, they produce flat cake layers or souffles with no lift.

[divider]

12. You turn the food too often.

Result: You interfere with the sear, food sticks, or you lose the breading.

[divider]

13. You don’t get the pan hot enough before you add the food.

Result: Food that sticks, scallops with no sear, pale meats.

[divider]

14. You slice meat with?instead of against?the grain.

Result: Chewy meat that could have been tender.

[divider]

15. You under bake cakes and breads.

Result: Cakes, brownies, and breads turn out pallid and gummy.

[divider]

16. You don’t use a meat thermometer.

Result: Your roast chicken, leg of lamb, or beef tenderloin turns out over- or under cooked.

[divider]

17. Meat gets no chance to rest after cooking.

Result: Delicious juices vacate the meat and run all over the cutting board, leaving steak or roast dry.

[divider]

18. You try to rush the cooking of caramelized onions.

Result: You end up with sautéed onions, which are nice but a far cry from the melt-in-your-mouth caramelized ideal.

[divider]

19. You overwork lower-fat dough.

Result: Cookies, scones, pie crusts, and biscuits turn out tough.

[divider]

20. You neglect the nuts you’re toasting.

Result: Burned nuts, with a sharp, bitter flavor.

[divider]

If you like This article The Most Common Cooking Mistakes  then let me know your feedback by commenting below.