No matter how experienced a home cook you are, there are some mistakes you're probably still guilty of. I know I am, despite many years in the kitchen, and a career as a professional recipe developer. Curious to know what mistakes home cooks make most often? Check out this list! It's based on my own experience from years of cooking at home and reading the comments from home cooks trying my recipes, as well as input from other online foodies.
Following The Recipe Exactly
While recipes are great as a starting point, most home cooks are afraid of stepping away from the recipe and adapting the dish to suit their tastes. While it might be a good idea to try a recipe as written once, next time - dare to experiment and make it your own.
Not Understanding Food Safety
One restaurant worker recalled how his girlfriend completely disregarded food safety when cooking chicken: "Well, last night I saw my girlfriend bread raw chicken on a cutting board, then cook it, then put the cooked chicken back on that cutting board."
Now this is an important one because it can really affect your health! Be careful when it comes to food safety, and if you've touched anything with raw chicken, that something needs to go in the dishwasher or get a nice handwash - immediately!
Using Nonstick Pans
Nonstick pans can be great for some things, but most of the time there are better options. Sure, both stainless steel pans and cast iron pans require more skill when cooking, but the end result is also so much better. For a perfect sear, cast iron is a must - and as a bonus you can pop it in the oven to finish cooking. When making sauces, a stainless steel pan is incredible. It allows the ingredients to brown well, and you can use a metal whisk to get all those browned bits from the bottom. And that, my friend, is where the flavor is!
Too Little Salt
Home cooks are often afraid of adding too much salt to food, be it for health reasons or because they're afraid it's going to turn out too salty. But master chefs often go the opposite route: their biggest fear is that their guests will need to salt the food themselves! I once heard multiple 3-Michelin star chef Björn Frantzén talk about salting food, saying that unless the food tastes a little bit salty, you've used too little salt!
Overcooking Chicken
My sister, who is otherwise a really good home cook, is so terrified of getting sick from chicken, that every time she serves it, it could double as a napkin - that's how dry it is! While you definitely want to avoid food-borne illnesses, you can easily avoid both under- and overcooking by investing in a good meat thermometer. Just make sure you know your target temperature, remove it slightly before that, and let it rest. This works for all types of meat, and will have your guests amazed at how juicy your cooking has become!
Dull Knives
If it's one thing I always do first when cooking at a friend's house, it's sharpen their knives. Most home cooks go through life with dull, dull, dull knives, and because of this they hate everything that requires a really sharp knife: chopping onions, cutting tomatoes, slicing carrots... The list is endless because really, almost everything you do in the kitchen requires a really sharp knife! Send your knives to a professional sharpener once per year, and invest in a good at-home sharpener for weekly use.
Not Reading The Recipe First
When cooking from a recipe it can be tempting to just start at the top and work your way down, but for best results, you really should read through the recipe before you start. You'll then know what to prep ahead, what you can chop while the rest is cooking, and you'll notice those annoying fine print things like "refrigerate overnight" that can throw off your dinner plans completely if you don't see them in time.
Knife Is Too Small
Ever see someone try to chop an onion with a pairing knife? It's not a pretty sight! Apart from the fact that it looks like they will cut themselves any minute, it also makes the task much more time-consuming. Instead, grab a full-size kitchen knife, sharpen it well, and chop the onion on a large chopping board. You can thank me later!
The Wrong Ingredients
Depending on the recipe, you might be able to swap certain ingredients for others, and as a home cook, you learn a lot of them by heart. But if you're at all unsure, please make sure to check the recipe, recipe post (if it's from a food blogger), or Google the switch you're thinking about making.
One foodie in an internet forum recounted his experience when making Pasta Aglio e Olio (pasta with garlic and olive oil, and not much more): "...I didn’t have any fresh garlic or fresh parsley, and my girlfriend suggested some substitutions to save me a trip to the store. She suggested using the jarred minced garlic she’s always advocating for, and also using dried parsley. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, 'I used to work in food service, would you trust me?!' So I went along with it, and oh my god was it disgusting. You can’t take a dish where the main ingredient is fresh garlic and use that jarred stuff packed in oil, and the dry parsley made it worse somehow."
Too Much Meat In The Pan
It can seem like a good idea to cram as much as you can into a pan and finish all those steaks or meatballs all at once. A good idea if you like boiled meat and hate a nice sear, that is. What happens when you overcrowd the pan is that it quickly cools down as soon as you place your food in it, which is the opposite of what you want. You want that high heat to hit the meat to give you a nice sear. Since you don't get a nice sear, the meat will also release more liquid, hence; boiled meat.
Not Preheating The Pan
When cooking most foods you want the pan to be really hot before you add in your fats, and then allow those to heat up well before adding whatever you're cooking. With oil, this means it's more liquid, almost watery, and with butter, it means it's melted and "quiet". Adding food before this will be detrimental to the result and you'll end up with a subpar meal.
The exception is bacon and anything else you wish to render fat from (like skin-on duck breasts). In these cases, you want to start it in a cold pan as this allows more fat to be released.
Timing Is Off
Arguably, the most difficult part of cooking is timing all the components so they are done at the same time. Add a few extra courses, and this becomes even more difficult. Who hasn't been to a Thanksgiving dinner where all the sides were done, but the turkey still needed another hour? Avoid this by planning well ahead of time and making a schedule for exactly when everything needs to start and finish cooking in order to be done on time.
Source: Reddit.
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