Are you a bit of a haphazard chef? Are you always setting off the fire alarm or your partner’s gag reflex? If that sounds like you, don’t worry! There are better food experiences ahead, especially if you change these six bad cooking habits that might be ruining your meals:
1. You Keep Scraping Food Off Your Pan
If you, like many others, buy a non-stick pan and then quickly find yourself having to scrape the food off as the non-stick wears off, there’s no wonder your meals are being ruined. Not only are you potentially getting some nasty toxic fumes from the non-stick burning off, but you’re cremating your food on a surface with no lubricant. Yikes!
Why not give your omelet a better send-off than a cremation by using non-stick induction cookware? These pans are designed to help you cook healthy meals without having to fight to scrape the remnants off.
2. Packing Out Your Pans
Packing food too heavily into a pan means that it will all cook at different times. With oven cooking, in particular, it can leave your food far more likely to stew than get crispy. So, where possible, space everything out for the best results.
3. You’re Not Preheating
Are you an impatient Peter who skips preheating the oven? You may think this helps you get things done quicker, but it’s a false economy. When you don’t preheat the oven, you risk uneven results, and the food takes longer to cook. If you’re preparing pasta, failing to boil the water first can leave you with swollen, starchy pasta that has an odd texture.
When pan-frying from cold, the items could absorb the oil and become greasy and soggy. You also miss the chance of properly searing the food, which only happens when you throw food into a hot pan toonily.
4. Being Creative When It Just Isn’t Your Special Power
Some people, like Sam The Cooking Guy on Youtube, can throw all kinds of ingredients together and come up with a delicious surprise. You can try to do the same; only the shock and amazement your loved ones express may not be of the positive variety. If your kids regularly beg you not to experiment, it’s okay! Stick to a recipe book like the rest of us.
5. Serving Up The Blandest Of Meals
In the US, the annual consumption of salt is around 50,000 million metric tons. While a touch of salt can enhance a meal, it doesn’t necessarily *make* the meal. Even with salt, your food may not be delicious because salt alone can be bland. For a real pop of flavor, you need to add spice, herbs, and sauces – this will transform your cooking from blah to ooh la la!
6. Running Before You Can Walk
Studies suggest that more than 85% of Americans are attracted to people who can cook. However, most of those same people lack the skill they love so much! Many home cooks try to run before they can walk, aiming to deliver five-star meals without even knowing the basics. To benefit your future culinary superstar plans, start with the basics of cooking and create strong foundations to build on rather than a house of cards.
Are you ready to impress everyone you know by learning better cooking habits? With a few simple changes, like the ones listed above, you’ll be whipping up yummy meals in no time!
