Most Common Cooking Mistakes

Happy Friday Everyone!It has been so nice out all week in the tiny state of Rhode Island! We have had such great weather.. well for March anyway. Eighty degrees in March? Yes, please. Global warming- a possibility. I thought I would leave you all with common cooking mistakes people make from Cooking Light Magazine. I picked ones I have done myself so you won't all feel bad. For the complete list of mistakes click here!



1. You don’t read the entire recipe before you start cooking. 
Ok I admit it. I have done this before. A prime example of this is when I was doing a recipe swap and I got potato dauphinois. Of course I waited until Thursday night to make these for a post at 7am Friday morning. I didn't really read through the recipe until I started peeling the potatoes and I realized I had to put them in the fridge for 6-8 hours before cutting them to plate. Whoops. Avoid disasters like this if you can. If you are trying out a new recipe for a dinner party or something the last thing you want is panic to set in that you didn't realize what you do for the recipe. First step of every recipe. Read the directions first!

2.You don’t taste as you go.

I actually didn't start doing this until a few years ago. It is so important to taste your food before serving. It is important to figure out if a dish is too salty, sweet or burnt. So many times you cannot tell what something tastes like..well..unless you taste it. I always hear chefs on the food network preach this to their viewers. I mean, you don't want to mistake salt for sugar and serve that to guests do you? Yeah, me either.

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

I totally get it. You are rushing to get dinner on the table and throw something in a pan because you think it will cook faster. If a pan is not heated before you attempt to cook something in it you are bound for disaster.  A hot pan is essential for sautéing veggies or creating a great crust on meat, fish, and poultry. It also helps prevent food from sticking. Plus if you add food to a pan with cold oil it will be absorb the oil and not be crispy. What a waste of calories! So take a few extra minutes and let the pan heat up. Trust me, it is totally worth it. When you hear the sizzle you are ready to go!

4. You overcrowd the pan
Another mistake of a rushed cook. You only have so many pans and most are small. You attempt to throw every mushroom in the package in the pan, but they are not all touching the pan. Bad idea. Some will cook fast, the others will be steamed. Leave breathing room in the pan, and you'll get much better results. If you need to speed things up, use two pans at once.The last thing you want is a batch of unevenly cooked food.

5.  Meat gets no chance to rest after cooking
One again, you are rushing and cut your super juicy steak right after you take it off the grill. No! Try to wait a few minutes in order for the juices to redistribute through the meat. Have you ever cut into a piece of meat and your cutting board is full of juice? Yeah, you cut it too soon. Wait a few minutes and then cut. Your meat will stay juicy and you will have less clean up!