Recipes for disaster: 20 common kitchen mistakes and how to avoid them

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette kitchen mistakes illustration.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette kitchen mistakes illustration.

Cooking at home can be a rewarding endeavor and a lifelong pursuit. The more time and effort you invest, the more likely you are to reduce your flubs and minimize your disappointments.

We've compiled a list of some of the most common cooking mistakes and tips to avoid them to help you in your pursuit. If you're just starting out or if you've been cooking for years, you've probably made some of the mistakes listed below (or are about to make them).

• You don't "preheat" your oven adequately. While the term preheating is redundant, making sure the oven is heated to the proper temperature before adding the food is not. It is crucial for many baked goods such as cakes, muffins, pies and breads. To get the oven fully heated to 350 degrees usually takes 20 minutes. But this time may vary depending on the type of oven you own -- gas, electric, convection -- and its Btus (British thermal units, the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree).

• You don't check the interior temperature of the food you are cooking. If you want to make sure your dinner guests don't eat nearly raw chicken you just plucked off your backyard grill or you don't serve tenderloin that's been cooked to shoe-leather toughness, use an instant-read thermometer and save yourself some grief.

• You don't heat your frying pan before adding the food. Are your omelets a mess? Are your pancakes gooey in the middle? Do delicate foods stick to your nonstick pan? You're probably not patient enough heating it up.

• You don't gather and prep ingredients before you cook. Watch what happens in a professional kitchen. Before lunch or dinner service, prep cooks come in and get everything ready: They peel potatoes, chop celery, mince onions, slice tomatoes, peel garlic. Home cooks tend to do everything at once and the results can be chaotic. Prep, then cook. It's more relaxing and you're less likely to make mistakes.

• You don't read recipes all the way through. This is similar to prep. You should understand the recipe before you dive in and start cooking from it. There's also the issue of timing. It's crucial. Say you're making a chocolate mousse an hour before dinner guests arrive, only to read the final step: Chill said mousse for eight hours.

• You don't follow the recipe. Thanks to online comments on countless food sites, we see it all the time. People alter recipes, then complain the recipe is no good. They substitute ingredients, often unwisely. They leave things out. They skip steps. Stick to the recipe faithfully the first time and see what the writer is getting at before switching it up.

• You always cook from a recipe. Yep, while it's good to follow recipes and learn how ingredients work together, you're not really cooking until you go it alone and create your own dishes. A good book for understanding the fundamentals and creating your own recipes is Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman.

• You don't let your meat rest after cooking. You're hungry. The kids are famished. Let's just pull those steaks off the grill and dig in. Wrong. Steaks and other meats should rest at least 10 minutes before slicing to avoid the dreaded loss of juices all over the plate.

• You use dull knives. OK, be honest. When was the last time you've had your knives sharpened? Dull knives are actually dangerous, especially for doing things like slicing onions. Here's a quick test: A sharp knife should easily cut through a

sheet of paper. Sharpen your knives about once a month, depending on use. Hone your blades with a steel or a honing rod, before every use to realign the edge (which makes it feel sharper).

• You're still soaking dried beans. This is a controversial one, because most recipes for dried legumes call for soaking, often overnight. But Russ Parsons, former food editor for the Los Angeles Times, has long insisted that soaking does nothing to improve flavor and texture and only marginally decreases cooking times. If you want to do beans even faster, use a pressure cooker.

• You're not using a pressure cooker. Remember when bread machines were all the rage? And slow cookers? It may seem old school, but the best gadget you're not using is the pressure cooker. These days, it's a big hit with chefs using modernist techniques. It saves time (dried beans cook in about an hour without soaking), it's a green appliance (uses less energy) and in many cases the flavors are superior to other cooking methods.

• You try to wing it while baking. Sure, you can adjust the flavors or sauces and soups on the fly, and seasoning chicken, beef and poultry is more of a feel thing. But it's not that way with baking, where precision is paramount. You need to measure carefully and consistently. And swapping out ingredients can often lead to disaster.

• You don't use a kitchen scale. The most accurate way to bake and cook is to weigh the ingredients. More and more recipes, especially for baked goods, are providing weights in the list of ingredients. It's more precise than cups and spoons.

• You don't chill cookie dough before baking. This is not the secret it used to be, thanks to a spate of recent articles celebrating this crucial step. Yes, cookies will have better texture and flavor if the raw dough is chilled for 24 hours before baking. This is the key step for excellent vegan chocolate chip cookies, too.

• You don't use parchment paper. It's the best for cakes and cookies and makes cleanup a breeze. Take it from Martha Stewart.

• You overstir your pancake batter. This is a rookie mistake and can lead to pancakes as pleather. This is not like a cake batter, where you whip and/or mix at high speeds. Put the whisk away, grab a silicon spatula and stir, or fold. Gently. Just until the wet and dry ingredients are combined. You actually want some lumps.

• You overcook your omelets. Here's a seemingly simple dish that actually requires great care. Browning the eggs alters the flavor for the worse. Learn the technique, practice and master one of life's little luxuries. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., advises using a pan at low heat and cooking the eggs until they are slightly underdone, with no color.

• You don't think about time and sequence before you start cooking. Let's say you've got four different dishes to pull together for dinner. Starting them haphazardly could lead to chaos. Start each recipe in the proper sequence and finish everything at the same time (remembering to rest that steak for 10 minutes).

• You under-salt everything. Eric Veldman Miller, owner of V. Miller Meats in Sacramento, says the most common mistake home cooks make with steak is under-salting the meat. Be assertive. The salt brings out the flavor of the beef.

• You overcook everything. Last but not least, this may be the biggest blunder of all. Your pork chops have all the tenderness of a foam roller. Your steaks are dark gray and brutally dry in the middle. And that plate of mushy veggies, as Joy of Cooking puts it in the "Introduction to Vegetables" section, "is drained of all life force." The great tome goes on to advise home cooks to "do very little to them." Obliterating food is a sign of an insecure cook. With skill and experience comes an understanding of when food is cooked properly.

Food on 01/11/2017

Upcoming Events