Was your New Years resolution to become a better cook? Do you strive to achieve the culinary excellence of Gordan Ramsay? Are you looking to have your food simply just taste better? Cooking can be a fun activity with amazing rewards (really good food) but it’s easy to ruin a dish and cause a kitchen disaster!
Whether a beginner or an experienced chef looking for a refresher, these tips are designed to let you cook!
Read the Recipe
Before starting anything you should read the recipe at least twice. This will not only prepare you for what you’ll be cooking but gives you the opportunity to see if the recipe is within your skillset. This familiarizes you with the ingredients and helps avoid any “surprise” tasks for the recipe.
If you want some easy recipes and tips, check out this fundamental cook book we found!
Prep the Ingredients
Once you’ve read the recipe and know what it calls for, take out the ingredients and have them ready before you start to cook. This includes all slicing, dicing, and measuring. Separate the ingredients into their own respective bowls and away from one another to avoid cross contamination.
Make Notes
If you’re trying a new recipe, do not improvise too much and take the recipe as is. Make notes as you go along for what you would want to change next time. Whether this is adding more spice or cutting out an ingredient altogether, making detailed notes will go a long way in perfecting a recipe to your preferences.
Don’t Overcrowd Your Pan
As you cook, food releases moisture. If the pan is crowded it will begin to steam instead of brown, changing its texture and consistency. Don’t dry out your steak or make mushy potatoes because you want to save some clean up! Avoid this by cooking in smaller batches and clear up the pan!
Trust Your Gut
The pun is 100% intended. Trust both your gut instinct and your actual gut! Taste the food as you go and listen to your taste buds so you can adjust the flavoring to how you like it. Everyone has different taste buds and likes different things, the person who created the recipe has a different definition of what tastes good than you do!
Stay in the Kitchen!
When cooking, stay in the kitchen. It’s safer and helps you avoid burning food! It’s understandable to want to knock out other chores while waiting for the food to cook but many things can go wrong if left unattended. If you still want to be productive, work on some of the dirty dishes and make the post meal clean up a breeze!
Have the Proper Equipment
This might sound silly but having the proper equipment makes all the difference in cooking an amazing meal. A table spoon is not the same size as a measuring spoon, and the portions of ingredients make or break a recipe! Not even the most experienced chefs cook without measuring and neither should you!
Use a Timer
When cooking multiple things at once it’s very easy to get distracted. Set a timer and properly measure how long the food has been cooking for. Use this as a reminder to proceed to the next step in the recipe. It is very important to measure this for meat to ensure that it is safe to eat!
Cook What You Like!
Start with simple and easy recipes for food that you know you like. Nothing will fuel a passion for cooking more than making a personal favorite and crafting your own recipe to be just how you like it!
We personally like this tater tot breakfast casserole recipe that makes for a good weekend meal or can be a good way to prep at the beginning of the week!
With these tips, you’ll be a professional level chef in no time! Let us know what your favorite meal to cook is by tagging @homebygeneva on Instagram!
