40 Common Cooking Mistakes You May Be Making And How To Fix Them

31. Forgetting to coat the pan

Coating a pan with olive oil or butter is very important, especially if you’re using a pan that’s not non-stick. You don’t want your food to stick to the bottom when you try to take it out. Depending on what you’re cooking or baking, you can use parchment paper to avoid using an oil or butter altogether.

32. Sauteing wet veggies

Most vegetables already have a high water content, so if you saute veggies that aren’t completely dry, not only will they possibly turn mushy, but the water mixed with the oil in the pan will cause lots of hot splatter and steam. If you’re in a time crunch and can’t let your produce dry naturally, use a paper towel to gently squeeze and press out the extra water.

33. Cutting cooked meat before it has a chance to rest

Wonder what the heck it exactly means to let meat “rest”? It basically means allowing a cooked piece of meat to sit and cool before cutting it. Usually, this involves loosely covering the meat with a piece of foil from anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. Allowing meat to rest will make it juicier and less dry.

34. Not letting the pan get hot enough

Not letting the pan reach the necessarily needed heat before placing food it in has similar consequences to not letting an oven preheat: the food may not cook evenly through, the recipe may take longer to cook, and of course burning may occur. A recipe calls for a certain temperature for a reason, so following the number on the stove is crucial. It’s important to know that low heat is between one and three; medium heat four and six; high heat seven and higher.

35. Adding dressing too early

There’s a difference between letting something marinate and adding dressing. Usually marinating takes time and is most often done to meats, while vegetables are usually dressed. You never want to put the dressing on too early as it’ll cause your vegetables to wilt and turn mushy. While it’s perfectly okay to prep a salad ingredients the night before, you should hold off until right before eating to add the dressing.

36. Using the wrong oils

All oils react differently to heat and have different smoke points, so picking the right one is very important if you want your dish to turn out properly. If you’re looking to cook something on low heat, your best bet is to go for an unrefined oil as they have lower smoke points, but if you want a healthy oil, avocado, almond, coconut, and flaxseed oils have been widely popular because of the lower fat content. Olive oil is a good choice for most dishes, as it comes in extra virgin, virgin, extra light, etc. that all have different smoke points.

37. Washing hands only once

Most people know that they’re supposed to wash their hands before cooking or eating, but according to Deirdre Schlunegger, CEO of STOP Foodborne Illness, a national nonprofit public health organization dedicated to the prevention of illness and death from foodborne pathogens, you should wash your hands multiple times throughout the cooking process. “Wash your hands with soap and running water for 20 seconds,” she advises. “Wash before reaching for spices or equipment and after handling food. Just think about handling chicken and then reaching into the cabinet for spices; now the spice container might be contaminated.”

38. Using the same knife

Schlunegger says it’s “critical” to use separate knives when cooking to avoid cross-contamination. But beyond using different knives for health reasons, knives serve many different purposes. A steak knife is sharper than the knife you’d use to slice a piece of bread or to chop a carrot.

39. Rinsing meat off

Both Ramsey and Schlunegger agree that there’s no need to wash meat before cooking, but for different reasons. Ramsey says washing meat may increase the water content, which can, in turn, change the overall flavor. Schlunegger says cleaning meat first should be avoided for health purposes. “We don’t recommend washing chicken or other meat as the cooking process should kill the pathogens and there is a possibility of cross-contamination when doing so,” she says. However, both concur that any bacteria on raw meat will be killed during the cooking process, so stop your cleaning.

40. Forgetting to clean the sink

The sink, like the sponge, is often forgotten when cleaning the kitchen, because also like the sponge, the sink is involved in the cleaning process. But wiping down your sink after washing the dishes and using some type of cleaning spray like Clorox is crucial if you want to maintain a bacteria-free kitchen. While soap and water works, a good deep cleaning should be done every few weeks. “Keep your sink clean and don’t defrost meat in your sink,” says Schlunegger.

Credits: rd.com