I had a visit with TODAY yesterday, always a pleasure, especially getting to hang a little with my old friend, Al Roker, who I’m going to try to get on the podcast (season three of Food will be here soon!). The gist was “kitchen mistakes” — I’m not a huge fan of the word “mistake,” but that’s what these things are, really — and if you can avoid these four things, you can greatly improve your mood while cooking. Here they are, and you can watch the TODAY segment here.

Turning meat too often

If you want to brown meat, the ideal is to let it sit in the pan until it “releases” – which it will do when a crust forms. Like magic! So don’t turn meat until that point, and it will brown perfectly.

Overcrowding

Similarly, if you put too much food in a pan it will never brown because so much moisture will cook out of the food it will steam rather than sear. This is true of meat and veg and anything else. Sometimes that’s okay – you don’t want to brown. But if you do want to brown, don’t crowd.

Prepping ingredients as you go

This is a controversial take, always, but I think it’s a waste of time. Start cooking! Then, while your water is boiling, your pan heating, your oil getting warm, whatever – start chopping. While that stuff cooks, prepare whatever comes next. How to Cook Everything Fast is based on this premise — take a look. (There will be a new edition in the fall.)

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Using dull knives

You’re more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife than with a really sharp knife. A sharp knife will cut reliably. You don’t need to be obsessive about it, but it’s important. There are some good high-tech not super expensive knife sharpeners out there. (We love the Brod & Taylor Professional Knife Sharpener — it’s small and mighty. This one would also do just fine.) And if you’ve done it before, you know that chopping an onion with a dull knife is one of the worst kitchen “mistakes” you can make!