I agree with Ann and Elizabeth - reading the recipe all the way through helps to prioritize next steps (can I prep as I cook, or do I need to prep all ingredients first for recipes that come together quickly). This simple practice also helps to focus on the ingredients list and if everything is on hand before the cooking begins.
Also to add - not a screw up per se, but really helpful to clean as you cook (in much the same way as Mark suggests prepping as you cook)... Tip - a small bowl on the counter for garbage is helpful!
I am torn between not reading the recipe carefully beforehand and forgetting to buy a key ingredient. I always think I can remember everything. So I got a shopping list app that categorizes and I can put certain items for each store I shop. But like anything else, I need to put it on the list!!
I do disagree with not prepping everything ahead of time. If I don't I find I am juggling back and forth. Or when it says to add the sugar I go back and read 1 cup but it's really 1 cup split! Ot things take longer to prep than the cooking and I have to stop the pan or pot, finish prepping and then reheat what I was doing. It's something I learned at my first cooking job doing short order on the boardwalk at Asbury Park all the way to my last job some 50 years later. Mis en place!!!
Oh I concur with Elizabeth on not reading the recipe completely! The other is to really let your pan heat up before you brown. Once you've read and your pan is hot, then you can boogie through a recipe.
Not reading the recipe completely through before starting to cook it. I have created massive headaches for myself, and ruined dinners and desserts this way. Don’t be like me!
I think my biggest screwup (in that it should have been obvious) was mixing pesto and red sauce for an improvised pasta meal. It was nearly inedible — not from the flavor, which was fine, but from the sheer hideousness of the color.
Your comment about dull knives brought to the surface a childhood memory. I grew up in Western Mass, in the woods but close to town so it was hardly rural but those woods were ours. Supplied with S&H green stamps we'd build our arsenal of buck knives and pistols (toys) augmented by what we could remove from the kitchen. And yes, that habit never died: any tool in the kitchen is fair game. I remember distinctly the day my mom rounded up all the errant kitchen knives and wondered what on earth we were thinking. 'But I thought you said it was better to be cut with a sharp knife than a dull knife'. Obviously that lesson stuck, though it's also true that a really sharp knife can take off a fingertip with very little effort.
Perhaps you might add that adding cold food to a hot pan or water will cool it off, in direct proportion to the amount of food added (it's physics). I find this is critical when I cook spotted prawns: if I add too many in boiling water, they will cool it down and take longer to cook, making them less tender than if I cook smaller batches.
Oh no……. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. Been guilty of them all.😂🤡🤣
I agree with Ann and Elizabeth - reading the recipe all the way through helps to prioritize next steps (can I prep as I cook, or do I need to prep all ingredients first for recipes that come together quickly). This simple practice also helps to focus on the ingredients list and if everything is on hand before the cooking begins.
Also to add - not a screw up per se, but really helpful to clean as you cook (in much the same way as Mark suggests prepping as you cook)... Tip - a small bowl on the counter for garbage is helpful!
I am torn between not reading the recipe carefully beforehand and forgetting to buy a key ingredient. I always think I can remember everything. So I got a shopping list app that categorizes and I can put certain items for each store I shop. But like anything else, I need to put it on the list!!
I do disagree with not prepping everything ahead of time. If I don't I find I am juggling back and forth. Or when it says to add the sugar I go back and read 1 cup but it's really 1 cup split! Ot things take longer to prep than the cooking and I have to stop the pan or pot, finish prepping and then reheat what I was doing. It's something I learned at my first cooking job doing short order on the boardwalk at Asbury Park all the way to my last job some 50 years later. Mis en place!!!
Oh I concur with Elizabeth on not reading the recipe completely! The other is to really let your pan heat up before you brown. Once you've read and your pan is hot, then you can boogie through a recipe.
Not reading the recipe completely through before starting to cook it. I have created massive headaches for myself, and ruined dinners and desserts this way. Don’t be like me!
I think my biggest screwup (in that it should have been obvious) was mixing pesto and red sauce for an improvised pasta meal. It was nearly inedible — not from the flavor, which was fine, but from the sheer hideousness of the color.
Your comment about dull knives brought to the surface a childhood memory. I grew up in Western Mass, in the woods but close to town so it was hardly rural but those woods were ours. Supplied with S&H green stamps we'd build our arsenal of buck knives and pistols (toys) augmented by what we could remove from the kitchen. And yes, that habit never died: any tool in the kitchen is fair game. I remember distinctly the day my mom rounded up all the errant kitchen knives and wondered what on earth we were thinking. 'But I thought you said it was better to be cut with a sharp knife than a dull knife'. Obviously that lesson stuck, though it's also true that a really sharp knife can take off a fingertip with very little effort.
Perhaps you might add that adding cold food to a hot pan or water will cool it off, in direct proportion to the amount of food added (it's physics). I find this is critical when I cook spotted prawns: if I add too many in boiling water, they will cool it down and take longer to cook, making them less tender than if I cook smaller batches.