When working in the kitchen, sometimes we may feel lost or like something isn’t working out quite like it should. To help avoid that confusion and make the cooking process easier, I have created this list of essential cooking tips.
Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, anyone can stand to improve their cooking skills. Some of these tips you may be already familiar with, but I hope you’ll take away something new that you learned.
It’s always a good idea to incorporate new tips and tricks in to our cooking method, as it helps us to grow and hone our skills. I hope you enjoy these kitchen hacks and feel free to share your own tips in the comments.
Recipe
Recipes act as the backbone of the cooking experience. Sometimes we may take them for granted by overlooking some important details. For this reason, it’s important to familiarize yourself with their details. Whether it’s an old family recipe, a recipe you found online, or even one you created, it’s important to not stray too far from the guidelines. With more experience you will also figure out the right situations to make changes and what kinds work best.
Consider these tips to help you perfect your cooking methods.
Following or Altering?
If you’re a beginner, then you should make sure to follow the recipe more closely. With more practice and expertise, you’ll gain the know-how of when, where, and how to alter recipes. When in doubt, stick to the recipe, especially if you’ve never made it before. It’s important to keep in mind that you won’t be able to fully predict the outcome of a dish on a first attempt.
Reading the Recipe
You should always make sure to read the recipe fully before starting to cook. You want to make sure you have all the required ingredients. Also, you should be aware of the approximate time required to make the dish — do you have enough time allocated?
Organizing
Keeping your work station organized while cooking is a crucial element. It really helps make the process to be as simple and effortless as possible. It can be easy to take shortcuts and put some of the cleaning and organizing off for later. However, this can lead to more stress, frustration, and even mistakes. It’s best to avoid some of the unnecessary chaos and headaches from a messy, disordered kitchen.
These next tips will help you keep on track and keep your kitchen in order, rather than a mess.
Mise en place
This French phrase quite literally means “put in place”. In terms of cooking, it means having all the ingredients ready to go before you start cooking something. This means that all your ingredients are not only out of the cupboard or fridge, but they are measured according to the recipe. By having all the recipe components prepped in advance, it will make the cooking process a lot simpler and smoother. When all your ingredients are readily available, all you have to do is quickly grab them and add them at the right time. This is a lot better than having to rush and scramble around the kitchen to find what you need, then hastily measure it.
Cleaning
To help keep the cooking process smooth and efficient, it’s also a good idea to clean as you go. When you find a break from actively doing something, you can take the opportunity to clean up some of your work station. It may be as simple as putting the ingredients back where you got them. You also may have the chance to wash some of the dishes or utensils you used and no longer need. By cleaning up in the off peak times, this can help relieve some of the stress that comes with having to clean up the kitchen mess after you’re done cooking.
Flavour
The flavour of a dish is arguably the most important part. Everyone wants to enjoy the taste of a well prepared dish. So, it’s very important to ensure that your food has a well balanced flavour profile. As you become more experienced with cooking, it will also become easier to figure out the right way to create harmony with the flavours in your creations.
Check out these two tips to help with flavour balancing.
Tasting
It’s always a good idea to taste the dish every so often to ensure the flavours are to your liking. Of course, this will be whenever it is possible to do so. For example, it’s unsafe to eat certain raw things like meat, eggs, and flour. That being said, you can take a tiny portion of something, cook it, then taste the sample. This is useful when making something like meatballs because you wouldn’t want the whole batch to be off. You can make adjustments accordingly if you find something lacking in the dish. When balancing flavours in a recipe, you should always consider the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami.
Adding Acid
When adjusting the flavour of a dish, the first instinct is often to add salt. However, this may not always be necessary. Consider adding more acid (such as lemon or vinegar) to a dish to enhance the flavours. This is especially relevant if you have tasted it and can’t seem to pinpoint what is missing, but you can tell something is lacking.
Cooking Process
When cooking, there are a few common traps that can trip up the process, which can affect the outcome of the dish. It’s always good to ensure that things are being cooked properly and efficiently.
These next tips will help you perfect your cooking methods in the kitchen.
Using the Right Temperature
Don’t immediately jump to high heat all the time when cooking to speed up the process. This can have negative effects like burning/overcooking. Follow the guidelines of the recipe or your experience with the dish.
Overcrowding
Make sure the pan or pot is not overcrowded when cooking. This is especially important for meat or frying. The air needs to circulate properly so everything can cook evenly and as expected.
Broth Instead of Oil
You may opt to replace the oil in a recipe with simple broth. This provides a healthier option. It is especially useful for cooking vegetables and can even infuse some extra flavours.
Tool Care
It’s important to take proper care of your kitchen tools. With proper maintenance, this helps to ensure your items are working efficiently and safely. It can be easy to overlook the importance of caring for your kitchen tools. However, in reality, it’s quite simple to keep things well looked after and beneficial in the long run.
Here’s some tips on caring for two essential kitchen tools.
Knife Sharpening
Keeping your knives sharp not only helps to make cutting things easier, but it also makes it safer. If your knives have gone dull, they won’t work as well and this can cause them to slip, which may lead to you accidentally cutting your finger or hand. You may choose to sharpen your knives yourself using tools like honing steel or a whetstone. Otherwise, you could look in to having them sharpened by a professional, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.
Cutting Board Sanitizing
Cutting boards should not only be cleaned thoroughly after use, but they should also be sanitized too, especially after contact with raw meat. You can use a 1:4 mixture of vinegar and water (one part vinegar, four parts water).
Final Tips
I hope my essential cooking tips could provide some useful ideas for you. Of course, some tricks may resonate more than others, depending on your personal experience and knowledge.
I know that I am always eager to learn new ways to improve my cooking skills and make the cooking process simpler and more smooth. So, I hope I am able to give this experience to you as well.
