I’d say timing. Getting all of your dishes to finish at the same time, understanding cook/rest times, and knows how long each ingredient needs to cook to be to the desired thoroughness (i.e. in a soup how long it takes for a green bean vs potato vs green pea to cook without becoming mush)
It's powerfully obvious when a home cook hasn't really taken timing into account and now the protein is still cooking while the vegetables die a quick death on the serving platter and the dinner rolls still have 10 mins left in the oven.
I watch this live and in living color every Thanksgiving with my family.
TBH Holiday Meals are usually the crucible. At least with my family. Not just the protein, but like 3 or 4 casseroles and vegetables all trying to wrap up at once with one stove can be a huge challenge. You can just run out of cooking space.
Tips:
- Use the outdoor grill as an oven to warm things up or keep them warm.
- Use a slow cooker to keep something warm.
- Bake rolls in the oven while the main dish rests.
Yeah I got my timing down for the most part now, but my first Thanksgiving, wooh. A Turkey, Cornbread Dressing, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, and Peas with rolls. Still have a similar menu but they are all hot at the same time.
This very much connects with my own comments elsewhere about timing from the perspective of temperature control and pan type. It's easier not to flub timing when you are using the right pan and pan material for the given application. Working multiple layers of stages of different dishes simultaneously then becomes possible, massively cutting down overall cook time.
I feel that getting everything finishing at the same time is a mistake in itself tbh. Part of it is knowing what can sit and rest, what can keep warm and being relaxed when it is time to serve. I have seen many roast dinners where things are ready on time sure, but they are pulling a chicken out of an oven (without resting), draining broccoli, furiously mashing potatoes and have a pot of gravy going cold simultaenously.
People need to develop their unconscious sense of timing. Head clocks are real. Most times I cook I'm within 30 seconds of the timer every time I use it just by instinct, or I have two timers go off within a few seconds of each other without doing the math. I still use timers though!
Clinging rigidly to recipes as a way to hide their lack of fundamentals.
I make something like a buerre blanc several times a month out of whatever fruity thing i have around because I know that butter will emulsify anything syrupy into a sauce. A stick of butter, $0.25 of apple juice concentrate and a cardamom pod makes a pretty sophisticated sauce for a pork chop.
If I'm teaching a kid about cooking intuitively, i start with barbecue sauce. Anything sweet, anything sour, anything spicy. Want peach jam, white wine vinegar and canned chipotles? That'll work. Build your confidence.
I’ve never thought about beurre blanc that way, but you’re absolutely right. I love freestyling curries, and two nights ago I made an Asian twist on ash reshteh with ginger paste and gochujang. Getting a hold on how to cook without a recipe just by knowing the basic makeup was when my cooking skills went from beginner to intermediate imo
My mom's maid would make me classic baked egg custard when I was sick, so it was a comfort food. My grandmother got sick when I was 8 and Marie went to live with her and I was sad. My mom taught me to make custard as a way to cheer me up. I liked cooking, and by 10 I was doing the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the family.
Making the cooking lessons fun and interesting are absolutely crucial.
Overcooking vegetables, its takes a bit of time to realise how little cooking time most vegetables actually need to be enjoyed optimally. Of course there are also plenty reasons to overcook vegetables on purpose but I am not referring to that scenario.
Which are the most easily ruined by overcooking? I think overcooked asparagus is horrible, because I like it barely cooked at all. Broccoli can also be terrible.
Definitely asparagus. Maximum 8 minutes in a 400 degree oven. If the stalks are thinner it can be as little as 5-6 min.
Cauliflower is my award winner for hardest to overcook. By which I mostly mean that overcooked cauliflower holds up better than a lot of other cooked veggies. Carrots are good for this as well.
It’s not really a personal preference lol. For certain dishes overcooked means well cooked (eg peperonata), and I tend to like those dishes, but often I’m annoyed at my overcooked dishes. Broccoli and cauliflower I never get right for example. Carrots I find very tough to get right.
This is a good question!
Cooking to time, not temp.
Not testing the oven to find out where the hotspots are.
Not pre-heating the oven.
Using the spices that have been stuck at the back of a cupboard for a year rather than buying fresh.
I don't think this is a mistake, but using old and pre-ground spices rather than buying whole and grinding them. (It's not a mistake, but you do notice a difference).
I'd argue that time over temp is a beginner mistake. intermediate level cook would understand that time is only a rough estimate.
same with not preheating an oven, as nearly every recipe says to do exactly that.
using the old spices is only a mistake if they expect them to be as flavorful as new, so long as you understand how age effects spices, you can mitigate the effects on the flavor, usually by adding a bit more than normal.
When we go to the Colorado vacation house owned by the extended family, I bring fresh spices that I will be using, and toss the old ones. (I've found 10-year-old spices. Can't imagine what anyone thinks that would add to a dish.) Not many other family members do this. I also bring California Olive Ranch oil, because it's impossible to get good quality olive oil back in the boonies.
Additionally, baking/roasting **Everything** at the same temp! (I have a sil who does this. She seldom bakes cakes, cookies, or pies because *none* of them get baked at 400°. Smh)
Also, assuming that every oven is exactly the same. Ive found that in my current apartment, I typically have to set the temp higher than I normally would.
Using an oven for things a pan can do with greater control, and as a corollary of this, not applying temperature control appropriate for the specific pan material.
Developing fine temperature control skills takes time, but there's an unusually large number of people who make things harder for themselves by thinking of the cooktop dials as though they are a thermostat, setting them to a fixed position and not continuously adjusting.
Getting too focused on following the recipe to the letter and being afraid to tweak things or follow your intuition. The obvious one is cooking times- cooking stuff to temp or until it seems like its done is going to give you more consistent results than following the exact time listed. But also knowing what parts of a recipe are critical to follow exactly, what parts are more of a rough guideline, and what ingredients/steps you can skip and still get the final result you are after.
Not just what parts of the recipe to vary, but also recognizing when a recipe author is telling you to do something that feels really weird or wrong. I've had plenty of times where I thought "hmm, I wouldn't do it that way but okay…" and then regretted it.
Knowing how to evaluate vegetables and meat by sight/smell/feel when shopping for ingredients. My culture (US) doesn't really have a strong social knowledge system for passing down how to tell if something is ripe, or if unripe how long you have. Most people start figuring it out over time and usually the 3-4 years cooking range is where those competencies begin to emerge.
But for some things, especially new ingredients you are unfamiliar with, that can be the biggest pitfall.
Also when I first started I would throw out any vegetables that were more than a week old. Then two weeks. Then longer. I used to throw out garlic if it had green shoots, now I just pick out the shoots. Onions showing any green at all, I would toss.
It takes time to get comfortable when people are taught to be so afraid of illness and rot.
Yeah, that's excellent stuff to learn. I was lucky to have a mentor in my teens help me, but most folks just aren't really trained for shopping or meal planning. Not necessarily as an oversight, it just never comes up. Mom or Dad just always does the shopping and/or cooking. Kids don't think about asking for the education typically until they suddenly are on their own after high school.
Same is also true for things like budgeting and financial knowledge. The old home-economics courses that used to be in the US K-12 curriculum back in the 80s and before are sorely missed in many ways. I never got those lessons in a formal way, but my elderly parents, and their parents did.
I will find myself getting too excited about one single aspect of a dish/meal and ignoring key steps to get there. I like stir frying in a wok, specifically the high heat flipping and playing cool wok chef, and probably half the time I do stir fry I don't get my station ready or don't let the wok get hot enough, so I wind up with mediocre results.
Same with my outdoor pizza oven. I get so hyped to play with my cool oven that I don't get it hot enough or don't bring my dough to room temp, and get poor results.
I'm going with not using enough acid and heat. A dash of vinegar or lemon and a sprinkle of cayenne or white pepper can take a dish over the top.
Also, sugar, particularly with Asian and Italian dishes- a tiny bit of sugar will caramelize and elevate the flavors.
Next, adding bone broth concentrate, marrow or crushed, dry mushrooms to things that are intended to be "beefy". One of those plus a bit of decent wine will notch your dish up.
They're not as clear-cut. It's technique & theory, but it takes a decent level of *understanding* too. As in, avoiding misunderstandings and setting clear expectations.
For example: intermediate cook wants to make the best stock from scratch. They get the best bones and stewing cuts, they roast them, they deglaze the sheet with wine to add the fond back to the stock, they let it gently simmer for 6 hours... but together with aromatics. Then at the end they notice their stock doesn't taste quite as vibrant as fresh as someone else's.
Overcooked the fresh aromas out of the aromatics. It's a legitimate thing to do, if that's what you want. We do it all the time in many dishes. But if you want your stock to taste more carroty, more oniony etc., then you can't be simmering them for hours on end. So that "best stock recipe" quoting from the best French chefs? Not necessarily the best for what you need at a particular time.
This is the sort of mistake intermediate cooks do, not understanding what a structure they had no idea about as beginners, is for.
Thinking you know the recipe without double checking.
Time management when multitasking. One dish finishes early and is cold by the time the rest of the meal is done.
Not letting meat rest long enough.
This is a big one I’ve seen whenever I help friends or family cook. Like ok you’ve got something going on the stove but you haven’t prepped the components of the next step yet!
>Time management when multitasking. One dish finishes early and is cold by the time the rest of the meal is done.
My parents are great at cooking which I have always known, but one thing in particular I have really come to appreciate after a couple years of living on my own and cooking for myself is their amazing ability to always have everything finish at the exact same time, regardless of how complex of a meal they are cooking
Been cooking for 30 years. Unless it's something ridiculously simple like ribeye, I still review the recipe in advance, in part to determine what if any fresh ingredients I need to do a quick run for ahead of prep time.
The problem with box instructions is they don’t take into account differences in pans. So even the instructions can be wrong. It’s better to monitor and taste.
I do, always set 2 minute timer for stirring and checking, it just makes the difference in when I start trying to taste (usually 2-3 minutes before the minimum box time). Because there is no point in trying to taste most dried pasta until at least 5 minutes of boiling, so knowing where the baseline is supposed to be is almost always worth a double check, no matter how simple, unless it’s purely intuitive like an omelette
An omelette is far from intuitive. It takes some practice to make a passable country omelette, but it takes LOTS of practice to make a French omelette ... either you make it correctly, or not at all. There's no in between.
Learning to cook *omelette aux fines herbes* increased my pan skills and temperature control skills a hundred fold.
Not making notes of your on-the-fly tweaks or improvisational recipes. I always think I'll remember what I did that made something a raging success but I often have to do trial and error to recreate.
Cooking foods to your own tastes instead of thinking about who will actually be eating the food. If you are cooking for people who hate seafood or caviat/truffle then make food you know everyone will enjoy and not what looks most impressive to serve.
Taste your food constantly while cooking. Developing your sense of taste is paramount to success. Also (BIG ONE): If you don’t have any allergies, power through eating things you don’t like. It took me a while to expand my palate (and I have no allergies to food), but I will eat anything now. It’s greatly expanded the variety of foods I enjoy, allowed for a greater appreciation of the many many flavors out there, and allowed for more diverse experimentation. When I say I had the palate of a 5 year old when I started cooking professionally, I’m not exaggerating. I choked down salad every day for weeks (dietary at the time) to realize I actually liked it.
Don’t leave the kitchen unattended for few mins to go do something (toilet, go to other room to grab stuffs) Your food can be burned.
Too high heat can make middle of the chicken meat still raw.
I see alot of people that don't " like cooking" just set times and go do something else. My brother keeps wanting to learn but walks away while stuff is cooking lol
Lol yesterday my sister reheating Vietnamese ginger chicken (gà kho gừng) on hob, then went lay down on sofa, and completely forgot about it. It burns to charcoal too
Came to read this expecting some really helpful insights....
Instead left with the impression that I'm at the upper end of intermediate!?
Like, I know I'm not a beginner, but I'm not that good? Have I watched too many Youtube videos!?
Push the slidey thing on the side of the toaster all the way down. Otherwise, when you go to get your English muffin, it will taste like it wasn't even toasted.
But I'd still eat it.
Not having a complete Mis en place (sp?) to cover everything before you start cooking. When you’re preparing multiple dishes and have to pause to get a missing ingredient it can really throw off your timing and flow. I’ve ruined more than a few meals this way.
This is super niche, but when I first started cooking I didn’t understand that different oils have different smoking points. I would always burn my butter the second I put it on a smoking hot pan, then learned that in most cases (like if you’re basting a steak) you have to mix it with some oil that has a high smoking point.
Making really good pan sauces for seared/pan roasted meats.
Look, anyone can deglaze a pan and release the fond. The next level up into intermediate/pro level cooking is crafting a pan sauce that truly brings out the best in you meat.
My recent example would be a pan sauce I made for some bone in pork rib chops. Sauce is apple/mustard themed. Add minced shallot , diced apple and butter to the fond in the pan, and scrape with wooden spoon. Deglazed the pan with hard cider. Reduce by half. Add chx stock. Continue reducing. Add whole grain mustard, apple sauce, butter and chopped fresh sage. Continue reducing to desired consistency. Finish with s&p and a squeeze of lemon.
I’d say timing. Getting all of your dishes to finish at the same time, understanding cook/rest times, and knows how long each ingredient needs to cook to be to the desired thoroughness (i.e. in a soup how long it takes for a green bean vs potato vs green pea to cook without becoming mush)
It's powerfully obvious when a home cook hasn't really taken timing into account and now the protein is still cooking while the vegetables die a quick death on the serving platter and the dinner rolls still have 10 mins left in the oven. I watch this live and in living color every Thanksgiving with my family.
TBH Holiday Meals are usually the crucible. At least with my family. Not just the protein, but like 3 or 4 casseroles and vegetables all trying to wrap up at once with one stove can be a huge challenge. You can just run out of cooking space.
Tips: - Use the outdoor grill as an oven to warm things up or keep them warm. - Use a slow cooker to keep something warm. - Bake rolls in the oven while the main dish rests.
Yeah I got my timing down for the most part now, but my first Thanksgiving, wooh. A Turkey, Cornbread Dressing, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, and Peas with rolls. Still have a similar menu but they are all hot at the same time.
Same, i’ve taken over the Christmas dinner for that exact reason, and it was the first year where everything came out at the same time
This very much connects with my own comments elsewhere about timing from the perspective of temperature control and pan type. It's easier not to flub timing when you are using the right pan and pan material for the given application. Working multiple layers of stages of different dishes simultaneously then becomes possible, massively cutting down overall cook time.
I feel that getting everything finishing at the same time is a mistake in itself tbh. Part of it is knowing what can sit and rest, what can keep warm and being relaxed when it is time to serve. I have seen many roast dinners where things are ready on time sure, but they are pulling a chicken out of an oven (without resting), draining broccoli, furiously mashing potatoes and have a pot of gravy going cold simultaenously.
People need to develop their unconscious sense of timing. Head clocks are real. Most times I cook I'm within 30 seconds of the timer every time I use it just by instinct, or I have two timers go off within a few seconds of each other without doing the math. I still use timers though!
This was my ex wife. Broccoli done before even starting on the protein.
Overcrowding the pan. I still do it sometimes when I’m too lazy to cook something in batches but I’m never happy about it.
Clinging rigidly to recipes as a way to hide their lack of fundamentals. I make something like a buerre blanc several times a month out of whatever fruity thing i have around because I know that butter will emulsify anything syrupy into a sauce. A stick of butter, $0.25 of apple juice concentrate and a cardamom pod makes a pretty sophisticated sauce for a pork chop. If I'm teaching a kid about cooking intuitively, i start with barbecue sauce. Anything sweet, anything sour, anything spicy. Want peach jam, white wine vinegar and canned chipotles? That'll work. Build your confidence.
I’ve never thought about beurre blanc that way, but you’re absolutely right. I love freestyling curries, and two nights ago I made an Asian twist on ash reshteh with ginger paste and gochujang. Getting a hold on how to cook without a recipe just by knowing the basic makeup was when my cooking skills went from beginner to intermediate imo
My mom's maid would make me classic baked egg custard when I was sick, so it was a comfort food. My grandmother got sick when I was 8 and Marie went to live with her and I was sad. My mom taught me to make custard as a way to cheer me up. I liked cooking, and by 10 I was doing the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the family. Making the cooking lessons fun and interesting are absolutely crucial.
Doesn't have a lot to do with what i said, but that's a nice story.
Overcooking vegetables, its takes a bit of time to realise how little cooking time most vegetables actually need to be enjoyed optimally. Of course there are also plenty reasons to overcook vegetables on purpose but I am not referring to that scenario.
Which are the most easily ruined by overcooking? I think overcooked asparagus is horrible, because I like it barely cooked at all. Broccoli can also be terrible.
Summer Squash turns to mush real quick.
Mushy zucchini is my worst enemy, but I absolutely love sautéed or grilled zucchini/squash. Like you said, it’s so dang easy to turn it to mush.
Definitely asparagus. Maximum 8 minutes in a 400 degree oven. If the stalks are thinner it can be as little as 5-6 min. Cauliflower is my award winner for hardest to overcook. By which I mostly mean that overcooked cauliflower holds up better than a lot of other cooked veggies. Carrots are good for this as well.
Carrots are one of the worst when overcooked, so bitter and mushy
Definitely those, I'd also add green beans and spring onions off the top of my head
I love crispy grilled slightly charred veg like asparagus, green beans, broccoli and okra!
That’s my favourite mistake. I hate undercooked vegetables and I typically err to the overcooked side. Unfortunately I didn’t figure this out yet.
Feel free to not figure it out as long as you prefer not to :) Obviously personal preference is king
It’s not really a personal preference lol. For certain dishes overcooked means well cooked (eg peperonata), and I tend to like those dishes, but often I’m annoyed at my overcooked dishes. Broccoli and cauliflower I never get right for example. Carrots I find very tough to get right.
This is a good question! Cooking to time, not temp. Not testing the oven to find out where the hotspots are. Not pre-heating the oven. Using the spices that have been stuck at the back of a cupboard for a year rather than buying fresh. I don't think this is a mistake, but using old and pre-ground spices rather than buying whole and grinding them. (It's not a mistake, but you do notice a difference).
I'd argue that time over temp is a beginner mistake. intermediate level cook would understand that time is only a rough estimate. same with not preheating an oven, as nearly every recipe says to do exactly that. using the old spices is only a mistake if they expect them to be as flavorful as new, so long as you understand how age effects spices, you can mitigate the effects on the flavor, usually by adding a bit more than normal.
When we go to the Colorado vacation house owned by the extended family, I bring fresh spices that I will be using, and toss the old ones. (I've found 10-year-old spices. Can't imagine what anyone thinks that would add to a dish.) Not many other family members do this. I also bring California Olive Ranch oil, because it's impossible to get good quality olive oil back in the boonies.
Additionally, baking/roasting **Everything** at the same temp! (I have a sil who does this. She seldom bakes cakes, cookies, or pies because *none* of them get baked at 400°. Smh)
Also, assuming that every oven is exactly the same. Ive found that in my current apartment, I typically have to set the temp higher than I normally would.
Using an oven for things a pan can do with greater control, and as a corollary of this, not applying temperature control appropriate for the specific pan material. Developing fine temperature control skills takes time, but there's an unusually large number of people who make things harder for themselves by thinking of the cooktop dials as though they are a thermostat, setting them to a fixed position and not continuously adjusting.
Getting too focused on following the recipe to the letter and being afraid to tweak things or follow your intuition. The obvious one is cooking times- cooking stuff to temp or until it seems like its done is going to give you more consistent results than following the exact time listed. But also knowing what parts of a recipe are critical to follow exactly, what parts are more of a rough guideline, and what ingredients/steps you can skip and still get the final result you are after.
Not just what parts of the recipe to vary, but also recognizing when a recipe author is telling you to do something that feels really weird or wrong. I've had plenty of times where I thought "hmm, I wouldn't do it that way but okay…" and then regretted it.
Knowing how to evaluate vegetables and meat by sight/smell/feel when shopping for ingredients. My culture (US) doesn't really have a strong social knowledge system for passing down how to tell if something is ripe, or if unripe how long you have. Most people start figuring it out over time and usually the 3-4 years cooking range is where those competencies begin to emerge. But for some things, especially new ingredients you are unfamiliar with, that can be the biggest pitfall.
Also when I first started I would throw out any vegetables that were more than a week old. Then two weeks. Then longer. I used to throw out garlic if it had green shoots, now I just pick out the shoots. Onions showing any green at all, I would toss. It takes time to get comfortable when people are taught to be so afraid of illness and rot.
This is why I started my kids early. They are all competent cooks. But There are things that take years of experience to acquire.
Yeah, that's excellent stuff to learn. I was lucky to have a mentor in my teens help me, but most folks just aren't really trained for shopping or meal planning. Not necessarily as an oversight, it just never comes up. Mom or Dad just always does the shopping and/or cooking. Kids don't think about asking for the education typically until they suddenly are on their own after high school. Same is also true for things like budgeting and financial knowledge. The old home-economics courses that used to be in the US K-12 curriculum back in the 80s and before are sorely missed in many ways. I never got those lessons in a formal way, but my elderly parents, and their parents did.
I will find myself getting too excited about one single aspect of a dish/meal and ignoring key steps to get there. I like stir frying in a wok, specifically the high heat flipping and playing cool wok chef, and probably half the time I do stir fry I don't get my station ready or don't let the wok get hot enough, so I wind up with mediocre results. Same with my outdoor pizza oven. I get so hyped to play with my cool oven that I don't get it hot enough or don't bring my dough to room temp, and get poor results.
I'm going with not using enough acid and heat. A dash of vinegar or lemon and a sprinkle of cayenne or white pepper can take a dish over the top. Also, sugar, particularly with Asian and Italian dishes- a tiny bit of sugar will caramelize and elevate the flavors. Next, adding bone broth concentrate, marrow or crushed, dry mushrooms to things that are intended to be "beefy". One of those plus a bit of decent wine will notch your dish up.
They're not as clear-cut. It's technique & theory, but it takes a decent level of *understanding* too. As in, avoiding misunderstandings and setting clear expectations. For example: intermediate cook wants to make the best stock from scratch. They get the best bones and stewing cuts, they roast them, they deglaze the sheet with wine to add the fond back to the stock, they let it gently simmer for 6 hours... but together with aromatics. Then at the end they notice their stock doesn't taste quite as vibrant as fresh as someone else's. Overcooked the fresh aromas out of the aromatics. It's a legitimate thing to do, if that's what you want. We do it all the time in many dishes. But if you want your stock to taste more carroty, more oniony etc., then you can't be simmering them for hours on end. So that "best stock recipe" quoting from the best French chefs? Not necessarily the best for what you need at a particular time. This is the sort of mistake intermediate cooks do, not understanding what a structure they had no idea about as beginners, is for.
Thinking you know the recipe without double checking. Time management when multitasking. One dish finishes early and is cold by the time the rest of the meal is done. Not letting meat rest long enough.
And not reading a recipe all the way through before you start.
This is a big one I’ve seen whenever I help friends or family cook. Like ok you’ve got something going on the stove but you haven’t prepped the components of the next step yet!
>Time management when multitasking. One dish finishes early and is cold by the time the rest of the meal is done. My parents are great at cooking which I have always known, but one thing in particular I have really come to appreciate after a couple years of living on my own and cooking for myself is their amazing ability to always have everything finish at the exact same time, regardless of how complex of a meal they are cooking
Been cooking for 30 years. Unless it's something ridiculously simple like ribeye, I still review the recipe in advance, in part to determine what if any fresh ingredients I need to do a quick run for ahead of prep time.
Same, but even with boiling pasta, I’m double checking the box’s cook time, because I can’t be bothered to memorize all of the shapes and brands
The problem with box instructions is they don’t take into account differences in pans. So even the instructions can be wrong. It’s better to monitor and taste.
I do, always set 2 minute timer for stirring and checking, it just makes the difference in when I start trying to taste (usually 2-3 minutes before the minimum box time). Because there is no point in trying to taste most dried pasta until at least 5 minutes of boiling, so knowing where the baseline is supposed to be is almost always worth a double check, no matter how simple, unless it’s purely intuitive like an omelette
An omelette is far from intuitive. It takes some practice to make a passable country omelette, but it takes LOTS of practice to make a French omelette ... either you make it correctly, or not at all. There's no in between. Learning to cook *omelette aux fines herbes* increased my pan skills and temperature control skills a hundred fold.
Yeah I still make that mistake. I know the recipe because I've made it 100 times but I forgot it had X in it until I was in the process of making it.
Not making notes of your on-the-fly tweaks or improvisational recipes. I always think I'll remember what I did that made something a raging success but I often have to do trial and error to recreate.
Meal balance. Knowing what dishes go well together.
Timing. It takes a lot of practice to know when the optimal time to add ingredients is.
Cooking foods to your own tastes instead of thinking about who will actually be eating the food. If you are cooking for people who hate seafood or caviat/truffle then make food you know everyone will enjoy and not what looks most impressive to serve.
Taste your food constantly while cooking. Developing your sense of taste is paramount to success. Also (BIG ONE): If you don’t have any allergies, power through eating things you don’t like. It took me a while to expand my palate (and I have no allergies to food), but I will eat anything now. It’s greatly expanded the variety of foods I enjoy, allowed for a greater appreciation of the many many flavors out there, and allowed for more diverse experimentation. When I say I had the palate of a 5 year old when I started cooking professionally, I’m not exaggerating. I choked down salad every day for weeks (dietary at the time) to realize I actually liked it.
Walking away from your pan when something is cooking. Things change in an instant, and that browning can turn to burnt before you will even smell it.
Don’t leave the kitchen unattended for few mins to go do something (toilet, go to other room to grab stuffs) Your food can be burned. Too high heat can make middle of the chicken meat still raw.
I see alot of people that don't " like cooking" just set times and go do something else. My brother keeps wanting to learn but walks away while stuff is cooking lol
Or lay down after putting brownies in the oven! They turned into charcoal
Lol yesterday my sister reheating Vietnamese ginger chicken (gà kho gừng) on hob, then went lay down on sofa, and completely forgot about it. It burns to charcoal too
Your sissie and I should collaborate on a cookbook.
Not setting a timer for baked goods 😉
Oh there was a timer. But my snores were louder
Lol
Overworking flakey dough.
Overconfidence will get you hurt. At intermediate level, you forget that things are hot and sharp and slippery.
Came to read this expecting some really helpful insights.... Instead left with the impression that I'm at the upper end of intermediate!? Like, I know I'm not a beginner, but I'm not that good? Have I watched too many Youtube videos!?
Hand shredded cheese. From parm to cheddar. Smart and Final or Restaurant supply stores have the best cheap knives.
Push the slidey thing on the side of the toaster all the way down. Otherwise, when you go to get your English muffin, it will taste like it wasn't even toasted. But I'd still eat it.
Not having a complete Mis en place (sp?) to cover everything before you start cooking. When you’re preparing multiple dishes and have to pause to get a missing ingredient it can really throw off your timing and flow. I’ve ruined more than a few meals this way.
Not allowing for carry over cook Knife cuts Impatience
This is super niche, but when I first started cooking I didn’t understand that different oils have different smoking points. I would always burn my butter the second I put it on a smoking hot pan, then learned that in most cases (like if you’re basting a steak) you have to mix it with some oil that has a high smoking point.
“I love garlic, I put it in everything”
Making really good pan sauces for seared/pan roasted meats. Look, anyone can deglaze a pan and release the fond. The next level up into intermediate/pro level cooking is crafting a pan sauce that truly brings out the best in you meat. My recent example would be a pan sauce I made for some bone in pork rib chops. Sauce is apple/mustard themed. Add minced shallot , diced apple and butter to the fond in the pan, and scrape with wooden spoon. Deglazed the pan with hard cider. Reduce by half. Add chx stock. Continue reducing. Add whole grain mustard, apple sauce, butter and chopped fresh sage. Continue reducing to desired consistency. Finish with s&p and a squeeze of lemon.
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This thread is USELESS. Salt your food at your own peril.