MOST COMMON COOKING MISTAKES

JULY 9, 2012 - MOST COMMON COOKING MISTAKES 

I’m not a professional chef, I just play one on the radio. Lol.  Not really.  But I love to cook and bake, and online sources are often the best places to find recipes and recipe remedies!  Check out ten of the:

The Most Common Cooking Mistakes

from Cooking Light Magazine:

1. You don’t taste as you go.

Result: The flavors or textures of an otherwise excellent dish are out of balance or unappealing.

2. You don’t read the entire recipe before you start cooking.

Result: Flavors are dull, entire steps or ingredients get left out.

3. You make unwise substitutions in baking.

Result: You wreck the underlying chemistry of the dish.

4. You boil when you should simmer.

Result: A hurried-up dish that’s cloudy, tough, or dry.

5. You overheat chocolate.

Result: Instead of having a smooth, creamy, luxurious consistency, your chocolate is grainy, separated, or scorched.

6. You over-soften butter.

Result: Cookies spread too much or cakes are too dense.

7. You overheat low-fat milk products.

Result: The milk curdles or "breaks," yielding grainy mac and cheese, ice cream, or pudding.

8. You don’t know your oven’s quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Result: Food cooks too fast, too slow, or unevenly

9. You’re too casual about measuring ingredients.

Result: Dry, tough cakes, rubbery brownies, and a host of other textural mishaps.

10. You overcrowd the pan.

Result: Soggy food that doesn’t brown.

Find more at Our Most Common Cooking Mistakes at their website!