Mistakes to Avoid While You are in the Kitchen

You can’t escape making mistakes in the kitchen, whether you’ve just learned how to cook or have been doing it for years. Even seasoned pros and great chefs and cooks make mistakes. Is that shocking? Well, you shouldn’t be shocked. Of course, it doesn’t happen because you don’t know how to cook. It happens when you are being lazy or maybe because you were in a rush or maybe you are just new to the kitchen.

Are you allowed to make kitchen mistakes? Of course, you are. Telling yourself that you aren’t allowed to make mistakes is being unfair to yourself. But you must learn from your mistakes and ensure that they don’t become a habit. By simply avoiding some of the kitchen mistakes, you can definitely become a better chef/cook. These include:

Not reading the entire recipe

Don’t you think I get it? Of course, I do. I get it when you are excited to cook so you dive right in immediately. You read and follow the instructions with all your heart till you are halfway through the recipe and you realize, boom! You don’t have condensed milk at home. There is nothing worse than that, trust me. Even breakups hurt less than this. Thus, before you start cooking, make sure you have all the ingredients and the entire recipe.

Adding ingredients to a cold pan

While in most cases, it’s preferable that you pre-heat your pan before the actual cooking begins, some cases do require adding food to the cold pan. Regardless, it’s important that you avoid adding food to a cold, unheated pan. Honestly speaking, I once saw my cousin add oil to her pan, and then she added food, and then she turned on her stove. It made me cringe to my core. To this day I get nightmares. Let me make it very clear. Food should never touch a pan that’s cold! End of discussion.

Stirring too much

Just like life, in cooking, sometimes the simplest of tasks trouble people the most. Another common cooking mistake includes stirring too much. I have seen people ruin dishes because of constant stirring, re-stirring, flipping, and re-flipping, and repeating all of this over and over again.

Using the wrong knife

While it may not seem like a big deal, it actually is. Before you even take out your knife, think about why you are taking it out. Will you be mincing garlic or will you be working with something bigger like chicken or beef? Different food requires different knives and everything must be tackled with attention and care to avoid ruining your dish.

If nothing else, I hope now you know why your dish isn’t turning out the way you wanted it to turn out. You may not be a master chef yet but we may be on the road to becoming one.