gordoBad Cooking Habits

There is absolutely nothing better than a good home-cooked meal. While you may not have the skills of a professional chef, it is still rewarding to eat delicious food that you prepared in your own home. Unfortunately, you are likely making a few small technical mistakes that prevent your dishes from tasting even better. These are the four most common bad cooking habits of home cooks.

Not Preheating Pans

While everyone knows to preheat the oven before cooking, most people ignore the same advice when cooking on the stove. If you want to build complex flavors on your food, then your pans need to be hot before any food goes in them. This is an essential step in the browning process for proteins and vegetables. Putting meat and vegetables in a cold pan prevents you from getting the desired level of texture and browning, which results is a less tasty meal.

Not Enough Seasoning

It is impossible to have a great tasting dish without the proper seasoning. While every home cook knows to add salt, pepper and other seasonings to their food when cooking, they rarely use enough. You need to taste the seasonings every time you take a bite. This means your food can take a lot more seasoning than you think. A great way to prevent underseasoned food is to taste everything while you are cooking.

Using Dull Knives

You will never find a dull knife in a professional kitchen, so you do not want to have them in your home either. Dull knives force you apply extra pressure when you are cutting ingredients. Since you will naturally apply a different amount of pressure every time, you will end up with unevenly cut food. This prevents the food from evenly cooking in the pan. The extra pressure put on the knife also drastically increases the risk of cutting yourself.

Failing to Let Meat Rest

A beautiful piece of meat is extremely enticing, but you need to let it rest for a few minutes after it is finished cooking. Resting allows the juices to settle into the meat. Failing to rest the meat will cause the juices to run out as soon as you make the first cut. This essentially ruins all of your hard work in the kitchen.