Introduction

Cooking is one of those simple routines which, as they say, is easy until it isn’t. You can follow every recipe, use all the correct amounts and despite your best efforts to make sure everything is just perfect, you sometimes ask yourself why they didn’t turn out how they should. Ultimately, a couple of small mistakes can change a dish from being a just merely satisfying meal to just plain, questionable.

The good news??! Most of these issues can be avoided without high-priced equipment, or enrolling in culinary school for months. All you have to do is know what to watch for. Here are the top 8 mistakes most home cooks make in the kitchen, with easy tips and tricks to dodge them, so that you can gain some confidence in your cooking and have a little more success in the kitchen.

1. Overcrowding the Pan

Overcrowding a pan is one of the more common (and most ignored) mistakes in home kitchens. You may think you’re being efficient by tossing everything in at once, especially when you’re in a rush, but it will only lead to soggy, tasteless food.

When you overcrowd a pan there will not be room for the heat to circulate properly, and instead of developing a golden, crispy sear, the food is allowed to steam in its own juices. You can work your way around this by making smaller batch sizes, it may take one extra minute. Always try to use the largest pans or sheet trays for more space for your ingredient.

Each and every vegetable or meat piece should always have 1 inch of separation. You might feel like you’re slowing yourself down, but it’s well worth allowing your food distance to breathe for the enjoyment of cooking, and for flavor and texture.

2. Flipping Meat Too Early

Grilled chicken stuck to the grill? Burger that falls apart when you flip it? Then you probably flipped your meat too soon. If you want a nice sear, it will take some time and flipping too soon disrupts the searing process. When your meat is ready to flip, it will pull away from the cooking appliance by itself. 

Try and gently lift the meat with a spatula or tongs to check for readiness and simply do not flip it! I know it is hard to avoid poking, prodding, and flipping too much, but if you can avoid the temptation to sample, your meat will be much more juicy and browned.

3. Not Preheating the Oven

If you’re anxious to make dinner you may put your dish into a cold or hot spot oven. Skipping the preheat step can significantly alter the timing and texture of certain recipe items, primarily baked items and roasted vegetables. There is a different method called a cold oven that definitely makes a difference. For example, cookies may spread too much and roasted veggies may become limp rather than crisp.

To eliminate this mistake you can always preheat your oven before prepping your ingredients and give it 10 or so minutes to preheat. You can confirm the temperature is accurate with an oven thermometer as many people have conventional ovens that are hotter or colder than what the dial shows. Considering this small step will allow for cooking your food properly more evenly and minimize the let down of an improperly cooked ending dish.

4. Inconsistent Vegetable Chopping

Think of it this way: if you’ve got a bunch of carrots of different sizes, how will you ever have them all be cooked finished at the same time? If you cut them at different widths, some carrots you will overcook and others will be barely soft. When we talk about uniform cutting, it is more than just aesthetics on the plate. It is about cooking everything at the same time. You don’t need to be a proficient knife wielder to do this. 

The best way to fight this problem, is to take two minutes to chop your vegetables into similar sized pieces. Take a vegetable for example, potatoes or bell peppers, and stick with that veg until you get the cut consistent. Also, always use a sharp knife. 

Not only will this allow for easier, clean cuts. As you begin working on your cuts being uniformly cut, you will also begin to cut faster, and more accurately, and your dishes not only will cook evenly, they will also look nicer on the plate when presented.

5. Using Dull Knives

A dull knife is more than an inconvenience; it can be dangerous. A dull knife takes more effort to cut through food which means you are susceptible to slipping and cutting your self. A dull knife also tends to crush, mash or tear food instead of creating a clean cut. Many cooks do not realize that knives lose their “edge” quickly. A knife can dull after a few weeks of everytime use. 

Avoid doing this by regularly sharpening using a honing steel or whetstone, then bring your knives to a professional sharpener a few times per year. It is also important to wash your knives by hand and store knives properly, rather than throwing them loosely into a drawer. A sharper knife will allow you to build a biomechanical approach to food prep, which will be quick, safer and more enjoyable. Food will stay intact and will look better.

6. Not Tasting as You Go

Seasoning is one of the most personal and subjective aspects of cooking. If you are adding salt at the beginning of the dish, and just hope that it all balances out when you are finished, the likelihood is that you will fail because flavour evolves and changes while cooking, and seasoning also needs to adapt. To avoid this mistake, taste your food at different stages of cooking, especially after you have deglazed or once you’ve simmered.

7. Cooking Cold Meat Straight from the Fridge

We understand you are busy but placing a frozen steak, or chicken breast, directly into a hot pan or hot oven will lead to uneven cooking. The exterior cooks too quickly while the interior remains ‘cold’ causing you to have to leave it cooking longer than required, risking drying it out. Allow the meat to reach room temperature prior to cooking. This allows for more even cooking, plus it provides you with more control when determining doneness level.

To avoid this error you need to remember a couple of things: allow meat to sit out 20-30 minutes prior to cooking, this will help avoid the errant overcooked finish, but do not allow the meat to sit out longer than two hours at room temperature. 

8. Ignoring Rest Time for Meat

You prepare a beautiful steak, or roast chicken, and you go straight to slicing into it. What happens? All of the juices run from the meat, onto the plate, leaving you with dry, underwhelming meat. When meat is allowed to rest, the juices redistribute and results a moist, flavorful product. 

We see this mistake often, so as a rule of thumb you should rest your smaller cuts of meat (steaks & pork chops) for 5-10 minutes and your larger cuts of meat (roasts, whole chicken) for at least 20 minutes. If you want to allow your meat to rest at a warm temperature, cover the meat loosely with a “tent” piece of foil.

It may be difficult to resist, but resting is one of the easiest, simplest and quickest ways to take your meat from a flavor and texture perspective multiple notches upwards. 

Conclusion 

Cooking is not just about everything being precise down to the letter, cooking is about awareness, patience, and care. When you start to identify some of the patterns or mistakes that you will begin to be able to recognize and avoid (consciously) in the kitchen, cooking can be so much tastier, easier, and very possibly something you may enjoy going forward. 

So next time, you find yourself in the kitchen, remember that it’s the little things that you can do, that can have the biggest impact, sharpening your knife, let your ingredients or food breathe, listen with your taste buds and you’ll be cooking like a chef with no problem at all, and enjoying every bite.